Task Description:

Bloodbath

I stared numbly at the ground in front of me. That was the perfect word for how I felt; numb. I was going to be dead in about ten minutes, finally after 7 years justice would be served. I wondered what being dead felt like. I wondered if there was an afterlife. I’m not going to lie to you, I was scared. I was scared to die. The reality of the fact that death was finally going to catch me came crashing down into my face like a wrecking ball. Anything at all could happen to me, I could get a gut wound and my death could be long and agony filled. And then what? Would death be like endless sleep? I realized how frantic my thoughts were becoming, how downright terrified I was of not knowing.

Thats another thing I hate about humanity, humans fear the unknown and dispise anything that's different. Instinct, that's what’s I thought I remembered being told it was called, instinct was what assisted early humans in surviving. I knew I was stronger than instinct though. I hoped I was.

I stepped forward into the circular glass tube that stood ominously in front of me. The fact is, I reminded myself, death is inevitable and though I am terrified of it, I will embrace my fatal end wholeheartedly. The glass door slid closed behind me completely encasing me as it slowly lifted me upwards toward my fate. The ceiling opened above me and rays of light stretched downward warming my skin. I hated the sun, it was all warm and associated with happiness….. Not my thing.

My eyes had no trouble adjusting to the bright arena, the first thing my eyes focused on was a huge gold cornucopia, the bright sunlight  bouncing off of it’s shiny exterior. I glowered at it. I had no doubt that it was constructed out of pure gold. My glower deepened as I thought of all the long painful hours that the people of the districts worked, slaving away to make the money to pay for such an item. An item that was completely useless too, but then again The Capital was all about useless things.

People from The Capital were so stupid.

My eyes skittered around the arena noting that we were in a town square of some type, crumbling buildings had huge plants entwining them, the plants looked to be the only thing keeping the building’s from collapse. Huge cracks split the pavement to make way for the vines that crept from their depths. Directly in front of me beyond the rooftops of several collapsing buildings I saw the tall smokestacks of a factory, behind me I heard the soothing crash of waves. We were in an old city that while once might of been a thriving civilization, was now dead, dead like we would soon be. I wondered if the Gamemakers had purposely designed this arena to be ironic. Nah, they weren’t that smart.

I heard the plate lock in it’s place, the tributes around me tensed, waiting to throw themselves toward the cornucopia the second the gong sounded. My heart was pounding much louder than I’d like to admit. I figured I should die my grabbing a backpack. Thats how most kids would die. I imagined the people in The Capital laughing in amusement while sipping their tea as our blood spatters the concrete.

A loud crash ricocheted off of my eardrums and the other tributes were gone, I stood completely still as the screams began, the blurs of weapons hacking at each other, and bodies crumpling to the ground engulfed my vision. It’s funny how easily any good traits a person has, such as kindness or mercy, can be erased from them completely as soon as their life is threatened.

I stepped off of my plate carefully, slowly beginning my walk into the massacre before my eyes, into the jaws of death. My body was tense as I stepped over the first body, a small ginger headed boy whose neck was twisted fiercely in a grotesque fashion. He hadn’t even made it to the thick of it.

A stray arrow grazed my shoulder, blood spurted from the shallow wound as I continued forward. A girl rushed past me, her light brown hair with blond tips bouncing. She grasped a backpack tightly in her arms, I turned my head to watch her- only to see her get struck down by a spear. Bile raised itself in my throat. I wanted to run.

Ahead of me my eyes caught on a huge blond boy who was strangling a small mousy haired girl beside me, he grinned as she tried to jerk away from him. “Awww, though you could run, didn’t you? Thats cute.” I watched momentarily frozen as he cracked her neck as if it was a twig. A trickle of blood made its way slowly out of the corner of her mouth.

Another person shouldered me out of the way frantically. Caught off guard I lost my balance and fell. I didn’t move, for half a second. The small girl’s body was dropped directly beside me, her empty eyes boring into my own. She couldn't of been more than twelve. I was dimly aware of someone standing over me, it must have been the blond boy. I rolled over as a blade came crashing downwards where my head had been only seconds before.

