the hunter's prize | walter vs noel [day 7]

It is coming.

The rainstorm that threatens to unleash as the wind whistles through the trees, as the moisture grows soaking my skin in more than just my sweat. The animals all seem to be hiding too, knowing and waiting.

Waiting for the clouds to erupt.

The end is coming too.

It's so close that I can taste it, bitter sweet on the tip of my tongue.

And it will be just as welcome as the storm.

We wake early the next, and the clouds are ominous and gray. So thick that not even an ounce of sunlight can leak through. It casts a shadow of darkness over the two of us, and for a moment I wonder if it truly is the morning. Neither of us felt like talking, it was as clear as it was obvious that there would be a storm today. So after throwing my bag over my shoulder, I look at Laurent and dare to break it.

"Remember when I said not yet? Well, yet is growing extremely close."

He didn't need more of an explanation, he didn't need for me to spell it out. He knew who would win if it came down to the two of it, no more answers were needed. So instead he nodded, grabbed his things, and walked off in the other direction.

And with something that resembled sadness, maybe regret, plastered across my face I watched him go.

Once I was sure he was far gone I turned and walked the other way, not daring even once to look back. I did not want to come across him for as long as possible, I had another boy on my mind.

He was too quick yesterday, he managed to get away before I could finish the job, but three strikes you're out.

And Walter Blake already has two.

Seconds into my hunt for him the sky opens and the water falls. It doesn't ease into it, the water simply turns on and doesn't stop. If I had to guess it has no plans of it any time soon. I look for every sign possible while trying to track him, but the rain is no help, washing away almost any type of evidence.

That is until I look down.

Footprints lay in front of me, small enough to be a child's. A few more feet forward and I see a figure before me, the voice only confirming exactly who I thought it would be.

"Not you! You are the last person I want to see!”

A ominous laugh escapes my lips as the water pours down around me, a lightening strike erupts and thunder can be heard somewhere in the near distance

"For a little boy you have quite a big mouth,"I snarl. The heavy rain blurs my vision, but I can still seem his figure standing not too far off.

"You can’t, I am not letting you near me after what you did to Juliet!”

But was it really me who did that? How am I supposed to explain to a little boy that my dead sister stood by my side and told me what to do, encouraged me along the way? But then it hits me.Bell never held my hand, she didn't force my weapon through that boy's heart, she simply watched. Her hands weren't bloody.

But mine were.

I was meant to be a light in the darkness, a breath of fresh air when all hope was lost. But now I am nothing. Now I am just a bringer of Death.

"Don't worry, I can kill you from a distance too."

The end is near.

And his was going to be before mine.

She is lost.

She can no longer see. And she can almost no longer fly.

The rain weighs heavy on her wings, but no matter how hard it falls the blood still remains. It will not wash away, it is permanently stained.

And it will weigh her down forever.

She used to be a beautiful white dove lost in a sea of crows, but now she blended in with them. Now at first glance you could no longer pick her out of the crowd.

Now she has lost her way.

My blade strikes him fast and hard and his blood becomes added to the pool that surrounds us both. Now a mixture of mine and his, but they blend so seamlessly it can be counted as one. One of us slices and the other retaliates, soon enough we'll be drowning in it. Not sure if it is ours-

Or the blood of our enemy.

He swipes at me again, but this time I'm faster and almost make it out of the way in time. He manages to nick my back, but it's nothing like the gash that is pouring blood from the front of my shirt. What once was neon yellow camouflage is now more of a sickening dull orange. Patches of me still shine.

But a few too many are dark.

I grip my weapon tighter, ready to swing at the boy again, but this time Walter begins to speak.

"I bet you don’t feel pain, do they train you to become numb in the career school?”

I pause for a second and my guard weakens. Don't feel pain? The amount of pain I've felt is enough to last anyone ten lifetimes, enough to put this boy in his grave with a single thought. A mother who throws you to the side to be slaughtered for parts, just for a few spare coins. A mother who teaches you how to steal and lie and cheat, but all at the same time teaches you that it's alright. A mother who never loved you.

A mother who never cared.

"I bet they don’t teach you how to be a decent human being.”

A snort escapes me, which eventually turns into a full blown laugh. For someone so small and so young to make it this far, one would think he would have learned more along the way.

"Who would have thought that you can see Death, but yet be so naive. They didn't need to teach me anything in that hell hole. I had a mother who taught me it all."

Finally, I get my bearings straight and re-grip my weapon, slowly stalking closer to him, preparing to lunge.

