Swinging From The Branches ~ Lexyon Perti

The Storm ~ Day Seven Part 1

A canon sounds in the distance, disturbing me from my delicate balance between being awake and asleep. I gaze into the starless night sky.

"Someone isn't sleeping tonight." I say quietly to myself. Despite my best efforts to remain on guard throughout the night, I find myself getting hotter and getting sleepy. It is not long before I drift asleep.

When I wake up the next day, I am not cold. In fact, I am hot. There is no light. I begin to think that maybe the past few days were all just a bad dream and only now am I entering the arena. My hopes are quickly shattered when an ear-piercing scream breaks the silence. 

I am awake, sweating, and unable to see. Who is screaming? Why is it so hot? I panic briefly, moving forward only to run into a thick sheet of metal. Turning around I stretch my arms out around me, and discover I am trapped in a box. Am I dead? I can't be dead, I can hear and feel- another scream interrupts me. 

"Momma! Momma its hot! Why are we here?" I had not heard that voice in a week, yet I knew it instantly. Darim. 

"Somebody help us! Thomas, see if you can find a way out, this is unnatural." Another voice, my father. 

"I'm in here guys!" I look for a door, pounding on one side of container. "I'm going to get you out, just stay calm!"

All that I hear are unintelligible screams, the blubbering of my baby brother, and dad trying to keep everyone calm. No one acknowledges me; like they can't hear me, or don't know I'm here. But how can you ignore a giant box? I think to myself. Sweat covers my face and neck now, the temperature slowly rising.  No, they wouldn't ignore something like this. They would hear me, this can't be my family. This is-this is some kind of trick. That's the only reason I'm in this box, so I don't know that it's a trick! There's only one way to get through this, I just have to... I just have to wait it out.

Leaning on the coolest side of the metal, I slowly sink to the floor. All the while, I am subject to the desperate pleas of my family. They sound so real, what did the gamemakers do to them to get this kind of audio? 

"Why isn't Lexyon here? Lexyon could help us!" I hear Xavier shout above the rest. I can't ignore the screaming or the rising temperature, it's all too much. Why gamemakers? Why!  I take off my jacket and slip the knife and water into my pant pockets. I then use the jacket to cover my ears and try desperately to block out my family. It's not real, it's not real. I repeat in my head, over and over like a mantra.

I sit on the floor, hopelessly waiting out the screaming, crying, and shouting. They're desperate for my help maybe I should just take a look-no you can't Lexyon! This is the gamemakers fault. 

"It's all their fault, it's all their fault. It's all their fault!" I shout into the air. Then, I do something I haven't done in days. I cry. The first few tears roll down my cheeks and land on my knees. The next tears hit the floor as I shake and sob; alone and trapped. Breaking down completely, my tears flow freely. The gamemakers decided only now should I be able to feel, whatever suppressant was keeping my emotions at bay was gone. My emotions had returned tenfold from being pent up. I was a mess, and I was on display for the world to see. Their screams continued, just outside of my reach. 

Over time, each voice died out. 

First Darim... 

then Xavier and Thomas... 

finally my father.

 My mother? I would never know when she succumbed to the flames.

The door opens without warning, sending me backwards into the snow. Coughing from the smoke, I slowly rise to see thick smoke all around me and not one member of my family. "I knew it. Stupid game, stupid gamemakers. Stupid-" Just then, in the distance, I barely make out the outline of a person looking around as if they were lost. Could it be?

"Darim?" His name sounded foreign on my tongue. I walked closer, drawing nearer and nearer. "Darim. Is that you? Where are mom and dad and-" I stopped dead in my tracks. 

"Day you don't even have a brother. Why would you think that?" Darim coughs, the smoke around us filling our lungs. 

"Darim, why would you call me that? You always called me Lex, not Day." I squint through the smoke, covering my cough. I was finally able to open my eyes beyond squinting and saw Darim take another step forward. 

I realize now that it is a girl, not a boy that stands before me. I can't help but notice she looks to be around Darim's age though. She seems to think I am someone named Day. "What the...?" 

There was just one problem, this person was not from my family; it was Sarah. 

"What did you do with my brother!" I am quick to question.

Her animal-like eyes flash for a second and she tries to make a run for it. I quickly chase after her and get a hold of her braid, yanking her to the ground. She gives a sharp yelp as I drag her down, "Shut up." I bark, though I'm not sure she hears as she continues to whimper. It's her fault, the other tributes must have killed my family. Each one of them was going to pay, starting with this girl.

I draw one of my knives from my pocket and hold it to her throat, ready to end her life. I will avenge my family, one by one, starting with Darim. One less person in the way. The thought pushes my knife against her throat and I can see she is running out of options. Then, she falls to the ground, my knife sliding up and gashing her cheek on her way down. I look in my hand and see the fistful of hair I had grabbed; then look at Sarah and find she now has incredibly short hair. Like a lizard cutting off its own tail. I smirk, it will only prolong her death.

Blood streams down her face as she backs away from me, wiping the trail on her sleeve. I can tell that it would never heal properly; but she won't live long enough for it to heal anyway. Sarah is staring at her sleeve in shock, once again wiping the blood from her face. Opportunity is knocking on my door and I decide to charge her. She stares at me, cat-like eyes flaring in rage as she rushes me. Our knives meet in a clash of steel, both of us grunting in effort to overpower the other. In my peripheral vision I see her other arm hanging at her side. I lunge for it, grabbing her and twisting her arm behind her back. She cries out as I hold her in the uncomfortable position but instead of ending her life, I kick her into the snow and crawl on top of her.

Bending down so that my mouth is near her ear, I hold the knife in front of her eyes. "Don't you dare come near me again." My voice is a harsh whisper. I push myself off of the smaller girl and watch her run off. I am about to run away myself when another tribute decides they want to try to take my life.

"Hello Lexyon."