Elissa's is a flashback because I overlooked an important part of her Arena experience.

There is a bad word in this chapter. Sorry, the situation called for it.

Elissa de Angelo- District One female

"Anjam dhad mmken ast ancheh ra keh aghaz kerdh aad."

I didn't have incense to pour over Adair's body, so I improvised and used water to wash the wounds and anoint his head as I said one of few phrases I knew in the ancient language. May you finish what you have begun. His soul would transition to wherever it was best for it to be next as he continued to grow and learn. Death, then, wasn't a big deal to a Sofrehite. He might be a Capitolite baby now, or a District baby who would go unreaped and live a full life. I consigned him to the gods and left his remains for burial.

Gavin Booth- District Ten male

Everything was sticky and slimy. Enzo and I were covered head to toe in mud like a couple of hogs. But there was method to the madness. I'd learned a few things at the camouflage station. Human eyes, for example, were very good at detecting differences in patterns and variations in texture. Camouflage wasn't about concealing yourself so much as it was about breaking up your lines. People were looking for a human shape. They weren't necessarily looking for a human. With the night vision goggles drastically impairing our texture acuity, a mud-smeared human was nigh-impossible to tell from a mud-smeared cave floor.

When the Career walked into the corridor, she didn't even see us. We both froze in our positions on opposite sides of the corridor. She walked a few steps closer, then turned into a tunnel running perpendicular to us.

"Nice," I said softly to Enzo. I turned my head and saw his eyes glittering against the dark mud.

"Hold on. I have an idea," he said. He explained it to me. It gave me chills, but we couldn't hide forever. We had to risk death eventually.

Gavin raised his head and wailed.

Seychelle Devries- District Four female

I was walking down a tunnel when suddenly, I wasn't alone. An otherwordly moan cut through the stone corridors. I snapped around to face it, the hairs on the back of my neck prickling. Nothing was there.

Maybe the cave was settling? That was what my parents said when the house made spooky noises. Or maybe I imagined it, like people in books always said. It always seemed to me that if someone couldn't tell what they imagined and what was real, they were mentally ill.

I didn't want to admit what I really thought. I'd seen a mermaid. The world wasn't as small as people thought. If she was real, other things could be. And I could think of no place more likely to be haunted than a cave full of childrens' bodies.

It's not a ghost, I told myself. It wasn't even a mermaid. What kind of child would believe something like that? You're not a prophesized "Moon Knight". You're just a well-trained Career with a signature weapon and an unorthodox style.

It wailed again. I jumped and chided myself for it. I would not allow a childish fear to get the best of me. It was not a ghost. It was the cave settling or some auditory illusion, and I was going to walk back down that corridor and either prove it was nothing or confront whatever mutt it was and if I died, it would be facing it and not running away.

Enzo Ranger- District Six male

When Seychelle came back into view, I waited until after she passed me to wail again. She whipped around and scanned the corridor. I was wedged behind a rock. That, combined with the acoustics, made it impossible to tell where I was.

While her head was turned, Gavin, who was behind her, threw a rock. It hit her in the back. She yelped and whirled back around with her sword clenched. As soon as she did, I threw a rock and screamed.

Seychelle screamed back and batted off the rock that hit her arm. Gavin took the chance to throw a rock farther down the corridor, past both of us. It clattered off the wall. Seychelle ran after it, stopping short to try to triangulate. Her breathing was heavier as she grew more agitated. She was past both of us. It was what we'd been waiting for. Gavin and I screamed at the same time, from opposite sides of the tunnel.

Seychelle was shaking when she whirled and slashed preemptively with her sword. Even in the night vision I could see her face was drawn. Just for an instant, she was panicking. I took that instant. I stood up and threw Gavin's spear.

Gavin Booth- District Ten male

The spear hit Seychelle just above her hip. She bent the knee under it and stumbled back but didn't go down.

Shit.

I should have thrown the spear. Enzo had said it and he was right. I was the one with the pitcher's arm. But I'd refused. As we lay whispering about our plan, I'd balked. I couldn't throw a spear with the intent to kill someone. I just couldn't do it. So he'd done it, and now we had a wounded and furious Career looking right at Enzo.

Seychelle grabbed the spear handle. I thought she was going to pull it out and throw it at him, but she was smarter than that. She snapped the wooden handle off, allowing mobility without letting blood spurt from the wound. Then she ran at Enzo. I learned then that what they said about adrenaline was absolutely true.

Enzo tried to run, but he was no match for a furious Career, even when she had a hole in her abdomen. She caught him by his shirt and threw him down. As he rolled over, she stabbed down at him. He threw up his arms. The sword sort of deflected off of them, missing his heart but slicing into both arms and the edge of his shoulder. That was as far as she got before I threw a rock at her head with all my strength.

Seychelle Devries- District Four female

It wasn't a ghost. It was a clever Tribute that screwed it up at the worst possible moment. I was seconds from killing him when a rock bounced off my head and I had the answer to how he could scream from two places at once.

His friend didn't finish the job either. I was stunned for the second it took to fall to the ground, but then I was back in action, slashing at the legs of the first Tribute, who'd gotten back up. He danced backwards and retreated to the opposite cave wall. Another rock hit me in the throat as the first boy picked up a rock to join his companion. As I tried again and again to get up, more rocks, some as big as baseballs, slammed into me.

A voice popped into my head. This time I knew it was imaginary. I knew I wasn't really talking to a cursed mermaid. It was my conscience or my id or whatever you wanted to call it, and mine just happened to sound a lot like a mermaid.

You shouldn't have volunteered, she said. She said it again and again as rocks pelted me and as I slashed at the boys whenever they got brave and tried to grab my sword. Blood started to trickle from my hairline. Then it started to flow. The second boy picked up a larger rock and took aim at my head.

"You stupid damned mermaid", I muttered. "You were right."

14th place: Seychelle Devries- Speared and stoned to death by Enzo and Gavin

I was having a hard time deciding what should happen next in this story, so I finally decided to shake everything up and kill a Career. The outliers are finally starting to adapt to the Arena and fight back. Enzo's form had the plan to fake a ghost in it. That fit perfectly into this spooky Arena. The logical picks for victims would be either Elissa or Seychelle since they're both superstitious. I picked Seychelle for no real dislike but just because I had to pick one or the other. She died HARD, though. Straight up slashed Enzo six ways to Sunday. Seychelle was one of the more interesting Tributes I've gotten. I've gotten everything from potato worshipers to a secret underground superspy-assassin, and Seychelle is up there. I've run across Moon Knight a few times in comics so that was fun to see. I liked her cool sword and her graceful style. This wasn't really the Arena for her, I think. She would have fit better somewhere more inspiring, like a Japanese Arena or a castle. Thanks person I forgot to write down for Seychelle, who was strong but not boring.