Song: 42 by Coldplay

Arena, Lake, Day 5: Marin Callahan

"I'm going to go hunting. For people, not dinner, in case you were wondering," Vita announced early in the morning, right when the sun had started to rise. "Is anyone coming with me?"

Marin surprised everyone - including herself – by bounding to her feet without a second thought. "I'll come. I feel like a sitting duck."

"Alright. Well, we'll be back. Four, One, you should go in the other direction, we need to kill someone today. It's been so boring, and you know what happens when it gets boring."

"Okay," Solomon agreed, and Topaz got to her feet.

"Alaric, you guard the supplies."

The hulking boy grunted his agreement, putting up no fight, which wasn't surprising – he was vicious, but he was smart. Marin doubted that he would cause drama over a silly little thing like that – she got the feeling that he was biding his time, waiting like a lion stalking its prey. It was possible, however, that she had the wrong impression of him – after all, she had at first gotten the impression that Vita was a heartless, obnoxious enemy. But over the past few days, Vita had proved herself a fair leader of the Career pack, listening to all suggestions and giving Topaz the time and space to grieve over Lapis' death. Not to mention the empathy she had surprised Marin with after the interviews.

But Marin was still pretty sure that she had judged Alaric accurately. He had, so far, lived up to the first impression she'd had of him – a cold, calculating, ruthless killer. He had been the one who found and killed the girl from Twelve, that first night. She had had a slow and painful death, thanks to him, and though it had earned them all a luxurious dinner, Marin couldn't bring herself to thank him.

"Why'd you come with?" Vita asked, after the others were out of earshot.

"Like I said, I feel on edge just sitting around all day," Marin replied, conveniently leaving out the fact that she wanted to escape from Alaric's unsettling aura. "We can't let them get bored; we have to keep them on our side."

"Good reason. Me, I can't stand being around your ass of a district partner for one more second."

Marin laughed. Solomon had that way about him – he managed to annoy even the calmest of people, however unintentionally. She had known him for so long that she knew how to process him, but she could understand Vita's reasoning. "He is all right, once you get to know him, but I guess that's not exactly what the arena's for."

"You were friends back home, weren't you?" Vita asked, holding a branch back for Marin before letting it slap against a tree.

"Yeah," Marin nodded, her eyes downcast. She didn't want to think of the certainty of Solomon's death – and it was certain, if she wanted to go home to her daughter. Maybe she would even be the one to kill him. She hoped not. "He's my best friend, actually."

Vita whistled. "That's rough. Alaric and I are cousins, but we've never really got along."

"Why did you both volunteer?"

Vita sighed, and kicked a rock out of her path. "There's a lot of rivalry in our family. And, let's just say, my Dad and Uncle aren't the best of friends."

"Oh."

"So how'd you end up in here?" Vita said after a while.

Marin let out a sigh. "A girl I trained with – Leilani – was supposed to volunteer, but she didn't. And things have been rough since my parents died, so I took a lot of tesserae to support Del and Minnow and me. I guess I took one month's too much."

"How old's your kid?"

"She's fifteen months. I hope-" Marin sighed again. "I don't want her to grow up without a mom. My parents died a couple of years ago, and I don't want Minnow to have to go through that. And her father's a scumbag, so she'll grow up without a dad regardless of whether I make it out of here or not."

She clenched her fists at the thought of Morgan's abandonment – she had thought, at the time, that their relationship meant more to him than just sex. But apparently he hadn't had the same idea, because the moment he found out that she was expecting, he took off, ignoring all her attempts to contact him and pretending that she had never existed. He hadn't offered a single penny when Minnow was born – he didn't even want to meet her. Marin knew that she was better off without him, but his cruel indifference had still hurt.

Vita was silent, and for a moment, they just walked. Marin was surprised at how comfortable she felt in Vita's presence – only a couple of days ago, Marin had been crying over Vita's threats, and now they were making pleasant conversation while they hunted people down.

"My mom died when I was a kid," Vita said finally, breaking the pause in the conversation.

"Oh," Marin said, not entirely sure why Vita was telling her this. "How did she die, if you don't mind me asking?"

"It's fine. Quarry accident," she said with a shrug. "I have my dad, and my brothers, but I always wanted my mom."

