So here we are, the climax of the Hunger Games. We have one last day in the arena with our final two. Lillith and Winstead. Place your bets now folks, some serious stuff is about to go down.


Chapter 38- Day 12

Winstead Dale, D11M

I didn't sleep a wink during the night. I didn't do anything at all. I keep seeing Abilene die, then Rusty. Then I regret thinking about either of them. I cared about Rusty, but I loved Abilene. I don't know anything anymore, except that they're both dead. Both died with me right beside them, unable to do anything at all. I'm helpless. Hopeless. I can't do this anymore. But I'm so close. So why am I haunted by everything?

Why do I see blood everywhere I turn? Their voices whispered in my ears. I definitely need to get some sleep. I can feel myself slipping in and out of mania. Crazy states. I hate these stupid games. I hate everything they've done to me, what they've done to Abilene. If these games never existed, I would be back at home with Abilene. We would still be happy, and I never would have killed anyone. I've killed people in here. Sequoia Carsyn. Drake Ru. Mica Lee. They are just three names out of twenty-two.

I can still the rusty scent of blood in the air. Rusty. Why does everything have to come back to her? She's dead. We're both dead. I feel dead, at least. Dead inside. I'm sure I don't look much better. I probably look like a zombie. Not that I care. I don't care about anything anymore. Not anything that really matters at least.

Rusty. Abilene. I just have to get through the day, for them and for my family. I can only imagine how my parents would react to finding that the lost Abilene and me. But they already have lost me. I don't know who I've become.

"Because you remind me of me."

Is that who I want to be? Like Rusty Steele, a sociopath with murderistic tendencies. No.

Of course not. That's not who I want to be. I don't think it's what anyone wants for me either. So why am I so awful? I'm stuck in my own head as the world turns on its head. Spinning at violent speeds. My legs are wobbling beneath me. What are the gamemakers doing to me now?

Lillith Sparks, D5F

The day begins in a cold sweat. A nightmare. I don't remember much more than the screaming… and the blood. And okay, I remember every awful detail. The dark room, the man and the knife. All the scars. Mine. Mine. Mine! I'm just surprised that the gamemakers allowed me to sleep at all. I'm still groggy. AsleepWhat I saw was a vine, coiled tightly around my upper arm. It was dragging me to the edge. I realized that the moment I heard the rocks go off the edge. I hadn't been this close to the edge last night.

Thankfully, I still had that knife from last night. Slashing at the vine, I got it clean off before the next vine wrapped itself around my ankle. They are more like concrete, considering I couldn't pry myself free. So I continued to hack at them. At least I was no closer to the edge than before. I was staying out for now. Every time I cut one off, another one attached itself. It was fine until one wrapped around my throat.

It's suffocating me. I need to breathe. Using the knife, I try to hack at the vines, but it's no use. This can't be it. They can't just kill me. That would be the most anticlimactic finale ever. I just need to hack through the thick vine. I'm starting to get through it as I feel the world shift. Going side to side, I feel myself sliding on the ground, the vine tightening like a noose. I need to get free.

Finally, after an eternity of thrashing, I do. Only to find that the arena is actually spinning. At hyperactive speed, the sky above me is giving me serious vertigo, to the point where I have to look away. With that, all the trees around me begin to shake. Leaves fall from the branches, landing on the ground, in my hair. I'm barely breathing again when I have to run. The edges of the arena are collapsing again.

I keep running until I'm in the clearing with the cornucopia. My lungs need air. I need air. I stop when I see the figure in the clearing, an apple halfway to his mouth. Oh, I'm sure the Capitol is waiting with baited breath.

Winstead Dale, D11M

I drop my apple the moment I see her. Lillith Sparks. She freezes when she sees me, one hand on her chest like she's trying to catch her breath. Her eyes go wide, panicked and scared. The look makes me feel guilty. I don't want to be the villain, the thing anyone is scared of. This girl shouldn't be afraid of me.

"Look, I'm sorry. I-" I'm cut off by the shaking of the ground. I'm sent crashing to my knees, and Lillith leans into the cornucopia for support. My brain is bouncing around my skull, and it feels like I'm going to explode. As the arena continues to spin, it begins to tilt. I suddenly regret leaving all the containers and cargo holds inside the cornucopia. They all slide out, the slant creating the perfect way for all of them to fall out. Including all the weapons.

