Hey! I'm back with another update :-D And it's the arena! :-O Now the fun really begins... *evil grin*

Thanks to you guys that did the codeword last chapter even though I spelt it wrong :-) It's nice to know somebody reads my ramblings! Thanks to: nb1998! Ellii101! ILovePeeta0000! DizzyPotter! pinkgiraffe10! And newbie11!

And this chapter is definitely a T for violence and blood and stuff :-O You've been warned! :-P Now enjoy :-)


Chapter 11 – The First Deaths

I am awoken by a pounding on the door and Tobias' voice shouting at me to wake up. It feels as if I've barely gotten to sleep. I shove the pillow over my face and lie as still as possible. Maybe I can get away with pretending to have killed myself. No such luck. Tobias bursts through the door and throws me out of bed by my left arm, nearly pulling it out of its socket.

'Ow!' I shout, 'That bloody hurt!' He doesn't listen, but instead walks straight to the wardrobe. He fires random clothes at me.

'You'll wear this! And this! And these!' A shoe hits me in the head.

'Oi! There's-'

'-You're right, the shoes would be better in a shade of oyster.' He throws some boots, and I manage to duck this time, 'Now dress!'


I'm glad I'm barely ever noticed as I sit in the hovercraft rubbing my sore arm – not only has it been pulled but also stabbed by a needle now. Tobias has forced me to wear a frilly sickly-pink shirt and a plum-purple mini-skirt, with sort of yellowy-grey boots that go way past my knees. But I suppose this isn't exactly the time to be laughing at what other people are wearing – all the other tributes are probably thinking and worrying about the games right now. I don't want to worry until the very last minute, not worry about my competitors, not worry about the arena, not worry about how I might die. Or worry about who I might kill. No. Don't think about that. I don't have to kill. I suppose there could be ways to sneak myself through the Hunger Games.


Trapped in a glass cylinder, about to enter my life's worst battle. I have to fight against the urge to throw up or bang on the transparent container in desperation. It feels like most of me has vanished, almost all my vital organs, except my pumping heart and unblinking eyes. My eyes hold on to Tobias right until the metal plate plunges me into darkness. He is possibly the last person I'll ever see that isn't thinking about slitting my throat.


'Ladies and gentleman, let the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games begin!' booms Claudius Templesmith. His voice seems to come from everywhere, yet I know it is nowhere. Well, nowhere in the arena. He'll be sat in some soft, comfy chair somewhere in the Capitol, waiting to commentate on all the 'exciting entertainment'.

He'll only have to wait just over sixty seconds for that to happen, because that's when the bloodbath will begin. And I'm not going to take part in it. I'm saying no. I'll make a statement to them. Not with words, obviously. They wouldn't listen with all that 'action' going on. Besides, actions speak louder than words.

As the seconds tick away, I decide to take a good look around what shall be my home for the next... few hours? Days? Is it possible I could even last out a couple of weeks? Well, you never know. I might not even make it a minute after the gong sounds.

But let's see the arena. Right... directly opposite me is a lake. Ivan's over there, and Raven's stood a few places to his left. Rose is a few places to the left of me. Directly behind me are woods, which stretch around to the right, too. Steal-a-name-niss is over there, and poised for the Cornucopia. Idiot. With an eleven on her shoulders, she'll be the Careers' first target. But she's obviously spotted her bow and arrows, the only ones here, so I can't say I blame her. She must be REALLY good at them to have got an eleven. We'll have to make sure to stay out of range if she manages to get them. Though I think it'd be quite a nice, quick way to die if it came down to it.

Thirty seconds left now, according to Claudius. Every year, he always says how long is left every fifteen seconds, and then counts down when he gets to twelve. Not long left now then. I observe where all the other tributes are; maybe it can help me predict where they will all end up in the arena. Going clockwise from me, it's Jay, Pixie, Glimmer, Rose, Sam, Clove, Cuthbert Number Two, Thresh, Cato, Talia, Ivan, Caspian, Sophie, Peeta, Reena, Raven, Silas, Megan, Steal-a-name-niss, Cuthbert Number One, Hunter, Marvel, Jules, and then me.