"I'm sorry, Vita, that –" Marin started to say, but was cut off with her ally's scoff.

"Spare me. It's shit, but I can't do anything about it but suck it up and carry on," Vita said. "I didn't tell you that for you to pity me."

"I know. Sorry."

"Oh, fuck off with the sorrys, will you," Vita said, but her tone was light, a smile playing on her lips.

Marin smiled – and that was when she heard the twig snap. Slowly, she raised a trembling finger to her lips. "Sh."

Vita nodded, and Marin looked around them. A stream of leaves fell daintily from a tree, and Marin pointed to it. "Vita, there's someone in that tree."

Vita grinned, her teeth gleaming. "Finally."

They walked over to the tree, Vita slinging an arrow into her longbow, Marin holding a shining dagger in each hand.

"Good morning," Vita called up the tree.

The boy had climbed the tree at an impressive speed, but they must have caught him off-guard. The tree he had selected wasn't the best one to hide in, as the foliage was patchy, the branches few and far between. He was climbing it as quickly as he could, but it wasn't quick enough.

"Goodnight," Marin said quietly.

It only took one arrow for Vita to bring him out of the tree – it flew through his neck, and he came thundering down with the sickening crunch of bones as he landed. He let out a pained groan before growing still, the cannon soon following his last breath. It had happened that quick, and they didn't even know his name.

Marin knelt beside him, realising who he was – the boy from Seven. With her sleeve she wiped away the blood that had dribbled from the corner of his mouth and closed his eyes in what she hoped was a silent apology.

Somewhere out there, his loved ones were cursing her name, wishing for her death – if she hadn't ratted him out, he would still be alive. But she couldn't allow herself to get too upset. Just another obstacle, she reminded herself, forcing her eyes from his still, silent face. She was finding that telling herself that her opponents were just obstacles. Because no matter how many times she said it, she still couldn't force the girls from Three and Six from her mind – and she had the feeling that the boy from Seven would join them, sentencing her to a lifetime of guilt.

Taking a shaky step back, she tugged on Vita's sleeve. "Can you roll him over? He might have something useful in his bag."

"Yeah," Vita said, and yanked the arrow out of his neck before rolling the boy onto his stomach.

Marin quickly tugged his backpack off his shoulders – it was incredibly light, with only a coil of rope, a couple of protein bars, and a rattling box of matches. He had been hungry in his final days. In his left hand, he was clutching an axe, which Vita took from him far rougher than Marin would have.

"We should head back," she said. "The others are probably wondering whose cannon that was."

Vita nodded. "Yeah. Give that here," she said, and took the backpack from Marin's hand.

They had walked about five metres when the screaming started, rising above the trees and scaring several birds into flight. "Alaric," Vita whispered, and took off running back in the direction of their camp. The backpack fell from her grip, and she left it in the dirt without a second thought. Marin ran after her, and together they tore through the trees as they made their way back to camp, following the screams that Marin wished would stop.

Alaric was thrashing on the ground, his mouth foaming, his eyes rolled back into his skull. "Alaric!" Vita yelled.

The girl from Nine thundered into the woods, her face paling when she realised that she had run straight into two of the people she was trying to avoid. "Shit," she said under her breath, and tried doubling back the way she had come from, but they all knew that it was too late for her.

Vita grabbed her by the front of her shirt and slammed her into a tree. "Did you do this?" she demanded, gesturing to her cousin lying a couple of metres away.

"I- I-" The girl stuttered, squirming, her face a confession of guilt. She stamped down hard on Vita's foot in an attempt to good away, and Vita slammed her again against the tree.

Vita grabbed the girl's right arm, holding it tightly above her head onto the bark of the tree. She gripped the axe firmly in her hand, raising it into the air.

"What are you –" Marin started to say. She didn't have time to finish her sentence before the sword swung through the air, and through Nine's arm, one clean cut sending her hand and part of her elbow to the ground with a thump Marin wished she had never heard.

It was scary how quickly the blood drained from Nine's face. Within seconds, her already pale skin turned the colour of paper, and a shocked scream tore its way out of her mouth.

"I hope you suffer," Vita snarled, before pushing the girl down into the dirt and running in the direction of her cousin.

The whole ordeal had happened in under the span of a minute, but Marin couldn't say that she was completely shocked. If there was anything she had learnt since the Reaping, it was how quickly things could change.

