Hey y'all! so the updates are going to be coming in quickly the next few days, due to tributes being dead the chapters are getting shorter and I don't want to make y'all wait too long. plus this stuff is getting good! Enjoy day nine of the 58th Hunger Games

Now we got problems

And I don't think we can solve them

You made a really deep cut

And, baby, now we got bad blood

Kinley Mathers - District Six Female

The night sky confirms it. Aquamarine Rizzoni is dead. As is Ripley Harker. Be it from the wounds Aquamarine gave him, the wounds I gave him, or from the building being set on fire he died. I respect him so much more than anyone in this damn arena. But my respect for him is easily overwhelmed by my hatred of Max. He blew my fucking arm off. How dare he. Once I have my strength back I'm going to kill him.

The exhaustion of the day takes over and I fall asleep, bringing an end to day eight. Day nine starts far less exciting than yesterday. There are no mutts. There's no immediate threat to my person. But there's also no left arm.

I stare at the lump. I've been waiting for a healing salve or something from Dane, but he's refused to send me literally anything. Where are my sponsors now? I know it's expensive, but I'm missing an arm! Have my funds run dry? How could they? I survived a fight with two of the deadliest people in the games, and they're both dead. I munch on what little food I have left. Most of my gear was rendered useless when the bomb's shrapnel tore through it. I choke back a horrified sob of being stranded in here without help.

Dane and I are a team. He gives me what I need and in return I do all the fighting and killing. Right. Right?

Fear rises and bubbles in my chest. I let a few sobs choke out though. I can feel myself breaking and tearing at the seams. I give my stump another look and can't help but puke out everything I've tried to keep down the past 24 hours. After puking I fall to the ground and cradle my stump close to my chest.

I breakdown.

I sob and cry and feel my whole body heave with pain and exhaustion. I don't deserve this! No one deserves this! Why is this the solution to all the government's problems? Let's have them kill each other! It'll be hilarious! We can leave people deformed and alone to be hunted down by people who know how to make bombs or have trained their whole life. It's not fair!

My tears flow for the better part of an hour. I must not have been heard because no one comes to slit my throat. Once I've wiped the last tear from my eyes I survey my surroundings. Yesterday when Max blew my fucking arm off I stumbled south until I found a pleasant man-made lake, a sign near by called it Mirror Lake. I immediately collapsed into a set of bushes and really haven't moved around much since.

The air is fresh and all sorts of animals fill the area. A few ducks nonchalantly swim in the lake without a care in the world. They aren't aware of the awful things that have been going on around them. They don't understand how insulting their peaceful demeanor is when every second is a fight for life. But, they're also delicious.

I go to reach for a knife with my left hand. I can practically feel my fingers reaching and grabbing the metal, but of course nothing. My limb barely moves at all despite the strength of the phantom I feel.

It doesn't matter anyway, I don't have matches to start a fire. I remind myself. Almost everything I had was destroyed in the blast. Max's bomb did it's job.

Or I guess it didn't. I'm still alive, only hanging on by the skin of my teeth, but still alive. Maybe he chose not to chase after me and kill me because he was so sure that his bomb had done enough damage. Perhaps he felt pity after seeing my arm and couldn't finish the job. Either way it'll be the last mistake he ever makes. Once my strength comes back he's my first and only target. I might not have all my knives, but it only takes one to go through his neck.

My hunger eventually wins out and I spend an hour trying to catch one of the ducks, but it just ends up with me falling into the water and getting soaked to the bone. I spend some time ringing out my clothes and trying to dry out. It's a slow process.

I sit down and lean against a tree. I'm so afraid. This whole time I've been nothing shy of confident and strong. I've made all the right choices and have kept my ass alive, all without the assistance of an ally. I didn't cling to a career like Rio and Max did when the going got tough. No, I kept my head up and did everything myself. For the first time I'm starting to see the wear and tear that's had on my body and mind. Though it pains me to admit, I'm so scared.

My thoughts drift to my mother. How afraid she must have been, equally as alone in her Hunger Games but while carrying a child. It doesn't compute in my head how scared she must have been going into labor on live television and receiving literally zero help. She must have been the bravest women ever.

Only to have that baby ripped from her arms and then killed a few days later by another tribute, who wouldn't even go on to win. It's from her that I draw my strength from. My brave mother gives me strength from beyond the grave. A strange sense of peace falls over me banishing the fear. Even my arm seems to numb with the calm.

