Sweetest Downfall

I charged into the cave after I’d gotten my breath back inside of my chest. I was going to kill her and then move to kill the two boys left in the cave. I was as blood thirsty as a rabid animal and I couldn’t stop the warrior cry from my throat as I rounded the corner that led to the mouth of the cave. My cry was silenced by the murder taking place before my savage form.

Presh had beaten me there and had already gotten Cyrus to start killing District 1 Boy. District 1 was mine and I’d be damned to let her manage his death. I lunged for her and caught her by her hair, tearing a good chunk of it out. She screeched but it was silenced by the shouts coming from the two fighting boys.

“You’re going to die, blondie!” Presh shouted as she scratched my face. I yelped and tried to grab hold of her neck, if I could choke her then she wouldn’t be as much a threat.

“Ha! You’re blonde too you stupid—” I cut myself off as I got hold of her neck in my hands. I smiled brightly at her and she glared back at me with her bloodshot eyes. The cannon sounded, I dropped my arms and with them her body fell. I kept her head between my palms and I slowly felt the warmth leave it, I looked up at the boys, they had stopped fighting, Cyrus was mid swing and Emilyn was cowering beneath him.

Wordlessly I dropped Presh’s head and stepped on it, the sound of the bones breaking under me echoed throughout the cave. I caught myself in the reflection of a pool of water, maybe five inches deep. I looked at the brutal girl it reflected, her once beautiful hair was caked in dirt and vegetation stuck out of it, dried gore covered her scratched neck and face. In the second it took for me to look at the reflection, Cyrus dove for me. He pushed me backward and reached for my neck, his hands easily wrapped themselves in a deathly lock around my throat and started to squeeze. Even half dead you’re stronger them me. I felt my lungs start to cave in as the oxygen rushed out of my body.

I scratched at his eyes and managed to blind him enough to loosen the hold on my throat and I sucked in the air while I still could. An instant later Cyrus was off of me and under Emilyn, the brunette boy’s shirt was being nearly ripped off by Cyrus trying to shake him off. I watched the two of them; their big Career bodies were almost matched when it came to strength because of the poison in Cyrus’s body.

I reached down and grabbed hold of Cyrus’s neck and Emilyn helped me shove him where I wanted; in the process of the two of us dragging him, Cyrus grabbed hold of a pointed stone and hit Emilyn square in the knee, knocking him down and popping it out of the socket. It was now or never for me to kill this brute. Let’s see how long you can hold your breath! Before he could get up I jumped on top of his back and pushed his head down into the shallow pool of water. I used all of my weight and pushed his head down; his arms flailed and tried to grab hold of something that would save him but nothing was there. I could hear Emilyn’s groans of pain as Cyrus’s struggling grew weaker and weaker, soon a cannon went off and the struggling was over. I let out a puff of air and turned to face the only other person alive in the cave, he looked at me, his eyes pleading for mercy.

“You killed my partner.” My voice was monotone and I could almost feel the eyes of the citizens of Panem on us now. The adrenaline supply started to fade out as I stepped closer and closer to the boy, this is wad my moment of justice in the hellhole of an arena.

“I-I’m sorry!” He cried out as I stood before him.

“You’re sorry? Oh he’s sorry so it makes everything okay!” I turned and called it out, not even caring that another, very alive, tribute could have heard me. I felt tears come to my eyes as I turned to face the boy again, I couldn’t hold it in anymore. “You killed my only link to home! He was like a brother to me and you killed him!” I lost it; the tears were spilling uncontrollably out of my eyes and down my bloody cheeks. I took Herring’s token in my fingers and showed it to the cowering boy at my feet. “Do you even know his name? No! Of course you don’t, because you don’t care about him or anyone but yourself! His name was Herring and him and Ari were my best friends in this arena and they both died in front of my eyes and I couldn’t do anything to save them! Do you know what that’s like?”

I let go of the token and felt my lips start to quiver. All of the fear and sadness I had been hold in was finally breaking free of my mind and out through my lips. “No.” My voice dropped to a hushed whisper. “No of course you don’t because even though you volunteered for this and knew what would be in store for you, you still came and took the place of a boy who wouldn’t have made to the final ten. So congratulations for you’re good deed.” I spit my words at him and he didn’t even bother to wipe the saliva off of his face. My sarcasm was dripping in pain and I could tell I was mentally breaking him down. “But this is where your story ends, my boy. This is your final chapter in the sad little story of your life, but just for the sake of the crowd, I’ll humor you.”

I took out the ribbon that was tangled in my cobweb of hair and let it dangle in front of his face. “Give me one good reason why I should let you live, when you let so many others die.”