Safe and Sound

Chapter Nineteen - Grayson's First Kill

After Grayson had opened up, he seemed to become closer to me, like he now felt as if he could trust me fully. Now that I knew about his life, I felt quite sorry for him. Yes, I had to hunt to keep my family alive, but I wasn't abused, nor was I forced to hunt. It was my choice, not my parents'. Poor Grayson had to do it so he wouldn't get hit, but he ended up getting hit anyway.

That evening, Grayson lay his head down in my lap and curled up next to me. I didn't know what to do, seeing as the only other person who used to lay in this position with me would be my younger sister, so I ended up stroking his hair gently, feeling its softness in between my fingers as I brushed it away. I did this to Rose and it clamed her down, soothed her and ridded her of her worries for that small period of time. It was as if I was finally being the mother that he needed, giving him that love that he had so long been deprived of. It was only meant to be a kind gesture, but I could tell by the subconscious, small smile on Grayson's face that it seemed to mean a lot to him. He appeared to be falling asleep, as his breathing had slowed and his eyes were closed, but I knew he was still awake. He was just relaxing in my lap, resting himself.

"I feel like I've known you for years, Harper Anselin." He whispered to me as, yet again, I ran my fingers through his thick mess of brown waves.

"Likewise, Grayson Stengard. Which, might I add, is spelt with a 'g', even though it makes a 'j' sound." I said, smiling in a somewhat triumphant way. Grayson's eyes opened and he smiled up at me, still keeping his head in my lap.

"Can't you just hear the Capitol sighing?" He asked. I laughed slightly. I could, actually. Because they were all quite 'sensitive', some might already be crying. Just sitting here in this position was enough to cause a flood of tears from just one person in the Capitol. Some probably weren't so affected and were most likely waiting to see when we would kill each other.

"Loud and clear." I answered. Grayson obviously tried not to snort too loudly. His laughter was quite amusing, but I didn't mind. It seemed to change at random intervals. Sometimes it would be a snicker that wouldn't stop, or a snort or something very loud, like a cackle. He had proved this theory during training , when we both failed miserably at camouflage.

"You should get some sleep, now." Grayson then said, sitting up. His hair had messed up slightly from lying in my lap and having me run my fingers through it. I clasped a hand to my mouth so I didn't laugh so loudly. Grayson furrowed his eyebrows. "What?" I reached out and put his hair back into place, patting it down. He sighed before he moved to the limb of the tree, climbing into it. "Belt yourself in, I'll wake you up if I need you."

I nodded and climbed into my sleeping bag, before taking off my belt and securing myself onto the branch. I then snuggled as best I could into the thing, black material before shutting my eyes. I fell asleep to the sound of Grayson talking to himself quietly.

________

When my eyes flickered open, I looked down over the side of the branch to see that Grayson was perched on his heels on the floor below, fiddling with one of his knives. I had no clue how many he had collected at the Cornucopia. That reminded me of something. I still had his knife he threw at me in my pocket. He might need it. I packed up my sleeping bag, put my belt back on and threw my backpack and quiver onto my back. I picked up my bow and Grayson's backpack, before jumping off of the branch and landing right beside Grayson. He fell over with shock, dropping his knife on the way, and looked up at me from the floor, absolutely petrified. His eyes were wide and his breathing had sped up. It was actually quite amusing. I straightened myself up as Grayson tried to catch his breath.

"Harper Anselin, you scared me! That's not very ally-like of you!" He exclaimed, clutching his heart. I laughed quietly, before kneeling down next to him. I placed his backpack next to him. He took it back and then moved himself into a seating position. "How can you do that without breaking both of your legs? Seriously, if I tried a stunt like that I think I would die."

"No you wouldn't. Anyway, how much sleep did you get?" I asked him, rubbing his back to rid him of the shock. He relaxed.

"A few hours. But I feel fine, honestly." He said. I raised an eyebrow at him, not quite so convinced.

