The seventh day
1:00:00
-Job Markov, 17, District 3-
I don't know what comes over me when the announcement clicks off. All that consumes me is the desire to get out of there. Perhaps I'm being moved by the Holy Spirit: more likely, I'm in a blind panic. I'm darting out of the cabinet before Claudius's microphone even clicks off. Before the lights flicker on the whole way, my feet are hitting the ground, desperately pushing me forward with each step, desperate for a way out of this place. It had been such a long week… Hopefully this would prove to be easier to survive.
Survive!? Who the hell said anything about me surviving?! Before I can think too deeply about it, the thought all but disappears from my mind. I can't afford to think about anything, nothing except for getting myself out of there… My feet follow the frigid breeze without thinking about anything except for not getting killed. I hold the knife I'd received in my hand tightly, trying to scare off any other tributes that might think I'd actually use it…
I wouldn't…
The door is wide open in the dining room, right near the shop, enclosed by glass windows, where the Cornucopia was. I hear the muffled sound of voices yelling in the room, but pay them no attention. Even when the glass of the window shatters behind me, footsteps follow, loud panting, even as a knife whizzes past my head, I don't look back. I only keep running. Even as my feet start to bury themselves into the thick blanket of snow covering the area, I don't stop. My feet somehow keep propelling my body further forward, until I hear more steps behind me and instinctively look up.
From the very end of the train, a tribute is exiting the train and heading over towards where I am, closer to the center…
"Job!" he calls my name and I slow to meet my District partner, who is giving me a wave. Suddenly, two of the youngest tributes left are approaching him…
"Heiko!" I call out, and he looks behind them.
The younger one suddenly collapses into to the snow face-first with a high-pitched wail of terror. Without a second thought, Heiko hurries over to the tribute getting to their feet and sends his knife plunging into their chest.
Blair coughs out red onto the snow and collapses, the weight of their body causing them to sink into the whiteness like a mattress.
00:54:30
A cannon booms. Just like that, another life lost… Ott is long gone at this point, having left when he saw Heiko coming. I can't blame the guy…
Heiko keeps running towards me, his expression unchanged from when he ended the life of someone else…
My stomach turns and my feet step back into the snow, away from someone that would be that cruel… Heiko is getting closer, but I can't stand the thought of spending any more time around him…
Let him kill you too. Step into your place as martyr.
I can't.
Without another thought, I turn around, away from him, cold tears stinging the sides of my eyes as I run, run further away from him, hoping that he won't be able to catch up.
"JOB!" his voice carries on the wind, hitting my ears, but it isn't welcome anymore. I keep running, holding back small sobs as I picture the child losing their life over and over again… Heiko's voice is soon silenced, causing me to slow down, panting. Each breath I take in stings and tickles me lungs in the bitter air, causing me to cough. The coughing makes me worry I'm going to vomit, I can't stop thinking about poor Blair… How painful it must have been…
00:49:17
Another cannon booms, and when I look over my shoulder to see two figures standing over the collapsed form of what could have only been my District partner… The snow around his body fades into crimson, and my body instinctively turns away from the sight, shivering uncontrollably by now. The jackets we were given to wear on the train were actually shockingly warm… But after the horrors I've witnessed, I can't stop myself from shivering in disgust.
I watch another few pairs of tributes escape from the train, but by now they're only small figures, small faceless figures. If only they were always that way…
No. I've accepted my fate…
After all, why would I want to keep living after witnessing death face-to-face like that? Who would even want to live like that…?
I take a deep breath, walking over to the pine grove that I was already on the way to. The trees were towering, far above my head, and a blanket of sparkling snow rested delicately on its branches. Then, my eyes find the infinite-looking mountains towering over the far side of the Arena… Each one capped in snow. Surely the Gamemakers wouldn't allow tributes to climb them… But even as a distant dream, they were awe-inspiring. The darkness of the rocks and the whiteness of the snow… Some of them even reached so high, the clouds covered their tops. In all my life, I never thought I would see something quite this picturesque and beautiful…
This will be the very last beautiful thing I ever see.
