Azalea Acacia, 16, Second Female (District 7)
The middle District 1 boy makes the first move, running straight into the middle and grabbing a weapon. The girl who ran in after him was not so lucky as to get out of the danger zone with her life. Everyone is just silent for a moment, likely all as shocked as I am with the reality of the situation, but when the Careers make a move towards the centre, that's when some of the tributes run.
I say some of us, because most of us are still too scared to move from our podiums.
I see a District 12 girl calmly sit down on her podium, looking at complete ease. She must be stupid, because she's not going to be able to stand up and run in time if a flying weapon comes her way.
I also see Mason and Monique nodding at one another, and it concerns me. They're too casual right now for my liking, and they're too cunning for this to end well.
Mason charges in one direction and Monique in the other, and I see the two cocky boys from District 10 and District 12 fall to the ground almost in perfect synchronisation. The two Careers' smiles as they do so send shivers down my spine.
Then, I gasp, feeling suddenly breathless and pained. Looking down at myself, I see a shining spear and I know that this is it: I'm going to die now. Right here, I'm going to lose my life.
Everything I ever did seems so worthless now. All those years chasing after Tyler, they all come to... nothing. He'll never notice me now. Even if he was watching me and admiring my beauty, he can't date a dead girl. My life has been worthless, hasn't it? I mean, what good have I done? What positive impact have I made on people's lives?
Nothing, that's what. Nothing at all.
Before I die, I do one last thing. I look back up to face my killer.
The icy glare comes from the one pair of eyes I had so hoped wouldn't be facing me. Call me stupid, but I prayed that she would never stoop that low.
I never thought my own sister could thrust a spear through my body like that.
Deliah Saunders, 14, Third Female (District 6)
All around me, there is bloodshed, but I stay uninvolved. Hopefully if I don't attack them then I can get away with my life. It's a nice thought, getting away from the Bloodbath with my life.
It takes a vulnerable, small boy from District 1 falling to the ground right beside me to make me realise the enormity of the situation I'm in. This is do or die, and I choose 'do'. I take from my pocket a weapon I found a few minutes ago.
Before me, there is a tribute just looking at the random weapons on the floor. I can't tell who he is from here, but I know that it is my chance to eliminate my competition whilst his back is turned. I gulp. Come on, Deliah, what are you waiting for?
I run towards the boy, angry, and my knife is at the ready and poised to enter his body. But then he turns. And he gasps. And he throws his own knife at me.
I didn't realise he had picked up any of the weapons...
Platinum blinks a few times, looking as though he is fighting back tears, and then he walks away. The bastard can't even look at me as I die, withering from the pain that he created.
But maybe I won't die, I naïvely think. Then again, isn't every thought likely to be a stupid one in the arena?
All I know is that I want to get through this - I can get through this. There may be a knife in my stomach, but for now I'm still breathing.
Platinum Victorian, 17, First Male (District 1)
I can't dwell on my kills - I just have to keep going. Besides, I suppose I owe them a few peaceful final moments after I rip the rest of their lives - their entire futures - away from them. I'm just as tense as everybody else, and I hate it. I don't feel like a prepared Career now I'm here in the arena. I feel more timid and smaller.
Well, I guess I don't feel like everybody else. There is one girl - Chastity or something, she's District 12 - who is unaffected by this all, and she is just sitting peacefully on her podium as though her life isn't in grave danger. She just looks strangely serene, not bothered in the slightest by what is going on around her. She's the least scared person here from the looks of it, and yet she is making herself the most vulnerable.
When the sword enters her abdomen, she just closes her eyes. Then, she starts to smile - I even think I hear the ghost of a giggle. Only when she falls to the floor, looking so peaceful and happy, do I realise: this is what she wanted.
I can't believe I never saw it before. Until now, she's been so depressed and melancholy, and now it seems obvious. It should have been that obvious all along. That girl has been trapped her entire life, and now she is free.
In a strange and twisted way, it makes me feel jealous. Jealous that she is out of this place? Maybe. Jealous of her certainty and her courage?
Definitely.
The little District 6 girl who I stabbed what must be less than a minute ago stops breathing at last, the rise and fall of her chest finally ceasing to happen at all. I see Arminta give the youngest District 12 girl a gruesome end, and it makes me lose my focus and just grimace. I'm all for the Hunger Games, but that was just a bit too violent, especially considering how young Arminta herself is.
It's only when I feel a sharp pain in my chest that I realise just how open I had left myself for attack. I look down and see a spear protuding from my body. I'm bleeding quite a lot, and I don't think I'll be able to make it.
I begin to sob. This isn't what I had planned, not in the slightest. But there are no sponsor gifts during the Bloodbath, so I know that I am already gone.
My vision is turning blurry and I'm going dizzy, but I still manage to muster the strength to look and see who my killer is. Tiara stands before me, a large and manic grin across her face. The girl is a homicidal mess, and in a weird way, I find myself pitying her. I don't pity her for long though, because soon I feel myself go blind. And moments after that, I can't feel anything at all.
Leone Strauss, 16, Second Male (District 6)
Now I'm in the cornucopia, I should be safe. But there are weapons all around me, and they're enticing.
Through the entrance, I see so many people falling to the floor. A boy from District 9, followed by a girl from the same district who I remember as being annoying. The little boys from District 5 and District 6 and the oldest boy from District 12 follow them on their journey to the next world.
As the motherly girl is murdered by a District 2 boy, my bloodlust begins to rage inside of me. I try so hard to stop myself, but with all this death surrounding me, I
just
can't
resist
any longer, and I remove the spiked baton from the Cornucopia wall. The monster in me takes over my whole self, and I let it. There's no use trying to stop myself in the arena, because I'm going to go insane and end up like this anyway if I restrain myself.
