Well, this is my first published fanfiction. Yaaaaay! *party poppers* Constructive criticism is always welcome and depending on how things go with this chapter, more will soon follow!
I hope you enjoy.
-Bethany


I can hear him uttering a loud cry from pain and fear, writhing on the ground, his blood pouring out in every direction, mixing with the sand and making a reddish brown mixture, the careers laughing and mocking him, his pale hand trying to reach out for mine in a desperate attempt to be saved…and then I hear the canon fire. And I know it's all over. All hope was gone and his hand lay on the ground, still stretched out towards me and his eyes wide and lifeless, staring right at my own bright eyes.

I wake up in a cold sweat and kick my way out of my sleeping bag. Even though I knew that Aleksander would have to die so that I was a step closer to victory, that didn't stop me from being sad about it. I cried, yes. I didn't care how many people in Panem saw me do so, it's good for entertainment purposes, right? He was a good friend and I'm glad that if I was to go up against anyone that it would be him. I'll never forget him and I'll miss him terribly.

Wiping my wet eyes, I sat up and tried to work out how many tributes still stood. That would hopefully distract me from Aleks. The careers from one and two, the boy from five, both from ten and the girl from eleven. That made eight and if you added me, that was nine.

One more has to die before our family and friends are interviewed and I am determined to not be the next simpering, fallen tribute. I was determined to make that the person who killed Aleksander the one who met their death next. He was too good to die and yes, my feelings on his death are conflicted and do contradict each other.

Suddenly I snapped out of my thoughts of Aleksander's death and how many tributes I needed to destroy and I was transported straight back to the arena. It was a replica of a baron desert, poisonous snakes, spiders, scorpions and a huge lack in water and shade.

I'd managed to make camp in some large rocks forming a kind of alcove miles away from the cornucopia and approximately another two miles away from a small source of water which was placed there to avoid an anti-climactic show where the tributes all died from dehydration.

It was approximately five in the morning and I knew that I would not be able to get back to sleep, especially not after the way I can see Aleks's bleeding and battered face every time I closed my eyes and how I can hear him screaming for help every time there's just the smallest moment of silence.

Looking over the top of the alcove, I noticed a shadow walk past. Immediately, I reached for my club, I held it so tightly that if it were human, I'd have suffocated it. I was prepared to bludgeon the intruder to death if I had to.

I crept out of the alcove, being careful to try and not let the low rising sun cast my shadow, naturally this was damn near impossible. I could now see that the person who was in the area was a girl and she was facing away from me. The perfect opportunity to club her around the back of the head, by the time she would see my shadow behind her, it would be too late.

But before I could even get to her, she turned around and saw me with my club raised.

Now I could see her face, I could see that it was the girl was from District Eleven. I remember her from the opening ceremonies, she made quite the impression and I remember being very annoyed by her beauty and the way the crowd seemed to love her more than myself.

The girl held her hands up in protest.

'Don't kill me!' she cried out, backing away slightly. How odd it was for her to ask to be spared, after all, the aim of the game was to kill or be killed. She has to die and she clearly knew that. Everyone did.

'Why not?' I asked her, hoping that this would start up a false sense of security. Trick her in to thinking that I'm considering actually letting her walk away alive and unharmed.

'Because…' she paused and gulped, obviously dehydrated, weak and possibly on the verge of heatstroke. 'I need an ally.'

I couldn't help but snicker. An ally? With the enemy? Somehow, I didn't see that one working out well. Of course I could be her ally, befriend her, find out her weaknesses, maybe make her heat stroke worse on accident or just hit her around the head whilst she was sleeping and get rid of her that way. Allies made for easy targets and maybe, just maybe, she's planning on doing the same to me. If so, I'd just have to do it first.

After weighing up the pros and cons of the idea in my head, I nodded and extended my hand out to hers.

She gingerly held it and shook it, sealing our agreement. Her touch was light and I dared not hold her hand too tightly in fear that it would break off of her tiny wrist.

'You're Sabella. From Six, right?' she asked, dropping her hand and moving away from me slightly, her eyes looking slightly above my head.

Then I remembered that I was still brandishing that club, I dropped my arm, apologised and she came a little closer, looking a lot easier and more calm than she had done when I was threatening her with a blunt blood stained weapon.

'I am.' I replied gently. 'And you're Elana from Eleven. I must say that your stylist is very talented.' She smiled gently and pointed towards the rocky alcove.

Turning, I walked back over to it and sat inside, Elana following behind me.

