suzanna-kollinz-acliq-oyunlari-1-hisse-eng

Tears spring in my eyes. The tension, the fight goes out of
me at the memory. And I’m overwhelmed by Rue, and the pain
in my head, and my fear of Thresh, and the moaning of the dying
girl a few feet away.
“To sleep?” Thresh says gruffly.
“To death. I sang until she died,” I say. “Your district. . . they
sent me bread.” My hand reaches up but not for an arrow that
I know I’ll never reach. Just to wipe my nose. “Do it fast, okay,
Thresh?”
Conflicting emotions cross Thresh’s face. He lowers the
rock and points at me, almost accusingly. “Just this one time, I
let you go. For the little girl. You and me, we’re even then. No
more owed. You understand?”
I nod because I do understand. About owing. About hating
it. I understand that if Thresh wins, he’ll have to go back and
face a district that has already broken all the rules to thank
me, and he is breaking the rules to thank me, too. And I understand
that, for the moment, Thresh is not going to smash in
my skull.
“Clove!” Cato’s voice is much nearer now. I can tell by the
pain in it that he sees her on the ground.
“You better run now, Fire Girl,” says Thresh.
I don’t need to be told twice. I flip over and my feet dip into
the hard-packed earth as I run away from Thresh and Clove
and the sound of Cato’s voice. Only when I reach the woods do
I turn back for an instant. Thresh and both large backpacks
are vanishing over the edge of the plain into the area I’ve never
seen. Cato kneels beside Clove, spear in hand, begging her
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