Chapter 9

The days pass, and then a week had flashed by in continuous monotony. Only one death had occurred the whole week and the Gamemakers must be getting kind of antsy for some more bloodshed.

Only the pair from One and Two, and all the boys from Seven, Eight, and Ten were left: And of course Jake and me. We decided to go after the girls first since we remembered their scores were really low. As we moved through the forest, I was far scout, racing ahead to look for trouble. At one point, I decided to hunt.

As I hung the birds in a nearby tree, I heard a girl scream and a cannon sound. I sprinted back to see Jake surrounded by three people and a body. District One had just lost its girl and Jake struggled to fend off Logan and Two. Logan saw me immediately and melted into the trees, running away from the fray and his companions. The boy left Jake and tried to fight me. He took that mistake to the grave: All it took was a perfect stop-thrust into his open neck and he was gone. The girl was putting up more of a fight for Jake so I helped him out by throwing a knife into her back, causing her to scream and sink to the ground. We retrieved the weapons before the hovercraft got the bodies.

“Well, Jake, top six: This is great,” I laughed as I wiped my sword and knife in the grass.

“At least we’re almost done here. Let’s go find that bony Seven boy. He looked easy to fight.” Jake tromped off, leaving me to follow.

We never found him -or anyone else for that matter- so for the next two weeks we stayed close to a new tree and no new deaths arrived.

I instinctively knew something was going to go wrong.

Just my luck, something did happen, though not what I expected.

Dogs were released into the forest. They found Jake and me fast. There were too many to shoot with the arrows, so we were stuck.

By the second day, I was tired of the nonstop barking and howling: Logan was going to find us soon. “Watch the tree: I’ll be back.” I swung from tree to tree making sure the dogs followed me. When I was quite a ways away, I unsheathed my swords and dropped to the ground, ready for the dogs’ attack. Slashing and slicing through bone and sinew, the dogs were all dead soon. “Good riddance,” I growled at the mashed bodies and took off towards camp.

But a nightmare awaited me.

Lying on the ground was Jake, a spear though his left shoulder and too close to his heart for comfort, blood pooling around him fast. “Jake!” I exclaimed, certain that all the cameras were on me at that moment. He opened his eyes and smiled faintly.

“Don’t try to help me, Care. I’m dying anyways.” He tried to laugh, but ended up coughing blood onto my face. I didn’t care at all.

“Who did this to you?” I was silently planning my revenge on the boy who had done this.

“Don’t go after him, please, Care. You know he’ll come to get you sooner or later; ever since you ticked him off that night. Don’t you dare leave me to go find Logan.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it, Jakey.” I sat down and carefully pulled his head into my lap. Not knowing what else to do, I started humming the last song he sang to me. Around the second verse, he started singing weakly, but it was different words: Words that spoke to my heart and left never healing wounds. Words of good-byes and new beginnings, new worlds and new people; a world without me. He finished his song before his cannon went off, and I stopped the tune before I lost my mind. I began to cry no matter how hard I tried to stop.

“Care-bear, don’t cry. Please don’t cry. I don’t want my last memory of you being your sad face.” His hand cupped my cheek, his eyes filled with remorse. I put on a weak smile, just for him. “That’s better,” he paused, taking a shaky breath. “I love you, Caroline, and I always will. All I ask of you is to remember me. I know Kade will take care of you when you get back home. Just win for me, okay?” He kissed me one last time, his cannon right on the heels of his stopping heart. I left the spear in his chest, and sat in my tree for the rest of the day crying. I let the darkness of uneasy sleep capture me, dreams completely desolate.

Evil, morning light woke me, and I knew that there were only four left. “Logan shall be the last to die; I swear my life on it.” I shunned my weapons, leaving them in the tree, hot on the heels of a new plan. A plan that could end up with my own death, or worse, but I was willing to take that risk and laugh in the face of death.

The first boy I found was Ten. He had another spear, which didn’t scare me. “What are you doing here, Twelve?”

“I need help. The boy from One took all my things when he killed my partner,” I lied. I pretended to cry, hoping he would believe me.

“Why shouldn’t I just kill you, right now?” Now I actually cried, knowing my plan had failed. Instead, he crumbled like a dry cookie. “What do you need?” He rushed up to me and sat me on the ground. He dried my tears away with his dirty shirt and looked calmly into my eyes with concern. Inwardly, I smiled: Sucker.

“Sleep and food, mainly; and water would be nice too.” It began to snow, much to my dismay, and I shuddered despite my intentions of it not showing. He nodded and disappeared fast.

