This will be another death heavy chapter. We have 14 days ladies and gentlemen.
Please also see A/N at the bottom for an important announcement.
Day turns to day, turns to day,
Turns to day turns to day.
I'm a little bit older
A little bit wiser
A little bit better
A little bit.
Katarina Morellee, 18
District 5 Female
There are people that you don't mess with. I happen to be one of those people. Not only am I a badass bitch extraordinaire, but I get what I want. I don't settle for less, I don't settle for almost, I don't settle for close enough. I get what I want.
What I want is Hazel's head on a spike.
She killed my best friend. My friend that I've had since I was literally born. The perfect person to use, and be my confidant. She was the only person who really stuck by me. I told her everything. I kept her close, because if I didn't she would have strayed, and someone else would have taken advantage of her.
"You okay?" ask Keanu.
"Do I look okay, Keanu?" I ask. "My best friend died yesterday. Stabbed through the chest by that bitch, Hazel. Now it's time for us to get her back."
"What do you mean?" he asks.
"I mean it's time for us to crack down, and do what we were trained to do," I say
I grab my machete and I walk away through the corn maze. It's a funny thing seeking vengeance. Deep down I know I won't solve anything by killing Hazel, well, other than making me closer to the end. What is the absolute worst, though, is that she has the no feeling thing. If Hazel were to escape this arena, Hazel would literally feel nothing. She would feel no remorse. She would feel no sadness for the fallen tributes. I refuse to let her leave this carnival.
"I used to love carnivals." says Keanu walking behind me.
"They were never really my thing," I say continuing through the forest.
"Why are you always so serious? Like I understand why you are right now, you know, with Ellie. Why when you were like that when we were kids?"
"Is this suddenly question hour?!" I say turning to him. "Is this that moment where I pour out my heart to you and let you know all about the confusing girl that is Katarina Morellee?"
"Look," he says defensively. "There isn't a reason to be rude, Kat. I'm trying to help here."
I'm overwhelmed. This doesn't happen often, and it's not something that I admit to often, but I'm overwhelmed. I can't believe this is what I've come to. Fighting back tears, and talking to my brother about our dead sister in the Hunger Games.
"Look, I'm not trying to be snappy," I say staring at him. "I just really have to be strong right now. Because if I'm not strong, then I'm going to fall apart, and I can't afford that right now, Keanu, I just can't."
He wraps me in a hug, and I fall into the ground weeping. This would be a perfect time. Me weeping on the ground in his arms, him with a knife in the back. Quick and easy, and strangely enough I would be okay with it. I don't care anymore. This game has taken a toll on me as a whole. The entire time I've been trying to be better than last time, think smarter than last time, outplay people like last time. The stakes are so high when you gamble with your own life.
"You'll be okay." he says.
I pull away and wipe my eyes. The fact that I'm not dead proves to me that Keanu is trustworthy. Or at least he's trustworthy for now. He needs me as much as I need him in this games.
It's hard to believe that only four days ago we entered this death trap of an arena, and we went from 26 to 10 in just three short days. Honora was a huge shock yesterday. I was expecting the mutts to turn on us rather than picking her, but sure enough, we saw her. Ground into little bits on the floor.
"Come on," I say as we're walking towards the corn maze.
"Where are we going?" he asks.
"We have a date with that bitch, Hazel," I say.
I see fire, inside the mountains.
I see fire, burning the trees.
I see fire, hollowing souls.
I see fire, blood in the breeze.
Hazel Patch, 18
District 8 Female
I miss toilets.
I know out of all of the things to miss about home, that toilets are a weird one to miss, but I can't help it. It's not as easy to pee in the outdoors as guys. We have to squat, and then pray that the leaf we are wiping with isn't a poison ivy plant.
"This is very real," says Sashen
"What is?"
She flips over a corn on the cob she has been cooking over the fire.
"All of this death. I have a feeling that we haven't seen the end of it."
"What's it like to feel?"
I've never asked this question to anyone. This has always been something I've seen as an advantage going into the games. Seeing the look of sadness that the other tributes have due to their fallen comrades, is too much for me. I don't feel overwhelmed, due to the fact I'm incapable of feeling. I do want to experience some sorrow, though. I think it's the least I can do for my fallen siblings.
"You're lucky that you don't know." says Sashen putting the corn to her mouth and eating it.
Everyone has always said that since I was a kid. "Hazel is so lucky that she doesn't have to feel the bad things." What about the good things though? Like love, or joy, fun even. I started to learn to fake laugh as I grew older so people wouldn't look at me weird.
