Dawn Pyres, Cliffe Holden and Alice Martin were the trio of the bestest friends. They hung out all the time, wherever and whenever, especially at this cliffy hill area far from District 7. That cliff is important, but more on that later.
People called them the Troublesome Trio, because they always caused trouble in the District. In fact, they met at a fencing class. Cliffe was always better than Dawn, but Dawn was always faster. Alice, though, perfected both. That's how their paths crossed. Since that day, Cliffe had a crush on Alice, which only Dawn could see and would smirk at Cliffe and turn around. Ah, young love, as Dawn would say.
Over the years, Dawn and Cliffe started to fight. It started small, lasting for a day or so, but it slowly grew bigger and bigger. Alice was always there to calm them both down, but it wasn't enough. The worst fight they ever had was when they were all fifteen and hanging out at The Cliff. Remember the cliff? Here's where it's important.
So the trio were at the cliff, Dawn and Cliffe arguing as Alice tried to break them apart. No one remembers what they were fighting about for the life of me.
"Guys, seriously!" Alice said. She was finally starting to worry about these two. "Please, stop it. For me."
Cliffe momentarily stopped, but Dawn didn't. "This isn't your fight, Ali. Stay out of it!"
"What did Ali do to you?" Cliffe snapped at Dawn. "I get you're mad at me for absolutely no reason but don't talk to your best friend like that!"
"Best friend, is it?" Dawn lost it. "Some best friend you are, Cliffe!" Dawn stormed off in the other direction.
Alice started to cry. Seeing her best friends like this really pained her.
Cliffe yelled curses at Dawn, who didn't respond. A moment later, Dawn came back with her èstèe from the pile of all of their fencing swords, facing it towards Cliffe.
Cliffe froze. "Dawn," he started warningly, but Dawn repeatedly tried to jab her èstèe at Cliffe, who tried to reach his own one.
For Dawn, though, everything was red and fuzzy and she didn't process what was happening and just went with it, until Alice screamed. The blur faded away, and Dawn realised the damage she'd done. Trying to aim at Cliffe, she had accidentally used the side of her èstèe to push Alice. Both Dawn and Cliffe were holding their swords, with slight cuts on each other. Alice was hanging off the cliff. And it was Dawn's fault.
"Alice!" Cliffe ran towards her, while Dawn stood paralysed with shock at what she did.
Alice scrambled to get up, but by the time Cliffe reached her, her hand already slipped and she screamed her last words. "Cliffe!"
After Alice's death, Cliffe and Dawn hadn't spoken since. Until a few months later, when Cliffe requested Dawn to meet him at The Cliff with a truce. Dawn reluctantly agreed and they met at their old hangout and Alice's grave.
"Glad you made it," Cliffe smiled with a glint of mischief in his eyes.
"So," Dawn sighed, "what did you want to talk—"
Dawn was pushed far away to the edge by some force—Cliffe—and by the time she realised it, Dawn was hanging off the cliff. Just like Alice.
"How does it feel," Cliffe yelled, happy to finally avenge Alice, "to die the same way you murdered her?"
"Cliffe," Dawn started with desperation, "what are you doing?"
"I was in love with her," Cliffe nearly whispered. Pain flickered in his eyes as he continued. "I—I thought that one day I could finally... but she's gone, now. Because of you. You murdered her!"
Dawn had tears in her now-shadeless eyes. "Cliffe, don't—"
Dawn screamed as she free-fell to her death, Alice's last words ringing in her mind, turning into her last words. "Cliffe!"
Dawn woke up after who-knows-how-long. Apparently she miraculously survived the fall with about a million scars on her body. She was frail and weak and couldn't move at the base of the cliff, but she knew one thing: Cliffe had tried to kill her the same way she killed Alice.
Alice. Her body was still lying here somewhere, because it was too dangerous to go down the cliff to find her, so they considered her dead. But I survived the fall, Dawn thought weakly, so couldn't she have?
She told herself it was wishful thinking, and she herself was as good as dead. She was bleeding, she couldn't move and she didn't want to live, either. So she rested at the cliff base until she had strength.
For the next few months, Dawn learned how to survive in the wild and took care of herself, until she turned sixteen. That day, she found a way back to the District and set for it, and she returned at the day of the Reaping.
"And the female tribute this year will be—"
"I volunteer!" Dawn shouted without thinking. She wanted to get back into the world, so she decided to enter with a bang. People gasped as she walked up the stage.
"Dawn Pyres. And yes," she said in a darker tone, "I'm still alive."
~ If Reaped with Cliffe ~
Cont.
"I volunteer!" A horribly familiar voice shouted when the escort was about to call the boy's name.
Dawn paled at the sight of Cliffe walking up the stage. No, no, no!
Cliffe grinned at Dawn innocently and gave her a light hug. "I am so glad to see you're alive, Dawn!"
"Your tributes this year!" the escort said.
As Dawn and Cliffe shook hands, Cliffe squeezed her trembling hand as if to say, This isn't over yet.
And it sure wasn't.