It's all I can do to avoid the falling blades and arrows. The large crates that could easily give me a concussion, pushing me off the edge. So, I am careful to avoid all of the falling weapons, as well as being careful not to fall on the edge myself.

Then my feet start to slip on the slippery grass. The morning dew is still fresh. I'm so close to the edge. The only thing left in the arena is this clearing. Everything my life has been for the past three weeks subdued to nothing but rubble hundreds of feet below me. It's all ancient history.

Lillith Sparks, D5F

I wait for my body to get used to the spinning and tilting. When I realize I won't, I move anyways. Winstead is still trying to avoid all of the sliding crates and stay on the map itself. I could help him with that. Throwing him off the edge would be way easier than trying to kill him. I don't want to see anymore blood. Mine.

No. no, not now. I can't deal with that now. My knees wobble as I try to walk, and I find myself subconsciously holding my arm. The scar I haven't let myself look at in ages is underneath. I know exactly where the ridges and bumps are, and I can feel them underneath my jacket sleeve.

"This won't hurt at all, Dear," his smile is one made of steel, carved out of flesh. The blade runs down my face, my arm. Metal is in the air.

His face is eerily calm. Winstead Dale, the cold blooded killer after all. Mine. I don't belong to anyone. There is some kind of struggle inside of him. I can see it behind those eyes, the only part of him that seemed to be alive. Unmoving as a statue, He just stood there, seemingly unbothered by the world rotating on its axis, tilting and kind of just trying to screw with us.

His face changes all of a sudden, going feral and he's practically foaming at the mouth. The shrill gudderal scream he emitted was something out of nightmares. At first there was nothing, then he started moving at breakneck speeds, unbothered by the spinning and the current threat of falling off the arena. Going at me with speed I didn't know someone could possess, I felt my stomach drop as I realized what was twisting up my stomach. Fear. I'm scared. I'm scared of what he'll do to me. Fight. Flight. Freeze.

I freeze. I can't move, even as he runs at me with the clear intention of murder behind his eyes. If I could just take the knife out of my waistband I could be done with this, all the other weapons had fallen off the edge. He lowered his shoulder as he charged at me. I don't have the time to move as he connects with my gut. My body is thrown backwards, and I felt the metal of the cornucopia at my back as my head whips around and hits the wall with all the force it could. I see stars and my vision goes spotty as he approaches. Mine

"This won't hurt a bit." But no, it isn't him speaking. Suddenly, I see my attacker behind him. The man with his wicked grin. "You'll join me soon. That's a promise." Oh no, I don't think so. His hands go to my throat, pressing me into the hot metal of the cornucopia. He's going to kill me.

"Do it, I dare you. Monster."

Winstead Dale, D11M

I am a monster. A murderer. Exactly what I worried I would turn into. I don't want this. Georgia doesn't want this. Stopping dead in my tracks, it's all I can do to stay on the surface of the arena even as it twists and shakes underneath me. I can barely move.

"What am I doing?" All of a sudden, something makes hard and fast contact with my ribs. Lillith Sparks kneed me in the side. I had to let go of her throat, stumble back and catch my breath. She's standing in front of me now, a knife in one hand, the other one out for balance. She tried to attack, but even in this state I'm faster. The blade is out of her hands and in my own. I threw it away, and I heard it whistle over the edge. By the time I turn back, she's thrown herself into me in a full on tackle. I stumble backwards, so much so that I feel gravel underneath my feets sliding around. Then my heels leave the earth. With a sudden shift of the earth, I'm sent off the edge.

The free fall sensation went away after a while. I'm surely going to die. There's no getting around that.

"Winstead," I look over to see Georgia. Last time I saw her she was crying. But now she's laughing, smiling. Happy. I haven't seen anyone happy for the past while.

"Georgia. What? What's going on?"

She takes my hand, guiding me down a long walkway.

"You almost missed it," She's pulling me now. I feel my stomach twisting up with knots, and I don't know why.

"Missed what?" Everything is so bright. And so white.

Georgia hugs me, "You're wedding day, silly. Now, I have to go." I turn to ask her why, but she's gone. Then I see a woman walking down the aisle to me. I heard an orchestra start up, playing a familiar song. She's dressed in a long white dress, and I feel my heart pounding. Why are my palms sweaty?