'It's not much but it provides some shade, a hiding place and if you walk for half an hour in that direction, you'll come across a watering hole.' I explained, Elana nodding taking in the few pieces of information that was entering in to her pretty little skull.

Elana was a rather thin girl, which was to be expected of course, with light brown hair and her skin was slightly tanned but covered in sweat. I wouldn't be surprised if a girl like her had a lot of sponsors. Everyone wants to help the beautiful, innocent little girl who was slowly dying, didn't they? She was the type of girl who'd pull on your heartstrings. May be that was her strategy, be innocent and heartbreaking to make the Capitol fall in love with her.

I opened up the bag that I had managed to steal from the boy in district five after he dropped it running from the Cornucopia and took out a bottle of water and a spare pair of socks.

I soaked the sock in the water and pressed it against Elana's head.

'There.' I smiled gently. 'Hopefully that'll help your heat stroke.' I was lying of course. Doing that would just insulate heat and make it worse, she didn't need to know that though. I have to win and I'd do anything to make sure that I did.

'Thank you.' she said quietly, holding on to my hand. 'Bless you.'

Even when she said that, I didn't feel guilty about lying to her and aiding in her death. I just nodded in response and prised her hand away from mine. I was convinced that putting her out of her misery was the much kinder thing to do than let her slowly die in the boiling wasteland.

She began staring at the side of the rock, I looked over to where she was looking and crawling up the side of the rock was a scorpion, most likely a poisonous one that the Capitol put there to make the Game more interesting but however, there was a lack of food and survival is necessary. I grasped my club and quickly flung it at the critter, twisting it, applying lots of pressure, trying to make sure that it was dead.

After I was totally sure, I cut off the stinger with a sharp rock and Elana watched, completely fascinated. It was if she'd never seen someone do something like that before.

I paused for a moment before handing it to her.

'Here. You have it.' I couldn't be sure if it was deadly or not and if it was, oh well. At least it wasn't me who died and I could keep a look out for scorpions like it, to give to my enemies or to eat myself, depending on the outcome.

She looked at me confused.

'You sure?' she asked, holding it away from her, almost as if she wanted to give it back.

I smiled, reassuring her.

'Of course I am.'

She gently pulled the hard shell off the dead creature and picked at the raw meat and eating it, proving it to be seemingly fine. No matter, I have some left over snake meat in my bagvand I can find food easy enough, I can hold out. Living in one of the poorer Districts made me used to holding out, except it's a lot harder now that I've tasted the fine dishes that the people of the Capitol have on a daily basis.

I needed to find out something about how well Elana was getting on it the Games so far, I wasn't doing too badly. I'd killed the boy from District Four and I'd managed to get a wound in my arm that I'd bandaged up with a piece of material I had cut away from my trousers. It was most likely infected but I didn't care about that right now. In all honesty, I'd rather let the other tributes kill each other so I could work on survival in this wasteland and worry about the kill later when I was one of the last ones standing.

Sitting back and propping my feet up against the rock, I yawned and stretched, pushing my arms up against the cool rock, which would heat up as the day goes on.

'Have you killed anyone yet?' I asked. It was probably too forward of me to ask but as long as I got some form of answer so I knew what I was dealing with, so I could devise the best way to kill her so she was dead as soon a possible.

Elana looked at me, her mouth full of Scorpion claw and I just laughed. A genuine, happy laugh. I hadn't done that in a while. The other girl swallowed her mouthful and dropped the shell in to the sand, laughing along with me. Her laugh was loud and almost had a musical edge to it. I put my fingers to my lips and she copied, we both tried to quieten ourselves down so that we weren't found by any predators who might be lurking around the area.

'Yes.' She replied, her voice monotone without a single care. The laughter had completely vanished from her. 'I took down both from Three, the girl from Five and the boy from Eight.' she grinned and saw my facial expression drop slightly. 'Oh and I almost forgot the boy from Nine. That was a shame, he was a nice boy.'

She peeled the sock away from her forehead and turned it over so it was on the cooler side and placed it gently back. It was so hard to believe that a second ago she was an adorable girl who didn't look able to harm a fly and was just giggling like any other girl our ages should be doing but instead, we're forced to live in poverty and fear. The fear of being put in an arena and slaughter each other for the entertainment of the sick people in the Capitol.

'What about you?' she asked me, her voice getting back some form of emotion.

What she had said confirmed my fears and theories. I was dealing with a sadistic little girl who was using her beautiful, virtuous face to gain the trust of other tributes and make them think that she was completely harmless. It struck me that this girl from the District of Agriculture, could literally be the death of me.