CAREER ARENA PLOT Rematch (Marree)

Taken down once again

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I stand there in awe of my own throw. Watch as the blade suddenly goes and flies straight to him. My thoughts screaming for him to move, but before anything else happens within myself, I see the knife penetrate straight through his arm. My mouth drops. It was different when we spar, but we're dealing with big shit right now. The blades that could have ultimately killed him if I shot wrong. It all seems so unrealistic now. We were suppose to do target practice. Not maim and harm. I realize suddenly how horrible it was to play this, but I was so angry that I didn't think clearly when we settled for this game. I curse internally, but I see how he's still going.

Move... Move now... this isn't over. Damnit. Run! My eyes grow large and I start to move backwards. I can only imagine the extreme pain he's feeling with the knife through his arm that's pinning him to the tree. That will leave a mark... oh, dear ripred... I shake my head when I see him suddenly fish around for another knife. I backup another two paces and grip a knife in my hand. The moment I see him throw his, I retaliate quickly. The knife in my hand moves quickly, but I don't see where it goes just as something peirces my shoulder. I stand there stunned a moment. My eyes squinting in extreme pain. I can't remember feeling this kind of blinding pain before. Not even when my hand was broken by Jins.

It takes me a few seconds to really put together what happened, but I bring my left hand up to meet with the knife sticking out of my right shoulder. I feel myself pale. I gasp from the shock of the blade. What the hell... I can't beleive he got me.. really, actually laid the blade into my body...

I put my hand on the handle of the knife, but can't muster the nerve to pull it out. Instead, I drop to my knees. I peer upward, looking to see if my knife had met with him, but I see that it didnt. It's laying near his feet after richoceting off the tree beside him. Thank goodness it did'nt get him again... I'm done with this.... not until the games. If we can still participate after this... Matthew, I'm sorry! I'm unable to really move at this time. The pain blinding me causing me to close my eyes, but I keep hearing the stern voice of my father. GET UP... GET UP, KYANITE.

I shake my head. With another breath, I push against the ground and stand. I am stronger than the obstacles to put me down. I live to rise again. I put my hand up to Matthew, signaling once again. I'm done.

((#5 - Tis a miss))
OOC: Whoop. Matthew took her down, but just enough for one more bad throw. XD

Working with wounds

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GET UP... GET UP, KYANITE.

I can't just sit here on my knees. I can't let Matthew see the pain I'm in at all because that will show him that I am weak. That the knife embedded deep within my shoulder is pushing me further and further into a place that I'd rather not go. I want to close my eyes and just cry. The pain is excruciating and I can't even pull the knife out. The blade within me burns like fire, causing my face to screw up like someone taking hot embers to my skin. It takes everything I've got not to make a noise. Not to make a sound. No weakness here. I stand with some trouble because the moment that I fully stand up, I feel dizzy. Uneasy. The blood draining from my face and I suddenly hunch over a bit, and grab at my shoulder.

Wonderful idea Kyanite... just wonderful. If this puts you out of the games, you're screwed. Dad will surely have your head. Besides, how are you going to explain that you got this kind of wound? You fell again? You're clumsy? Those excuses are tired.

My hand goes to the handle of the knife again as I start to take a few uneasy steps to Matthew. I suddenly realize how much pain he is feeling with the knife through his arm and being pinned to the tree. Will he fear me now? If I get a knife, will he utterly be afraid to meet with me in the pregames? In a way, I hope so, but I wonder if this little game will now hinder me at all when we are matched together. If I can actually hurt him again in real battle. My arm hangs limp beside of me and every movement sends a new shock of pain throughout my body.

As I had put my hand up to signal stop to my opponent, he calls back with the same notion. We both declare this rematch over. Question remains. Who won? A second later, I almost reach him when he suddenly yells out with so much force, that I close my eyes thinking he's going to charge me. PLease, Matthew... you said you were done... I wouldn't be surprised if it was a trick as he showed me it's so common with him. The punch to the shoulder at this moment seemed so miniscule compared to the blade that is sticking out of my shoulder.

