Day Eighteen

Sponsorship

The winner of today’s sponsorship vote is…Jai Ferrick of District 4!

Jai Ferrick, D4 Male

Congrats Jai, you get a free attribute point added to your lowest attribute (Charm).

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Day Eighteen

Sierra Strom, D2 Female

I half-considered trekking through the now familiar but no less agoraphobic arena to look for the man from 4 after the woman from 11’s cannon fired, but quickly thought against it as the sky darkened even further, to a point of almost total darkness, only interrupted by almost-constant flashes of distant lightning. He’ll come to me, eventually.

I probably shouldn’t indulge myself when I still have my biggest battle left to fight, but as I pace in the mouth of the Cornucopia, I find myself daring to imagine my victory. It’s a very idealized version, one where I skip all the celebrations in the Capitol and instead get shuttled straight home, to be left alone with my husband.

I haven’t thought of him much, but I can’t help but think of him now. I don’t know what he’d say, but I hope he’d be proud of me, of how far I’ve come. I don’t feel very proud of myself, of the things I’ve done to survive, but when I picture his kind face and imagine how my victory will reunite us, I know I can carry on for just  a bit longer.

My mind races furiously, which is why I’m not concentration and therefore why I fail to hear any approaching footsteps until the very whole and healthy-looking man from 4 appears in the open dirt field outside the Cornucopia’s entrance. The lightning strikes illuminate him and throw his shadow in all directions.

I sprint forward, my new weapon equipped, one that I’m sure no one in the arena has used thus far.

Jai Ferrick, D4 Male

I take just one step forward before a spiked ball flies out from the mouth of the golden horn. I dodge, raising my katana reflexively to block. It’s only after a moment that I realize the woman from 2 intended to disarm me, not attack me. Her meteor hammer’s chain wraps around my sword, and with a tug, she yanks it right out of my hands.

I stumble forward, catching myself as my sword clatters to the ground. Poised and ready to dodge, I glance up at my final opponent. The lightning perfectly reveals her smirk as she whirls her meteor hammer at her side.

“That’s smart, District Two, but it won’t save you.”

“It might,” she retorts, just managing to speak before I’m rolling to the left.

I hear the meteor slam into the ground just inches from me as I reach for one of the many scattered weapons left over from the feast. My hands clasp around a small throwing knife, and I launch it in her direction, barely aiming.

I’m lucky. I hear her yelp in pain, and then duck as her meteor hammer flies over my head, chain and all. She must have reflexively let it fly when my knife stabbed her.

The lightning is so intense now, like a chorus of strobe lights flashing at scattered intervals. I see the woman clutching her cheek, stumbling out of the Cornucopia and eyeing both myself and the pile of weapons between us. Blood pours from between her fingers where my knife sliced across her face.

“I’m going to have to defeat you, District Two, for your stylist’s sake as well as my own. Imagine what that poor man must be feeling, knowing that only one man stands between him and having to make that face presentable for polite company.”

She grimaces at me.

“You think you’re funny, don’t you, District 4?”

“I try my best,” I reply, and her eyes flash in response.

I had hoped my words would anger her to the point where she loses focus, but as she launches herself towards a spiked mace, she’s still frowning slightly, deep in concentration.

I scoop up a small sword just in time to block the woman’s downward strike at my head.

Sierra Strom, D2 Female

We spin and jump and slash at each other, never staying in the same place for long enough to still be there when a sword or a club swings out. Finally, after what could be hours or merely minutes, I feel a slight resistance from my club as one of the spikes drags across the man’s thigh, when for once, he is the one who isn’t quick enough.

He glares at me but doesn’t give any other indication that the relatively deep wound I just inflicted is causing him any pain. So I’m not surprised at all when the fight begins again.

Jai Ferrick, D4 Male

My sword feels so heavy and she looks so strong. But I can’t give up. I have to fight and I have to go home. I have to live.

I start to move one way and change direction at the last second, trying to unbalance the woman long enough for me to break through her guard. For a second I think I’ve succeeded, but then I double over in pain and shock as I look down to see a small knife buried to the hilt in my abdomen. I’ve never known pain like it. It sears my body like a red-hot flame, sending my stumbling backwards, falling until I crash into what can only be the side of the Cornucopia. I can’t see it. All I can see, all I can feel is pain.

As I force myself to open my eyes, I can just about see the woman through my agony. She stands over me, smiling at the knowledge of her certain victory as she raises her mace above her head in preparation for bringing it down to finally ending this battle and finishing me off for good.

I’m in so much pain that I can hardly think straight as I press my hand against the wound, my fingers twisting around the knife handle and quickly becoming sticky with blood.

It’s like my hand moves without my brain commanding it. It yanks the dagger free from my abdomen, and my scream drowns out the scream of the woman as I launch myself up and drive the knife deep into her chest as she stands over me.

I see the shock on her face as her club falls to the ground, and then everything starts to spin. I fall backwards, crashing back to the ground, and a second later, the woman collapses forward on top of me.

“Well played,” she whispers in my ear, her breath tickling my skin as her labored breath quickly tapers off.

A cannon fires. I vaguely hear a fanfare of trumpers that sound like they’re coming from a great distance away. The blood that pours out of us mixes between our broken bodies as the sky clears, save for the shadow of the hovercraft that appears over me, coming to take me home.

It’s the final though I have before I slip into unconsciousness. I’m going home.

I’ve won, and I’m going home.

 

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THE VICTOR: Jai Ferrick of District 4!

Jai Ferrick, D4 Male