Day 11
Ok, brief announcement; from now on I will be updating this story every 2 days rather than every day. I know I have pretty much been doing this anyway but I just want to make it official so you guys aren't wondering where the new chapter is. Anyone notice for Day 11, we're on the final 11? No? Just me? Anyway, this chapter will feature the most popular tribute receiving his/her special sponsor gift.
Phoenix Cameroon POV
"Brynn?" I call to her drowsily "Baby?"
Eurgh, she must still be asleep. I shove the lump lying nearby. She doesn't move. In fact, she's not moving at all. Is she breathing? I partially unzip her sleeping bag; it's empty? Where is she? I jump up and look around the cave. Food is missing, plus a spare sleeping bag. That bitch is gone! I go out to the edge of the cave.
"BRYNN!" I bellow.
I pick up my sword and run out of the cave. I've seen a lot of blood spill but traitor blood is the sweetest of all. That's why once I've killed Brynn I'm coming after Shimmer. It won't take long to kill Brynn. She's tiny and a moron so not only can she not defend herself but she'll be easy to find. I hear a rustling up ahead and run towards it. I knew I'd find her quickly. But when I run in the direction of the rustling, I hear more rustleing in the other direction. After going up and down a few times, I'm getting fed up. I slam my axe into a tree.
"WHERE ARE YOU?" I yell and hear a squeal.
I recognise the voice. I grab hold of the trunk and begin to climb but my vision is suddenly blurred by a mess of feathers. Claws scratch my face and I fall. I see a bird coming in my direction.
"I'm here Phoenix. Can't you see me?" sneers Brynn's voice out of the birds mouth.
I swing my sword at it but miss. I hear Brynn's familiar laugh.
"Are you sad because I don't love you Phoenix?" the bird teases.
"Enough!" I growl at it. The bird flies up high and then comes down again, it's claws aimed at my face. But of course I'm too fast for it. I decapitate the stupid bird and tread on the corpse. No use giving the other tributes extra food. That may not have been the real Brynn but it's only a matter of time before even she recognises the inevitable. You hear that Brynn? I'll find you. I'll always find you.
Shimmer Starlight POV
Hmph, it turns out killing my ally wasn't the best idea; my bad. It turns out I don't know what any of these plants are. Glinda was so good at that sort of thing; her demise was so unfortunate. Still, what I lack in plant knowledge, I make up for in strength, beauty, smarts, well, every other area really. The points is, I'm hungry and I don't have any food. I would try fishing but I might fall in the water. Maybe, if I found some other tributes, I could "borrow" some of their food. Things would probably get violent of course, but that's all part of the fun. The question is- who should I target. Phoenix and Brynn probably have the most but they're probably a little sore about me leaving them. Besides, I'm savouring Phoenix's kill. Then there's the two from district 7 (oh come on, like they aren't allies) but they're probably running out of food. Ooh, what about those "geniuses". The girl from district 3 will be grieving her brother, the girl from 5 is weak and both of them probably know, like, every one of those plants. They probably have loads of food to spare. I'm sure they'll share; nobody likes to be selfish after all. As I think and walk (another one of my talents) I trip over something. Are they, bandages? Then without warning, the district 9 girl jumps out. I remember her; she was with the district 11 boy.
"Well what do you know" I grin "It's the thief's little girlfriend."
"Shut up and die you little bitch!" she growls.
She takes a swing at me with her sword but I jump out of the way. I take out an arrow.
"I don't think your quite skilled enough to be holding that sword, are you sweetie?" I smirk and then I stab the arrow into the hand holding the sword.
She cries out in pain and the sword falls to the floor.
"Climb up Tansley!" calls a voice from the tree.
District 9 girl starts to scramble up the tree.
"Oh no you don't" I snarl.
I pull out my bow and grab a second arrow. I pull it back and it hits Tansley's shoulder. My third hits her neck and she falls. I take her sword.
"I think this belong to you" I raise the sword up.
BOOM
I leave the sword; as if I need it. I look up to kill the people in the tree. The district 4 boy and the district 11 girl are up there. She's looking away and sobbing softly but he looks me right in the eyes.