I just don't know how I can possibly accept it!
No… I can't keep on running away from Nineveh forever. God will make his will known to me eventually, whether I like it or not. It would probably be less painful if I were just to go through with it myself. His will isn't for me to survive…
But I don't want to die.
Since when is what I want even part of the picture? When has it ever been? My life has always been dedicated to serving the Lord… To do what I want would be vanity… Sin…
"You're expecting way too much of me…" my voice shakes as I fall to my knees on the ground. The fresh snow seeps into my pants as my legs give out from under me and I look up the mountains. "I can't do what you have led me here to do… Why would you send me here if you knew I would fail!?" Cold tears sting at my eyes as I lift my head to the sky. "I've tried to accept it, but I can't. You know that about my heart… So why would you put me through this torture?" I cover my face in my hands, embarrassed to be in God's presence knowing that I am a failure… How can anyone be called to anything in this place? There is nothing bigger than anyone in this place. There is only sin, death, and hell in this place. Why did I have to be sent here, with some form of a purpose that I'm too weak to bring into fruition!?
I fall, my face burying itself into the snow. The ice stings my nose and cheeks, but it's not the time to pull up my head now. My heart screams out for mercy. My mind begs for guidance. My eyes cry tears for those who have passed before me. It never should have happened this way… How am I supposed to carry on after what I have seen?! I should have just ended it quickly when I could. Instead, I will be sent here to suffer…
All of my thoughts, my begging, soon disappear, until my heart alone is crying out…
Why?! Why me?! Why here?! What do you want from me?!
I never asked to be left here to die slowly… Just when I thought that I knew what He had in store for me, this happens… Why have I been left here alone, with nothing?!
Because I am too afraid to be faithful.
I want to be faithful so badly, but I just don't know where to even go from here…
The knife beside me glints into my vision… I pick it up, the handle just heavy enough to fit perfectly into my hand. If I don't want to live anyways, what was stopping from me? At least I would finally be in control of something for once…
It's not about having control, though… I know that. I take a deep breath, putting the knife back down by my side. That wasn't the point of martyrdom, after all. The point was that I would die for what I believed in… Hoping that maybe, just maybe, that would spark some form of change, or impact the world in some way…
Who am I kidding? I'll never be able to impact the world, or contribute to the end of the Games. What do I even have in my name?! An old piano with a bench full of songs that would go unplayed forever if I die here. A ragtag family of orphans that will come closer to God through losing me… Am I nothing more than a pawn in my friends' faith?!
Tears don't hit the ground in the cold temperature, freezing to my face…
And that's when I hear music, snapping me out of my stupor. It's being carried over from the left… A song that I know so well…
"I once was lost, but now am found…
Was blind, but now I see…"
I perk up, knowing there's really only one person who could be singing… I wonder if maybe I should go over there and take refuge with him… I couldn't…
00:03:00
The singing is suddenly cut off by a cannon.
Boom!
Just then, I do the mat, and I realize…
Shit… I'm in the final eight.
~.~.
00:50:00
-Kaiser Picasso, 18, District 10-
"Do you think they've cleared out yet?" Inari shivers beside me, I can see her breath… My heart is pounding, too… The last thing I want to do is cross paths with the Careers again… I don't think I could take on both of the ones that remained by myself. Let alone try to get Inari out on top of it… It's not a risk I think I'm ready to take with her. "Do you know how long it's been?" she asks quietly.
"Let's just wait a little bit longer," I tell her, trying to keep my voice calm and level. It's hard, though… I'm just as afraid as she is.
"Kaiser…" she says, but doesn't get to finish her thought before the train lurches forward again with a great screech, the sound of metal sparking on metal assaulting my ears as the train lurches, throwing both Inari and I off to the side.
"Are you alright?" I ask her quickly, to which Inari lets out a small cry. "Inari?"
