Note: Okay I'm actually writing 2 Hunger Games fanfics at the same time, I started my 225th Hunger Games a few months ago, and this one only recently because I needed a break from the other fanfic (its complicated, don't ask). My point is, I might not update this one too quickly, trying to finish the reapings for the other one by the end of summer (September 1st). Also, check out the other fanfic I'm writing, I put a lot of work into it so that it'll be interesting! :D Oh and I just recently started a Soul Eater fic, haven't posted it yet though. *meep*
I'm also pretty sure I changed tenses to current tense. I've been working on it for a while, and now I can't stop writing with it.
Also, big thanks to my beta, chickenwinglegolas. :D
Nightmares riddle my mind whenever I go to sleep. Nightmares of the fallen, the cries the emit and all that blood. Crimson blood. Red liquid. Sometimes it's not there, sometimes it covers my mind, seeping into every crevasse. Screams fill my ears, ringing over and over again in my eardrums. They're always there. Through every living moment of my life. Mangled faces appear in my mind constantly, grinning all while screeching in pain.
Therefore, I try not to sleep at all. I use whatever I can- coffee, tea, hot chocolate, drugs, anything. But it never works. I can stay up til 2 or 3, then I fall asleep. I fall asleep, and hell awaits me.
Today, hopefully, will be different. Today, maybe I'll be able to do it. Avoid sleep. Avoid the terrors. Avoid the hell inside my mind.
I sit by my temporary bed in the Capitol, thinking as I sip my mug of hot cocoa. My eyes flutter sleepily, but I stride to the bathroom and splash cold water over my face. I blink and my eyes don't feel so saggy and sleepy anymore.
Memories of the Games are especially vivid today. The blood being splattered on the ground, staining the green grass...I shudder, trying to get the memories out of my mind. I close my eyes and try to picture a meadow with butterflies. Instead, I see the scene of the bloodbath, a meadow full of bloody corpses and gleeful, murderous Careers. My eyes fly open and I'm breathing heavily. I blink and the mangled face of my District partner fills my mind, cackling. I try to scream, but can't.
I close my eyes again, breathing in and out and trying to picture a kitten. Instead, one of the Capitol's growling mutts shows up in my mind. I concentrate and think about kittens even harder. A flashback of a mutt chasing Shade and I pops in my mind.
"RUN!" I screech, dashing past the trees, and over stumps and fallen logs. Shade looks behind me and gasps.
"OH CRAP! MUTTS!"
We run side by side until we reach a meadow, panting heavily. We must've lost the mutt. Shade sighs in relief, in unison with me.
I run my fingers through my hair, scrunching it up and letting it go, trying to rid my mind of the memory. My eyes flutter shut and I only see darkness. It welcomes me, calling out to me, "Join us." I feel myself reaching out to it, and I collapse on my bed, dead asleep. The darkness awaits me, and so does tonight's nightmare.
- Nightmare -
I'm in the forest again, surrounded by lush green trees with vines creeping up them, leaves enshrouding the rugged trunks. I'm alone, and the world is silent. I call out to the gloom,
"Hello? Is anyone there?"
No reply, just the quiet hoot of an owl. The wind whistles, and leaves whip around, hushed from the world. The forest beckons for me to venture further, and I do so, entranced by its serene beauty. The branches sway gently with the wind, and I shiver. It's all so calm, and yet I feel an air of danger.
Suddenly, something grasps my foot firmly, and I look down. A vine has entangled itself with my ankle. I bend down to free myself, but the vine curls away from my delicate hands. I feel a jerk on my other foot. Another vine. I feel myself falling to the ground, as both vines tug at my feet. The vines tug harder, dragging me across the muddy ground, splattering my pale white dress with maroon dirt.
"Huh. Why would the dirt be maroon?" The thought echoes throughout my mind.
"Because it's not dirt." A voice cackles from behind me. The vines are grasping me tightly now, and I struggle to move.
"Then what is it?" I murmur, as the vines grasp me tighter, and I kick my feet, desperately trying to free myself.
"Blood." A familiar face comes into view. It's Shade.
He cackles, a disturbed grin forming across his evenly tanned face. Blood seeps down from his ashen strands of hair, dribbling onto his face. What used to be a dark ash-haired boy with shining amber eyes and a cheeky grin had become an evil entity; a boy with matted hair dyed red from blood, crimson eyes and a sadistic grin. It wasn't Shade, but at the same time, it was.
