Chapter 10

Get Over It

The cannon blasted again. My first thought was Cedric. He could have been the killer surely. My suggestion to head in the direction of the death was unanimously denied though. Cedric would find us is what I was told. This was ridiculous in my mind though, why would we not want to find Cedric ourselves? He was, in my mind any ways, the ring leader to our murderous circus.

"The game makers are going to make something go wrong soon, two kills so far isn't satisfying for any viewer," Charlene said casually. I shivered at the thought. I hated the unpredictable, especially if it resulted in my death.

"I'm hungry," Lois groaned.

"We all are," I said annoyed. I was sick of Lois, Charlene scared me, and I wasn't on good terms with D'Artagnan. This was not good at all. If I was going to die, I wanted to die among friends. Apparently I couldn't even have the luxury of that.

"You do realize the kitchen is not just for your stomachs," Charlene glared as if we were the two biggest idiots she had ever seen.

"Why else would we need a kitchen?" I asked, I really wanted an omelet.

"The kitchen is going to be a prime spot for not just food, but for weapons," D'Artagnan said.

"Knives, graters, peelers, take your pick," Charlene said crossing her arms.

"I am so over this," Lois said rolling her eyes.

"Can we please just kill her now?" Charlene said turning to D'Artagnan. Lois' eyes widened with fear.

"Chill out, we're wasting energy," D'Artagnan said. Charlene took another icy glance at Lois and pressed on taking the lead in our dysfunctional little hunger games family.

The house seemed to go on and on with no sight of any kind of kitchen. The house was quite a spectacle though, some rooms completely normal, others quite bazaar. Two cannons went off, one right after the other. I hoped that would bring some more satisfaction to the people at home, I really didn't need random darts flying out of the walls piercing my head just so that there would be more additions to the death count.

"I want to know who is gone," Charlene said. Gone, what a light way to put it.

"Probably the fat girl," Lois said looking at her nails. I thought of Dradle. Poor thing, never had a chance. I couldn't help wondering if any of those cannons were caused by Cedric, clearly none of them were for Cedric. D'Artagnan studied my face, he was curious about what was on my mind. He didn't ask.

We were in a very plain lounge and Lois took the opportunity to sit down. We gave her a group stare of disapproval, "what? I'm fatigued ok?"

I could tell Charlene was about to say something back but we heard voices coming from the other room. It was a boy a girl arguing, "That's Nathanial," Charlene said. I wondered if Charlene had any attachment to him since he was a fellow yellow member and they had spent some decent time together.

"And the girl?" D'Artagnan asked.

"No idea," Charlene responded, "doesn't matter though. She'll be dead soon enough." I decided she would have no issue killing Nathanial after all.

I looked around at the other three faces, none seemed uncomfortable with the idea. From what we could tell there were only two of them so we clearly outnumbered them. This was the hunger games and I really had no right to protest otherwise. We moved together as one silent unit until we saw the them, their backs to us.

Charlene threw a scarf to me and another to Lois. I was impressed with the design of the pockets. They held tons but looked to be normal sized, an illusion that certainly came in handy. Me and Lois exchanged looks and understood what to do. I was hesitant though, it was terrible enough when Charlene was killing someone while I sat in the corner, now I was to contribute. We each pulled a 'Charlene' and startled the two by wrapping the scarves around their necks. Lois took Nathanial and I took the girl in red.

The girl struggled which caused me to struggle, I was already unsure of what I was doing and was afraid that she would get free. Lois however was much stronger than I had made her out to be and Nathanial was already starting to lose it. I was certain the red girl probably had a little bit of air circulation still.

The moment the girl broke free from my feeble attempt to choke, D'Artagnan grabbed her arm and twisted it. She screamed in pain. I flinched for a moment at this. D'Artagnan took a piece of broken glass out of his pocket and slit it across her throat smoothly and quickly not taking any second thoughts. a nice red line appeared and blood flowed down from it evenly like a slow waterfall of crimson. I began to gag. I had no intentions on seeing what Charlene had done to Nathanial at this point.

The girl lay their limp, eyes as if made of glass for there was no light in them anymore. The blood was eerily the same color as her hair and it continued to drain out of her along with the rose in her cheeks. I had helped kill this girl, well tried to anyways. Guilt hit me as I watched the girl vanish into nothing. Our deed was followed by two cannons.

"Bristol?" D'Artagnan whispered.

I was at a loss for words. I had seen Charlene do her thing to Marygold but this was more personal. I didn't even know this girl, but she had a family just like me. I wanted to go home. I wanted my parents. I wanted Cedric here. I wanted him to tell me about how this was all part of the game and how things were going to be ok.

"Dude, she doesn't look so good," Charlene said.

"If she pukes-"

"Lois," D'Artagnan hissed coldly.

"We should get moving," Charlene said.

I felt bad at this point in time. I was clearly now the weakest link. I knew I would not be killed first in our group when it came down to us turning on one another because of Cedric, but that just made me feel more guilty at this point. I would be the one everyone would want to kill first but couldn't. Whoever dies first wouldn't have deserved to die first because I should have. This kind of thinking probably isn't healthy for my self esteem, but at this point that is the least of my concerns. So sucking it up, or acting like I was, I pressed on with my compadres.

"Bristol are you really ok?" D'Artagnan whispered to me. I kept my eyes low and gave a barely noticeable nod, "they're not people, remember what Johanna said? I know it's hard but you have to get used to it."

I was tired of D'Artagnan and his kindness and comforting ways. I moved front with Charlene. We walked in silence until we heard a crash and the sound of a struggle. We all paused for a moment because it was nearby.

"Plan?" Lois asked looking at Charlene. Charlene held her hand up in response letting us know we were not to move or speak. Moments after the groans had stopped another cannon was sounded. And then there were seventeen. Charlene gestured for us to follow.

All of us assuming another kill would be in the works and each made sure to give me a glare. D'Artagnan's was more reassuring but the girls' had more of a 'get over it' kind of look. I swallowed hard and tried to bring myself back to the cafeteria during training. The place where Cedric and I had talked, the place where I had officially decided no one was good. The time when I too had found myself in game mode. Things were just so different now that they were in front of me, now that I was living it.

We entered a room that appeared to be a study. A large bookshelf had been tipped over and several books were scattered across the floor. Pillows joined the books and the cushions on the couch were not sitting flat. It was clear there had been quite the fight and struggle. A large grandfather clock lay on the floor next to me which was no doubt the crash we had heard minutes before. I wondered if Charlene would take advantage of this and take another clock hand. No one seemed to be here but us. I looked at D'Artagnan who gave me a shrug.

"The victor isn't here," Charlene said looking around.

"Probably went down that hall if we're still interested," Lois said pointing to the entrance of a long hall.

"They could have gone into any one of the rooms coming off of the hall though, I say it's not worth it," said D'Artagnan.

"I agree," agreed Charlene, "I wonder who it was."

a familiar voice rang into our ears locating itself behind us, "Cedric Bellflower in the Study with the candlestick." We turned together to see my brother leaning against the doorway holding up a gold candlestick. He smiled cheekily.

"Cedric!" I ran to my brother and wrapped my arms around him.