I honestly can not believe that I have over 300 reads! It's actually so exciting! Please keep reading, and voting and commenting it means the world to me! I also get my cast off in a few days which is super fabulous, but I won't bore you with my struggles.... Thanks again guys! You're all amazing. 

I woke up in a net suspended above the forest floor. I was groggy and my head hurt and I felt like I was going to vomit. I tried to keep my eyes open but it just hurt, everything hurt. I groaned and repositioned myself.

 I remembered one time when Fidelia and I had just met, she was the first person that actually talked to me. She came over and said I don’t like you. I replied with likewise and turned away. Even though she had insulted me, she had been straight up and told me what everyone else was thinking. The first year had been really hard. Those few months smelt like black, and this smelt like black too.

‘Magdalene?’ I heard Fidelia say quietly.

‘I’m okay,’ I croaked.

‘Magdalene…’ She started.

‘I’m fine, I’m okay. I’m fine.’ I reassured myself as much as I reassured her.

I lay on my back in the net and just tried to compose myself. I gingerly opened my eyes and stared into the dark sky.

‘It’s always darkest before the dawn.’ Fidelia murmured.

‘It smells like black.’ I said into the cold air.

‘Defeat and black smell the same, people tend to get confused.’ She said.

I moved slightly and felt the dull ache in my side, it was an ache I had felt before, and would feel again. I took a deep breath, and my side spiked with pain confirming my suspicions.

‘I broke my ribs.’ I breathed.

‘Okay.’ Fidelia whispered. ‘I can get us out of here. We need to take you back to the mentors.’

‘No!’ I shouted. ‘No, no we can’t. I’m fine.’ I tried to soften my outburst.

I heard Fidelia take a sharp intake of breath.

‘Please.’ She begged.

‘It’s okay.’ I said. ‘Please trust me.’

‘It’s not that I don’t trust you…’

‘Good, then shut up and let me think.’ I cut Fidelia off. I was glad it was dark so that Fidelia couldn’t see my pitiful attempt to get up. I bit the inside of my mouth so that I wouldn’t whimper. I had finally gotten into a sitting position when I decided how I was going to get out. I would burn a hole in the side of the net and swing onto the branch it was hanging from. It was hard to calculate which way the net would swing when I burned the hole, so I estimated that I had about ten seconds to make the jump and then about another five before I wouldn’t be able to hold myself up anymore. I thought that I would probably be able to heave myself onto the branch and then move to a sitting position. Based on where Fidelia’s voice was coming from, she was either higher than me or on a different tree all together.

I wasn’t glowing anymore, and knew that I couldn’t go all ‘full body glow’ or else the people on guard would be able to see me. I remembered the gloves in my pack, and realised that if I could just burn through the nets and put the gloves on, no one would be able to see me move to Fidelia and burn her out. My pack.

I didn’t have it.

It was gone, along with those heavenly Snickers bars. I sighed slightly, not only would I miss out on my Snickers, but I had to be able to control my alm well enough to not be spotted. I didn’t think my body could make another fall without breaking into hundreds of pitiful pieces.

At least I would be lighter without my pack. One positive: One hundred negatives.

I gripped the side of the net closest to the tree branch and focused a small amount of energy into my palms, just enough to burn through the rope. Where did they even get the rope from anyway?

Cheaters.

I smelled the rope burning before I saw it. Luckily it was just smouldering in the dark, no flames. It wasn’t visible, especially in the dark. My hands burned through a small section of the net, and I quickly moved on to the next.

Finally there was a hole just big enough for my body to fit through. I slid out on my back and held the top of the net in my hands. The net lurched away from the tree just as I had thought, I wiggled around when the net swung close to the branch, I jumped from the net and gripped the tree branch with my hands. A sharp pain like a knife moved up my side and I gasped. My vision was starting to blur as I heaved my battered body onto the branch. I balled my hands into fists and willed them to stop glowing. After about ten minutes they had. I looked around and spotted Nestor the next tree over. He hadn’t seen me yet, because I suspected he was sleeping and had left someone else on lookout. Cocky bastard.

He probably didn’t have much faith in my abilities as I had always been a bit of a screw up and everyone had low expectations of me. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Luckily Fidelia’s net was a few branches above mine, and wasn’t much of a climb. I smirked as I thought of Nestor’s face when he woke up and saw the empty nets.

I realised that I hadn’t sent out a warning flare, so Avery probably thought everything was okay. I decided that it would be safer if I didn’t send one out and just escaped. If we got caught again, then I would.

