Maybe Tourmaline's forgotten something from back at the Capitol, but she trusts the girl from Five right now.
She needs to.
.oOo.
Tourmaline de Metz, 18
District One Female
3 Kills
Tourmaline is…
She doesn't know what she is anymore. She just wants to find Aeson. She wants to get back to the mansion.
She doesn't want to think about the fact that she's just lost her district partner.
It's strange, knowing that Duchess is gone. He had been kind enough to her in the long run, cordial in the Academy and working as a trusted ally through their time in the Capitol. Sure, he had been subversive, but who wasn't subversive back in the group of people fighting to enter the Hunger Games in her home district? He was just another kid, a young one at that, someone who shouldn't have died here. She knows that he shouldn't be dead now - he was too young. Even if he did horrible things, he was sixteen. Sixteen.
And now she's walking along with the girl from Nine in front of her, her hands bound, and the girl from Five as her ally. Something about the girl from Five being a threat echoes through Tourmaline's mind - who said that? - but Tourmaline can't find a reason to hate her. She's nice enough, firm, strong - really, she should have joined the careers from the start. Maybe Tourmaline's forgotten something from back at the Capitol, but she trusts the girl from Five right now.
She needs to.
The mist is starting to thicken behind them, the sun shimmering through the water vapour before it disappears from view, and Tourmaline starts to jog. "We need to get back before it comes closer," she tells the other girls, and they nod. They want to be out here in the mist as little as she does.
When the tall, solid trees with cork-brown trunks begin to fade away in favour of lithe, swaying trees, she realizes that they're nearly at the creek. "Alright, let's keep moving," she tells the others. Is she being pushy? She doesn't know now - she was fine leading Duchess and Aeson, but now… now, it's like her mind is fogging over. Did she eat something bad? Oh, it's hard to think now. There's no use in it. She'll just follow the girl from Five, Tourmaline supposes, and hope for the best.
"Watch out for the bank," murmurs the girl from Nine as they walk through the meadow, and Tourmaline nods. "Help me down?"
Tourmaline helps hoist the girl down, leaping onto the sand, then they wade into the current before emerging on the other side of the creek. The girl from Five is right behind them, clutching her knife as she pushes through the water and jumps up the bank. "Alright, we're almost there," Tourmaline yawns - why is she yawning? It's not even the evening yet - and they walk past the trails of salt - oh, that feels so long ago - before finally entering the mansion.
Aeson drops the food that he's holding when he sees the three, fumbling for a spear as he fixes his eyes on the two outliers. "What - how - where's Duchess? What happened?"
Tourmaline shakes her head blearily, shrugging in the girls' direction with her spear still in her hand. "They… we have a lot to talk about, I guess."
Before Aeson has a chance to reply, she sinks to the ground - it's strangely comfortable to lie on the cool, tiled floor - and falls into a dreamless sleep.
.oOo.
Emma doesn't know what she'll do here, but it'll be something - and when it happens, she can escape again.
.oOo.
Emma von Hapsburg, 18
District Nine Female
2 Kills
The girl from Five, still holding her knife, raises an eyebrow and frowns. "Don't know what that's about, but I've joined the alliance. Girl from Nine - Emma, I think - is our prisoner. It's a long story, but we ran into each other and I, well, I did your ally a few favours. Does she always fall asleep like this?"
"I - actually, I did - never mind." The boy from Two gapes at Emma and the girl from Five for a while longer, and Emma has the good sense to keep her mouth shut. Even if she doesn't know what this girl is planning, it won't do her any good to protest against it.
She'll play the part of a humble prisoner for now.
"Alright, alright, alright - let's say that you really did work with Tourmaline, you helped her with killing that alliance, and you brought this girl here. Why should I trust you instead of killing you both on the spot?"
"Insurance," the girl replies with a look that Emma can't decipher. "Colleen, by the way. Now, let me put it this way - I want to stay alive, and fish isn't doing it for me. I'll work with you, find the boys from Three and Six or whatever, but I want food and I want a warm place to sleep. If we kill the girl, we lose that buffer between us and the finale. Do you really want to start fighting your allies when it's the eighth day and you have six left in the arena?" The girl, Colleen, gazes over at the boy from Two. "I think you'd rather have it this way."
The boy frowns, letting a sword balance between his hands as he calculates his odds. Then, he drops the sword - he knows that it's best to let them in. Emma's safe. She's safe. She can keep living - for now. "Aeson. Now, get that girl into the cornucopia - if we're going to have a captive, we might as well make sure that she can't run."
The girl from Five nods, moving Emma through the piles of crates that are stacked up around the large cornucopia before entering the mouth of the horn. She ties the rope that bound Emma's hands together to a weapon's rack, taking away the sword and knives that hang from the rack as an afterthought. But she drops a knife along the way - a long, sharp, glittering thing that Colleen deliberately ignores while she walks back to Aeson.
Emma reaches out with a foot and gets a hold on the knife, sitting down on it in case Aeson thinks of checking on her.
The girl from Five really is her friend, at least for now. Emma doesn't know what she'll do here, but it'll be something - and when it happens, she can escape again.