Nine looked at Marin with wide green eyes before scrambling away, nearly falling over in her panic, obviously dizzy from the blood-and-limb loss. Marin recognised her as one of the tributes from the Cornucopia alliance.

A doll had fallen out of Nine's pockets as she fled, a small, ragged thing that reminded Marin of Minnow's doll. Their elderly neighbour, Mrs Kishi, had made it when Marin was pregnant, bringing a doll to life from leftover scraps of material and rope.

Snatching up the doll and tucking it into her pocket with the photograph of Minnow, Marin hurried after Vita, who was kneeling by Alaric's side. Topaz and Solomon mustn't have gotten very far into the woods after she and Vita had left, because they were already with Alaric when she got there.

"Stop your whining and get up, Alaric, get the fuck up," Vita said, shaking the boy, which probably wasn't a good idea, but Marin knew that there was nothing they could do to save him anyway. His screams had stopped, thankfully, but they had been replaced by horrible rasping noises. His eyes were still rolled into the back of his head, and Marin knew that he was already gone, even if his cannon hadn't yet sounded.

It boomed a moment later. "It's just Nine's," Vita said to the group with utter confidence.

"No, Vita, it's-" Solomon started to say, before falling silent and shaking his head.

"Stop being a pussy, Alaric. Get up! Fucking get up!"

"Vita," Marin said gently, and hesitantly put a hand on Vita's shoulder. "Vita."

"What?" Vita said, whirling around. She looked like a child, crouched there in the dirt, desperately trying to shake her dead cousin awake. Her eyes were wide and shocked and helpless, and her chin was trembling slightly. It was a far cry from the way she had first seemed to Marin – invincible.

"Come on," Marin said, extending a hand to the girl who looked so small.

Vita thankfully put up no fight, and allowed Marin to lead her away from Alaric's body before shrugging her arm away. "We have to clear out," she told the remaining Careers stiffly, looking straight ahead. "Let the hovercraft get the body."

"Wait," Solomon said, and knelt next to Alaric. "We should figure out what killed him. Know your enemy, and all that."

Marin wondered why he had said that – the girl from Nine was as good as dead – before remembering that she hadn't filled Solomon and Topaz in on what had happened in the forest. It wasn't the right time, though, with Vita still reeling from Alaric's death.

After a second of searching, Solomon triumphantly yanked a dart out of Alaric's arm. "It must have been poisoned or something."

"I can't believe Nine killed Alaric, of all people. I bet a couple of bets have been lost in the Capitol already," Topaz said, shaking her head. "Nine. Did you-" she said, looking at Marin and Vita.

"She'll be dead by nightfall," Vita said, and Marin's stomach lurched when she remembered the sound of Nine's arm hitting the dirt, and the waterfall of blood that had followed it.

0o0o

"I wonder why she came here," Topaz said thoughtfully as they made their way back to camp.

Solomon shrugged. "Probably stealing stuff."

"No, I don't think so," Marin said, shaking her head. "She had hardly anything on her when we saw her in the woods. I mean, she had supplies, but she was one of the Cornucopia alliance so that's not surprising."

Topaz nodded. "Yeah, I doubt she would risk coming here to steal supplies. She seemed pretty smart in training. And coming here isn't very smart, especially with the risk of us being here."

Marin realised that Nine must have been watching them, and waiting for her time – probably accompanied by Cassian, they had seemed like buddies in training. Marin hoped that he was far from them – for his sake and theirs.

"Do you think she set traps, maybe?" Solomon asked.

"It's possible. We should search," Marin said.

Maybe they were being paranoid, but it didn't hurt to be careful, and since they hadn't found a reason for Nine to be at their camp, Marin knew it was the best thing for them to do. She hoped that all Nine had done was steal supplies – there was no telling what kind of traps she could have set, especially since she was in an alliance with Cassian, who was far too smart for Marin's liking.

They carefully picked apart the camp. Vita stood guard, saying she didn't want them to get snuck up on, but Marin could tell that she just wanted a moment to process her cousin's death. She had said that they weren't close, but Marin didn't think that would make his death any easier for Vita to come to terms with. She wondered what it would be like, to be part of such a competitive family, one that actively pushed its children to volunteer for a death match. Her parents had always wanted Marin and Del to train, but that was a just-in-case kind of decision – they hadn't been happy when Marin had wanted to volunteer, all those years ago. Before everything had changed.