He came back with all the food and water, a sleeping bag, and even an extra shirt, this one clean. “You looked a little dirty, so I thought you would like this.” He hesitated, trying to think of something else to say without scaring me. He thinks I’m so fragile. What a loser. “If you need anything else . . .” he trailed off, letting me fill in the rest.

“Thank you so much! I’ll leave in the evening so I’m not a bother to you.” I shakily hugged him, and I could feel him smiling. I was praying he didn’t catch on to my charade and kill me.

“You don’t have to go right away. You could stay a while and keep me company until Eight and One kill each other.”

I shook my head. “Then who here would die first? You have the weapon, and I’m a helpless girl trying to get help from someone as nice as you.” I put a hand on his chest and put a seductive look on my face. Lust glittered in his eyes, but he reined himself in. He pulled away, knowing what I was trying to do.

“Just lie down, eat, change, and leave when you want to. I’m not leaving until you do, Caroline.” He went behind a tree to let me change in peace. Snow was layering around me as I ate and settled down for my “nap”. I really did fall asleep unintentionally, to my horror, and woke up around dusk screaming from my unrelenting nightmares. Ten was sitting next to me in the other sleeping bag, trying to keep warm too. The temperature kept dropping though, until Ten was forced awake and I was chattering. He looked at me with pleading eyes, and I nodded. He wanted to join me in my bag, and I threw away all plans in order to stay alive first. He was warm, but the bag was too small, and he had to lie on top of me. Tension rose to a head between us, and he blushed. “This can’t end up well, can it?”

I shook my head. Don’t kill him yet: You need his warmth to keep you alive. Kill him when it gets warmer then RUN! I told myself, restraint forced. I closed my eyes from the extensive heat, causing me to get sleepy, but my eyes snapped back open when something made a noise behind me. Glancing around, I barely saw a white rabbit near me. I didn’t even know I was holding my breath until my brain told me I had to exhale. I turned my eyes to Ten’s big, innocent green ones and he kissed me. I gasped and pulled away, shocked.

He turned away, embarrassed. “I’m sorry, I just could stop myself.” Then, lowering his voice, “You don’t know anything about me, and I know nothing about you. Someone here has to die, and I just totally made it more complicated then it needed to be. Forgive me, please.” The silence hung awkwardly between us for a while, until I thought I was going to go nuts.

“I’m only sixteen years old. I live with my boyfriend, Kade Young, on the outskirts of a small town in District Twelve. His family is sweet to me, unlike my own family who all left me for the grave. My father was murdered and my mother and two siblings died. I have a nice dog who never goes anywhere without me, and Jake was my best friend ever since we were six. He was adopted then, and no one knows where he came from prior to his appearance in town.”

He looked at me then and smiled. “My name’s Walsh Tanner and I come from the main city in District Ten. I live with my parents and my three older brothers and two of them are married. No animals for me, but we do have lots of books. I had a girl back home, but she left me for the unmarried brother. I work at a small store that sells building supplies like nails and such. I went to school in a large building with over two thousand other kids. I’m fifteen and bigger than most my age back home. People couldn’t believe it when I was picked for The Games, but my family didn’t cry. They had a feeling that one of their children would be picked sometime.”

I smiled sweetly, finally knowing his name. “I like the name Walsh.”

“And I like the name Caroline.” The words hung between us as they sank in and he kissed me again and this time I didn’t pull away. I didn’t fail to notice the air outside was getting warmer by the second and I shifted so Walsh could settle closer. He didn’t notice that I finagled a knife out from under me. “I’m sorry, but I have to do this,” I whispered against his lips. I shoved the blade in his back and his pretty eyes grew wide.

“I trusted you, Caroline!” Tears of betrayal slipped down his cheeks as I slipped out from underneath him.

“I’m really sorry, but I have to win. I have to.” I began to cry too and hastily wiped them away. “Do you know where the others are?”

“Seven is with One, and Eight is in the caves hidden in the cliffs.” He was gasping for air.   

“Thank you; good-bye Walsh: I’ll never forget you. Thank you for your kindness.” I twisted his neck sharply, killing him instantly and only with a flash of brief pain. The snow melted fast, making the ground muddy underfoot and hard to walk on. I got to my first tree where I had left my weapons and things and stayed for a night. The ground was still muddy when I took off with a near full pack of weapons and small bits of food, so I rolled in it and tore the new shirt and my pants. “This is how it has to be,” I told myself as I shallowly cut my arms and legs like I’d been running for days through thick forestry. I ran to the beach, right in front of the caves, checking behind me to make sure no one was following me. I heard a shout from a lower cave and I looked and there was a neat looking boy calling to me.