"I'm okay," she says weakly. She's now just doing everything that she can to hold in the tears, probably trying not to worry me. I grab her again and help her back up to her feet. She sniffles and wipes her nose on her jacket sleeve.
"We're going to be okay, right? We're going to get you out of here."
"We're both getting out of here," she said, her voice obviously trying to be brave over a wobbly foundation.
"We will," I tell her, trying to reassure her. But I can't promise both of us. I can only promise her.
No… I can't possibly die in her place. That's not what I want.
But the truth is that I still don't know if I'll be allowed to win the Games because of my past. Inari at least will be allowed to win no matter what. If I were to let her go, only to realize that I wasn't going to get out either… The Victor has to be from District Ten this year, whether I'm allowed to live or not. She could do so much for the world if she won… Far more than a horny doofus like me could, I'm sure.
But my Mom… My freedom… It's only a few people away at this point. I'm doing so well, and who's to say I won't be allowed to win!? Maybe I will. I can't count myself out, that would break my Mom's heart… And she was the one who gave up her life to raise me… Well, I'm not going to give up my life so easily.
00:49:17
The second cannon of the day booms. I hold my breath as Inari lets out another small gasp of fear. I knew it wasn't safe to go out there yet… We have plenty of time to just wait it out. Hopefully the Careers will get bored: or pursue someone else: and the coast will be clear for us. After all, who in their right mind would wait so long to get out of there, right?
"I don't want to die," she whispers, grabbing tightly onto my forearm.
"Hey, you're not going to die. Not while you're with me."
She lets out another small sob, the tears reflecting the red lights that cast an eerie light in the room. I hate to see her like this… I reach over and wipe the tears from her cheeks with my free hand as gently as I can. "Calm down, Moo Cow. We're not going down quite yet."
That gets the weakest little laugh out of her, mixed with another sob as her grip tightens on my arm. "Right," she says quietly, but it doesn't quite sound like she believes me.
There haven't been any cannons…
"Let's proceed," I say quietly. She gives a small nod in the dark, the light reflecting off of her hair as she gets up to her feet. I stand up and slowly, we walk together, through the dark hallway, and into the next car over. I can just barely see the glitzy appliances in the dark, but it doesn't take Inari long to figure out…
"It's the kitchen."
"Do you think there's food in here?"
"Kaiser, we should focus on getting out of here."
"Just trying to save us some trouble later," I say. Each of the cabinets and draw units is absolutely frigid to the touch, meaning we must be getting closer to the exit. Which means we have to be all the more careful. I almost miss it because of the darkness, but when I reach in the drawer, my hand wraps around a few food bags. The drawer is mostly empty, but I'll take what I can get quickly. I put the bags in my coat pocket.
"Find anything?" Inari is still moving slowly, frozen in panic and fear. However, she makes an important discovery…
"The sink works," she says, accompanied by the sound of rushing water. I hurry over to where she is. Both of us lap up water pouring out of the sink into our hands. The water is basically frigid and makes my hands numb, but at that point, it didn't matter. All that mattered was a sweet, sweet drink. We had apples to coast us over in terms of liquid, but this was different. It was truly water.
I think that raised Inari's spirits, thankfully, as she wasn't crying anymore when we turned the water off.
"Feeling better?"
"Yeah," she said, "Thanks."
"Let's wait here for just a little bit longer, then we can make our escape."
"Okay," she said, giving my hand a tight squeeze. "I trust you."
The statement catches me completely by surprise. "You… what?!"
"I trust you, Kaiser. We've been District partners for two weeks now. I know that your plans work, they haven't failed us so far, right?"
"Right…"
"So we're going to get through this. I trust you when you say it."
How long had it been since someone trusted me…? How long had it been since I felt like I deserved it?
If I wasn't so good at regulating my emotions, I would have burst into tears. But instead, I channel the overwhelming emotion and harness it into my best personality trait: the most stubborn determination that has ever been seen by this shithole of a country.