"I don't think there's anything here," Topaz said after a while, her face shining with sweat.

Marin shrugged. "I guess she was just stealing – do you guys want to check the supplies?"

"Sure," Solomon said. Marin had the nasty feeling that Nine hadn't stolen anything, but they hadn't found anything suspicious in their campsite, so what else could they do but carry on?

Marin made her way over to Vita. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Vita snapped, crossing her arms and turning away.

"Okay. I'll leave you to it," Marin said, and started to walk away.

"Wait. Sorry," Vita said, grabbing Marin's wrist.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No."

"That's fine."

"He was psychotic, but he was family," Vita said.

Marin sighed, trailing her toes through the dirt. "I know."

Arena, Lake, Day 6

Nine's cannon had gone off, not yesterday evening as Vita had predicted, but early that morning. Marin wasn't surprised – she doubted anyone could survive such a wound without immediate treatment. Losing a limb in the arena was almost always a death sentence, and what a horrible death it must have been, slowly bleeding out, too shaky and helpless from blood loss to consider an alternative.

Vita had been sulking around the camp all day, eventually leaving to collect firewood even though they already had stacks of it. She obviously didn't know how to handle her cousin's death, even though she hadn't liked him all that much. Marin could somewhat relate – she had lost her parents at the age of fifteen and had wept for days. Vita was obviously processing differently, but Marin knew that everyone coped in different ways.

When their parents died, Del had thrown herself into her work, taking on new shifts at the fish-oil factory and fixing things in the house that didn't need fixing. Marin, on the other hand, had barely managed to get herself out of bed each morning, let alone do anything productive. Sometimes she hadn't left the house for weeks. She never wanted to feel that way again – the utter hopelessness, dragging her down, taking her breath away so quickly that it sometimes hurt to breathe.

"I think I'm going to go hunting in a bit," Solomon said after a while.

He had been teaching Topaz all his tricks for throwing spears. They had gotten to be quite good friends, Solomon and Topaz, and Marin was glad. Topaz had worried her a lot after Lapis had died, hardly saying a word for the first three days. Solomon's presence seemed to calm her down a bit – perhaps his easy-going nature reminded Topaz of Lapis.

I'm the only Career girl who still has her district partner, Marin realised. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not – of course it was good that she still had Solomon, but surely Topaz and Vita would be treating them with caution. They had made it obvious how loyal they were to each other, and Marin hoped that her friendship with Vita and Solomon's friendship with Topaz would balance things out a bit.

"Is Vita getting back soon, do you think?" Solomon, craning his neck as if trying to see through the trees.

Marin shrugged. "I don't know. Probably. Why?"

"I think we should stay in pairs for now," Solomon said. "Two out, two here. We don't want a repeat of yesterday."

"Good idea," Marin said. "We'll tell Vita when she gets back."

"Okay. I'm going for a swim," Solomon said, peeling off his shirt and kicking off his shoes and pants. Topaz wolf-whistled, and Solomon laughed. "Take a picture, it'll last longer!" he shouted over his shoulder.

"I'd take one if I had a camera, Solomon, and you'd better believe it," Topaz laughed.

"Want to spar?" Marin asked, after Solomon had made his way to the lakeside.

Topaz nodded and gave Marin a smile. "Yes, please, I'm so unbelievably bored."

No sooner had they gotten to their feet did the wave of dread wash over her – there had been a single splash after Solomon leapt into the water, followed by silence. In Marin's book, silence was rarely a good thing, especially in the arena.

"Sol?" she called, walking over to the lake. Topaz followed. "Oh, my god. Sol!" she shrieked.

Solomon's mouth was open in a silent scream, his eyes bugging out of his head, his limbs snapped still to his sides. He was sinking into the water, slowly, slowly, slowly sinking, and Marin felt herself sinking with him.

"Solomon! Sol!" Marin yelled, kicking off her shoes and rushing to the water. "I'm coming!"

"Marin, stop!" Topaz shouted, grabbing Marin's arm and yanking her backwards. Marin fell hard into the dirt.