I clambered up the tree, trying to ignore the feeling of my broken ribs rubbing against each other. I hoped it wasn’t too bad a break, I didn’t think I could deal with having to miss the next few training exercises.

Fidelia was resting in the net with her hands behind her head.

‘Hey, Fiddy, shh it’s me.’ I said. She bolted upright and stared at me.

‘Oh my gosh, you are actually, wow. Okay.’ She grinned at me.

‘Okay we need to hurry up, where are Wyatt and Vincent?’ I asked her.

‘I um, I’m not sure.’ She looked down.

‘Okay, well we can come and get them later. We need to go.’ I urged.

‘No, we are already here. We have to get them, and the flag.’ She insisted.

‘No, it’s way too risky.’ No way was I going to get my butt kicked again. I was too under qualified.

‘Don’t be a little bitch. Don’t you want to prove yourself?’ She said indignantly.

‘I’ve actually found that being undermined has proved helpful.’ I hissed. I placed my hands on the net and quickly burned a hole. Fidelia scrabbled through the hole I made and nimbly dropped onto the branch I was standing on.

‘You find Vincent and Wyatt, they’ll be close by. I’ll get the flag. They won’t see me coming. I’ll wait at the car for you. Supposedly we have to have possession of the flag for more than an hour before we can hand it in. New rule just added.’ Fidelia scoffed.

‘Seriously? Man that’s stupid.’

‘Yup, okay. Let’s do this shit.’ My best friend grinned at me and then we parted. The adrenaline was starting to get to me and I could hardly feel the pain of my ribs anymore.

‘Fuck this is high. Oh my gosh. Okay, Fidelia don’t be an idiot. You can do it.’ I heard Fidelia muttering to herself and I couldn’t help but chuckle. She pretended to be as tough as boots, but she really wasn’t.

I decided to keep to the dense branches. I found that if I had a big enough run-up and landed gently enough, I would be able to stay in the tree tops until I found Wyatt and Vincent.

I leaped from tree to tree, trusting my instincts and my sturdy footing to guide me through the foliage. I heard a snapping of twigs behind me and ran even faster. I miscalculated a jump and landed roughly. My feet slid from beneath me and found myself falling yet again.

I braced myself for impact but never felt it. Someone’s arms wrapped around me and my momentum carried our two bodies onto a large and thick branch. I landed on top of the person, and almost rolled off onto the ground once more but their arms kept me steady.

‘You’re falling for me.’ I recognised Wyatt’s voice in my ear and immediately relaxed. I laughed and pushed myself off his chest.

‘Shut up.’ I smiled.

‘No thank you?’ He asked, spreading his arms out.

‘Thank you.’ I mumbled and he laughed and sat up.

‘Where’s Fidelia?’ Wyatt asked looking around, although I doubted he could see anything.

‘Getting the flag.’ I stated.

‘Oops, well she should probably know that Vincent is taking it back to Avery and the others as we speak.’ He said.

‘Oh, we need to find her! She’s going to get caught… again.’ I started to stand, but even the softened impact had rattled my already injured body. I winced and sat back down.

‘I’m taking you back to the car.’ Wyatt said.

‘No, no we need to get Fiddy!’ I protested as he started to pick me up.

‘Don’t fight me, I’ll win.’ Wyatt said, and flexed his arms. I laughed and tried to push him away, but it just hurt and I gasped in pain. We weren’t too far from the ground and Wyatt delicately hopped from the tree to the ground without jolting my body too much.

‘I can walk, I’m too heavy for you to carry all the way there. Put me down.’ I insisted.

‘You literally weigh less than a feather. Shut up and let me carry you.’ Wyatt said impatiently and I had no choice but to let him carry me.

It was starting to get lighter, and I thought that we would probably be faster if I was walking, but then Wyatt started to run and I decided that maybe it was for the best that he was carting me back to Avery and the others. I couldn’t help but think of Fidelia, she would be mightily pissed off that she didn’t get to hand in the flag.

I hadn’t properly slept since the plane and I was sore and exhausted and Wyatt's long loping strides lulled me to sleep.

**

I awoke to the humming of voices. My head was propped up in somebody’s lap. I was surprised to look up and find it was Karoline. She was absentmindedly stroking my hair. I was covered in jackets or something and had to fight the urge to fall asleep again.

I yawned and shifted on the ground. Karoline smiled at me and helped me sit up. It was light now, the sun was shining in the bright blue sky.

‘What time is it?’ I asked groggily.

‘I’m not sure, about eleven, maybe twelve.’ Karoline said.

I looked around; the whole team minus Tammy, Pansy and Fidelia were gathered around the car. The car still had the flag in the window and I would have smiled if I weren’t worried about Tammy and Pansy, and Fidelia.

