Over the next 2 days Olympus medics buzz around me, healing and cleaning me. I drift in and out of sleep, having dreams of me in the arena. One dream is particularly awful. Flora's zombie mutt that jumps on top of me. When I see her face it's Lucy's and she stabs me in the stomach over and over again. I continue having dreams like this over the next 2 days. When I finally wake up I find myself in a white room. The wall to my left is completely made of glass and I can see Olympus. I stretch my hand out over the silk sheets guiltily. Lucy should be in this bed. I volounteered to make sure Coraline or Riley got out. Not me. I look out the window and see the sun is just sinking down below the horizon. I sigh. What do I do now? I'm not allowed back at camp and I'm not allowed back at home. At least my mum will be happy to see that I'm alive. Although...that girl from Hephaestus volounteered to save her little sister. She's dead.
Lucy is dead. Kennedy is dead. Dylan is dead. Coraline and Riley are dead. I'm overwhelmed with emotional pain. I feel like my heart has been ripped out of my chest. All these kids are gone and soon I'm going to see how they die. Then I'll have countless interviews the next day and finally I'll have to go to a party that my father, Poseidon, will be hosting and have to meet James. Because we won back to back games we'll be expected to bond. Eventually I'll be able to settle into a room in my father's temple where I'll live until I die of old age. I hear the creak of the door opening and sit up. Poseidon walks in. I follow him with my eyes as he crosses across the room the left side of my bed. I continue to stare at him as he stands there. "Ja-" "Don't!" I say. "Riley and Coraline are dead. I'll never see the
love of my life or my little sister ever again! All because you stupid gods think it'll be cool to compete against each other by sending your kids in to fight to the death!"
My father looks at me with sympathetic eyes "I'm sorry this happened to you. Just so you know I voted against it." I look closer at him "Who else?". He sighs "Athena, Artemis,Aphrodite and Hermes. Zeus,Hera,Demeter,Ares,Apollo,Hephaestus and Dionysus voted for it. 7 to 5." I feel myself start to calm down. At least I know my dad was against it. Or was he for it and is just telling me that? Damn it! I feel like I'm back in the arena! I can't trust anyone. "Lolly gave me this to give to you. She said she'll meet you after the recap." My father hands me a box. I open it up and find a light blue tuxedo folded in the box. My interview outfit. I look up at Poseidon "I'm to escort you down." Is all he says. I make my dad turn around as I quickly change into the soft outfit. Once I'm ready Poseidon takes me down an elevator and underneath the interview stage. He shows me that there's a TV screen underneath the stage for me to watch the interviews before leaving. Having to get ready for the interview, as he will be getting interviewed.
I stand under the stage waiting for the interviews to come on. Every once in a while behind the scenes people walk by and congratulate me. I thank them by bowing my head and smiling. I don't feel like talking. Finally Aeolus walks on to the stage. He calls out my prep team who bounce stupidly about the stage, taking deep bows while smiling and waving at the audience. Next to come to the stage is my stylist, Lolly, who's a tree nymph. She's much more reserved and elegant with Aeolus, graciously thanking him. Next my dad takes the stage, sitting through the interview with a smug look on his face, occasionally looking at the other gods. Particularly Zeus, Hera and Demeter, who are his siblings. And finally Aeolus is calling Jake Michael. A cloud nymph tells me to stand on the pedestal. I rise from beneath the stage and meet a roaring crowd. My knees feel wobbly as I cross over to the seat in which I will sit on for the recap. Aeolus calms the crowd and turns to me "We aren't going to ask you any questions until we finish the recap". I just nod. I don't really feel like talking. The screen glows with the Olympus seal and plays the anthem. Then it cuts straight to the reapings.
It shows Riley being reaped. Coraline being reaped. Me volounteering to protect them. After Brandon Miller gets reaped it cuts to the chariot rides. Then it cuts to Aeolus saying the training scores. As he says the other kids names his voice overlaps itself with the different names and scores. Only when he gets to Jake Michael does it stop overlapping. He reads out my score of 8 and then his voice goes back to overlapping. Once that's done it goes to the interviews. It only shows mine, Kennedy's,Jilla's,Michelle's and Lucy's so I guess they're only focusing on the final 5. Finally the games start. It shows the tributes rising thorugh the tubes from Jilla's point of view. Even though she's dead I can't help feeling intimidated by her gray eyes peircing through any tribute she looks at. The camera cuts between each of the tributes for only a few seconds but stays on me for a full 5.
