Take My Hand by Simple Plan

If I get lost your light's going to guide me
And I know that you can take me home.

Ave Chassing, 17, District Seven

I know what I have to do and right now is the best time to do it. Last night, I know she was feeling wary of me and I can't be sure if it's because she is just worried about the Games beginning or if she knows I lied about nothing happening at the Bloodbath. If I knew for sure it was the first one, then maybe I would be able to wait a little bit longer but even so I don't want to grow attached to her. I have spent far too much time with her already, and that only makes me hesitate more.

Cosette finally went to sleep after at least a couple hours of me feigning sleep. I cannot blame her for feeling safe when I am asleep, but suspicions tell me she would not feel that way if she hadn't seen me kill the girl at the Bloodbath. For her to feel that I am more dangerous than before something would have to change her mind. I had prepared myself for her to see me and confront me about it, but she didn't so I assumed she never saw. Now, though, I know she must have and for that reason I have to fear her probably more than she has to fear me. She has reason to believe she has seen the full extent of my abilities, and I have seen none of hers. That's a disadvantage and I am not about those.

This feels different than the first kill I had. That one was never planned, I had hoped to remain the calm and simple girl that I had tried so hard to cement myself as, at least for a little while longer. The moment just caught me, and I can't say I regret it too much. It has just put a little damper on my plans, and that spot would have to be Cosette. I just need to get used to the idea that I am going to be alone again.

It is not like I am not used to being lonely, it's just that, if this makes sense, one never does truly get used to it. That feeling of waking up and realizing you are literally the only one around. The panic that I would feel when I didn't see my mother right away and would have to cower behind the butcher shop as I waited for her to come back with a handful of dull coins.

Then those months of happiness cut to pieces by another sharp ache of loneliness. Then this, a friendship formed on the basis that I knew I was going to be the one to kill her. Yet I still sit here outside the door of the tiny bedroom with a knife in my hand hoping to find a reason to talk myself out of this whole thing. Am I really ready to sever any ties I have so soon? It's only been a few days, and there are many more to come if I survive until the end. Do I really want to be by myself for that long?

I don't have much of a choice now. I can't trust that Cosette isn't going to wise up and kill me as soon as she gets a good chance. I also can't stay awake for the next week or however long until I finally feel like I can get rid of her. There is no way around it, either I am going to wait around for her to come to her senses or I am going to kill her right now when the moment is perfect for me to do so.

I step back into the room with the knife hidden behind my back just in case she wakes up before I can get to her. The room is dark, and much smaller than the ones we have stayed in the previous nights. It seems that the further we go into the arena, the smaller and dingier the houses we stay in become. I still don't understand any of it, but the point of the Games is not to get inside the heads of the Gamemakers, it's to survive and ensure you're the only one to do so. My foot clips against the side of the couch and I curse inside my head.

Cosette rolls over in her sleep but her eyes don't open. But I don't allow myself to breathe a sigh of relief just yet, not until it is done. I crouch down beside her and stare between her and the knife in my hand. Am I really going to give up this friendship, no matter how fake and dangerous it might be? I look at her one more time and I know I am, because she doesn't look like an angel in sleep. She looks like my killer and I have maybe one chance to get her first. I would rather live a hundred years of loneliness than die with a friend who isn't even a real friend.

In one jerky movement I force all of my weight down on the knife as it sinks into her chest. Her eyes are flying open immediately and I panic. She wasn't supposed to wake up! She screams and I can honestly say I have never heard such a horrible sound in all my life, not when I would fall asleep to the street fights outside my window and not ever. My entire body freezes up and I don't know what I am supposed to do. She starts convulsing and her screams stop, suddenly taken over by the sound of gurgling water. Except when I look over it's not water, it's thick and red and horrible like the pain in her eyes and the shaking of her body.

I should end it now, kill her so that she stops doing this. But I can't bring myself to touch the knife still sticking out of the middle of her chest. I'm shaking so hard that I am sure that even if I went to grab it I would miss. So I don't, I slide myself across the floor and hug my knees to my chest and wait for the sounds to finally stop and for my hands to finally stop shivering.

Nolan Sanders, 17, District Nine

I feel someone slam into my back and instead of throwing them off of me immediately, I help them to their feet before turning around to see who I know it has to be. Blaise has been unsteady on his feet all morning. I would assume it was only due to nerves if this was simply a continuation from the first day but it isn't. It is some new thing I have to deal with and I have no clue what I am supposed to do about it.

