It still hurtâperhaps more so than a dagger to the heart wouldâve. The skin around her ribs was nearly completely gone now, ripped away from Fionaâs daggers, falling rocks. If she had gotten stabbed in the heart, she wouldnât have lasted long to feel the weaponâs effects.Â
Still, a blessing. To still be alive, to still be able to feel pain. A blessing. It had to be.Â
She didnât even take a moment to compose herself before her next actionsâafter the girlâs scream, what was left of Julesâs mind turned o f f .Â
The girl was open, lost in her flurry of papers that Jules still couldnât decipher. She was vulnerable.
For the first time in her life, Jules Churchill did not think and think and then overthink the task in front of her, she didnât analyze, she didnât scheme, she didnât plan or promise or show any of that great intelligence she claimed to have. She didnât think at allâshe just punched.
 Pushing the girl off with a sudden rush of adrenaline and strength she didnât know her body capable of, she threw her brass-knuckled first into Fionaâs face, her chest, her neck, her entire body. And again. And again. And again. Again, again, again and she wouldnât, couldnât stop until the until the cannon sounded, until someone stopped her. Until something happened.
 But the girl would not stay down. Every time Julesâs fist connected to her nose, with every cracking of ribs or pulsing of worn muscles, she kept getting back up, kept hitting back at Jules.Â
âItâs over, itâs over, itâs over. Stop it, just stop. Itâs over. Itâs okay.â Jules began chanting through punches, a mantra she didnât understand herself saying.Â
Why on earth would she say it was okay? Jules asked the question to herself. The words were a threat, not a comfort. But they wore the veil of comfort, like something her mother would tell her when she was little and scraped her knee. When that was the worst scar she had.Â
She needed the girl to stop, she needed the girl to stay down and die quietly, to stop with the rage, with the fight. It had to be over soonâJulesâs side and upper chest were gushing blood, the skin around her wounds beating like a heartbeat. She was so hot, but she was also so cold. And tired. She wanted to stop, to curl up in her bed back home and sleep until the golden sun filtered through the window. She wanted to wake up from this horrible dream.Â
She should have seen this coming. She should have known the moment that her name had been called on that fateful day. It was hopeless -- it had always been that way. The world had been operating against her this entire time. She would never be allowed to survive, win, and start a life that she had been craving for years. No, she wouldnât. But, still, that didnât stop the young girl from trying... and try she would until the bitter end.
The first punch came and her vision began to fade. The rest followed suit and caused a crushing weight and a slowly approaching feeling of cold to fall onto Fiona. Despite all of this, however, she got up after each punch. After the first series, she fell to the ground and, after almost no hesitation, got back up and tried to stab at Jules again. Her screams were still fresh, then, and there might have still been some hope for the onlookers. Fiona could still win. She really, really could.
As the punches became plentiful, that hope began to disappear. People in Panem began to look away from the scene, their hearts heavy with woe and their eyes burning at the sight of the girl from Seven beating the literal life out of the twelve year old. Nevertheless, regardless of what the otherâs thought, Fiona persisted.Â
She lost the ability to scream at some point -- she didnât know when -- and her legs felt nonexistent. Did she still have them? That didnât matter. After each time she fell and her badly bruised, tattered, and nearly destroyed body hit the ground, Fiona got back up. She refused to give up. She refused to stop trying.
She was vaguely aware of the girl from Seven screaming something at her. At this point, the punches increased in number and Fiona just stood there, a medley of blows aimed at her torso. Slowly, but surely, her organs began to fail. Blood flew out of her open wounds and leaked down from the corners of her mouth. One last punch came from Jules and Fiona finally fell for what many assumed -- and hoped -- was the last time.
But, nevertheless, Fiona persisted.Â
Silently, she placed her bloody, disfigured hands on the ground to gain momentum. Her feet followed suit. It was a miracle that she was even able to move. Then, as the whole of Panem drew in a collective intake of air, Fiona grabbed a knife that she had dropped and straightened her back. The sight was unholy. Her body was caked in bruises, blood, and was disfigured. Her face, which had been relatively untouched, looked on vaguely at Jules.Â
Her hand raised itself and pointed the dagger at the girl. With as much strength as she could muster, Fiona began to hum. She searched for the words desperately. Finally, her mouth opened.
â...I...I-wonât g-give up...â
She stood there for a minute after the words finished falling out of her mouth. Her body was still and her eyes stared blankly at Jules. As the world watched, they wondered what Fiona was doing. Had she, despite what she had said, given up. They got their answer as a cannon soon penetrated the silence.
Fiona had died... standing up.
It is possible, although rare, for a body to die standing up. It is a phenomena that, frankly, should be impossible. When a bodyâs muscles are too hot and the whole system cools down too fast for the muscles to keep up, the body enters into premature rigor mortis. That is what happened to Fiona Pope as she died on the sixth day of the Hunger Games.
Even in death, she refused to give up.