The gong rings and the tributes run away from or run towards the cornucopia. It shows the first death, the boy from Aphrodite. Kennedy slits his throat and goes back to looking for tributes. The camera cuts to Coraline, who scoops up a bag on the ground and runs to Riley. It then cuts to Riley and shows her taking the Aphrodite boy's bag from his body. Then it shows me fighting over a bag with Andrew Horus. I punch him in the face and rip the bag from his hands. I grab Riley's hand and us 3 sprint off into the swamp. It shows Jenna Archers shoot an arrow at Jilla. Jilla's brother jumps in front of the arrow to save her. Jenna stumbles back, looking dazed, and snaps out of it in time to see Jilla's knife plunge into her heart. It cuts to Alexander Cortez stabbing Timothy Steel through the back. Tyra rips out her
dagger, in tears, and goes to stab Alexander in the back. Lucy shoots an arrow into her forehead, saving Alexander.
Jackson Hall betrays the careers and tries to kill Michelle. Michelle's brother shoots him in the temple and Michelle mouths thank you. Michelle runs off and shoots Andrew Horus in the forehead. Dominick Knight from Zeus spots my ally, Dylan Lawrence, the male Apollo tribute, hiding in the tree line, obviously trying to find Me,Riley and Coraline. Dominick corners him and stabs in the stomach, leaving him to bleed to death. He dies in about 40 seconds and the cameras cut back to the bloodbath. No one else dies while Dylan is bleeding to death. Poor Dylan. Every other tribute manages to escape except Isabelle Smith from Hera, Ryker Knight from Artemis, the 2 Hephaestus tributes and Nikki Vanelle. Isabelle, Ryker, Avery from Hephaestus and Nikki are hiding in the cornucopia while Hal fights Kennedy over a sleeping bag. Isabelle takes the risk and runs out.
She manages to escape and turns around to see Hal Gordons, the boy from Hephaestus, get decapitated by Kennedy with an axe. Her mouth drops in horror and she takes off into the swamp. A few seconds after that Nikki Vanelle runs out, attempting escape. The boy from Artemis and Avery Willows from Hephaestus quickly follow. Alexander Cortez tackles Avery and stabs her in the heart and Dominick Knight throws his spear through the Artemis boy's chest. Nikki starts screaming but manages to dodge the rest of the career's weapons and escape to the swamp. The careers band together and search for tributes. They don't find anyone. The next day Kennedy starts fighting with Alexander and storms off into the swamp. On the second day Nikki is slowly starving to death. Kennedy finds her and tries to kill her. Nikki's brother luckily happens to be walking by and sees Kennedy on top of Nikki. He knocks the spear out of Kennedy's hands and starts punching her. No one dies that day. On the 3rd day someone dies though. The careers set out early in the morning and find Flora Chims.
She escapes them by climbing up a tree. It turns out Nikki Vanelle is in the tree as well and Nikki goes to stab Flora. Flora panics and kicks Nikki out of the tree, killing her. The careers decided to wait under the tree for Flora to come down. At about lunch time Riley goes and spies on the careers again. Isabelle Smith turns visible and plunges her knife into the side of Dominick Knight's throat. Riley tries to electrocute Isabelle so Isabelle burns Riley's leg. My mind goes back to that point in the games. It was really tough having to look after her. The screen switches to me and Coraline searching for Riley and then eventually finding her. Flora manages to sneak away from the careers and they realise she's gone. When they walk back to their camp they realise Dominick is dead. They don't seem to sad. On the 4th
day Brandon is slowly dying of thirst. He gets his first sponsor gift, which is water. Kennedy and Lucy find him and Kennedy gets revenge on him by slashing him nearly to death and then decapitating him.