My eyes open to see him dislodge the knife from the tree. The power behind my throw was enough to do that? The aim within in my heart to peirce a part of him and actually do that much damage. It's sickening to think that in the pregames or the games itself I will have to endure this kind of emotion. The dummies are heartless. Lifeless. Matthew is not. I'm screwed... I'm sorry, Matthew.

I finally reach his side and see how he clutches to the wound and knife sticking through his arm. I cringe. My legs give out and I fall to my knees beside him. My eyes showing the pain that I try to hide in front of him, but I know he can tell.


"I'm sorry..." I muster through gritted teeth. My voice coming out with a tired tone. One of sorrow. "So... how do you think we'll explain this?" It's something I didn't think about. These wounds are nothing to play at and how will we make it back to the gym in order to take care of ourselves if the wounds aren't life threatening? But with a knife embedded in my shoulder and a knife peirced through Matt's arm? I offer him a distorted form of a smile.

"Hurts like hell..." I say. My head drops as something in my shoulder starts to send a searing pain down my arm again. I pant from the effort of keeping calm. "We need to get back. Can you make it?"

OOC: It did get brutal... how we gunna explain this? Where be the coaches. Hope they don't show up. XD

Looks like we're only human after all. A chuckle from this jerk that has somehow turned into more than that the longer I get to know him. Even though we barely talk about anything other than just what's going on at that exact moment, not delving into our personal lives at all, I can sense something real about this guy. I can't help but still feel something close to remorse but I know he, in part, deserved what he got.. but not as much as he received. I'm curious about what he's going to do with the wound to his arm. The knife that's peirced it all the way through. It looks agonizing, but I'm not sure if pulling it out will cause any more damage then it staying there. I can see how much pain he is in and I can only think to myself that I was the cause.

Why couldn't you be Jins? I would just leave your ass right here. Pin your other arm to the tree, but it's not that easy. He would never allow it and if I did... the next time we met... I force my thoughts to leave me when he replies to my statement of my shoulder killing me. It still lingers inside, and with every breath, I feel it move and as I glance to it, my tank top has started to become covered in my blood. I shiver. My arms completely numb to the coldness out here and once again, I curse myself for forgetting my jacket. Luckily, we're goign to be heading back as he agree's to it. I don't hear the noise that Matthew does until the dogs bark catches me off guard and I tense up severly.

"Matt..." I whisper out and I see him act quickly. I see how he knows what our chances are if we're caught out here. The dang dog is our enemy cause it knows our scents. More than likely, the man has had him smell my coat I left sitting out. So, he'll be tracking me. The dumb dog will be searching for my smell. "Matt... it's me..."

I try to tell him, but instead I get a stern and forceful demand to go. Then, I see him as he fades away for only a moment before regaining himself and then his hands are on me, pushing me.

RUN! Those words has me terrified. I can invision the games right now. Being hunted by some other career or tribute. Hunted to be taken down when both of us are wounded. What a game to play? I am up quicker than ever, my feet floating against the ground as I clutch my arm to my body. The knife seems to dig deeper and deeper everytime I try to dodge a fallen tree branch or go around a sycamore.

"We have to get somewhere he can't find us..." I manage out between breaths and I follow Matthew. He's leading the way and sure enough we come to the small stream that runs through the woods. Rarelly have I been out this far and I don't think I've ever seen this part of the stream. It looks somewhat deep, but I'm more worried about freezing now that I don't have hardly anything to cover my body. Before I know it, my accomplice is already diving into the water and I stand there stunned.

"I can't...." The cold water is actually pretty delapitating to me. The water is something that I'm not looking forward to feeling but behind me the dog howls. With the most frightened look on my face, I follow matthew quickly and barge into the water.

The temperature of the water pricks my skin with thousands of needles. My breath taken away so quickly that I instantly loose my breath and I feel stiff. The water doesn't come up that high, only up to my waist, but it seems to hinder my movements. My teeth begin to chatter and I fight against the mushy ground beneath to get traction. Matthew is already across the small stream, and in a few short seconds, I reach the other side and run in the direction that matthew does. My body is racked with chills, keeping me from watching exactly where I go. Once again, my judgments are taken off with a violent shake that I trip over my own feet. I fall, once again, crashing to my knees, my one good arm the only savior to my situation. I yelp silently as it jars my shoulder.