I'll never know what it's like to love someone like Joseph and Ava knew. I'll never know true friendship like Kat and Ellie. I'll never know what it feels like to be happy, because of this stupid disorder in my brain. Sometimes I wonder why they chose me to bring back. Were they expecting some robot bloodthirsty tribute that is out to kill everyone in sight? Instead, they got me. Simple Hazel, who instead of killing everything in sight, she merely fights when needed.
I must be the biggest casting let down ever.
"I need to pee," I say getting up and heading to the designated waste part of the maze.
I walk over to the corn that we have deemed unacceptable to continue living and begin to pee.
When I'm about halfway done, I begin to hear voices coming from the corn maze.
"We can't kill her with her pants around her ankles!" says a male voice who I'm assuming is Keanu.
"Why to give her a chance to strike back?" says a female voice belonging to Kat.
Why these two are fighting it gives me more time to actually get my pants up. I stand up and walk over to where they are and see them intently whispering to each other. When they see me standing in front of them, they immediately strike into action. Kat reaches for a knife and tries to slice at me, while Keanu lunges his spear at me.
I somehow manage to dodge both of them with nothing more than a cut on my thigh, when Kat comes around and backhands me. I fall to the ground, and watch as they stand over me. Both looking guilty, but sinister all at the same time.
Kat grabs Keanu's spear, and just as she is about to kill me Sashen tackles her to the ground, and the two begin to fight.
"I'm. So. Sick. Of. My. Allies. Dying." says Sashen between punches to Katarina's face.
Before I have time to get up Keanu stomps on my chest causing the air to leave my lungs. I struggle to find breath as he mounts me and begins to choke me. My lungs burn as I struggle to fight off the monster that is on top of me, but my body grows weaker and weaker as I punch and flail.
I look over and see Sashen stabbing Katarina in the neck with the knife Kat once tried to stab me with. Katarina's cannon goes off, but before Sashen has time to make it over to help me the world starts going black. She tackles Keanu, but the damage is already done, and I know that he's crushed my windpipe.
The air is not coming in, and even though I should be able to breathe, without proper procedure, I know I'm a goner. I watch as a Keanu and Sashen struggle fighting one another. The last thing I see before everything goes black is Keanu banging Sashen's head against the ground over and over again. I hear her cannon before I fade away.
Like a small boat,
On the ocean.
Sending big waves, into motion.
Like how a single word, can make a heart open.
I might only have one match, but I can make an explosion.
Ava Willows, 18
District 3 Female
Holy crap, three cannons already today. I'm officially in the top 7 of the games. How did I make it this far? Who would have thought that the little girl from District 3 would make it into the top 7? Wyatt, Ares, and I are all busy trying to track down that group of three girls. They are the ones that have the biggest threat of making it to the final 3.
"They should be here in the games section," says Wyatt. "I'm almost positive this is where Caius died."
"Aren't you at all curious as to who just died?"
"Money is on Hazel and Keanu," says Ares as he opens up a curtain to a tent. The girls aren't there, but I'm kind of glad. I'm not really looking for a fight.
Wyatt and Ares split up walking down the line and open up tents one by one. These girls are smarter than that. They wouldn't hide somewhere that people would look right away. They'll be somewhere where people wouldn't think to look.
My eyes scan the area surrounding the field. I see booths, crates, tents, and a prize booth. In the prize booth is multiple stuffed animals that are big enough to hide between if you're a small person.
They're all small.
I nudge at Wyatt who responds very harshly as he turns to me and glares.
"What?"
I point at the animals and he nods. He and Ares walk over to the animals and start moving them, and then out of nowhere Carmen jumps out with a knife. She tackles Wyatt, and they begin to struggle. Wyatt is clearly stronger, but Wyatt isn't as fast as Carmen is. She's agile and flexible.
While Carmen and Wyatt are struggling, Artemis jumps out. Ares was ready for her, and he stabs her in the stomach. She clutches her stomach, and then falls down. Her cannon sounds and her eyes look so defeated.
Vera has still yet to come out of the animals, so Ares and I start moving them around. We move all of the animals, and still no Vera. Once we get to the last one, Ares and I are bracing for a fight. When we move the animal, there is still no sign of Vera.
"Where is she?" I mutter under my breath.
I hear Camen scream as a cannon goes off, and see Wyatt standing over her with a grin on his face. What I also see is Vera sneaking up behind him with a machete in hand. Before we can warn Wyatt she has it raised above her head bring it down towards the back of his head. We scream and Wyatt glances over right as the machete makes an impact with his head.
His cannon is deafening.
