Chapter Twelve, For Rue

❝ just close your eyes, the sun is going down, ❞

❝ you'll be alright, no one can hurt you now. ❞

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ONCE AGAIN, I AM COMFORTED BY RUE'S SOFT, WARM PRESENCE AT MY AWAKENING. HOWEVER, THIS TIME, she's already up, and is staring at my mockingjay pin, which is still pressed onto my coat, not having left my side, despite the fire, running, and killing.

"I love your pin. It reminds me of home." she says, a light smile tugging at the corners of her lips..

"Your home?" I ask, curious. I had wondered where she had learnt the trick she demonstrated yesterday, with the whistling.

"We always sing with the mockingjays, at home, at work." she continues, putting a strand of her behind her ear.

"You have a lot of mockingjays in 11?" I ask, cocking my head to the side.

"Oh yes. I have a few that are my special friends. We can sing back and forth for hours. They carry messages for me." she describes, grinning.

"What do you mean?" I add, noticing her smile growing wider and wider as she thinks about her home.

"I'm usually up highest, so I'm the first to see the flag that signals quitting time. There's a special little song I do," says Rue.

She opens her mouth and sings a little four-note run in a sweet, clear voice. "And the mockingjays spread it around the orchard. That's how everyone knows to knock off," she continues. "They can be dangerous though, if you get too near their nests. But you can't blame them for that."

I unclasp the pin and hold it out for her. "Here, you take it. It has more meaning for you than me".

"Oh, no," says Rue, closing my fingers back over the pin. "I like to see it on you. That's how I decided I could trust you. Besides, I have this."

She pulls a necklace woven out of some kind of grass from her shirt. On it, hangs a roughly carved wooden star. Or maybe it's a flower. "It's a good luck charm."

"Well it's worked so far." I note, but then also say "Want to make a fire, and have some of the food I hunted yesterday?". Rue nods enthusiastically, and we use the matches to start the fire. I make sure that if harm comes our way, I will be alert, and manage to protect the sweet girl.

She recognises the bird, some wild thing they call a groosling in her district. For a while, all conversation stops as we fill our stomachs. The bird has delicious meal that's so fatty, the grease drips down your face when you bite in it.

"Oh" says Rue with a sigh, "I've never had a whole leg to myself before".

"Take the other." I say, poking Rue in the stomach, just like I would do with Prim, both of us giggling.

"Really?" she asks, her eyes wide.

"Yes, take all of it. We still have the two rabbits, and a few of the berries and nuts you found yesterday. Go on."

I place the drumstick in her hand, and, hunger winning her over, she devours it. We continue to talk about our distinct homes, smiles on both our faces.

Immediately, I have developed a sort of affection and will to protect this little girl, that could sing and used socks to warm up her hands. By the end of the meal, her head lays on my chest, and she snuggles into me.

"So, is it true?" she asks, a shy smile on her face.

"Is what true?" I ask, looking down at her, chuckling.

"You and the boys? You know, with Cato and Peeta?"

"What do you mean?" I say, eyebrows raised, looking down at the smiling girl.

"Well, everyone always saw the way you and Cato looked at each other, and, well, what Peeta said in the interview." she replies, with a mischievous grin. I feel the spread of heat in my cheeks at the thought of the boy from District 2, but I quickly try to change the subject, knowing that nothing could ever happen.

"It's okay, I like a boy too back home." Rue whispers. I act shocked for a second, poking her in the stomach again.

"What's his name?" I ask, grinning.

"Come, I'll whisper it." she mutters.

Rue leans into my ear, adorably muttering the name of the boy. I kiss her forehead, thankful for this ally, that I wouldn't change for any other in the arena.

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As we get ready to continue our day, I am distracted by the presence of a mountain of supplies next to the Cornucopia. I squint my eyes, already guessing it was the Careers and their supplies.

Somehow Rue and I must find a way to destroy their food. I'm pretty sure feeding themselves will be a tremendous struggle. Traditionally, the Career tributes' strategy is to get hold of all the food early on and work from there. The years when they have not protected it well — one year a pack of hideous reptiles destroyed it, another a Game makers' flood washed it away — those are usually the years that tributes from other districts have won.

"Ready to do it?" I say, pulling on my pack.

"Do what?" says Rue, but the way she bounces up, you can tell she's up for whatever I propose.

"Today we take out the Careers' food," I declare, my lips quirking up.

"Really? How?" You can see the glint of excitement in her eyes. In this way, she's exactly the opposite of Prim for whom adventures are an ordeal.

"No idea. Come on, we'll figure out a plan while we hunt," I say.

For a while, we dig roots, we gather berries and greens, we devise a strategy in hushed voices.

And I come to know Rue even more, the oldest of six kids, fiercely protective of her siblings, who gives her rations to the younger ones, who forages in the meadows in a district where the Peacekeepers are far less obliging than ours.

"But, Jade, what are we going to do with the supplies?" Rue questions, squeezing my hand.

"Burn it. Dump it in the lake. Soak it in fuel. Eat it!" the girl giggles, "Don't worry, I'll think of something".

