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SHALL WE RISE?

act one.

(chapter fourteen, with silent tears, innocence was taken)

the arena, 2304.

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VALENCIA PEELED OPEN HER eyes, being momentarily blinded by the bright light of the rising sun in the distance. She groaned, stretching her limbs. It was the first night sleep she had gotten in the arena and it felt like a good one.

Valencia sat up, the white blanket pooling around her waist as she looked around for Donna. When she saw her crouching at the edge of the large glacier, Valencia quickly folded the blanket up, and stuffed it into her backpack before slinging it over her shoulder, and crawling over to Donna.

She was about to ask her what was wrong, but she was soon silenced by the sudden appearance of four certain tributes. Clara, Jacob, Confetti, and Louis all lounged around on a small iceberg, laughing and bickering as they did. Valencia's eyes went wide as she peered down with Donna, eyebrows furrowing when she saw someone tied up behind the Careers'.

The District Three boy had his hands tied with some rope, his mouth stuffed with a piece of fabric that looked like it came from one of the tributes's attire. The boy had a deep, bloody cut that went diagonally down his face, his eyes nearly blinded by the blood running down into them. The boy looked exhausted as if he had been tortured. This caused Valencia to widen her eyes. The Careers' were keeping prisoners.

"We need to go," Valencia mouthed to Donna as she nudged her in the ribs.

"How?"

Valencia looked around the glacier and to where the Careers' were. She crawled over to the other side of the glacier where there was a medium-sized lump of rough ice that they could easily jump onto if they scaled the side of the glacier's wall. 

Valencia nudged her head at Donna and mouthed at her to follow her. She began to crawl over to her, the two crouching as they turned around, and slowly began to scale the glacier backwards. When halfway down, Valencia stopped, and quickly jumped down onto the medium-sized block of hard ice, raising her arms as Donna jumped down, and Valencia swiftly caught her, setting her down as they clambered off of the iceberg, and onto a small piece of ice that floated on the freezing river.

Valencia scanned the area for somewhere to go, looking at a frozen alleyway that would take them away from the Careers'. She nudged Donna and she nodded, the two leaping from ice to ice. When Valencia reached the frozen alleyway, she took a set of deep breaths.

A cannon went off.

Valencia froze before she managed to turn around to face Donna. She didn't want to. She didn't want to see. But she looked anyway and when Valencia saw Donna, she screamed so loudly that it nearly overpowered the sound of the little girl's cannon.

Donna was standing on one of the pieces of floating ice, her eyes dead as the colour in her face drained. Blood began to run down her face, matting her hair with the crimson red. She had an axe in her head. Donna had an axe lodged in the side of her head. Clara's axe. 

Valencia's screams echoed around the glaciers as she watched Donna's dead body collapse, falling into the freezing cold water. Valencia tried to avoid the sight of the pristine water get dyed by the girl's blood as she raced forward, leaping onto one of the floating ice pieces, and pulling Donna's body out of the water. Her hands trembled as she yanked the axe out of her head, throwing it away as she heard the relentless cackles of Clara echo around. 

Valencia tried to not scream again when she saw the state Donna was in when she attempted to revive her. She knew it was useless, but she had seen Antares do CPR on her mother so many times that when she pressed down on Donna's chest, she prayed to those above to hear her breathe again. But when Valencia checked to see if her heart was beating for the fourth time and heard nothing, the tears that had been built up started to pour out of her eyes, running down her cheeks. Valencia didn't even wince when a tear rolled down the healing welt. 

She attempted to flatten down Donna's curly hair, but her hand became more shaky when she drew it back to see it was coated in blood and brain matter. Valencia gasped when she saw and the tears began to fall harder and harder, screaming when someone grabbed ahold of her shoulders and pulled her back. 

Jacob had ahold of her shoulders whilst Clara came bounding to pick up her bloody axe, kicking Donna back into the freezing cold river. Valencia went into hysterics as she watched the little girl's body sink to the bottom. Confetti was laughing hysterically from where she watched with Louis and the Three boy. 

"Well, that's taken care of." Clara laughed as she cleaned off her axe, Jacob carrying Valencia to their glacier, setting her down. "Oh, don't be so sad, Barlowe. The girl was going to die anyway."

"She was just a kid." Valencia scoffed, wiping her tears away with the back of her hands. She tried to force herself to calm down like she didn't just see a little girl have an axe lodged into her brain.

"Aren't we all?" Louis asked as he admired his arrows. "Aren't...we...all?"

Valencia trembled as she stood up and stared at the Careers', asking, "What do you want with me?"

"You, Barlowe, are very skilled," Jacob began to say as he walked towards her. "You can help us pick off the last few tributes."

