Nike
4 of us Careers were given gifts for staying alive, Elijah and Jinx saw their younger assignments killed. I didn't doubt that we'd stay alive. We were all strong, and we were all talented.
Or at least most of us. Krista walked by with a smile, gripping a sword. Almost all of us.
Belladonna seemed a bit down. She was focused at guarding, but her eyes were on the ground. I decided to let it go and focus on something more important. Attendance.
Belladonna was guarding the perimeter of the Cornucopia area. Krista was talking to Jinx. Jinx was extremely annoyed, and I didn't blame her. Krista was the most arrogant person I had ever met, with the least reason.
Kronik was going over our supplies. All of our food, and all the weapons in the Cornucopia that other tributes didn't get. So about 20 or 25 weapons. Elijah was glaring at nothing and clearly getting antsy.
"We should go and hunt." Elijah said suddenly.
"There probably isn't anything in this arena. No animals would live here that aren't mutts." Jinx told him, still annoyed. I sort of grinned. Elijah didn't seem to like her answer.
"Not that kind of hunting." Elijah said with a little bit of a smile. Hunting. For other people. It sounded like a wonderful idea.
Jinx warned us to not go then. Night was just falling, and everyone was most likely still wide awake. By daybreak, everyone would be tired. It would be so easy to strike. Elijah was excited.
So was I.
I wanted to go right at that moment, but I wouldn't. I would be good…for now.
Belladonna pointed at something in the distance. A small dark spot. Someone who had kept their dark sweatshirt, while we all wore white sweatshirts that we found in the Cornucopia, with 2 to spare.
It was a little boy, my little boy. Snow. His shaggy black hair blew all over his face in the cold wind, every now and then blowing over his large grey eyes. I wasn't going to kill him or turn him away, because him being alive would help keep me alive. Me and Belladonna.
So, as Belladonna whispered about who Snow the 7 year old was, I walked up to him.
"Would you like to be in our alliance?" I asked him carefully. I knew killing other younger tributes would do me good, but killing Snow would do me none.
Snow nodded very slowly. Belladonna walked up from behind me, took Snow by the hand, and led him to our small sort of camp, replacing his dark sweatshirt was a white one too large for him.
It was sort of suspicious, her motherly actions towards Snow. But I didn't care. It would keep me alive, anyway.
Ribbon
I killed her. I killed her. She was dead. Dead. Dead.
Sure, she tried to kill me, but that didn't matter. I really killed her. It was horrifying. Shura's head almost came off of her shoulders, all because of my hands. That was wrong.
Alex had taken over me for only a minute while I did it. Now I was back to plain old Ribbon, who didn't want to remember Shura's mutilated body. Who didn't like the idea of killing. Alex didn't agree.
Alex liked the rush. Liked the feeling of revenge. Ribbon didn't understand why Alex thought it was revenge for being in the Mental Hospital for years. It wasn't little Shura's fault.
Part of me, the part of Alex still in a little bit of my mind, was thinking of how I didn't get as many rewards as I could. Only 2, not 3 And I wouldn't get any more.
I could feel something like fingers of ice crawling down my back. It was probably just the snow, but what if it wasn't? What if the Gamemakers were doing something? Were they freezing me?
Was I dying?
Why was this happening? What was going on? I felt tears of panic roll down my cheeks. What was happening?
I ran my hand over my back and felt torn fabric. That was why my back was cold. But why was it torn? Was someone attacking me?
Why were they doing that? Did I make them mad? I didn't want to make anyone mad. Why was someone angry?
I looked around, my hair whipping around my face. No one was around. Nothing was there. Nothing. No one. I was alone. Isolated. I was completely separate form everything. No one was hurting me.
10 minutes or so later, I realized I had lapsed into my Jemma persona. I wanted to be Ribbon. I wanted so badly to be Ribbon. I didn't want to be Alex, or Jemma, or anyone else that mind created for me. I didn't want to be anyone but myself.
Looking at the knife in my hands, seeing the bloodstains on it, I realized it wasn't possible. I was Ribbon. And Ribbon was Jemma and Alex, but also herself.
I saw something on the ground, a circle where there was no was snow, and the dirt dipped down. I didn't touch it. I didn't want anything to do with it. I just kept walking. This arena was so bland. A barren wasteland. The trees were tall, but they all cut of at the same point. The trees were sparing, too. Nothing was interesting so far.
