***I didn't put the placements at the bottom of this chapter. Read it to find out!***
Alon Harlequin, 18
District 4 Male
I wake up to the sun shining down on my face. I look around, expecting to see Kilee asleep somewhere, but she's nowhere to be seen. She didn't wake me up last night for my turn to watch.
I look around the camp and see a piece of paper that wasn't there from the night prior. I pick it up and in pretty cursive handwriting is a note to me:
I've taken ahold of your little girlfriend.
If you think you can get away with what you did to me, then you're sadly mistaken.
I'm going to hurt you the same way you hurt me.
And leave you alone the same way you left me alone.
You won't know what hit you.
I'm not one to use and dump, Alon.
Meet me at the tribute graveyard.
Or she gets it.
How is it that out of all the tributes in the game, the crazy one gets attached to me? Now because of me, Kilee is in danger. All I had to do was push her away when she kissed me in the woods. A simple push and none of this would be happening right now.
Kilee is going to have to die eventually.
I shake my head. Kilee dying doesn't mean that I have to be directly responsible for it. She is in this situation because of me. I can't justify just letting her die because she will have to eventually. She's been with me since the beginning, and I've sat there and watched us get through all these tricky situations. This is one of those cases where District loyalty is more important than the win.
I don't know what time it is, or how long ago Dwindela left me this message, but two things are certain.
The first is that Kilee is alive. I haven't heard a cannon, and no cannon means life still in the arena.
The second is that this is going to be a bloody day.
Madison Parsons, 16
District 12 Female
"Dwindela, what do you expect to gain from this?" the girl from District 4 girl asks. She's tied up to a tree directly in front of the graveyard. The girl from District 9 ignores her, she's been ignoring her for hours, and I feel like I need to do something.
I just killed Luster, and if I killed Luster, that makes me a bad person, right? But by saving this girl who is clearly in danger of torturous death, then maybe I can cancel out the badness that I did killing Luster like cosmic karma cleansing or something.
"Dwindela, if you're going to kill me, just do it! Don't sit here and drag it out. I don't want this to be the last little bit I have on-"
Dwindela slaps the girl from 4 in the face, and I cover my mouth to stifle a surprised yelp. I watch in horror as she grabs the girl from 4 by the hair and pulls and pulls with no slack because she's tied to a tree.
When she finally stops, my head is in pain empathetically for the girl from 4. I can't imagine someone using my head as a rope. "I hate girls like you!" she screams. "Kilee! Girls like you always think you're better than me, but guess what?!" She starts to cackle. "I'm the best there is! If I win the games, there can be no legal action taken against me, so let's get some things clear."
She walks over to the camera and takes a bow. "District 9, I am the infamous Rose Petal Killer!"
That means absolutely nothing to me, but she seems pretty confident that it's a big deal. "I'm the Rose Petal Killer, and now I'm in the top six of the Hunger Games! I will come back, and I'll have whatever I want!" she screams. "I have to use the bathroom," she says to the girl from four. "Try not to get up," she laughs at her lousy joke as she walks to the bushes near the graveyard. "Oh, wait, you can't!"
I wait until I see her entirely disappear into the forestry before I run out of my knife. The girl from District 4 looks at me, confused and scared, but I run straight behind her and start cutting at the ropes. "We are going to run like hell out of here," I tell her I cut away at the rope.
"Well," I feel a sharp pain in the back of my neck, and I fall to the ground and in pain. Dwindela yanks her sickle out of my back and looks at Kilee in disgust as she drags me away toward the graveyard. "Stupid girl could have sat until the top 2 and died peacefully, but no, now you went and upset me."
She throws my body into the graveyard, and I feel pain as a string-like things come into my body. I look over at Dwindela as my body gets taken over from the inside out, and her eyes are lit up with pleasure. "Those mutts just gave me a fabulous idea."
The last thing I see is the girl from 4 releasing her left hand from the ropes.
You did some good, at least, Madison.
Emerson Gepler, 17
District 5 Female
I have a bad feeling about today, and that cannon indicating that we are now apart of the top 5 in these games cements that. The Capitol is going to want a big finish, and I just hope that I'm able to survive them.