"There's twelve tributes left," Valencia said softly. 

"And you are going to help us kill the ones that are unnecessary," said Louis. "Starting with this guy."

Louis jabbed his arrow in the direction of the District Three boy, who's eyes went wide as he examined the tributes who captured him. Valencia stared at him through her teary eyes, eyebrows furrowing as she noticed that the cut looked much worse than it did when she saw him up on the bigger glacier.

"We killed his partner yesterday and captured him," said Confetti with a large smile as she giggled.

"Yeah... here you go, Barlowe," said Louis.

He came walking over to Valencia and untied a belt that was around his waist. If Valencia wasn't still in a state of shock, she would have gasped when the boy from One thrusted the belt of throwing knives into her blood and brain matter stained hands. 

"W-Where did you get this?"

"From the Cornucopia," Louis said. "We knew you would like it."

Valencia slowly wrapped the belt around her waist, tightening it so it fitted properly. She admired the glint the knives had to them and she realised that there were much higher quality than the ones in training. She desperately wanted to throw one, but she didn't want to throw it at District Three's face. 

"Barlowe, you want to survive, right?" Jacob asked her. 

"Yes."

"Then throw the knife."

"She won't do it," said Clara as she studied her axe, which was now clean from Donna's blood. "She's too shocked from the girl's death."

"You can't say much," Louis told her. "You're the one who killed her."

"I'm just saying."

Valencia looked at the desperation in Three's eyes, but she wasn't sure if it was desperation for death or life. Either way, Valencia slowly unclipped a knife off of her belt, flipping it around in her stained hand. 

"Do it, Barlowe," Jacob whispered as he came from behind Valencia, his breath wafting onto her ear. 

Valencia furrowed her eyebrows as she tried to process what had just happened. She had woken up, saw the Careers', tried to run away, they killed Donna, now they were expecting her to kill a tribute when she had never killed someone before. So much had happened and Valencia couldn't help but see Donna with an axe lodged into her head.

She didn't know what happened, but there was suddenly groans that came from all of the Careers'. Valencia's eyes widened as she saw the boy from Three fall to the ground with a spear's blade in his head. (Donna with an axe in her head)

"What the hell, Fetti?" Louis yelled at her. 

"She wasn't going to do it!" Confetti argued as she walked over and pulled her spear out of the boy's body. His cannon echoed around the arena, causing Valencia to flinch.

"Can't you see her hand? She had the knife!" Jacob grunted as he swung his sword around.

"But was she going to throw it? No!" Confetti yelled as she began to wash off her spear like Clara did to her axe a few moments ago. That entire section of the river where the Careers' stood was dyed with blood. "She is useless!"

"I am not." Valencia scoffed, snapping out of her daze-like trance.

"You are." Confetti chuckled. "Unless you can prove otherwise."

"Let her prove it then," Jacob snapped. "I think we all want to see Barlowe in action and we all want to see her prove herself..."

"Yes," Louis agreed. "I say Barlowe versus Fetti."

"A fight-to-the-death?" Clara chuckled. "Yes, please."

Valencia's eyes went wide as she looked from all the Careers' to Confetti and then to Three's dead body. She couldn't possibly verse one of the Careers', especially the one that just killed a boy. The one that laughed at Donna's death. 

"Fine," Valencia said boldly. "I'm up for it."

The Careers' hooted and cheered whilst Confetti stood there, smiling awkwardly at the others as she spun her spear around. Valencia chuckled a bit when she saw her reaction, the shock of Donna's sudden death wearing off, turning into a bitter rage. 

"Go on, Fetti." Louis cheered as he slung his bow over his shoulder with his quill of arrows. "Surely you can beat a District Nine tribute."

Confetti giggled as she flipped her hair over her shoulder, saying, "Of course I can..."

Everyone else formed a circle (Jacob kicking Three's body into the water) around Valencia and Confetti. Valencia cracked her joints and loosened up whilst Confetti just spun her spear around. She tried to hide the nervousness rising in her chest as she watched the girl from One. This was a fight-to-the-death. Either she died or Confetti died. It was remarkable how three people would die in the span of about ten minutes. 

"Well, may the best tribute win," Jacob said as he clapped his hands. "Commence!"

Valencia tried to drown out the cheers of the different Careers' as she focused on Confetti. She was smiling manically at her as she drew her arm backwards and immediately slung her spear at Valencia. She dodged it, the blade lodging into the ice ground, in which Valencia immediately tossed away. Confetti's smile dropped as she watched her weapon be thrown, the other tributes smiling and laughing. And in that moment, Valencia realised that Confetti was useless without a spear, another weakness of her's other than her constant worry about her looks. 

