His eyes were heavy when he woke up. The sun was hidden behind clouds yet he could still see the deep, wonderful blue of the open sky. Unfiltered by trees. In fact, no trees are anywhere around. It only takes a second for him to realize that and in that second he jerked awake.

"Where-" His words were cut off by a beautiful girl rolling onto him and wrapping her hands around his neck. Her hips and legs clamped against his and tightened like a bolt screwed into the finest of metals.

The girl--Noura, from District Ten. One district away from him, yet he hadn't even tried to talk with her. Shit. Should've made better allies. She had strength that he wouldn't have expected from a girl with as tiny wrists and bones as she.

Her dark brown hair was intensely wild and fell into his mouth, tickling his cheeks. Tanned skin transformed into rouge cheeks and her dark eyes spoke of death and only death. Chance gasped and tried to hit her. His left arm responded, but his right only caught on hers and she cried out in pain as her wrist was bent backwards.

A silver chain was tightened around both their wrists, trapping the two together. She furrowed her brow, sleep still crusted in her eyes. Noura wasn't happy, that was easy to see. "What the hell did you do?" she asked.

"Nothing!"

"Why are we chained up?"

"I don't know," he told her. She slapped him hard. Fuck! "I really don't know!"

She laughed--or, rather, barked--and shook her head. The girl who hadn't seemed even the slightest bit bad before was now near cynical.

"Of course," she said, "they just want me to lose it! Goddammit, I'm sick of this. Haven't you already died twice now?"

Chance didn't know what to say. On one hand, he had an insane girl with her hands still wrapped around his neck. On the other, he had a hot girl straddling him and talking nonsense. Just my damn luck. Where's Margie? His ax was nowhere to be seen, which only made everything worse somehow.

"Every freaking time," she muttered.

He sighed. "Look, Noura, can't we just...talk?" Buy time. Let's get her to get the hell off me. Maybe then I can kill her. Yeah, yeah. "My name is Chance. We haven't met yet, but I'm-"

"District Nine, I know."

She made it hard to hold a conversation. Heart pounding, Chance tried to keep himself calm. He had to be calm.

"What's it like in Ten? Is it hot there?"

She just glared at him. The tightening of a single pinky finger left him near shouting a he tried again, "It gets hot in Nine. Some days I can't even walk outside with a shirt on. It's hot here too, but we need our shirts. Well, you do." His face flushed but he didn't stop talking. "I mean, not that you don't have a nice chest. You do. I mean, fuck, um..."

Water began to flow. It turned the desolate wasteland into mud as Chance's feeble attempts at conversation slowly turned into a heated argument between the two. Their questions went back and fourth with no real answers. Just, "What did you do?!" "Why did you do this?" "I'm going to kill you!" Over and over.

Chance finally had enough and shoved her, cursing as she fell down and drug him with her. His knees scraped against the ground and bloodied as the two tumbled down into a valley. Pain coursed through him and he rubbed at his body with his free hand.

The water continued to rise. It came from nowhere yet completely coated everything within seconds. It was up to his knees by the time Noura and he had stood up. She punched him and he hit back. God, Margie! I'm hitting a girl! A dammed girl. He would've laughed if the situation wasn't so pitiful. She gained an upper hand and her fingers were once again wrapped around his neck, forcing him to the ground. Water ran past his nose and ears, burning the cuts he'd obtained.

"When I kill you," Noura started, her voice dark and laced with anger, "you'll regret ever waking up next to me!"

Spots began to cloud his vision and all he could see was the scarlet on her cheeks and the evil in her eyes. She's going to kill me. His breath quit flowing as his throat constricted. Everything went dark for a moment and in the last second possible Chance reached out and kicked at her legs. With a cry she fell back on her butt and Chance began to hold her into the water, which only continued to rise with each wasted moment.

As her face caught purple it dawned on him that carrying around a dead body would be too hard. "Fuck it," he cried, "Don't kill me and I won't kill you! Okay? We can't carry around a dead body otherwise we'll sink."

She frowned, then, as his hands stayed at her neck, gave a weak nod. "Fine," she gasped.

Chance removed his hands from her neck. "I'm not a killer," he said, "I don't want to kill. We have to, you see. They've taken everything."

She nodded, "I'm not a killer either. I have to get home."

"Then let's not kill each other until we have to, okay?"

"Okay. I get it, the Games are terrible," she said. "We need to find a way out of these chains and out of this valley before we drown."

"How?" Chance shook his head, still feeling a little bit dizzy. Head swirling around, he tried to find something, anything that could help them. There.

Of course, it was right in the center of the valley. A large pole stood erect, waving at the top not a flag but a clear set of keys. It wasn't even too large, only five or six foot. Chance could reach it easily...if it weren't for the hideous skeleton creatures guarding it. Four of them stood--well, some crouched--with odd ties around their necks and ripped business clothing. I guess business is the real killer of man, he thought sarcastically.

Outwardly he groaned, and beside him Noura did the same. "I'm getting real tired of this shit," she muttered. "If it's not deadly ass shadows it's skeletons--of course! Can't you guys think of things that aren't insane?!"

"We can take them," Chance said.

She nodded.

They both waited a second to catch their breath. Then, feeling the water rise even more, Noura and Chance took off running. Noura was the first to reach them, her chains tightly pulling against his as she slammed herself into one. Punching as hard as possible, Chance heard bones popping and a faint screeching noise as the creatures died out one by one. They hit him back, one kicking him hard in the stomach. Gasping, he nearly fell, only for Noura to lift him up. They shared a small nod before going back to fighting, both tired and ready for their nightmares to be over.

Finally, the last skeleton was destroyed. Chance had to reach into the water to grab the keys, it had risen so far. Noura was having trouble staying afloat. "One second," he shouted. Fumbling, the chains finally unclasped and released the two. She screamed as she was taken under by the tide, only for him to grab ahold of her and drag her back up.
"You saved me, I'll save you."

Chance helped Noura escape and the both of them swam the best they could to the walls of the valley. Strong enough to carry her, Chance lifted her up and climbed back to the top. The water was rushing and churning, forming something deadly. Fucking hell. We did it. Despite everything he smiled.

On solid land once more, Noura coughed and sputtered until the water left her lips. She gave him a weak smile back and a tiny wave. "That wasn't too awful," she said. It was clear neither wanted to talk yet she continued to. "How do I know you won't just kill me now?"

"I won't kill you if you don't kill me, right? But if I see you again I can't promise the same," he told her. Feet leading him, Chance walked away from her. He only looked back once, when she called his name a final time.

She gave him a nod, standing up and looking as though she were going to walk away as well. "I'll kill you if you try, Chance."

I look forward to it.

~~~

This was the worst thing I've written in a long time...:/ I literally just had to write this in less than an hour. Well, it's done. (Edit: 11/22 I don't honestly know why I felt like that then. This entry WAS rushed and had a lot of mistakes, but it's not honestly that bad.)