I never thought that I'd make it this far. I had an idea of what the games would be like, and granted, while my experience has been very limited in the killing part of these, I've experienced loss to an exceptional degree.
"Someone is getting out of here today," asks Hazel as she plays with the machete that she managed to grab before we got attacked by the skeletons last night. When Chrysanthemum died, they stopped chasing us, but not before we were lost as to where we were in the arena.
"I think so," I tell her. "Congratulations on making it to the top 5."
"Congratulations," she says sadly.
"They'd be proud of us, you know?" I tell her. "Cullen and Spike, they'd be proud. I'm not sure about Chrysanthemum because she was a little angsty, but I think deep down, she secretly liked us."
She pauses and digs her machete in the dirt. She scribbles out the name of our dead alliance members into the ground before she looks at me with sadness in her eyes. "But are we going to be able to be proud of ourselves?"
A faint beeping sounds off in the distance, and I look up to see a parachute falling toward us. Hazel looks up hopeful as a giant box with a 5 and 7 appear on it. I open it ecstatically, and there in the box is a small sword with a five on it and a battle ax with a seven on it.
Girls,
We pulled together because we realized you didn't have weapons. Good luck, and make us proud. Your Districts are behind you.
-Your escorts
"Together until the end?" asks Hazel sticking her hand out.
"Together until the end," I say, shaking her hand in agreement.
I hear a rustling in the bushes, and two of the skeletons from last night appear in front of us in the camp. They point their fingers North of where we are standing and then start a countdown from ten using their boney digits.
"Well, you don't have to tell me twice," I say, getting up and sprinting in the direction they pointed.
Kilee Seaton, 18
District 4 Female
This is how I'm going to die—being eaten by worms in the Hunger Games.
This is brilliant.
I can think of seventeen thousand other ways that I would rather die. One of them is being in prison back home over this. At least back home, there was a chance of me getting out, here, it's either kill or be killed.
I can't bring myself to kill. Even watching all the death around me, I feel, has changed me, and now in the final 5, can I put aside my morals to overcome and win a victory? As the worms feast on the girl from 12, I feel nauseated and want to vomit, but I can't let her go in vain. I struggle with my wrist and manage to pull it from the rope. When Dwindela turns back to face me, her face lights up, but she isn't looking at me.
"It took you long enough, Alon," she says to him as she walks toward her sickle. "I was beginning to think that you were abandoning her as you did me. Guess I'm just not that important to you," She walks over to her sick and holds it up toward him. "I'm going to kill both of you, you know. I only wish I had a rose petal to set on your chest so I could claim you as a victim to the most infamous serial killer nine has ever known."
"You're a crazy bitch," Alon says. "You know that?"
She lets out a horrendous scream and runs at Alon. She swings at him aggressively again and again as he deflects each blow with his trident. "I am not crazy!" she screams. "I am simply better! I am better than that bitch Adele, better than the girl from 12, better than fucking Kilee! Why don't people see that!"
With one last swing, Alon deflects her sickle and then runs at her pushing her more toward the graveyard. I start to wiggle my hand free, and finally, get the ropes loose enough to free my other hand. I frantically untie the rest of the knots keeping me to the tree and try and get up to help Alon.
"You're not better than anyone, Dwindela!" screams Alon as he is playing offensive. "You're a psychopath! And you're spiteful! News flash!" he yells, stabbing at her with the trident. "Normal guys don't like psychos!"
She dodges each of his jabs, and I am finally able to get free of the knots. I stand up from the tree and realize that Dwindela didn't take my knives from me.
HOW DO YOU MISS THAT, KILEE?!
I pull one out of the belt and run into the fight with Alon and Dwindela. When they see me, Alon nods as he once again deflects Dwindela's attack, and I start slashing toward her neck. Dwindela looks at me with anger as she tackles me.
"Kilee, you have to move! This could stab through her and into you!" screams Alon.
Before I can respond, Dwindela takes her sickle and carves into my stomach. I let out a scream and knock her off of me as I contort in pain while Alon stabs into her torso with his trident.