I slip my clothes, now dry, back on and stretch. It seems like every vertebrae cracks. I inhale deeply and take a few second to appreciate how truly beautiful this area is. the flowers, the animals, the gentle lapping of water, it's all too much. I can't help but smile.

Everything changes in a matter of heartbeats.

"You've gotta be kidding me." I grab a knife and prepare to fight.

Did you have to do this? I was thinking that you could be trusted

Did you have to ruin what was shiny? Now it's all rusted

Rio Tynder - District Nine Male

Ever since Aurora found out that Aquamarine is dead her mood has improved ten fold. She seems to be actually smiling and almost enjoying her time hunting for Kinley. She's more talkative and even laughs at a few of my stories. But, business is business and when it comes to the Hunger Games, the business is killing.

"The game makers are probably getting tired of us all searching for the few people still alive. I almost guarantee you that Ripley and Aquamarine were driven together because of them. At this point an encounter like that is too coincidental. They're officially meddling." Aurora says confidently. She's probably right, almost every year the game makers find a new way to get tributes off their butts and moving. Sometimes, like with me and Jamie they'll send mutts to attack. Other times they'll try to get more creative and have the water level rise which forces tributes to move towards the center of the arena.

That's it!

"I have an idea." Aurora perks up with a small smile.

"Yeah?"

"If they really are forcing us together we should get ahead of them and go to the cornucopia. It's the center of the arena and eventually everyone will be forced there anyway. I'd rather get their first." She nods her head following the logic of my plan.

"Sounds like a good plan. Except, let's just pick a building on the oval and stay there. That way we could get the element of surprise on anyone unlucky enough to set foot on the oval." I smile and offer her a high five, which she takes eagerly.

It takes us an hour to get to the oval and our small talk is immediately silenced when we get there. Thompson Library is gone. Nothing but a skeleton of a building and giant pile of broken timbers and ash remains.

We stand in silence, unable to actually verbalize anything. The building seemed so indestructible every time I saw it. I remember at the bloodbath chasing Jamie around the southern side of Thompson and slowing down watching her flee. Now there's just, there's nothing. Eventually Aurora speaks up.

"Who could have done this." She says barely audible.

"I have no idea." Who could start a fire that would burn strong enough to crack rock and flatten an entire building?

"A lot more happened yesterday than I originally thought."

"This changes nothing. Meet me in that building in a few minutes. I'm going to go to the bathroom." I point to a nearby place with a sign that says Independence Hall. She rolls her eyes at me and goes.

"Be safe and have fun." I turn around and go to the southern side of Thompson. I relieve myself quickly and zip my shorts back up. But as soon as I turn around Maximus Treiglad is right there holding a knife level at my throat. How I didn't hear him is beyond me.

"Fuck." I say. "Get over with it." I can see the muscles clench in his jaw as he struggles to kill me. But he doesn't. He lowers his blade and huffs out some air he's been holding in for a while.

"I can't." He runs his hand through his hair. "I can't do this." He chuckles and sheathes his knife. "You can go." I take a few steps backwards away from him. Instead of running for some reason I blurt out a question.

"What happened here." He chuckles for a moment then replies.

"I set off a few acid Molotov cocktails and rigged a small bomb. Aqua and Ripley died inside and I took of one of Kinley's arms. It's all very difficult to deal with." He rubs the back of his head. "Caius seems terrified of me now." He pauses for a moment and looks at me. "I don't know why I'm telling you all this." He laughs a little more. For the splitting of seconds I think of grabbing my knife and going for his neck, but if he's allies with Caius that's a risk I'm not willing to take. Instead I question him further.

"Do you know where Kinley went? Aurora and I have been trying to hunt her own for the past like three days."

"Oh yeah, after I took her arm off with my bomb she didn't get very far. Honestly, I figured she would die of blood loss so I let her go."

"But where is she?" I ask again, maybe with too much enthusiasm.

"She's just down this hill at Mirror Lake. Caius and I have kept tabs on her all day, waiting for her to collapse and finally die."

"You guys should clear the area for a little bit. Aurora and I have a score to settle with him. He killed Raphael." Max nods understanding my warning. I don't want this fight to have casualties on his side, or mine. Just Kinley.

"Good luck." Max says as he scampers away, probably to tell Caius some clever lie about why they should leave the vicinity.

Did you have to hit me, where I'm weak? Baby, I couldn't breathe

And rub it in so deep, salt in the wound like you're laughing right at me

Aurora Rupp - District Two Female

"Aurora I have something to tell you." Rio says with an atypical serious face. "But you have to promise you won't overreact."

"Rio is everything ok?" I ask worried about him. What happened that was so important when he was going to the bathroom?

