— 𝐣𝐮𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐱 —

━━━━━━ ☽【❖】☾ ━━━━━━

"Harlan?"

My lip quivered as I uttered his name. The sword in my hand clattered to the ground as I rushed to the boy's side, cradling his head in my arms as I lifted him onto my lap. My fingers grazed the shaft of the spear as if I were actually considering removing the weapon myself. Only I knew it wouldn't help. It was difficult to hear as the blood rushed to my ears while flooding from my face.

"Hold on," I whispered while his eyes lazily blinked.

"Juneaux?" He repeated my name, weaker than before.

"Hold on," I gently insisted, "We can fix this. I have to fix this."

He took my hand, pulling me into the present moment. Tears slowly rolled down the sides of his face, matting his hair while forming a small puddle on the ground.

"I'm sorry..."

My heart wrenched as one moment it was Harlan lying on the stone ground, and the next it was a different little blond boy dying in the forest. Those same words had been uttered then, and once again the boy before me had nothing to apologize for.

"You'll be alright," I said, trying to convince myself that I hadn't made such a drastic mistake. That I hadn't missed all the signs and that he just needed to rest. It would all be okay in the morning... only it wouldn't.

He managed a weak smile before his chest heaved. He coughed, driving the spear deeper if possible while blood dribbled from the corner of his mouth, staining my white undershirt.

"I feel so cold," he chuckled, but then grimaced as the action pained him. "It's over a hundred degrees outside and I'm cold again."

I untied my lighter jacket from around my waist, wrapping it over the boy's shoulders while I held him close. "Please don't go... I need you."

"Hey..." He weakly lifted his hand and allowed it to hover over my heart for a moment before dropping it back down onto his own chest. "I'll always be with you."

I'm certain the cannon echoed, but I couldn't hear it over my own anguished cries while I cradled his lifeless form in my arms.

I could see little moments as they flashed before my eyes. Those twisted moments that had almost become the best in my life solely because he was in them. And now he was gone, yet the torment remained.

"Why?" I whispered, my hands beginning to tremble yet the action remained hidden while my back was turned to the two remaining tributes. I gently lowered Harlan to the ground, then whipped my head around to face Rex with the burning flares of the sun reflected in my eyes. "Why—How? How could you do this?!"

"I told you to choose." His voice was cold and distant, refusing to meet my gaze for a flicker of a second as if almost regretting his decision.

"You knew my choice!" I screamed at him. "You knew my choice from the beginning!"

He slowly nodded his head. "Yes. I knew you planned to do whatever it took to protect Harlan. But that meant tainting your flawless image. I've protected you by doing what you couldn't. I've rescued you from your blind spot."

"I didn't need to be rescued!" I countered without hesitation. "I needed someone I could trust!"

"I've proven my loyalty," Rex insisted, taking a step forward while a desperate plead crept into his eyes. "I did everything in my power to protect them all at first. But then the tribute from district seven interfered and he was only the first to go."

My heart caught in my chest. My brow furrowed as I tried to interpret the mess of words he spewed in my direction. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"The first one was hard," Rex admitted, chuckling under his breath, "But you gave me the strength I needed to continue on my path. Every glance. Every smile. Every melodic laugh. I knew I was doing the right thing if it meant preserving you."

My blood ran cold. "Otto."

Rex nodded his head. "I had to lie. I had to lie to protect you from the truth."

"You killed him back on the mountainside." The realization only added to the horror of the situation. "That's why it took so long for the cannon to sound."

Rex nodded again, slow as if waiting to be complimented. "There wasn't enough time for both of us to make it out. He was only slowing us down. The whole group was slowing us down. If the careers hadn't taken care of the job, I would've had to finish it myself. We could've been great: the four of us. But then the mutt showed up and you insisted we take him in. And then I realized you would allow yourself to decay if it meant saving just even one of us. And I couldn't let that happen."

"And what about your sister?" Romulus asked, taking a step closer as he tried to take some of Rex's attention off of me. He succeeded as the other tribute's eyes drifted to the ground. "Do you remember, Honey? Do you remember your oath to your sister?"

"It was the hardest decision I've ever made." There was a wild madness in Rex's eyes as he slowly met my gaze. "But she's at peace now."

"You sick bastard!" Romulus spat.

"No!" Rex snarled. "She was sick! She wasn't getting better and she wasn't going to make it. The snake was a blessing in disguise which you ruined, you career mutt... So I took matters into my own hands."

I was crestfallen. "You killed Honey? You murdered your own sister?!"

"A decision I did not make lightly," he insisted, continuing to draw closer. "And for the same reason that Harlan needed to die. So that you could live."

The world around me blurred as I processed everything that had just been revealed. Romulus and Rex considered their verbal argument while the distant memories of cannons whispered in my ear and vibrated my skull. One for each fallen tribute. And the sound only crescendoed as I slowly lifted my eyes to face the pair of tributes responsible for most of the bloodshed.

Rex had four kills, beating out every career for the most tributes slain by his own hand. And he had the audacity to claim it in my name as if he were on some righteous mission. As if he was my right hand only following the orders of a queen who did not truly understand the weight of the crown on her head.

My hands trembled. The hot tears falling down my cheeks burned as if punishing me for not seeing past the mask of a fiend I called friend.

Something within me snapped. Thorns latched themselves around my heart and I rushed forward with a severity no one anticipated. The beast I kept caged within was free and its rage was quench by the look of fear immortalized in my mind as I snatched my fallen sword from the ground and plunged it into Rex's chest.

