Chapter
17: Snow
“Corruption
is like a ball of snow, once it's set a rolling it must increase.”
- Charles Caleb Colton
Dawn
would be breaking soon, and a chill was in the air that hadn't been
present before. Ezra took that as a foreboding sign, one that made
him even more reluctant to leave Tiara behind. She'd be waking up
soon. He swore her eyes opened the second the sun peaked across the
horizon. Ezra couldn't be sure of the exact time of sunrise, but he
estimated he had a little less than half an hour to get away.
If
Tiara caught him, Ezra had no doubt that he'd be dead within minutes,
so he crept away as quietly as possible. He took only a small amount
of Tiara's supplies with him, as he wanted to have something without
angrying Tiara much. After all, they would likely face each other in
the future. He didn't want it to be with any more animosity than
necessary. He had a strong feeling Tiara would be the one to end him.
In fact, he'd bet money she'd win the games, but foolishly, that
wasn't stopping Ezra from trying. There was still a glimmer of hope
inside him as he disappeared into the forest.
XX
Something
cold and wet woke Tiara from her light slumber. Her eyes flew open
only to be met with a haze of white. Even as she watched it, the snow
began to fall quicker. All around her the ground was already covered
in a light layer of white that had managed to make it through the
trees above. It took several more seconds for Tiara to asses that
Ezra was nowhere in sight. She sighed in slight frustration, but
accepted the situation quickly.
Her
clothes weren't suited for winter weather, and she knew that the
gamemakers had done this purposefully. They expected a quick end to
the games. The gamemakers would keep the tributes just cold enough to
motivate them and not freeze them to death.
“Well,
look who we have here.”
Tiara
froze at the familiar sound of Troy's voice. She silently
congratulated him for actually sneaking up on her this time, but she
was still confident as she turned to meet his gaze.
“Troy,”
she greeted.
He
sneered back, "Tiara."
It
was a bloody fight, and one well-matched. Tiara had no doubt that the
Capitol enjoyed watching her kill Troy after the biggest struggle of
the games so far. She regretted not being able to save him for last,
but at least it would buy her some time. They wouldn't be expecting
much out of her right away at this rate.
XX
The
newly dusted ground provided a disadvantage for Coale. He realized
right away that he would have to go through a lot of trouble in order
to disguise his footprints. The best thing to do as far as he could
tell would be to stay in his hiding spot, but he doubted the
gamemakers would allow that for long. Besides, he was running low on
food, and he needed to keep his strength up. With the snow, it would
be harder to find food, and he needed to take care of that now before
the snow got even worse and the food even harder to find.
XX
Jocelin's
skin still felt raw from the scrubbing it had received hours ago. No
matter how hard she scrubbed, she could still see traces of her
victims' blood everywhere she looked. In fact, she'd rubbed so hard
that her own blood had now tarnished her skin. She tried to pay it no
mind, especially as she had bigger problems. She needed to find
shelter and fast. The temperature had dropped quickly, and Jocelin's
limbs were getting harder to move as frostbite set in. A fire would
be risky, but she was running out of options. What did she have to
lose now anyway?
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