How is Jackson doing right now, she wonders - is he alright? Is he safe? He should be - four tributes are in this mansion, herself included, and the other two are elsewhere in the arena. He should survive his encounter with the careers, and if she gets away with supplies, she'll find him as quickly as she can.
She wants her ally back.
A long, drowsy hour passes, and Emma is dimly aware that the girl from One, a Tourmaline, has been moved to a bedroom where she'll sleep for a while longer. Eventually, Colleen comes back with a plate of food - no knife included to spear the meager portions of rice and dried meat. "Eat up - I'll untie you until you're finished."
"How did you convince them?" Emma whispers while eating more of the rice, savouring the feeling of her hands finally being freed. "Are you going to escape soon?"
"Shh - shh!" Colleen replies, looking over her shoulder to make sure that Aeson isn't close. "We're going to get out - they want allies, and if they can't find anyone I've told them we'll kill you to make up for it. Before that happens, though, we're going to get out of here. With food, and weapons, and everything. Sounds good?"
"Of course," replies Emma, and she allows Colleen to tie her hands together and leave her alone in the cornucopia.
After all, with the knife that's currently hidden under her legs, she can leave at any time she pleases.
.oOo.
He wonders if the same will happen to Emma.
.oOo.
Jackson Kennedy, 18
District Six Male
1 Kill
He's left alone in the woods by the three girls, with nothing but the bloodied knife that the girl from Five tossed towards him, two dead bodies, and three words on his mind.
What just happened?
Like a dream, he walks through the mist and away from the bodies; they're supposed to be taken by the Capitolites in due time, so that they can be patched up and sent back to the districts in tidy little coffins. No, he's not supposed to be close to them when that happens. He should stay away, stay safe - what would the Capitolites do to him if he got too close?
A more rational part of Jackson's brain tells him that he's currently in shock from watching Aloie die and the boy from One being killed right in front of him, but for some reason he can't understand what happened. Maybe that's what shock is supposed to do - it eats away at people until they don't know what's happened anymore.
He sure doesn't feel like he knows what's happened. Not now.
After an eternity of walking through the woods, he realizes that he's only getting himself more and more lost. At this point, Jackson has no idea where he is - he only has a knife now, a knife and no allies. They've all been killed.
He wonders if the same will happen to Emma.
A squirrel chitters at him from its comfy position in a big oak tree, and he looks back up at it. There aren't many squirrels in Six - no, the only ones that decide to reside in the big cities of his district are long, black squirrels with bushy tails the size of a foot. They're vicious, every child in Six learns that when they discover that the rodents don't like to be chased - they'll try to bit back. But this one is small and red-brown, bright black eyes watching Jackson as it chews a nut.
If only he felt that secure right now.
The only thing left to do seems to be to walk forwards, so Jackson continues to make his way through the woods. The mist is beginning to come back in full force - it thickens with every step he takes, wrapping around trees and bushes that were so clearly visible just a few seconds ago. The mist is taking the arena back - it won't do for the world to be so visible. He's going to have to find a place to settle down for the night - which is only in a few hours, after all. He has to… he has to…
He takes a step forward, then hops backwards until he smacks back into a tree.
The pain is better than falling off of the cliff that was just under his feet a second ago.
Slowly, carefully, he peers over the cliff to see mist… but it's not just mist that he sees. It's something darker, something that looks primitive and vicious and terrifying. He breathes in the fumes that it sends off, and screams - it's like he's seen his own death flash in front of his eyes. He needs to get away. He needs to get away.
Stumbling away in blind, primitive terror, he pushes past the forest until he can't go on for much longer. But he doesn't look back. He refuses to look back at that… that thing.
He doesn't want to see if it's following him.
.oOo.
She has to find food, find something - for her baby.
For herself.
.oOo.
Magnolia Rosa-Tran, 18
District Seven Female
0 Kills
She needs to find some more food.
She looks across the lake to see the creek that burbles merrily out into the larger body of water. It seems like a place where a tribute might have gone - for who could have gotten up into the top of the mountain, and those who managed to find their way into the forest wouldn't be easily found. But if someone has set up along the creek, drinking its water and possibly fishing… they may have supplies, and she knows how to convince people to give things to her.
She has two very good reasons, after all.
Her ankles are uncomfortable in the boots that she's been wearing for the past week - how many days is it? Eight now, she thinks - and looking down, Lee sees that they look a bit swollen. That's strange - she can't recall swelling before during the pregnancy, and she hadn't remembered reading about it either. Perhaps it's something that occurred in the third trimester, she thinks, and the thought both comforts and stresses her. She's closer to giving birth to her baby, but yet she's in a place where everyone is trying to kill her.
And her baby can't survive alone here. It needs Lee. It needs a mother.
She has to find food, find something - for her baby.
For herself.
The lake's water laps at the shores that she walks across, and she looks back to see her footprints behind her. Hopefully, no one that's moving frequently is close to her - they'd find her trail straight away, and she can't run as fast as the others. She heard three cannons, all in a row, this morning - someone is killing the rest of the competition. They may be looking for more right now.
