Yet Another Hunger Games

Juliet

'So, now what?'

'Now,' Vincent began enthusiastically, 'now the real fun begins, our hunt!'

I exchange a smile with Levi, standing across from me.

'This,' Vincent gives the corpse lying next to him a shove with his foot. 'this was just the slaughterfest at the cornucopia, nothing special.'

'So where do we go?' Byron brought up.

Byron, with a sword in hand, looked unbeatable and dashing. High scores during training, and just like all of us had been training for years, waiting for this moment. But he was too stupid to win the thing, just like all boys are;

Easily persuadable.

Byron question doesn't go unanswered as an arrow shoots past my eyes and crashes onto the cornucopia's metal with a clang, cutting Lexi's thigh in the process.

Byron is quick to react.

'Are you okay?' he asks, concerned.

I sigh.

She does it well, the whole pretty girl thing, I have to give her that. And well, obviously so; she is beautiful. But she is also full of herself, and that's what will hurt her in these games. Just like Vincent.

Not me.

Where Byron's attention was with Lexi, Vincent seemed to have other worries.

'Come out to play, you bitch!' he yelled.

His violent expression changed into a grin.

'Ivy, isn't it?'

Byron turned to him with a puzzled face, just like me.

'Ivy? That farming girl?'

'She is not a farming girl, you idiot' Vincent spoke as if Byron had just insulted him.

'She scored a 9, only using a bow' Lexi added while Byron continued to patch up her cut with bandages found in one of the backpacks.

Vincent smiled at her.

Unlike his regular smirks, his smiles were different when aimed at Lexi. She'd told me all about him when we were training together. They used to be in a relationship, but Vincent broke it off. Lexi never knew why, but was too blinded by love to ask. She still cared for him, she'd said.

The fool.

'Go get her' Lexi ordered Vincent. 'Kill her.'

Vincent's smile grew broader, almost aroused in a way.

I mean, if anyone would be aroused by the thought of murder, it'd be him, right?

He threw his sword into the air and caught it with his other hand, followed by a wink before sprinting into the woods.

'I'd better go after him before he kills all tributes by himself. We'll meet up when it gets dark, make a fire, we'll find you' I sighed as I ran after him.

'Vincent!' I yelled, annoyed. I'd been searching for what felt like hours. Where could he be? He wouldn't be dumb enough to run miles away, would he?

'Vincent! Where are you?!'

My ears catch a rustle in the bushes next to me and my body stiffens.

I look towards the noise and see an arrow pointed at me.

'Lost you friends?' a girl's voice spoke to me confidently.

'Libbie!' I was relieved, it was just a tribute.

We had met before, during training. She was a fun girl. Curly brown hair and a certain pureness in her face. She was sixteen, she'd told me. Just like me. And we proceeded to train together for a day.

At the end of the day, after hours of joking and laughing around, Libbie had suggested for us to work together during the games. I had to be honest with her; there was no chance that would ever happen.

As fun as she was, she couldn't even swing a sword in a single hand. Not useful at all.

I looked at her, and at the way she was holding her bow.

'You know' I started.

'With the way you are holding your bow, even if you would decide to let the arrow fly, it'd fall straight to the ground.'

She looked baffled and at a loss for words.

'And the string would burn your cheek as well, don't hold it that close to your face.' I added as she lowered her bow.

'Which would be a shame, for you pretty cheeks' I smiled.

Libbie's scared expression changed into a careful, friendly smile, but that quickly changed as her lips started trembling.

'Juliet, I'm so sorry, I didn't ever want to hurt you, it's just... it's just, I'm so scared! I ca-'

She is interrupted as a sword slashes through the side of her head, stopping at her nose.

A tear rolls down Libbie's cheek before her body falls to the ground, accompanied with the sound of a canon.

'Vincent' I say, annoyed.

'Sorry, I couldn't resist.' He laughed while emerging from the bushes.

'You simply made that too perfect with that thing about her cheeks.'

I laugh with him.

'Yeah I know right! I was getting at that myself.'

I take one of my four knives out of my pocket and stab it in the air, where Libbie stood moments ago.

'She was my kill, Vincent' I add, sternly

'I know, but I've been sitting in the bushes behind her for an hour, waiting for her to do something interesting to make the kill more fun, and now it finally happened.'

I laugh at the absurdness of him. Of course he'd stalked her like some kind of jaguar.

Another canon thunders through the arena.

'It's getting dark, we'd better find the others I suggest as I search Libbie for anything which could come of use.

'How do we find them?' Vincent asked, lost.

'I told them to make a fire, that way we can just follow the light and smoke.'

'But won't that make it easy for the others to find us?'

Baffled, I look back up at him and shake my head.

'Oh right' He corrects himself and his mouth curls back into a grin.

'That's the point'