"Then I'm not going to let you down now…"
00:36:09
"…Let's get out of here."
All I can see is the sparkle in Inari's eyes as she reaches out and we grab the other's wrist.
Suddenly, a great force throws Inari and I forward, towards the door. But not a force strong enough to throw me over… Inari yells out, her shriek terrified.
"I've got you," I tell her.
"Kaiser!" she gasped out, grabbing my hand even tighter. Another force pulled me forward, towards the door, but I don't let go of Inari's hand. With a great grunt, Inari kicked her feet forward, and slumped backwards against me, sobbing quietly.
"What happened?!" She had a panic in her eyes that I hadn't yet seen… She can't even talk, she's sobbing too much…
"I'm getting us out of here," I tell her. And I mean it. "Get behind me."
Inari does as she's told, but without letting go of the vicegrip she has on my hand. I head out the kitchen door, the path illuminated with shaking blue lights that make me only the slightest bit unsure..
We step into the dining room where the door is wide open. In the light produced from the outside, I can see that the room is empty.
"Be careful," I whisper to her. "There's broken glass on the floor." Inari swallows down her tears and gives me a nod. Together, I head through the glass, as fast as I can while still making sure she has time to step around it.
The air is colder and colder with each step…
About halfway across the room to the door, my hand is tugged. Inari is standing in place, sobbing and hyperventilating…
"Come on," I say. "You can do it."
She sobs quietly and shakes her head.
"Inari…" It's becoming obvious that she won't be able to go any further… "I'm not giving up yet."
I head back to my District partner and pick her up, just like I did on the floor before we entered this mess. Inari hides her face in my coat as I walk through the broken glass, holding onto her tightly as I exit the train. The surrounding area is perfectly clear by this point, and just as I step out of the train, it lurches forward again.
I don't waste any time getting the hell away from there, heading straight towards the expansive forest of pine trees, all of them covered in white snow. Carefully, I maneuver through the snow, checking as I go for footprints so I don't go that way. I veer off to the left once I see the footprints going right, and continue through the woods, Inari eventually quieting down in my arms until I reach a clearing that looks hidden and safe.
I slowly let Inari down onto the soft snow.
"Are you hurt?" I ask, to which she shakes her head.
"Are you okay?"
Inari looks at me with wide, worried eyes, before finally whispering, "No."
"What's wrong?" I ask, kneeling in the snow next to her. Inari sniffles, and holds out her wrist for me to see.
When I figure out what it was that was wrapped around her wrist, my heart dropped to the very pit of my stomach.
A bloody handprint.
~.~.
00:50:00
-Twyla Frisk, 17, District 7-
The train lurches again, and with it the contents of my stomach are thrown around. They'd gotten Walden's body out of the room thankfully, but the smell still lingered in the dark humidity of the train car. The bloodstains were still on the carpet. Every time I close my eyes, I can see his lifeless face, finally knocked down a peg, staring back at me. Looking almost shocked that he would die so early… Or maybe just at whatever was happening to him.
I don't want to know what happened to him, but if I win, I'll have to know. All of these people are being murdered like this… I can't even stand the thought. At least when Annie died, I didn't have to watch death unfold… Now, I would never be able to unsee it.
I swallow down a lump in my throat as I wish I could see out the window. Once the train had declared itself in a state of emergency, the windows were blacked out, shut off from view. They wanted me to live in darkness like this. They wanted everyone to… If I could only see what the hell was going on outside, I could figure out how to get out without getting caught…
But that was what they wanted. This was glorious, after all. The second bloodbath of sorts. The Capitolites were drinking this up back home. Just like Harry. They were just like Harry, each and every one of them. Caesar, interviewing me, parading me around the nation, the crowds of people, with their weirdly colored hair, eyelashes with jewels, skin decorated with scales like the fucking snakes they all were… Everyone I'd interacted with in the Capitol was just waiting for me to die already. They were just like him. Hiding behind a smile and false pity. False pity for a crime that they were committing. They didn't really care, though. They were all just waiting for me to die. Each and every one of them. Each and every one of my competition… Although, to be fair, I was waiting for each of them to die, too.
