thearena | A kill and a death

Entry tags:

A kill and a death

Who| Pruna and Danny, then Pruna, Mindy and Sandy
What| Pruna kills Danny, then Mindy and Pruna have a massive fight
Where| Staircases for Danny and then floor 6 planetarium for Mindy
When| Week Four, after gun rush
Warnings/Notes| Death, small murderchildren killing each other, probably swearing, and obvious violence, blood.

[Staircases] Pruna creaped up the staircase as quietly as she could. Just one flight, checking the way was clear before going back down for Sandy. A trail of blood followed them up but it wasn't like the floor wasn't already stained, Pruna held her gun at her side, her other hand holding a dagger if she wasn't helping Sandy move.

She cleared each section, checking for tributes, making sure it was safe. She half hoped she found someone, they needed more supplies, food would be good but first aid things were better. Sandy was really injured and once they got somewhere defendable Pruna would have to try and fix her.

They were about half way up the museum when she spotted him, she made a gesture back at Sandy to stay hidden and silent, and approached him.

[Planetarium] It was here among the stars that Pruna decided to make camp, barricading Sandy in as best she could and using everything she could find to bandage up her arm. At least enough to stop her from bleeding to death.

She put a few berries into Sandy's good hand, they didn't have many left. "You do be needing to be eating." She told her, standing up with the gun and watching in case anyone came in.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Sandy remained frozen on the sidelines, horrified and puzzled into inaction. Should she interfere? Would Pruna hate her for it? Why was Mindy doing this? Was it the arena? She'd heard in past arenas when tributes were exposed to things like gas or chemicals it had made them aggressive.

With fear swirling through her veins like ice and a heart of stone she stood and watched the violent battle continue.

Pruna tried to dodge, the knife grazed her leg sending burning pain through her. She was in the emptiness though so it barely registered.

It did affect her balance though, but she still stabbed forwards trying to stab forwards into Mindy's knee.

Mindy turned quickly, gazing into Pruna. The girl was definitely in the zone, she could see now what she was like when the fight rained down. No wonder Eva had bet on her over Mindy: the girl was sharp, quick, and eager to deal out pain.

Mindy, of course, was just as willing to deal it out.

But it would take some effort. She shifted her stance, one foot to the next, moving with a deftness that showed people exactly how much she'd been training the last few weeks. She moved her knee to meet the girl's solar plexus.

Pruna tried to roll away again, this time attempting to hook her leg behind Mindy and pull her down as well. It might go wrong, Pruna was smaller after all.

Still if it worked it should throw Mindy down and allow Pruna to roll back upwards, a less severe form of what she had done to get Sandy out of the way.

Had Pruna done this in the previous Arena, Mindy would definitely have gone down. She was considerably stronger in her calves now, but all of this activity and the loss of blood was still taking its toll, so Mindy came halfway, but still had her fist ready and hammered down on Pruna hard.

Pruna let go as the first came down, falling to the ground hard. She scrambled to her feet as quickly as she could, rushing at Mindy again, knife aimed for her stomach this time.

Man, she was fast. She was up on her feet before Mindy could continue her assault, and the knife got into Mindy despite her attempt to move fast enough. Mindy, however, was not going to reel in pain, not yet. HER own knife was still at hand, and while the stomach hurt, a downward slash at the face would definitely do damage enough to shake up the whole fight for Pruna.

It did, blood filled her vision for a moment as the knife hit her cheek. Pruna fell to the side, rolling back to her feet. She didn't do more than wipe her eye, the emptiness still keeping the worst of the pain away, leaving her to focus on the fight.

She stood still, stood defensively, watching Mindy.

Now that, that was a neat trick. She had never stabbed someone like that and have them just get up and stare at her like she hadn't done anything to them at all. Unnerving, yes, but Mindy was far from calling it quits. A smile came to her face again, if only because, for the first time, she found herself enjoying this: close to death, blood pouring out, the outcome unknown. A real fight, face to face, fist to fist.

