━━･❪ 🌸 ❫ ･━━

Azalea yanked the knife from Rye's neck, blood splattering up her arms.

Daphne's mouth was agape with horror. Her brain seemed to have short circuited. No coherent thought was able to form. Instead, it was a mass of screaming. It was a mass of silence.

Azalea's golden eyes seemed to glow in the moonlight. Fear seized Daphne as Azalea stumbled towards her, knife outstretched.

Azalea was going to kill her.

She just got Rye out of the way first.

Without a second to spare, Daphne bolted.

Tears streamed down her face as she ran like the Furies were on her tail. Adrenaline sang through her veins. She didn't know where she was going as she tore through the endless alleyways. All she knew was that she had to get far, far away.

Before, she'd known she was safe with Rye and Azalea. Safe with Makani and the alliance.

Now, the alliance had pretty much disbanded. Makani was dead. Rye was dead. Azalea had killed him, and she was after Daphne next.

Sobs wracked Daphne's body as she fled. She could hear Azalea's footsteps dashing after her, never more than an alley away.

Nobody was safe anymore. Nowhere Daphne could hide. She had no allies. Not anymore.

She was all by herself now.

And she had to lose Azalea, or she'd be dead.

Daphne skidded to a halt, throwing open the door to one of the adobe towers. She charged inside, flying up the stairs, not stopping until she hit the top floor. Her legs burned, but she was inwardly grateful that she'd always been better in gym class than Azalea.

She sprinted down the wide hallway, bordered on either side with doors to multiple rooms. She threw herself into the room at the end of the hallway, easing the door closed as quietly as possible.

Azalea thundered up the stairs. Daphne pressed her back against the wall, next to the door. She palmed her knife, still slick with blood from the battle. With her other hand, she pulled her plum blossom pendant from beneath her shirt and clutched it so tightly her knuckles turned white.

Her heart was thumping so fast she was afraid it would burst. Burst, and leak tears. Leak all the sorrows and trauma of the past week in the arena to seep into her body, to poison her from the inside.

"You want to know why, Daphne?" Azalea's voice echoed through the walls. She sounded delirious, as if she'd lost a piece of her sanity. Maybe she had.

There was a violent bang, causing Daphne to flinch. Azalea must've been busting every door open in succession until she found the room Daphne was in. Thankfully Daphne was in the very last one.

"Why I severed our friendship last year? Why I picked you to die in the arena with me? Why I agreed to Theron's plan?"

There was another bang as Azalea threw open the second door. Daphne's breath hitched in her throat. Theron's plan? What plan?

"You get everything you want, Daphne. Handed to you on a silver platter. You have a perfect family, a simple life herding sheep. You know what I get? Parents whom I can never please. Three younger sisters who hate me, despite everything I ever do for them."

Bang.

"You've never once fought with Lysa or Tobe, who seemed to adore you more than they could ever adore me. You say we're all best friends, we love each other equally, but if given a choice-"

Bang.

"-they would choose you over me in a heartbeat."

Bang.

"You have friends. Everyone at school seems to admire you. You're smart, you make good jokes. You're fun to get along with. But me? I only have you guys. "

Bang.

"Nobody else can stand to be around me. I'm too timid, they say. I'm too uptight, too boring, too quiet. I can never satisfy anybody. You never, ever noticed that. You never paid attention to the fact that I was struggling, in all the nine years you called yourself my best friend. Why did you never help me, Daphne? You were too selfishly caught up in your own stupid issues to aid me through mine."

Bang.

"So call me jealous all you want. I'm tired of being overlooked. Tired of being the one you took for granted. I wanted you to know how it felt to be the weak one, for once. I am not a coward, Daphne Feng. I will NEVER be a coward."

Bang.

Azalea was standing right outside Daphne's door now. Daphne knew, for she could hear Azalea's ragged breathing. She waited for Azalea to throw the door open. She began to take deep breaths, shifting her fingers on her knife.

"When it was announced that for this Hunger Games, the reaped tributes would have to each choose someone to join them in the arena, I knew without a doubt that I would choose you." Azalea said, quietly now. She knew Daphne was behind this door, listening to every word. "Because if I go down, I'm sure as hell going to drag you down with me. To make sure that happened, I tripped you at the Banquet. I made sure you had someone powerful to hate you, hoping they would finish you off."

Azalea paused, her voice darkening. "Unfortunately, Glory didn't kill you. When I found you drowning in the canal, I thought it wasn't fair. It's not fair how you got to go out so easy. I fished you out, and all this time I've been waiting. So now I'm here. I'm here to finish the job."

The door was flung open. Azalea charged inside, but saw nothing.

Daphne, a river of tears streaking down her face, lunged forward from her spot in the corner next to the door. Azalea whirled around, but it was too late.

Daphne's knife sank into the soft flesh beneath Azalea's left collarbone, angled through the ribcage and straight into the heart. Azalea stiffened, a single whimper seeping through her lips. Her face was frozen in a state of pure shock. Daphne choked out a sob as Azalea fell, catching Azalea in her arms and gently lowering her to the ground.

Azalea struggled for breath, but red liquid trickled out the side of her mouth. She looked up at Daphne, hiccuping as she began to choke on her own blood. Daphne cradled her friend's head, pulling her into her lap.

"I'm sorry, Azalea," Daphne whispered through sobs, crying freely now. "I'm so, so sorry..."

Azalea's breathing grew shallower and shallower. The knife she'd held fell to the ground as she started losing touch of her own body. Daphne wrapped her arms around her, holding Azalea tight. She tilted Azalea's chin towards her, drawing her stare away from the knife in her chest.

Azalea's eyes began to close.

