CHAPTER FOURTEEN!

TO THE STARS.

STANDING BESIDE A SEEMINGLY ANXIOUS Peeta Mellark is probably the last thing she thought she'd be doing in this arena. She watches as he plays with his hands, trying to calm himself down as they look to set the plan into motion. Katniss seems to be keeping a close eye on him as the rest of the group talk amongst themselves.

"Typically a lightning strike contains five billion joules of energy. We don't want to be anywhere in the vicinity when this hits. You two girls, go together now," Beetee speaks to Katniss and Johanna as he finishes wrapping the wire around the tree, preparing for whatever he looks to accomplish.

The coil of wire is placed in Johanna's hands as Katniss and Peeta exchange nervous glances — something which Emori picks up on almost instantly. A small smirk pulls at her lips as she watches them, knowing that they had planned to run off together during this. She's sure most of the others know it is the case and to be honest, her and Reed would probably end up doing the exact same thing.

"Take this. Unspool it carefully. Make sure the entire coil is in the water, you understand? Then head to the tree at the two o'clock sector. We'll meet you there," Beetee explains further and Johanna nods her head whilst Katniss looks at Peeta almost pleadingly.

"I'll go with them as guard —" Peeta begins only to be cut off by the smaller blonde who shakes her head.

"No need to worry about that, lover boy. I've got this," Emori states as she holds up her knives. "Can't promise I won't kill her along the way but-" the last part is said with a smirk that makes Katniss glare.

These games are bigger than your revenge fantasy. She cannot help but hear Haymitch in her head again, his words coaxing an unknown feeling from within her.

"But-" Peeta is once again cut off but this time it's by Beetee who looks as if he's greatly detesting Peeta's idea.

"No! You're staying here to protect me and the tree," He says to the younger boy who looks extremely torn.

"I need to go with her. Finnick and Reed can protect you just fine," The blonde protests.

"Yeah, why can't Finnick, Johanna and Reed stay with you and Peeta and I take the coil? We will even take Emori with us," Katniss interjects and Emori scoffs.

"So you can shoot an arrow in my back? Peeta won't stop you," Emori speaks.

"You all agreed to keep me alive till midnight, correct?" Beetee comments and Johanna agrees with him.

"Is there a problem here?" Finnick finally speaks as the two teenagers from District Twelve finally give in.

"No. There's no problem,"

Katniss moves over to her District Partner and kisses him as a form of farewell, not caring that everybody around them are watching. Emori, for what seems like the millionth time, rolls her eyes as she watches the two of them.

"You sure you want to go with them?" Reed asks and Emori smiles, nodding her head and wrapping her arms around his body. He hugs her back tightly, resting his forehead against her own. "You come back safe,"

"Always," Emori whispers before pecking his lips quickly and almost apprehensively due to the awkwardness of the situation. "You stay safe too,"

Emori walks over to the other girls, giving Finnick a quick hug on the way before they walk off. They pull the coil along with them as Emori spares Reed one last glance, winking before turning away.

The blonde notices how Katniss looks at her every few seconds as if she's worried she's going to get stabbed in the back. She has a literal reason to be worried because so many times Emori has been tempted by the idea.

These games are bigger than your revenge fantasy.

The theee of them continue towards the water where they hope to use the coil in order to electrocute any of the remaining tributes. Emori feels a small pang in her heart when she thinks about Brutus — he was one of her mentor's, he cared for her and kept her alive. The idea of being involved in his death makes her want to back out but she can't. He would understand, she hopes he would. Just like she would  understand if he had to do it to her.

Just like how Katniss had to with Cato.

The blonde looks at the Girl On Fire as she walks ahead, moving beside Johanna instead of with her — she probably thinks it's safer however she's wrong. Emori is better with long range weapons, if she was going to kill her she is actually in the better spot. She won't let her know that.

"Come on. I want to put as much distance between me and this beach as possible. Frying is not how I want to go," Johanna says to the other girls and Emori finds herself agreeing. What a horrible way to go.

Before they have the opportunity to continue any further, the wire gets stuck. All of them are confused and when Katniss tries to pull it further, it snaps. Suddenly, Johanna knocks the both of them to the ground and cuts into the girl from Twelve's arm — Emori is shocked but as she looks down at her own arm, realisation sets in.

Her tracker. They really are doing this, there really is something going on. She thinks about how this one girl could truly be the hope of the nation, defeating the Capitol and destroying their sick games. What her life would have been like if the games didn't exist — her brother and her would be laying in some large field and staring up at the stars. Something she enjoyed doing when they were children.

"Mum calls it a constellation. A group of starts that form
some sort of image or something like that," Cato says to his sister who looks up at them in wonder.

"Do you think one day we could go up there and see them?" Emori asks and Cato smiles softly.

"I've heard when you die you go to the stars," He responds and her eyes light up. "That won't be for a very long time though. I won't let it happen,"

"Do you think Mum and Dad are waiting for us there?"

"Definitely,"

She's brought out of her thoughts when Brutus pushes his way into view, Johanna having moved away as Katniss stumbles to her feet. Emori watches as the tall man lifts his spear. Katniss seems out of it so when the blonde shoves her out of the way lightly, she falls to the ground.

"These games are bigger than your revenge fantasy,"

"I've heard when you die you go to the stars,"

"I promise. I promise I'll come out of this alive,"

"It's always more fun to imagine them as something different,"

Emori gasps as the spear enters her stomach and she stumbles back, falling to the ground as her eyes move up to the sky. She looks at the stars in amazement as tears fill her eyes.

"I'm coming," she breathes.

"I've heard when you die you go to the stars,"

NOTE!

This is kind of all over the place but I wanted to show some character development in this short story, Emori is seeing things more clearly now. Thank you for reading!