Chapter 4

Azzi’s POV

When I woke up this morning, Paige was already gone. I searched for her for a while, but I couldn’t do too much as I’m still in pain.

She’s been gone for two hours at least, and I’m starting to worry when I see her walk out of the woods with a… gun? And bullets? Where did she get that?

She walks over to the tree and begins climbing back up, and I pretend like I’m still asleep. She sits down next to me, laying my head on her lap, while she admires the gun.

She softly strokes through my hair, separating each curl.

I pretend to slowly wake up, causing her to smile.

“Good morning, baby.” She says to me.

“Good morning, how long have you been up?” I question, genuinely not sure.

She shrugs, “A couple of minutes.” She lies.

I nod, still staring up at her.

I eventually break my stare and look around, searching for the gun I previously saw.

“What are you looking for?” She says still playing with my hair.

I shake my head. “Nothing, I was just seeing things.” I lie.

She nods and watches me sit up from her lap, swinging my legs to dangle off the branch.

We sit peacefully in silence for a few moments, and then I hear it. Boom. A Canon.

“Five people left.” She says, whispering it to herself in disbelief.

I look to her, and she returns my gaze.

We both understand what event is rapidly approaching.

“Okay, we stay here. All day we stay here and hide out.” I say, trying to buy us time

She nods. “Okay, that works. We have enough food for today, we will wait until at least one more cannon sounds, so no one can sneak up on us.” She says

I grab her hand, setting it in my lap. I interlock one hand with hers and use the other to draw small patterns along her skin.

“What if one of us… goes down. In the crossfire?” I ask lowly making it nearly impossible to hear.

“Then the other one must win.” She says firmly. I nod.

A few minutes go by, and I look up to examine our surroundings.

Something feels…

Off.

Then I spot it.

Fire.

“Shit!” I yelp, making her jump

“What is it, baby?” She questions.
I point to the source, and she finally understands. I begin grabbing our stuff, and she helps me descend the tree.

“Here, get on my back.” She offers, and  I shake my head.

“No, it’ll slow you down. I promise I’ll be fine, it doesn’t hurt too bad.”

She reluctantly nods, agreeing.

“We meet up in 10 minutes?” I ask
“Yes, and if we can’t find each other, we use the birds.” We agree

We both immediately run deeper into the forest in separate directions.

The fire follows me.

Of course it does.

I run as fast as I can through the forest, dodging falling trees and jumping over already fallen trees, when I end up at the worst place possible.

Their camp.

The fire freezes going the other direction.

This was on purpose; it led me here on purpose.

I duck down in the bushes, afraid of being caught.

10 minutes go by, and I have yet to hear a sound from paige, but the one thing I do hear is a Canon.

My brain sprawls out into the worst-case scenario.

What if that was her? What if the fire caught her?

Tears start to pour down my face, but I don’t have much time for tears as I suddenly hear footsteps behind me. I see a small boy, he has an axe in his hand, and immediately swings at me.

I duck his attack immediately, reaching for my daggers.

“You don’t have to do this,” I beg, while I hold my daggers up, able to strike.

“I have to go home, I’m sorry.” He says to me with slight remorse.

“Then I’m sorry also,” I say with guilt, immediately slashing him across the ribs, making him bleed rapidly. It’s a line that traces across his torso. He falls to the ground, and I get closer to him with my daggers, crouching down. He has his axe clutched in his hands to defend himself.

He looks as if he is going to strike when I notice a sword go through his body. I look up to find the source to be met with her eyes. A cannon sounds, but I don’t care.

“I’m so happy you’re okay,” I say, looking at her. Walking to her, wrapping my arms around her.

She doesn’t say anything.

It leaves me confused, but I don’t question it.

Her arms fall around my waist, and I pull away just enough to look at her.

“Why didn’t you use the birds?” I question.

“I didn’t want them to hear me.” She says blankly.

I nod my head, understanding.

“We still have one person left. We have time, baby.” I say, realizing that’s probably why she is acting oddly. She shakes her head, confusing me. She pulls away from me and reveals a body behind her. They must not be fully gone yet.

“They are the last ones.” She says, starting to cry.

“Oh,” I say, my confidence starting to fade away.

Boom.

Another cannon sounds. Leaving just me and Paige.

“This morning. I know you saw me come back with a gun. You probably want to know why.”
The blonde says, beginning to sob.

I nod.

“They wanted me to use it on you.” She says

I pull completely out of her grasp, stumbling back, surprised.

“I won’t, though.” She says firmly through her sobs, handing me the gun.

“No,” I say, backing away, refusing to take the gun.

“Someone has to die, baby. Me or you. I’m permitting you to let it be me. Just take it, goddamn it!” She commands.

I shake my head again. “I can’t do this, no way,” I say, trying to wipe away my tears.

She walks up to me and grabs my hand, forcing the gun into it.

She lifts my hands, setting the gun to her head, positioning my finger on the trigger.

“Just pull baby.”

I close my eyes; I can’t look at her. Not now.

I slightly pull the trigger back, not far enough to shoot.

I quickly release, dropping the gun.

“Fuck, I can’t do this! Just one more day. Please, we can sit and watch the sunset. And then come morning… I’ll do it. If I have to.” I say, pleading with her.

“Okay. Okay, fine, yeah, we can wait till morning,” She agrees, making a small sliver of hope shine through the dark tunnel.

We sit down at the trunk of a tree, my head lying back against it, hers against my chest.

I play with her hair for a while,  just soaking in every minute was have left.