How had she ever thought that she could go and live a normal life?

But that thought was abandoned: this fight could still go either way, and bad for her if she made any stupid mistake. She stared the girl down, then slowly advanced toward her, then feinted and went for a slash at her back.

She was close to the edge, the emptiness would burst soon. But hopefully there was still fight in her yet. Pruna was well trained in keeping it, pain was a distraction she couldn't afford to have in her line of work.

She watched Mindy, blood dripping down her face, she jumped forwards and then as quick as she could brought her elbow backwards, to try and smash into Mindy's face as the slash came towards her back.

It still caught, but compared to her face it was only a scratch.

Mindy had to admire her. She couldn't talk about it, but shit, Pruna could definitely hold her own. It was no wonder Eva has scornfully put her money on Pruna if the two of them met: she had killer instinct, and knew exactly how to handle herself. She could also see that she could win this if she kept up.

Granted, this would be a lot easier without an elbow shoved in her face, which caused the girl to stagger back, the world shining in bright colors. She held onto the knife fast, but was at least going to shake off the hit.

The blood was flowing, of course, but she could ignore that for now.

Pruna span around and rushed at her, hoping to get her before the shock wore off, pain was pushing at the edges of the emptiness, fighting to get through and she pushed deeper into it.

The knife was aimed at Mindy's neck, she wouldn't stop, aiming to barrel into Mindy as she did so.

Seeing stars or not, someone looking to end her was going to jolt Mindy back to life. Pruna was running on low but, like Mindy, seeking to end that with a final blow.

Mindy hit the deck and now her knife would be full into Pruna's stomach if she was intent on going straight for her, trusting deep into the slice.

They landed in a heap, the emptiness finally bursting as the knife sliced into her stomach.

Pain flooded Pruna's features and she cried out, more a sound of rage than pain as all her feelings about Mindy and her hurting Sandy came back to her. She could feel the blood pouring down her side, her vision was beginning to go blurry. She didn't have much time but she brought her knife down, slashing at Mindy's face, trying to cause the other girl as much pain as possible.

It hit. They were in such a tangle of limbs and punches that Mindy was expecting to take her own lumps, and a slice to the face it was. It hurt and even she let out a strangled yelp, but she jerked back quick to lessen the pain.

FUCK.

Pruna did what she thought though, and that was more than she hoped. She could clearly see the lengths the girl was willing to go, and after this? She knew Sandy would come for her. For now, she arose, waiting.

Sandy had watched the fight in escalating levels of terror and anger. What was the point of all of this? What was the fucking point? To warrior girls who could have, should have been friends were killing each other. Why?

Why had Mindy started the fight?

Why?

That same question was swirling in Sandy's brain until the killing blow.

Sandy's blood ran cold, somehow she knew it was all over but the end.

"ASHLEY!" This was the first time she had out lived Pruna.

No! No there had to be something! Her bag with the masks lay forgotten on the ground as she lunged forward swinging her crowbar with her only good arm.

"GET OFF HER!"

Get off her? Well there wasn't any reason to stick around now...except...

She did get up and roll over to the gun, pocketing it and checking for the bullets. Good. She would have left it for Sandy, but she wasn't fooling anyone: she was pretty damn hurt now, and having gotten this far, she didn't want to be picked off easily. The knife she left with Sandy: that shit she was going to need, and she hoped the girl used it well. Who knew? She might being seeing the end of it soon. Certainly she was going to need something.

It was hard to see. Damn Pruna (Ashley?) for being so good: she wiped the blood off her face, but kept the gun pointed at Sandy. Death by crowbar she was NOT dealing with right now.

Edited 2014-02-27 14:34 (UTC)

Pruna lay, struggling to get up. Angry that she couldn't, angry that Mindy had won but through it all proud that Sandy wasn't being a leaky eyed baby about it.

Her vision was going, and she slumped to the ground, unable to rise. She hoped Sandy killed Mindy.

