Mercy and Misery [Ezero v Celia]

Sweet berries ready for two
Ghosts are no different than you.
Ghosts are now waiting for you.
Are you...

I awoke alone, my extended hand cold with Danny's missing presence. It took me a while to notice her absence, but when I did I shot to my knees. "No, no. Danny? Danny?!" Frantically, I searched around. She wasn't anywhere. We had been separated, or she had left me behind. "DANNY?!" No one answered, nothing moved. "Fuck."

Then I noticed where I was, what I was in. Bars shone before me, glimmering brass poles that reached upward for a ways before bending to touch ends with each other. There was a door to my left, only given away by the hinges it hung on. Running to it, I curled my fists around the bars and shook it. A loud clanging, rattling sound rang from the door, but it didn't budge. Peering down over the edge, I noticed that I was hanging high above in the tree. Trapped and frantic, I spun to look at the rest of the cage.

That was when I noticed the girl.

She was just waking up, seemingly roused by my rattling of the door, and it took me a moment to recognize her. For one heart stopping moment I had thought it was Danny, but there were too many differences. I had seen Danny rise from sleep before, set to start off what might be the last day of our lives. She didn't move like that. This girl had an eerie quality about her and I could have sworn I had seen her before - inside of the arena rather than just in the training center. Once she stood, it all came to me.

She had been the one to first attack the alliance on three on the first day. I had thrown my knife right after, but it had been her cue to attack. Her allies had slain the trio, despite having being pinned under a tree. That was the first time I had seen her desire to kill, but it had not been the last. A few days ago, we had faced off her alliance versus myself, Danny, Basil, and Eryn. Only Danny's quick action had saved us from death at their hands. Kill or be killed. This was all circling back around.

Now I was trapped here with her, and a sinking feeling in my gut told me that once more those same rules applied. Why else would the Gamemakers lock us in with only one other if not to watch us fight to get out. This was a terrible metaphor for the entire Games, a gross refining of what this entire thing meant. Somewhere were the Gamemakers, saying kill or die, it's all the same to me. They yanked on our collars, whacked our rumps, and sent us into the pit.

Like a good dog, I had lunged. My knife had sliced through her finger, removing it. Almost immediately, the stumped had flared for a brief moment as the tar burned her. I could not let her have any advantage, for she would take it. Already I had seen her strike at someone when they were weak, I couldn't let her do that to me. People cheered around the edge of the ring as the two dogs began to circle each other. I snarled, ears flattened back and lips curled. I could not show any weakness, I could not let her think she had any chance. If I did, I was dead.

She snapped at me, her own teeth sharp and glinting in the light. "Oh ho ho, so I guess we meet again-" she frowns at me, sizing me up for a moment. "Not as though, with the rate we dwindle, it wasn't destined." A crawling sensation curls down my spine, pulled from me by her creepy manner. "Your allies are the ones who helped kill Dane- when the cow was so close to death, but you let her slip." I'm stopped by her words for a moment, trying to figure out what she meant. Thinking back to that fight revealed nothing, but I knew that she only meant to insult me and my allies. I sank on my haunches, readying myself to spring. We would lock jaws soon, scraping and slashing with our claws until one of us lost all strength.

"Though, mistakes are made, but someone still has to pay."

Here it was, this was the moment when she would move. She raised her middle finger to me like some rude salute before she swung at me. Her axe flashed and flickered toward my side, but the flames died before it struck me and I managed to move so that most of the blow missed me. What could have been a crippling blow was turned into a scratch.

This had come to my turn again, my chance to lunge at her throat and take her down. If I could sink my fangs into her neck and crunch down, maybe then I could stop her cold heart from beating. Like Hettie, this dog needed to be put down. Call it rabies, call it insanity, this dog was wild and I needed to remove her. Maybe then things would be okay, maybe then I might see Danny again. All I knew was I had to get out of this cage.

The only way to do it was through this bitch.

Where I had once offered mercy to Iain, she had offered misery to everyone else. So now I would offer misery in return. What goes around, comes around.

I ready another knife, looking at the girl who wanted to toy with the pain of others and play in their organs.

Life is not a game.

"We all have to pay, sooner or later."

The shades lingered around us, watching like a shadow version of a crowd. Circling darkly, they watched as we went at each other again.

[Attacks Celia with Throwing Knives]
Qk_mnzgfthrowing knife
Shallow Cut on Cheek -- 3.5 damage

[fire 2/4]
1-50
Extinguished

Dreaming! Dreaming the night! Dreaming all right!
Do we! Do we know, when we fly?
When we, when we go
Do we die?

My blade spins toward her face, ready to take her eye or her throat. I have to tear her life from her body if mine is to stay, but she is in the same position. Survive, said our bodies, survive. We had to keep fighting in order to keep breathing. There are two ways to gain freedom from the arena, and we were deciding which path we would take.

Live or die; those are our two options.

Celia chooses life, at least for this brief moment, because she jumps back from my strike. The knife glances off of her cheek, leaving a long mark but little else. The fire dead, the attack next to useless, I hear the soft thump of the blade striking the ground. She's growling now, wiping her paw to smear the blood from her face. Once more we are circling each other, snarling and sneering, as we wait for our openings to attack.

