BLANCHE'S POV
Our area has been oddly quiet. We've found some berry bushes right near the block that we determined our camp, and there's a very small pond with water that doesn't look (or taste) very good but suffices well enough without killing us. We haven't had to move farther than about 30 feet from our initial block, and we haven't seen any tributes.
I just hope we can keep that up.
There's still quite a number of us left: myself and Antoinette, both of our District partners, Salem and Reginald, as well as Luther, Liana, Avogadro, both Ones, and both from two. But, someone died in the night last night: unless that was nothing more than a hallucination. I suppose we'll see it in the sky tonight.
So, if I am right (which I actually think I am this time; Antoinette woke up at the sound of the cannon booming), then there should be ten left. Which is less than half, but still in the double-digits. I wonder if it'll get into single digits by the end of today.
I've only had one big fit, and luckily Antoinette was holding the weapon when it happened. She tried to console me but, as I've told her before, there's nothing she can do that'll help me when I'm having a fit except sit with me and wait.
I've been known to hurt people who get up in my face when I'm having a really bad hallucination. I mean, the voices are there all the time, but when I see things: things like my brother Fritz in the Arena when he should be back home at 4, for example: there's nothing anyone can do for me.
Antoinette is a little girl, 12 or 13 (I keep forgetting), so I doubt she's really old enough to understand the importance of staying back and away from me. Sadly, I doubt she'll eve become old enough to recognize it: she's the second most likely to die, in my eyes, the first being myself.
I'm surprised that I even made it this far, to be completely honest. I'm just a crazy girl, after all, surrounded by people that don't hear voices all the time and don't hallucinate their greatest fears.
I think it was because I have the companionship of my ally that I've been down-to-earth lately. Obviously it's never going to be completely perfect, but, as I've said, I've been alright about the frequency of my hallucinations. They just all look so real…
The worst, though, is when Antoinette sleeps and I have to be on watch. I hear noises coming from all around, and I'm never sure if they're real. One second I'll hear footsteps from behind and run to check and make sure, the next I'll hear Pride's voice to the left, and run to check there, as well. Between hearing so many sounds and not knowing if any of them are real, I often spend my nights running around and checking. After all, you can never be too sure about these things in a fight to the death.
Since we don't have to travel a lot in the day and definitely don't feel the need to explore or find other tributes, we spend the day catching up on lost rest and keeping watch, as well. Keeping watch in the day is slightly easier than at night because I can see better, but still, I see things and hear things that I soon discover aren't real. I've even woken up Antoinette in a frenzy before for absolutely nothing. I'm really a terrible ally.
That afternoon (after a morning of restless, nightmare-filled sleep), I stay up and Antoinette falls asleep in a little ball of 12 (or 13, seriously, which one is it!?)-year-old and I try to sit still for once instead of moving around.
Suddenly I hear footsteps and jump up to check. I hear Pride's voice, coming from the same direction, and my heart rate picks up.
Could it be that it's real this time!?
Part of me is still telling my crazy side that I'm just hallucinating. It's probably right, but I have to make sure… I see them and hear them at the same time, from the same direction. That has to mean something, right?
Suddenly the voices in my brain start screaming and I realize too late that I'm going to go into another fit. Sure enough, I see my family in the Arena, getting impaled and cut and even blown up. Terrifying tiger mutts rip my mother to shreds, and I start screaming and waving around the weapon in my hands, trying desperately to get them away from the people I love. Suddenly I hear Reginald's voice: "BLANCHE!"
When the voices hush (slightly) and the figments disappear, the first thing I realize is that Antonette has a stab wound and is laying across my legs.
REGINALD'S POV
We're awakened early that morning by Pride, who seems a lot better as opposed to how feeble he was yesterday. He smiles at us and doesn't even make any rude remarks about Fabian or myself. Candle doesn't talk, as always.
Fabian and I talk quietly and I regret telling him my plans. He knows I want to kill the others today. Hopefully he doesn't kill me today before I have the chance to kill them.
