Chapter 15-
I started walking towards the fiery cliff. I wanted to see if they were ok. Part of me was hoping they were dead or badly injured since the cannon didn’t go off. But another part of me was terrified of what I’d done. I found myself inching closer to the flames as if hypnotized. I let out a little yelp when I saw a hand pop up from the cliff side. It grabbed onto the top of the cliff tightly.
Next thing I knew Troy was pulling himself up and I was paralyzed with fear. He was covered in black soot and ashes. His fleshed was burned bright red and I had the urge to gag at the site. The air was filled with the smell of his burning flesh and the only thing that ran through my mind was regret at what I’d done to him. Troy pulled himself up all the way and shakily stood to his feet. I trembled backwards unable to even reach for my knife.
Troy had a dangerous look on his face as he shakily walked towards me. “That was pretty smart,” he said and started laughing crazily. My eyes widened in fear and I slowly stepped backwards. “I honestly didn’t see that coming. You’re smarter than you look” he said moving towards me. The smell of burning flesh grew stronger. I started coughing as the wind blew the smoke in my face.
Troy had a spear in his hands as he moved towards me. I noticed that he was mostly covered in ash. The only burns he had were minor except for the one of his upper right arm and on his side where his shirt was torn revealing blotches of freshly burned skin that had turned bright red. I started shaking. What have I done? How could I do this to a human being? I took another step back as Troy moved closer to me.
Oddly enough his spear wasn’t even raised up. He simply held it in his hand as he walked in my direction. I took a deep breath and before I could stop myself I apologized. “I’m sorry” I whispered. Troy paused for a minute and looked at me. “Why?” he asked quietly, surprising me. I just looked at him with regret, tears welling up at the site of what I’d done to him. “It’s not right” I mumbled not knowing what else to say.
Troy found the energy to come towards me so quickly that he had me pinned to a tree behind me. I looked at him shocked. I noticed that he had blood running from above his brow, the result of a minor cut. His jaw was burned slightly and his face was covered in ashes here and there. He smelled like smoke and for the first time I could have sworn I saw fear and maybe sorrow in his usually cold eyes. “You shouldn’t be here” he whispered to me.
“W-what do you mean?” I asked him. He just shook his head and leaned closer to me. I noticed he was a bit taller than me as he had to lean his head down. “The little boy that went into the hut learned something it takes most people a lifetime to figure out. He won, just as you will” he whispered to me slowly. My eyes widened and I wasn’t sure what to think. He heard my story to Scott. I looked at Troy with my eye brows raised and my eyes filled with bewilderment.
He smiled slightly down at me. “In the story the voices were right. About everything. Watching them die was like dying myself. It’s not a victory and it never was” he whispered even more slowly than before. His voice dripping with what I believed was regret. I knew his life was fading. “People suffer so that other’s do not have to. People bleed to prevent the bloodshed of their loved ones. One dies so that another can live” he said quoting my story. I was still shocked. Troy’s eyes seemed to be closing and I stood there breathless. Not only did he listen to my story but he had paid so much attention to it that he’d memorized every little part.
“I always understood that. I understand that those reasons are why you and Scott try endlessly to protect one another” he paused and panted. He looked me straight in the eye, his gaze never faltering. “But I never understood why? Why do those things apply to strangers for you? Why did they apply to me?” he asked raising his voice. I looked at him a little scared but mostly confused.
He noticed my confusion. “Remember Damn it!” he yelled at me and punched the tree bark behind me. I just stared at him. He moved back a little and started coughing heavily. I moved towards him a bit wanting to help as I reached out to him but stopped. Troy stood up straight again and I saw the pain he was in. For the first time I noticed the wound in his back. Spark had stabbed him. He was bleeding heavily but he still managed to stand.
“Why, Skylar? Why did you risk everything for a stranger, a stranger from District 1? A boy that caused the burn mark on your lower back, burned down your home and let you get beat?” he asked me once again. His gaze bore into me and suddenly the memory hit me. It was about 3 years back.
“Scott I’m going for a walk” I told him as I grabbed my knife, tying it to my belt hiding it under my jacket. “Be careful” he warned me as he grabbed his axe preparing to leave for work. “I’ll see you later” I told him walking out. I wandered through the streets of the district. I had noticed something unusual that day. Everybody in the streets was whispering and I had managed to catch a few words. District 1, man and son, filthy, searching; those were a few of the words. I didn’t understand but frankly I didn’t really care either. It was around the beginning of winter.
It was as I passed through the Victor’s Village that I had noticed the thing everybody was talking about. One of the houses that had remained empty was suddenly occupied. Outside the door was a man I’d never seen before speaking with one of the head lumbermen. The man had a boy about my age beside him. The boy glanced at me as I passed by and immediately the first thing I noticed was the boy’s cold blue eyes. I looked away quickly and kept walking only to bump into another one of the lumberman.
