Song: You're a Liar by Alex Baudo

Arena, Stream, Day 6: Cassian Nicks

Cassian Judas Nicks was a liar.

He couldn't help it. It started at home – he had always been smart. He was usually the smartest person in the room at any given time. School was useless to him, and when his mother forced him to go he went only to keep her off his back – his teachers couldn't care less whether he showed up or not, they had taught him all that they could.

When he signed up for a shift at the factory, he hadn't been expecting fun. But it had been interesting – more than he expected it to be, at least. It was better than school by a long shot, because there was always something for him to do, always something that had to be done, and no time for him to sit around and twiddle his thumbs.

But still, he lied. He told people that his father was a Peacekeeper who had been killed in action, a hero, rather than a drunkard who had abandoned his young family to a life in the slums. He told people that his family was from the good side of town – and they believed him, despite his too-small clothes and his unkempt appearance. He told people that he had gotten into an exclusive engineering program in District 3, and they accepted it, no questions asked.

He told his mother that he went to school every day, when in reality he was running amok through the district, stealing bits and bobs wherever he could, making them seem like something new and selling them at the black market for twice the price.

He lied to his sisters, Sadie and Sarah, when he told them that none of them would ever be reaped.

He lied to Maizy when he told her she would be alright, when he told her that he would save her before the Careers found her. He lied to her when he knew that he was sending her on a death mission.

And he didn't care one bit.

Well, he cared a little bit.

But not too much.

He knew how to put together a generator by the age of seven. He could do it in his sleep. He showed Maizy that it was all set up, that her job was far easier than his – all she needed to do was sneak to the lake, dump the generator, and sneak back before the Careers found her. It was ridiculously easy, he told her, it'll be fine, he told her. You'll be back before you know it, he had said.

But he had lied. Oh, the lies he had told.

"It'll be okay, Maizy," he had told her with a smile, handing her the backpack and patting her on the shoulder. "Go do your part, and I'll do mine – I'll meet you back here in a couple of hours."

"Are you sure it'll be okay?" she asked him again.

"Maizy, I promise it'll be okay. You're quiet, and the reeds around the lake will hide you – the Careers won't be guarding the lake, why would they bother? Whoever's on guard will be facing the forest, or the mountains. And they'll go hunting today anyway – they have to. I bet you that Natania's the one who killed Angus – they haven't killed anyone since day one."

"Why can't you do it?" she had asked him suspiciously. It hadn't taken much to convince her – all he had to do was kiss her forehead, lace his fingers through hers, and she all but melted.

"Trust me, Maizy," he had said sincerely. "Your talents are much more important than mine – your speed is amazing, and so are your reflexes. If I do this, I'll have no chance at all of surviving. But you, Maizy, are amazing. You can do this, I know it."

"You'll distract them, won't you? Keep them away?" she had asked anxiously, staring into his face for any sign of confidence.

"Maizy, of course I will! You heard them talking – they need to go hunting for people today, or the audience will be bored. You know that Careers will do anything to keep the audience on their side," he had said reassuringly, and he could tell she was thinking of what they had heard the night before. They had spied on the Careers from the edge of the forest – risky, yes, but worthwhile, as they knew the set-up of the camp and had learned their habits.

Maizy nodded. "I know. How do we know that they'll all leave the camp, though?"

"We don't. We can only hope," he had said seriously, knowing that there was no chance the Careers would leave their supplies unattended. "However, I think it's likely – they're the Careers, they hunt in packs, they don't have the balls to sneak off on their own, or even in pairs."

"Yeah. Well. As long as you promise to keep them away from me, I'll do it," she had told him with aa sigh.

"You're amazing, you know that?" he had said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and biting back a laugh.

She smiled. "I know."

He marvelled at how easy it had been to get her on his side – he wasn't even that good-looking. But apparently all it took was a bit of charm – and Cassian had always been good at that. Charming people came as naturally to him as breathing. Maizy had been wandering the forest helplessly, had apparently been looking for him – it had taken no time at all to get her to trust him, even though she knew how cunning he was from training. She was worried about Johanna from Seven, and yet he was the one she should have been concerned about. Johanna was clever, but he had seen straight through her – her little performance was so obviously fake, Cassian had no idea how she had managed to fool everybody. He, on the other hand – nobody had managed to figure out what he was up to.

The part-time alliance had been his idea – he had known that there would be a generator at the Cornucopia, there usually was, according to Rosemary, after Beetee Latier's win. He also knew that he wouldn't get there without more accomplished fighters – so what had he done? He had convinced Natania, Scythe and Maizy to join Eulalie and himself. He had ensured that his score was far lower than theirs, so that the Careers would be targeting his allies, giving him and Eulalie the chance to escape.

He had been sad when Eulalie died, this was true, but he knew it had been for the best, as she had died quickly and likely painlessly, and had gotten the generator out of harm's way. Even though Johanna from Seven had found and taken it, he had fetched extra supplies for a reason – trades. In his haste to go after Seven, he had forgotten that he would have to replace his district partner – but he had tracked down Maizy easily enough, reuniting with her on day four and convincing her to help him carry out the plan, knowing and even hoping that it would result in her death.

It was the right decision to make, he knew that. Maizy would have only been a threat to him later on, and he may actually have a chance now that two more of the Careers had died – with Maizy out of the running as well, he knew his odds of winning had soared. He only needed Natania, Scythe and Johanna to take care of each other, as well as the remaining Careers and the boy from Eleven, and he would almost be out of this place. Maybe he would get to see his family again – maybe he could rescue them from the poverty that was slowly suffocating his poor mother.

I had no choice, he told himself as he watched Maizy's face in the night sky, shining down at him one more time before her light blinked out.

Wow, Cassian's kind of a scumbag. Whoopsie daisy. Hopefully this gives even more background to what happened.

This is the shortest chapter I've written so far, and very different to previous chapters I think. I really enjoyed getting into Cassian's head, I always wanted to write a chapter or two in his POV and I'm glad that I did.

Poor, poor Maizy :( She deserved better.

Have a great day/night!

-Audrey :)