“Hey, get up here!” he shouted. “You don’t want to get caught.” I smiled inwardly, knowing my new plan was well on its way to success. As I climbed to him, I began to worry if this time I might die. Don’t stress, Caroline: You’ll make it through this. He welcomed me next to his fire. “Sit and eat this soup. I’m glad you’re here, Caroline.” He handed over a spoon and the pot of warm, fishy soup. I nodded my thanks and inhaled the food. “How are you faring today? Are you staying out of trouble, though I know you aren’t?”

“No, not really; I can’t seem to recall your name.”

“Jonathan White; I can help you, Caroline Sullivan. I can guide you through this. Trust me.” His eyes glazed over, like he was brainwashed or something. It scared me; I just wanted to kill him and get out of there. “Don’t run, Caroline: Logan and Scott will find you and kill you brutally: I can See it happening; blood and pieces flying; screaming; terrible, terrible things . . .” he trailed off, mumbling under his breath.

I shook him, trying to get him out of the trance, but instead he curled into a ball. “Come on, Jonathan, you’re scaring me.” I shook him harder and he screamed in agony. “Don’t leave this cave! It’s too dangerous,” his fingers gripped my arm so tightly it began to draw blood. “Stay with me,” his glazed eyes were wild and his breathing was shallow and he jumped on top of me.

“Okay, I’ll stay! Just let me go!” I shoved him off of me and tore my arm free. He got himself under control, but his eyes were still glazed. He’s still seeing something. “Your fate lies elsewhere with someone else. Someone with dark hair and grey eyes: Deep, fathomless grey eyes filled with sorrow.” Jonathan’s vivid blue eyes went back to normal and he began to retch, doubled over with pain. He sat finally with a sigh. “I’m sorry; I can’t control myself when that happens. It happens all the time. I should be used to the feeling it gives me after all these years, but it only seems to have gotten worse.” He shook his head and his raven hair fell into his face.

“What just went down?”

“I get visions from time to time, though most of them aren’t very pleasant. It’s been with me since I was eight when I had predicted the mayor’s death. No one believed my wild story because I was a kid. . Nonetheless, my vision came true: The mayor was stabbed ten times in the chest like I had said and he died right when and where I said he would. Sadly, that made me the prime suspect. I was thrown in prison when I was eight, mind you, but I promised the real culprit would come forward. And he did, but they thought he was in league with me: They killed him yet kept me alive because I was a child. ‘If he doesn’t get picked for The Games, then we’ll kill him in ten years.’ I’ve seen many horrors, ones you couldn’t possibly imagine, in vision or real, in my nine years in that prison. No one has believed me my whole life and I wish to prove them wrong. Help me fulfill my last wishes and then you can kill me, though I know you won’t because I have Seen that it won’t be you.”

He was so serious, I believed him. I also hoped everyone back in District Eight heard that, though I highly doubted the Capitol let that air. “Okay, what is it you want me to do?” So long as I won The Games, I would do anything.

“Kiss me.”

Simple, but extreme and I wanted an explanation. “Why?”

“I want to know what it’s like. I’ve been shunned my whole life, living in the dust of others, hearing about those kinds of things only in the context of rape. Please: I know you’ll do it, I Saw it a long time ago that the girl tribute from District Twelve would grant my final wish.” His eyes were pleading and I had no choice but to crumble. Suddenly, the cave was too warm. I looked into the fire, rethinking my decision. Kade’s watching this and he won’t like it.

“Fine; anything else?” I glanced at him.

“Kill Seven first: It’s meant to be. I Saw what you do to Logan in revenge for what he will do to you.” Jonathan stared into eyes for a long time. I nodded, ready to do this. I scooted closer to him and he instantly put his hands on my hips, shaking so badly. Then I finally kissed him.

It wasn’t like Kade’s welcoming kiss or Jake’s wild and intoxicating one. It was soft, curious and a little hesitant at first, but then he took me by surprise: He suddenly took over, like he’d done this before. Pushing himself on top of me, going deeper and I panicked. This was not how it was supposed to go. I let released him and swung at his head, getting him off. He looked at me and his incredibly blue eyes were glassy and faraway. That might explain things . . . .

“Leave now,” his gaze flickered from the distant stare to a focused intent look as he fought for control. “Don’t stay any longer: Logan is close. Remember to kill Seven first and that you won’t see me again. Logan will finish me off, but I’ll have to give him answers. Scott is alone on the edge of the wood, waiting for you.” His eyes regained the regular focus and he collapsed on the ground.

I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. I ran and ran until I got to my tree. Night came fast and cold: Even with two sleeping bags I was freezing. A hot morning burned all the fog away, but I could not shake the chill that had settled on my soul. I took off to find Scott and once he was found I smiled at his situation.

He was stuck in a tree with no way out.