"Oh hey; how's Glinda?" I ask him sweetly.
"Screw you" he says slowly.
"Not good huh?"
"You- your nothing but a pretender; and I will kill you. Someway, somehow, I will."
"I'm sure Glinda'll be waiting."
"Go to hell!"
"You first!"
I aim my arrow at him but he and the girl disappear into the trees. I smile triumphantly to myself and walk away.
Branwen Pritchard POV
Amy is still barely talking to me. I suppose I should be happy in a way; it makes distancing myself from her even easier. But I thought I could just make her focus on him and stay friends with me. Then I could slip away without any bad feeling. It's all because of that stupid note. If it wasn't for that note, I could be with my alliance until the end. Worst of all, if I left, I'd be completely defenceless unless I stole one of their axes. I don't wanna have to do that; Amy's my friend and Terro's not too bad. So I have to do it. I have to tell them what it said. At the moment we're looking for other tributes so we can get some of the strong ones while the three of us are all alive and well. It's relatively quiet; I have to do it now.
"You guys…" I begin.
"Look!" Amy points towards a tree.
Oh no not again. It's another sponsor gift. Please don't let it be for me. Terro climbs the tree to get it.
"Be more careful this time" warns Amy.
Terro rolls his eyes and climbs up in a blink of an eye. He throws the sponsor gift to Amy. There's an envelope on it. Not me. Not me. Not me…
"Of course" Amy sighs under her breath throwing the container to me.
I catch it and open the envelope.
"What does this one say? Or is it another big secret?" Amy asks cynically.
"Congratulations! You were voted the most popular tribute by our poll! Here's your prize!" I read aloud "Happy?"
I don't care if I'm being horrible to her; if she can't take it, she shouldn't dish it out. The sponsor gift is quite big and weird shaped. I open it and pull out… a bow; a beautiful, perfectly carved, strong stringed bow. On the side, "Branwen" has been carved into the dark wood.
"Wow, I guess you're the favourite in the Capitol too" Amy says sarcastically.
"What is your problem?" I scowl.
"I think I've made that very clear" she snaps back.
"What, you mean the fact you're behaving like some jealous five year old?"
"I'm gonna walk on" says Terro quickly.
We pretty much ignore him.
"I don't know what you're talking about" Amy replies.
"Oh come on. You wanna know what it said? It told me I should leave you guys and to be honest, I'm considering doing just that!" I shout.
"You were thinking of abandoning us?"
"No, I don't want to. You guys are my friends. Wait a second, what's that?"
"I'm not fooling for that."
"No really, listen."
Unbelievably another sponsor gift is coming down. Amy catches it and immediately passes it to me. I pick it up and open the container. A tiny label is attached to the lid. I smile to myself.
"What's so funny?" Amy edges over, trying to look at the label herself.
"It's not for me" I smile passing it to her.
Amy,
Here's your damn sponsor gift. Now stop complaining and suck it up!
Johanna
"I-I got a sponsor gift?" she stammers, barely able to believe it.
To be honest, I'm pretty surprised myself. She opens the container where she find a lighter.
"I guess Johanna got tired of watching Terro try to light a fire" I joke and we both laugh.
But then Amy's eyes suddenly grow wide.
"Branwen move!"
But it's too late; the girl from 5 (the one who saw Terro's brother) has a knife poised at my neck. I shake, more scared for my life than I have been, unable to see where the girl's gaze is looking.
"Give me the axe!" she hisses, I presume at Amy.
"Leave her alone! If you don't I'll kill you whether you kill her or not" Amy growls back.
"Do you really wanna take that chance? Trust me, your friend is 40% more likely to get her throat slit if you don't hand it over."
"Don't do it Amy!" I retort.
But to no avail. Amy hands the axe to the girl who kicks me to the floor.
"Ok, you have what you want. Now leave" Amy says assertively.
I lie helplessly on the floor. The girl kicked me right in the ankle. It's probably just sprained but it still hurts. Besides, there's no way I can aim an arrow quicker than she can hit me with that axe. The girl walks over to Amy and swings back the axe and…
The girl lies dead on the floor, the axe in her back. Amy and I look to see who her killer was. It's Terro.
