Trust Me

Jill turned to see what had happened and let out a scream. "Parq! What are you doing?" She demanded. She fumbled to grab her bow but Parq yanked it out of her arms, raising his bloodied sword.

"You didn't really think I wanted you in the alliance, did you? The only reason you were in the alliance was because Winnie asked for you, and the only reason I kept you was to get Winnie back." Parq scoffed.

Jill collapsed to the ground, cowering. She was alone, terrified and weaponless, and all she could do was wait for Parq to lower his sword and kill her.

Adri burst forth through the bushes, his machete at hand as he stared at Parq. "That's quite a twisted web you've woven, Parq." Adri sneered.

"Oh, good. You're here." Parq said with a slight smile.

"What? You wanted him to show up?" Jill asked, her voice cracking and her lips trembling with fear as she spoke.

"Of course. I knew Kip wouldn't keep a secret from Winnie. Even though they've had their differences, he'd do anything to get revenge. We killed him, so he'd try and ensure our deaths in exchange." Parq said.

Jill glared up at him. "You backstabbing bastard," She whispered.

"Nice last words," He said with a slight nod of approval before driving his sword through her throat.

I winced and whirled around, unable to watch what was happening. Adri pulled me into his chest for the second time that day, pressing my face into his shoulder as he tried to shield me from the scene that had just unfolded in front of us. I heard the sick gurgling noises spew from Jill before another cannon blast roared through the arena. Adri kept me pulled into his embrace for a few more moments before letting go of me and taking a step towards Parq.

"You've got some explaining to do, Parq." He said coldly.

Parq leaned down to clean his blood on Jill's clothes, accidentally slicing up her body a few times as he did so. "I suppose I do. See, I wanted you and Winnie in the Career alliance ever since I found out what you two were capable of. Terra and Ingrid would have made wonderful additions to the alliance as well, but obviously that's not an option any more, what with one of them being dead and the other hell-bent on killing you." He jerked his head toward me to gesture who he was speaking to.

"That generally makes it a little more difficult, yes." Adri replied sarcastically, scoffing.

"But Kip said you were worried about us. You thought we'd gone and made an alliance beforehand." I pointed out, narrowing my eyes. Something didn't add up, but I couldn't figure out what it was.

Parq scoffed. "It was pretty clear that it wasn't planned. He had to knock you unconscious and drag you away from the Cornucopia. If he had to kidnap you to get you to leave with him, then it's pretty clear that it wasn't planned. Besides, you screamed for me to help you. If you two were really in an alliance, you wouldn't have tried to get me to help because if I had helped, Adri would be dead, and that kind of defeats the purpose of an alliance." Parq explained.

"Then what were you so worried about?" I challenged.

"Because the longer you two are together, my chances of joining your alliance grow smaller. It's easy to join an alliance when it's just started, but after a few days bonds start to develop. Even now, you two would admit that you're friends, right? Or are you something more?" He asked, raising an eyebrow and smirking.

I glared at him. I didn't like his mocking tone. I opened my mouth to say something but Adri beat me to it. "Here's a little tip for you: when trying to join an alliance, it's good if you don't mock them." He growled.

Parq's smirk grew, but he didn't say anything more to taunt us. "True enough," He said with a nod. "Anyway, I knew I had to get your attention, so I thought I could use Kip to attract you. I didn't expect Jill to kill him. That wasn't supposed to happen; she just got a little out of control."

I stiffened instantly, every muscle in my body tensing up. Liar! A voice in my mind hissed, and my fingers were twitching to grab my knife. I remembered what Kip had told me earlier: "'This whole plan to lure you to them was Jill's idea, and she begged Parq to let her be the one to cut me up like this. Except this stab wound here, that one was Parq himself.'" The stab wound that Parq had given him was the deepest and largest of them all -- I remembered it perfectly. The image would be forever ingrained in my mind. But Kip had also said something else: "'Parq poisoned his blade with the venom of a snake he found. He said it takes about twenty minutes to kill you, but there's no way to get the venom out once it's in your blood.'"

"What about Jill and Tam? Weren't they part of your alliance? If you'll cut them up so easily, how do we know you won't do the same to us?" Adri pointed out, shaking me from my thoughts.

"They were useless. Tam had some good fighting skills, but he was too busy fighting with Jill to use them. And Jill was useless with almost any weapon. She could injure, but not kill. Besides, they were fighting so often that I wanted to kill them the first night we got in the arena. And it was a good way to show to you that I was on your side. If you'd killed them first and I'd suddenly announced that I wanted to be in your alliance, you'd think it was out of cowardice rather than strategy, right?" Parq said.

I bit my lip as hard as I could to keep myself from screaming at him. I could taste the blood start to pour from my lip, but that was the least of my worries.