Vera turns back to us and looks ready to fight the arena starts to shake. The walls start to fall, and we are suddenly staring at a plain black space. We can't see anything, including each other. I feel a smooth glass like surface surround me, and then the ground underneath me starts to move.
A single overhead light appears over my head, and I see that the other remaining houseguest in the final four has a spotlight over theirs as well. Keanu pounds on the glass and calls out to no answer.
"Hello?" I call out.
"TRIBUTES!" says the clown voice that greeted us at the beginning of the games. "We would like to congratulate you on obtaining a spot in the final 4. Get ready for a showdown, because we are in the finale!"
Joseph would be so proud of me. I made it to the finale. We would always talk about what would happen if one of us ever made it to the finale. I will win this. I will make it home, and honor his memory.
"Tributes when the countdown ends, you will start the epic showdown! May the odds be ever in your favor!"
60 seconds appear on the clock.
We can't stop now.
There's too much at stake.
This is serious.
Don't walk away.
Obsidian Blackwell, 45
Political Rebel
Why the tributes are having their own finale, I will get mine.
22 trained assassins are at my beck and call ready to invade the presidential mansion on my mark. These assassins have been with my cause since the beginning. Loyal through and through to the Snows and everything we stood for.
"We strike tonight," says Caridee more of a statement than asking a question. "I've been tired of listening to that bitch since the day we started this whole charade."
"Yes. Tonight we strike." I say.
I gather my faithful men and women who have dedicated their lives to seeing my family regain their natural spot on the throne of Panem.
"My friends," I say standing in the center of the group. "Tonight is a war that ends all wars!"
They shout in agreement and throw their fist in the air.
"Tonight, we will bring back the power to the people deserving of it! We will bring the power back to the Snows. Back to the family that put the great nation of Panem on the map!"
"YES!" they all scream.
"Your support will be rewarded, and we will remember you when we return to our power. The fallen will die heroes to the cause. You are Panem!"
"YES!" they scream.
We gather around the television and watch as the four tributes have ten seconds left on the timer.
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
Lights, camera, action,
I have such an exciting ending that you won't see coming. I'm very very excited for it. Expect this story to be done, hopefully by the end of this weekend.
As for who my victor is, I've decided that by the poll votes. The poll has 11 out of the 15 average readers voted already, so I locked in those numbers and killed the rest of the tributes that had the lowest placements. Choosing a victor is hard because honestly any of these tributes can win and I'd be okay with it. I've locked the poll.
Eulogies
10th Place: Katarina Morellee (Killed by Sashen Blaize)- Katarina was such a BEAUTIFUL character. I loved getting to experience her, and understanding her motivations, and ambitions on a different level. She was manipulative and smart, but she was also insecure and had deeper motivations behind her mean girl persona. I was surprised that she had no votes on the poll at all. Metallic thank you for submitting such an interesting character to a district that I never really take seriously.
9th Place: Sashen Blaize (Killed by Keanu Hargrave)- Aaron, I'm sorry. I truly am. Sashen was adorable, and then fiery and for a period of time, I thought she was going to win in my head after I killed Caius. She didn't have the poll votes to make it, though. She was a wonderful character, and I truly appreciate you subbing her to me. Thank you for faithfully reading as well. It means a lot bud.
8th Place: Hazel Patch (Died of suffocation (Indirectly killed by Keanu Hargrave))- Stella, I'm sorry as well. Hazel was great. She was interesting and something that I've never seen before. She died merely for the fact of poll votes. I hope you don't hate me.
7th Place: Artemis Merone (Killed by Ares Styx)- Chip, thank you for subbing Artemis. I won't lie to you. I was not a fan of her at all in Glass Glade, and throughout the story, she was planned as a bloodbath. Then I saw some actual potential and suddenly everything kind of clicked. She died here due to being tied in the polls, and me pulling names out of a hat.
6th Place: Carmen Diego (Killed by Wyatt Lane)- Carmen was another tribute that surprised me and took me by storm. I planned for her to be a bloodbath as well. After writing her first POV, though, I grew to love her character. Thank you for subbing her to me Mystical. She was great.
5th Place: Wyatt Lane (Killed by Vera Naylor)- Wyatt was incredible. So cocky and arrogant. SO much fun to write. Wyatt was a victim of pulling names out of a hat. His poll votes were tied, and Jenna wrote names in a hat and dropped them in. I picked, and his was the last name I drew. Sorry that your tribute died Gray. I hope you don't hate me.
If your tribute made it to the top 10, I loved them to bits. I hope that you'll submit to Thunder and Lightning so I can write for another one of yall brilliant brainchildren.
Keep it classy,
Caleb