Twelve. Eleven. I take a last look at the Cornucopia.

Ten. Nine. I shift my eyes away from a purple backpack less than twenty metres away.

Eight. Seven. I remove a stray hair from my mouth and place it in my pocket, so the mines aren't disturbed.

Six. Five. I love you mum, maybe I'll see you soon.

Four. Three. I love you dad. I love you Myra.

Two. I hate you Snow.

One. I can do it. I can win.

GONG!

For the other tributes, it's time to run. For me... it's time to skip.

I rotate on my metal plate and head for the woods, skipping, with a peaceful look on my face. Like there's nothing to worry about. Admittedly it is a rather sped-up skip, but it's still showing the Capitol up. Showing that I don't have to run like they want me to. Even if I'm not on camera. They're still keeping an eye on me.

When I get into the forest, I run around so I am in about the centre, and find some shrubbery to hide in within about one hundred metres of the edge. This way I can just about see the clearing that contains the Cornucopia and just about anybody that enters the woods. The first to come through is Megan from 8. She goes towards the right. Then Pixie dashes past on my left. But where are my allies? There's somebody stumbling through the trees now, an odd figure. It coughs.

'Ivan!' I instinctively shout, perhaps a little too loud, but it doesn't look like there's anybody else to hear. He leans against a tree, trying to locate the sound. I wriggle my fingers out of the bush and hope he'll see the movement. He starts heading over, but there's a rustling over towards the Cornucopia, and when I see it's Steal-a-name-niss I freeze, not wanting to be hit by an arrow already. But she just dashes through with a pack and some plastic. I sigh, full of relief, now that I know she didn't collect her bow. I continue to gesture for Ivan to keep coming towards me. Eventually he does get here, and clutches something in his hands. A spearhead.

'Ivan! I thought I told you we shouldn't go in for anything!' He lowers himself down against a tree to sit next to me.

'I didn't,' he says, 'but the boy from District 1 did.' I look down at his legs, to see blood oozing out of his right calf.

'Oh, Ivan!'

'It's okay,' he says, half-wincing, half-coughing, 'it doesn't hurt.' I look at him.

'Ivan, if it doesn't hurt, that's a bad thing.'

'Oh. In that case, I lied, it's extremely painful.'

'Really?'

'Really.'

'Good.'

'Good?'

'Sort of.'

'Sort of?'

'Ivan!'

'Okay...' Well, I suppose his ability to joke means he can't be too bad.

'Right. I need to take a look at your leg. Lie on your back and prop your foot up against the tree.' He does as I've said and I gently pull his trouser leg down so I can see the wound. Not much blood comes out, but a dribble keeps running down towards his knee, so I wipe it away with my sleeve every once in a while. The cut itself isn't too deep, just a reasonably-sized slash. 'Seems to me you've been a very lucky boy in this instance. Marvel's poor angling has meant it's missed the muscle and the bone. I thought Careers were meant to be good at this sort of thing?'

'Well, it's probably because he only had its head, there wasn't any stick thing connected to it to help him aim. Otherwise I'd have been a goner, I guess.' Thank you Gamemakers for not giving them any stick things. Cuthbert Number One's run past whilst we've been talking. But there's still no Raven. Or Rose, which might be a good thing.

'Alright, now we've just got to figure out a way to bandage you up, it might be a while before it can all clot.' I look around but there's nothing really good enough. There are no vines, like we were shown in training. I eventually settle to climb up a nearby sycamore tree and then twine the largest leaves together, when I hear a voice.

'So this is where you are.' I turn towards the sound to find Rose stood nearby with her hands on her hips. She must have sneaked up on us. Over one of her shoulders is a black strap and I can see a streak of purple behind that. She went in to the Cornucopia. And came out without so much as a scratch. Yet Ivan ran away and came out injured.

'I thought we decided that we weren't going to head for the supplies?'

'I didn't decide on that, you did,' she says.

'No, I did, and Ivan did, and Raven did, wherever the hell he is. Therefore we did, and you went against us.'

'Oh, aren't you nice?'

'Well, if you were stupid enough to go in and get it, at least chuck it here so we can use it. It might have a first aid kit we can use on Ivan's leg.'

'No way, it's mine. I got it!'

I quote her, 'Why do you have to be so mean? We're supposed to be allies.'

'Fine,' she says, and throws the pack down at us, 'I'm only with you for Raven anyway.'


'Can't we just leave him? He's slowing us down!'

'Shush!' I say as we hike along. We're making enough noise as it is, with Ivan coughing left right and centre. I hold him up on my shoulder, as while his injury doesn't seem life threatening, it still hurts when he puts pressure on it. Between Ivan and Raven, there's only one good pair of legs now, and even if we combined them they'd have two left feet. Not that we can actually find Raven. It feels like we've been searching for hours. We probably have.

All of a sudden, Ivan stops and turns to the right. He 'ooh's and 'aah's slightly as he walks over to a berry bush. I can't see what kind they are from here, but I do as he comes back over. Nightlock.

'Why have we stopped now?' moans Rose, stopping and turning round towards us. I ignore her.

'Ivan, that's nightlock!'

'I know,' he says, lifting the berries up towards his mouth.

'Oh no, you don't!' I say, grabbing them all out of his hands and tossing them on the ground.

'No! Medea, you don't understand!'

'Yes, I do! You're going to kill yourself because you think you're slowing us down! Well, you're not. I could even carry you if it was that bad.'

'No, you're wrong, for once.'

'Am I?'

'Yes. Well, partly,' he coughs up loudly and has to kneel down on the ground to breathe better again. A red substance comes up. 'Medea, you know I'm going to die. Your nose keeps squinching up. You smell death.'

'What? How do you know that?' I say; I've only ever told Myra about me smelling death. I go on my knees to be level with Ivan, watching his face closely. Rose folds her arms impatiently out of the corner of my eye.

'I-, I-,' he ducks his head down and blushes, '-I've always sort of watched you. You just kind of always looked... really nice. Even when the big girl was picking on you.' Oh Ivan, please don't pull a Peeta on me. 'And before Travvie Barnett died, you kept doing a funny face around him. And Lizzie McCoy.'

'Ivan, it doesn't work like that,' I say, 'it's only if it's natural causes. I can't predict you're going to die here. And who even says I was squinching my nose up at you? Tyranny's perfume was everywhere.'

'No. I am going to die anyway. Because I have pneumonia.' Pneumonia. Ivan has pneumonia. Suddenly, so many things fit into place in my mind. His constant coughing. His occasional difficulty breathing. The red flemmy mucus that came out of his mouth yesterday. And it explains why I could smell Tyranny's perfume, even when she wasn't around. Because I wasn't smelling her, I was smelling Ivan.

Ivan's hands attempt to gather up the nightlock, but my own beat him to it.

'I shan't let you eat them.'

'Please Medea! I want you to win! And you won't if I make us get tracked down by the Careers!' I pause for a moment. Ivan is my friend. Is it selfish of me to want him alive when he just wants to die peacefully via these berries?

'I'm not sure...' I say.

'Oh! Let me do it so it's quicker!' Rose charges forwards, snatching the nightlock from my hands and then spurts the juice of one into Ivan's mouth. Just like that, he falls onto his side and the lights in his eyes fade into nothing. The spearhead is still in his hand from earlier.

'No!' I scream, patting his cheeks frantically, as though that will make him move again. 'You killed him!' I shout at Rose, not caring how loud I am now. She has murdered the boy with the ball.

Before I know what's happening, I find myself grabbing a hold of the blunt end of Ivan's spearhead. I dive onto an unsuspecting Rose, who falls straight onto her back. The point of my weapon penetrates her body in no time at all. And I have done it on the left side of her ribcage. Right through her heart.

I sit up, stunned at what I have done, bewildered at the blood that now smothers my hands. As Rose dies, I hear a barely audible voice.

'I told him we couldn't trust you.'


I prop Ivan up against a tree and close his eyes over. Then I remove his ball from his jacket pocket and place it in both of his hands, which I have moved to rest on his lap. As I stand up, I look at him. He really does look like he could be sleeping, even in death. Even if he has a badly-bandaged up leg. Even if the blood still hasn't clotted. He just looks like a young boy on a summer's evening, tired out after playing all day. Forever sleeping in peace now, I think, smiling up at the sky. I ruffle my hand through his blonde curls and bend down to plant a kiss on his forehead. You don't need to worry about pneumonia now, Ivan. You don't need to worry about your leg, either. And I will win for you now, too. I'll make sure you cannot be forgotten. I barely avoid crying, but I can feel tears in my eyes, and my throat is dry and sore, and I know it isn't just because I haven't drunk since this morning.

Now I have to come over to Rose. My first kill. I must make sure it is my last, too. I don't know what was going through my head. Anger, fury at her killing my friend. Sadness, grief at Ivan dying. Confusion, bewilderment at the fast actions. All this equated to give me the fear enough to kill her without thinking.

Take it slowly, I tell myself, the hovercrafts won't come for a while because it's the first day. The first thing I do is close her eyes over, so I won't have to endure their lifeless stare. Next, I tackle the pack. She's not really going to need it now, is she? I bend her floppy arm around so that the strap unhooks from it. Breathe deep, Menny. It's just like undressing a doll. I pull the pack by the other strap and it comes straight off her. Piece of cake. Now for the... awkward bit. I take a hold of the end of the spearhead and yank it out of her body. Blood covers my hands like gloves once again, but I don't wipe them this time. I just shove the weapon in my pack, throw it over my shoulder, and run.

I run as far away as I can from her. I don't want to look at the mess I've made for another second. Eventually, I run out of breath and stop, panting. I lean against a tree and sob. It's only the first day and I'm already breaking down. How will I win for my family and Ivan if I'm like this? I think, before a hand covers my mouth from behind. At first I scream into it, but then instead bite it, and it moves away.

'Ow! That hurt, little Foxy! You are definitely not a herbivore! What took you so long?' I spin around and see Raven. Of course, I think, who else would call me 'little Foxy'? He sees the state of me and his expression changes entirely. He takes a hold of my blood-stained hands. 'Medea? What the hell happened? Are you hurt? Where's the blood from? Why are you crying?' He shoots a million questions at me.

'Ivan,' is all I manage to mumble.

'Ivan?' Raven says in shock, 'Ivan did this to you?'

'No!' I say in barely a whisper, 'Ivan... Ivan...' I sink down to the ground as I cry. Why has this only come on now? As if to remind me of what's happened, the bloodbath tributes' cannons begin to fire. Well, nine of them are bloodbaths. Two of them – the last two, I think – are partly there because of me. The final one, directly.

'I- I- I- I couldn't save him, Raven,' I say, in case he needs more explanation, 'I was too late.' I won't tell him the full truth. I can't tell him that Rose killed him. I can't tell him that I killed Rose. But I won't lie. Not totally.

Raven sits down beside me and wraps his arms around my shoulders. He notices the pack.

'Hey. Where'd you get this from? You didn't go into the bloodbath after all, did you?'

'No.' I say edgily, 'I... well... I got it off a dead guy.' There. No lies. Raven sighs sadly.

'You and me both, eh?' he says, revealing a red backpack. I'm sure he didn't have as much on his conscience as I did when he took it.

It's getting darker now so we travel further into the woods to make a camp, but not too far. We'll be heading to the lake to collect water once the Careers are deep hunting. It's not long before we come to a large bush, easily big enough to hide two people within its leaves. We don't want to risk trees while we're still so close to the Career camp, because for the first however far they go they'll be checking up every tree, until they start to get bored and just charge onwards.