"Do you remember," Daphne rasped, a single teardrop falling onto Azalea's blood-splattered cheek. "Do you remember when we used to sit by the fire on long winter nights and tell stories? Do you remember we used to walk Barley at sunset, picking flowers and laughing because you're allergic to pollen? Do you remember our inside jokes that nobody would understand, not even Lysa or Tobe? It was just you and me. You and me, always."

Azalea's body stopped trembling. Daphne held her tighter.

"I love you, Azalea." Daphne whispered. "You're my sister, you always have been. I love you, and I'm so, so sorry about everything. I should've been there for you, Azalea. I should've been there. But I'm here now. I'm here now, and I'm so sorry."

The last words were barely intelligible, jumbled up by so many emotions. Grief, longing, heartbreak, despair.

Daphne was there when the final breath left Azalea's lungs.

A cannon shot echoed in the distance. Daphne's eyes fluttered shut. She had cried herself hoarse. She pressed her forehead against Azalea's. Azalea was too still.

Daphne stayed with Azalea for a long while after that. She only forced herself to move after realizing that the Gamemakers would have to retrieve the body, and they'd definitely find a creative way to chase Daphne away for them to do so.

Daphne gently removed the knife embedded in Azalea's chest. She picked up the second knife, the one that Azalea had dropped. Sheathing them both in her belt, she eased Azalea off of her and laid her on the ground.

From this angle, Azalea looked as if she were merely taking a nap, if the gaping wound on her chest was ignored. Daphne hastily wiped at her face, clearing away her tears, but more kept coming.

A steady numbness was spreading through Daphne's body as she dragged herself out of the tower, stumbling through the alleyways like a wayward ghost. A dull ache formed around her skull. Her right shoulder began to tingle with what might've been pain, though she couldn't find the will to care.

Her mind was blissfully blank, as if her brain instinctively refused to replay the events of this past night. There seemed to be a faint ringing in her ears, drowning out the rest of the world.

She wandered around for ages, not wanting to stop to rest. If she lie down, she may never get up again. So she kept walking. Kept tracking through alley after alley.

Eventually, sunrise streaked the sky with hues of purple, pink and orange. Daphne barely noticed. She hadn't even looked up to watch the memoriam. She knew all the faces that would be on there anyways.

"Daphne?"

Daphne froze, all the numbness seeming to snap away. She was suddenly on high alert, bristling as she drew a knife. A shadow began to jog towards her from the other end of the alley. Daphne shrank backwards, her blood-covered hands trembling.

The shadow drew closer. Daphne braced herself, shifting her feet into position.

Trust nobody.

You can trust nobody.

Everyone is out to kill you.

Tears pricked at her eyes.

You are powerless to stop it.

Powerless.

The shadow was now close enough that she could see it was Pavel. He was moving slower than normal, seeming to limp off one foot. There was an ugly slash across his left bicep that was bleeding relentlessly. He'd taken off his vest and wrapped it around the wound, a makeshift bandage to keep himself from bleeding out.

Even though it was a friendly face, Daphne didn't put her knife down. Friendly faces didn't matter. A friendly face had just murdered Rye, then tried to kill Daphne as well.

"Don't come any closer," Daphne rasped, her voice mangled and strained. Her hand shook so much she was having trouble keeping hold of her knife.

Pavel paused in his tracks, tilting his head in confusion. "Daphne, it's me. Pavel."

A dry, humorless laugh escaped from Daphne's lips. "Are you here to kill me too?"

"What?" Pavel's voice turned soft. He held out a tentative hand. Daphne flinched away. "Daphne, what happened?"

"I said, don't come any closer!"

Daphne's arm moved before her mind. Next thing she knew, Pavel let out a yell that faded into a gurgle. Daphne's knife was deep in his throat, blood spurting down the front of his shirt.

A broken cry tore from deep within Daphne's chest as Pavel collapsed to the ground. She vaguely registered a distant cannon shot ringing through the air.

It was all too much. Daphne's legs buckled. She was swept into oblivion as her head hit the cobblestones, fresh tears carving tracks down the dried blood on her face.

***

Light.

Why is there so much light?

Daphne cracked open her eyelids, feeling very well as if she'd just been hit by a truck. Her entire body ached and screamed as she shifted, reaching up a hand to rub her eyes.

She was laying on rough ground. It did not feel like the blood-slicked cobblestones she vaguely remembered collapsing on before going under.

She heaved herself up onto her elbows, her head spinning as if she'd walked right out of a blender. She could barely see anything, the piercing sunlight stabbing her eyes and making her head throb harder.

Putting up a trembling hand to block the sunlight, she realized she was laying right in the square of a window.

A window carved into an adobe wall. Daphne was inside a room of a tower. On the top floor, judging by the amount of sky she could glimpse.

How the hell did I get here?

The sound of an arrow being slid back into a quiver broke through the fog in Daphne's brain.

She snapped her head in the direction of the sound, to the far left corner of the room.

There, sitting with an elbow propped on a knee and his bow and arrows leaning on the wall beside him, a pair of forest green eyes gleamed back at her.

━━･❪ 🌸 ❫ ･━━

a/n: AND AFTER THAT DOOZY OF A CHAPTER AND SMOL CLIFFHANGER, I'VE GOT ANOTHER MEME BREAK FOR U CUZ IM TRASH :D

Daphne: Never gonna make you cry!
Theron: Never gonna say goodbye!
Daphne: Never gonna tell a lie-
Caelum: I will hurt you.

Azalea: My stomach growled super loud in French.
Azalea: I would like to clarify, my stomach did not speak in French. It growled during French class.
Caelum: Bonjour.
Daphne: Le growl.
Theron: Hon hon hon, feed me a baguette.

Caelum: Do you want to explain the text you sent me last night?
Daphne: It was autocorrect.
Caelum: Autocorrect wrote "You're so hot. Please step on me."?
Daphne: Yes.