Valerian Mercury, 18

Princeton's #1 Female Pick

Valerian was feeling gross. She was waiting for the other shoe to drop in this hell hole of an arena. With the constant running and Lily and Axton being secretive and weird, she just wanted a break. To feel like she could breathe for a moment.

But this is the Hunger Games.

And as the sun was rising on the beach that they set camp on, Valerian couldn't help but feel the world was about to get messy. There were fourteen tributes left. She looked at everyone but Sagar as a tally to knock out for her to get to the end. Twelve people were the only thing standing in between her and Sagar.

"Good morning," Sagar said as he woke up. "How was your shift?"

"I'm tired as hell," Valerian said. "I feel gross. I keep thinking back on Rudi," Valerian said as tears welled up in her eyes. "I don't regret taking him out, but it's gotten me feeling all kinds of messy. Like how idiotic I was to stay with him as long as I did."

"Has it only been three days since we entered the arena?" asked Sagar. Lily and Axton's snoring fills the air, and the two siblings whisper to each other. "It seems longer."

"We're sure dying like we have been in here longer," said Valerian as she took a sip of water from her canteen. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course," said Sagar.

"Have you noticed those two becoming more buddy-buddy?" Valerian said, pointing to the twins, unbeknownst to her of their relation, "You don't think they're, you know?"

"Gross!" said Sagar laughing as he threw a hat at Valerian. "They're siblings!"

"Rudi and are were 'cousins,'" Valerian shrugged. "I'm just saying crazier shit has happened. It's not like there's a wide pool of people for us to choose from. Maybe the stress of the games was getting to them, and they needed the sweet, sweet release of teenage hormones!"

"Or maybe you do," said Sagar.

Valerian rolled her eyes as the ground began to shake, and she trembled, almost falling into the dim fire they lit the night prior. That would have been shitty. She thought as she did her best to balance herself as a hole opened up, and she fell onto a rough tile floor. She landed in what seemed to be a foyer to a giant house, but as the page completed turning in the arena, she saw that it was a library.

It was dark, and bookshelves lined the room from floor to ceiling. Valerian smiled as she saw the dusty hardbacks on the shelves. She would have loved to spend time here when she wasn't in a deathmatch—plenty of opportunities to get lost in a life that wasn't hers.

In the center of the room, there was a small wooden table. On the table sat a rose with a glass covering over it. The rose seemed to float in the middle of the glass, and it was glowing.

"Original," she said, looking up at the sky. "You'd think that you could come up with something more-"

Valerian screamed.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something quickly scurry across the room. The House Princeton alliance were up on their feet as Lily and Axton groggily woke up and looked around the room. "Where are we?" asked Lily.

"What happened?" asked Axton.

"Something just ran across the room!" screamed Valerian as she ran over to the arena she shouted, pointing to the bookshelf. As she inched toward the bookshelf, Sagar and Axton followed slowly behind her. Between two bookshelves with barely enough room for Valerian's tiny body to fit in the middle of it sat a single candlestick. She scrunched up her face as she reached down to pick it up, but as her hand lightly grazed it, the flames ignited on the wicks.

"What the hell?!" screamed Valerian.

"We need to get out of this room!" said Sagar as the candlestick scuffled across the floor and out the door.

Lily walked over to the door and opened it, motioning for the two boys to lead the way. "Be my guest," she said as the slowly walked past her looking for any more moving houseware to scuffle past them.

"If I get accidentally lit on fire and die," said Valerian. "I swear I will throw the biggest bitch fit anyone has ever seen in the afterlife."

"Well then, watch out for runaway candlesticks."

Arturo Ambrosio, 18

Hazel's #2 Male Pick

"Oh my gosh," said Arturo. He hadn't stopped crying since Elizabeth's death yesterday. He couldn't think straight, let alone concentrate on the games when all he could see was his sister's head slamming against the marble of that horrid castle. He had several panic attacks since that moment, all of which Carter did his best to help with, but Arturo can only take so much.

He hated the way his brain worked. How many people could say that they died from a panic attack? Let alone for being locked in a room. Every time he felt his heart beat faster, or his lungs began to feel tight, he couldn't help but think that it was going to be a repeat of his time in the games before.

