CROSSFIRE [f. odiar]

chapter seven

[just thought you should know the last 3 chapters have been posted on the 5th of each month and i thought that was pretty cool. okay, enjoy the chapter!]

Okay, Ariadne, you can do this. Just open the door, throw a few things around, and then leave. Easy. Come on. Go. If you can't handle this, then you're doomed. Just open the door, and go in. Go, go, go, go, g-

"Has the door stumped you, darling?" Garnett called from behind her, causing her to snap her neck up to look at the boy.

"It's super simple," he joked, walking past her to the tall mahogany door and giving it a light push. "You just push on it and little, just like this, and boom! It's open."

Ariadne gave the boy the meanest look she could muster, but ended up breaking her facade with a laugh when the boy hit the top of his head on the low entrance of the door. "Do you not know how to enter a room?" She joked, waltzing in past him. "You just take a step forward, just like this, an-"

"Oh, shut it." He mumbled, giving his head a hard rub before joining her inside the room.

The two observed the room together, the joking atmosphere floating away.

Training day. The one day all the tributes had to practice their skills one last time before the Games being. Translation - the day given to you to show off with a few pointy objects in hand and go ally-hunting. You were supposed to figure out two crucial things for the days to come; who to kill and who to align with. It was quite literally a life or death deciding day, and the pressure was getting to the brunette. On her last training day she was able to just squeak by and go unnoticed, but she was sure today wouldn't be the same case.

Garnett bumped shoulders with her, bringing her back down from deep within her thoughts. "Just stay low, I guess? We aren't really looking to impress anybody by this point."

Ariadne shrugged, walking aimlessly over to the closest station they had.

▪️

It had turned out to be knot tying, which did nothing but make the girl frustrated to the point of just just flinging it around in the air until the tangles came out. She brought the rope close to her eyes, trying to think of where she going wrong. Stupid knots, good for nothing, useless pieces of-

"What did the rope ever do to you?" A voice from beside her joked, causing her to clench her jaw.

"Hilarious, Finnick. What is this, Make Fun of Ariadne day? Come to rub your knot-tying skills in my face?" Ariadne asked tiredly.

"You know me so well." Finnick laughed without even trying to deny it, his fingers moving at a mile per minute that gave the girl nothing but a headache.

Ariadne had moved a few steps over to the snare section, recognizing everything easily from books she'd read in school. When she was making quick enough work of the snare that she could handle not looking, she looked back up to Finnick as he continued to work on his rope. "Making any progress there, Oh Rope Masterer?"

"Actually," Finnick replied, a smile growing on his face as he finished his last knot, "yes. It is exactly what I wanted."

It wasn't until then that he held up his rope that Ariadne could recognize what he had made. A noose. This brought a small laugh out of the girl, watching Finnick joking place it around his head and fake a dead face. It was almost humorous as a few of the Gamemakers looked down concerningly from above, but the boy was quick to undo it and place the rope back on the table with his hands up in surrender.