She reaches me, stopping in front of me. Finally, she pulls back the veil. It's Abilene. My beautiful, wonderful Abilene. She's dressed in all white. She's taking my hands, and I look down to them. She's wearing a ring. So am I. When I look back up, She's morphed from my beautiful blonde Abilene to Rusty, copper hair spilling over shoulders

"Who would've thought this would ever happen? You and me, Lover boy."

No. That's not right. I don't want Rusty. I don't like her. She was a mistake, and she's dead. It doesn't matter that Abilene isn't either. None of it matters anymore. I have closure. Closure. I close my eyes one last time, pretending everything is fine. Goodbye Georgia. I'll see you on the other side.

Abilene. I'll see her again. I know it. If I don't then what's the point of living at all? Well, I won't be in a few seconds.

Abilene. I love you.

Lillith Sparks, D5F

I can't look away. He closed his eyes on the way down. My own body contorts when I hear the thud and crunch of his body against the rocks on the bottom of the ravine. Red blood splashes against everything at the bottom. I hate that colour. The canon booms, and just like that I'm the winner. The victor. The lone survivor of the hunger games massacre.

The arena is still tilting and spinning, and I realize that as I was fixated on the body at the bottom of the ravine, that I found myself sliding down the soft grass. Right to the edge.

My fingers struggle for hold, digging my hands into the dirt. It doesn't work. If I just let go, I'd die too. No, they wouldn't let me. The Gamemakers wouldn't let their precious victor die. I could test that, just let go and let myself fall- let myself die- but that's not what I want.

So I pull myself up, rolling over the edge and trying to stop all this aching. My body is about to give out. The voice, blasting over the remains of the arena. It still feels like the world is still spinning around me. Tilting and disorienting. I'm dead. I feel dead.

"Citizens of Panem, I announce the 126th annual hunger games victor, Lillith Sparks!" That's the last thing I hear before I feel my own legs give out. If I don't eat or drink soon, I think I might pass out. I haven't had a proper sleep in ages. My body is so heavy. I want all of this to just end.

The Hovercraft appears, gliding silently through the air. I have to crane my back to look up at it, I find it putting me in the shadow of the sun. The rope ladder dropping right in front of me. The moment I take hold of it, the current sucks me in, and I can't move. But I still feel so heavy. The movements makes me dizzy, and I have an out of body experience as I look around that hell hole for the last time. I feel like I'm watching as I slip into unconsciousness. It's like I'm watching as my eyes roll back before I reach the loading bay. I've won the hunger games.

Winning fucking sucks.


Eulogies

The fallen of day 11

2: Winstead Dale, D11M (2 kills)

Killed By Lillith Sparks

This entire story, Winsteads has been locked in this emotional, personal battle for really the entirety of the games. He's been through so much, losing his first love, then his other only a few days later. Becoming a murderer, a monster. He's fought the only enemy he ever truly had to fear -himself- over and over again. That much conflict really drove him to new heights. Sometimes he lost, sometimes he won. But in the end, he won control over his own consciousness, even if he lost. These games wouldn't have been the same without him. He had such a good arc, and he grew so much over the course of the story, and for the first little while I was really torn between which one of them would win. Finally, I decided on Lillith, but that doesn't mean I don't care about Winstead. He was truly just a joy to write, and I think that Rusty did a lot for his character. He really came out of his shell. He's messy, just like anyone else, and I'm so happy with how he turned out, even if he didn't end up going home.

VIctor: Lillith Sparks (2 kills)


And we have a winner. She's an overall favourite for you guys (and for me too), but she's also just one of the strongest characters of the entire story. Not just physically either. I think I did well with her backstory, and writing her was so much fun. I knew it would be impossible to kill her, and in the beginning I was dreading it. But then I realized that she didn't have to die. I spent a lot of time figuring out just who would win. I have so many reasons for this choice -she was smart, she had a good arc, she was strong both mentally and physically, she was a lovable character and so much more. I really cared about her, and I always had so much fun writing her scenes and I just can't explain the connection I feel with this character.

This is a story of survival, and Lillith survived way more than her fair share of crap. Because at the end of every story, you need someone to win. They don't always live, but what's important is that they learn They grow. And Lillith got the chance to do all of it, and I don't have the words to describe how happy I am that this damaged creature could still make it out of the hunger games. There were quite a few characters I considered as the victor at one point or another included Mica, Dawn, and Winstead. But I knew in the end it had to be Lillith. I would have been really happy with any of them, but I'm happiest with Lillith. The story isn't over, either. I'll write a few more chapters about being back in the Capitol and then in 6.