My proximity to the Careers' camp sharpens my senses, and the closer I get to them, the more guarded I am, pausing frequently to listen for unnatural sounds, a knife in the palm of my hand.

I don't see any other tributes, but I do notice some of the things Rue has mentioned. Patches of the sweet berries. A bush with the leaves that healed my stings. Clusters of tracker jacker nests in the vicinity of the tree I was trapped in. And here and there, the black-and-white flash of a mockingjay wing in the branches high over my head.

The whole setup is completely perplexing. The distance, the netting, and the presence of the boy from District 3. One thing's for sure, destroying those supplies is not going to be as simple as it looks. Some other factor is at play here, and I'd better stay put until I figure out what it is.

My guess is the pyramid is booby-trapped in some manner. I think of concealed pits, descending nets, a thread that when broken sends a poisonous dart into your heart. Really, the possibilities are endless.

While I am mulling over my options, I hear Cato shout out. He's pointing up to the woods, far beyond me, and without turning I know that Rue must have set the first campfire.

We'd made sure to gather enough green wood to make the smoke noticeable. The Careers begin to arm themselves at once. An argument breaks out. It's loud enough for me to hear that it concerns whether or not the boy from District 3 should stay or accompany them.

"He's coming. We need him in the woods, and his job's done here anyway. No one can touch those supplies," says Cato.

"What about Lover Boy?" says the boy from District 1.

"I keep telling you, forget about him. I know where Clove cut him. It's a miracle he hasn't bled to death yet. At any rate, he's in no shape to raid us," says Cato.

So Peeta is out there in the woods, wounded badly. But I am still in the dark on what motivated him to betray the Careers. And for some reason, Cato hasn't actually killed him.

Suddenly, I realise exactly why the Careers are so undisturbed by the fact they would be leaving the pyramid of supplies with no surveillance at all. "It's mined." I whisper to myself, certain of it. That was why they had formed a surprising alliance with the boy from District 3.

I know what to do. I grab one my knives. I place my feet carefully, block out the rest of the world as I take meticulous aim. My first knife tears through the side of the bag near the top, leaving a plot into the burlap. My second knife catches the torn flap of the burlap and rips it down from the bag.

For a second, everything seems frozen in time. Then, the apples spill in the ground and I am blown backwards into the air.

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Opening my eyes, dizziness takes over me, and it takes me a few minutes to get back on my feet. From far away, I can hear the Careers' anger, and I know I have to leave quickly before they spot me, and solve the puzzle.

I creep silently through the shadows, letting them conceal me. Thankfully, my ears make out the four-note tune coming out of a mockingjay's mouth. Now, I grin, the success of our plan and Rue's survival being my two main objectives.

I follow the sound of the birds, the soft melody guiding me. And that's when I hear a scream. It's a child's scream, a young girl's scream. Rue.

"Jade!" I hear Rue shriek, her voice high-pitched and terrified.

"Rue! I'm coming!" I scream hopelessly.

When I break into the clearing, she's on the ground, hopelessly entangled in a net. She has just time to reach her hand through the mesh and say my name before the spear enter her body.

The boy from District 1 doesn't have time to throw his second spear as my knife dives deeply into the centre of his neck. He falls to his knees, drowning on his own blood. My fourth kill.

Rue has rolled to her side, her body curved in and around the spear. I free her from the net as fast as I can, tears pricking at my eyes.

I crouch before her, staring helplessly at the embedded weapon. There's no point in comforting words, in telling her she'll be all right. She's no fool. Her hand reaches out and I clutch it like a lifeline. As if it's me who's dying instead of Rue.

"Did you blow up the food?" she whispers.

"Every last bit." I softly reply.

"You have to win." she says.

"I will. I'll win for both of us." I promise.

"Please don't go." Rue tightens her grip on my hand.

"Course not. Staying right here, with you. Always." I move in closer to her, pulling her head into my lap. I gently brush the dark, thick hair behind her ear.

"Thank you Jade." she mumbles, her eyes fluttering until they finally close. When they do, I finally allow my tears to escape my eyes, dropping down onto her face. Rue's cannon fires. I lean forward and press my lips against her temple. Slowly, I lay her head back on the ground and release her hand.

I want to do something, right here, right now, to shame them, to make them accountable, to show the Capitol that whatever they do or force us to do there is a part of every tribute they can't own. That Rue was more than a piece in their Games. And so am I.

A few steps into the woods grows a bank of wildflowers. Perhaps they are really weeds of some sort, but they have blossoms in beautiful shades of violet and yellow and white. I gather up an armful and come back to Rue's side. Slowly, one stem at a time, I decorate her body with flowers, covering the ugly wound, weaving her hair with bright colours.

"Bye, Rue," I whisper. I press the three middle fingers of my left hand against my lips and hold them out in her direction. Then I walk away without looking back, loud sobs leaving my mouth, unable to control themselves.

That's when I decided I was going to avenge Rue in any way possible, and make sure I won. For her.

𝔞𝔲𝔱𝔥𝔬𝔯'𝔰 𝔫𝔬𝔱𝔢

okay get ready for jade to have a little villain arc :))))