I have never been the nurturing, fatherly type even with Dante. I don't know how to help people, like really help them. There was only one isolated time that I can bring myself to admit I had consciously decided to help someone out and I can hardly say that turned out well. I have no idea what people need, I am a solitary person and I like it that way. But I guess it was never in the cards for me to have that because everything in the past two years of my life has pointed me towards family and friendship. A direction I can't maneuver even with a map and compass.

It kills me every time that I look at that kid's face. Just the knowledge that he will grow up and live his entire life based off of a stupid lie I made myself go along with for the sake of his mother's friendship. Worse now, if I die in this place the kid will be left with the imposed ignorance of never knowing his real dada and the false truth that the father he did have died before his third birthday. What am I supposed to do to make this right? Nothing, there is nothing I can do to fix any of this because I made such a stupid decision that I couldn't convince myself was wrong. Either way, live or die, I lose. Game over, that's it for me. I wasn't the one who messed up my life for a boy, and yet I am because I took the fall so that Dante wouldn't knowingly grow up a whore's baby.

"Uh, sorry, are you okay?"

"Yeah, sure, I'm fine," I say turning back to him. I can feel the heat burning in my cheeks as he looks at me with those big eye full of confusion. It's just like Dante, but, well, older and not him at all. Why do I do this to myself, I don't even really like the kid it was just what I had to do, just like I had to save Blaise. Why do they both give me the same look as if I am supposed to do something to make things right, it's not my job to do that! I am just like them, a kid lost in a horrible situation that I have to deal with.

"What are we going to do now?" Blaise asks.

"I don't know," I answer honestly. "Survive hopefully?"

"No, besides that," he shrugs.

"Why do we need to do anything besides that? It's dangerous."

"Two reasons, we might become boring and when tributes are boring the Gamemakers tend to take it into their hands to spice us up. I don't think I want to face whatever that will entail, personally."

"And the second reason?" I ask.

"I'm going insane just walking around here like we're lost."

"Fair enough."

He is probably right, I just don't want to admit it. Eventually they're going to get bored with us. It's weird to think that right now we are being watched by probably hundreds of cameras; this place looks so deserted I find it hard to even think that another tribute might be within a few kilometers of the two of us. It could almost be peaceful if it wasn't for the creaking steps and dusty homes. That kind of ruins any sort of serenity I might have been able to find here, add that to the fact that I am now sort of responsible for another human being and one could say that I am kind of on edge.

"Move!"

Blaise slams into me again but this time I know it was on purpose. The back of my head hits something hard and I have to bit my tongue to keep from crying out. I look around and realize that Blaise has pressed the two of us underneath a set of porch steps, and that thing I just hit my head on was where the house begins. Blaise looks at me with wide eyes are I am reminded once again that I am supposed to be the one saving him, and this kid just saved me.

"What is it?" I whisper and he shakes his head, silently telling me it's not a great idea to be saying anything. That is what tells me whatever is out there must be pretty bad, Blaise has never tried to tell me what to do before, he usually just lets me go along without more than silent protest. The next thing that lets me know that there's big trouble is the glimpse of several pairs of legs passing just a few yards away from where we are hiding. There's no mistaking the Career Pack, they're the only alliance with enough members to make up this kind of numbers.

They pass by and we wait in silence for at least another ten minutes before Blaise finally speaks. His voice is choked and sounds like he has been breathing in sawdust. "That's what we have to do."

"What?"

"The Careers, there's too many. We can't hide forever, they're the biggest threats and that has to change."

I am unable to make myself debate the situation; he can't know what he is saying, he's just a kid he won't put himself in that kind of danger. "If we try anything we'll die."

"And if we don't?" He counters. "Then we sit here and wait for whatever is sent to kill us, unless of course the Careers find us first. There is no hiding in here, don't you get it?"

I'm speechless. He makes sense and he seems...serious about this. But he is so young, he wouldn't dream of taking on the Careers and dying just for the sake of it. "It's smarter to wait for a good opportunity or we'll be destroyed."

"They're right there, what better opportunity are you hoping to get?"

"So you're saying we follow them and just attack?"

"No, I'm saying we follow them and make a plan," he tells me. "Then we attack."

Talus Vixent, 17, District One

"This place is pretty cool, isn't it?" Estee chatters as she walks between Trojan and I. It's difficult, but I don't allow myself to even so much as glance her way. Adulia and Micah were right, I should never have let myself get this close to her just because she is from home. I have to focus on why I am here, and I am so glad Trojan opened my eyes up to that last night. I just have to follow his instructions for a little while longer and the feelings will fade just like he said. I know they will. They have to.

"It's dangerous and rigged to kill us at any point or any second," Trojan smirks. "But yes, I guess in the true meaning of the word it is pretty cool in here."