"You won't be feeling fine when the exhaustion catches up with you in a couple of hour's time." I warned, but I wasn't angry at him. He waved it off.

"Don't worry, I'm used to staying up late and not getting lots of sleep." He said. "Anyway, the real question is, why did you decide to join me so...so...eagerly?" I laughed at his choice of words. It felt good to laugh, even though I was stuck in this arena with several bloodthirsty children. Grayson seemed to help with that problem. It was a good choice to make, he was great company and a good ally from what I had seen...even though he couldn't climb trees very well.

"I wanted to return this." I reached into my pocket and pulled out his knife, which I had forgotten about completely. Grayson seemed to as well. I held it out to him, but he pushed it away.

"Keep it, you may need it to kill a mutt or something." He answered. I raised one eyebrow at him yet again, "Seriously, keep it, it's actually a good idea to have a variety of weapons in the arena! And those two blunt knives in your pack won't do any sort of good with a creature like the mutt that almost killed you."

"Fair point. Thank you." I slipped it back into my pocket. "How many knives did you collect?" I then asked. I moved from a kneeling position to a cross-legged seated position.

"Er, let's see. Hang on a minute." Grayson reached into his jacket pockets and pulled out about four from one and three from the other. He then reached into his trouser pockets and pulled several smaller ones. He then opened his backpack and aimed it towards me. It was filled with many throwing knives. He also had several in each of the backpack's the side pockets. He was truly stocked up. He then packed his knives away, before he remembered something. He reached into his left hand boot and pulled out three quite long, thin ones from the strapping on the side, each of which looked quite deadly. They tucked in quite nicely to the straps on the side of the boot in such a way that you couldn't actually see them. A great supply secret weapon. He tucked them back into the strapping and tightened it up and looked at me, as if he hadn't just shown me a huge stash of knives that all looked very lethal and all very sharp.

"So that's your variety of weapons?" I asked. He nodded.

"A variety of different blades that could do different damage depending on how you throw them or how or where you hold them. It's quite clever, really. The Capitol actually give you pretty good weapons for in here. I guess it makes the killings more interesting, if a tribute has a specific weapon that they are known for using." He answered eagerly.

"Remind me not to get on your bad side. I've seen you use just normal throwing knives, I don't want to know what you can do with different ones." I said, "But what gets to me is how did you get that much at the bloodbath? I didn't even see you."

"I have my ways. But I did go straight there, scooped up as much as I could, rammed everything into the pack that I picked up on the way there and then I sprinted out of there before anyone could get to me. I didn't even look back. I only sorted them when I was sure I was safe from an immediate danger. I packed some in my pockets, some in my backpack and obviously the three thin blades in the strapping on the side of my left boot." Grayson said, patting his left foot. I nodded in approval.

"You have another weapon don't you? You know you have that good old memory of yours?" I asked. Grayson nodded and tilted his head to the side, curiously. "Can you remember where pretty much everything is?"

"Yeah. I could take you back to the Cornucopia and the other trees we slept in. I remember the paths I took since the bloodbath, which plants I ate and where to get them from. I'm just not too sure about the days when the venom really was taking over me. They're quite fuzzy. But besides that, yeah. I remember." Grayson answered.

"I'm so glad to have you back." I said, smiling. Grayson seemed to go a little bit pink at the top of his cheeks, but he seemed ignored it.

"Likewise, Harper Anselin. Which, did you know, is a synonym for 'mockingjay'." Grayson said. I smiled slightly. "Now, don't you think it's time for a breakfast to celebrate the fact that we have made it a whole week in the Games? It's day eight now, meaning we have definitely been in here for a week."

"And may it continue this way."

_________

After finishing our breakfast which consisted of Katniss flowers and a few sips of water, we climbed back up our tree again. Already, Grayson was improving. He only needed two pushes and only one leg lift. He was getting better as time went on.

