lone wolves walking [f/i/l/x/h]

[Cait]

ines izar

Despite my best efforts, the strike misses. Frustration clouds my judgement and I stamp my foot against the sand like a bratty little kid. If I can’t draw blood, what good am I to anyone – to myself?

The thought doesn’t make me flinch like it would have yesterday.

“Stand behind me if you want.” Xovvy comes up beside me, axe raised, not a trembling hand in sight. She is ready; I am not. I should be grateful for her offer of protection. Maybe a smarter girl would fall back and let someone else take the shots. But then I think of Felicity – of Maggie. The strong female figures that have taken me into their lives when they could have left me to drown in the snowstorm. How disappointed they would be to see me run away now.

I think of Nekane, too. Briefly. Realise there’s no honour in dying with your back turned, tail tucked between your legs. She made me an Izar. It’s time to start fighting like one.

Allegiances shift so fast, high-end Districts coaching the lower District kids – anything to stay alive just a little longer. I narrow my eyes at Lucky, then Hal, readying myself to defend Felicity, determined to find my target this time.

It’s hard not to feel responsible for the spear that pierces her eye socket before I even have a chance to step forward.

That’s when the what ifs start. What if I had practiced more in the Training Centre? What if I had aimed higher? What if I had stayed by the rocks instead of leading Lucky right into the belly of the fight? Was I a distraction?

When Felicity falls, I fall with her, sinking back into the depths of my panic. On my knees, digging through the sand, I try to crawl over to her, but can’t bring myself to look at her disfigured face. It feels like mutiny, even though I don’t owe her anything.

But I owe her everything.

I hear someone scream. Don’t think it could be me, the sound’s too guttural, but my vocal chords ache all the same. Nobody moves for a long time. It’s just the echoes of shock vibrating through the air.

“Ines! I’m sorry, but you can’t stay here! We need to move!” I feel something tug at my wrist, let myself be dragged back to my feet as my brain lags behind, barely registering the way I’m manhandled and puppeted back to life. I turn to face Xovvy, taking in the wild look in her eyes, trying to understand how we got here. Her face blurs as the water rises. Salt water around me, within me, I’m made of the substance and drowning in it all at once.

“I don’t want to leave her...”

The stairwell looms before me. One night in a week of misery where the demons didn’t seem so large. I realise how deeply I had been clinging to the memory, now that the chance of peace has been ripped away.

A black door. Never-ending darkness. Shadows at the edge of my periphery that have been held at bay, just. But the door creaks open now, and the ghosts trickle in, and I feel the familiar weight on my chest begin to suffocate me all over again. It’s 3am, “Just breathe, sweetness, we got this.”

You could tell me that I make it off that shore, but I will tell you that I’m still stuck by the water’s edge, still stuck in the stairwell. Stuck holding the hand of a girl who tried to save me when I could never have returned the favour.

ines flees with xov.

[mat]

l u c k y
nachtnebel

His pike only grazed the width of Felicity's thigh, nothing more serious than a light training injury. There was a risk in a game of chase with so many pieces. Lucky moved first each time toward the girls and their guns, back turned to whoever he left in the sands behind him. They followed each time. First, it was Xov, but now it was both her and Hal in tow. It unnerved him to close down the space and leave himself exposed from the back but with darts flying in every direction, it was safer.

When he turned, it was Xov who made it up to him first. Lucky stared directly at her as she came to the defense of what appeared to be her new friend. She was doing the same thing as him, latching onto new people because she let everyone else go. The only difference was that Lucky did so in the name of survival while she did it in the name of "good."

He held his pike in front of him, ready to deflect her shot. "What's with the anger? Are you mad that she's prettier than you?" Xov's words attempted to do what her axe could not: defeat him. Just like her pike against his thigh, though, she barely scratched the surface.

Prettier? Lucky's eye wandered in Felicity's direction as he pulled himself away from her blade. He would have laughed if the joy within him hadn't been dying for seventy-two hours straight. Lucky bit the end of his lip as he caught his breath, considering the possibility. Was Xovvy just saying that to get under his skin? Or distract him from the oncoming Hal Rolaxis.

Come on, come on, kill her.

Lucky's boots squelched into the wet sand as he dug his heels in for another spar with the girls. It wasn't until the impact that Lucky knew who he was going for. He couldn't read it in his eyes– Xov, Felicity, him. They were all close enough to be at risk. He pulled his second blade from his belt, ready for retaliation. If he betrays me… he thought, hoping twenty seconds of an alliance and one swipe at Felicity was enough to prove Lucky's undying loyalty.

The tip of Hal's spear passed, mere inches away from his chest, but he plunged it into Felicity instead. Directly into her eye. Thank Odin, his shoulders lowered.

The ripples in the water grew immediately, with the help of Ines, who fell beside Felicity. It was foolish of her to do that. Lucky's fingers tapped the shaft of his pike and the frost of his glaive. He wanted to kill her, too, but before he could take a step against her, Xovvy brought the girl back to her senses. They waded in the shallow ends of the water for a few words. Instead of moving closer, Lucky sheathed his glaive and backed away, just as they were.