Sandy ignored the gun, ignored the threat to her life and once she was at Pruna's side dropped the bar and slid an arm around her defensively. Once she was protecting the dying body of her friend she turned her gaze on Mindy. The anger was still there but it was being washed out by confusion and pain.

"Why?" She asked one last time. "I thought we were friends."

Fuck. The look in her eyes were paralyzing. She felt tempted to drop it all, say she was sorry, tell her she wasn't a monster and that she wanted everything to be all right.

But this was not what she wanted. Sandy needed to be mad, needed people rooting for her. She didn't really have to lie either. There were truths here she could say.

"Because it was going to happen. What did you hope, that maybe someone would kill me so you didn't have to think about it? Think long and hard Sandy: how many people has Pruna killed without hesitation? Did they all deserve it? She would do it to me in a heartbeat, we both know it. You wouldn't even stop her. So man the fuck up. Finish what she started and get to the end, or all this niceness bullshit is going to keep you here every time. You owe her that much."

"No.." Sandy blinked away tears and lay Pruna down gently. She was gone and when she watched the tape later she'd see this.

"Pruna is loyal. The only way she turns on an ally is if she's betrayed. If she were that cold she would have killed me a dozen times by now instead of dragging my stupid ass behind her no matter how hurt I get or how much I slow her down."

Once she was on her feet she took the crowbar from the ground.

"I mangled my leg in the first Arena we were a team. Bear trap ripped right into the bone. Didn't even cut it off just left it crushed and dead. And she carried me through that arena for over a month! We had barely started being friends but she brought me food, taught me how to deal with pain."

She pointed the tip of the bar at Mindy.

"You taught me things too. You tried to make me feel like I had a chance. Like I could be awesome like you. And then you held a knife to my throat for what?! The gun? To test your skills against Pruna? Or did you ever really like me in the first place?"

"It didn't have to happen like this. Not here or now."

"She's loyal to you," Mindy said, rolling her eyes. "She hardly knows me. She didn't even trust me when I came here, which is good on her. You think she wasn't going to kill me soon? Come on. Don't kid yourself. You saw her, you SEE her. The only thing I did was make the fight happen sooner, not later."

She kicked the knife over to her, wincing. Shit, even that hurt. "The gun was bonus. Killing someone for a gun, shit. I could have just had her kick to me when I held the knife at you. See, THIS is your problem. You don't look at the angles, the situation. You follow and get lucky. Letting her drag you through it, that doesn't help you. She's gone now. What are you going to do?"

Mindy kept the gun on her. "Don't turn your back on the enemy. Not ever. I'm going now. If you want revenge, be smart. I'm planning to win this thing."

A pale ice washed over Sandy as she realized what Mindy was telling her to do. She shook her head.

"Stop making excuses for yourself and just go. You know what you did and you know I'm right."

She went down on her knees at Pruna's side again and set the bar down.

"She would have been your ally. You didn't have to do any of this."

Didn't she say she was going anyway?

"Whatever. If you believe that, fine. I have other shit to worry about."

Like not dying. Like repairing the injuries she already had.

She tried and failed to hold back her tears as Mindy walked away.

"I'm sorry." she whispered to Pruna painfully aware that the cameras were catching everything.

"You know I'm always trying to get better." She shuddered and a sob choked out. "I want to be strong like you. But I'm not like you."

She gripped at Pruna's limp hand, it felt heavier without life in it.

"But I know what you want. And I owe you. So I'm gonna try my best for you Pruna."

A sniff, shiny wetness on her cheeks.

"After this I'll stop crying. And I'm gonna be strong. At least till the end of this arena. I'll be the girl you want me to be."

Curling over for one last hard cry she squeezed Pruna hand.

"And I'll kill Mindy to prove it."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A kill and a death

Go ahead and just keep playing this out skipping Sandy till she needs to react again.

<3

Re: <3

<3

Re: <3

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject