Ello gov'nas!
Today is day three of the Games! Gah, it's going by so fast! DX
Do y'all like the new cover? Personally, I like it much better than the last but I wanna hear your opinions…
The song for this chapter is The Undertaker by CocoRosie.
So, six POVs today. And I know that there are two characters (after this chapter) that haven't had a Games-POV yet, but I swear I'll have them next chapter!
Now I must write…
District Six
Viktor Blake's POV
"River."
She doesn't stir, doesn't even move a muscle. She remains as if she didn't hear me.
Why can't I wake her up?
"Riv – ''
"She's asleep, Viktor," a quiet voice says, a tint of humor layered underneath the monotone. I turn to my right, and smile when I see Jace staring at me.
"I know…" I say, glancing at her. "But I need someone to talk to!"
"Why?" Jace asks, tilting his head curiously. I laugh a little, though startled by how… social he's being. Usually, Jace distinctly separates himself from River and me and silently thinks on his own, leaving Mack in an awkward position.
I shrug. "I don't really know, but I like talking to her. She's… a good listener."
To my surprise, Jace laughs a little. I've never really heard him laugh; he always has that serious, stony expression on his face. I was shocked when he said, blankly, that he had killed Stone. It didn't seem possible that Jace, a shy boy from District Five, could kill the monstrous eighteen-year-old Career from District Two.
My mind flashes to yesterday, when Jace simply refused to spill out even a detail of his past. I wonder… would be more open today? While he is in a good mood?
"Hey, Jace…" I say, starting off loudly but drifting off. "Yeah?" Jace glances up from fiddling with his shorts.
"What's your history?" I ask, and the question hangs in the air for a moment before I start talking again. "As in, what made you so reserved? What was your life like back home? What's your big sob story? Everyone seems to have one. Sorry if I'm being nosy… I just feel like I don't know you very well."
Jace blinks, blowing some hair out of his eyes before meeting my gaze. "A lot of people die, Viktor. It doesn't matter if you don't want them to die, and it doesn't matter if they don't want to die. They can run far away, as fast as they can, for as long as they want, but they'll still die. It's unavoidable."
I take it in, becoming a bit emotional over the depth of the words, before I realize he didn't even say anything about his life.
"Dude, you suck at story-telling!"
Jace cracks a smile. "Yeah, I know."
I smack him on the shoulder. "You really need to improve in that area, you know."
Jace simply shrugs his shoulders. "What's the point? Like I just said, it doesn't matter if we don't want to die, because it'll happen, one way or another."
District Four
Isabella "Bella" Rue's POV
"Why so silent?"
Baron's voice rings out, hovering around me for a few moments. I imagine that it's also hovering around Howl and Max, as they both seem to be in the same condition as me.
Something inside me is dead. I don't know what, I don't know why, but I feel like something has gone terribly wrong.
Howl was high-strung after Stone didn't return for a while, and broke once she saw his face in the sky. I thought I'd never see the day when Howl Draconix cried, but she spent the majority of last night curled up somewhere inside the maze of the rollercoaster tracks, sobbing. I'm not sure what's the matter with Max, but I suppose that if he wants to, he'll tell me.
Baron huffs angrily. "You're all useless right now. Come find me when you suck it up!" with that, he stomps off. I turn a bit to glance at Howl, and am very surprised when I see her seemingly ignorant, in a small ball shape with her hands wrapped tightly around her knees.
"Bella!" a hushed whisper says, in the voice of Max. I see him, still looking… troubled.
"Yes?" I say, trying to smiling but failing horribly.
Max's eyes turn to stare at me, though they're a bit glazed over. "I let her go. Lace." His voice is incredibly soft, and I highly doubt that Howl can hear us over her own trembling thoughts.
"What?" I spit out, thoroughly shocked once my mind processes this raw information. Max nods. "I let her go because… of Ren. It didn't feel good, Bella, it really didn't. He… he was just a little kid, and I killed him. Solely because… I wanted to…" his words spill out, floating off into space while he shuts his eyes.
I awkwardly pat Max's back a few times, before glancing up at the rollercoaster and suddenly getting a brilliant idea.
"Come on," I say, grabbing Max's hand and guiding him to liftoff point of the rollercoaster. He seems confused for a moment, before widening his eyes. "Bella, no."
"Why not? It will be… fun." Fun. The word feels foreign on my tongue, as I haven't done in a very long time. Max still doesn't look convinced, and I am about to open my mouth to tell him that humans used to enjoy it, when Howl speaks up.
"I'll go." Howl says quietly, nimbly stepping over to stand beside me. I grin at Max, giving him one last chance. He merely shakes his head, and I decide to just go on with Howl. Perhaps he will see me being happy, and some of the happiness will leap onto him.
I stare at the pad of buttons that seems to be connected to the ride for a moment. "It's self-operating, I think." Max says slowly. "Remember? We learned about that when we were eleven… They had to have people operate them manually for a long time, but near the end of North America and the beginning of Panem, technology started getting so advanced that they fixed them to operate by themselves."
"Oh, right." I murmur as I slide inside the right seat of the front. Howl hops in next to me, and buckles her seatbelts tightly, bringing her harness down. I do the same quickly. Max squints at the board, before pressing a button labeled start.
I squeal in surprise as the car starts being pulled upwards, sudden fear infiltrating my system as we reach the very top. It's strange, how terrifying this can feel, without being in any real danger at all. Howl and I both scream in an odd sense of excitement when we start rolling downhill at an unusually fast speed.
The happiness inside me turns a shade darker, and drifts into alarm, most likely because Howl and I's harnesses have just undone themselves. Howl grips onto the sides of the ride, screeching in tones of terror. I attempt to find a button, or some kind of way, to stop the ride, but my train of thought is cut short when the rollercoaster nears the ground and I'm flung out of the ride. I pass out right when I am thrown onto the solid dirt and hear the crack of my arm.
District Three
Jax Hood's POV
I am examining the ride in front of us, which has a small elevator-like compartment inside it that seems to reach the top of and then drop straight down.
"Stroodle of the Toast! Stroodle of the Toast! Stroodle of the Toast!" Amanda shrieks, using her new pet name for me. I reluctantly cast a smile at me, causing her to squeal even more loudly.
"What is it?" I ask her, sighing.
"Can you clone me?" Amanda sings, spinning around like a top. "I look like everyone you know now!"
"Amanda…"
"'Twas the night before Christmas!"
"Oh, God…"
Amanda focuses her intense eyes onto me. "Le gasp! Toaster-Stroodle, don't you be using those naughty swear words around me!"
"I wasn't using any fu – ''
"No swear words!"
I sigh.
"You've gone broke, squire." Amanda says, a much darker tone lacing her voice. "What are you talking about?" I question, and feel the impulse to laugh when she stops to think for a moment.
Amanda shrugs. "Double-u, double-u, double-u, dot, Toaster-Stroodle dot com!" she sings, in the merry tone of an annoying commercial.
"Amanda… you do know that my real name isn't Toaster-Stroodle… right?" I ask quietly, a bit nervous to hear her response to this question, that I can assure you most people don't have to ask.
She slowly turns her gaze to the ground. "Uh. Maybe…"
"Well, my name is Jax. Jax Hood. And you're Amanda Leigh." I say, with a weird little laugh at the end.
"Really?" Amanda's eyes are much wider than they should be, though I should know by now that Amanda's never like she should be.
"Really."
Amanda laughs cheerfully. The girl starts doing cartwheels away from me, and in a strange attempt to actually talk to her, I shuffle along after her. Once she's stopped doing cartwheels because of a 'disaster drill' I begin to make conversation. Or at least try to.
"So, Amanda," I say. "Why are you like… this?"
I've never been very good at talking to people.
"Like how I am now?" Amanda asks. I nod, and she continues. "My mommy said it's 'cause I'm sick. Sick in the head."
"Your mother said you were sick in the head?" I ask, a bit horrorstruck. "Yes," Amanda answers simply, flashing a bright smile at me. "Do you want to go play ring-around-the-rosie, Jax?"
District Eight
Mellow Monack's POV
Gentle on my feet, I silently step inside the House of Mirrors.
It's somewhat of a maze inside. I turn around corners and twists of nothing but mirrors until I reach a dead end, most likely signaling the end of the house.
I spin on my heel to head back out, but goose-bumps rise onto my arms and I freeze when I see my reflection. I look disoriented, with tangled hair in a sloppy ponytail and wild eyes. Carefully examining myself, I squint in displeasure when I see that I really do look like this.
Glancing down at my feet for a few moments, I shriek when I stare up at the mirror to see someone has joined me. Willow stands near the entrance of this small dead-end, her blonde hair somehow still in a tight ponytail and her skin still cleanly porcelain except for a dark bruise on her jaw.
Breathing heavily out of the terror pulsating through me, I begin to edge into a corner of the dead-end, opposite of Willow.
"You and I are awfully alike." Willow says quietly, smiling at me angelically before dropping it.
Through the numb horror of the situation, I shake my head violently. "You and I are nothing alike." I whisper, my voice weak from the very thought of being anything like her.
She narrows her eyes, but doesn't make any sort of move to attack. "You have a split personality of some sort, I think. Right now you're the pathetic, whiny Mellow that can't do anything for herself. Right now, you're a poor excuse of a person." Willow hisses at me, and tears begin peppering out my vision when I realize… she's right. I can't do anything for myself. I cry too much. I… am pathetic, just like Willow said.
"But when the other you takes over… you're strong. You don't care about what anyone thinks, you don't care about what anyone says. The other you is a winner; exactly the sort of person people want as a Victor."
"But that's not who I am." I say loudly, recovering from the mental wound Willow caused.
"That's the difference between you and me, honey." She flinches at the use of the word 'honey', but I continue nonetheless. "You're a spoiled-rotten, slightly sadistic, mean little girl. But – ''
"What's with the 'but'?" Willow interrupts angrily. "I don't think that's what you really are. I think something changed you. I think that if you really wanted to, you could be nice. You could stop wanting to hurt other people. You could stop being so afraid." My voice drops to an extremely quiet tone near the end, though Willow still hears me.
"I'm not afraid!" she screeches out, stepping away from me with her hands hovering over her stomach defensively. "I'm not afraid of anything!" Willow runs out of the mirror-house, leaving me to be with my reflections.
District Seven
Skandar Dagwood's POV
I'm startled when I wake up from my nap on my own. I asked Luciana to wake me up in an hour, and it doesn't feel much like day anymore. The warmth radiating off the sun is gone, and a cool breeze drifts through the air like it does every night in this hell.
"Luci?" I say, my voice a bit lower than a whisper. When I don't receive any response, I clear my throat and shout out, "Luciana?" It's a bit risky, as I have no idea where she might be and there could be someone near me that just heard that.
I don't receive any response, not even something scraping across the dirt or a pebble being thrown.
Then I hear a few quiet footsteps. "Luciana?" I say hopefully.
"Um, no." the voice is right beside me, and obviously a male's. I jump up a bit out of surprise, though calm myself back down quickly.
"Who are you?" I question, trying my best to keep a considerably friendly tone. The person hesitates a bit before answering, "I'm Arlin, from District Nine, and my district partner is here, too. You probably didn't hear her, though, because she can't talk."
"Really? Well, I can't see, so I suppose we're even." I say, a hint of humor hiding under my voice. Arlin almost laughs, I think, because there's a weird half-chuckle noise.
"So, uh, have you guys seen my district partner? Luciana?" I ask.
"No, sorry…" Arlin answers awkwardly. I sigh, momentarily defeated. "Then I'm afraid I've lost her."
"That's alright. Plenty of people lose things every single day, and the majority of the time, they find them again." Arlin says wisely. "Oh, wow, that sounds like something out of a poem book…" I mumble, before speaking louder so Arlin and Lace can actually hear me. "Thanks."
"You're welcome."
Arlin and I somehow silently agree to stick together for a while. At least until I've found Luci…
District Two
Howl Draconix's POV
I run away when things go wrong. Not always, but when I'm as shattered as I was… I can't afford to be there when I lose someone else. Stone's death killed me, then Baron ditched us, and then Bella fell off the rollercoaster and planted into the ground. I never heard a cannon, so I'm pretty sure that she's just gravely injured.
Stone… was the only one who understood me. There's only one other person in this arena that understands me the way he did, and I need to find her. I can't be alone again. I don't want to be alone again, because that's all I've ever been.
Alone… No, I won't let that happen.
My head is throbbing with pain, probably from crying all night, yet I still keep running.
I freeze when I hear a small voice say, "Howl?"
Grinning widely, I turn around to see a tiny figure that's barely taller than me. "Willow!"
Her lips curl upwards a bit, leading me to believe that's her way of smiling. "Don't be so loud, Howl."
I giggle nervously as I confirm that it's her. "Sorry, I'm just really happy."
Willow steps closer to me, so I can see the edges of her face, and the moonlight reflecting off her hair. "Why? 'Cause you found me?" she asks. It sounds pretty odd when she asks a question, because there's no trace of actual interest for the answer in her voice.
"Sort of," I say, smiling again. "I just don't want to be alone anymore."
Willow's face seems to soften a bit. "You're not alone. We are just alike."
I laugh, and nod in agreement. Willow continues. "The other tributes don't like us very much because we're different. Because we're stronger than them. Because… we can beat them, and they know it."
"Is that why Luciana doesn't like me?" I say, humming over it in my mind. "That, or maybe the fact that you've sworn to kill her." Willow says. I shrug. "That, too."
"Why did you choose her, by the way?" Willow questions. "She was the only person that looked as small as me. Even Ren would have been able to overpower me, but Luciana and I are even." I explain my logic. Willow nods blankly as I explain it.
"Also, it's okay if you ever feel alone. I don't really feel anything, but if I did, I think I would be lonely. Lonely and sad."
Yay! I'm finally done with this chapter! Not that I don't like writing the chapters, but I was afraid I wouldn't finish on time.
No deaths today. Yay!
So, I have a question that I would love to see your answers to: if you could change one of the bloodbaths to make it so they survived, who would it be?
Also, what characters do you think are changing the most?
Anyhow, review, my ducklings!
~Characters of flaming eyes eager to burn the wooden castle. Eager to wreck the paper hearts of children birds~
The Undertaker by CocoRosie