"The best part about never feeling pain," A brief pause, he was finally within reach. "Means I've never learned how to hurt."

The dove may be lost.

But she plans on finding her way again.

Friends are hard to come by.

Especially at the Mansion.

Especially when Bell was the one who trained you.

Most of the others don't speak, some of them wouldn't even look at me. In a house full of people, a house full of hopefuls, I grew up utterly alone. In the morning when I woke up and at night when I lay my head back down.

There was no one.

All I had for certain were the stars to count at night and the hopes that the sun would rise again in the morning. They've yet to fail me, even here.

Even in a place filled with Death.

I swing again and my weapon barely pierces the boy's skin. Sloppy. Her voice rings through my ears and I know that I must do better, not only for me, but for her. He comes back quick at me in retaliation and I roll out of the way, his sword barely scrapes my back once again. I can feel her smile next to me.

And a smile finds itself onto my lips too.

She had taught me everything before she left. Every trick every move, she was the closest thing that I had to family. I looked up to her, I worshiped her, until the day she looked down at me as she threw her life away at the reaping.

She left me.

Just like they always.

"Is it your brother in here with you? Is he the same? Your mother must not love you, you are monster. A monster can only do what you did to Juliet!”

My hands tighten around my weapon and my knuckles grow white as my eyes narrows, he's starting to ask for all the pain he gets. He's starting to ask to die.

"That's the first thing you've gotten right little boy. She never loved me. Someone who loves you doesn't sell your organs for a sack of coins. So you're only partially right, because I don't have mother." I hope she's watching, I hope she hears this. I hope she saw my face on the screen and recognized all she threw away. I hope she knows the last memory I have is her handing me off to the men in the boat, without even a hug goodbye. I hope she knows how much I despise her.

Because it's written all over my face.

"You can blame Hailsham Academy for the monster that stands before you, for every single one of us. Beck? Deep down he's the same as me. The only thing that keeps us from killing each other is the hopes that one of us might be lucky enough to live."

I have no friends here.

Good thing I've learned to live without them.

There is almost nothing left.

The moment that Bell left they tore her room apart, every last belonging was ripped from its place and thrown into a box somewhere, to be forgotten about or disposed of I am not sure. I had to sneak around in the middle of the night to find it and take a few of her favorite things back.

Just in case.

It seemed like only hours later there was a no victim in her room, setting up their own things, waiting for nothing to remain, just like the rest of us. Then it looked like she might come back to us, it looked like she might claw her way out. The new kid mysteriously disappeared and I remember peaking into her room was again, they were slowly adding her things back, her room was once again turning into a pool of red.

Then she took her last breath.

And just as quickly as the brought her back to life they killed her again. The next day another kid was there, a bit younger than me, and I had a feeling this one was here to stay. I never talked with him, we never spoke even though we lived a door away. I didn't want to know Bell's replacement.

I wonder if he's liking mine.

I am certain that my room has been wiped clean, any remnants of the girl who once was is gone. I doubt that they become eager this time, replacing my stuff as my chances increase. The thought stings, but I'm never going back there.

Even if I make it out of here alive.

A resonating boom sounds through the Arena, it could only be thunder, but all of us know by now it's the sound of Death. Seven. Seven more.

Almost nothing.

"Hailsham Academy? So you are from a rich family, a whole building with your name…-"

A fire takes over my body in a matter of seconds. It starts at my toes and like a wildfire spreads to the tip of my fingers. How dare he speak like it's a privilege, how dare he talk as if I should be thankful. And in that split second when I lose all focus his sword cuts into me so deep that I grunt. My shirt is torn to shreds, I am covered in my own blood. I am lucky that there is anything left.

My rage subsides and instead I laugh. It is cruel and it is wicked and there is not even the smallest bit of humor to be found. It is cold and it is heartless, just like me.

"Hailsham Academy is the last place that you would want to be, trust me. It is a living hell, worse than your scariest nightmare. Yes, even scarier than this." I bend over at my waist so that I can become eye level with him, so that he can see the pain and suffering that lies within. "Tell me now, do you really want to know what they do to us there?" I hope he doesn't.

Because most of the time, even I try to forget.

I stand up tall again and grip my weapon tighter, because regardless if this boy is sobbing over a lost ear or not I need to kill him if I want to go home.

I need to kill him if I want to be free.

"Mean! I am not letting you take anymore!"

"What's the matter little boy? Mommy never teach you how to share?"

There may be nothing left, but there is just one thing.

One thing, that I can hold on to, something that is just a little bit in the distance.

Hope.