Riley,Coraline and me find Isabelle. Riley tries to kill her but Isabelle uses some magic spell that blasts Riley off her. I start to fight Isabelle while Coraline goes to help Riley. Isabelle throws a knife at Riley and Coraline saves her life by throwing her bag in the way. My heart twists into knots. Coraline saved Riley's life and I ditched and it wasn't even her fault when Riley died. I slice Isabelle's stomach open and she scrambles away. It shows Isabelle Smith getting blasted to bits when Flora jumps behind her on day 5. I also take back the supplies from Flora from when she stole them previously. On day 6 Riley kills Alexander and Lucy teams up with us. The announcer also invites us to the feast for the next day. That day Jilla also gets sponsored Alexander's head. I find that very weird. How did it even get through the gamemakers?
I take a deep breath silently. I know what's coming next. Riley's death. I'm not sure if i'm ready to see this. I hope Coraline and Riley were happy to see me win when they were down in the underworld. I look back up to the screen. I hadn't even realised I was looking at my feet. I see me and Michelle fighting. I'm quite impressed that she was only 13 and could still hold her own against me. Then the camera cuts to Riley protecting Flora from Kennedy. I hold back my tears as Kennedy slashes her sword across Riley's throat. My throat closes up as I see me yelling at Coraline. Coraline looks completely devestated before grabbing mine and her bags and taking off. I go insane after that. It seems that Dionysus fixed me up while the medics were healing me because I'm no longer insane. The camera cuts to Coraline sobbing into Lucy's shoulder and Lucy comforts her. Kennedy attacks the 2 girls and as Kennedy throws her spear at Coraline's head the camera cuts to Flora. I sneak up on Flora but she slashes my legs open with her small dagger and then breaks my nose. I completeley forgot about it until just then. Me and Flora continue to fight until she she escapes me by climbing a tree. I decide to wait for her.
The camera cuts to Coraline, which is following her and Lucy as they run away from Kennedy. When I was in my dad's temple while I was getting ready for the games, he said that the gamemakers have invisible drones following the tributes around. I thought that was pretty clever. Coraline collides with Michelle and is pulled away by Lucy, leaving Michelle to fight Kennedy by herself. Instead of staying on Michelle and Kennedy's fight it cuts to Jilla. She sits in a cave, rocking back and forth. She gets attacked by a bear and teams up with Michelle. Kennedy atacks them but they manage to escape. That's the end of day 7 and the end of the first week. It's now day 8 and the gamemakers start with the lightning that blasts me away from and blasts Flora out of the tree. She crawls into the shrubbery to escape my wrath. Next Kennedy attacks Coraline,Lucy,Michelle and Jilla. It takes me by surprise when I see Kennedy throw her spear into Coraline's chest. Hmm. So that's how Coraline died. At least it was quick. Kennedy runs and takes refuge under a tree that just so happens to have Flora in it. Flora jumps from a branch and stabs Kennedy in the
right shoulder.
Now it's day 9. Lucy gets sponsored Coraline's head. Lucy and Michelle stumble across me while trying to look for water to rehydrate Jilla. Flora sacrifices herself to save them and I kill Flora. I can't bear to look at the screen as I slowly kill Flora. I'm a monster. Her screams pour from the speakers. Later in the day the poison gas wafts into the arena. I put Kennedy's on because I stole it from the feast. The screen shows Kennedy stealing Michelle's mask and running off with it. Michelle slowly dies and cuts the tributes down to 4. Now it's day 10 and they've sent the heat wave in. The spider mutts chase the remaining 4 tributes together. Lucy and I fight while Kennedy and Jilla fight. Kennedy throws her axe into Jilla's stomach. Lucy stops Kennedy from getting her axe so I run away. So does Kennedy. Jilla slowly bleeds to death and with her final words she apologises to her sister. Now it's the final 3. Later that night the zombie Flora chases me into the cornucopia, where I kill her for the second time. I stay in the cornucopia over night and finally Kennedy's zombie victims chase her into the cornucopia area.
