The Bloodbath

After she had cut into the snake, another tribute killed it. The fight certainly wasn't over yet, though. Tributes continued to be killed by the beasts that the Capitol had seen fit to release into the arena. Many people were losing limbs and losing their lives. In the end, no one would truly be in one piece, even if they got away with their lives. Having all their limbs or not didn't matter, though. None of them would remain emotionally whole.

Behind Vanya came a voice cutting through tears. A girl was crying, and Vanya understood. It wasn't just that they were all having to fight these creatures, no. This girl had lost two of her friends. Vanya had seen them fall, and felt guilty that she wasn't able to protect everyone.

"It was a bear, I'm pretty sure," the girl said in response to Vanya's yelling at the snake. She knew what this meant. She needed to protect this girl. Perhaps, even, she should avenge the death of her fallen friends, if she could.

Twelve. Vanya had been counting the cannons, and that's how many had fallen. Subsequently, it was also how many of them were left.

A large creature with antlers that Vanya believed was called a moose was the next to attack her after the snake had, and moments later, the oversized bird she'd been fighting before decided that it was time to fight back.

"I'm so sorry," Vanya said, turning to the crying girl, sympathy in her eyes. "Please, stay behind me, I'll try to protect you."

She paused for a moment.

"I can try to kill that bear for you, too. I'm not sure how well I'll do, but I can try."

Hoping that this girl would stay behind her, Vanya approached the large, white-furred bear. Intimidated, Vanya took a deep breath. She had to do this.

This is what death is. It isn’t a romantic passing in the arms of a loved one. It isn't welcomed to peaceful hugs and sincere adoration watering over your arm. Death is violent. Death goes up in smoke and bombs with the tongues cut out of the living while others grow numb. Once Milagros asked tio when mama would go back to normal after Aarón and papa died, she was too young to not understand they weren’t coming home. In moments of heat, I focused on pumping my wrench, oil coating my hands. Because I cannot give her advice on what I don’t know. I cannot tell her they won’t come back, because the next morning she just asks again. With tension raising in my wrists and pressure in my forearms, it reminded me of her questions. Because as much as I love Milagros, miracles don’t work that way. We can’t will them into existence, because if we could, I would do so now.

Through piercing beaks and admonished scratches, we held the line as firm as we could. Although his biceps pulsed with fury pouring down his skin which retreated into paleness and lethargy, Coal raised his head and tightened his grip on the sword, demanding more blood from him “I might be in pain, but I won’t back down. You both with me?” His hoarseness worsened, and I wanted to tell him to save his breath, yet he persisted forth. “We will survive this. We will.” As the heat reflected off his bloodied brown hair, sweat pressing his bangs onto his forehead, I wondered if this is what they felt like. If Aarón and papa felt that same primal drive while looking towards their allies, not knowing if those faces would be the last they’d see and for how long.

Facing down a seven foot tall giant, with antlers nearly twice the size of Milagros, as it charged the pieces slowly fell into place. Although I tried jumping to the side, teeth clasped onto my right ear, tearing it off. Yet rather than falling over again, I drove my left leg into the sand for support. A ringing permeated throughout half of my face, my blade rising over my shoulder while it attempted to cover the scarlet painting my neck. Its startling warmth surged a guttural scream from my lungs, which elicited agony from my abdomen. My rage seemingly scared off the beast, one I had only seen before on Christmas cards of a land scattered in white. “Just bear through the pain, bite a bit of fabric even if it continues to sting.” The bastard serpent slithered forth, attempting to strike at the shaken Coal. Although I couldn’t feel half of my face, I raised my hand off the vulnerable flesh, pointing my blade towards the audience before us. “We can’t give up, I won’t for any of you. And especially for them.”

Through wheezing and ragged breaths, I tried to control the panic across my eyes as it slowly dawned upon me. That I can’t protect her most likely, that Ernie would probably have to. That no matter what I do, I can’t save her. I faintly heard Mario shout my name. Maybe he had seen the panic streaking across my face, although frankly I couldn’t really hear. “¡Ay mierda!” I spat under my breath, I called over “Ay Dios mío, I can’t hear you.” I tried patting the hole in the side of my head, chuckling lightly to avoid tears welling at my waterline. “A fucking moose bit off my ear, can’t you see?” The words I heard struck me through my chest, as if it was the jaguar’s tooth but yet it was a verbal embrace, one that I wished I could have given Milagros before I left. “You’re not alone. I’m here.” A war cry blared through the air, and with it dropped my attacker’s leg. It was satisfying to see the mound fall, with the four-legged creature briefing dipping and letting out a call. It frantically tried thrashing at Coal, him moving aside with ease before it skittered away. “I’m with you both until the very end.”

Did you ever try to solve a puzzle as a kid, yet no matter how hard you tried, some edges wouldn’t sink in. You knew they were the right pieces, yet maybe it was they were simply pressed in the wrong time. Maybe some pieces had to be rearranged so then they would have fit.

“Coal...” First Séui Ngàhn faded into light, then the Drifter drifted away into his mind, but Coal refused to crumble even in death. It wasn’t until the emu severed his arm, the limb falling limp on the floor, that his edges fell. It was as if he was told he could finally rest. That he didn’t have to fight anymore. Swallowing the blood that threatened to boil from my mouth, I cleared my throat to match Mario’s eyes. My voice hung tired in the air, words clinging with a desperation I had thought I’d never hear from myself. One that felt like it belonged to the woman in the pit, but not I. “We need to fight for Coal. For the Drifter we could’ve known, and for Séui Ngàhn. We need to fight for our own. Because they sure as hell won’t.”

Steadying my arm, I tilted my head letting out a relieved crack from my back, as if my body knew what it had to do. I searched for the bastard bird, the one who robbed two boys from this world before they knew how to be men. Because we were kids in a sandpit, playing with toy swords that felt too heavy, in costumes that didn’t quite fit, playing the role of adults while they watched on. “I’ll never lie down and show my belly in the face of death. We’ll never be their mutts, no matter how many they throw at us.”

Tio told Milagros that day in the shop that sometimes the living become like those from war. That even if they weren’t physically there, that they’ve felt as if their limbs were lost. That they feel the need to move those limbs, but they’re no longer there. That mama has to adjust, and she may never adjust, because she lost both her arms. So Milagros and I have to be the arms that hold her now, since papa and Aarón no longer could. I knew looking at Mario then that us five were the uneven pieces of a puzzle. That the puzzle had been completed by others, before we had a say. That our hands were smacked as we tried to push the pieces together, attempting to reorganize it to fit our needs. Instead we were shouted at by the audience, who demanded we leave it as is. To drive down and wedge the pieces of cardboard as best as we could, no matter the crinkle of the paint or pinching of the sides. The five of us fit together like that puzzle, and in the right time we could have been in harmony together. Yet now wasn’t that time, so we’d have to drive down with our might and fight.

[Paloma attacks THOR the emu]
1100 - shallow cut on left bicep - 3.5 damage
8V416cA|MJsword