Stargazer • The Hunger Games

FIFTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN
❝Dark Paradise❞

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"My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite."

I sat next to Eric, underneath the abandoned camp that once belonged to the careers. Now three of them were dead and one was on the run from a psychotic Moss. Everything seemed so chaotic and full of death besides my little bubble of bliss that I had put in place after the events of the feast. Next to me, Eric was quoting the ancient works of Romeo and Juliet - a play written centuries ago by someone called Shakespeare. I did not know much about the play besides the fact that it was a tragic tale of two lovers and seemingly fit perfectly to the current predicament that I was trapped in.

Looking up at Eric through my orange hair that obstructed my view of him, I quoted a simple line that I knew from the play. "For never was a story of more woe than that of Juliet and her Romeo."

A grimace appeared on Eric's face. "I don't know Alice, right now we could give the ancient star-crossed lovers a run for their money."

Reciprocating his pained expression, I shuffled closer to him, pressing my head into his left shoulder and wrapping my arms around his own. "I'm sorry for surviving."

A slight chuckle travelled down his body. "I'm sorry that you feel like that."

Furrowing my brows, I nudged Eric - hoping that the tiny bump would knock a whole lot of realisation into him. "Sorry that I feel like that? Seriously! There are only four of us left Eric, the odds may be in our favour but that isn't what we planned."

Eric bristled, his body growing rigid next to me as his voice replied with eerie coldness. "We could win, one of us at least."

"Eric." aghast, I recoiled a few inches away from him. I studied his eyes that were now pinned on my own. His sky blue eyes reflected with a hardened anger that looked unbreakable. It was many moments later that the anger shattered, dissolving into regret.

"I'm sorry Alice," Eric pulled me back into his arms, clearly wanting to wipe his darkened personality to the back of his mind. "Winning never seemed like a possibility until now. Of course I'm going to think about it if you or I could win."

"You wouldn't action your ideas... right?" Worriedly, I burrowed deep into Eric's arms until I could not get any closer.

"Of course not. A world without you would not be a world worth living in. Not even for a second." Eric whispered back. Lightly, he placed a kiss in my hair before reaching to my face, pulling my jaw towards him before lightly kissing my lips. Without a second thought I kissed him back, holding the tears at bay so the perfect moment would not be broken.

When Eric pulled away he lightly caressed my cheek as he smiled at me, his bright blue eyes filled with the same amount of love that he had looked at me with for almost his entire life. To myself, I thought about how much not just me but the entire country would miss his beautiful blue eyes. The world would be a duller place without Eric to brighten each day.

In just that short amount of time, the sun had fallen from high in the sky to hugging the horizon. Such rapid progression of the day had two purposes; to jumble our circadian rhythms so sleep would not come and also to bring the games to a fleeting close.

As the last rays of the once young daylight disappeared below the horizon, the Gamemakers wasted no time in displaying the fallen. The three careers; Jett, Crystal and Justin were quickly followed by Thorn. When the sky shooed away the fallen faces and the stars started to flicker, a small shiver raced up my spine.