[pre catching fire]
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Cameron took a short intake of breath, the exhale lingering like frost in the air. Her fingertips felt like they were going to turn crystalline and snap off into a million pieces. But here she sat, in a cave covered in ice. The howling wind felt like a siren in her ears, and Cameron didn't know what was worse: the sound or the cold. Cameron got lucky when she climbed this mountain and found the cave on top of the hill. Here, she was safe from the blizzard outside, but she didn't know for how long. It wouldn't take long for one of the other tributes to find her and mostly like kill her. Not if she killed them first.

        Cameron was honestly surprised that she had lasted this long. Nobody expected her to, she barely got any sponsors. No one had faith in the small girl from district nine. She didn't blame them, her other tribute from her district got killed during the dash for weapons. Cameron managed to get her hands on a crossbow before she ran off into the snowy tundra before she could get killed herself.

        Everyone thought she was easy bait. They chased her down until they gave up and started to kill each other instead. Cameron thought it was because they wanted to save the easiest kill for last. Cameron wished they hadn't, it would've been easier if they just killed her. Ran her through with a sword, slit her throat open and watch her bleed out, shoot her in the head with an arrow. But they didn't, the careers wanted her alive. They needed the easy win.

        Cameron would try not to give it to them, but who was she kidding? She couldn't kill anymore, so maybe she should just end it herself. Dig under the snow and try to find some of those poisonous berries that would help her get this over with. End it. Hell, she could even empale herself with one of the icicles hanging off of the caves. But that would be too slow of death, bleeding out until the life drained from her body. No one wanted to go out that way, it was pathetic. But so was Cameron in everyone else's eyes.

        Why did it have to be her name drawn out of the reaping? It could've been anyone else's, but it was Cameron's. It was like the universe wanted her to die. They decided that they had no use for her, so they needed to throw her out the only way they could. Toss her into an impossible fight against professional killers and see how she would fair. Well, she fucking sucked at it.

        There was a crackle of ice along with the sound of crunching snow and Cameron's eyes darted towards the entrance to her cave. She instinctively grabbed the crossbow at her side and held it in front of her. Trying to stay as silent as possible, not wanting to alert the intruder to her presence in her hiding spot. Although they probably would find out as soon as they stepped foot in the cave.

        She made a split-second decision and sprinted towards the left corner of the cave, the one right next to the entrance. So if anyone were to walk in, she could easily ambush them. Not kill them, but just rough them up a little. Maybe she could even earn herself some sponsors this way, she could use something warm, like a blanket, or even a spare scrap of fabric.

        "Hello?" A small voice rang through the cave. "Anyone in here?" it asked. Cameron heard more crunches of snow along with the shatter of one of the icicles.

        Cameron clutched her crossbow closer to her chest, trying to hold her breath as long as possible. Trying not to give her position away to the person walking into her hideout. "I think it's all clear," the voice said.

        'SHIT!' Cameron thought. 'There's more than one of them.' Cameron moved further along the wall, trying to find the darkest corner that she could hide out in before these people, however many there were, took over. She inched her way along the wall until she was entirely covered by darkness. Cameron still had a clear view of the entrance, she just had to pray that whoever was coming didn't see her.

        Turns out Cameron didn't have that long as the two figures rushed into the cave. Cameron had seen them before, one of them was a tall young girl from district four. She had her short blonde tied back with a small section of a fishing net. Cameron took note of the small hunting knife in her hand. The other was an older man. He was fairly short for a man of his age, but very well built. One of the tributes from district seven, his red curly hair obstructed his eyes from view, but Cameron could see his lips curl into a snide smile. He had an ax held lazily over his shoulder.

        "Looks vacant to me," the girl commented lazily.

        The man tutted, his eyes scanning the room. "Always quick on the jump, Vera," he said.

        "I say we camp out here for a few days, wait until the careers kill each other, and play clean-up crew," the girl named Vera instructed.

        The man gave a short laugh, causing his eyes to flash out from under his hair. They were a bright green color, but they were cold, dead. They looked more like glass orbs than an actual organ, glassy instead of glossy. The eyes of a killer.

        "What?" Vera asked. "You think that's a bad idea, Carver?"

        'Carver,' Cameron thought to herself. 'She's not using his first name, why? She trusted him, but obviously, he didn't instill that same amount of trust in her.'

        "No, I just think you're a fucking idiot," he said harshly.

        Vera began to spin around to face him, "What's that supposed to" she started but with the dull swishing of an ax. There was a loud thud and Cameron watched in horror as the blonde girl's head fell to the ground, her body following suit in a crash on the ground, blood spilling violently from her neck. The man just sat there and laughed kneeling to the blonde's head.

        "You know, Vera, I thought you would be smarter than this," he said in a voice barely above a whisper. "There can't be two winners of the games, it was only a matter of time before you turned on me. I just had to make sure that didn't happen. I hope there are no hard feelings, but who am I kidding? That was the most fun I've ever had." A large canon sounded from above their heads, Cameron knew that Vera was dead.

