Thanks for getting me to 260!
That's such an awesome thing to see!
I hope the bloodbath didn't disappoint you.
Dangerous people
Dangerous things
Lives crashing
Ending phase
Corduroy Irvine, 15
District 9 Male
"I'm dizzy," I tell the two from District 11. They were kind enough to set up camp near the place I almost died. I couldn't walk much further with a hurt ankle and the fact that my blood refuses to clot. I've lost a lot of blood.
"Is there anything we can do?" asks Perri with a sad face. "This doesn't seem fair. You're just going to bleed out, and you didn't even do anything wrong!" Tears are welling up in his eyes, and I can tell that right now, the games are becoming too much for him.
"Don't cry for me," I say with a smile. "Coming into the games is tragic, but the life I was able to experience here before today is among some of the best of my life. I loved back home, but I never got a chance to experience life. My parents kept me in this protective bubble."
"I bet that wasn't fun," says Perri as he rubs his nose due to the snot that is now dripping down from it. "I don't think it's fair. Please someone!" he says looking up at the sky. "Someone help, Roy! He's a nice boy."
The love that these two have for someone they've never met is inspiring. I feel touched as they hand out their supplies and hand me something to eat, or something to drink, knowing full well that in a matter of hours I'm going to be dead.
The Capitol Anthem sounds, and we are all left to look at the tribute's faces that died earlier today. The first one we see is the girl from District 3, then the District 4 boy, followed by the boy from District 5, the District 6 male, District 7 Female, and lastly the girl that was in the team with them before she died by the plant.
"Did you know her long?" I ask
"No," says Doe honestly. "We just met yesterday, to be honest, but it doesn't make it any less hard when you're looking at their face in the sky." she leans back onto both of her arms and then throws her head back. Her hair comes masquerading down her back, and she chuckles an ominous laugh to herself. "It's funny, guys." she says "I'm almost 17-years-old and I still looked at this game like a child would. I wanted so bad to wake up from this dream. Or even to hear them say "just kidding! No one died," but the more I see of this arena, the more I see that this death trap is real. There are genuine stakes."
"That's not humorous," says Perri taking a bite out of a stick of beef jerky. "That's called hope." He places his small hand on her knee, and she smiles at him and grips it back.
"Roy, it doesn't look like they're going to send us anything for your ankle," she says with a sad face. "So what's something that you've always wanted to happen or do that either Perri or I can help you with? If you're going to go out, you're going to go out doing something on that bucket list."
"Perri, can you go get me some water?" I ask pointing my finger to the water fountain across the clearing.
"Uh, sure," he says confused as he grabs the bottle and walks across the clearing. Doe looks at me curiously as I wait for him to get out of earshot before talking.
"I've never had my first kiss," I say honestly to her. Her eyes widen and then soften. "It's something that I've always thought would happen eventually, but I never got the chance to do it given my situation at home. I was wondering if-"
"Say no more," she says leaning down and kissing my lips. Her lips are soft and warm, and it's not a peck she gives either. "There you go," she says finally pulling away. "Glad I could help out a little bit. I guess men do only think about one thing, huh?" she says with a laugh.
"No, I didn't want to die completely inexperienced," I say
"Are you guys done making out yet?" calls Perri from the bird bath. "I don't want to see something I can't unsee!"
"You're good, Perri," says Doe laughing.
A faint beeping sound fills the air, and Doe and I both prepare ourselves for another mutt attack when Perri runs up beside us and screams. "Guys look!"
A silver parachute falls from the sky and lands beside Doe. She picks it up and sees a giant nine written on the front and hands it to me. I look at her confused and open up the capsule to see 12 syringes with yellow liquid in the tube.
"What is it?" asks Doe confused
"It's my medicine," I say taking one of the syringes and handing it to her. "Inject that into my ankle."
She excitedly does so, and then I lean back as I wait for my legs to stop bleeding. "What now?" she says
"Now we wait for it to clot, and I need something sugary."
"You're going to be okay?!" asks Perri excitedly.
"I'm going to be okay," I say with a smile. I'm also desperately confused. What the hell just happened with that kiss?
Looking in a mirror
You see all your flaws
Some people just get better
At hiding when they're wrong
Darcy Hanning, 16
District 10 Female
"Put me in that arena. I don't care who I have to step on, over, or kill. I will do what it takes, and stop until I'm the last one in there, but I need your help." I say to the Gamemakers. "I need your help to get sponsors that can get behind me."
"Why would we just hand you a good score?" asks Elle Reignmen from the balcony. "Don't you do something to earn that?"
"You don't have to be skilled when you have two meat shields and can out-think them," I say honestly. "Everyone underestimates the mindset of a pretty girl."
