Have a secret

Can you keep it

Swear this one you'll save

Better lock it in your pocket

Taking this one to the grave

Gretchen Creek "Kara Castille", 16

District 9 Female

I've never experienced a more stressful mission in my entire existence. One thing is sure, though, that this was no ordinary mission. Gregory's letter sits in my hands as I've reread it over and over again. I'm sitting watch at the cornucopia, and with the fire pillar on, it's made reading a lot easier. I trace over the letters of the writing. It's the last piece I have of him. It haunts me that he'd be alive if it wasn't for a stupid game of nose goes.

Gretch,

If you're reading this something went horribly wrong. One thing is certain, though. Trust no one in the agency. We aren't sure what the Bureau has cooked up, but it's something big. I'm sorry that I'm no longer here to help you. I know that you can achieve this though (and if anyone reads this next part I'll deny it indefinitely), but you were the best the agency has ever seen. Even if you have to kill your way out of this arena, I need you to do it.

You were rigged into the reapings. We checked the District 9 citizen list and there was no mention of a Gretchen Creek or even Kara Castille. Nine was big enough for no one to recognize you and not ask questions, but this was an inside job.

Your plan is simple. Day 4 is all you have to make it too. Day 4 the arena will change into a beach. You'll swim out to sea when the signal is given, (you'll know), and you'll fake drown. We'll have an agency member there to retrieve you, and from there you'll get out of the arena.

Lastly, as I wrote this as a just in case I died insurance policy, please don't remember me as the jerk that competed with you. The times we shared in the academy were some of the best I've ever had. I found love and I was stupid and threw it away. You're going to make some man very happy one day.

Unfortunately, that man is not me.

I love you Gretch. Always did and always will.

Faithfully yours,

Gregory M. Smythe

P.S. Also remember I still scored better on the final test in the academy. It's important because, well, I never expected to beat you.

"What's that?"

I jump. I didn't notice anyone walking around the cornucopia, and I certainly didn't hear anything. Sailor stands at the edge of the cornucopia about 10 feet away. Her eyes look ablaze with curiosity as I fold the letter up quickly and shove it in my back pocket.

"What's what?" I ask confused trying to shove it off. I add a light giggle and try and walk past her. She holds her hand out and blocks me from moving. I'm surprised not because someone is trying to start a fight with me, but because it is Sailor. Sailor has been mostly chill throughout the whole process of the games, so seeing her become the career I knew deep down she was is making all of this real.

"That note you just put away," she says indicating to my pocket. "I saw Robert hand it off to you before he died. I want to know what it is."

I look at her surprised. This girl is just full of the surprises today. That's absolutely none of her business. Mark my words she will never know what is in this letter. She will have to pry it from my cold dead hands, and from that point, it will be too late.

"That's none of your concern now is it?" I ask her leading. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to sleep."

Again I try to walk past her and she holds out her arm to block me. I grab it and try to shove it down, but the girl is stronger than she looks. I scoot back because I don't want to have to kill her if I don't have to, and look at her accusingly.

"Is there something else?"

"I don't know who you are," she says indefinitely. "I don't know your story, I don't know your past, but I do know that who you say you are right now isn't true. I'm a little concerned how a girl from District 9 is able to do all of the things you're able to do. That isn't just luck. I'm watching you, Kara. Don't forget that."

She tries to walk past me, but this time it was my turn to block her with my arm. She gives me a death glare as she pushes me in the stomach to get by, but I don't budge. She falls back to where she was and looks at me with a sarcastic smile.

"Yes, Kara?" she asks.

"I'm not one you want to mess with," I say blatantly. "Mess with me, and it'll be the last thing you do."

She leans in close to my face and smiles. "Bring it on," she says eagerly.

I roll my eyes and walk back into the cornucopia where the others are sleeping. I take the letter out and feel the texture of the paper. Knowing that Gregory had touched this was so comforting especially at this time. For the first time since this whole tragic event happened, I allow myself to cry. In the darkness of the cornucopia, I let the hot tears drip down my face.

"I'm so sorry, Greg," I whisper into the fur jacket I'm using as a pillow.

When you speak,

Mountains rise and fall

You tear down every wall

Around me

Let there be light

Savannah Sage, 15

District 10 Female

Praying has been the only thing that has been keeping me going during my time in the arena. The alliance I have is great, and though I'd never turn on them, I know for a fact that they will all eventually turn on me.