Slowly, I walk over to a shivering tribute who is seemingly paralysed with fear. The District 7 boy was looking at the walls of weapons until I approached him. Now, his eyes are wide and his bottom lip trembles. I take it all in, the beauty of his terror, and I lift the baton high above my own head before bringing it down on his skull.
Flesh tears from his face as I pull away the bloody baton, and I gently shake it to remove the best of it. I don't want to get this boy's eyeball all over my next victim, do I?
As I look around for my next kill, I see two District 4 girls kill two little girls. Though the older one looks like she is doing it for fun, the younger one looks like her actions are forced and despised by herself. Maybe she thinks getting at least one kill is a necessity. It seems like a necessity to me. A sponsor would have to be pretty dumb to sponsor someone useless.
There is a boy just sorting through electrical components just twenty metres to my left, and I run towards him. I lift my weapon again, and bring it down on the back of his skull before he even notices I'm behind him.
Another boy, who is still covered in the flesh of the girl who blew herself up, is running slowly towards the woods with a limp, and I grin. I can outrun him, even with a heavy killing tool in my hands. I drag it behind me, its spikes tearing up the ground as I practically sprint in his direction. I lift the baton and repeatedly bring it down on the back of his skull. This time, it's rather messy because he's moving rather than still, but it still kills him. His skull is still in tens - maybe even hundreds - of tiny pieces, and his brain and flesh is now another addition to the flesh and the moist, soft earth that already adorned my precious weapon. As I look around for other tributes, all I can think is one thing.
Who's next?
Opal Mahogany, 13, Third Female (District 1)
Tears begin to stream down the youngest boy from District 8's face. "I killed her. I KILLED HER!" he cries, and I can't help but feel sorry for him.
See, all he did was trip over a stone, but the knife in his hand landed in the sweet girl from District 3's back as he fell forwards. She was just in an unlucky place to be crouching, that's all. Her scream was piercing as the knife entered her, and so is his now. I would kill him - I could do it very easily with the state he is in - but instead, I move away. I may be a Career, but I'm not a monster.
Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the boy from District 6 - his name is Leone, I think - and he clubs another tribute. This time, it is a little District 11 girl, and his eyes have a manic glint in them as he does so.
Honestly? He seems like a caveman, some old kind of uncivilised human being. He's inhumane, and I would be lying if I claimed that I wasn't a little bit frightened of him. Anybody would be lying if they claimed to not be at least slightly scared of him.
The girl who Tiara hung around with a lot in the Capitol - Rhoena - puts a sword through a District 7 boy's stomach, and his death is pretty immediate. Tiara appears behind her and pats her on the back, offering her congratulations. Rhoena does the same to Tiara, and the two go and join Mason, Monique, and Glair in the cornucopia.
My ally isn't within sight, so I decide to go and look for him. As I reach the back of the cornucopia though, I see the youngest District 11 boy shaking on the floor. He sees me and tried to shuffle backwards, but he hits the cornucopia wall.
This is my chance to get sponsors to support me, I think, and I throw my javelin at him. It hits his temple, and he slumps: my first kill. Aurore would be jealous.
I'm about to continue searching for my alliance when a cannon sounds. I listen carefully, counting as they sound. Twenty-five cannons signal twenty-five deaths. That means that over a third of us are gone already.
As I look around the field of bloody corpses, I realise that I became partially responsible for the massacre when I killed that boy just, and it makes me feel all warm inside. I've never had such a big achievement before, but now I'm practically radiating my pride.
71- Sylvie Ryder, D10f2 - Charming Heartsong
70- Vernon Keld, D10m1 - Mason Slate
69- Fiyero Brulé, D12m2 - Monique Zale
68- Azalea Acacia, D7f2 - Giana Acacia
67- Peridott Sims, D1m3 - Castor Aconite
66- Charity Cliff, D12f2 - Petra Silverwood
65- Deliah Saunders, D6f3 - Platinum Victorian
64- Persimmon Tilden, D12f3 - Arminta Massina
63- Platinum Victorian, D1m1 - Tiara Holden
62- Riley Redix, D9m3 - Charming Heartsong
61- Natalia Tressington, D9f1 - Pepper Trill
60- Percy Diggory, D5m3 - Barley Maze
59- Malachi Kinch, D6m3 - Lyndon Meyers
58- Agar Campbell, D12m1 - Dynamo Serkit
57- Natalie Lockell, D10f1 - Invictus Nero
56- Trigg Yggdrasil, D7m2 - Leone Strauss
55- Centra Radix, D9f3 - Ally Johnson
54- Taylor Lovelace, D8f3 - Monique Zale
53- Tech Thohatdtospeeelle, D3m3 - Leone Strauss
52- Florian Cowbell, D10m2 - Leone Strauss
51- Pixey Platt, D3f3 - Jake Hallywell
50- Astra Moorfield, D11f3 - Leone Strauss
49- Thomas Ambarella, D8m2 - Rhoena Lyter
48- Luka Rivera, D11m3 - Opal Mahogany
KILL COUNTS:
Leone: 4 (Trigg, Tech, Florian, Astra)
Charming: 2 (Sylvie, Riley)
Monique: 2 (Fiyero, Taylor)
Tiara: 1 (Platinum)
Lyndon: 1 (Malachi)
Opal: 1 (Luka)
Platinum: 1 (Deliah)
Petra: 1 (Charity)
Arminta: 1 (Persimmon)
Mason: 1 (Vernon)
Invictus: 1 (Natalie)
Dynamo: 1 (Agar)
Ally: 1 (Centra)
Rhoena: 1 (Thomas)
Giana: 1 (Azalea)
Jake: 1 (Pixey)
Barley: 1 (Percy)
Castor: 1 (Peridott)
Pepper: 1 (Natalia)