I wanted to know what was going on so later that day I climbed a high tree by where that day’s lumber was being cut. I used my stealth and tree climbing to hear the conversation between the odd man and what I assumed was his son as they oversaw the lumber cutting. They were at the foot of my tree. “I don’t understand why we had to come all the way out here. I thought nobody was allowed to leave their districts” the boy had said to his father. His father heaved a sigh and said “I am in charge of making President Snow’s gift. It has to be of the utmost luxury and in order for that to happen I need the best wood. All of Panem’s wood comes from this district and because it’s such an important gift I couldn’t just let the people here take care of it” the father said with a grimace.
“They would certainly mess it up and where would we be then? I received permission to come out here with you and oversee it. Since it was so important for the president they made an exception and let us come here” he explained. The boy nodded and suddenly the father cursed and ran towards the men and he started complaining at the job they were doing. Once the coast was clear I climbed down and headed home.
“Sky, you’re back! Great. Go out to the store and buy yourself some bread. I have to head back to work. Apparently an important project is in order and we need to work through the night” he sighed putting his shoes back on and grabbing his axe. “Don’t do anything stupid while I’m gone” he smiled at me before leaving. As I headed to the store I heard shouting and saw smoke. The trees in the forest had caught on fire. I heard people screaming from deep in the flames as they came running out. “My son is in there! Get him out!” the man from district 1 screamed frantically. I glanced around to see everybody ignoring him.
The first snow of the season had started and I glanced around. It was an odd site, snow and a forest fire. The snow only fell harder as I watched the man from district 1. The flames were moving our way. He glanced in there and then shook his head. I grabbed his shirt as he turned to leave. “You’re son is in there!” I yelled at him. He shoved me off of him and I fell onto the cold ground. He turned and ran away abandoning his son. I scoffed and glared at him. This was just another reason to hate these people. I glanced back at the flames as I stood up.
Without a second thought I took off running into the flames. “HEY! Kid! Are you there?!” I yelled as I tried to avoid the flickering flames. I found myself coughing from the smoke as I swiftly moved through the forest I had practically memorized every nook and turn of. “Hey! You there?” I yelled again before coughing. I saw a shadowy figure and noticed what seemed like a person. I ran to their side quickly and saw that it was the same boy with the cold blue eyes.
“Hey are you ok?” I asked him frantically. He coughed and looked up at me. I saw a match in his hands and I gasped. “You started the fire?” I asked him. He looked at me sadly and nodded his head. I noticed that the boy was covered in bruises and cuts. Blood was trickling from his forehead. I glanced up at the sound of a creak. The branch above us looked like it was going to collapse.
I grabbed his arm, helped him to his feet and pulled him away as the tree branch fell. We had gotten out of the way just in time. Black smoke made the path unclear and I was coughing again. My eyes were watery and I had no idea where we were. The boy looked at me hopelessly. “Forget it. Nobody wants me back. Save yourself” he said. I didn’t listen to him though as I grabbed a hold of his hand and started pulling him in a random direction.
I covered my mouth with my sleeve as I coughed again. The boy coughed behind me and I felt him grow heavier behind me. I glanced back to see his eyes closing. I paused and pulled him closer to me. Pulling off my jacket I held it to his mouth so he didn’t have to breathe the smoke. I threw his arm over my shoulder and started walking again. I paused and glanced around. The fire had gotten worse and I felt as if I was going to boil soon. I suddenly saw an axe with blue tape around the handle and I recognized it as Scott’s. I had put the tape there so he wouldn’t get his axe mixed up with the others.
I knew where we were. “This way” I said pulling him to the right, ducking below falling branches and avoiding flickering flames as best as we could. We finally came to the safety of our cottage. I sighed and collapsed to the ground, into the snow, with the boy. I sighed relieved as the clod snow cooled the burning pain in my lower back. “Are you ok?” I asked him as I lay on my back beside him. He looked at me weakly and nodded. “You! Get up!” I heard behind me. I stood up and faced the Peacekeeper. “You started this fire didn’t you?” he asked me. I stumbled backwards only to crash against the boy. “Mr. Gate” the Peacekeeper said shocked as he pulled the boy away from me.
The boy looked at me kind of sadly. “You did this! You tried to kill him by setting the forest on fire. His father was worried sick” the Peacekeeper said. “Yeah I saw just how worried his father was” I mumbled. The Peacekeeper smacked me across the face and I let out a low grunt of pain as I turned to him again holding my now throbbing face. “You started the fire! Didn’t you?!” he asked. I opened my mouth to speak when the boy’s father showed up. “Son! I was so worried. I ran in to find you but couldn’t” the man said as he hugged his son but I saw the fear in the boys eyes as his father moved towards him. He looked as if he was about to be punched.
The father seemed like he wanted to hit his son. I could see the anger in his eyes. As if he wanted his son to die. As if he was angry his son was still alive. “Who started this fire? Surely it wasn’t my son. He knows better than to do something so terrible” the man said coldly and I knew that if he found out his son started the fire, he would get beat. I saw the boy cringe a little as his father squeezed his shoulder tightly. I knew that he probably had a bruise or burn in that place.
“I’m sure it wasn’t your son. This girl here is a known trouble maker in this district. She was probably the one that did it” the Peacekeeper said looking down at me with disgust. “I-“ the boy started admitting what he had done. “I did it. I started the fire because I was angry” I admitted almost proudly. The snow had fallen so hard now that all I saw was white. The Peacekeeper looked at me with anger as he moved towards me and punched me straight across the jaw.
