grief & tears to smother [West Beach Feast]

Daria had scared off Saxton as I crawled away. I knew that if I had stayed any longer, then I would have been like a lamb to a slaughter. Jack and Saxton, two people who do not give up, have to let their anger out on me. Leo was going to kill my friend, so I defended her. But what I did to the two, I can’t even tell. The blood from my wounds have seemed to give up on dripping onto the bare, gelid ground. I should have thrown Leo’s arm off of the cliff. I’d love to see Jequirity run like a dog and play fetch with it, but she isn’t stupid. Nobody in the Hunger Games is stupid enough to fall into a trap like that. We all are smarter than the mutts.

I haven’t seen Daria ever since I ran out. My wounds still do not give up on pain, even with the tight bandages that surround my stomach. It feels even worse than a stomachache, but not as bad as getting a chunk of my stomach chopped off, I can’t imagine that amount of pain. It would be a huge feat to survive from an ordeal like that.

I want to run away from Daria. I do not want to return to Heather or Tyler. It would be like going to a party without telling your parents, and then you see them at the doorstep when you return home. Daddy saw me do that a few times, but he was always gentle with me. It was another perk. They couldn’t get really angry with me, no matter what. I’m like a small little fluff ball that you can’t resist hugging.

I wish I had never killed Leo Everitt last night. He was crawling. The kid barely had anything left in him, yet I had to finish the job so painfully by choking him with his own limb. I could have just let him bleed out. I would’ve been innocent when the cannon had rung. But no, I had to finish the job. And then, Saxton and Jequirity take their anger out on me.

The haunting anthem rings in my ears for the fourth time now, but it doesn’t show any new faces. Nobody died today. Maybe if I had continued to fight, there would be one cannon. There are seventeen other angry teenagers out to kill each other. The pain in my stomach becomes more constant and I begin to worry. The pain is piercing my stomach, but I don’t know what’s wrong. I can’t waste my medicine on foolish pain. However, the question rings in my head. What if it’s not just a wound? What if it’s a life-threatening injury?

The tingling pressure on my stomach keeps me up all night, and I can only hope that something will fall from the sky to assist me. Nobody out of my three friends have gotten anything important such as medicine or a better weapon. Others, mainly Jequirity and Saxton, look much better than they did after the bloodbath. I recognized the scary face of Saxton and the weird facial expressions I saw from Jack.

It feels the coldest it has been in this arena. I can’t believe I’ve been surviving for four days. I’ve outlasted six tributes so far, and I do not plan to stop there. I will keep pushing on, even with the pain, even with the guilt, even with bad karma. I want to keep going for Rodney, Mama, Daddy, and Rory. They all deserve to say that their family member fought with all his power and all his might.

I feel as weak as ever when I see a familiar face. Daria. I ran away from her in hopes to stay away. But now, she stands before me. I cannot run away again. They are back for good, and there is nothing I can do about it. ”I lost ya. Don’t scare me like that, please,” I speak gently and with sorrow. I can’t let her know that I intended on staying away.

Two raging mutts stomp their feet toward Daria and I, and my immediate instinct is to hope that this is not a dream. I haven’t encountered a mutt like this, and I can only pray that it won’t hurt us. I take two steps forward. Daria, her foot. She can’t run from these things, not at all. I suppose it is my job to protect her. I swing her onto my shoulders and begin to run away from the mutations.

Now, we end up in some sort of shit hole with people standing all around us. Some familiar, but some are faces that I haven’t seen since the Capitol. I ready my axe because I know this could be another blood war.

[for Shia, Rodrick enters the feast]