She stands up and looks at us crazed. "I just wanted to love you," she says as she takes the trident out of her stomach and stumbles her way into the graveyard. "This is a visual representation of what you did to our love, Alon," she says as she falls to the ground screaming in pain as the worms crawl into her.
Alon rushes over to me and sits next to me, grabbing my hand as Dwindela's cannon sounds. "Kilee, stay with me," he whispers as he pushes my hair out of my face. "Kilee, please."
"You're bleeding," I tell him, noticing a gash on his chest.
"Kilee, don't worry about me! He says. "Listen, you have to fight!"
"You have to win," Ignoring his pleas for something I can't control. "You've had my back in here since the beginning. You have to win,"
"Kilee pleas-"
"Promise me, Alon. Promise me you'll do your best. You're in the final 3."
"I promise."
The world starts to spin, and blackness falls over my vision, and I drift off into the unknown.
Hazel Fowl, 15
District 7 Female
We run from the skeletons until they chase us into a clearing where the boy from District 4 is crying over his dead District partner. I quickly spin around to make sure that the skeletons aren't still following us, and they stand in the corner of the forest just behind the treeline and wave as they disappear.
"We still in this until the end?" I ask Emerson, winded.
"Yes."
The forest of beautiful trees and fruit starts to change into a graveyard. It's somehow spookier in the day with the black rotted trees, and fruit is all the more daunting in the sunlight.
The boy from District 4 stands up and wipes his eyes and clears his throat. "Can we make each other a deal?" he asks us as he readies his trident.
I pose ready with the battle-ax that I have no idea what I'm doing with and nod my head. "What do you need?"
"Let's not let each other suffer," he says. His face showing a world of pain as he continuously takes his eyes off of us and looks at his dead District partner. He has a nasty cut on his chest that I make a note of. "End it quickly."
"Deal." Emerson and I say together.
The once fragile looking boy contorts his face and lets out a ferocious roar as he takes off toward us with his trident. I push Emerson to the left, and I dodge to the right, placing the boy from 4 in the middle. He swings his trident at Emerson, who barely escapes it, and sloppily blocks my ax in the knick of time before it lands in his back. He twirls out of the middle of us and begins to walk sideways while not taking his eyes off either of us.
"Two against one isn't very fair."
"Like you wouldn't do this with your ally if she were alive," I call back.
He runs at me again, this time swinging aggressively at me as I barely manage to block his blows with my ax. The tip of his trident stabs me in my left hand on one of his jabs, and it takes everything I have not to drop my ax.
Emerson comes from behind him and kicks him in the back of his knee, and he tumbles down to the ground, but quickly rolls back up as he swings at her. Once again, narrowly missing her. Emerson's face grows cold as Alon turns back to me and attempts to stab his trident into my torso, but before he manages to jab his weapon, Emerson stabs her sword into his chest.
The metal point is looking me dead in the eye as he looks at me with sadness, falling to his s knees. He nods his head in approval at Emerson and coughs up blood. "Good...game," he manages to say before his cannon sounds.
Eden Grant, 25
CEO of Grant Enterprises
"Oh my gosh, those little bloodthirsty monsters are already in the final 2?!" I ask, looking at the screen in horror. "Jeez, they wasted no time."
I've been amazed at how the games have gone by so fast. It's not uncommon for games to go by fast, but it is rare for the ones that do to be so liked by the Capitol. We've had a little bit of everything in these games. Romance, kidnapping, surprise deaths, I can't tell you the number of hate messages we got when Vanity and Gerard died, but they were nothing compared to the words of glee when Hazel got that pizza.
"Fucking disrespectful." says one of the Gamemakers zooming into the two girls that are standing right next to each other, staring at the boy lying dead on the ground. "I'm turning their mics back on. They're talking."
"Good luck," says Hazel sticking her hand out to Emerson.
"You too," says Emerson shaking it.
Genuine sadness falls over the girls as they take a deep breath and pull each other in for a hug. Part of me wants to award both of them the position of Victor, but I know even I couldn't swing that with the President. They're going to have to fight it out.
The two girls separate from their hug and then walk a couple of feet apart before they run at each other.
