Trust Me

I spent the rest of the afternoon soaking until I was pruny, seeking refuge from the hot sun and thick humid heat by swimming through the icy water. The water gently lapped at my skin, cooling my aching muscles and cleaning out my scrapes. All in all, it was exactly what I needed to tend to my various wounds.

I could hear the wind quietly dancing in the trees and whispering through the grass. Birds chirped from the canopy of the branches in harmony with the rustle of the leaves, creating the perfect and most soothing lullaby that nature could have provided for me. I came to rest on the edge of the pool, pulling myself up and resting on the edge of the rock as I lay my head against my arms. Perhaps I could take a short nap.

I glanced down at the water, struggling to see the bottom in the dark depths of the water. This pool had to be over a hundred feet deep. Taking a nap unattended in this dark pool was not a good idea, I realized quickly, and I scolded myself for being so stupid, even if it was only for a moment.

“This is nice,” I murmured to no one in particular, running my fingers through the cool water and watching the shallow waves that they created. It was so quiet and peaceful here. It was like my own little private bubble of paradise.

Blam!

A loud cannon blast rumbled through the arena. My eyes shot open as the safety and seclusion of my bubble of paradise was invaded, shattered by the reminder that this was all just a deadly illusion. My mind automatically jumped to the worst case scenario, and before I knew it, I was screaming.

“Adri? Adri? Are you okay?” I shrieked. I saw the hovercraft zoom over my head and my stomach sank. I started paddling furiously towards the nearest edge of the pool, but stopped as the hovercraft continued to fly past, continuing until it was far out of sight. Adri couldn’t have been that far away. I took a deep breath and wanted to laugh at how silly I had been. Even if it had been him, there wasn’t anything I could have done. If he was dead, it was too late for me to save him. If anything, I should have headed in the other direction in case whatever killed him would come after me next. And besides, it’s not like we were actually friends, were we? We were just two people forming an alliance that would have to be broken at some point or another, whether it was through death, sabotage, or a civilized and mutual agreement. Hopefully the latter. But either way, Adri was still alive, meaning I could spare myself from the inner conflict of deciding whether or not I had even wanted it to be Adri who had died.

Honestly, I didn’t want to know the answer to that question.

After a few hours I heard Adri’s voice echo through the trees. “Are you decent?” He bellowed.

“Not yet. Give me a second!” I yelled. I glanced around, trying to see where I’d left my clothes. I spotted the pile of fabric on the opposite end of the pool and I swam towards it. When I reached the rock I hoisted myself up out of the water and turned to my clothes to make a horrific discovery.

A blood-curdling scream ripped through my throat before I knew what I was doing.

I heard running footsteps take off through the forest and Adri appeared a few feet away from me bearing several small animal carcasses in his arms. “What is it?” He demanded, but when he saw my naked body he seemed to freeze up. He dropped everything, letting the carcasses and a few of his weapons hit the ground as he stared at me unsteadily.

I slowly raised a shaking finger, pointing to the pile of clothes. The clothes that I had left in a messy pile were neatly and perfectly folded, stacked on top of each other. Someone had been here. But the most terrifying part was who it was, and I knew exactly who. Poking out from the side of my shirt, right where my heart would be, was an arrow sticking neatly through the fabric. I reached over and pulled the arrow out of the shirt to see something written on the side of it in dried blood: WINNIE.