Disclaimer: No. Just, no.

Timer Starts Now

The watchtower, with its huge swinging bells and telltale beam in the darkness, rings one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight times.

Four more hours to go, I think to myself grimly and hoist my backpack over my shoulder, saving the rest of the rabbit for later. It's dark, and I feel my way through the foliage, wary of any strange noises in the blackness of night. Like the call of wild coyote. Like the hooting of an owl. Like a dry twig snapped under a foot, be it animal or human. Either one was potentially dangerous to me at the moment. Actually, right now, I'm as blind as a bat, which leaves me ultimately vulnerable. I hate it.

I finger the unused dagger strapped to the belt at my side gingerly, trying my hardest to make do without my sense of sight and straining my ears until I'm sure I could hear most everything going around in the woods.

Find him, I tell myself, find him and he'll keep you safe. He'll find a way to get the both of you out of this game. He'll fix things. He always does.

With this in mind, I urge myself onward, trudging relentlessly through branches and brambles, making quite a racket. I notice this and at first think to quiet down a bit, but then realize that maybe he could hear it and come find me.

It didn't come into my head that my noise could attract something other than who I searched for.

I don't know what time it is. My entire body is covered in bruises and scratches, my head aching like never before. I want more than anything to lie back down on my warm, comfortable bed back at home, but I know this isn't possible. At least, not now. I've been used to a luxurious lifestyle all my life; how I managed to survive this long was something of a surprise to me.

The rabbit I had caught for dinner was a fluke. It was trapped in between a rock and a thorny bush when I saw it, close to death. If the circumstances had been different, I would have saved it. But right now, I needed to save myself first. So I cooked it and soothed my rumbling stomach. But it still sickens me to know that I have killed something, something that had life in it once.

I'm about ready to collapse until I reach a clearing in the woods, and to my utmost surprise, I see him there, standing perfectly still, like a statue. He is bathed in the darkness, in the shadows, like he was born there. Before I take another step forward, he turns and his blood red eyes pierce my skin with an intense gaze. I stand there, frozen.

He seems to recognize that it's me, but makes no movement to show that he does. I take a small, hesitant step forward. His eyes harden, calloused and cold and wary.

"N-Natsume!" I manage to get the words out, but it sounds strangled and pitiful. I hate how weak I am. "I don't want to play anymore, Natsume. I want to go home."

"It's not yet twelve, Polka." He turns to the gigantic watchtower in the distance, not meeting my pleading eyes. "And you're still my enemy. Run, now. I won't turn a blind eye for too long."

All plans of reasoning with him escape my brain. My legs take on an automatic action; I take off, into the night. I don't think, I don't speak, I don't even breathe. My exhaustion is forgotten. There is only one thing I can do, and that is to run, to get as far away as my feet will take me.

Please, let this night be over, I beg silently.

I don't know how long I run, but when I finally stop, I'm clearly spent, gasping and gasping for air, like it was some sort of drug. I look around me, terrified out of my wits, before reassuring myself that there was no one there. The watchtower rings ten times.

Two hours, I gasp, just two more. I can make it. This will be over and done with soon.

I'm not certain of how far I am from that clearing. But he was fast, faster than me by a long shot, so it wouldn't take him very long to catch up to me. I have to move, I think, and I begin walking again.

Desperation, pain, anxiety, restlessness. I am tense with anticipation, waiting for the tower to ring again, signaling the end of another hour. Please, please, please let it be over. I am close to tears. I just want to go home.

The tower bells ring eleven times. Almost there, I want to cry out! Just an hour. Just sixty more minutes. Then I'll be home again, under the familiar covers of my bed, safe and sound.

No more of these games.

I run off again, hoping that if I run fast enough, time would run faster as well. I take precious count of the time as I go, willing myself to go faster, faster, faster.

Twenty seconds.

Faster.

Three minutes.

Faster.

Twelve minutes.

Faster, faster!

Thirty-two minutes.

Don't slow down. Don't stop.

Fifty minutes.

Just think of home. You'll get through this.

Fifty-nine minutes.

FASTER, DAMMIT!

Eleven seconds.

A gun, cold and hard, is pressed to my temple. I can't breathe.

He's breathing into my ear, harsh and ragged. A little sense of pride bubbles up within me, that I have run fast enough to make him tired (tired!), but it is quickly shot down.

I know not to defy him. He knows this as well, and is sure that I won't fight back as he presses the gun to me. But I still feel terrible, knowing that only he had the upperhand right now. So I do something that astonishes both him and myself.

My hand somehow makes its way to my belt, and I grasp the handle of the dagger, dragging it upwards, so slowly that he doesn't realize what I'm attempting to do.

But soon, his eyes widen in obvious surprise. I would have found this funny, if this had been another time, and I another person. But we're in the middle of the arena right now, and I'm still me. So I don't do anything but press the dagger against his neck.

Now, I am his, and he is mine.

At this moment, the tower strikes twelve and the sun is in the sky, bleeding orange and red and pink and gold.

I bite my lip, startled at the first light of dawn. I hadn't realized till then that the long night was over.

A little dose of 'The Hunger Games', anyone? 8D

Kudos to anyone who knows where that last line came from, because I certainly didn't come up with that, haha. First one who gets it right'll get a cyber hug from me. And maybe a oneshot, or something, I dunno.

- Isa