We make sure to check our packs before the sky turns black. They contain virtually the same except Raven's has a sleeping bag instead of a first aid kit. He doesn't question the bloody spearhead in mine. When I see the food, I suddenly realise that I am hungry. But I'm normally always hungry anyway, excluding the past week of luxuries. We split a small loaf of bread in two, and then two again. This is our ration for the night, along with a few dried cherries. I love cherries. They were my favourite food in the Capitol, even though you had to spit out the stones. Not so nice dried, though.

When it goes dark, we share the sleeping bag and get what sleep we can, as we could be up the rest of the night collecting water for our bottles – they're two litres each, but specially made to be compact while empty, so they'll just 'grow' when we fill them. I drift into an uneasy slumber.


I am a fox in a meadow full of sleeping sheep. They are so peaceful, and it appears like nothing could disturb them, nothing could hurt them. Fox can prey on sheep, but I won't do so today. I just want to watch them.

I am special friends with one of the sheep, so I go and lie by him. When we were young, sometimes we would play together as though we were siblings, and not two very separate species. There would be nothing between us, nothing at all. I hear him mutter in his sleep.

'It's your fault,' he murmurs, 'you could have saved me from her. I didn't have to die.'

I turn to my sheep friend, and blood flows out of his back right calf at the rate of a river, but he still sleeps. Then his body dries out until he is little more than skin and wool. But suddenly he transforms and becomes a bloodhound. And he chases me and chases me until I can't run any more and delivers the deadly bite.


I am walking through a wonderfully white forest. There is snow everywhere. I trudge along through it, ankle-deep, as new white crystals begin to fall.

A snowflake floats through the air towards me and lands on my tongue. A quick, ice-cool shiver runs along it but vanishes just as quickly as it had appeared. I fasten up my thick winter coat all the way and tighten my scarf as I walk on. I love the snow, but it will be good to get home again and sit by the fireplace in the warm with my family.

A large clap of thunder comes from above my head as lightning strikes down a nearby tree. It collapses over to the left of me, so I instinctively start to walk further to the right, as well as speeding up. It isn't long before a tree to my right is also struck down, so I move back to the left. But then more and more trees are falling all around me, some right in my path, so I run and run and run, jumping, dashing, dodging them all. Until one of the tallest trees is collapsing close by me, and I only just manage to avoid it, but my quick move results in me plunging into the deep snow face first. I roll over onto my back as the freezing snow seeps through my clothes and creates goose bumps everywhere.

I stare up at the sky, shivering, when a bright spark of light appears in the otherwise grey clouds. It comes nearer and nearer and nearer until it stabs me in the chest like a spearhead. Right through my heart.

It burns like I've never felt burnt before. It spreads through my body and stabs everywhere like daggers from the inside. I can't move or breathe or anything as the snow turns red like blood and a dark, cloudy figure of a girl walks over to me. The only feature I can make out on her is a smile that hints at revenge.


The anthem wakes me up from my nightmares as the faces of the dead appear in the sky. We can hear the Careers shout 'That's mine!' or 'I got that one!' as each tribute rolls by. Jules from 3. Caspian from 4. Then it's Ivan.

'I killed him!' yells a boy's voice. Marvel. It must be. Marvel, how wrong you are.

Next are Reena and Jay from 6. Talia and Sam from 7. I thought Talia might last a while with her spears. No. Don't think about spears. There's Cuthbert Number Two from 8. Sophie and Hunter from 9. And Rose from 10.

'Aw, I guess Rose didn't make it,' says Raven, with sorrow in his voice as the Careers fight over who it was that killed her.

'Yeah,' I reply, 'I guess.'


:-O She is now officially a murderer! Bet you weren't expecting that :-P So tell me what you think in a review! :-) Even if you haven't reviewed yet!

Codeword this chapter is: the 'dark cloudy figure of a girl' from the second nightmare's name! It's not that hard to work out I hope...

So review please! :-D