"Get going Matt! Now! Don't wait on me. If we both get caught." I tell him. I'm ready to take the wrath. I'll do whatever it takes since I'm the one that actually suggested the moving targets. I try to pull myself up from the ground but it's not use. My body won't stop shaking. "GO!" I shout at Matthew.

I had fallen. Taken down by the icy waters of the stream and I can hardly feel my own body from the shock of the water's temperature. My bones even hurt and my teeth continue to chatter as I try to get Matthew to get away while he still can. I am more than prepared to take the wrath. The ideas formulating in my head I can already hear myself telling the coach as he finds me.

Coach! You scared me... I'm sorry. I got scared. The dog... I thought it was a wolf or something coming after me. That's why I ran. Would be the reasoning for the chase. Then I'd have to explain the knives. That's already in my head as well. Well, I came out here to get some field practice. I was going to return the knives, honest. I just wanted to do something different than the lame dummies in the gym. I wanted something else to shoot at in different scenery... but you know me. Miss clumsey... the knife... yeah... you know how clumsy I am. Always coming in with more bumps and bruises even before I come in for training.

I have it all worked out in my head. What to say. How to act. There's this thing about me and my voice that can fool people into believing me. As of right now, I'm having a hard time believing in Matthew and thinking that he would stay to help me. Normally, any guy would definately take off and leave the person behind to take the punishment, especially when given such a deman to leave. It was my voice that called out to him because I didn't want him in trouble. I wanted him to be able to get back to the gym and fix his arm. The coach would take care of me. Believe my story of yet another clumsy accident. My teeth chatter harshly against each other and everything is happening so quickly. The dog behind me. Matthew in front of me. The icy water that lingers on my skin. I'm not ready to give up, but what choice do I have? I can't get myself to get up.

That was until he declared that he wasn't taking the easy way out of this mess. What is with this guy? He wanted to hurt me the first day. Tricking me. Pinning me to the ground. Yelled at me to give up. To tap out. This time, he's not letting me tap out. He's making me move. With a sudden jerk to the vest, it once again moves the knife and I feel hot tears form to my eyes.

Get the fuck up and move. Back in the water, follow your own tracks back! I don't understand for the briefest of moments. You want to go back in the water? And what's next, we sink in the water then die of hyperthermia? But, I resolve he's right. If the dog tries to catch our scent on the other side, he'll be confused because we will have just vanished. Matthew is brilliant. My mind is clouded with so many other scenarios that trying to come up with alternative reasonings like that is just gone.

As I finally get to my feet, Matthew will not let go of my vest. He is determined not to let me get caught or is he afraid of something else? Is there another reasoning as to why he wouldn't let me get caught and talk my way out of punishment. Now, we're going to be seriously put through more hell by going back into the water.

Don't you give up now. His voice is rough, and with a shove, I find myself back into the water once again. The needles bite into my legs again, then my torso. The abrasion on my stomach burns and before I know it, my head slips under the water for only a moment, sending this unimaginable pain through my body. I surface gasping, my lips numb and my concentration a bit wavering. "Ma...ttt...ew?" I try to say his name and we begin to float a little faster. I see him behind me and he takes to swimming under the surface. I gasp, my body feeling too much like the water's temperature and with my one good arm, I try to do the same. I take a breath and dive under the water this time, and fight against the urge to give up.

I kick weakly under the water. The rocks underneath bump my legs, but it doesn't hinder the swim. THey are very scarce under the surface. The longer I'm under, the harder it is to surface again with the weight of the wet vest. I break the water's surface with a gasping breath and I deem I'm unable to go further. I need out of the water. We have gone a decent amount of distance and I start to scramble for the shore. I look behind me to see Matthew right behind me and I'm forced to a crawl to get out of the water. My breathing shallow and fast, my heart at such a slow rate that I have to glare at the ground to keep my barings. "Matt....hew... Need... to get out... of here." I say to him, and get to a standing position and turn around to wait on Matthew. We are totally screwed... this is NOT how this day was suppose to happen. I was only going to do conditioning at the gym. I wasn't planning on having a rematch with this guy. I defiantely didn't plan on getting a knife to my shoulder and now I just got out of the freezing stream and ripred knows how far we are from being to the gym. Matthew, you better know where we are cause I'm not one to just venture out in the woods like this... not on a regular basis.