Estee slaps him playfully on the arm and smiles, but I have to half-hope that I am not imagining the eye contact we make when her bright face turns my way. "You know that's not what I meant!"

"Oh it wasn't, shame because I thought you were finally right about something," he teases. He looks back a few yards at Lior and Rosario and then winks at me knowingly. "Estee, go gather the others and check out that house over there. We need some more food and of course anything else you come across. Talus and I are going to go and look through that shed over there for anything interesting."

"Can't I come with you? Two of you can't be enough, what if someone is hiding in there?" Estee asks, crossing her arms defiantly across her chest and looking through her eyelashes at the two of us. I struggle to keep the smile off of my face.

"And leave just two of them to search and entire house? That hardly seems fair, Estee," Trojan says in a voice so sugary sweet and contrasting to his bulky body that I nearly laugh out loud. He is a decent leader, you have to give the guy that. It is like he changes personalities to fit the person he is ordering around to make it seem like he is on the same page as them. I have to admit, he is pretty effective with it from what I have seen. The only one that doesn't seem completely smitten with the guy appears to be Lior, and that could very well just be her general attitude towards everything.

"Besides, we can handle ourselves," I add. "The other two could use your help more than we could."

"Fine," she says and rolls her eyes dramatically, but even while feigning annoyance she is still unable to keep that adorable smile off of her face. She skips over towards Lior and Rosario and I can hear her giving them Trojan's instructions perfectly as if he had been telling them himself. I'm happy she is contributing something, usually the weak one will be picked off and I cannot be blind to the fact that she is the weakest member of the alliance. I am just glad to see her making an effort to pull her weight.

"Well, come on then," Trojan laughs as he takes off towards the shed he had pointed out earlier. Without a glance back at the others I run off after him, touching the side of the shed just a half a second after he does. Both of us have stopped panting and are just full out laughing by the time he cracks the lock off of the thing. We've found that none of the buildings are too hard to gain entry too, so obviously the Gamemakers want us in here. Nevertheless it takes a weapon to get the lock open.

"Holy shit," Trojan yells out as he steps in the door and drops a good couple of feet into the bottom. My eyes grow wide and I pull one of my swords out of the back of my bag as soon as I see him, expecting there to be someone standing in the doorway. Someone strong enough to pull Trojan to the floor.

There's no one there, though. When I whip through the door with my weapon drawn all I see is a very pissed off looking Trojan trying to pull himself up out of a rather large hole in the ground. I can't help the smile that takes over my face as I put my sword back in my pack and kneel down to help him out. He takes my hand with a low growl and allows me to pull him out.

"What the hell," Trojan mutters and I bite my lip to keep from chuckling.

"Maybe we should have let Estee help, she's so tiny she probably wouldn't have caved in the floor."

"Shut it, now look around and find something so we can get out of this thing."

"Sure thing," I smirk and walk around the giant hole in the floor to get to the work bench. It was a good idea to look around in places other than houses, no matter how creepy they look from the outside. The caving in floor isn't the first booby trap we've come across, but it is one of the most harmless and probably the funniest. We have found some cool things in most of the little buildings anyway.

"You know," I hear Trojan say from across the room. "The Pack won't stay together forever. One of these days it's going to implode, be ready. And don't waste your time saving Little Miss. I know you like her or whatever, but she isn't going to make it."

"I know," I lie. Well it's not really lying because I want to mean it so badly, but I think I know that when it comes down to it if I have to choose between saving Trojan and saving Estee it has to be her. That is just the way it goes. But it cannot hurt to act the right hand man at least for a little while. "We'll make it, final two and then all bids are off."

"You read my mind, maybe I don't give you as much credit as you're worth."

Leila Pierce, 17, District Six

"Can't we go inside again?" I shiver, a cold breeze catching me as we round another corner. It is nearly dark, but a few minutes ago some of the tall lanterns lit up. We would have already been inside by now if they hadn't. Instead, Daesel continues on doing what he has spent the bulk of this afternoon doing. Trying to find a house like the ones we have stayed in the past few nights.

They were close together, because yesterday we didn't go far. We stayed around to loot the houses we could, staying a while to search every crevice for something not yet found. The houses here are different, but he is convinced that if we just keep looking we'll find one that looks right.

At first he had said that the ideal house to stay in would be smaller and have at least three easily accessible exits. As the day wore by, we came across a half block of houses that seemed to change his mind or at least make him think about more than just outward appearance of the house. Those houses looked like they used to be just as nice if not nicer than the ones we had stayed amongst. Now their windows are shattered and the boards have fallen every which way as if the ground had shaken them loose.

