A Crown's Game|✔︎UNDER MAJOR EDITING

-Chapter Twenty One-

My mouth is wide open. "I thought you were scared of her!"

"Sweetie." Lilah says, leaning on her sword. "It's called acting."

Sweetie? She's literally a year younger than me. I roll my eyes. "Whatever."

"Who know what?" She walks towards me like a fox. "I like you, which means you'll be my last kill before victory."

I only laugh at her comment. "Fine. What do you suppose?"

"We ally until it's us too left, which means we kill the next two girls together, and then I kill you. Got it?" Lilah smirks. I nod. She motions me to follow her back into the forest. I can tell she knows where the last girl is, judging by the twists and turns she makes. I raise my bow and think, man, I could be so easy to just shoot her in the back right now, but I'm going to go with my promise.

We stop by a cave, where inside, a girl with bright red hair like Katerina's is sleeping soundly. Something about that makes a small droplet of water run down my cheeks. But I wipe it away before Lilah turns back at me. "Let's drag her out."

So I grab one of her legs lightly and Lilah grabs her arms, and we drag her out silently. She's still not waking up. I wonder how long she's been asleep for if she's this deep into her slumber. I want to put her down, but Lilah keeps pulling her to the centre. Her eyes shoot open, eyes wide with fear. She wants to scream, but she keeps in down her throat.

Lilah throws her down sideways, and she rolls a few feet away. She scurries to her feet and pulls out her axe. I remember her name now, Afeni Halor. I have zero idea how she survived this long, but heck I've seen her use axes in training. She isn't bad. In fact, she could almost be as good as Halo. 

I have one loaded arrow, one choice. I bring up my bow, and look between Lilah and Afeni. Lilah hasn't seen me yet, but Afeni knows what I'm doing. She nods slowly. 

I turn my weapon, and fire the weapon into her side. Lilah fall sideways and glares at me. "You bitch."

"Sorry Lilah." I say, yanking out the arrow. "I like you, so I killed you."

She looks at Afeni, and then back at me. "At least I'll be with my sister." A single tear falls down her cheek before her face turns paper white and her profile is shown in the sky. 

Her body is collected, and I look up at the sun. It's finally morning, the morning of the seventh day. Two more people until I can go home. I feel so invincible, no one can stop me now. I put my bow over my shoulders and grab my knife. 

"Kill me." Afeni says.

What? 

Now it's my turn to be confused. Did she just give up? She's just admitting fate?

I lower my knife. Now she drops her axe and spreads open her arms. "Throw it." She says, voice cracking as tears fall down her face. "I'm sorry Mom! I'm sorry Dad! I tried! I'm so sorry Tray! I tried."

I don't want to kill her now. At least I want it to be painless. There's a part of me that keeps telling me that she looks like Katerina, and that I can't kill her without feeling pained. 

How to make a kill painless and quick? I don't know. I don't remember. Then, I look at the bush behind her. On it's branches, bright pink berries are in bloom. I quickly walk past her, pick a handful, and walk to Afeni. 

"What type are these?" I demand, trying to seem tough, but also I need to make this fast. Again, if they don't have a winner by the 7th day, we're dead. All dead.

She takes one and rolls it around in her fingers, the pink juice now everywhere. "Grithem berries, I had them at home. We'd use them in our medicene."

"Grithem berries..." I whisper. 

Grithem berries! Yes! I remember these! During the famine I used these as a painkiller for my mothers patients!

Painkillers! Yes!

"Eat these." I transfer the berries into her palms. "Now."

No hesatations for her, because she shoves them into her mouth. I back up, aim and throw the knife into her chest. No scream, no flinch, just a surprised look on her face before she collapses to the ground.

Just one more person, and about 12 hours left. Now, this girl could be anywhere. I don't want to go hunting for her, so I need something to lure her in. I sit down onto the ground, and dig through my bag quickly. Maybe food? Maybe. I'll try. 

So I pick up an apple and a few dried beef sticks and lay them onto the ground, clean insight of all directions. I then pick up the rest of my items and hide behind a large rock. 

Come on! Come out of hiding! At least one of us could go home! But for the next few hours, I'm still stuck behind the rock with Onix's  bow raised.

I will never refer to this weapon as mine. It's not mine, it's Onix's, and I will keep it in her honor until I go, so I can return it into her hands. 

A flash of blonde hair is seen against the green forest. It's her! I wait until she runs towards the food, knife in hand. Now I let the black arrow fly. 

But she sees it, and dodges it with no effort before running toward me. I stand, tuck the bow and arrows away and get my throwing knives ready. I throw one, aimed for her neck, but she runs to the side and tackles me down. 

She's too heavy to throw off of me, but we roll around on the grass for a while, I'm trying to get her off of me. Eventually, she has a tight lock on on me and I know it's over. She has so many weapons on her.

"You're Zara?" I struggle to say, considering the knife at my throat. But it doesn't hurt to know that name of your killer every once and a while. 

"Yes." She grunts, sorting through the weapons hanging off her coat. "And I've been training for this since I was 5. You're NOT going to ruin this for me." 

I take the small amount of time I have left to notice her physique. Beautiful blonde hair tucked back into a ponytail with the loose strands of blood stained hair sticking out. At least she'll make a beautiful Queen. 

I wonder if she'll let me say a few things to my family, a goodbye. I know they're watching this now, I wonder what they're thinking. Do they think I can pull through? I certainly don't. No matter how badly I don't want to give up, I'm forced to now.

"Alright, now." Zara has laid out her weapons for the torture behind my head. "Where to start?" 

Like I guessed, it's going to be a long painful death.

She takes a knife, similar looking one to mine, with its blade straight and sharp. "maybe with your forehead!"

She grasps the hand, and places the tip on my forehead. I brace myself for the pain to follow. 

Goodbye, world.