Linden Anderson- District Eight male

Big risk, big reward. I chanced one of the Careers running into me when I ran blindly into the Bloodbath, but it didn't happen. Instead I had two bags full of supplies for me and Visenya. The plan was to use my flashlight. Hopefully she would put two and two together that the Careers would have night vision and wouldn't be waving a flashlight around like a bunch of idiots. If the Careers found me, the idiot who was waving a flashlight around? The plan was to run like heck.

She couldn't be moving as fast as I was. I had light and she was stumbling around in the dark. Or at least at first it was dark...

When I first saw a glimmer of light, I thought i was imagining things. Then I thought I'd found the edge of the Arena and the forcefield glowed. Then, when I was closer, I finally saw what it really was.

Cool, glow-worms. I turned off the flashlight to save batteries, even though I had a pack in one of the bags and it was mostly powered by a hand crank. After admiring them for a minute, I happened to look down and saw footprints. It was just one set, so it wasn't the big female alliance. Usually the Careers hunted in pairs, so maybe it wasn't them. I wasn't confident enough to yell, but I was confident enough to follow.

"Linden!"

After all that, Visenya found me. She appeared from behind a rock spire, wielding a baseball sized stone that she dropped as she ran at me. I ran to meet her and we hugged, half for our fake romance and half out of pure human companionship.

"I was so worried!" Visenya said. That was entirely for the fake romance. Of course she was worried, but there was no need to say something so obvious unless it was for someone as dense as a Capitolite audience.

"I got us lots of stuff," I said. I set down the bags so we could look through them. I didn't say what we were both thinking: we were in this for ourselves. I may have had more stuff, but being back with Visenya benefited me, too. Now there were two of us to fight off attackers and keep watch at night. Or, if it came to it, I had someone I could outrun.

"That was so brave," Visenya said. I hoped my face wasn't pointed at any of the cameras, since I definitely made a face showing how cheesy I knew it was.

Othella Fline- District Eight female

Paloma, Yttria and I were already through the small tunnel. It was just Jezzebell who was having trouble.

"You're too big," Paloma said as she and Yttria tugged at her.

"I'm sorry I'm swole," Jezzebell said. She grunted and puffed as she hauled herself through the last bit into the open circular chamber the rest of us were standing in.

Off to one side, a pile of rocks loosely blocked a larger tunnel. We cleared them out until we could fit through. After a short stretch, the tunnel opened into a huge chamber. The ceiling was at least forty feet up, so high I would have thought that was where the earth's surface was. There were various tunnels leading out every which way, and in the center, there was a huge lake.

"All right, water," Jezzebell said.

"Think it's safe?" Yttria said.

"They have to have safe water somewhere," Paloma said.

"Not just that," Yttria said. Even with the glasses I could tell she was suspicious. She picked up a rock and chucked it into the lake. Nothing happened. She walked closer and threw another rock. Nothing.

Paloma tiptoed to the edge of the lake and bent over the surface. Without letting her knees touch the ground, she reached in.

"It's not a beach," she said. "It goes straight down right away." She took out her hand.

The rest of us gathered beside her. I looked down into the dark water. I had a feeling it was clean. We wouldn't know until after we drank it, though. It would be days later when we knew we'd been dying ever since we got here.

With the night-vision glasses, I couldn't see far down into the water. It looked greenish and hard to see through. Bubbles floated up toward me.

The lake erupted.

Paloma Bennett- District Ten female

The surface of the lake was smooth as glass. Then it shattered.

A seething mass of eels coiled and slid over each other in a mound at the water's surface. As I ran, looking over my shoulder, they separated and stood upright. Those were no eels. They were one creature's tentacles. They sat atop a squat central mass lacking any eyes or ears. They moved independently of each other and with quickness and precision that betrayed some other unimaginable sense.

One of the tentacles launched at Jezzebell. She swung a rock at it and knocked it away. Before it could recover, she was out of range. Yttria and Othella weren't so fleet-footed. Othella, who had been closest to the water's edge, was yanked off her feet and lay screaming as she dug her fingers into the dirt. Yttria was biting and clawing at the tentacle around her waist.

I darted back and grabbed Othella with both hands around her arm. Jezzebell ran for Yttria. Othella's terrified face was turned to me as her only hope as she shrieked in terror, her abject helplessness and pleading ripping into me. I braced my feet and vainly tried to yank her farther onto the shore.

Another tentacle wrapped itself around her leg. The force doubled and it was all I could do to hold her in place. Then another tentacle slid around her, and another. Her lower body was encased in black coils. I started to cry along with her.

"Paloma!"

I looked over and saw Jezzebell and Yttria making some headway. Jezzebell was fighting off any tentacles that tried to grab them and Yttria was leveraged against a rock as she fought for distance. Jezzebell, her face turned away, was calling for me. For the rest of my life I would wonder if she knew I was with Othella.

I looked back at Othella and the seething coils that were winning. Her tiny hand clung to my wrist and the force was more with every second. I couldn't save her. I might be able to help save Yttria.

Even before I did it I knew I would never be the same. Othella hadn't seen the change in my face as I made the decision. It was shock that lit up her eyes when I let go. She screamed my name and dug her fingers into the ground as I ran to Jezzebell and Yttria before the beast finished eating her and turned its full attention to them. Jezzebell and I grabbed Yttria on each side under her arms and around her waist and yanked. After a moment the single tentacle pulled free like a snapped string and we all fell on our backs.

The lake surface was clear. There was no sound.

Othella Fline- District Eight female

Paloma let go of my hand. When she did, Hadley took it.

He'll be happy, I thought. He always had something negative to tell me. He told me there was so much to be scared of and that one day it would come for me. He smirked when I lay awake at night, unable to sleep because of what might be waiting for me.

But he wasn't smiling. He looked at me with nothing but sadness. He took my hand and wrapped himself around me as I slid into the water. He looked at me like a father might look at his daughter. He held me tight, one hand behind my head and the other holding mine. Underwater it was hard to see anything, but he was imaginary, so I could see him perfectly. I should have been scared, but it was like he held all my fears for me. I clung to him until I felt a rush of water clearing a space, and then pressure all across me, and then there was nothing to be afraid of.

15th place: Othella Fline- Killed by a water mutt

I knew I wanted the Powerpuff Girls to find a giant lake like in The Descent. Then I thought of the other creepy cave lake I knew and added a reference to Lord of the Rings. Since Othella was with a strong alliance she lived a while, but when it came time to pick someone from her alliance to get eaten by the mutt, I went with her because I had some more ideas for the others yet. I wrote the whole death and then noticed her form asked for a peaceful death, so I did some quick rejiggering to soften it. Of course Paloma doesn't know that, so that sucks. Anyway, thanks guesttwelve for Othella. I don't disqualify young Tributes so she did have a chance, but I didn't end up going that route. I liked how she showed the quiet effects of Panem life on a vulnerable child and how she dealt with dark things a child shouldn't have to worry about. Even more than most, she was a tragedy.