Daesel had wanted to explore them, and so we spent a lot of time, probably too much time, doing just that. Weaving between the ruins of houses that looked like they belonged in the slums of District Six and not a Capitol built arena. We should have moved on, but I understood his curiosity. Nearly every other house we had seen thus far had been in near perfect condition, the style of homes reminding me of the types of buildings we saw in the Capitol except smaller. But then there was this half block of broken buildings. I would have thought there nothing stranger if we hadn't also stepped across the muddy canyon that separated the ruins from the next group of homes. And then there was the tremor from this morning.

I thought I might have the arena figured out but there always seems to be more and I just don't have the desire to look further into it. It might bring more light onto what we need to do to beat the others, but it would mean exploring the mind of the Gamemakers and I just can't imagine going that far into the darkness.

That tremor though, it still won't leave my mind. I know it has to means something but the question is what. It could be possible it was just a natural mishap, but the timing of it is what frightens me the most. It was just a few minutes after Iora's cannon had sounded.

"None of these are safe," Daesel tells me, squeezing my arm tightly as if to remind me that he is still here beside me.

I nod but as another shiver goes through me I decide to try and help him find the right place faster. I look around and then point at a house standing just a few yards down the road. It looks like the same uniform design as the rest of the houses, grey and sturdy with stone walls, but there are a few mark differences between it and its neighbors.

"What's that?" Daesel says suddenly and I pause to listen. When I hear nothing I give him a face and continue walking, but he pulls his arms around me and stops me again. "Listen."

That's when I hear it. It is nothing more than a low buzzing sound that seems like it could be a very far away earthquake or else a very close insect. It is that indistinguishable, but I can understand Daesel's worry. Nothing seems to be an accident in this place.

I lose the ability to breathe when I see them. Daesel is still looking around us for the source of the buzzing and I cannot find the strength to even point them out for a few seconds. They are huge. Skinny bugs with jagged wings and blinking lights on one end. Together they seem to pulse beneath one of the streetlights, illuminating the air around them enough that I think I might be able to see their faces and then dimming it so much I hardly know if they are there at all. I tap Daesel on the arm incessantly and point up towards the creatures. My entire body is shaking.

"Oh," he chokes out when he can finally see them too. I expect him to start running, or shooting at them, or something to make them go away or at least get us away from them. He doesn't do anything and then the buzzing starts getting louder.

"Please, do something," I whisper, my nails biting into his arm so hard he has to pull away.

"Go, towards that house. On three, I'll follow you, okay?"

"Okay," I say, my heart feeling as though it is trying to crawl out of my throat and get away from here right now. I can't even be sure if my legs will listen if I tell them to move, I can only hope. I am shaking so badly that I think if I don't start running and Daesel does I will simply collapse from the lack of support.

"One," Daesel begins and I can't even tear my eyes away from the bugs to look at him when he speaks to me. I can see them dropping down closer to us, and one of them is so close I think I could touch it if I reached out and tried. I shrink into Daesel's shoulder but it seems like it is coming closer and closer. I can't remember a time when I have felt this terrified.

I scream when one of the bugs drops down and hits my cheek. I don't stop to think about Daesel's plan or where the bug ended up, I just start running as fast as I can towards the house he pointed out. I don't know if the footsteps I hear are mine or his, but I can hope he followed me. I realize I'm still screaming even when Daesel grabs me by the arm and shoves me through the door of the house. Even when the door slams shut and little thuds against the door prove that they bugs can't get to us, I still can hear myself screaming.

Rowan Birbark, 15, District Seven

I push the door open and dash inside, a small kitchen knife held far out in front of me. it is already fairly dark outside, but even so it takes a minute for my eyes to adjust. The kitchen and small sitting room come into dim focus just like in every other house and I allow myself to let out the breath I had been holding.

"Clear," I hiss and Trace backs in through the same door as I had just come through. As soon as he is inside he throws his little knife into one hand and pulls the door shut. His hands quickly enable the lock and I instantly feel better. It has become a routine with the two of us, and just completing it makes me feel a hell of a lot safer even though we have yet to check over the rest of the house. At least no one will be getting in after us.

"Wow," he says when he turns back towards me. it takes a minute before I realize what he means but when I see it I want to kick myself. All of the cupboard doors are open and one of the drawers lays empty and half-cracked on the floor. This place has already been looted.

"Damn it," I mutter, kicking my foot hard into one of the lower cabinets. "Damn it, damn it, damn it. Someone was already here!"

"Chances they left?" Trace asks and by the crease in his forehead and the way his eyes have begun to shift around the room I know he is nervous.

