33. Misled

            When night had fallen, the snow had picked up, and the Gamemakers were deciding to throw a blizzard at us. Bitter winds made us all curl into a tight ball, leaving our backs and the top of our heads to face the nippy conditions. Our body heat wasn’t enough to keep ourselves warm. We tried huddling together. It wasn’t any better, but I guess we were all too cold to dare and move apart from each other.

            I had to say, the Hunger Games gave a person a lot of different, new experiences. I had never been out in a blizzard before, let alone in one where I was trying to heal and win the Hunger Games. Sutton, Seraphine, and I all huddled close together, forming a tight circle, shoulders touching. The wind whipped our hair violently. Mine was the only one that hurt when hitting people, Sutton’s was still in a braid but it was nearly all out, and Seraphine had short hair so she didn’t have to deal with it.

            “Some Hunger Games, isn’t it?” Sutton yelled over the wind, trying to be audible through her curled up body. I released a violent shudder.

            “How come we haven’t gotten anything useful to shield us from this?” Seraphine whined.

            “Who knows?” I whimpered, shrugging. The idea of being warm made me even colder. If I didn’t know any better, my hair would soon have icicles on it. I was surprised my ears weren’t frostbitten; the same went for my fingers and nose. My hair was still in a ponytail, so it was amazing how my ears weren’t frozen off yet—they certainly were getting close to being numb from the cold.

            We could barely hear the anthem over the roaring winds in our ears. We knew no deaths had occurred, because no cannon blasts had been heard. There was still the five of us: me, Sutton, Seraphine, Eric, and Meeka. Three girls, two boys: a battle of the sexes. I bet when the people of Panem were placing bets when it came down to which group would be still standing, it was pretty dead even. They had to factor in the numbers, what strengths each group had and which member had that particular strength. I wonder what my original odds were at the start of the Games, I suddenly wondered. Probably pretty low. I bet a lot of people thought I wouldn’t make it past day one. I was glad to know that I proved those who thought I’d be finished wrong.

            After what seemed to be forever, the wind died down, soon stopping for good. We all picked our heads up. Light snowfall continued to stick to the ground and to us three. I shook my frizzy ponytail; Sutton undid her braid and was now redoing it, and Seraphine combed through her snow-sprinkled hair.

            “Rough weather,” I murmured. I pulled my hands into my jacket sleeves, closing the sleeve holes so that no cold air could enter. Seraphine crossed her arms tightly, trying to keep her fingers warm. Sutton was still redoing her braid.

            “Well, if there’s ever a time to talk, now is the time,” Seraphine whispered.

            “Do you think cameras are still watching us?” Sutton asked, looking around anxiously.

            “I’m sure they are,” I sighed. “They’re probably watching us from a sky camera or something. There shouldn’t be any cameras in the trees anymore since the forest fire.”

            “True.” Sutton made a noise of distress. “I hate starting over.” She raked through her hair, starting over again.

            “Do you want me to do it before you burst a vein in your forehead?” Seraphine snickered.

            “Go ahead. My stylist did this for me while I was in the Launch Room.” Sutton pouted, crossing her arms while Seraphine scooted behind her, messing with Sutton’s hair. There was something in Seraphine’s eyes that made me wonder about her.

            “You never got to do this when you were younger, did you?” I asked Seraphine.

            “No,” she confessed sadly. She was making sure the clumps of hair were even amounts. “I’ve got two younger brothers. It’s hard being the only daughter in the family. The boys get all the attention.”

            “Really? I wouldn’t know. I have a little sister,” Sutton piped. “She loves it when I do her hair. What’s it like having brothers?”

            “A pain,” Seraphine said immediately. “Don’t get me wrong, I love them to death, but you know how little kids are.”

            “Yeah.” Sutton laughed apathetically. “I miss home…”

            “I do too,” I sighed. In my jacket sleeve, my fingers brushed the bracelet I still had attached to my wrist. District 7—home, Dad, Troy, Ewan, the Kinsley family. Just thinking of Daniel’s family made my heart hurt. I wasn’t sure how long it had been since Dan’s death, but I had a feeling that the family was still grieving. I still was, too, deep down, but I didn’t show it. I was trying to learn to cope with his death on the inside. I was surprised I wasn’t flinching in agony each time I thought about Dan.

            “You guys must have good homes, then,” Seraphine noted. Sutton winced. “Sorry.”

            “Are you saying you don’t?” I asked her.

            “I don’t,” she confirmed. “I mean, life was okay in my house when I was younger. We were all close, but after a while…I don’t know. Things changed.”

            “What happened?” Sutton probed carefully.

            “Let’s just say there was a huge family problem that’s still going on today.” Seraphine was quick and to the point. It was obvious that whatever family issue it was, she didn’t want to discuss it. I could imagine why. If cameras were watching and picking up what we said, I doubted she’d want all of Panem to know about her rough family life.

            Loud screams made us all jump to our feet, instinctively drawing our weapons. We both stood back-to-back. They weren’t screams I would’ve recognized easily. I heard low howls too, from a distance. My hair stood up on end.

