T W E N T Y T H I R D

Twenty three tributes lose their life in the hunger games, one becomes the victor. In the game of life and death, no one is to be trusted.

Chapter 1: The 23rd Hunger Games

My whole body began to shake as the oval glass slid down over me, making a transparent wall between me and my stylist Florence. Florence, who has been kind throughout my stay in the Capitol made a reassuring gesture by placing her right hand on the glass surface. I know that kind of gesture and I too placed my hand on top of the glass surface, rejoining her hands on the other side. "May the odds be ever in your favor, Adelaide." Florence said under the thick glass, but I could comprehend the words just by reading her lip movements. Then the platform began to move up and Florence walked over to the side of the room, eyes still locked on mine as the ceiling above us dividedly opened and sunlight came peering inside the room, blinding my sight on my stylist and friend.

When my eyesight has fully adjusted to the light coming from the scorching sun above my head, I found myself looking at the vast meadows and the golden Cornucopia. Around me, forming a circle are my fellow twenty-three tributes. Before us laid stacks of food supplies, medicines, everyday necessities like water and herbs and weapons of various sizes and shapes. Of all the weapons laid down on us, it was the double daggers a few yards from mine which caught my attention.

During the training with the gamemakers, I showed them my skill with the double daggers. I single-handedly destroyed the blue colored manikins with my weapons; chopping off heads and limbs with ravenous eyes. The gamemakers were kind enough, no, too generous enough to give me a score of ten.

Then the sixty seconds came into toll. I listened as the number tolls down to ten and with final glance over to my fellow tributes, I caught sight of Damien Cross; the boy tribute from my district which is district 8. He was looking straight at me and then be began to wink. Just before I could give him a nod as a reassurance for good luck, the gong began to resound inside my ears and as if on cue, my legs began to run in high speed, almost too fast than Damien could run.

When I reached the cornucopia, I found the double daggers on my feet. I reached down for it but before I could reach it, the boy from district 2 pushed me off balance, and I found myself rolling unto dirt and grass. I was frantic that during my fall some tribute will stab me with a knife or a sword but I was lucky that nobody dared to kill me but was too unfortunate that the double daggers were snatched away from me. That was my only hope for survival throughout the game.

I pulled myself to stand on both legs but there were jelly-like and I staggered a few steps to my back. I looked around me and saw some tributes fighting over weapons, four bodies are already sprawled on the ground in their own pool of blood, and other tributes were already running deep into the forest. I was lucky enough to be included in this game where the setting is of a forest. It will give me the great advantage to live as I was taught when I was young how to survive when in a forest filled with vicious cannibal eating creatures.

Though defeated without my choice of weapon, I snatched the closest black bag with red linings and speed off into the forest, trailing behind Damien, who had successfully got his choice of weapon; a double headed spear.

I wanted to follow Damien, form an ally with him, but before I could call him off, a small dagger come flying towards me, scraping the back of my ear. I turned around in surprise. My heart began to beat heavily on my chest as the though of no weapon on hand crossed my mind. I was staring wide-eyed at my assailant and from there I realized that it was the boy from district 1; a career.

I heard his name during the interview. I believed it was Gabriel. He was the boy wearing non-casual clothes. All of the tributes, including me and Damien were wearing fashioned clothing from our talented stylists but both tributes from district 1 both wore casual clothes; brown leather coat, white long sleeves, dark colored pants and brown combat boots, despite the fact that their district is one of the richest and luxurious of all the districts around. They looked predatory in their outfit, matched with swirling black tattoos on their faces that came to the viewers as ethnic inspired, their eyes shadowed viciously like snarling tigers out for a pounce. The other tribute, the girl with the overflowing brown hair in ringlets looked too superior to her other tribute. She looked more ravenous than him. And I put it on mind not to cross paths with her at the game.

I looked at Gabriel with wide struck eyes. He had on his hand an axe with a wooden hilt. He looked at me with his blue-gray dull eyes, almost looking bored. He stepped closer and I found myself staggering to run for my life. I felt the heaviness of my bag and I waited for his axe to drive into my insides or worst my head but nothing came. I looked back and saw him a few yards away from me, still and idle to where he was before and I found it a way to escape death. It looks like he is not going to kill me for now.

I rummaged through the bushes for dear life, hoping I wouldn't step into deadly traps set by my fellow tributes or the gamemakers themselves, poisonous plants that when in contact with the skin will make me weak and defenseless, ravenous animals pouncing up for fresh meat and then there is the fear of a fellow tribute shooting weapons at me. I press pressure unto my bleeding ear.

I walked for about four hours, slipping into a resting state below trees on the way. When nightfall has crossed the Panem skies, I slipped myself into an abandoned burrow underneath an old oak tree and laid down the sleeping bag that was placed inside the bag I've snatched from the cornucopia. Exhaustion made me drift into slumber, but I woke up instantly when a rustle of leaves came into my hearing. A squirrel was searching for food. I slumped back to my sleeping bag and began to think of my plan. Tomorrow at dawn, I will hunt a tribute, kill my first kill and then snatch whatever weapon he/she has with him. Or even snatch away food and water.

That was my plan to survive. I know I am not that strong, intelligent and resourceful like the other tributes and the tributes from past games but I am capable to learn from experience. Living a life as a seamstress and making clothes for the military has been my occupation since a little girl. I was born after all in district 8; the only district where occupation basically is concern on textiles. I lived with my ailing mother and almost everyday has nothing to feed my stomach as well as my already dying mother. Life in my district was too hard, but now that I am in the hunger games, I began to think twice about that.

When I was reaped, I was not given the chance to see my mother or know her condition. But having Mrs. Fowen as our kind neighbor and employer, I know she will take care of my mother. But the thought of not seeing my mother ever again and knowing that if I am fortunate enough to win and that I will not see her again made tears fall down to my emerald eyes. I fidgeted on my long black hair and buried my face on my sleeping mat.