We sat in our tree and looked about the small clearing below us. It was only a few metres wide, but it was plenty of space for the two of us for the time being. We weren't going to move on quite yet. We were just talking about what we were going to do about food for later one, when we heard a scream nearby. I reached for my bow and whipped an arrow out from my quiver, nocking it into my bow, holding it right up close to my body. I would be ready to raise it and shoot if it was needed. Grayson had already pulled out three knives from the side pockets in his backpack. He held two in his left hand and one in his right. He also had very quick reflexes. We both, even though we were on a branch, simultaneously and slowly rose to our feet. But we kept low and made sure that there were plenty of leaves to hide us. We both looked down into the clearing, when we heard a rustling from the bushes on the floor behind us. We spun around and I rose my bow, pulling the bowstring back to my lip. At the same time, Grayson had pulled his arm back, ready to throw. We were both poised at the same height and we both seemed to be breathing at the same time. I could practically hear Caesar Flickerman commentating on how we seemed to be moving as one. This would surely gain us sponsors, if people thought we were a great pair of allies. But now wasn't the time to be thinking about sponsors.

I squinted and looked at the bush that was rustling. Eventually, someone stumbled out of it. Grayson and I shared a quick glance, before slowly lowering ourselves down, so we were kneeing and balancing on the balls of our feet. The person stumbled out of the bush and I could see that it was the girl from District 1, Glow. She should have been with Careers. She was stumbling about, hands extended. The Tracker Jacker stings were visible. She was screaming at random intervals, most likely because of the hallucinations. She fell to her knees, sobbing.

"Please! Please, stop! Stop it!" She shrieked, clutching her head. She looked like she was in a lot of pain and she looked petrified. Grayson and I looked at each other, before we both let out weapons go. My arrow his her in the neck and Grayson's knife got her in the heart. She dropped down instantly. The cannon blew as soon as she fell to the floor. Glow was dead as quickly as she had come. I looked over to my left to see that Grayson looked slightly uneasy and he had paled more than usual. I reached out and squeezed his upper arm.

"If it's any consolation, we did the right thing. We put her out of her misery. It's better if it was quick than if it was slow and painful. That's just cruel." I said to him. "Now, I'll go and get the knife and the arrow before the hovercraft comes." I jumped down from he branch and scurried over to Glow's body. I quickly plucked the arrow from her neck, but had to actually tug at the knife. I had to say, Grayson was good. He had wedged that knife in her pretty well. It was an obvious instant death hit, especially because my arrow hit her throat at the same time. Once I had pulled the knife out of her chest, I wiped the blood off of it on her coat and ran back over to the tree, scaling it as quickly as possible. I handed Grayson back his knife, who reached behind him and put it in one of his backpack's side pockets as I put my arrow back into my quiver. The bird calls suddenly went silent and the hovercraft came down and picked the Glow's body up with the claw.

"That was my first kill." Grayson said as the hovercraft disappeared back up into the air. I pursed my lips slightly. I didn't know it was his first kill.

"It's awful, I know. I was very much like that when I killed the girl from Four. It's feel terrible. Still does now." I said. Grayson reached over and put his arm around my shoulder, pulling me towards his side so my head fell onto his shoulder. "But did you see how good we looked? We moved exactly at the same time, as if we've been a team for years. We hit at different places, as if we knew where the other was going to hit? Even our breathing was exactly the same."

"Yeah, I guess we were meant to be allies." Grayson said, looking down at me. "But I want to leave this place now. Two reasons: one, it feels bad now and two, she was in the Careers, no? If she ended up here, the Careers might not be quite so far behind and they would want to know who killed their fellow tribute."

"Clever thinking. You're right, let's go."

I jumped down from the branch like I usually did as Grayson clambered back down as fast as he could, which admittedly, was pretty quick. We then each took one last look up at the tree and the spot where Glow fell, before we both ran, side by side, off into the thickness of the trees.