"Come on." I tell him, and I start walking with numb legs. My arms around my body. If we don't warm up, then we'll be likely to start getting hyperthermia just from being in the water, not to mention as much time as we had already been out here. Now, the situation just became more dire. I turn around to make sure Matthew is still behind me as I lean against a tree. "Where... n...n... now?"

The pain in my shoulder feels unusually numb and I can only guess that our recent dunk in the frigid waters was the reason. As numb as it felt, the rest of my body began to sting the longer I stand against the tree. I glance to Matthew, noting the blue-ish hue in his lips and can only guess that mine is the same color. We're injured, freezing and now I feel as though we are lost. My concentration only on but one thing. Heat. We need to find some sort of shelter soon. Some kind of fire or blankets. We both need to get out of our wet, cold clothes because I've read that with hypothermia, it's the first thing to do. Remove the wet clothes. Stay out of wind. Cover up with dry blankets, but with that comes a problem. We don't have anything dry. We don't have shelter either. We don't even have the means to make fire. We're screwed.

This is just lovely... I'm going to die out here with Matthew. Some rematch. Maybe it's not over. Will to live. Beat Matthew to see who will die first. Who dies from the elements now. New rematch. I muse within, creating a small, weak smile on my face. I know if he saw the smile it's definately something that he'll question, but I'll save that answer for later when we are safely inside somewhere getting warm.

I barely feel his hand on my back when he mentions something about a cabin. I nod to him and push off from the tree. How much I just want to be back in the warm gym. Throwing the knives at the stupid dummies instead of trying to survive the elements out here. I move slowly, my eyes wanting to put me into something silimiar to a sleep, but I know, I have to stay awake. I need to keep moving. Moving generates heat. Moving keeps you going. I'm not going to give up. I can't do that. I turn around to Matthew, and wait for him to catch up before, I let my body press up against his as we walk.

"How... how you doing?" I ask as we walk. I keep my arms close to my body. The wet clothes feeling colder and colder as we walk. The cabin that he mentions comes into view and I see the top of the roof and the further I walk up the hill, with effort, I see the rest of the abandoned cabin. I can only imagine that it's used in the spring, summer and fall as a refuge for hunters, but the colder weather? I can only hope that noone is occupying it. I break off from Matthew and manage my way to the door, and knock. My body shivers violently while I swear my teeth are going to break as hard as they chatter. Without an answer, I look over to Matthew. "N...no ones... home."

I place my hand on the knob and it's locked. I sigh heavily and lean against the door with my head. I feel exhausted and tired, but I mutter out. "A backdoor, you... t..t...think?"

As much as I feel exhausted, there's still this waning emotion left in me. This natural response to live and to keep doing what we need to do to survive. It's hard though, as I find that the door to this so-called cabin locked. Whoever it belongs to wanted to make sure that it never gets used when they aren't there, so even with me leaning against the door, I find the situation hopeless and slowly roll over on to the wall beside the door, and let my head roll back against the surface. My eyes close for only a moment when Matthew hears something I didn't. That someone was inside afterall. He begins pounding on the door. His voice cracks under the pressure of our injuries and freezing bodies. I wonder if we'll be able to make it back to a house somewhere without falling over unconscious.

When we get an answer through the walls of the cabin, I'm flabbergasted and outraged. My eyebrows furrow, but Matthew isn't in the mood to deal with that. Then out of nowhere, the door swings open and I can see the barrel of the gun pointing straight at my traveling companion. He seems shocked and I can tell because I'm feeling the same thing and I"m not the one with the gun pointed at me. I gasp, though, out of shock. I mold myself to the wall.