            “More mutts?” Seraphine proposed.

            “Maybe. They could be just regular wolves,” Sutton surmised.

            “Great. Haven’t we had enough run-ins with man-eating creatures?” I complained. This time, battle cries could be heard. I felt Sutton stiffen next to me. “What, Sutton?”

            “It’s the boys,” she whispered. “They’re getting attacked, but they’re fighting back.”

            “I wonder if the Gamemakers set the rest of the mutts on them,” Seraphine mumbled. “It’d give us a break and possibly an advantage.”

            None of us sat back down. We were pressed tightly together back-to-back, ready to lash out at whatever decided to try and pounce on us. The boys’ screams could be heard.

            “How close do you think they sound?” I asked them both.

            “Hopefully not too close. I’m not ready to face them yet,” Sutton squeaked.

            “Why not? Don’t you want revenge for what they did to you?”

            “What did they do to her?” Seraphine cut in.

            “They injured her for sneaking off from the pack. She’s an enemy to them now, a traitor.” My voice stayed even.

            “You really know how to make firsts, Sutton.”

            “I think we all do,” I muttered.

            We all waited tensely, just waiting for the boys to run past us because of the mutts herding them towards us. I bet that was what the Gamemakers were trying to do: direct the boys towards us so they would not only have to fight us, but the mutts as well.

            The attack on the boys had to be a one-time thing, because we heard nothing after that. Silence fell over us.

            “What do we do now?” Seraphine asked.

            “We stay here and take shifts again, like last night,” I told her. “I’ll take first watch, you two sleep.”

            “But you’re still healing,” Sutton reminded me.

            “So? I’m feeling better. I doubt anything will come after us. I’ll have my ax near me, and you two would know if something was wrong.” I shrugged. “Besides, I feel wide awake, and I’m going to need something to do.”

            “Good luck with that,” Seraphine sang. “You’ll be bored within ten minutes.”

I rolled my eyes.

            As Sutton and Seraphine got comfortable, I constantly circled around them protectively, my ax at my side. At least I was up and walking, getting as good of a survey as I could get through the snow.

            I hoped Panem was more focused on the boys than us, because we’d be pretty boring to watch for the next few hours until the sun rose. As I continuously circled the girls, I kept my mind thinking. Only five left, the boys just got attacked (we assumed) just by what we heard. There were no cannons so neither was dead. We’d be lucky if they were injured. It’d level out the field just a bit. Those boys had incredible strength, I was sure. No doubt they could probably break our bones by crushing them in one hand. I shuddered at the thought.

            I got thirsty at one point, so I scooped up some snow and ate it. I actually took in a lot of snow. It was freezing water, not the ideal thing to drink when in cold weather, but it was water nonetheless. Constantly stepping in the same tracks kind of got old for me very quickly. Seraphine was right, I got bored easily.

            Something caught the corner of my eye. I stopped, squinting my eyes through the snow to see. Daniel was back again. Snow was flaking his dark hair, sticking to his burned skin. He just stared at me; I couldn’t tell how he was feeling. It was a staring contest for a long minute before he turned away from me and started walking. I found myself trailing after him, abandoning Sutton and Seraphine. They wouldn’t notice if I was gone for just a little while. Besides, nothing would happen to them, and nothing would happen to me. They were armed, and so was I.

            I followed Dan through the snow. He never once looked back at me to see if I was following, because he probably knew that I was. I tried to keep up with him due to my slight limp that I felt was almost gone. It was scary how I saw no footprints trail behind him in the snow.

            “Where are you going?” I finally called to him. Dan didn’t seem to hear me, he kept on walking. I pursed my lips and continued to pursue him. I considered turning back, but I didn’t want to.

            I kept following Dan until I was almost fed up with chasing him. I blinked snow away from my eyes. Dan disappeared from sight. I stopped, whirling around. How could he just do that to me, lead me to somewhere far away from Seraphine and Sutton, and just vanish in a blink of an eye? This wasn’t normal behavior the past two times I had seen him. I thought he was my conscience. What was he doing, leading me out here?

            I think it’s safe to say that I can turn back now. I shouldn’t have followed him to begin with. With that goal set in mind, I took two steps in the direction I came from before a shot rang out. I yelped and something encased me. I toppled to the ground, thrashing about madly as something tangled with it. I had let go of the ax and was trying to search for that in the dark.

            I stopped squirming and assessed what trapped me. It felt like rope—a net. One of the boys. Now in haste, I tried to rip open the net, but it was very strong. I made a high noise of distress, but I froze when I heard feet crunching towards me. I breathed frantically through my nostrils, twitching in the net’s grasp. Oh God, Daniel, why did you lead me here?

            “Well, well, well, looks who’s all alone,” crooned a shadow. I saw the shadow’s hand pick up my ax. I eyed my weapon in the enemy’s hand warily. Was I to die by the very gift my mentor supplied me with? That’s a harsh way to die, to be murdered with my own weapon.