These games were not meant for people with morals. Good people don't win the Hunger Games. I know for a fact, that eventually during my time in the arena I will die, but that does not prove their point there is no God. Because there has been so much evidence to prove there is one in this game alone! I'm excited, and surprisingly at peace about it. I'll be with my Grandma and Jesus soon.

A perfect homecoming.

"I'm still in disbelief that we didn't encounter one of the mutts," says Fir. We decided to all stay up for the rest of the night just in case something else were to happen. We aren't too worried about tributes hunting because we imagine they did the same.

"Yeah, definitely a lucky break. Maybe we have fans in the Capitol," says Zebedee.

Past our little group the sun is peaking up over the graveyard. It's hopeful really. Even in the darkest night His light shines through and makes things new. This once graveyard that was once supposed to be spooky is simply, well, not anymore.

The ground again begins to shake and we see the tombstones disappearing as the fire pillar is burning with an intense flame. Where the tombstones once lied, tall skyscrapers are beginning to build in their place. There are little yellow cars everywhere, and there is a big sign on the triangular shaped building in the middle of the other skyscrapers.

"Where are we now?" ask Douglas intrigued.

"I don't know." I say, "but this is incredible."

For as big as this city like arena looks we are the only people in it. At least that I know of. We begin to walk down the long pathway. We see signs for something called a musical. We see stands full of magazines called "People" and "Time". When we get to another stand it's full of newspapers. I hope over the stand and pick one of them up in hopes that it'll give some insight as to what this place is.

"It says it's New York City?" I say confused. "Where is that?"

"It's from the dark days," says Zebedee as he frowns and takes the paper. He scans the paper and nods to himself as he is taking all of the information in. He sets the paper back down and looks at all of us concerned. We might not know what is in the forest or a graveyard, but they aren't as foreign to us as the dark days. This has the potential to be really messy really quick.

"I think the important thing is just staying hidden and away from others," says Fir as she looks around at us seeking approval. We all nod in agreement, but that's what we've been doing the whole time. To be honest, the amount of alleyways and different buildings to hide in makes it that much easier, but also harder. We never know what's behind a closed door, through a dark corridor. We could be walking into a death match for all we know right now.

"Well, odds of someone finding us are less likely if we are hidden in one of these buildings," I say as I start strolling back towards the triangular shaped building. When I get to the door I knock on it, and the rest of the people look at me like I'm crazy.

"This could be someone's home!" I say in defense as Zebedee rolls his eyes and pushes past me. He pushes the door and we walk into a very office feeling of a building. There are stairs and elevators, but what we find on the ground floor seems to suffice enough to let us stay here for a while.

"We can make this work until the phase change." says Fir excitedly.

"Yes, we can make this work," says Douglas as he walks over to a drinking fountain on the wall. He pushes the button down and clears and clean water falls out of the mouthpiece. We all jump around excited, but then something in the corner catches my eye.

A tiny machine comes floating next to us. It has an animated face, and when it sees us it smiles.

"Hi! My name is Dekka! Welcome to my home. I assume you're some of the tributes I've heard so much about. Let's see." it shines a light on our faces and then smiles again. "Hello, Savannah, Douglas, Fir, and Zebedee. As you guys aren't careers I must warn you to run upstairs. Both groups are running towards this building right now."

As Dekka says that we hear the arguments from both of the career groups that formed, and sprint towards the stairs to get out of the way.

I live for the applause, applause, applause

I live for the applause-plause, live for the applause-plause

Live for the way that you cheer and scream for me

The applause, applause, applause

Andrew Coubisou, 17

District 4 Male

These absolute morons thought they could just undermine us and try and take our turf, and now these buttcheeks excuse of tributes are going to die. I'm ready for this fight, I've actually needed this fight! I've wanted to knock that Shores down a few pegs ever since his daughter entered into my arena time.

"We don't have to do this now," says Emerald. "Let's wait until all of the outer Districts are squashed out, and then we can fight like real careers."

"Hell to the absolute no on that one, Chuckles," I say firmly as I yank my speak from the holder. I line the aim up with Sailor's head when this tiny machine whizzes in the middle of our fight. It's a small red contraption with an animated face. It smiles when it sees all of us standing here.

"Hi, my name is Dekka!" it says excitedly. "I'm so happy to have company!"

"You won't have it for long," says Saxum. "Some of the company is about to have a hard and imminent reality check.

Dekka looks back and forth at both our groups, and we see the once smile on her, or its face, turn into a face of shock. It shows it's two dotted eyes and a capital O for the jaw drop.

"Oh my gosh. You're going to fight," she says sadly.