He didn't want to go out that way again. He couldn't go out that way again.

Then again, his anxiety was at an all-time high.

"I'm stupid," he told Carter with tears running down his face. "I'm an idiot because I sat here and put all my trust and hope that you and Elizabeth and I were going to get out of these games. That somehow the rules would be bent or that they would realize how unfair this was, and then they would let us all out, but they didn't." Arturo said as his breath picked up. "They didn't save us, our parents left us to die, and Elizabeth is splattered across the ground of this arena."

He looked down at his shoes that were covered in her blood. They once showed so brightly white when they entered the arena, and they are now plagued with the blood of his sister. "I'm so sorry," Elizabeth," he whimpered as he placed his face into his knees.

Carter scooted close to his friend and wrapped his arm around him. "Hey, it's okay," Arturo collapsed into Carter, and they sat there quietly as Carter reassured him, but this act only made Arturo feel worse. Carter suffered from the same anxiety that he had, and while he was stronger than Arturo, at least in how Arturo viewed them, he was probably just as shaken up by all of it.

Arturo took deep breaths while trying to calm down, and eventually, he felt his pulse start to slow. Carter smiled as the two pulled away, and Carter took his hand in his own. "Don't worry," he said. "We can get out of this together, and after we can get you the help, you need."

Arturo stood up from the spot he was sitting in and finally looked around at his surroundings. He was taken aback as to the location. He and Carter were sitting on a balcony inside of a castle. It was high off the ground, at least four stories, and inside was a beautiful room that was decked out in fancy garments and linens.

"Holy crap," said Carter as he walked got up to walk through the double glass doors into the room. "This place looks so cozy."

Arturo could see them spending the day here. It was just the right amount of comfort and hidden. Based on their location from where he could see on the balcony. He walked into the room and began to look at the intricate coloring and designs on the boards. There was a beautiful wooden wardrobe about the size of a twin-sized bed. Arturo was instantly drawn to it due to the designs and story he felt it told. He could imagine a little elf family living in a house with this design. They worked in a diamond mine that was ruled by evil crow warriors.

Arturo smiled as he disappeared into a world that was no longer his own, a world that lacked anxiety and stress. One that he could control one hundred percent of.

The beautiful designs carved into the wood looked like leaves, and as Arturo ran his finger along with the designs, he felt a sharp prick in his thumb.

"Ouch!" he said as he pulled his finger back to see a splinter. Carter ran over to see if he was okay and saw the giant piece of wood sticking out of Arturo's skin. He laughed at his friend and pulled the twig out. A tiny drop of blood started to form from the wound, and Arturo begrudgingly wiped it onto the wooden wardrobe.

"You need to be more careful-"

Suddenly the wardrobe opened, and Arturo had a wooden snake-like figure wrap around his waist. It drug Arturo into the closet, but before it was able to close its double doors, Arturo spread his legs out to stop from getting pulled in.

"Arturo!" Carter screamed as he grabbed onto his friend's hands. "I have you don't worry!"

"Please don't let go!" Arturo cried as he was pulled harder and harder by the wardrobe. Carter was doing everything he could to pull Arturo back, but the harder Carter pulled him away, the tighter the wooden tongue tightened on his waist.

"You're going to get out!" screamed Carter.

A drawer shot out from the wardrobe and hit Carter in the head. Carter fell to the ground unconscious, and the wardrobe pulled Arturo inside. "Carter!" Arturo screamed. Panic ran through his body, and once again, he felt his pulse began to race, and his chest started to tighten.

No! Not again! Arturo thought as he banged on the doors of the wardrobe. Arturo put all his might into the wardrobe, but with each bang, Arturo began to realize he wasn't getting out of this. His heart began to race at an alarming pace as he desperately attempted to suck air into his lungs.

Arturo cried as he felt a pain rise in his chest. His left side of his body was the first to lose feeling, and suddenly he was slumped over in the wardrobe gripping his chest. No...not again.

Cortana Ramslee, 18

Hazel's #3 Female Pick

"We need food," Delaine told the group.

They were standing at the top of a giant staircase. It was brown wood with a red carpet that laid across it. There were two entrances on opposite sides of the room that led as a connector to the other side of the castle through the stairs.