Valencia charged at Confetti, eyes filled with fire instead of tears now. She knocked her down and immediately they both began to wrestle. Valencia got on-top and started to repeatedly punch the girl in the face. She had never punched before, just roughhousing, but as Confetti's face slowly turned into a blood-dripping mess, Valencia realised how hard her punches were. Or how weak Confetti was. 

However, Confetti caught one of Valencia's punches and lifted her head up, head butting her. She stumbled backwards and held her head in her hands as a large amount of pain caused her to gasp. Confetti spat out blood and started to kick Valencia repeatedly, causing her to wheeze and cough, though she soon got into a crouched position, kicking Confetti's feet out from under her. She went toppling onto the icy ground and the tributes cheered. 

"You got some fight in you." Confetti smiled, her teeth coated in crimson red blood as she stood up, legs trembling.

"Thanks."

Valencia chuckled as she ran forward, but this time Confetti moved out of the way quickly and so she went crashing into the floor. Clara found it amusing and kicked Valencia back into the circle. She scoffed as she charged at Confetti again, this time she knocked her down again, but Louis had moved so the two went crashing into the freezing cold water.

Valencia was a good swimmer, yes, but with a whole ton of clothing on, it dragged her down. She was instantly hit with the intense freezing temperature of the river, the water causing nearly her whole body to go numb. Valencia opened her eyes and she saw Confetti trying to swim to the top, mouth wide open as water began to enter her lungs. She wanted to get out of the water. She wanted to get out because it was ruining her hair, Valencia supposed. 

She rolled her eyes underwater and swam, grabbing Confetti's foot and dragging her back under. Confetti's gargled screams echoed around faintly as Valencia caught her in a head-lock, wrapping her arms tightly around her head and neck, applying pressure. 

Valencia could feel Confetti's life slip away from her, her soul leaving her body as she began to struggle, choking on the water that kept filling up her lungs. Her elbows bashed into Valencia's ribs and she thrashed, trying to scratch at her hands, but soon, her body went limp and the echo of a cannon went off.

The muffled cheers of the other tributes suddenly became very clear as Louis and Jacob pulled her to the surface. Valencia immediately began to shiver violently, teeth chattering as she was dragged back onto the ice.

"Well, damn me, Barlowe," said Louis. "You just killed my district partner... good job!"

"Bloody hell," Clara mumbled as she stared down at the river where Confetti's dead body was sinking. "Three people dead in the span of nearly fifteen minutes."

"Who cares?" Jacob cheered. "Look at you, Barlowe... you just killed a Career."

"And you know what that means?" Louis asked her as he instantly began to rub his arms up and down her arms in a pathetic attempt to warm her up. "You're one of us now..."

Valencia's eyes went wide as she heard his words and all she could think of was that she had killed someone. Valencia Barlowe had killed someone. Valencia Barlowe, fifteen-years-old, had just killed Confetti from One, an eighteen-year-old. 

All she could imagine was her loved ones reactions. Billie would surely be understandable, appalled that her best friend was now a killer, but understanding. Her mother would have no idea what was going on. Antares would be staring at the screen in shock as he watched his baby sister lose her innocence. And Commie would either be chanting at the television or he would be deathly quiet. She was not sure. 

But Valencia Barlowe was no longer an innocent girl, she was no longer a girl. She had seen a total of four deaths in the span of nearly fifteen minutes: Donna, the Three boy, Confetti, and herself. Her innocence was now stripped from her, she had killed someone with her bare hands. And it was even worse it was a Career, who they all think that she was one of them. But Valencia knew that they were all back-stabbers. Valencia was smarter than them.

And as the others all sat around her, clapping her on the back, she stayed staring at the now lowering sun in her freezing cold, soaked arena attire, shaking aggressively as she tried to warm her hands up. The throw into the water had cleaned some of Donna's brain matter and blood off of her hands, but there was some spots that were now stained. And so Valencia began to rub it off, flake by flake until her hands looked as if nothing were on them. But blood was on them, they were dipped in blood now. She had killed someone. 

And as the sun began to go down and was replaced by the moon and the stars, the Capitol anthem began to play and the trumpets made Valencia look into the sky. Like the past two days, the Capitol seal got transformed into the image of the fallen tributes. This time, the cheery face of Confetti lighted up the sky, but the other Careers' booed as they began to spew vulgar curses and signs to her image. Confetti turned into the boy from Three and everyone grumbled at him whilst Valencia averted her eyes. She couldn't bear to see Donna's face, but she feared she would never see it again and so when she looked up and saw the little girl's soft, angelic face, a few silent tears fell down.