"Well, yes, that's how these things go." says Vinton with an uneasy smile about him.

Dekka magically grows a pair of eyebrows and turns into an angry face. She looks back and forth at us and then shines a light on our face. We freak out, and after it shines on every single one of us we realize that it just scanned us.

"I like the careers. You guys are fun. So I'm not allowing the killing of each other just yet." Dekka says matter of factly.

"With all due respect, Deks," I say with my trident still poised at Sailor's head. "You really don't have a say."

"Oh please, the only thing you know how to do with that is to hold it." says Sailor with an eye roll.

"QUIET!" screams Dekka. "Now, I'm mad. You're going to have a competition for me."

This is stupid. I don't know who this little machine thinks it is, but it certainly isn't the boss of me. I take my trident and hurl it at Sailor's head. She looks absolutely shocked by it, but instead of making the impact with her face, Dekka opens up a side compartment of its machine and catches the trident. Sailor looks relieved as Dekka takes it, and sends it into my foot.

"I said no killing each other!" It says angrily as I scream in pain. Saxum and Vinton laugh as I take the trident and pull it out of my foot. This is going to suck.

"Now, this competition is very simple. There is a group of tributes up in my building somewhere," says Dekka as it says loading on its screen. The pair from 10, the girl from 11, and the boy from 12 appear on the screen where Dekka's face usually is. "You will go and find them and kill one of them," it says. "One of them," she says again. "The person who makes the kill and wins for their team I will allow to face off against one person of their choice from the other team."

"Seems fair enough." says Rylan as she watches for our reactions.

"Please, you wouldn't be able to kill them," I say.

"Sorry, Gimpy," says Sailor. "What was that? My hearing is still a little bad from hearing your foot get impaled."

I shoot her the finger and turn to my team and they both nod in agreement. "Okay." I say, "We'll take the deal." I say excitedly.

"Oh good!" says Dekka. "On your mark, get set, go!"

We all run towards the door and when we get inside we see an office building type of an arrangement. We see a backpack on the floor, and we know that they were just here on the ground floor. We smile as we run towards the stairs, followed quickly by the group of losers that is trying to beat us.

"You might as well just give up!" screams Vinton "This is ours!"

"I'm killing you when I win!" screams Rylan as she pushes past us and runs towards the second floor.

One way or another

I'm gonna get you

I'm gonna get you, get you, get you, get you

Douglas Waters, 17

District 12 Male

I've never run that many stairs in my life. I'm a fairly fit guy, but sprinting seven flights of stairs is not easy for anyone.

When we arrived at the seventh floor we made found a closed off janitor's closet that we thought would be a good place to hide. We suspected them of looking through all of the offices. The only thing about this space is it's really crammed.

"That was nice of Dekka to warn us." Savannah was saying in between breaths. She was struggling really bad on the stairs. I open up my mouth to comment back when we hear glass breaking and two people screaming. Both male and female.

"How the hell did they get up here so quick?!" ask Fir as she cracks the door slightly to see who we are going up against. She closes the door after she gets a glimpse of the tributes that are up here and sits against the door with her eyes closed.

"It's the girl from 1 and the boy from 4," she says as she has tears welling up in her eyes. Savannah takes her hand and puts it on her leg to comfort her.

"We'll be okay," says Savannah

We hear the girl from 1 scream as she leaves the floor to let her alliance know that she didn't find anyone, but we still hear the boy from 4 rummaging around. We hear him getting closer and we each start to find things in the closet that would serve as a decent weapon to help at least some of us get away from the boy from 4.

We stand with a broom, a bucket, a spray that we can spray on his face, and our fist. After about three minutes we hear the door knob jiggle, and Douglas runs and blocks the door from being opened. The boy from four laughs as he has found what he is looking for and begins to push the door open. We all begin to fight back and we are at a standstill.

"I'll tell you what. In about five seconds, I'm sending my trident through the door in a random spot. Whoever it hits is fine." he says as we aren't budging from the door. We hear him get away from the door, and he begins to count down. "5. 4. 3. 2. 1."

The trident comes slamming into the door and we hear a cannon. I look around and see Savannah and Zebedee still standing while Fir is on the ground. She has a lot of blood falling from her head and her eyes are glazed over.

"Sounds like I got what I needed. Since I'm not allowed to kill more than one of you, I'll see you guys later!" he says excitedly as he runs down the hall and down the stairs screaming he won.

There's no other place but first.