"We are running low," said Darcy as she rummaged through the food backpack. "We have two packs of the jerky left, and that's it. They also haven't renewed our water source since the jungle. I'm glad we thought to fill those canteens when we did."

Cortana was flustered. The group had been all about empowerment and fighting the evil that is Kitana Striker when, in reality, Cortana needed people that she could control. Darcy was weak-minded until Cupid went all mentor on her. Not to mention Cortana had a drastically wrong read on Cupid as a tribute. Had she known how strong-minded she was, Cortana would have never chosen her.

As much as she loved Delaine, Cortana couldn't help but feel that she was the weakest link in this alliance, and Cortana wasn't going to lose this for anyone. She knew what she did when she stepped behind Delaine with the crab, and while that was surely not intentional, it made sense. Delaine has always been more of a go-with-it kind of girl to Cortana. And Cortana knew how to use that to her advantage.

"Alright, let's split up," said Cortana. "You guys go to the west side of the building," she said, pointing to Cupid and Darcy. "Scout out any food or things we can use in the arena. Delaine and I will go west, and we will meet back here in an hour and a half."

"Sounds like a plan!" said Cupid as she and Darcy shuffled up the long staircase.

Cortana and Delaine turned to walk up to their staircase when they heard clapping coming from the top. "That was such a good plan, Cortana!" said the shrill voice of Kitana Striker. "I only wish that you would be around to achieve it."

Cortana and Delaine continued to walk up the stairs as Kitana and Napoleon took a few steps back. "I want this battle to be one that your mother sees and cries. Her only chance at winning the games dies before the top ten? I'll be a legend." said Kitana laughing.

"I don't plan on dying," said Cortana as she took her knife out and prepared for a fight. "I don't lose."

Kitana laughed as she snapped her fingers at Napoleon. "Weapon!" she said to him.

"What the fuck do I look like to you?" asked Napoleon as he threw her the backpack. "You want to pick pointless fights to do it yourself. I'm tired of being in an alliance with someone who constantly undermines my opinions. Good luck, Kitana," said Napoleon as he slammed the backpack into her hands and turned and walked away in the other direction.

"Leon! You can't just go!" said Kitana before she turned around and dug a tomahawk out of her bag. "I'll handle that later. You're dying now."

Kitana ran forward and slashed her tomahawk near Cortana's face. Cortana shoved Delaine to the side at the last minute, barely escaping the sharp blade, and kicked Kitana in the leg. Cortana and Delaine tried to put distance in between them and Kitana, but before Delaine could escape, Kitana grabbed her and wrapped her hand around her throat.

She laughed shrill as Cortana turned around to see the sight. Kitana was standing with her tomahawk at Delaine's throat just in front of the stairs. Delaine closed her eyes as Kitana continued to laugh.

"Drop your weapon now, Cortana or Delaine is going to die."

Cortana looked at Kitana and looked at her best friend. She couldn't very well let Delaine be the reason she died. She loved Delaine, but the truth was Cortana loved her life more. "Do it then," said Cortana shrugging her shoulders.

Kitana laughed as she shoved Delaine away from her. "This is your best friend?!" she shrieked as she hunched over laughing. "This is who you devoted your life to?! Only to have her just sacrifice you like that!"

Delaine looked at Cortana, but Cortana saw a chance to strike. She ran over to Kitana and slammed her foot into her chest. Kitana screamed as she fell down the stairs, tumbling in every direction. A sickening crunch filled the room as neck bent at a strange angle on the way down. Her body collapsed on the bottom of the grand staircase; her neck turned entirely out of shape.

"That's what you get for being bitch," Cortana muttered as she walked by Delaine without looking at her. She knew she had significant damage control to do, but surely Delaine understood that they're in the Hunger Games. There was no time for sacrificial lambs, even for your best friend.

Cortana had something to prove on this go around. She would not be the girl that just fell short of the goal. She would be the girl that came out on top.

I am not losing this game.

Vritra Galloway, 18

Shelby's #2 Female Pick

"I'm fucking bored," Vritra said as she kicked her feet back onto the water bucket in the barn, they were hiding in. "I didn't think the possible last moments of my life were going to be spent dicking around and staying out of the limelight. Two cannons have gone off today, Synth. Two!"