"Promise."

"Fine I promise." I blurt.

"I know when Kinley is." My blood boils and my ears suddenly feel very hot. Immediately I throw off my backpack strap a knife to my thigh and sling my quiver over my shoulder.

"Let's go." Reluctantly he opens the door and grabs his knives. We hold each other's gaze for a few seconds. He looks keenly aware of the danger he's walking into. I almost tell him that he can turn away now and I won't be mad at him. But he's already in too deep.

"Yeah. Let's go." He leads the way across the oval and past the burned Thompson library to a stone staircase. He holds his finger to his mouth signifying that I should be quiet. I obey and we stalk forward. I hold my bow ready to fire at the first thing that moves.

That's when I see her. Kinley Mathers. She's sitting at the edge of Mirror Lake with her legs dangling in the water. She's missing an arm and doesn't look like she's doing well. I draw my arrow and point it right at her back. But I hold the arrow. I stand up and start walking towards her with my head held high.

She doesn't get to ruin my life and get away with it. She's going to beg for mercy and feel my pain before the end. When I reach the end of the stairs I step on a stick and her head swivels.

"You gotta be kidding me." She says while grabbing a knife. I don't let her bring her arm back. Like lightning I fire an arrow and shoot in into her wrist. She screams in pain, dropping her knife into the lake.

Without the use of her hand and missing a hand she struggles to get up on her feet. But when she does I send another arrow into her knee. She collapses to the ground.

"Look at me!" I shout. She rolls over on her back and leans against her elbow. With a scream I let loose another arrow. Kinley rolls to the side and avoid the shot but at the same time she falls into the lake.

Bubbles start to break the surface and eventually her head and arm join them. She has a poor hold on her last knife as well. She tries to throw it at me but her strength at aim are both extremely poor and it clatters to the ground far away from me. She tries to swim away, but it's clear that she's struggling to stay afloat let alone move.

I saunter over until I'm standing above her. Her eyes hold mine for a moment until she desperately reaches out for the edge of the man made lake. I step on her hand, she let's go of the edge and starts fluttering for more air.

"You killed him." I say devoid of emotion. Her eyes go wide as it sinks in why I've been hunting her. She spurts water from her mouth and bobs her head above the water long enough to speak.

"I was only playing the game. He was already hurt. It made sense." She falls back under. Her nub and her injured hand flailing violently, barely keeping her from the depth.

"I don't care. I loved him. He was the best thing in my life and you took him from me." I spit out with venom in my words. Her eyes are huge, and if I didn't know better I would say that she was crying, but it's hard to tell and I don't care.

"I'm sorry. I just want to go home." Kinley's voice cracks.

"Oh no. You're not sorry." I get down on my knees and set my bow to the side. "Not yet you're not." I grab her hair and drag it under the surface. Immediately she screams until I yank harder and her mouth goes under as well.

"Aurora let her go!" Rio runs up to me and puts a hand on my shoulder.

"Get away from me Rio or you're next." Her immediately backs off. "I have to do this for him." A picture of Raphael smiling and laughing comes to mind and my grip strengthens.

I feel her hand try to claw at my arm but her strength is waning and her scratches barely hurt me. Bubbles cover the surface as she occasionally breaks free and gasps for air. She even tries to smack me with her arm nub. Nothing works. I move my hands down to the roots of her hair and yank her head down as far as I can. She keep struggling for a minute, maybe two.

But eventually she stops squirming in my grasp. The bubbles slow until there are none left.

~BOOM~

Only when the cannon signals her death do I release her body. Her corpse floats to the top face down. I stand up and fire an arrow into the back of her skull for good measure.

Rio leads me by my shoulders away from Mirror Lake and we watch her body get carried away. It's all very surreal.

"It's done." I say to Rio, but to no one at the same time. That night when Kinley lights the sky my dreams are filled with images of Raphael smiling at me. He's at peace. That makes it worth it.

Only four more to go.

'Cause, baby, now we got bad blood

You know it used to be mad love

So take a look what you've done

'Cause, baby, now we got bad blood

the lyrics are Bad Blood from T-swift (duh)

6th - Kinley Mathers killed due to drowning because of Aurora Rupp

kinley was such a mixed bag for me, at first I had her coming around like 16th, but she really snuck up me as I wrote her, she's a fighter and wouldn't go down without a fight, I'll miss her she was one complex chick between the training the independence and the genuine tender girl she was on the inside.

it's the top 5. getting down to the wire, I think I have the victor picked... we'll see ;)