“To think, everyone we know is watching us right now. Coach, our parents, teammates, and fans. And you will never even get to say goodbye to any of them.” I say to the blue-eyed girl.

“I know. Everybody who has ever supported us is watching this right now. They will witness my final moments.” She says, trying to hold back tears.

“Can I braid your hair? I know Kayla usually does it, but I just want to see you in them one last time.” I say to her.

“Of course, baby.” She agrees, I grab her money pieces and slowly begin braiding the first braid.

The braid ends up looking horrendous, making me giggle to myself. “She’s probably so ashamed of my work.” I joke. Trying to lighten the mood.

Paige laughs along with me softly.

A few minutes go by, and I have braided her hair correctly this time.

We sit in silence for the time being, but I eventually notice a box floating down from the sky.

“It’s a sponsor box, baby!” I point out. Grabbing the box, I handed it to Paige to open.

She cocks her head to the side, confused. “What could help us right now?” She questions, and I shrug. She slowly opens the box to find even more notes than last time, our phones, a deflated basketball with a pump, and Paige’s jersey.

Paige immediately took off her long-sleeve shirt, revealing a tank top, and pulled her jersey over it.

“Read the notes, baby, I’ll pump up the ball,” I say to her making her nod.

“To Paige and Azzi, my favorite college players. You both inspired me so much, and you’re both so strong for getting through these games.” She reads out.

She grabs another; it looks as if it might be from the coach. “Paige, I figured you would want to spend your last few hours working on your dribbling. I noticed in practice you weren’t doing the best, so I hope this helps you out.” Paige reads, laughing through the entire thing.

“Even in your last moments, he’s still urging you to train,” I say, laughing.

“Was my dribbling that bad?” She says sarcastically.

“Oh, it was horrible, you needed some glue on your hands after that performance.” I joke.

I finish pumping the ball up, putting it to the side, Paige grabs her now fully charged phone, and hands me mine. She immediately goes to Twitter on her alt account.

“People already edited us,” I say, smiling, knowing the fans work quickly. “I don’t blame them. I look good right now.” She says, reminding everyone of her big ego.

“Yes, you do, baby, so good,” I say, my tears returning a bit.

“Don’t cry.” She says, “I don’t want your last memories of me to be full of tears, baby.” She says softly, wiping away a few tears.

“You’re right,” I say, nodding.

The sun is starting to set, Paige and I lie down on the ground looking up at the sky. Her arms are tightly wrapped around me. We decide to watch a movie to end the night, turning on Love and Basketball.

____________________________________

It’s morning now, the sun hasn’t risen yet, but my phone says it’s 5 am.

You never realize how much of a privilege it is to be able to check the time on your phone till you can’t anymore.

Paige is still asleep, holding me tightly in her grasp. I open TikTok to see edits of things I didn’t even realize happened while we were asleep.

One clip of paige planting a kiss on my hand before falling asleep, another of her waking up and reacting to my snoring.

Some of us yesterday, Me holding the gun to her head, unable to pull is the main one.

I watch the girl next to me stir awake, most likely from the noise.

“Good morning, baby.” She whispers.

“Good morning,” I reply

“At sunrise.” She whispers.

I look at her, confused. “What?”

“I want to die watching the sunrise.” She says to me, reminding me of the inevitable future.

“Right. If that’s what you want, baby.” I say, trying to hold back my tears, in an attempt to respect her wishes.

I grab the basketball next to us, realizing we never used it. “How about we practice one last time?”

She nods. “Yeah, okay.” She says, standing to her feet, helping me up along the way.

For a few minutes, life feels normal again.

Just two girls who love basketball as much as they love each other.

No death.

No murder.

Just us.

We eventually tire out and sit back down. The sun is slowly rising.

I lay against the tree, her head in my lap, as I play with her hair.

“We should film one last TikTok.” She randomly says.

“Oh? What tiktok?”

“A good bye.”

I nod, understanding what she means.

I pull out my phone opening the camera app, and hit record.

“Reporting live here with.”

“Peanut butter.”

“And jelly. We now sign out. Thank you. Everyone.”

I press end recording.

Tears running down my face.

“It’s time, baby.” She whispers.

“N,o just a few more minutes-”

“It has to be now.” She says to me, wiping away my tears.

I nod. I have to respect her wishes. “Can I use the daggers instead?” I say wanting it not to end in a matter of seconds.

“Of course, baby.” She says to me, lifting her jersey slightly, allowing me to cut across her stomach. I cut, causing her to wince at the pain.

We return to our former positions, watching the sun still rising.

“Promise me you’ll post the video?” She asks.

“As soon as I get home. I swear.” I promise.

She nods, satisfied. The blood starts pouring out faster than I thought it would, and she takes in a deep breath as I start to cry, letting my tears fall onto her hair.

“A few days ago, you told me that you love sunrises because it’s nature’s natural alarm clock. I guess today it’s my lullaby.” She says to me softly. Causing more tears to drift down my face.

“You didn’t even care for sunrises, why start now?” I say to her in a whisper.

“I think I’m starting to see the beauty.” She says.

“I’m glad you are. Maybe we could move up to the trees? Get a better view.” I ask. She doesn’t respond. Fuck.

“Baby, wait, not yet, wake up,” I say to her. It changes nothing. I hear a cannon go off in the distance. She’s gone.

I cuddle her body closer, tears running down my face.

I won. But was it worth it?

You lose more than you earn in these games. You lose your dignity, respect for others, and the people you love. But the only thing you win is the ability to keep your life.