I stared at it- okay, I was officially done with walking. The overpowering sense of fear I felt finally taking over. I shot to my feet only to be knocked back down and have the tip of a sword thrust in my face. “What’s the matter 11. I thought you wanted to die?” He hissed, edging the blade forward. I watched the blade hovering, bracing myself for the fatal blow. I felt much calmer suddenly, knowing the end would be fast. “Well aren’t you going to respond with something?” He demanded like spoiled child demanding another cookie.

I glared at him. “Oh. I thought that was a rhetorical question or something. You know like when you were strangling that innocent little girl a few seconds ago?” I sneered, suddenly disgusted with the boy  who was about to put my out of my misery. The image of her face burning in my memory. This guy didn’t deserve to kill me. I felt the anger mix with the fear, creating this new feeling that overwhelmed every inch of my body.

He let out an indignant sigh, “You can’t-” I knocked the tip of his sword away. He jabbed downward rashly, realizing far too late that I was capable of fighting back. The blade missed me entirely, and he stumbled forward off balance. I brought my left fist around and caught his jaw. He toppled over and I grabbed his neck with both hands. “Doesn’t feel so nice when it’s you? Does it?” I growled narrowing my eyes.

His hands flew to his neck as he attempted to yank my hands away. His grip was strong but I held on, if anything tightening my grip. His face turned scarlet as he struggled beneath my grasp, I was seized with an intoxicating sense of power, it flooded through my veins. I felt a grin plastering itself on my face, the crazed, maniacal grin of a psychopath. The boy’s eyes made contact with mine in the last seconds of his life, his eyes screamed for mercy. I cracked his neck.

The loud snap woke me up. I let go, my hands shaking. I looked at his broken body, backing up. Then I was sprinting, I was sprinting the other way. The landscape blurred past me as my legs burned. I ducked through a fight between the boy from 12 and a career. I heard his pained, final scream in my wake.

How could I have enjoyed that? What the hell happened to me? It was like I wasn’t even in control of my body! I jumped over a dead corpse, it’s guts strewn across the pavement. Was I finally losing my mind?

I couldn’t even let death take me when it was an inch from my face. My eyes burned but I refused to cry. I took a sharp turn into an alleyway, ducking beside some rotting dumpsters. I closed my eyes and tried to get a grip on myself. I took a deep breath, two, three, and then four. I felt slightly better.

I stared ahead of my blankly, trying to sort through my scrambled thoughts and feelings. The fear of losing control of myself, the fear of dying, the fear of being a coward mixed together making me nauseous as I replayed the events of the bloodbath over, and over, and over again.

That was when it happened, the crucial moment that comes every now and again that changes a person entirely. The moment that made me look beyond myself and realize that I was dying wouldn’t change anything. It started with the scream, the running footsteps and the girl. I didn’t see it coming, but then you never really do.

I was engulfed in my racing thoughts when a small girl ducked into the alleyway in which I was hidden,  she was being pursued by two larger tributes. My stomach flipped as I shrunk further backward into the shadows that the setting sun cast. The girl saw that the ally was a dead end and froze, turning to face her pursuers. I realized it was my district partner. Her dark curly hair was a mess and her face was strewn with fear. My heart rate picked up again.

“I’m sorry kid, but only one of us comes out alive. We are probably doing you a favor, ending you quick like this.” A girl’s hard voice rose from one of the silhouettes slinking toward her. The other female next to her made monkey sounds.

Jadine's eyes flitted between them, “Please…. no….” She muttered, her body trembling. And then they were on her, trying to end her. Jadine struggled and before I was fully aware of what I was doing I had grabbed an old board and was advancing toward them. I swung the board at the nearest  one’s head and and her body collapses to the ground. The other girl takes one look at me and runs. I let the board fall to the ground and look at Jadine who was already backing up. “T-thank you!” She said and just like that she was gone.

I looked down at the bleeding body of the girl at my feet. It was Rain, from district 8. I studied her and realized how final death was. My death wouldn’t fix the death I had caused, action’s might though. I remembered that fateful night seven years ago, the night I should have died. The girl had sacrificed herself for me, and sacrificing myself for other people might be much more freeing than simple death.