HI GUYSSSS! Yes, I'm actually updating. Shocker, I know.

I'm kidding, I'm so sorry for not updating sooner! Had exams...then more exams...and I'm updating between exams, so please at least tell me if you like it! REVIEW! :D Make me happy since instead of studying, I wrote a chapter for you guys.

And Adelina. LOL I love you to bits and pieces! Thank you so much for your continued support, I probably wouldn't have had the incentive to keep on writing if it weren't for you. Despite being bogged down by exams, you reviews still kept me going :D

Sorry, I don't have the time to write up the whole ANONYMOUS REVIEWER thanks, but It's like you to all know I love you very much!

Hope you likey! Enjoy and don't forget to review :)

Chapter 9

In the Arena, after the fight.

Her face shuttered. She turned to look at Cato and with a simple nod from him, a mutual agreement had passed. Dimly, she noted uncomfortably the ease with which they communicated. To the world, his eyes said nothing, but to her they spoke volumes. Someone had seen them, knew their hiding place, so they had to find some other place, or there would be no sleep tonight.

Her eyes ached, her chest hurt, her muscles protested, but when he proffered a hand, she took it and knew she would blindly follow him to her death. He would be, she finally knew. He would be the death of her. And it should have fucking disturbed her no end.

But it didn't.

There was no quirk of the lips, no brush against her waist, no caress of the hand as he walked beside her in clinical detachment, sharp, aristocratic features gilded in soft silver. It hurt. Then she remembered that not an hour past, she had legitimately tried to kill him, that he had a reason to keep her at a distance.

God, what was Cato reducing her to? A snivelling, shivering mess. Her heart was a hot, jumbled muddle, her brain no better. How was she supposed to survive for Prim? How was she supposed to save...

Peeta.

A wave of guilt crashed through her. Here she was, cavorting with the enemy, sharing kisses, sharing sweet nothings and not once had the thought of Peeta crossed her mind. The Peeta, she forcibly reminded herself, who had saved her life.

If it weren't for Peeta, she wouldn't have even been there to save Prim.

In some ways, he was a blessing and a curse. He saved her...for this living nightmare. He had unwittingly rescued her only to plunge her into blackness.

He was the devil in angel's clothing. Or the angel shrouded in the devil's cloak. He was the light and the dark, and she should love him. He was supposed to be the missing jigsaw to her puzzle, but she was too jagged, too broken and yet too whole for him, too much. She wanted balm for her soul and yet unerringly sought for poison.

Life.

A fucking paradox.

A hysterical bubble of laughter rose to her lips. It sounded shrill and loud in the pitch silence, jolting her own thoughts to the present. She glanced surreptitiously at Cato beside her. Fucking man hadn't even noticed her private meltdown.

When she woke, Cato was gone. Last night, she been on the brink of collapse when he'd suddenly stopped. Set down the equipment without a word. She hadn't even protested when he'd arranged her into his hold and held her until they fell into uneasy sleep. Cold and hot, all at the same time. So icy in her heart, the veins and arteries frozen in numbness – and yet her skin lit on fire where they touched.

Peeta, she reminded herself. Peeta and Prim. She was living for them now, to get Peeta out of this mess and then drag her own carcass back home to Prim. She didn't know how she would do it, but she would.

She wanted to be there for Prim as she shifted into a bitchy teenager with crazy mood swings. She wanted to be there to talk about the cute boys in the village. She wanted to see Peeta marry someone who actually loved him, would sacrifice her life for him – God knew he deserved it. And she, she deserved something, Goddammit!

She'd looked after her mother, looked after Prim, where was someone to look after her? After all this time, all this selflessness, she surely, had to get something out of life too? Fuck! Who was to say she couldn't, who was to say how she should live, how she should die?

Treasonous thoughts roiled and crashed. She was fuelled with righteous indignation. Fuck the whole bureaucracy that stood in her way, she would give her own life to save the two most untainted people in her life, to make sure they stayed that way. Uncorrupted.

Game changer, she prayed, please be a game changer. She would fight for Peeta now. One boy against the other, two for one. Peeta and Prim for Cato. Her mind fought to be clear, trying to tie down her hope, her need for survival with Peeta. A flimsy, insubstantial thing. Like gossamer in a gale – but Peeta wouldn't addle her brains. With him, her emotions could be spare and level-headed. She could stand on the sidelines where she wouldn't have to sweat too much.