He slammed against the stone walls with a surprised and pained gasp, gripping the hilt of the sword that I shoved deeper as my jaw clenched and my vision blurred with tears of vengeance.

"Juneaux!" Romulus called out, tearing me away from the tribute I refused to look at as human anymore. "Juneaux that's enough."

"He killed Harlan!" I shrieked, shoving Romulus away. "He manipulated and lied to me! Nothing will be enough!"

"He's dying," Romulus practically whispered. His tone was equally as jarring as the sympathy reflected in his eyes.

It was enough to convince me to actually look at the tribute from district ten as he slid to the ground, gasping for breath. Rex pulled a trembling hand from the hilt, staring at the blood that pooled around his fingertips. His pupils shrank and he paled as he finally lifted his eyes.

I towered over him with a rigid posture and a snarl curling at my lips. He frantically pointed an accusatory finger in Romulus's direction as he spoke of me but refused to address me.

"Look what you did!" Rex choked, coughing on his own blood and the bile of his own poisonous words. "Look what you destroyed!"

"Talk to me, you coward." I hardly recognized the cold timbre of my own voice as my eyes narrowed. "You will not pass along the blame of my creation. You are a self-fulling prophecy. A snake devouring its own tail. You saw the gold of Olympus and appointed yourself a champion when you're nothing more than a worm beneath its feet. You wanted a queen? You wanted a goddess?!"

I released a crazed laugh, smearing the blood that sprinkled my face into lines of war paint.

"Well now you've got one." My wild eyes narrowed as my voice lowered to a chilling whisper. "And it's the goddess's unending wrath that you will face."

Rex's breathing was shallow. "I—I did it all for you. Everything I did was out of love for you!"

"No..." I shook my head. "You loved an ideal version of me that you concocted in your mind. All I wanted was peace, but you forced my hand into war. You made me become the one thing I hated more than anything else."

His expression slacked into horror as he processed my words and all the destruction we'd dealt. He shook his head, denying the blood that stained my hands before accepting the truth with pale quivering lips. Silent tears filled his eyes as he begged.

"I'm sorry." It was the same apology he'd given his sister, and presumably given to Harlan before mercilessly ending their lives. "I'm so sorry."

I set my jaw and clenched my fists as I turned my eyes away with the shake of my head. "I can't forgive you for this."

A strangled cry escaped his throat and then he was still, staring at the heavens with the same look of penance that begged for redemption. The cannon echoed. I did not have the heart to extend grace, but out of respect for who I once knew him to be, I closed Rex's eyes before collapsing on my knees once more at Harlan's side.

I wept. I bore the pain of my soul which echoed around the chamber, eventually reverberating back to me. I mourned the loss of my closest friends. I mourned the loss of innocence. And I mourned the loss of myself as I descended into madness.

I lifted my trembling, bloodstained hands then dragged them down the side of my face while my eyes stared into the space before me but saw nothing. I was trapped in a moment of pure sound as my vision tunneled on the pools of liquid that coated the ground.

Romulus placed a hand on my shoulder, looking down as if understood the turmoil of emotions battering the insides of my skull. He didn't say anything. There were no silky words of comfort. No 'you did what you had to do's. No 'he deserved it's. No 'you're not a monster's. No remarks of hypocrisy. No smug look. No disappointed click of his tongue.

Only a neutral look of compassion and a hand to help me back to my feet.

I accepted the offer, wrapping my arms around him in an embrace that he returned. I released a choked sob then took a step back, wiping the tears from my eyes to meet an equally broken disposition.

"I'm sorry," he apologized.

"Please don't," I interrupted, stopping him before he could unintentionally rub salt in the wound. "I'm tired. I'd like to finish this now."

"Rena."

I nodded my head. There were three of us left. I'm sure there was a way to draw the remaining days out as long as possible, but I no longer had the energy or the willpower to actively fight the gamemakers control.

"We'll go to the cornucopia together," I announced. "It's the only remaining source of water in the arena, so it's the most likely place we'll find her. You'll face Rena and do what you must, then you'll end my life. I've stood in the way of your victory long enough. My only request is that you make it quick."

"Juneaux—"

I held up a finger, cutting him off. His brow furrowed, but he listened. Perhaps I was just stopping him before my heart could be stomped for the final time that day, but in actuality my ears had twitched at the sound of something unfamiliar. There was a sharp ping echoing down the corridors that I eventually recalled hearing some weeks ago.

Without a word, I left the cloud of death hovering above us and approached the scorching winds of the outside world without concern for my own safety. Reckless was only a reaction of punishment I believed I justly deserved.

"Hang on a minute." Romulus pulled me back with a scolding tone.

He unwrapped his own lighter jacket from around his waist and lifted it above our heads as we emerged into the evening heat. It wasn't much, but it provided enough protection to retrieve the heat resistant sponsor capsule that had arrived only moments ago.

Once back inside the cave, I opened the gift to reveal a pair of golden sickles. They felt so familiar in my hands as I traced my fingertips over the ornate decals. And they should considering they were the weapons I wielded in my individual training session. I could tell from the small blemish of dried blood that I originally misidentified as rust; however, there was a circle of erosion surrounding the spot from the poison that I had coated on the blade's edge.

There was also a note, but this one wasn't signed by Caius's hand. It was written by a hand I didn't recognize but one that made my blood run cold all the same.

Long live the queen.
— President Snow