She gestures with her axe, pointing at my chest with it like she was sighting to plunge the head of it into my heart. I was sure she wanted to, but I was also sure that I wasn't going to let her. "I guess that's why death lurks around every corner here, huh?" I don't speak, feeling like she has more to say, or that she is trying to distract me with her words. Either way, I maintain my steady gaze on her as I wait for the attack that I know is coming.

"What's it you pay for more, Eight? Has to be more than Danes death. - 'They' tell me mine's for all we've reaped." I consider for a moment, still weighing the option that she is trying to distract me. Before I even think of what I might say in response, she lunges like I knew she would. She's fast, but I'm a hair faster. Another shallow blow lands on my flesh, but this time on my arm. For all she thinks she's sly or tricky, I have begun to figure her out.

"I don't pay for Dane's death. If I could keep that from haunting Danny I would, but I have my own burdens to bear." For once I hope the shades understand that I can't spend a moment to think of them right now, not when I'm on the brink of bearing my throat to this terrible girl. "Even your life is something I would be sorrowful for taking."

If she can be bitter and brutal, surely it was only fair that I be sour back. She tries to pull my strings, tries to make me dance how she wants but I am not a puppet.

"You puppets," screamed Danny. "You little Capitol playthings. You are nothing compared to him. Who the hell do you think you are?" I was woozy, nearly falling over from the loss of blood, but I clung to the conviction in Danny's voice. Basil had fallen to their hands, but they were not meant to survive. They were the ones who would fall, they were the ones who wouldn't be able to move once their strings were cut. As I clung to my last thread of life, I readied myself to cut theirs.

Too bad for her that I am not a plaything.

Life is not a game.

You can't toy with me.

[Attacks Celia with Throwing Knives]
JxQ6|6cQthrowing knife
Miss -- 0.0 damage

[fire 3/4]
1-50
Moderate burn +4

[Accuracy reroll]
throwing knife
Knife Deep in forearm -- 8.0 damage

Sweet berries ready for two
Ghosts are no different than you.
Ghosts are now waiting for you.
Are you...

Before I let go of my knife I know it will miss. I halt mid-throw and readjust, my body twisting to line up the throw again. This time I let the weapon fly. I had made the right choice because with the minor fix, the blade sank into her arm rather than into the ground. Once more, the fire on my blades licked at the wound. I still had one more weapon with fire dancing along its blade while she did not. The tar on both of her weapons had burned and died before scarring me. While her weapons were still able to hack and slash at me, she could no longer turn me into a human torch. I am not a phoenix like you, Delta, fire does not strengthen me. It dries me out until my blood would burn away and I would be a dead leaf in a breeze.

I spare a moment, a second, a breath, for the five unmoving shadows that surround us, I leave myself open for that sliver of time to witness their reactions to what is going on. I am sure there are shades trying to cling to this girl, trying to claw at her flesh and heart and make shivers shake down her spine. I also know it will not work. This girl is not human, that is clear. If there had been any human part of her left - the remnants of the little girl she might have been at one point - they had been abolished since we had all entered here.

"Don't be - we're all capable of terrible things here - it's how we get away with the murders we make."

I wait for her to try and take advantage of me again, to try and exploit my moment of inattention. Of course she does, she moves forward with what speed she can manage despite the cuts and burns I have placed on her skin. Even before my attacks, she had been scarred and torn. I was adding to the carnage that was Celia and so she would try to make wreckage out of me.

Instead of going for my throat with her axes, she shoves the weapons aside and yanks a hammer from her pack. Coming at me, she swings the heavy thing at me, aiming to bust in my head. Once more I dodge, though, and the hammer doesn't come down on my skull. It does come down on my wrist, though, and for a moment my hand goes numb. Looking down, I see that the skin hasn't been broken, though I'm sure it will swell and bruise soon enough. Gritting my teeth against the pain, I shake out my hand that is now pricking with invisible needles. Another couple seconds is all it takes before I can feel my fingers again.

"I don't think we ever do get away with the things we do in here, however we justify it." I set the handle of my last lit knife in my hand - sore but able to function again - trying to will my heart to stop racing. "We live with it, or we die with it, but what we've done is always with us." This moment is one where I have to be sure. I think about the training I had received a week ago now, recalling to mind the instructions the trainer at the knife station had given me. Focusing in on Celia, I set myself to attack again.

[Attacks Celia with Throwing Knives]
2QrH2AOLthrowing knife
Knife in Back -- 6.5 damage

[fire 4/4]
1-50
Extinguished

Before she could turn to face me again, I let the knife fly. The spinning blade flared for a moment before the fire died before striking her squarely in the back. For a moment I wonder if I had killed her, but she continues to move. Was there some demon possessing her, was that how she was such a terrible person and how she could stand up to the blows I was landing? In that moment I am filled with fear before I see the spreading stain of blood around the wound. Red like the ruby in my pocket, she bled the same as the rest of us. It seemed that I simply hadn't severed the puppet strings that held her upright.

I would though.