Cato was too fierce, too beautiful, too much. If she wanted out alive, she needed Peeta. To find him. Remind herself of who she was. She was strong, Goddammit! It was high time she started being it.

A girly giggle in the distance somewhere penetrated her consciousness. The panicked beat of her heart slowed, her predatory instincts rising to the fore. Her head cocked, a jaguar with the scent of blood in the air. Her hand instinctively flicked to her belt and found the blade tucked securely into it. A thin scream followed the giggle. Out came the knife from her boot. A shrivelled leaf dropped from a dead twig, falling...falling...rustling to the lush, verdant grass of this crimson bloodbath. Blades curved in both hands, the sunlight glinting cruelly on the serrated edge.

Her natural hunter's grace fell over her like a cloak, stalking toward the sound in unerring silence. Screams and whimpers curled insidiously in the air, punctuated by delighted gurgles of laughter. She reached the edge of the clearing. Peered.

Oh God.

She spun around on a choked sound. Her stomach flipped. Bile spewed from her lips, the biting acid clawing out of her throat. Oh God, oh God. Her hand shook, rising to press against her forehead. Cold as ice.

Oh God.

There'd been some beast crouched over the boy from District 4, his fingers in its mouth. Chewing the delicate appendages to a bloody, pulpy mess. Thick, crimson blood coursing down its muzzle, falling to the earth with a muted drip.

A raw wound oozing blood ran down the left side of the boy's face. Right through the centre of his eye. And his eye...gorge threatened to rise - white, bulbous thing coated in a clear, bloody slime. It hung down from its socket, connected by a thin cord of tendon, leaking with steady river of blood. Mucous shone on his upper lip, a soft wet gurgling of blood in his throat.

Katniss tried to choke down a scream, but a gasp bubbled past her lips. The creature, that fearful beast cocked its head to the side, ears pricked. Slowly, it began to turn to her.

Long, blonde fur matted with blood. A mottled watercolour of crimson adorned its pale porcelain skin. Its perfectly painted cherry red muzzle... the beast...grinned at her. Faced her fully.

Glimmer.

Fucking Glimmer was facing her, gouged flesh beneath her fingernails.

Glimmer bared her teeth, an animal sensing competition to her prey. Her fingers, clawed like talons, eyes slitted and hungry. No trace of girl, no trace of human. The eeriest, sweetest of giggles rose from her. Her left hand shot out for the unprotected white cream of Katniss' throat, tips of her nails gleaming wetly with blood.

It was like her body had been automated. Without a second through, Katniss efficiently snatched the hand from its trajectory. A sick crunch of bone. A scream rent the air. Glimmer's hand fell away limply, fingers mangled and broken.

Coldness crept into Katniss' eye and a feral smirk graced her lips. She beckoned mockingly at Glimmer.

"Come at me, little girl."

"Katniss" she hissed, spittle flying from her twisted lips, nursing her broken hand. "So eager to meet you maker, are you?" A wide, manic grin, dark red clots on white enamel, a spot of raw, pink flesh caught in the gums. She raked her long, blonde hair away from her face with a feral swipe of her claws. She drew back to pounce, thigh muscles taut with –

Katniss threw a knife.

Glimmer reared, a look of surprise flitting across her face as she looked in bewilderment at the silver-handled dagger embedded in her stomach. Blinked twice. And plucked it out, tossing it aside. She lifted her eyes back to Katniss, blood gushing from the wound, no fear in her eyes, no evidence that – fuck! – that there was a fucking knife embedded in her not four seconds ago!

"Well played," Glimmer grinned, the words guttural and barely formed. Katniss could feel her cold, clammy hands gripped around the remaining knife, her heart thudding heavily through her veins. She sprang for Glimmer, her remaining knife descending, targeting her heart. Glimmer twisted wildly, a baited animal, a backhand crashing heavily into Katniss' cheekbone.

Her head crashed into a tree, the bark digging into her scalp, her back. Katniss lay sprawled where she fell. Something warm and liquid clouded her vision. A quick swipe of her forehead. Her finger came away, thick and shiny with blood. She couldn't feel the pain, her adrenaline too high – but she would soon, when it faded later. If there was a later.

Glimmer stalked towards her like some beast, its prey cornered and bleeding, an easy kill. Katniss could see the blatant, tortured pleasure in her silvered eyes. Couldn't read what was running through the bestial mind.

