But being alone is somehow better than being dead.
Maybe that, or Fara finally pissed me off to much that I was fed up with her. She turned to me with ehr sardonic smile as I sat there, glaring.
"You're going straight to hell, Fara. Even if you win, they'll probably kill you anyways. You're way too much a threat."
"I'm not the threat here. You are. And just to please those damned rebels, I think i'll make a show of your death."
"Come on, Fara. We grew up together. We ate in the same cafeteria. You sat next to me every year for the official viewing of the games. I thought we were friends," there was my final plea, the plea that would hopefully set her free of her odd views on life. Maybe she would try and survive with me, not against. But the look on her hard, cold face made me frown. No way are we both getting out of this alive.
"Capitolites lost my affection when they gave up on my family." But she drew back her bow arm and shot.
There's something about death that everyone waits their entire life to experience: the flashbacks. People forget completely about the nosignificant moments in their lives, but when they know in their heart they're about to die, they see them. Every little detail, clearly in their mind.
But I didnt see them. I remembered them, pulling up that one time Ana and I accidentally wore the same dress to school. The day Shia and I spent a day together talking about the weather. When Fara and i had our first class together. When Water came up to me once and asked to borrow my hair color. Yeah, they were moments that were so small in the mix of things that they floated to the back of my mind. But now i was remembering them. Not in color, not in any sort of black and white. Plain old memories.
Out of nowhere a parachute fell. its timing was so incredibly perfect that it deflected the arrow and it went flying back towards Fara. But she ducked and glared as the parachute fell. I didnt even look in it.
I knew I was going to fight this out. So I brandished my knife. "Come on, stop being a wimp-ass. Come over here and fight me." And so Fara Riggsby charged. She toppled over me, pushing me onto my back.
But I won. The knife she hadnt seen me pull out: it was now shoved deep into her chest. Her fists, which she had been ready to use to beat me to death, they were limp at her side. Her hair, which had been cut short and choppy, covered my face. Her blood, it spilled onto me, spreading outwards.
Then I heard the cannon. But I didnt move. i didnt move until they brought out the hover craft. It landed with a thud and I heard them take away Water and Shia's bodies.
"It's one of them, maybe they're both dead?" I heard Enobaria's voice. It was Fara's mentor.
"If it isnt, then it's Mickie. I doubt Fara would've stayed like that," Gale. My mentor. He saved me. He sent that parachute.
Slowly, Fara's body was lifted off of me. I took one look at everyone, my eyes wide and scared, before slowly standing. I heard someone start to clap for me, but before they could get into a resounding applause, I pelted. No one made to go after me. After all, this is an arena, with an arena's forcefield around it. No way I was getting out. if anything, this would probably be my new home.
I had been running for a while when I collapsed in the middle of the woods. My tears flowed freely and I kneeled.
I was never into the whole 'God' thing. It had really gone out after the Capitol took over. They banned it in the Districts, but the capitol itself still had a single little church, on the outskirts of the city. It was one of the first buildings destroyed by the Rebels. However, people still knew about it all. Some people still prayed. So that's what I started doing.
Until someone grabbed my elbows and pulled me into a standing position. I looked up at Gale's face with my tear reddened eyes. Slowly, his thumb raised and he wipped away a trail of salty tears. My eyes widened more before he slowly moved his face lower.
"What was in the parachute?" I had to know. Probably another 'I told you so' thing. Gale stopped, closing his eyes.
"Nothing."
Then he kissed me. His lips tasted metalic, and mine were probably soaked in blood. But it was one of the gentlest kisses I've ever had. Much better than Kaulke.
Gale probably saved me. He sent that parachute for no reason at all, other than to deflect Fara's arrow. That's why - I tell myself - I let him push me up against a tree, his hands roaming down to my waist, mine still hanging limply at my side.
I like to tell myself that I gave myself to him because he saved me. Because he warned me of Kaulke's deciet, and tried comforting me after Ana's death. Because he, ultimently, saved me. But it would probably be lieing.
I needed something, and he needed something. And needs were met in the last half hour in the woods. But I still returned to the Hovercraft feeling empty inside.