As the moon crossed over the midnight blue skies, the fear of dying and not seeing my mother made my life more miserable as it is now.

The following morning, my eyes felt heavy and kept on fluttering. I had no sleep that night and thoughts of death and faces of my ill mother and deceased sister made it more impossible to drift into a slumber. As I walked out of the burrow, placed my bag on my shoulder and began to hunt for my first victim, I was totally unaware that behind me darted a flying axe and I found myself startled to find it perched on a tree trunk almost missing me an inch.

Why am I always targeted at my back?

I jerked around and before I could see my attacker, I was forced to the ground with a heavy impact, almost knocking out air from my lungs. I gasped in horror as the female tribute from district 1 pinned me on the ground. I was kicking and staggering to knock her over but she was very heavy. She began to lift her weight and as she stood up, she grabbed me by my hair and dragged me like a limp rag doll on the muddy ground. Stones sharp as razors pierced my skin on my back and I winced in pain as she dragged me underneath the tree where her weapon was perched.

"So you're my first victim!" she was grinning. "Pathetic that my first kill is such a weakling and stupid to add up." She pulled out the axe from the tree trunk, yanked my hair roughly that I felt some of my hair coming out from its root on my scalp. I screamed in agony as she pulled me on a stand and banged my head on the tree trunk. My eyesight began to blur and then regained. I saw her flawless olive skin, eyes looking furious and lips on a grin.

She pushed me back to the trunk with a heavy push that I felt my shoulder bone snapping and cracking. I closed my eyes as the sight of her other hand swinging the axe towards my head flashed into my head. I waited for my death when a rustling of the dead leaves on the ground echoed around us. The girl dropped me instantly on the ground and I found myself gasping and panting for air.

She left me immediately and walked a few meters away from me, axe held protectively on her hands. She scanned the whole vicinity and then from the group of trees, a silhouette came into view. The girl urges the assailant from behind the trees but whoever was there was silent but kept on moving from the shadows of the tree. And then there was a glint of silver flash coming towards the girl.

The girl knew what was coming for her and she dodged it, graceful and fluidly that her brown hair swayed with her every elegant movement. She backed away and turned back to whoever threw a weapon at her, while I pressed myself on the ground as another axe came in contact with the tree behind me. So that glint of light came from the coming axe.

"Very proper for you to attack me, Gabriel." the girl waited.

I looked up to them and to the axe above my head and from what it looked like; I knew for sure it belonged to Gabriel. I saw it while I was running away from him yesterday.

"You're my kill Monica." Gabriel's voice was faint as he was still a few meters away from me and the girl he has called Monica.

Monica began to move away from me and then came charging towards Gabriel. I forced myself to stand but I felt lightheaded as the impact of my head to the trunk made it more impossible to stand up for life's sake. I saw Gabriel dodging what I could comprehend as small daggers but one pierced him on his upper right arm. I saw him wince as he yanked the dagger from his skin and threw it back to Monica, who expectantly caught it with her bare hands. She began to laugh. "Is that all you've got, Gabriel?" she snickered like a sly vixen.

Gabriel smiled at her comment. "Bet that's all you could think of me doing for you." and then his hand moved into a leather bag from his belt. With a sly smile like Monica's, he threw what looked like star shaped blades to her. It was at least a handful of them and it glinted out silvery lights upon the sunlight. I saw Monica collapse on the ground on her knees as these star shaped blades landed on her legs.

"Playing dirty like before, huh?" she pulled out the blades from her legs but it made her wobble when she stood up to her feet. "I'll see you around!" and without even turning a glance at me, she took off to another direction towards the bushes and then out from our sight. Still a deadly axe is at her possession.

Monica was powerful, but she scurried off like a rat not because she was afraid but because she was injured and needed treatment to fight again.

I saw Gabriel taking Monica's dagger to his hands and placing it inside his leather bag on his belt. He began to move towards me and I found myself forcing to stand up. I was successfully that I cling unto the tree trunk to avoid myself from falling back to the ground. With the little strength I had within me, I reached out for the axe beside my arm, pulled it out from the trunk and with a clumsy throw, I directed it towards Gabriel, who should have been less amused dodged it as it moved pass him and then landed with gravity on the ground a few yards from him.

"Easy with the throw." He stopped a few inches from me and I found myself locking eyes with his beautiful blue-gray eyes. It was easy for me to recognize his black hair and deep blue-gray eyes but what strikes me the most is that he had a prominent scar reaching from his temple down in a curve shape down to his right eye.

I looked away from him and staggered to move as far away from him but the dizziness overtook me and I found myself collapsing on the ground. I opened my eyes and found his boots in front of my face. I saw him kneel down beside me and felt his arms pulling me up from the ground. I flinched away from him but I was too tired to move or fight him off and then I found myself giving in to what he could do to me.

I know he is as vicious as his fellow tribute. Being careers in their district might have put Monica and him into pressure and into a tight relationship that made them enemies than allies. Most of the past careers have formed alliances in the games but Monica and Gabriel are two different people. They despise each other, seeing each other as a threat than a useful ally for the game. But who could blame them, for only one out of the twenty four tributes will be crowned as the victor of the hunger games. There are no friends and loyal allies in the end.

I opened my eyes for one last time and saw his face radiated beautifully in the sunlight. He was fair skinned, very flawless despite the fact that there is a scar almost camouflage on his face. I found him look down to me and I know from the look of his eyes that he will have to kill me anytime soon. I closed my eyes and the image of my mother poured down on me and I found myself slowly slipping out of consciousness to who knows where death is waiting for me.

I am a goner, that's for sure.