            The shadow knelt down and ripped the net off me. I couldn’t scramble away; my body was frozen to the snow. I gulped loudly; my heart was pounding furiously in my chest. I snarled when the shadow ripped me up by my hair. I wriggled madly, trying to swat at the shadow’s face.

            A bright beam of light nearly blinded me. The boys acquired a flashlight. I shut my eyes from the beam. Using the light from the flashlight, I could see his torn outfit, his torn arm. His blue eyes almost made me think that his sister had been brought back from the dead to haunt me. Hey, if I was seeing Daniel, I could probably see Kaya too. I better not be a ghost whisperer.

            “Remember me?” Eric crooned.

            “How could I forget?” I panted. “Your sister had a grudge against me. Where’s your partner at?”

            “I left him alone. I wanted to kill you myself.” Eric brought my face close to his. I thrashed my head wildly, but with one swift tug of my hair, I ceased struggling. “I was going to use your own weapon against you, but I think I’ve got a better idea.”

I swallowed.

            Eric adjusted the flashlight under his arm to hold out berries in his hand. I went pale. Eric had nightlock with him. Damn it.

            “You know what these are, don’t you?” he asked.

            “Nightlock,” I whispered.

            “Exactly.” He held them out in front of my face. I immediately shut my mouth tight. Any second, he’d try to push those berries into my mouth and force me to swallow them. “You know, I thought it would’ve taken months to find you, but here you came, wandering all alone in the middle of nowhere.” He smirked. “You’re not very smart for doing this, so it amazes me how you made it this far.”

            “I didn’t do it on my own,” I snarled.

            Eric tried to shove the berries into my mouth, but I grabbed his wrist, using what strength I could muster in my arms to hold his hand away from my face. I couldn’t let him do this.

The flashlight fell out from under Eric’s arm, plopping into the snow. He gritted his teeth, slowly gaining ground. Somehow I ended up on the ground, Eric hovering over me. The cold snow made me shiver. I clenched my jaw as I continued to lose in the power struggle. I need someone to know I’m in trouble. It was a risk I was willing to take.

            “Somebody help me!” I screamed, my voice traveling. Eric chucked a few berries at my face, but he missed. “Somebody!” Panicking, I swiped Eric’s face with my nails. He gave a growl of outrage and tossed the nightlock away, grabbing my ax instead. My eyes bulged.

            “No more fooling around,” he panted. I whimpered as my ax was lifted into the air, ready to come down on my neck. Great, I’ll be headless. If I ever come back as a ghost, and if Eric ever lives—which hopefully he doesn’t, but still—I’ll haunt his ass every day of his life.

            Eric brought the ax down, but he looked to be restrained. His brows were knitted, and he looked to be straining. He still straddled me but looked over his shoulder to see what was stopping him. Sutton or Seraphine probably heard me!

            “What do you think you’re doing?” snarled another male voice. My heart stopped beating for a second. My screams had attracted the wrong person. Instead of Seraphine or Sutton, I got Meeka’s attention.

I saw him pick up the flashlight and shine it on Eric and me. Eric turned away, closing his eyes and shaking his head. Meeka had a bloody face like me, only worse. His cuts were plastered around his forehead, cheeks, and his neck. Like Eric, his attire was shredded as well. The attack on them had definitely been fresh.

            “I’m killing her, dumbass,” Eric retorted sharply. “Why did you stop me?”

            “You don’t realize what this means now that we’ve got her here.” Eric looked at Meeka, confused. Meeka sighed irritably. “You’re not using your head. She can be useful.”

            “Useful?” Eric prompted. I tried to slither from under Eric, but he had me pressed into the cold snow pretty well. My back and hair were starting to get soaked. I could see his breath in the light.

            “Think about it: she allied up with Sutton. We can use her as bait. Once we’ve got her, I’ll let you kill Bridget. Sutton is mine.” He smirked.

            “What about that other girl that’s still alive?”

            “We can hunt her down once we finish Sutton and this one off.”

            “Alright,” Eric said. He dropped the ax into the snow, Meeka picked it up. Eric bent over me. I trembled. “Looks like you’re going to be hanging with us for a little bit. Don’t worry; we’ll keep you alive just long enough for Sutton to get a quick look at you.” He chuckled darkly. I held back a sob that threatened to squeak out.

             “You both are insane,” I hissed. “You both are going to die before me, I know it.” Eric snatched my throat in his hand. Already I could feel his fingers dig into my skin. Eric’s face scrunched up into a face of malevolence. I coughed loudly.

            “Easy, Eric,” Meeka said calmly. “Keep her alive.”

            Eric’s face didn’t relax, but he released my throat. I sucked in a long, deep breath. Meeka shone the light on me. I put my hands up to shield my eyes.

            “Looks like she’s been in a few good fights,” Meeka mused. “How are you not dead?” The question was obviously given to me.

            “Hand me the ax, will you?” Eric said.

            “You’re not killing her. Are you that thick-headed?”

            “I’m not going to kill her,” Eric snapped. Meeka handed over the ax.

Eric choked up on the ax, his hand right under the ax part itself. I looked at him in confusion. With one swift hit, Eric knocked me out with the hilt of my own weapon.