Second through third is only a joke

I've got gold running through my veins

Always on point never making a mistake

Andrew Coubisou, 17

District 4 Male

"I WON!" I scream as I run throughout the stairwell. My voice echoes loudly throughout the stairs as I jump down several flights of stairs at a time. "I'm the winner! All you other people suck!"

"Tributes this is Dekka!" says a voice over the loudspeaker. "Please make your way to the bottom floor."

I rush down the last few flights of stairs, and one by one the other team and my own team arrive looking defeated. The people from the other team prepare themselves as they know that one of them is about to fight.

"Hi tributes!" says Dekka back with a smile on its screen. It sounds excited to be back and floats in the middle of the group again. "Thank you for following my rules and only killing one of them. I can now confirm that the girl from District 11 is currently dead on the floor in the janitor's closet on the seventh floor," it says matter of factly. "Come on in guys!" says Dekka.

One by one the rest of the girl from 11's alliance comes out from the staircase. The girl from 10's face is bright red like she's been crying, and they make a beeline for the door.

"Sorry I tricked you guys!" says Dekka as they leave the building and we watch them run away through the windows. "Now for you guys!" it says. "Since Andrew won, you get to choose who you want to face off against the other team! Choose wisely. This is a fight to the death!"

I already knew who I was going to fight the moment this deal was proposed. I lift my finger and point it straight at the girl from 2. She kicked me out of the alliance before the games even started, and that's not okay with me.

"Are you sure about your choice?" ask Dekka

"Yes," I say

Dekka begins shining brightly, and before we know it a bright light sweeps throughout the whole room. We are unable to see what's actually going on, and when the light dims, and we can see again, we are in a stadium. We both look at Dekka confused and it just has the same creepy animated smile.

"I'll bring the winner back to the others," it says. "I want to see a good match!"

Rylan grips her sword and readies herself to fight. I take my trident and aim it at her stomach. One shot, one blow, she's done. Dekka has a countdown on its screen, and once it hit zero a loud ding filled the stadium. I was the first to move and attack while Rylan was forced to play defense. As long as I can keep her where she is right now she's bound to mess up eventually.

I jab my trident into her stomach, but she gets the blade of her sword there to block the blow last minute. She then takes the opportunity to swing directly at my head which I'm able to sidestep. I take three giant steps back, and then hurl my trident towards her. It lands in her thigh, and she falls over wincing as she desperately tries to get it out.

I walk over to her smiling as I watch her fumbling on the ground. "This was too easy," I say. "I expected more from a leader," I say as I go and press down on the trident. She screams in pain as I get down on my knees and place my hand around her neck and begin to squeeze. Her eyes pop out of her head as she is struggling to get the breath but can't. As I continue to squeeze I watch as the life drains from her eyes, and then a sharp pain goes into my neck.

I release my grip and she takes giant gulps of breath as I fall to the ground and feel the knife as it sticks out of my neck. She is coughing as I gasp for the oxygen that is never going to enter my lungs again. I begin to feel the blood fill my lungs, and a sense of drowning falls over me.

"That was too easy," she says after she catches her break and removes the trident from her leg. "I expected more from someone who was so cocky." She smiles as she just sits there and watches me die.

I lift my hand into the air and stick my middle finger up as I feel the life drain out of my body.

I was going to win…

Well, that was day 3! I really enjoyed this chapter, and I hope that you liked it too!

Eulogies

16th Place: Fir Ascia, District 11 Female, Stabbed in the head by Andrew Coubisou- Fir was a good tribute, but she was also one I was never quite sure what to do with. I loved all of my submissions so much, and they all fell into significant storylines fairly easy. However, with Fir, it was more of a constant battle for me to figure out ways to keep her relevant. Her popularity kept her alive briefly, but I just couldn't keep her around knowing that I didn't know what to do with her. I thought this was a fair way to go, more like a random draw and she got the short end of the stick.

15th Place: Andrew Coubisou, District 4 Male, Stabbed in the neck by Rylan Spain- Okay, so I know this is a shocker, but hear me out. There needed to be some change in the villain alliance. Having three villains in a story, and a pseudo villains in Curie and Eve, was just to much. I started thinking about the ones that I could get rid of without causing a major upset, and unfortunately it was Andrew. He was one of my favorites that I got. He was fun and exciting. I also felt like you, Anna, just kind of disappeared.

What did you think of this chapter? Like the phase, they are in? Shocked at the deaths? Let me know in the reviews. Also, new poll. Vote!

I'd also like to thank the people that review every chapter. You guys are wonderful.

Keep it classy,

Caleb