I wake up from my sleep because Lirrius started coughing while on watch. I had the same dream about the Gamemakers the night before. The truth is I struggled so hard finding the right two boys to take into my alliance I didn't practice anything significantly. I just wanted them to take a chance on me, and surprisingly enough, they did.
I sit up and yawn as Appache lies on the ground completely knocked out. If I wanted to kill him right now, I totally could, and I would get away with it.
Now's not the time Darcy. There's a long road ahead.
I get up from the mats we were able to grab during the bloodbath and walk over to where Lirrius is sitting. He glances over to me as I kneel down, and sit with my legs crossed on the ground and smiles.
"I thought I had watch until the morning?" he asks.
"You do," I say. "I'm just not able to sleep. This game takes a toll on me. I'm still not able to wrap my head around how those kids that were alive just a few hours ago are dead now." That's not exactly a lie. The idea of death makes me feel uneasy. Not that I'll have to face it here in this arena. I 100% believe that I will be the one leaving this arena at the end of this game.
"Yeah, seeing all those faces shook me up," he says.
I do a fake shiver and start to chatter my teeth. "It's freezing," I say as I scoot a little closer to him. I'm not cold, but phase one of making these boys do whatever I need has to start now. "I don't want to sound like...weird, but is it okay if we cuddle?"
He looks at me confused for a second and then nods. "I suppose."
"It's just freezing," I say as I scoot next to him and he wraps his arm around me. "Thank you, I appreciate it."
The first thing I notice is the fact that there has been no change in his heart rate. If a pretty girl scoots up to you, why wouldn't you at least get a spiked heart rate? Maybe he has a girlfriend back home, and I'm just overthinking things.
"Does Appache give you the creeps?" Lirrius burst out in the random question. "I don't want to start drama in the alliance, but you should see the way he looks at you. It makes me so uncomfortable."
Is that a hint of jealousy?
"How does he look at me?" I ask him urging him to continue.
"Like you're a five-course meal, and he's a survivor of an apocalyptic world who hasn't eaten in two years," says Lirrius honestly. "I just don't want you to get hurt. You've been nice. Be careful when the two of you are alone."
"I'm not worried about him," I reply honestly. "Not when I have you here to help me out!" I say lying through my teeth. I know what I'm getting into with both of these boys, and neither of them strikes me as the ones that are going to take me out.
Mostly because at the end of this game, I'll be the one leaving.
Broken dreams
Leave broken hearts
Broken hearts
Leave broken promises and false starts
James Brayley,15
District 3 Male
I got no sleep last night. Not even just because I'm in the games. My rest has always been plagued by my baby, and as of recent, they are always of Selena. Now there's a new face that has been appearing in my dreams, and Aplica is surprisingly hard to face.
I hated her. I truly did. I hated her for something completely out of her control. It wasn't even her that hurt me, but she was associated with a monster. I told the detectives that Selena had a pretty severe gambling debt.
What I didn't tell them was that it was Aplica's father who had her name on his shark list. She'd always make payments, but when she found out, she was pregnant things took such a turn for the worse with money. It was no longer just getting her out of debt. It was making sure that the baby had the best life it could.
So that meant keeping some on the side for herself.
That also led to her getting shoved down a flight of stairs while being four months pregnant. That was the end of my dream. The little family that I had seen in my head was ripped from my grasp, and there was nothing I could do about it.
Isn't it funny how you can always go lower when you think there is no way you can go lower? Life has a strange way of doing that, huh? Sometimes I wish that I could rewind the time and just stop myself from seeing Selena. Stop myself from going to the park with my friends that one night. Stop me from sending her that note in detention.
Because then this would have never happened. I wouldn't be feeling so low right now, and when Aplica would have died sitting right next to me, I wouldn't have felt a sense of relief and sadness all at the same time. Because at least at the end of the day, he lost his child too. I can't keep my head from going back there, even though like I said, it was no more her fault than it was my babies.
A 15-year-old really shouldn't have to deal with all of this.
Sometimes there's not a choice though, and that's just how everything comes crumbling down in the end.
So this is how it feels
Being so close to the edge
Never wondering which way to tilt
Praying a wind doesn't come
Holiday Sirena, 18
District 9 Female
If I could turn off any noise
It would be the silence comes at night
That's where your head likes to play
To entertain in twisted ways
Your thoughts dance around
Like they're dancing their cares away
While your heart is the downstairs neighbor
Praying that they would go away.
The silence is deafening, and each thought wants to be right
So where is a girl supposed to go
When she has to turn off the lights?
