"Evelyn Brinley, better known as Lady Red, victor of the 72nd Hunger Games. Won her games at 15."
"Why Lady Red?"
"Because she always wears red. Oh, and she won her games by burning the remaining tributes alive."
✮
"𝑮𝒊𝒓𝒍 𝒐𝒏 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒆? 𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒄...
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TW: Implied/Mentions of suicide.
EVELYN STUMBLED THROUGH THE FOREST, waiting for the sun to dry her off and her legs to cooperate with her. The sun was still stuck in the same position, but it wasn't drying the water off of her. Her hair was soaking, her jacket was so heavy with water she had to take it off, and her pants were soggy and rubbing against her skin, but she couldn't take those off.
The girl didn't know who was left; she could make assumptions, but she'd never know for sure because the gamemakers refused to let night fall, which meant the fallen tributes were never displayed. The careers were probably alive, Tera and Joshua were dead, and the only person who could've been alive was Joshua. Unless she was forgetting about another tribute, but that was highly unlikely. Or maybe it was likely, she didn't know anything anymore. She'd lost half her blood, she had no idea where she was, and her brain was processing things way too slowly.
Her brain was processing things so slowly that she didn't hear the beeping of a package until she tripped over the can. Relief washed through the tribute as she knelt and opened the can. There was a roll of bandages and a box of matches tucked in them, along with a note from her mentor.
Was going to get you actual medicine but I spent most of the money on the matches
Sorry, use them wisely
-Love, S.
Matches. Sasha had convinced the sponsors to pay for matches, not medicine. Freaking matches. Evelyn had to fight the urge to throw the matches, instead stuffing them into her backpack. She wouldn't even need to start a fire, nighttime wasn't a thing anymore. It was always hot.
The bandages would be useful. Not as useful as medicine, of course, but they'd hold her over until the end of the game. Or until she died. Whichever came first. The bandages Sasha sent her were a lot softer and more absorbent than the bandages the bag had as she wrapped them around her knee. There had to be some sort of substance in them or at least one that cools since the inflammation immediately went down.
"Thank you," She muttered, turning to wherever the nearest camera could be. The feed most likely wasn't on her, nothing was interesting about a tribute wrapping a bandage around her leg. The gamemakers probably cut her feed out the moment after she left Joshua in the lake.
Evelyn had barely moved a muscle since she did the bandage, but her chest was heaving and her lungs were burning. The wind was starting to pick up again, which meant it was a bad time to be at the edge of the forest. Dirt and sand from the plains, desert, or whatever the gamemakers wanted it to be was in the air, and all she could do was sit there, hunched over with her hands over her face to protect it from debris. The girl wanted to rest for a moment, but the game was nearing its final stages. Soon, one more tribute would die, and there would be four left. Then the gamemakers would pull one more trick out of their sleeves, and it would be over.