"Terro?" Amy says, as if she's questioning if it really was him.
Then she runs over and puts her arms around him. For a second it's look they're going to kiss but then Amy remembers it's not just the two of them and looks away awkwardly.
"Ha, yeah, thanks Terro" she says, her voice high.
"Yeah whatever sweetheart" Terro shrugs.
We walk back to the cave, acting like friends. But I know what I saw; and I know what it's gonna mean for me.
Branna Chrome POV
Oh Baron, I'm sorry I didn't stop her. It's been hard without you. I feel like half of me is missing. I'm gonna find Julie-Anne and kill her for you. I know you weren't one for violence but she hurt you. She pretended to love you and then she killed you.
"Branna?" calls a weak voice.
I look down only to find Julie-Anne herself, a large, ugly wound in her back. I turn her over so she's facing me.
"Help me" she pleads.
"Help you?" I look at her in disgust.
"Please. We're friends."
"Don't give me that. You told me you and Baron was more than friends. But no one helped him! No one helped my brother!"
Julie-Anne coughs and blood splatters on her chin. That blood is soon joined by her tears.
"I didn't want to kill him. I didn't Branna" she whimpers.
"You know, despite everything, I forgive you" I whisper "But Baron doesn't."
BOOM
I pull my spear out of Julie-Anne's chest and close my eyes for a moment, trying to convince myself it was the right thing to do. Later I watch the names of the fallen tributes appear.
District 9: Tansley Marie Hepperly
District 5: Julie-Anne Beaker
In a way I should be glad Julie-Anne's dead. She killed someone so dear to me and she could have been planning to come after me soon. But I stooped to her level. I'm just like her; and it kills me.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter and I also hope I'll be more on time with the next one. Fingers crossed!
Death List
24th: Chime Hathaway- I killed him purely on the basis, that it makes Wonder guiltier.
23rd: Dallas Cho- Not strong enough and I struggled a bit to write for him.
22nd: Camera Jackie- No real reason other than the fact I couldn't see him winning.
21st: Sevtamira Maroon- I couldn't see her winning and I wasn't very good at writing for the character.
20th: Elliot Klemes- I was debating in my head so much as to whether to kill off this character especially after writing his interview but in the end I was choosing between him and Tansley as to who died.
19th: Alice Felsworth- I had quite a few ideas for this character but her dying made the most sense, story wise. I did like the character a lot though; she was interesting.
18th: Wolfgang Star- I must be clear I had a list of a few tributes and this wasn't an easy decision. After much deliberation I had to let Wolfgang go.
17th: Jesse Frogan- Sorry Jesse, there's only room for one arrogant arsehole in this story from now on and unfortunately it's not you.
16th: Topaz Martin- You were annoying and arrogant. Yet I will miss you quite a lot and to be honest I needed someone to die to break up the alliance and I chose you; apologies.
15th: Metro Cahidra- This guy was such a sweetie and I felt bad getting rid of him but the blood flow isn't moving fast enough so I had to kill someone else and unfortunately it was Metro.
14th: Wonder Jones- It broke my heart to kill her off. I definitely did consider her winning at a point. I adored writing for her and she only died because of her relationship with Phoenix (yes I know this was my idea and I do apologise).
13th: Glinda Odair- Loved her but had to lose her. I needed to kill off another girl as I only have 4 boys left.
12th: Baron Chrome- It was sad for you to die but you died a good man.
11th: Tansley Marie Hepperly- To be honest, she'd run her course and her story wasn't going anywhere but I still loved the character.
10th: Julie-Anne Beaker- I was actually gonna have her stick around for a little bit but in the end when I thought about it, it was her time. More's to the point, karma's a bitch.
REMAINING TRIBUTES:
Shimmer Starlight from District 1
Both District 2 Tributes
Branna Chrome from District 3
Danny Suvillian from District 4
Both District 7 Tributes
Airmet W. Jumpneptune from District 11
Branwen Pritchard from District 12