"Really good, no worries," I say. I don't need him to worry about what will likely turn out to be nothing. "Whoever was here is probably half a day ahead of us by now since we had to double back around area two earlier."

We have started calling all the little areas of the arena by numbers ever since I tripped over a sign with a zero on it on the way out of the tunnel. We have found a one and a two in the days after that and a three just a couple yards away from this very house. The markers come in handy for memory but I don't see a reason for them beyond that just yet.

"Yeah probably," he says but it is fairly obvious that he doesn't believe it any more than I believe that we are going to find anything left in this house that will be of any use to us.

"We could try next door, if it bothers you that much?"

"No, it's okay. Besides we are already here, we may as well look around to see if there was anything left behind."

"Be my guest," I tell him and we decide to split off into the rest of the house, Trace taking the first door and myself opting for the only other room that is located at the very back of the house, a good sized hallway away. I can hear Trace already stomping back towards the kitchen before I even make it through the door. When I push open the door I see it is a bedroom not that different from one I would find in District Seven besides the larger size. It has a sunken cot on one side, a sofa on the other and several blankets spread out on the floor between them. Looks like the setup I had in the second room of my house before I started sleeping on the bench in the kitchen to give my parents a room of their own.

I step farther into the room, scanning the walls carefully like I am sure Trace did not do in the other room. When I turn towards the cot I can feel my stomach do a flip and I gasp.

"Rowan?" I hear Trace call from another room. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, just slipped," I call back, not able nor willing to peel my eyes away from the cot. I-I think it's some sort of animal, maybe a dog or something like it. Its eyes are open and starring at me but it doesn't move. It doesn't take a scholar to connect that fact to the red-stained sheets underneath it. Whatever this thing is, it's dead. Not long dead, I have seen those before and they look a lot different if they have been left dead a while. There's usually bugs and the eyes get sort of grey and goopy. No, this thing hasn't been dead that long. Maybe the people who looted this house are the same ones that killed this, this thing.

I flip it over and sure enough I see there is a large wound in the animal's stomach and an even larger amount of blood than I thought. Just lifting it that little bit sends a river of red cascading over the side of the cot, catching my shoes in its flow. I barely notice the chill until I hear the creak of the floor protesting as someone steps into the room with me. I look up at them from my crouched position, my hand still somewhat petting the dead animal and a smile on my face despite what I see.

It's the boy from the Capitol, the one with red hair and a creepy smile that I never quite understood. How is he here, I ask myself and answer almost in the same thought. The same way this dog probably got in, there's a back door connected to this very room. I feel like I can't breathe.

"Interesting, isn't he? A real looker."

I can't even bring myself to form an answer, my eyes locked on the tall boy. He is going to kill me, I repeat this to myself as he steps further into the room and crouches down beside me. "Such serenity, away from everything and anything that could hurt the poor thing."

I see the blade before I feel it, but I don't even attempt to pull away from it. It's pointless, isn't it? It's not like I would be able to do anything to stop him from killing me. he outweighs me by half and likely is taller than me in the same way. The room seems to fluctuate around me and I understand that I am not crouching anymore, I must be lying down because I can see the dust under the cot now. The pain must have dulled, or maybe I just can't feel it anymore and it's still there anyway. I don't feel hands on me but I know I am being lifted. My face is pressing into the sunken mattress, and I can still feel my hand on the animal. I hear the door slam and I feel like I should be panicking, calling for Trace or maybe crying for my fleeting life. But I don't because he is right, I feel so serene. Like nothing can hurt me.

Cosette Davonport, District Four

Rowan Birbark, District Seven

The artist theme for this story will be Simple Plan.

Song: Take My Hand

The blog for this story can be found on my profile. Deaths will be notified here.

I am really sorry to those submitters that have lost their tributes. You all knew when you sent these beautiful characters in to me that they had a very slim chance of being the one to win. Nevertheless, I hope there are no hard feelings and I hope you will continue to read on to see where the story goes. Anyway, thank you for submitting and again, all decisions on deaths are very hard for me. I have been known to bring tributes back in my Gamemaker traps, so. Thanks again for your tribute.

A question or two will be asked at the end of each chapter, which I would love for you to answer. I also ask for a general review on my writing as well, if you would be so kind as to do so.

More of the arena is being revealed, what do you think?

We are almost halfway through the tributes! Who do you think will make the final ten and who do you want to make the final ten?

I want to apologize for the delay, having trouble with this chapter for some reason and I also have had a lot of catching up in school thanks to exams. For those of you waiting for an update for Cradle to the Grave, you'll be waiting a bit longer I'm afraid. Sorry again!