I'm living in a state of constant paranoia. Back home I would write it out. Whether that be in a poem, or a diary entry, something, anything, to keep my mind occupied so that I don't have to experience the fear that is building inside of me.
That dream continues to plague me, and I can't help but wonder if it's some sick sense of humor by whatever it is up there. I want so badly to believe that I am not going to die in here, but the problem isn't the idea of death, but the sense of no longer existing.
I haven't done enough in my life to be remembered. Especially now that I'm in the games, if I die here, I'm going to be another face splattered on the television for a few months while they prepare for the next Hunger Games, and that's only if I make it deep and have a good impact with the audience.
I just want something of me to live on after I'm gone. That's what I need at this moment. Something to cement me in time so that I'm not just a microscopic bump on the timeline that we call life.
Hali lets out a light snore that makes me jump and brings me back to the reality. We traveled throughout the maze all day, and are currently on the line where the mansion is. We walked around the fence for what seemed like a million times, but we have no way of getting into it. Hali said we could climb it in the morning, but I need something to take my mind off all of the death I witnessed today.
Getting up from my spot against the bushes I walk over to the fence and take a long look at the house behind it. Had me and Mike had a house like this, we would have never left it. I always dreamed of a life where he and I were able to live a happily ever after and raise a small family.
Of course in a house like this, we could raise a big family.
I place my hand on the fence, and an electric shock shoots through my whole body. I let out a loud yelp, and fall to the floor paralyzed for a minute. Hali shoots up from where she was asleep with a knife in her hand and glances over at me with confusion. "Holli, what happened?"
Through multiple gasp and attempts at breathing, I manage to get the words "Fence. Shock."
She nods at me and runs over to my side and puts my head on her lap. We sit there for a few minutes before I'm able to regain control of my body and sit up slowly. I place my head in between my two hands and begin to massage my temples.
"So I'm guessing we aren't going to climb the fence tomorrow?" she asks me with a sarcastic tone in her voice.
"Definitely not," I say with a laugh.
Hali begins to laugh, and then suddenly stops. It wasn't the type of stop that was normal or that makes you think the joke just trailed off, no it was the kind of stop that sent chills down your spine because you know something terrible is about to happen.
"Shit!" screams Hali as she yanks me up from the ground and runs to group the two backpacks that we grabbed during the bloodbath. I turn around from where I was at and see a pink mist drifting towards me. I feel an urgency for me to get away from the fog, but I can't control my body.
"Come on, sweetie," says Hali as she grabs my arm and begins to drag me down the maze corridor. "We don't have time for this wait. That fog doesn't look like it's going to be a refreshing breeze."
We go down and turn multiple times, but no matter which way we turn the pink fog seems to follow us. We continue to run until we reach a dead end. Staring at the wall ahead of us, I look at Hali, and she looks back at me. Tears are streaming down our eyes as we turn and face the fog that is rapidly gaining momentum coming towards us.
"We go out together," she says extending her hand.
"Yeah," I manage to say as I feel a panic attack start to form.
The fog consumes the area around us, and Hali and I hold our breaths. I attempt to get through the mist without breathing, but I fall and become dizzy. The last thing I see is the fog clearing, and a little boy running towards me with a concerned look on his face.
"Are you okay?" he asks me. I'm not able to answer. My consciousness leaves me.
Did Caleb just write a chapter with no deaths? Did Caleb just set growth up for multiple characters? Is Caleb actually WRITING?! Holy crap. This is what it must feel like to be a normal SYOT writer.
All jokes aside, I enjoyed this chapter, and I hope you guys got a little bit of an understanding of the characters. I've officially touched every group that I've had formed, so I feel accomplished in that. It's just a matter of driving the story in the best way at this point.
Alliance Update: (And some overdue name changes to them)
Are they going to live?: Hali/Holiday
Why doesn't Lirrius like me?!: Darcy/Lirrius/Appache
Badass Chicks minus 1 dude: Astragal/Zuri/Arwyn/Alex
The Berns: Bernadette/Graham/RJ
We aren't forgotten: Callie/Mitt
Romeo/Juliette as a tricycle pair?: Perriwinkle/Doe/Roy
Loners: James/Treadwell
Let me know what you guys think! We have our top 19! Who do you think is going to leave next? What do you feel about Roy getting the meds and his first kiss? Darcy and Lirrius? Dirrus? (I guess you could call her Dillirus? Lol no? Okay.) James and his background drama? Is he selfish for feeling vindication with Aplica's death? Or is he human for feeling bad at the same time? Also what the hell just happened to Holiday and Hali? Are they alive? Are they going to die? Who the hell just ran to them?!
Keep it classy,
Caleb