        Carver kicked the beheaded body aside and dragged his ax along the ground. Cameron knew what this was for him: a game. He killed for sport, not for survival. He didn't need to kill that girl, Vera. Carver did it because he wanted to, it was addicting for him. She just hoped that he would leave until he found out that he wasn't alone. Or else she would be next on his hit list.

        Cameron let out a staggered breath as Carver headed toward the exit and moved her foot slightly to the right. Carver's head snapped back towards the corner Cameron was hiding in. He chuckled, "Huh," he sounded picking up an arrowhead from the ground. "I should've known to never trust Vera when she says something is clear. So why don't you come out now, I wouldn't want this to be an unfair fight," he cooed. Carver threw the arrowhead against the wall, it landed inches from Cameron's face, sticking the tiniest bit of her ginger hair to the frozen wall.

        "Oh, fuck you," she cursed removing the arrowhead from the wall and stepping out of the shadows.

        Carver scoffed looking at the woman in front of him. "The girl from district nine," he taunted, taking the smallest step closer to her. "I should've known you'd be a coward and hideout. Killing you is gonna be too easy," he smirked, running his finger along the dull edge of his ax. A crimson color spilled from the cut on his finger, Carver grinned as he put his finger to his mouth, cleaning the blood off with his tongue.

        "Are you trying to be menacing right now?" Cameron asked, trying to cover up the rapid thump of her heartbeat.

        "Do you know what blood tastes like, Knight?" Carver asked.

        "No, but apparently you do," she retorted.

        "So quick with your tongue, I'm sure the Capitol would've liked that," Carver said. "Too bad you're gonna have to die."

        Cameron held onto her crossbow ever tighter, clutching an arrow in her other hand, holding onto her weapons like her survival depended on it, which it did. "Take one step closer to me, and I'll kill you," she said in a shaky voice, trying to contain her fear of the man that was standing in front of her.

        "Oh sweetie, you can certainly try," Carver said lunging forward with his ax, swinging directly for her arms. Cameron dodged it with a quick motion, but she wasn't left unscratched. A huge gash on her arm appeared quickly, blood spilling out of the wound.

        "I'm gonna fucking kill you," she hissed, pulling an arrow from out of her quiver and quickly launching the arrow up through his jaw. The arrow went right through his upper lip, coating Cameron's hand in the crimson substance that covered the entire arrow. The ax thudded to the ground, as Carver's eyes rolled in the back of his head.

        He began to cough, blood escaping his mouth and falling onto her arm. "You're gonna have to try harder than-" he managed to choke out but Cameron shut him up quickly by plunging an arrow into his neck. His knees buckled falling to the ground, Cameron's arrows still lodged into his neck and jawline.

        A sound of a cannon went off in the background, and Cameron knew that she had succeeded. "You should know something, Carver. I don't lie." Cameron took the arrows out of Carver's body, trying to take in the weight of what she had just done. She had killed someone. I mean, she actually killed him. Granted, he was going to kill her if she didn't do anything about it. So she did what she had to do in order to survive. In order to win her fight.

        Cameron wasn't sure how many tributes were left, but she hoped that there weren't that many. Sure, she could kill Carver, but she wasn't sure if she would be able to do it again. Cameron laid down on the floor of the cave, tearing off a piece of her tunic, and began to clean the tip of her arrowhead clean of Carver's blood. If people suspected her to be responsible for his death, the careers would be more inclined to attack her, and that was the last thing that Cameron wanted.

        Cameron felt a brush of cold wind past her ears. She looked behind her, surely Carver and Vera didn't have anyone following them, right? They would have made their presence known after the cannon fired. At least, that's what Cameron would do. But it wasn't, a small package floated into the cave. Cameron eyed it curiously. It couldn't be a sponsor, she hadn't got one of those before. But somehow she trusted the package enough to open it up.

        She held it at arm's length, obviously, she wouldn't want it to be a bomb that exploded in her hands. Cameron through aside the long piece of twine wrapped around the package and tucked it into her pockets. She unwrapped the old cloth that was wrapping the mysterious gift and also it aside for later. It could be proven useful in upcoming events. Cameron finally peered at the small object in her hands. It was a tiny pocket of matches. She wasn't sure what these matches would do for her besides just draw the enemies towards her hiding spot.

        Cameron noticed a small fold on the end of the flap. Her finger traced the outside of it, feeling the gritty paper between her fingertips. She opened the flap up, revealing a small note written on the inside of the flap.

        'Only three career lefts. Fucking slaughter them, - Wilbur.' Cameron ripped off the flap and crumbled it up, shoving it into her deep in her pocket, along with the twine.

       And that's exactly what she did. That's how Cameron Knight won the 72nd Hunger Games.

Say you'll remember me,
standing in a nice dress, staring at the sunset,
babe ☁︎

Grace talks ig: sorry for the shorter chapter to begin with. It is just the prologue so I didn't want to make it too long and I just felt like that ending line was a good way to finish off the chapter. Anyways, we don't see Finnick for a few chapters (actually I think it's like one more, I'm not entirely sure bc I haven't written it yet, whoops). But he and Cameron have a fun relationship and I'm excited to write it! I hope you all enjoyed the 1st official chapter of Wildest Dreams, don't forget to vote and comment if you enjoyed. Byeeee <3