Synth sighed at his sister and leaned his head back onto the wooden railing of the barn. "Vritra, you have to play this smart. While everyone is out running around and wasting their energy, we are saving ourselves up and focusing on overcoming them at the end when we have our strength."

Vritra was grateful to have Synth around. He was smart, way smarter than she was, but she also just wanted to run around and stab someone. They were in the only place in the whole world where something like this was allowed or even possible, and she wasn't allowed to do it.

She could always leave, but that would leave her overly exposed. Vritra was strong, but she was not able to fight large alliances by herself. She's been keeping track. It depended on who those two cannons were House Princeton still had four members in their alliance. Cortana's girl gang still had four members as well. That's over half of the final twelve in two big alliances. Vritra could not take those on.

"Well, fuck our strength," said Vritra, frustrated. "And fuck you too for being right and annoying."

Synth laughed at his sister as he sat up and began to dig in his backpack. Vritra studied hi, trying to understand how he thinks She thought it was fascinating how he could over-analyze situations, and usually come up with the correct scenarios. Vritra knew she would never acquire that strength. She was too mouthy and fiery.

"You'll thank me when we are the two that are getting out of this hell hole," said Synth.

A static appeared over the PA system of the arena, and Synth and Vritra peaked their ears up to what was about to be said. Vritra had chills shoot down her spine in anticipation of what was about to come.

"Is this the feast?!" asked Vritra excitedly.

"I believe it is," Synth answered.

"Dearest tributes," said Moriah Jackson over the intercom. "It is with the greatest pride and deepest pleasure that I congratulate all of you on making it to the final twelve in this truly revolutionary Hunger Games."

Synth stiffened and pulled out his pocket knife that he began to twirl in between his fingers. "This doesn't sound good," he whispered.

"We are so proud of you in fact that we'd like to offer you a chance to come together and celebrate. A feast is being prepared so the twelve of you can get together and admire your competition. Or take them out. Whichever you feel is necessary. Point being come to the dining room tomorrow morning at ten. The arena will not change until tomorrow night. May the odds be ever in your favor."

"We aren't going-" Synth began to say before the familiar crackle of static appeared over the intercom.

"Tributes, I do feel the need to insist that you show up. Declining such a lavish invitation would be rude. If you want to decline, we might just have to come up with a way to make you want to show up," she threatened as the mic once again clicked off.

"I am not sleeping on the floor in here for two nights, Synth," said Vritra. "And I don't know about you, but the tributes in that room are a lot less scary to me than whatever mutts they can come up within this arena."

Synth sighed and placed his face in his hands. "Fine," he said, not looking up. "We go into the castle, and our first step is to find a room to hunker down in. If we can hide there until morning without any issues from tributes, we should be able to get a good time on the feast and plan a strategy."

A lightbulb went off in Vritra's head, and she smiled as she looked at her brother. She might not be impeccably smart like him, but she occasionally had a stroke of brilliance.

"Or there is something else we can do," said Vritra laughing. "You're going to have to trust me."

Well, here is a fun chapter! I had so much fun being able to write this!

14th Place: Arturo Ambrosio, Killed by Heart Attack: Linds, I liked Arturo, I just felt his anxiety was a big part of who he was. I loved the friendship that he had with Carter, and I loved that he was a cool part of the plot. Hopefully, you didn't hate the way that I represented him in the story! I thought him dying this way again was poetic in a sense. Sometimes history repeats itself. Not everyone is getting their happily ever after.

13th Place: Kitana Striker, Killed by Cortana Ramslee: Haley, if Hazel had not just won Kitana, probably would have. She was delightfully terrible in every good way. I had so much fun writing her thoughts and dialogue, and I hope that you enjoyed getting to see her written. It was indeed an honor to get to write this character twice.

Alliances:

House Princeton: Lily/Axton/Valerian/Sagar

Twinship: Lily/Axton

Bad Bitches: Darcy/Cortana/Delaine/Cupid

Contingency: Cupid/Darcy

She's bored: Vritra/Synth.

Loners: Napoleon/Cater

Keep it classy,

Caleb