Turn it off || Arena oneshot
With night approaching, I knew that I had no choice but to climb one of the trees, hoping to attain some sort of shelter. I steadied my breathing as I climbed, making sure to keep my footing while remaining as silent as possible. As much as I hated the heights aspect of climbing, I had done it as a child on a daily basis. There was a memory behind the fear, after all.
Once I made it to the lowest branch possible while still above the ground, I settled my breathing as quietly as I could and pulled the pack from my back, fishing through it to find what I desired. I pulled the coil of wire out and secured myself to the trunk of the tree until I was sure it would hold. The branch was thick enough to spend the night on fairly safely, and it was out of sight from the tributes who may decide to prowl during the night.
With my pack secured to my back and holding my ax in a death grip, I watched as the watch displayed the fallen from that day. The first face that showed was one that I had never expected to see at a time like this. Mika's face flashed on the watch screen and in those few seconds I realized that I hadn't seen her make it out of the bloodbath weapon or no weapon. I had expected Chase to be in there to help her, Char and Axel possibly as well. But they weren't. I watched as Charlotte's face flashes by as well, two of the people I had grown attached to were within helping distance.
Memories came flooding back, moments where I could have easily changed the outcome. If I had been paying more attention, if I had been doing what I was supposed to be doing then none of this would have happened. If I had made sure to check for the ravine before I took Alaia out, if I had been at the bloodbath with Mika and Char, if if if. I watched as the rest of the faces flashed by, no one else I had any real attachment too was shown. There was the blonde girl who had patted my head and ran off earlier in the day and Brefina who I had trained with briefly, but otherwise it was a mash of faces that I had only seen on occasion.
I buried my wrist in the shorts of the arena uniform and waited to drift off to a light sleep in the still-humid air of this arena. Sleep didn't come easily, and when it did I had decided something.
I planned on being the one to come out of this arena alive.