The vines seem to tangle themselves even more, dragging my screaming body across the ground, away from the Shade that was, but wasn't. I bump into tree roots, as the vines keep me in tow. Thorns and prickly bushes scratch me body, causing the same crimson liquid that was the ground to drip from my open wounds.
Faces whip beside me, faces of the fallen tributes, cackling and grinning evilly. The forest moans, and I feel myself being heaved onto the edge of a cliff. The vines fly upwards, dangling me above the crevasse. I scream as the blood rushes to my head. I feel a sensation that could only be utter terror as the vines release my feet.
I plummet through the never-ending rift, flailing my arms uselessly and screeching at the top of my lungs. The skies darken, and something splatters onto my dress. It's bright red, and it hurts. I could only explain it to be blood. Acid blood.
I hear a loud thud, and pain sears through my body as I lie on the hard ground, and my body spasms, then rests still. I try to get up, but I can't move. My body is frozen in place. Drops of acid blood rain down upon me and I scream until my lungs wear out. My body is now just as mangled as all the other tributes' had been. My dress is no longer an angelic white; it has become a ripped, demonic crimson red. My skin is raw, and blood covers my body. I can't do anything but die.
A boy my age leans over me, his face scarred and bloody. But he still smiles.
"Relax, Iridescent. It'll be over soon." He whispers, and then his face morphs into one of an angry mutt.
"Not."
His body changes into a terrifying black wolf, with glowing yellow eyes and sharp teeth. He drools over me, and all I feel is agony as his saliva rips through my bloodied stomach, exposing the delicate organs within.
"You can call me Clawwe. As in the claw that's going to rip out your intestines, which I will then eat." He growls.
He raises a paw, unsheathing around twenty razor-sharp claws, and digs into my stomach, twisting his paw around until he grasps my intestine. I let out a loud scream. He drags it out, sending ripples of pure agony pulsing through my dismembered body. Clawwe runs his long purple tongue over his canines and brings his paw up to his gaping jaws, dropping my intestine into it. He chews, gulps it down and snatches up another section, slipping it into his awaiting mouth. I scream again.
"Oh Iridescent, it won't do you any good to scream." A malicious female voice rings out from behind me.
"Please! Stop! I'm begging you! Kill me already!" I screech.
"Oh but that's no fun!" The girl strides in front of me, her left eye missing and a scar running through her right, dripping blood.
Clawwe yanks the rest of my intestine out, scarfing it down greedily as my blood runs down onto his scruff, staining his pelt red. He licks his lips yet again, smiling.
"I'm still hungry, Iridescent." He cackles.
"And I haven't even begun eating!" The girl hisses, transforming into a bright green snake, and she slithers towards my body.
Tears fall down my cheeks as the snake-girl bites my neck, ripping the skin off and devouring it whole. Clawwe reaches into my stomach yet again and removes a bloody kidney, biting into it instantly.
"Why am I still not dead?" I think to myself, and as if Clawwe heard my thoughts, he replies.
"Because here, you can never die. You're our prey, and our prey never dies; it only feels pain again and again."
The girl slides into my stomach, gnawing at anything she can find. Her scales quickly turn red, and I scream again. Pain rips through my body. Clawwe reaches out and runs his claws down my body, then licks the blood that seeps from them, sighing in pleasure.
The Shade that is, but isn't appears, cocking his head slightly.
"She's mine now."
Clawwe and the snake girl leave, blood trailing behind them, and Shade grins evilly.
"Time to die."
Instead of pleading for my life, I simply nod with the little strength I have. Shade leans over me, reaches into my chest and pulls out a glowing ball of life. My soul. It drips with blood and radiates anger and hurt.
I feel myself choking, and the most pain I have ever experienced tears through my body, extinguishing every hope I ever had, killing any love, destroying all compassion and desires.
Pain like never before exfoliates my body, ridding me of any sign of joy, and replacing it with searing pain, hurt, worry, despair and horror.
Shade looks down at me cruelly, shunning my existence.
"I thought you said you loved me." I choke out on my last breath.
"Too bad." He hisses, then crushes my soul with his hand, plummeting me into everlasting darkness.