I kept things under control for at least an hour or two. Slowly I transitioned into Jemma again paranoid and frightened at every noise and twitch and gust of wind. But I kept walking. I kept walking.
And I didn't plan on stopping.
Audriaunna
I felt very small. I was very small, but I felt much smaller than usual.
There was no direction to what I was doing. Eventually, I decided to climb up a tree. All I had was a sheath with 5 arrows, not even a bow to shoot them with. Not that I really wanted to shoot…but I would if I had to.
Up in the tree, I realized something. The twigs at the top were thin and unnaturally chopped at a very straight angle. Something wobbled in the air above them, like the air was tangible. I reached up, trying to feel it.
Something burned my fingertips. I recoiled quickly. I looked at my fingers to see that they were bright red. I decided right then not to reach up and tough it again.
I tried to settle into a branch. I didn't want to, but I remembered Auriel.
I had her curly brown hair, and I could see it on my shoulders. Auriel taught me how to climb trees. She was my sister, and I loved her. Someone had told me I wasn't as happy as I used to be now. Why should I be as happy, though? I missed her.
Something under my tree rumbled. I looked down to see the snow around the tree had melted, and the actual ground dipped lower than it had, like the start of a hole.
I carefully move into another tree and felt on the branches. If one of the branches was long enough and springy enough, I could start to make a bow. But nothing was there.
I fell asleep in the darkness, hoping the dark sweatshirt would help now.
Cyra
The night was almost over, and day was about to break over the white horizon. The night had been frozen. I almost fell a few times, but I couldn't fall. I had to keep Artemis up.
I don't know what I was thinking, other than that Artemis was in trouble. I was assigned to her, but it was my death that would affect her, not the other way around. But she looked so…strange. She was determined and then broken, in the same second. And then I was running towards her.
Artemis was still hurt, and if she wasn't so cold, she'd be sweating. She couldn't climb in a tree with me and I wasn't comfortable in the open.
I heard a lot of rustling, and I froze. It didn't sound careful enough to be someone who wanted to kill us.
I carefully lowered Artemis down. Then, suspiciously, I poked my head around a tree to see a very small person. She was way shorter than me, with long brown hair and huge brown eyes.
"Hello?" The girl had heard my movement, and was not trained well enough to know to run.
I didn't want to kill her. I was still so little, and she was even littler. So, tentatively, I said, "Hi."
She smiled at me and waved. Instead of approaching me or running away as fast as she could, she just smiled. The she looked around more, spinning and still smiling. I sort of smiled back at her and then retreated back into the trees. Artemis groaned a little bit and I saw her leg still bleeding.
Carefully, I took a handful of snow and brought it to her leg. She shivered and sighed at the contact. I tightly closed my eyes and thought. Artemis shouldn't move very much, and we needed medicine. Because six people died in the bloodbath, we each got three rations of food. Now we each had one match, a small bag of nuts, a little dish of berries, and a strip of beef jerky.
We hadn't eaten any yet, because I thought it would be best to save it. But when I saw the look of pain and fight in Artemis, I gave her 10 red berries. She reached out shakily and cupped the berries. Throwing her head back, she slowly chewed them.
A smile spread across her face, so I ate the other 10 berries that were in one dish. One dish was empty now.
I heard something heart breaking. A short, sharp scream. I pulled Artemis up from the snow and pulled her along with me, to get away from whatever caused it.
I knew what the scream was. That little voice that told me hi. She couldn't have been more than 6 or 7. She screamed again, high-pitched and horrible. It was long and warbling…until it was suddenly cut off.
I didn't want to see it. I didn't want to know. The cannon said everything.
Artemis was sort of hopping on one leg now, still leaning on me for support. I looked down in the waning light to see the snow on her ankle had turned bright red. Blood red.
As we walked my mind was full. Full of screams, gray sky, and blood red snow.
Don't get mad. I have a reason for this being late. I'm aiming more for length and quality in my chapters. I know that my last two stories were completed within a month each, but this one might take a little bit longer so I can get more quality and length out to you. Every chapter between 1700-2000 words. This one was 1750.
Questions. Who specifically do you think will die next? Who will do the killing? What did you think of each of the perspectives this chapter? I'm trying to figure out exactly what you guys want to see from my stories, and what you find interesting from what I already have.
Deaths this chapter
Ella Dawson, who left Blanche with no rewards. Death number 7.
Thank you for reviewing.
Cyan Lenses.