Pride collects our stuff and we leave everything of Laurentina's that we couldn't use behind as we go on our trekking for today. As always, Pride's in the very front, and today Candle walks near him up there, to help him along if he stumbles on his injury.
Fabian stays in the back with me intentionally, but I know that I can't be friendly with him any longer. This is still a fight to the death, no matter how many people I've talked to, and no matter how many people I've assisted or saved. We're down to 10 now and I have a feeling the Capitol's getting impatient. I've given this a lot of thought, actually.
Now that there's not a lot of action, it's up to me to give them something to cheer for. And I'll do it today.
We walk until Pride finally admits weakness enough to take a break and sit down for lunch. We all notice that we're running low on food, but there's a lot of bushes by the stream of water we found yesterday. It's so hard to believe that we just found it: and killed the boy from 10: yesterday.
We sit in a square and have a quiet discussion about our lives back home: it's the first one that's been truly genuine between all of us. Fabian talks about being an orphan for a while, and though Pride has no vocal input, he nods occasionally. I talk a little tiny bit about fishing, but be sure to leave Blanche out of my story. Candle talks about her friends and her nice living at District 1. When Pride's turn does come around, he looks excited to be talking again (and even more excited when he realizes that we're all actually listening for once).
"Well, I'vebeen forced- uh, I mean, I've been shown the Games since I was just a kid. My parents… Yeah, they had big dreams of me winning the Games. My best friend wants to be a Head Trainer, so getting the spot was, uh, pretty easy." He and Candle exchange a glance that suggests they know something we don't. Fabian opens his mouth to ask but I elbow him hard enough that he doesn't. "I've got lots of friends back home. And my girlfriend, too." A grin unlike anything I would've expected spreads across his face. It seems somewhat (or a lot) genuine. "She's pretty damn cool. She's a year younger than me, so she'll volunteer next year." He pauses and then deflates again, muttering, "Or, uh, maybe… Not."
Candle blows her choppy bangs out of her eyes and faces us. "Fortune's preggers, if that's what you were wondering."
He sends a death-glare her way and snaps, "Shut up! She's not! She's not even close to pregnant, maybe she's just eaten a lot lately! She's only a little puffy, anyways."
But the conversation ends because Pride gets up and starts walking without another word. Candle soon follows and Fabian and I exchange a look before grabbing our bags and walking behind them.
We walk a little farther before we hear screaming and the second the sound registers in my brain, I know who they're coming from.
"Blanche," I mutter, under my breath, just as Pride lights up and says, "Come on, guys!" he starts running forward, as fast as he can with his injury, and the rest of us follow. I get my bow and arrow ready to shoot: and I don't mean my District partner.
We find them at once: Blanche is waving around a knife, having a fit, and her District partner tries to console her quietly.
"BLANCHE!" I shout, hoping some reminder of home might snap her out of it, just as Pride takes a knife and stabs the girl from 12. She flops over and falls on Blanche, and I don't delay, I pull out my bow and arrows and shoot Pride square in the back. He falls over immediately, as well, and then I turn on Candle. When I point my bow, she's already fled, running away until I realize it's pointless to waste arrows on her and turn to my final target.
Fabian stumbles backwards, obviously wishing he had been as smart as Candle and taken off, but now he's frozen, his brown eyes staring at me pleadingly.
Do it now, Reginald. Do it now. Do it now or else you'll never be able to do it.
I try to let go of the arrow, but my fingers aren't doing it for me. I have the perfect aim, the perfect shot, and if only I could just let it fly and kill him.
I stay aimed on him for a good five minutes, with him not even attempting to fight back, before I finally make myself see that it's better this way.
Suddenly, though, Blanche screams behind me and wails with hysterical tears, and I realize in that moment that I can't do it.
I drop the bow and arrows and go to Blanche without a word to Fabian, already cursing at myself for not shooting him. By the time I get to Blanche, two cannons have boomed. I kneel next to her, where she grips Antoinette's body tightly and sobs.
"Blanche, are you alright?"
"I killed her!"
I blink. "What?"
"I killed her! I was in a fit and I stabbed her!" she sobs, soon letting go of the bloody corpse and hugging my body tightly instead.
