"You deceived me. I gave my mind blindly."
-Andrew Lloyd Webber, "The Phantom of the Opera"

Rowan Griffey (16) POV

District 10 male

Growing up in District 10 has served me well so far in the arena. Growing up, we never let any part of an animal carcass go to waste, so when Tessa complains that she's hungry again, I set out to make chicken soup.

"I know you really don't want to split up," I say. "But while I butcher the carcass and start the broth, do you think you'd be able to round up some vegetables?"

"Okay," she agrees. "I should be able to find some edible plants nearby."

"Thank you!" I say, giving her a quick kiss.

Tessa's been feeling a lot better since last night. After she got a good amount of food in her system, she was strong enough to walk over to the stream and flush out her wounds. Tessa goes off holding the compass and the empty box that used to hold our strawberries, with one of my knives in her belt. Meanwhile, I find a large flat rock to use as my work station and begin sectioning off the bones of the chicken we got as a gift yesterday.

It's still hard for me to believe that people like Tessa and I together enough to send us such an extravagant gift. I thought I was being pretty transparent about my real feelings for her, but either the Capitol can't tell, or they just don't want to see it for what it really is. All it is is trying to get sponsors, and either win or die without people suspecting my sexuality. To be honest, I'm not sure what my plan is if I win. Pretending to have feelings for Tessa for the past week and a half has been exhausting enough. How am I supposed to marry a woman and possibly have kids with her if I can't even stomach a fake romance for two weeks?

These thoughts are running through my head while I separate bones and put them into our pot full of hot water. There's still some pieces of chicken left on the bones, so I pull those off of the bones to add to the broth later after I pull out the bones. The broth combined with the meat and whatever vegetables Tessa finds should be a pretty good meal.

Tessa comes back with a box full of some roots and leaves that I don't recognize and sets them down next to my pot. We work together to gather some sticks to start a fire and use her tomahawk and a stone to get the sparks flying. It takes longer than I would hope for, but we eventually get the fire going. I vaguely hope that our fire doesn't send off too much smoke, but by the time our soup is done, no one has found us.

Sharing a pot of warm chicken soup would almost be comforting if I could forget where we are. That, and if I was with someone I could tolerate a little more. It's not that I'm actively trying to dislike Tessa. It's just that she complains so much, and she's so clearly playing the part of some damsel in distress. I know she's not stupid or weak, so why is she acting like she is? Surely sponsors would prefer a tribute who could hold her own. Regardless, whatever she's doing is working for us, and I intend to milk this cow for as long as I can.

Clio Paxton (17) POV

District 5 female

I was hoping that I would be able to sleep off my injuries from yesterday's mutt attack, but I had no such luck. Sadly, when I woke up on my fifth morning of the arena, my injuries were worse than they were when I fell asleep. I'm still convinced that the bird wasn't venomous, but the wounds are definitely infected.

The part of my ear that was bitten off was bleeding intermittently throughout the night but eventually turned into a nasty scab by morning. I'm glad it's only cosmetic because I really don't know what I would do if I lost an entire ear. My arm, on the other hand, is a completely different story. I don't have very much fat or muscle on my arms at all, so it's not surprising that when the bird scratched my arm that deeply, it exposed the bone. It was not fun when I saw that for the first time. I've never had an especially weak stomach, but seeing my own bone brought up all the food in my system.

Sighing, I get out of my tree and try my best with my wounds, but it's difficult. I tried learning some first aid during training, but it never really stuck in my brain, so I don't know what kinds of plants I could use. I don't have a first aid kit, so all I have to work with is creek water. The best I can do is keep everything clean.

My first step is my arm. I cut off my sleeve around the wound as soon as I could, because I didn't want the fabric rubbing against an open wound, but now I'm thinking that might have been a mistake. Would the sleeve have protected it from infection? Is it going to get infected no matter what I do? I mean, I'm looking at my own bone for Christ's sake, how could it not get infected? Running the water over it hurts, but I still feel like I'm doing the right thing, so I keep going. After a while, I decide that it's as good as it's going to get for now, and decide to move on to my ear.

The ear is a little trickier, even though it isn't nearly as serious of a wound as my arm. Cleaning my ear requires me to lean all the way back into the creek and put half of my head under the water, which is not fun. Letting my guard down like that worries me immensely, given where I am. I just keep reminding myself that there's only eleven people left besides me, so the odds of being found are lower.

Thankfully, I'm able to finish cleaning my ear without anyone finding and killing me. That would be such an embarrassing way to go. It's one thing to be killed in a battle where you're fighting for your life, but to be killed when you're defenseless is almost… pathetic? I don't want to get killed without putting up a fight. I know there are some people who want their deaths in the arena to be quick and painless, but that's not me. I'm going to fight for my life until my very last breath.

Julius Helios (18) POV

District 1 male

I love Penny, but she's been seriously insufferable ever since she killed the boy from District 8 yesterday while the guys and I were hunting. It's been an entire day already and she won't shut up about how she has not one but two kills now as if Alecto and I don't also each have two. She and I are sitting inside the Cornucopia drinking water out of some of the glasses we took from the dollhouse while Dustin and Terry practice with swords, Alecto looks for game, and Topher naps. I could be frustrated with how much time Dustin is devoting to making Terry better, but it's not surprising. Before he volunteered for the Games, he worked as an instructor at District 4's Academy. It only makes sense that he'd want to strengthen the weak link.

"You know you're not the only one that's killed two people, right?" I finally decide to say. "Alecto and I both did it before you did."