For one, I wouldn't have to wait much longer.
00:49:17
The cannon snaps me out of my thoughts. The second to fall to this Bloodbath Renaissance. I just hope I don't have to be around to experience the third, or fourth, or fifth… Who knew how many would perish today?
This is a good thing, I tell myself. I can say it all I want, but I won't be convinced that's true. I won't ever be convinced that someone innocent dying is a good thing. Someone guilty, alright, we can talk then. I still don't rejoice, but if they have it coming, I couldn't do anything to stop it.
If I just hadn't argued with her that night, maybe she would still be alive… I could have stopped it… I want so desperately to believe that I had the power to stop it. But why would I rather believe that I failed to stop it than surrender control over the situation?
I hold onto my knife tightly, taking a deep breath through my teeth and letting it out slowly.
00:47:45
It's time to go into the heat of battle.
"I'm not going to give you fuckers what you want," I tell them, then step out into the hallway, grabbing onto my knife. I slip out into the hallway, moving slowly and carefully. Nobody seems to be around… I follow the blue light, feeling slightly dizzy as it flickers and changes, making me feel like my feet aren't on solid ground.
Get it together, Twyla. I just have to go for a little bit longer. Maybe the change in environment will do well for me.
The air gets colder as I walk through the hallway, and the pathway leads into the room we'd all started in…
How disgustingly ironic.
I take a deep breath and step through the doorway, holding my knife up, ready to engage whoever I might find…
The room looks to be empty, the outside illuminating the mess that had been made of the glass window separating the room. I shiver a little bit at the sudden change in temperature, and notice that I can see my breath when I exhale. Outside, the sun twinkles off of the snow.
No going back from here.
I run straight through the broken pieces of glass on the ground, out into the snow. I don't even look back, I keep running, as fast as I can, just trying to get the hell out of here…
Until the sharp force sends me flying forward, and I cough up bile…
No, not bile… Bile… Isn't crimson.
I'm not dying here like you want me to, I think, spitting out more blood and trying to get back up… my arms wobble and give out from under me as I hear the approaching footsteps…
It's not my time! It can't be my time! I try again to get up, only for my limbs to collapse back into the snow… the coldness is bitter, it hurts, everything hurts…
Suddenly, I feel a warmth, and a great force pushing me, helping me… I spit up more blood, feeling the liquid tickle my lungs as I end up in a standing position...
"I've got you."
I know that voice…
But… Why?! I don't ask, I just put all of the energy I can into walking forward, each step absolute agony, sending tears stinging up to my eyes and more blood into my lungs. I go as far as I can, then, my body completely gives up on me, and I fall, coughing up blood everywhere, just trying to keep myself from drowning in it…
"Hey, you're going to be okay…" his voice rings in my ears, harmonizing with itself as it swirls around my brain, along with the thoughts of confusion, wondering why he would help me when he knows it was me that stole from him… This can't be it for me! I'm not going to give them what they want!
ABC's figure looms above me, but I can't focus on his face…
"Why!?" I have to bark it out for him to hear, and can't hold back the sobs… It hurts so bad, everything is hurting, but I can't let this be my end… It's too early… I didn't even get fix things with my family…
"Sh," he says quietly. "Don't over exhaust yourself with silly questions. It doesn't matter now. Don't waste your energy worrying about it."
I swallow my questions, trying to preserve my energy… I close my eyes, just for a second… Just for a moment…
I'm slipping away…
I open my eyes again, hacking up some more blood. I'm not going to slip so easily… I won't allow it…
"It's going to be okay, Twyla," ABC whispers to me.