I fell to the ground and struggled to get up. But the moment I got up on my hands and knees the Peacekeeper kicked me in the gut making me fall on my face. “Skylar!” I heard Scott’s voice yell as he ran up to me. “What’s going on?!” he yelled at the Peacekeeper standing in front of me. “She started the fire” he said. “No, I did” Scott said coming to my defense. “No” I said standing up. “He’s just covering for me. I started the fire” I explained. “Wai..” the boy started saying but I cut him off again. “You heard me didn’t you? I started it!” I yelled. The Peacekeeper pushed Scott away and hit me again.
At that point Scott was about to kill him so I grabbed onto Scott’s leg. “It’s ok” I smiled up at him as I felt the blood dripping down my cheek from my new cut. Scott looked angry as he fell to his knees beside me. “I’ll pay you or whatever you want just stop hurting her” he begged the Peacekeeper. “After all the trouble she’s caused I should have killed her long ago” he said kicking me again.
“Let’s go” the man from district 1 said cynically to his son as he watched me lay in the snow in pain with a sadistic grin on his face. I panted as Scott negotiated with the Peacekeeper. The man dragged his son behind him. The boy turned and glanced at me with concern on his face. I knew I was covered in blood and ash from the fire and probably had a burn or two but somehow I still managed to grin at him and mouth “I’m sorry”
“You were the boy that started the fire” I said to Troy with realization. He scoffed slightly and shook his head. “My father had started it, beat me and left me there to burn to death” he said. I stepped closer to him and again said “I’m sorry.” He gave me a dirty look. “What the hell do you have to be sorry for?” he asked. “I’m sorry I set the cave on fire and did this to you and I’m sorry your father is such a bastard. I’m sorry for everything” I told him. He looked at me confused.
“I still don’t understand! Tell me why! Why did you take the blame? Why did you take the beating?” he yelled and I found myself with my back to the tree again. Troy looked down at me. “Why, after all of that, did you still smile at me?” he asked. So he remembered even that. I looked up at him; my gaze held his blue eyes and I grinned at him. He stared at me in wonder. “I-I’m not s-sure. Maybe because you needed the help. Because I’d suffer, bleed and die for the innocent no matter who they are or where they come from” I said to him still grinning.
Troy’s eyes were filled with surprise and maybe a bit of happiness. “Nobody’s ever been willing to do that for me. Not even my own parents. Since that day I wondered about you and what kind of person you were. I’d never met somebody so willing to sacrifice themselves. You are so different” he said near a whisper. The flame slowly started dying behind us but some sparks still flew our way.
“Thank you” he mumbled with such honesty as he smiled at me. “You pathetic piece of shit!” I heard Spark yell from behind Troy as he rose up from the cliff side. His injuries were worse than Troy’s by far. Spark moved towards us picking up Troy’s spear. Spark, I didn’t feel bad about hurting. I reached for the knife at my belt but everything happened too fast.
Next thing I know Troy is standing in front of me protectively, the spear sticking out of his stomach. Spark took off towards the woods knowing he didn’t stand a chance. I let him go. Instead I caught Troy as he fell. I sat down with Troy’s head in my lap. He grinned up at me as if nothing had happened, as if we were lifelong friends. “I’m glad I could die shedding blood for somebody I somehow came to love” he whispered, blood trickling down his chin but he was still grinning. “You didn’t have to do that” I told him shaking my head, “You don’t owe me anything.” Troy looked me in the eye and said “I didn’t do it because I owed you. I did it because I couldn’t bear to see you dead at Spark’s hand.” His eyes were closing slowly. “Skylar, they’re wrong” he whispered. “They’re wrong about everything, all of it. This wasn’t meant to happen” he mumbled drifting away.
“The world is far from perfect. It’s ruthless and terrible and full of evil. Yet we find a way to push through it and hope, hope for peace, hope for a new day, hope for love. I wish for a world like that. A world made of only love. I used to think it was impossible but when I met you part of me believed that somebody like you could make it possible” he said still grinning. I looked at him near tears. He was strong, stronger than I’d expected. He didn’t deserve to die. Nobody deserved to die like this. He gave me one last smile before his eyes shut completely and his head fell limply to the side. The sound of the cannon making my suspicions correct.
I laid Troy on the ground and pulled the spear out of his stomach, knowing that if I’d taken it out earlier he’d have died immediately. I bent to Troy’s side and moved his hair from his face. I stared up towards the woods hoping a camera was on me, hoping a camera had seen what Troy had done for me, hoping that it would show people unity. I leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on Troy’s forehead. “Thank you” I whispered standing up. The flames flickered slowly beside me as I made my way back towards Scott.
I paused once more and glanced at Troy’s body. Part of me felt like crying. Even though I knew him for only a little while I felt as if I’d known him my whole life. “Good-bye Troy” I whispered turning around as I heard the hovercraft come in to pick up his body. As I was about to enter the forest I ran into Scott.
Without a word I threw my arms around him and buried my face in his chest, letting myself cry.