"Yeah, but the two that I killed were actually strong," she brags. "Alecto killed two tiny little girls, and you killed a thirteen-year-old and a gay boy."

My blood boils, and I see red. What is she implying? That just because a man is gay, he's automatically weak? That he can't hold his own?

"What was that?" I ask, raising my voice and clenching my fists. I'm going to give her one chance to correct herself.

"Don't be so defensive," she says, rolling her eyes. "Obviously not all gay people are weak. Look at you. You're not like them."

"Them?"

"I agree with Julius," a voice says. I look at Penny, who looks as confused and surprised as I am. None of our allies are anywhere close to us, and the voice didn't belong to any of them anyway. Did someone else find us? Are we about to kick some outer District ass?

"Who said that?" she asks, grabbing the spear sitting at her feet.

"Me! Over here!" I look over to where the voice has come from and notice that my water glass sprouted a face, including a working mouth that apparently agrees with me. I'm on drugs. No way this is real. I'm on drugs or this is a fever dream.

"I think it's really unfair of you to stereotype gay people like that, Penny," the cup continues. "Especially since Julius is gay, and he got an even higher training score than you did!"

Without another word, I grab the glass and throw it against the side of the Cornucopia, shattering it into tiny pieces. That was too weird.

"Hey, that wasn't very nice!" the other glass says. "Now we have to kill you!"

Kill us?

Sure enough, this glass as well as all of the other plates, bowls, and cups that we took from the dollhouse roll towards us, their dull edges suddenly razor-sharp, and begin cutting up our legs, and somehow jumping as high as our chests. Before long, we're covered in tiny bleeding cuts, and it seems like for every dish we break, at least three more take its place.

"Guys!" I shout, trying to get the attention of the others. "Guys, help!"

Before long at all, Terry and Dustin have joined us and immediately help us to start smashing dishes at our feet. Alecto must be too far away to notice what's going on, and Topher takes a minute to completely wake up, but once he does, he springs into action. It takes us a while, and we're all dripping in blood by the time we're done, but we eventually break all of the dishes. Standing in a field full of shattered glass pieces, it's almost laughable that that just happened. What Gamemaker came up with that? That was absolutely ridiculous.

Within minutes of us finishing our fight, Alecto returns, holding two squirrels in one hand, and looks at her bloody mess of an alliance with wide eyes.

"Explain?" she says, incredulously.

The five of us that were present for the fight look at each other for a moment before bursting into laughter.

Brian Spencer (18) POV

District 6 male

Obviously I knew what the salt was for all along. I'm not stupid. But I wasn't about to let Edison know what my plan was right away, so I waited until he thought that he came up with the idea of saltwater being conductive before I confirmed that that's what I should use it for.

In my private session with the Gamemakers, I used a compound of battery acid and saltwater as one of the key components in my deadly trap. I was obviously planning on coming up with some large and elaborate trap while I was in the arena, but I was planning on waiting a bit, and I didn't think it was going to be the exact same one that I showed to the Gamemakers. But if that's what they want to see, I'd be an idiot to keep that from them.

Since we've figured it out, Edison and I have spent the last several hours creating the trap. Using rope, wire, saltwater, and battery acid, we recreate my trap from my private session, but with several added elements to make it more interesting and complex, since we have more time now. By the time we're done, we're both sweaty and exhausted, but we've made a trap that, when a tribute steps into it, will lift them by their ankle, dangle them upside down, and electrocute them. Not only that, but we were able to rig the trap for up to four people, so even if the Career alliance finds us, there's a good chance that the trap would kill most of them. We've also set up a sort of safe zone in the center of the trap where we're able to still camp easily and access the water.

The only thing there's left to do is wait.

"I think I'm going to go to sleep early tonight," Edison says, stretching and yawning. "Is it okay with you to take the first watch."

"Yeah, that's fine," I say. Truthfully, it really is fine. I'm physically exhausted from setting up the trap all afternoon and evening, but I'm jittery with excitement at the thought of my trap finally getting put to good use. If this works, I can finally be a serious contender in these Games. I'll finally have a chance.

Edison climbs into the sleeping bag and is out like a light before the sun even goes down. I'm so excited for tomorrow. I'll come up with a way to lure other tributes in to me, and when they do find me, I won't have to do any of the heavy lifting.

As he sleeps, I glance over at Edison sleeping peacefully and wonder what purpose he serves to me anymore. The plan was always to team up with the smartest tributes in the Games so that they could help me form an electrical trap that would kill others, then disband once we've taken out a significant amount of other tributes. But the smartest tributes in the arena turned out to be three children between 12 and 14 years of age, two of whom died in the first ten minutes of the Games. So clearly not everything is going according to plan.

What obligation do I have towards him? At the end of the day, only one Victor can emerge, and we're really getting down to the wire here. We're in the final eleven tributes. But what would killing Edison do for my reputation? Do the Capitol viewers like alliance betrayals? Or would they view me killing a younger boy in his sleep as a cold-hearted move and lose respect for me? And if that does happen, would I be able to earn their respect back by killing people using something as creative as my trap?

Only time will tell, and I need to make a decision now before I drive myself crazy. Without spending too much more time on my decision, I pull my knife out of my belt and slit his throat.

11th: Edison Burt, District 7 male, killed by Brian's knife.

This chapter felt super short to me (because it is), and it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that it's because this chapter is four sections rather than the usual five. So that's where I'm at right now.

1. What did you think about the glass mutts?

2. What do you think about Edison's death?

3. Do you think Brian's trap is going to work? If so, who do you think he'll catch?