The Victor
I deflect a swing instantly as my old ally half-heartedly attacks. This is crappy. Neither of us wants to kill each other, but we know that there isn't another way out of this. I deflect her attack and kick at her leg, and she screams in pain but doesn't buckle and continues to swing their weapon at me.
"This is stupid!" she screams as she wells with tears in her eyes.
I ignore what she said and swing my weapon at her again. She deflects, and I realize just how close she is to the graveyard. If I can continue to make her back up, maybe I won't even have to kill her.
I run at her aggressively, and she looks at me, surprised as she continues to jump back. I hit her weapon out of her hand, and she nods at me as she waits for the final blow. She closes her eyes, "Just make it quick, please."
"I was going to kick you into the graveyard," I tell her honestly.
She uses this moment to grab her weapon from the ground and swing it at me again. I sidestep her attack and stab my weapon into her back. She falls to the ground and drops her weapon beside her. I pick up her weapon and throw it in the other direction before I sit down next to her and hold her hand.
"I had a feeling it would be you," she says with a light chuckle. "Do good, okay?"
"I am so sorry," I whisper, grabbing ahold of her hand.
"I don't blame you," she says. "You did what you had to do. Remember our conversation? Your life is important."
She takes one last breath before she cocks her head to the side and dies.
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! I GIVE YOU THE VICTOR OF THE 60TH HUNGER GAMES: HAZEL FOWL OF DISTRICT 7!"
Just kidding, I had already gotten halfway through the eulogies when I decided that, and I refused to delete what I had already written.
Ugh, I hated this chapter. I didn't want to kill any of these people, but this just felt right.
Eulogies:
6th Place: Madison Parsons, District 12 Female, Killed by Dwindela Aluchi- Oh Madison. I like it when people aren't afraid to send normal tributes. And because of that, I wanted to reward Madison for it. However, the thing with normal is they either win, or they lose it. Madison just wasn't the Victor I had in my head, so last night I had Madison start her downward spiral and begin to lose it. She was great, Jayman, and I think this is the first time that I've ever had one of your tributes crack my top 10!
5th Place: Dwindela Aluchi, District 9 Psychopath, Killed by Alon/Worms- Dwindela was a HOOT! Shiro, do you realize how much INFLUENCE this girl had over my WHOLE story?! She was such a treat to write, and just the right amount of crazy to make me want to write her. I hope you liked what I did with her! She was great!
4th Place: Kilee Seaton, District 4 Female, Killed by Dwindela Aluchi- Babe, I think this is the first time your tribute cracked the top 4 in awhile in one of my stories! Thanks for submitting and supporting my weird habits. Hopefully, you still love me and stuff. (I'm kidding I know you still love me.)
3rd Place: Alon Harlequin, District 4 Male, Killed by Emerson Gepler- Alon was weird for me. I didn't like him at first, but after talking to his creator a little bit, he explained what I could do and what certain things meant in the form. From there, I saw him differently, and he went from 12th place to almost winning my whole story. The only reason I didn't have an Alon win was because of his original placement in my head, and Emerson and Hazel being in the top two for literally the whole story. I was very attached to a Hazel win at the point I started to change Alon's direction. He was great, James. Thank you for submitting him.
2nd Place: Emerson Gepler, District 5 Female, Killed by Hazel Fowl- Emerson was a sweetheart. I loved her, and for a while, I genuinely couldn't pick between her and Hazel. She was reasonable and sweet, and she had a progression of emotions that I don't think you see very often in SYOT? She was fun. I'm sad both her and Hazel couldn't win.
Victor: Hazel Fowl, District 7 Female- Hazel was in the top 3 for the whole story. Even when Saiz was going to win, I had this vision in my head where Saiz and her were about to kill each other, and then Hazel recommends teaming up to kill Gerard, so an outer district tribute wins. However, that just wasn't the direction I went. Haley, I also feel like this is long overdue. Congratulations on your newest Victor. I hope I made you proud with how I wrote her!
Thanks for reading. Project Rebirth (the new title I decided) will be posted shortly. I won't touch that story again, though, until I finish my epilogue of these games. (maybe)
Hope to hear from you soon,
Caleb