"Please... we only nee...need shel.. ter. Please?" I call out to the scruffy looking man. He glances over at me for just a moment as Matthew suddenly takes control of the situation and yanks the gun from his hands. I have no will to help either of them out. I watch in horror. Why is this day getting to be worse and worse as we go by it? It gets even more tense when he pulls the knife on the man, the blade at his throat before I can even manage another words. I have no clue what's going to happen, but the man seems to see the urgent need and he suddenly mutters out, his adam's apple touching the blade as he talks.

"Okay.. Okay... don't you think of killing me." He said gruffly and waits for MAtthew to release him.

((OOC: I'm truely sorry... outside forces created some muse-kill for me... forgiveme. This is all that came to me. ))

For the briefest of moments, I actually think that MAtthew is going to kill the guy. Really take the blade and use it to cut into the skin of the man. Take the very life away from the guy that threatened us with a gun. If that had happened, I already have another scenario in my mind to make up for the wounds that Matt and I had incurred. That he attacked us in the woods. It would all work out. Guilt would find it's way into my head after it woud all be done, but I"m sure that Matt wouldn't say anything otherwise. Fortunately, I don't have to worry about that now. The man had agreed to let us in, a little more forcibly due to Matthew's ability to make decisions and not fear from someone else's life. Is this the real you Matthew? Is this what I have to look forward to when It comes to the pregames? Or the games in general. You really will slit my throat in the heat of the moment if we are pitted against each other. Won't you?

I feel my eyes droop slightly because I'm so tired, but I stay awake due to the hype. There's something that's keeping me from falling under it's dark spell. My hand touches the wood of the cabin and I plead with Matthew to hurry. To do something before we both die from the lack of what we need. I have no clue how he's strong enough to do what he's doing, except I settle on the adrenaline. Mine had long since left me. I see how he shakes. I see how he's able to keep that weight on the guy. Finally, I add my two sense.

"I wou... would leave if I were... you... or.. or you'll regret it..." I tell the man through gritted and chattering teeth. My voice comes out so harshly. If he gets authorities, I will make sure he takes the blame for my shoulder and Matthew's arm. I will make sure that the people know about his possession of a gun. It will look bad on him. Only him. I've got my way with words. Finally, Matthew shoves him out of the cabin and he's gone like that. Down the hill and out of sight.

I fight hard against the wall of the outside cabin and see Matthew hobble inside of it. I follow him, grimacing. "At... lea....least we get so...some relief now." I tell him. My body feels so cold and it's making me so tired that the moment I walk in the door, the heat in the room seems to take me for a fool, making me feel like a snowman that walked into a sauna. It takes my breath away and once I'm in, I turn around in time to see Matthew collaspe to his knees after locking the door.

"Matthew!" I shout and walk over to him, bending down to him, letting my hand touch his face. Both of us are freezing. Both of us exhausted from the cold and bloodloss. I can only imagine him though. I'd injured him so much. "Matthew, come on... we need to sit in front of the fire. We... ne..ne..." I can't speak anymore. My chattering teeth finally make it useless. Instead, I gather what strength I have to help him to his feet once again, letting him lean on me, even though I'm sure I'll collaspe at any moment. Just a few more steps closer to the fire we go and I can't take it anymore. We stop in the middle of the cabin and I find myself panting hard. My hand goes to my eyes to wipe away at the sleep. We need out of these wet clothes. WE need to get something dry around us and quick. There's no going around it. We've been subjected to the cold for too long.

"Matthew... we need... out of these... wet clothes." I tell him. Of all the people I tell that too, it's going to be so awkward. I can't imagine him seeing me undress but the longer we are in these wet clothes... I crawl over to the bed that the man must have been occupying and pull off the many blankets he was using to keep warm. I drag them over to Matthew and I take the motion to remove the vest at this point. The movements jarr my shoulder causing me to moan. With the release of that weight, I'm able to feel the heat of the room a bit more. Slowly, I edge the tank top off, while covering myself with the blanket, but being very aware of the knife. I kick my shoes off next then socks. I stop though. Leaning forward a bit and resting.