‘Where’s Tammy and Pansy?’ I asked panicked.

‘Relax, they’re fine. Fidelia’s with them. They are just keeping lookout not too far from here.’ Karoline reassured me. It was so strange that of all people Karoline was looking out for me. It was more likely for Avery to be in Karoline’s position and that was pretty big considering that Avery didn’t do that kind of thing.

‘Did we win?’ I asked.

‘Nope, Vincent got ambushed and the flag didn’t quite get to us.’ Karoline answered and my heart dropped.

‘Oh.’ I said simply.

‘I know, but we can get it back.’ Karoline smiled uncertainly.

‘We have about eighteen more hours.’ I said, weighing out our odds of winning. We had one more night, which was when we had to attack. That was when we were most likely to be able to get the flag. Until then, we just had to sit back and twiddle our thumbs.

‘How are you feeling?’ Karoline asked.

‘I’ll tell you in a second.’ I said before standing up and stretching. There was a dull ache in my side, but otherwise it wasn’t too bad. ‘Not too shabby.’ I reported.

‘Wow, it was a pretty bad break; I could feel it through the skin.’ Karoline said quietly. ‘We thought that maybe it had pierced your heart or something because you barely had a pulse.’

‘How…?’ I stammered. Karoline looked over at the group around the car, and I didn’t have to ask who she was looking at. ‘Avery.’ I whispered.

‘I don’t know what he did, he wouldn’t talk about it. He said he was taking you to Mentor Peter, but he didn’t take you there. I know because I had a walkie-talkie to communicate with the Mentors in case of emergency and he said you never got there. I just, I don’t know. I really don’t know. The more I find about Avery, the more I realise I don’t know anything about him.’ Karoline explained with a sigh. ‘He’s a...’ Karoline started.

‘Mystery.’ I finished, knowing exactly how she felt.

‘Mags! You’re okay!’ Kermit exclaimed, interrupting the small bonding time that was going on. He ran over and engulfed me in a brotherly hug.

‘Yeah, I’m good.’ I smiled at him, returning the embrace.

‘We thought there was something seriously wrong!’ Kermit said a frown on his face.

‘I’m okay now, I promise.’ I reassured him.

‘Mags is awake guys!’ Kermit called to the rest of the team.

‘Thank you, Karoline. Seriously.’ I put my hand on Karoline’s shoulder and she gave me a quick hug. I so did not understand her. At all.

I walked over to the group and they all told me how glad they were that I was okay. Wyatt commented on his incredible heroic endeavours which earned a laugh from everyone. I thanked them all, and chatted about tactics for a while.

Avery was sitting on the top of the car writing in his notepad again and I went over to him, leaving the group talking about a huge ambush. I needed answers.

‘Avery,’ I said, startling him. He quickly shoved his notepad into the bag.

‘Magdalene, I’m glad you’re okay.’ He said hopping off the car.

‘Cut the crap, tell me what you did.’ I said abruptly.

‘Can we talk about this later?’ Avery lowered his voice, looking around to see if anyone was staring.

‘No, Avery now. What is going on? I need answers okay? Please.’ I tried to maintain my strong stance.

‘Magdalene now is not the time. I have nothing to tell you anyway.’ Avery started to turn away.

‘Please, I just, I’m so confused Avery please.’ My strong stance had completely dissolved and I ended up looking weak and vulnerable as per usual. Avery ran his fingers through his brown hair which was looking particularly nice.

‘I took you to Mentor Peter and the Medic set your ribs and loaded you up with painkillers.’ Avery lied.

‘Why are you lying?’ I looked up at his surprised face.

‘I’m not.’ Avery protested.

‘I don’t even know why I bothered.’ I said grumpily and walked away.

Why did he have to be so difficult? What was so important that he had to lie right to my face? I was even more confused than before. Why did he always do this to me? What was it about him that made me so mad? I took a deep breath but I knew that it was too late. I was mad about my ribs, and I was mad that we had lost the flag and I was mad that Avery lied to me and I was mad at Fidelia for staying behind and mad at my genetics for making me into a freak and I was mad that I couldn’t control anything. I wiped away frustrated tears that started to roll down my cheeks.

I broke into a run and got out of the clearing before I burst into angry flames. I stopped sprinting after a while and stood panting in the middle of the stupid forest which I was also mad at.

I screamed. I screamed because I could never have a normal life and colour my lips in with lip crayons, or wear bikinis, or have a normal boyfriend or see my family, or eat Snickers bars and I was just so over it, I was just so mad.

So I just screamed.