"What are you doing?" she hissed, jumping to her feet and pushing away Topaz's arm. "Get off me!" she had to get to Solomon, she had to – why was Topaz stopping her? Her best friend was drowning, paralysed, and Marin had to save him. She couldn't let Solomon die, not Sol, who had been her friend through thick and thin, not Sol, who was as good as her brother. Solomon didn't deserve to die.

"Something's wrong with the water," Topaz said, tightening her grip on Marin's arms. "I don't know what, but something's wrong."

Marin didn't care. "Let me go, let me go!"

"If you get in there, you'll go the same way he's going."

Marin wrenched her ally's hands from her arms, but the girl from One was quick, and grabbed her again before she could take off after Solomon. "Topaz, let me go, I have to get to him!"

"You can't!" Topaz said desperately. "Marin, stop this!"

"No!" Marin shrieked, scratching at Topaz's strong arms, but she just wouldn't let go. Marin felt like an animal, clawing at Topaz's arms, screaming her throat raw and fighting with all her might. "Get off me, let me go, get the hell off me!"

Solomon's cannon echoed over the water, sending a cloud of birds into a panicked flight, and making Marin go limp. Her legs felt like jelly, and it was lucky that Topaz was holding her up, because she knew that if she tried to walk, they would collapse under her weight like a dying star.

"I'm sorry, Marin," Topaz said softly, and half-carried Marin over to the campfire, helping her lean her back against a log.

"My best friend," she said, searching Topaz's face for understanding. She found it, in those big dark eyes, full of sympathy.

"I know he was," Topaz said, smoothing Marin's hair back from her face.

Marin looked away, as the hovercraft picked up the body of her friend. Maybe if she didn't see it happen, she could pretend that it hadn't happened – it was easy to imagine that Solomon was just off for a walk, hunting with Vita maybe. Or perhaps he had gone for a nap in his tent.

She knew that she would have to accept his death at some point. But for now, she was content to believe that it hadn't happened – for now, she was content to sit with her head on Topaz's shoulder, watching the forest as the leaves rustled with the wind, waiting for Vita to return and the hovercraft to leave with Solomon.

When Vita returned, Marin stared at her wordlessly while Topaz explained what had happened to Solomon, before returning to Marin's side, slinging an arm around her ally's shoulder. As Topaz whispered words of comfort, Vita combed through the reeds, finding and smashing to pieces a suspicious-looking device that had been partially buried in the clay. She and Topaz came to the conclusion that the lake had been electrocuted, and it made sense – Nine had been working with Five, at least at the start, and District Five supplied Panem with electricity.

With Solomon gone, the drowning feeling swept over Marin in cruel waves. With Solomon gone, Marin could no longer pretend that the arena was just another drill they went through at the Academy – she could no longer pretend that at the end of the day, she would be able to go home to her Minnow. It was real, now. They were in the final eight, and sooner or later everything would either come crashing to an end or stretch out into a cruel infinity.

She now had proof that this wasn't all a cruel, horrible nightmare, because she always woke up from her dreams eventually. But she hadn't escaped from this one yet.

And then there were three.

:(

I can't believe I just killed Solomon. Oh my god. Also Alaric but I'm not as sad about him to be completely honest with you. Oof.

I was originally planning to have Vita die instead of Sol, but I have some ideas for her and I think she is very determined to last a bit longer because she completely took over this chapter. It was very rude of her. I hope you liked hearing from Marin again, I've missed her. I really enjoy writing the dynamics of a Career pack, maybe after Crocodile Tears is finished I'll write the story of one of the Career Victors! That would be fun.

By the way, if I was to write a spin-off about Marin, what kind of things would you like to see? I've been struggling to come up with ideas so it would be helpful to hear what you think.

Hopefully this chapter cleared things up a bit with what happened with Maizy, if you want more explanation let me know. Cassian is going to make an appearance at some point which should further straighten things out, but don't expect him for a while.

Sorry this chapter took so long, by the way. I've been very swamped with schoolwork and have just generally been feeling pretty crappy and overwhelmed. I didn't even start this chapter until a couple of days ago.

Fun fact: 'Vita' means 'life' in Latin, which is why I gave her the name.

I hope you're all well in these trying times! Have a fantabulous day/night.

-Audrey :)