"Uh…" I get so awkward in situations with physical contact, but try to stay calm for her sake.
"Blanche, it wasn't you," Fabian says, obviously better at this than me, "It was Pride."
"I stabbed her! I saw it!" Blanche sobs miserably right into my chest.
"You were waving the knife around, but you didn't stab her. Pride showed up as you were screaming and he stabbed her, not you."
"I can't believe I killed her!" Blanche sobs for another long while, and I try to whisper reassuring words to her, but I honestly have no idea what to say. After all, only one of us will come out of here alive, so I obviously can't say, "It'll all be okay." I just whisper, "You didn't kill her," over and over, until Blanche calms down enough to listen. Fabian takes Pride's pack and hands her some water, and she takes a drink, immediately quieted.
"You alright?" I ask. She nods.
"Good." I stand up. "That's my cue to leave, then."
Blanche looks up at me. "You're leaving? To where?"
"I don't know. But we're down to nine now."
"So… So you're just going to abandon your friend from your home who can't fight for herself?" Blanche asks, widening her green eyes. "You're going to leave your schizophrenic friend who will most certainly die from terrible causes?"
I blink. Well, no that she puts it like that…
"Fine." I can't say no to her, anyways. She squeaks happily, gets up, grabs my right arm and kisses my right cheek. I involuntarily blush (Great. Just great.) and then walk, her walking with me and holding onto my arm.
"Oh, so you're both going to leave without me?"
Goddammit.
"You're going to leave without your friend from 2, who's nothing but a no-good orphan? Who will die if he finds 7 or 12, most likely? You said we were brothers, remember?" He gives me huge chocolate-brown eyes and mumbles, "Okay," before turning round in a dramatically depressed manner and slowly walking away.
Every inch of my very being curses but my lips say, "Fine, Fabian. You can come, too." He smiles and runs back over, taking my left arm and nuzzling my left cheek. I blush at that as well (Really great.) and mumble embarrassedly, "Was that really necessary?"
He smiles at me, "Couldn't be outdone by her," he says simply with a shrug, but he blushes a light pink. I look straight ahead and keep walking, still cursing at myself for letting them in.
I really, really wish I had let that arrow go.
A/N: Tada! (I feel like it's been a long while since I've updated this story…)
Chapter Question: Uh, hm… I need really EPIC FIGHTING songs. Like, any song that you could write a duel/big fight sequence to. So, could I please have some suggestions for those? (Really any songs will do.)
POINTS:
Kate: 142
Dreamer: 84
Jess: 157
falyn. oliver: 43
seaotter99: 22
Turtlewithwings: 24
Blonde4ever: 62
Beauty. Is. Strange: 49
ALSO: Now that we're far-ish into the Games, I'm going to bump up the prices for sponsor items slightly. The tributes need your help, sponsors!
BATTERY (for flashlight/lanterns): 10
Bandages: 12
Small Canteen (Empty): 12
Large Canteen (empty): 20
Blanket: 20
Compass: 20
Pillow: 20
Functioning Flashlight: 25
Small Canteen (with water): 30
Simple foods (bags of jerky, crackers, or dried fruit): 30
Well-functioning Lantern (will not burn out): 35
Basic First-Aid Kit: 35
Socks/shoes/shirts/extra articles of clothing: 40
Iodine (to disinfect water): 45
Large Canteen (with water): 50
High-Quality Food (bread from a District, meat, broth/soup): 50
Knife: 55
Tribute's Favorite Capitol Meal: 55
Insulated (Plushy) Sleeping Bag: 60
Complex First-Aid Kit: 60
Medicine: 60
Tribute's weapon of choice: 65
Again, if there's anything else that I've forgotten that you would like to provide for them, don't be shy to send a PM. If you don't have enough for something but would like to give it, send me a PM, too, and I'll bet I can find someone willing to split with you!
Also, just for funsies, there's an option of including little notes from the sponsor, too, which should always be fun. :D So, uh, please vote on my poll, and reviews are greatly appreciated!
Thanks for your time!