"No!" I protest. It's not going to be okay… If I fail, then nobody is going to get justice for her. Nobody is going to be there to fight for her memory, and it's my fault. I made a mockery of it by wasting all of my energy on an innocent man. And now that I've made a joke out of her joke, she will never get the justice she deserves. That was all I ever wanted for her, and now that I finally know the truth, she'll never get it. I will always be the loony girl that cried wolf. Harry knew that when he told me. He knew that I would die here… He was right.
No, he can't be right…
"Shh," ABC says gently. "It's going to be alright Twyla."
It's not going to be alright… I'm going to die here, and they're going to forget about me, and my family… I can't let that happen…
My entire body screams every time I blink… There is so much pain. But no bodily pain will equal the pain I would have knowing that my sister will never get justice… Nothing will hurt more than that… I can endure…
"It's time for you to let go," ABC whispers to me. "It won't hurt anymore."
I'm not ready to give up yet… I'm not ready to let go, I haven't done what I always wanted to… And I was so close…
"Justice will come from this."
Tears pour out of my eyes and streak out of the corner of my eyes… Justice is all I ever wanted, and I couldn't even get it…
"Twyla…" he says quietly. "It's time for you to let go. Go be with her. Give her a big hug and kiss. We can handle it from here."
Annie. I don't know how I'm ever going to face her again after I failed her so badly in this world…
"Forgive me…" I say quietly… To Annie, to my family back home… To everyone that was counting on me to just hold on a little longer… I can't.
"You will be forgiven. You will." He sounds so sure of it.
I close my eyes tightly, squeezing out the last tears my body has the energy to produce.
00:05:00
ABC sings to me quietly as my eyes slide shut, the same song that he sang on the train earlier.
"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me…
I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind but now I see…"
00:04:00
I want so badly to apologize to all of them… But that's not how I want to leave here…
ABC is still singing… I force one last word out of my feeble lips…
"Thanks…"
I take a shaking breath in…
0:03:30
Annie…. Oh, how I missed you so badly…
0:03:00
I release my final breath, and allow death to take me.
Boom!
~.~.
A/N: Shit man, that was really, really rough.
Anyways, surprise update later at night because I just got on the train and kept going! And I decided fuck it, we're stepping on the gas here and going out all the way to the end! So stay tuned for that as I am student teaching. Also, go ahead and check my profile, should be posting a poll soon about who you want to see come out as Victor, because surprise surprise, I still haven't decided.
CQ: Did any of the deaths come as a surprise to you? Why or why not?
Eulogies
11th Place: Blair Lansing, District 9- Stabbed by Heiko Spate, D3
Blair was so sweet, especially to Ott! They were always doomed but because they were lucky, they outlasted half of their alliance. They were a good friend and loyal, even when Ott was far from loyal to them. They played a good game, but it was this cinnamon roll's time to go. They were really in the wrong place at the wrong time. RIP Blair. Thanks for them rose-cat!
10th Place: Heiko Spate, District 3- Beat by Garrett Wylde, D4
Heiko was one that I was really indecisive about placement wise. He definitely could have gone farther, but for the sake of Job's arc and not really knowing what else to do with him, it became his time. He was a good contender and really interesting, and he really did want to help out Job, but it just all unfolded in a way that wasn't in his favor. Loved writing him though, thanks for him Coach!
9th Place: Twyla Frisk, District 7- Hit by the knife of Nebuchadnezzar Spiros, D2
Ugh, my sweet baby GIRRL! My cheeks are stained with the many, many tears I shed writing this section. I wasn't quite ready to say goodbye to you, I was going to put it off until next chapter but then decided yolo, let's just do it tonight, and I was not ready. You ultimately had your heart in the right place, and it isn't fair that you went before the many tributes that at this point obviously do not. But, that's how your cookie crumbled, and I am very sorry it happened that way. I feel like in a year, this will be the death that I regret the most. But ultimately, it had to happen. Rest easy with your baby sister, and have faith in the people you left behind that they will carry out your one true wish for justice. RIP sweet girl.