She squatted on her haunches beside Katniss' body. Flicking a knife between her long, pale fingers. Artist's hands, Katniss thought hazily, she would have called them artist's hands if she hadn't seen them raking the eyes, dragging the sodden white mess down that boy's face. Glimmer slurred, as though drunk on bloodlust. "I don' like you very much, you know?" Her knife point rested delicately at the belly of Katniss' calf.

Suddenly, her face twisted in rage.

"You ate it!"

An impassioned, nonsensical cry. Her knife broke skin. "You ate it all, don't you? All that beautiful, all that love, you ate it all!" Her hand slashed out at Katniss, her hand an iron vice around grasping greedily at Katniss' soft, soft throat.

"Give it back to me! Spit it out! Give it back!" The whites of Glimmer's eyes were frightening, encompassing the small, pinpricked pupils. Spittle laced Katniss' cheek. The darkness was there, at the very edges of Katniss' mind, blurring and oh so welcoming. She could feel it, the blessed relief curling at the edges, embracing and beckoning her into its dark, painless black.

A stinging slap. The blackness receded a little. Her scalp throbbed.

Glimmer cried out at her, her knife wrenching through the skin of Katniss' leg, tearing and tearing and...searching?

"Where is it? Where is it? Where did you hide it? Tell me where it is!" Her knife scraped across Katniss' calf and she choked in pain. A bloody flap of skin dangled from Glimmer's fingertips.

"Is this it? Is this what's so special about Katniss Everdeen? Is this what makes you beautiful? Is this why they love you? Is this why he loves you? It's your skin, isn't it? If I can wear your skin, he'll love me too, won't he?" A light, sick slap of skin as she reached down and pushed Katniss' skin to where it corresponded on her own calf. She picked up the knife again, returned with painstaking care to Katniss' leg.

A giggle almost rose to her throat, as she watched in detachment as Glimmer rambled, carefully incising the skin further. Who the fuck was this "he"? What was she one about?

What love? She ate the all the beautiful? What?

The darkness at the edge of her mind reached out with dark tendrils, caressing her face, skimming lovingly across her. She was like a forest creature, waiting to be eaten. An appetiser of sorts, before the main meal? Suddenly, Cato's voice intruded on pleasantly clouded mind. An unbidden memory rose, his strange, cool words after he'd killed that little boy that reminded her so much of Gale.

That Glimmer skinned her food.

Speared it lengthwise.

Like ice water. She struggled with the darkness, its welcoming black no longer coaxing – a suddenly smothering being, seizing her, desperate to drag her down. Fuck no! She wasn't sitting around to be skinned and speared!

She looked down to see Glimmer's head bobbed down, lovingly running her knife across her leg, admiring the slow bubble of blood that quickly flowed into rivulets. The black gripped her tighter, dragging her. It was like her entire body was encased in ice – not a finger would lift, not a limb would move. She struggled.

Dazedly stated at her impertinent arm. Why wasn't it moving? Move! Damn it to hell, she didn't want to be sticking around while Glimmer tried to deprive her of her skin! Her heavy, leaden limbs just lay there uselessly, no matter how much she willed it.

A small, graze of sensation across her right hand. A small, perfect butterfly had landed on it, blue wings shifting inquisitively. A ripple of sensation flowed from where the butterfly perched on thin, delicate legs.

Her hand shifted instinctively. Tightened ever so lightly on the knife that still lay in her palm. Fucking finally her muscles started reacting to her will. And she really, really didn't want to die. Her fingers clenched about the handle.

The black seemed to encompass all but the very faintest core of her mind, and in a final burst of strength, she drew up from the trunk she was slumped on. Her muscles yanked her forward in a desperate plea of hope, the dagger raised high in her right hand slamming down on the back of Glimmer's unprotected nape.

It embedded with a satisfying thud. Met bone and then passed the resistance. Severed her spinal cord.

And as Persephone was dragged down into the Dark, so was Katniss.

Alright so to be honest, this was actually only half of the chapter that was meant to be posted, but I think I liked the tortured Glimmer-psyche too much.

She's fascinating, isn't she? I feel she doesn't get explored very much. Don't worry, she'll have some posthumous honours/mentions – there's a couple of unanswered questions but many I'm sure you'll be able to answer.

IF YOU WANT A NEXT CHAPTER, REVIEW!

And then maybe it won't take six months LOL. If everyone who reads it reviews...hmm, I could be tempted to update VERY SOON :P

Natalily~