The Assassin (Finnick Odair X OC)

Chapter Seventeen: Day Eight

Chapter Seventeen: Day Eight

Nothing has happened for almost this entire day. I've been quietly tapping out the hours in an effort to stay awake on my palm and, if my calculation is right, then we've got less than thirty minutes until the emblem appears in the sky. That's not great. It means that the other two trainees have decided to wait for darkness; with that coverage, it will be hard to pick them off.

I need to draw them out.

My eyes travel around the tensely quiet clearing as I do what I always do: respect the silence before madness.

Then, I speak, my voice taking a moment to steadily fill the arena. "I think that we need to make a deal, boys."

I wait at least a minute. No one answers me, so I continue. "All of us want our bags and none of us are going to get them. This area is completely defenseless. To get it now would be suicide."

My words hang in the air for at least two minutes.

Suddenly, a deep, manly voice speaks from almost completely across the clearing. "All of us want each other dead, Kai." I've got no idea which one that is.

"Maybe so." I raise my voice slightly, knowing that he could probably barely hear me before. "But the lights will go off soon and someone will be killed."

"Someone will be killed anyway. We are not making a deal." He speaks after a moment.

We? I pick up on his strange wording instantly. No way are Freddy and Wayne together - well, they could be. A temporary alliance to get rid of the woman who killed the careers? That doesn't sound like an awful idea.

That means that they're next to each other. Interesting.

Hopefully I can get them now. I really don't need the alternative phase. Snow had two endings to the games; either I kill everyone during the two days when the lights are on or I have to wait at least three days to do anything.

That would be hell. But, if I don't get the two of them now, then that's what I'll have to do; take my throwing knives and disappear.

"We? How intriguing." I speak after a long moment.

My eyes flick around the clearing. If my guess is correct, then the two men are on the other side, probably next to the main tunnel on that side, a huge gaping hole. Could they hit me if I ran right now?

I'm not sure.

Freddy was a swordsman, always looking over eagerly at the weapons from the side of his district partner. Wayne, well, I have no idea if his weapon is long distance or not - of even what his weapon of choice is.

"What's intriguing?" The same speaker asks me.

I duck my head down and shove the knife into my bag, tying it shut and propping it up directly in front of me - and behind the rocks that I've cowered by for the past day. If I'm going to take a risk and make a run for it, then I need to be as light as possible.

"What's intriguing is that you said we. You're working together, aren't you?" I respond. My hands grab a spear each.

There is a moment of silence, as he digests my words. I choose that moment to stand up.

Both of my knees crack - from me squatting for so long - but they propel me forwards quickly. My eyes are swiveling around the clearing across of me. I've moved a few lengths when I see an arm lift up with a knife, a head soon following it.

It's Freddy. His dark hair is tied back with something and there is a large gash across his left eye, a bandage roughly stuck to it. But, what I notice first in my brief introduction to him is his eyes. They're bloodshot and wide - wild.