Lucky placed his free hand over Hal's shoulder. They were a team, even for just a moment, and he had to respect that. "I'm going down the beach to wash up," he whispered, pointing in the opposite direction of Ines and Xov's trail. "You did good, Hal. I'm a bit jealous."

He let go and raised the hood of his cloak before wandering toward the palm trees on the other side of the beach.

[ flees ]

[august vance d7b [Bella]]

⤜ x o v - ♥ - t h a o ⟶

Hal, the soft-spoken one with downcast eyes who had just waxed philosophical moments ago, showed them with his weapon a finality that words could not. That, and the sound of the cannon.

The point of his spear tore through Felicity’s eye, ocean blue weeping red. And something tore through Xov too, a grating scream from the girl who stood behind her. Xov was frozen in place by the suddenness of everything, still gripping her weapon like there was something she could do, but there wasn’t.

Another lesson beaten into her head: how quickly someone went from alive to dead. From there, vibrant and full of life-- to gone, an empty shell. How quickly their names had coiled around her heart, only to leave a hole where the caring was. Marcus, then Juno. Now Felicity, enchanting and brave.

If she stood there too long, she knew that she would be the next name. Tears swirled in her brown eyes, muddying the look of horror frozen on her face. Her feet were backing away on their own, mouth gaping, eyes glued on the tip of Hal’s spear, now colored dark red in warning.

When Ines fell to her knees, Xov seized her arm on instinct. She pulled, but the girl from Eleven was pulling in the opposite direction, clawing through sand, clambering towards the vacuum of death where Felicity had just been. Panic chilled her veins as she saw how close Ines was to the sharp edges of Lucky and Hal’s weapons.

”Ines!” she screamed, voice breaking. ”I’m sorry, but you can’t stay here! We need to move!” It sounded like a command. She wanted it to. She wasn’t sure what she would do when the people she cared about stopped listening.

Xov dragged her until they were running, only realizing after a few minutes that her grip felt tight enough to break bone. Wondered, briefly, who had taught her to hold on so tightly to the very vulnerable. Maybe no one.

She wondered if Felicity’s soul had escaped through the hole in her skull, like her people said it could happen: a wispy, floaty essence of a person, pushing through the cracks to find its way home.

Xov hoped so. It didn’t sound so bad that way.

{xov flees with ines}

[d9 kristof parks {ems}]

It's hard to choose, and he doesn't know where he's going or what he's doing until the spear moves forward. Lucky, even though he attempted to harm him, has been someone to offer advice, someone that helped him, and in the training center, he taught Hal how to hold a weapon, how to fight, how to make himself look strong and alive. Felicity, on the other hand, has taunted him, she didn't give him a chance. They had a temporary allegiance for a day, but that went away the moment she struck him.

Which is why even though his heart screamed for him to attack Lucky who Hal perceives as the strongest of the two, his mind couldn't bring him to do it.

And now the world stands still.

The water almost sounds peaceful until it's not. Someone is screaming, and it feels as though that entire world is in a panic. The Angel of death appeared before his very eyes threatening to snatch his soul away, but Hal isn't ready to die. He knows what to do, how to fight, how to prove himself as more than just a kid from district seven. The gamemakers didn't give him much of a chance, they want him to die, and yet he wants to live to make their lives miserable.

And then she falls.

It's almost in slow motion, and Eleven collapses next to her, and everything is a blur. It's as though the waves have consumed him. Everything is muffled, and all he can hear is the beating of his own heart.

Jericho fell quickly, and now Felicity. She fell so fast before anything could be done, and it's so incredibly painful watching the life leave someone's body. It hurts seeing it happen, and yet right now, all Hal can think about is trying to pick up the pieces to move on with life.

I thought I was going to die.

Killing Jericho took a lot out of him, it broke his heart and soul, but somehow the heartache from the second one is easier. It's not the same. It's a different feeling, one of sorrow and regret and remorse, but apologizing for it wouldn't undo what has to be done. Everyone here must fall, and Hal knows and understands it. Making it home alive is the ultimate goal.

He feels a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm going down the beach to wash up." Lucky is standing right beside him, and Hal is trying his best to remain strong because all he wants to do is cry. It's the worst feeling in the world, and everything is crashing down around him. "You did good, Hal. I'm a bit jealous."

He tries to smile, but he can't bring himself to. This, it haunts him, it's changed him, it's turning him into something he's not, but he's not ready to die.

With a simple nod of his head, he watches everyone leave, and when everyone is gone, he collapses to his knees trying to take in the moment. To forgive himself. If he wants to survive, he's going to have to keep his eyes focused on the prize.

"I would apologize, Felicity, but as I said before, apologies don't matter here, and I can't apologize for doing what's best for me."

He looks at the ground and then towards the water.

"I hope you're living your best life in the afterlife if the afterlife even exists."

I am sorry. I feel bad. I feel so guilty. I just have to forgive myself and move on.

"I am sorry, though. I'm sorry we were put in the situation where only one can survive."

Credit to Pogue <3

Hal flees