Lucy shoots at her and they start to fight. Kennedy spear her through the stomach and she pretends to be dead. I limp out of the cornucopia and me and Kennedy fight. At one point the camera cuts back to Lucy and shows her eating an ambrosia square. She picks up a rock and smashes into Kennedy's head. Now it's just me and Lucy. Lucy and I battle until I finally spear her through the stomach. I'm announced victor and the video ends. "So Jake, you've had quite a tough week in that arena." I nod "Are you going to tell us about it?". I take a deep breath "I'm glad to have won. Even if I only went into the games to make sure Riley or Coraline got out but obviously I failed my job". Aeolus pats me on the shoulder sympathetically "We'll steer clear from questions about Riley or Coraline". I nod my head gratefully.
"So what were your thoughts when you saw Lucy bash Kennedy's brains out?" "Oh I was quite surprised. One second I was fighting Kennedy ready to die and the next she was lying on the floor with a hole in her head". The audience laughs and Aeolus gives a chuckle "Yes well whenever Kennedy fought someone they ended up dead. The only way to beat her was the element of surprise and Lucy sure used that didn't she?" The audience laughs.
"Now Jake, when your rose into the arena, what were your thoughts?" "Well it smelt bad but the first thing I did was look for Riley and Coraline. Then when the gong rang I decided to run to the bloodbath. I picked up a bag at the same time as the Hera boy and managed to win it. I met up with Coraline and Riley and we managed to escape". Aeolus nods "Yes the bloodbath is quite a crazy time of the games. No ones completely safe, not even the careers! Especially the careers because 2 of them died in the bloodbath!" The crowd cheers and Aeolus calms them down "In 2 days you are required to attend a party your father is hosting. Am I right?" I nod "And there you will meet your fellow victor James Veneto, the victor of last year's games." "Yes, James and I aren't allowed to meet until then". Aeolus pats my hand "Well I think we'll let you go home and rest." Aeolus grabs my hand and lifts it into the air "Jake Michael, victor of the 2nd Demigod Games!" The crowd cheers and I'm finally escorted off the stage. The next day I attend countless TV interviews and radio interviews for Olympus entertainment. The day after that I wake up with dread because today I am to attend a funeral down at camp.
Lolly escorts me down and I stand on a temporary stage. 23 coffins lie in front of the stage surrounded by each tributes cabin. I say a speech with 1 paragraph for each tribute. Chiron holds a minutes silence for the fallen. I say goodbye to my friends at camp, my siblings from the Poseidon cabin and say goodbye to my mother, where I promise I'll visit her occasionally. That night I go to bed with a heart heavier than it's been before. I wake up in the morning with my prep team bouncing around me. I have no idea what they're doing until Bethany, an energetic tree nymph, says something about attending my party tonight. That's right, tonight I'm meeting James. Once they wash my hair and file my nails and do every other stupid little thing they need to do Lolly walks in with a box. She tells my prep team to leave and then gets me dressed in an electric blue tuxedo in "Loving memory of Riley". I ride in a limousine up to my father's temple. When we get there my father welcomes me, even pats me on the back. I take a deep breath before stepping into the party. Everyone who's everyone is here. I meet my father's wife and my stepmother, Pleione. I shake hands with Hephaestus,Ares and Apollo. Aphrodite congratulates me on my victory before walking away, swaying her hips. Demeter glares at me from across the room.
Finally James walks up to me. We shake hands and he congratulates me on my victory but drops to a whisper and says "I'm so sorry you had to go through this". At about midnight Nike comes in and takes me from the party. I'm full from food and drink. I'm not allowed to drink alcohol because my father forbid it not wanting his victor to make a fool of himself. I follow Nike through Olympus until we stop at a temple. When I walk in I see 12 columns, 1 for each god, in the same order they are at camp. Zeus and Hera at the front and on and on until Hermes and Dionysus are at the back. I can see writing on Dionysus' so it must be James' name. Nike takes me to the Poseidon column and on it, at the top, is "Jake Michael" engraved in neat writing. Nike then takes me out and calls Lolly. Lolly drives down in a limousine and takes me back to my room which I will stay in until I move into Poseidon's temple. The next day Zeus puts the victor's crown on my head in front of all of Olympus and I move into a room in my dad's temple. Collapsing on my bed after the long day, I'm exhausted. All this preparation for nothing really. I'm not looking forward to mentoring next year.
Well that's the end of the 2nd Demigod Games! I'd just like to thank everyone who sent a tribute to compete in these games. Your tributes will never be forgotten.