She'd rather be the murderer than the murdered, Lee thinks, and hardens her resolve to keep on searching. If she does find someone, she won't hesitate to take what she needs. The person might understand. Maybe.
She continues to walk through the shores of the lake, watching for other tributes. But none seem to be around, and she reaches the mouth of the creek while a blister begins to form on the sole of her left foot. She'll have to do something about that - but not right now. She can bear it for a while longer - it's not too difficult of a burden.
Just a little further, that's all. Then, she'll stop.
She continues through the creek, looking for tributes - at this point, she doubts that she'll find anything, let alone another tribute with actual supplies, rubbing her eyes and yawning. It's starting to get late - soon, the anthem will start and she'll get to see who died this afternoon. Who would it have been - the alliance that seems to lose more and more members every day in the arena after practically being eradicated in the bloodbath? The girl from Eight? The boy from Three? The girl from Five? The careers? She has no idea yet - and it'll be fascinating to see even a hint of what caused so many deaths today.
But as she rounds a turn in the creek and sees the boy from Three, lounging in a crevice in the bank of the creek, she realizes that she'll have to wait a bit longer.
.oOo.
That it's a sponsor gift. And the fact that there is no number on its centre means that it could be for either of them.
.oOo.
Antimony Sinebad, 15
District Three Male
1 Kill
"What - why are you here?" he stammers as he sees the looming figure of the tribute come closer and closer in the twilight sun that shines through the mist. "Who are you? What do you want?"
"I need supplies," is her reply, and the tribute - the girl - brandishes her frighteningly large axe. "Nothing personal, but I need food and you look like someone who might have some."
"But I have nothing!" Antimony moans, gesturing around the area to show the girl that he has nothing with him but the clothes on his back. And it's true - he's found nothing in the creek except water to fill himself with and grubs - they taste horrible and he chokes on them whenever he tries to swallow too quickly, but they're the things that are keeping him alive. He has nothing else - not a bottle of water, not a pack of food, nothing - well, except his knife.
He wouldn't part with his knife. Not even if she tried to kill him.
Well…
Maybe if she tried to kill him.
"Then you're a waste of time," sighs the girl, twirling her axe in her hand. She's good at playing with the large weapon, and Antimony realizes that it's the girl from Seven who's threatening him - the pregnant one, he recalls, as he stares at the large baby bump that stretches her grey clothes. "I suppose I should let you go, take pity on you seeing that you're not going to do me any favours, but maybe I should take care of you now - wait, what is that?"
They both whip their heads around, listening for the shrill beeping noise that echoes around the stone walls of the creek before a splash startles them back to action. Bobbing right past them is a grey, circular package that flashes red and grey in its centre, telling them that…
That it's a sponsor gift. And the fact that there is no number on its centre means that it could be for either of them.
But only one will get to it.
He lunges for the package first, falling into the water as he wraps his arms around the lifesaving gift. The current tries to push him below the surface, but he's too tall to be swayed - he staggers to the other side with his burden, dropping it on the pebbles that make up this side of the shore. "Stop!" yells the girl, splashing after him. "You can't - you can't take that!"
Antimony throws his knife at her - a stupid move, but one that startles her enough to cause her to retreat. He takes his chance to bolt away, running past the pebbles and rushing water in an effort to escape his fellow tribute. But the pounding footsteps tell him that she hasn't hesitated for long - she's going to take his gift. She's going to make him fight for it. She's going to try to kill him.
He throws the gift to the ground and pounces on the girl, knocking the axe out of her hand and halfway into the water, where the head of the axe lies uselessly. Antimony struggles with the girl's attacks, dodging her nails and yelping as she rakes his face before pushing back. She's strong, but he's just as strong - reaching for a large rock that lies to his side, he lifts it above his head and -
And pauses. She's… she's pregnant. He can't do this, not to her - no, it's wrong, it's wrong - can he? Should he? Will he?
The girl from Seven shoves him off of her in his momentary pause, crawling through the pebbles to reach her axe. After another moment, Antimony realizes what he's just lost - his one chance to overwhelm her and run. He could have - he could have -
The axe smashes into his face and he screams, feeling it slice and slice away until… until… until…
Until he discovers that he can't see anything at all now - no, it's all gone because he's lost his final gamble.
It's all over.
.oOo.
She'd be a useful ally - he just doesn't trust her.
.oOo.
Aeson Humpford, 18
District Two Male
3 Kills
When the next cannon goes off, he has no choice but to admit to himself that the plan has gone awry.
"Who do you think that was?" Colleen asks as she sits down on one of the crates that is scattered around the cornucopia. Aeson resists the urge to move away - he's still not sure of what to think of the girl from Five, but he knows that she's determined to stay with the pack.
Whether he likes it or not.
"I guess one of the tributes found out that their time here is up," he replies absently, then points to the sky. "The anthem should be playing any moment - Tourmaline should be up by now, the slee- maybe she'll be less tired now that she's slept through half of the day."
Colleen looks at him with a probing gaze, and Aeson curses internally for having slipped up. He shouldn't be telling her a thing, not about the sleeping potion, not about his fights with the Ones, not about anything at all. He can't trust an outlier - he can only trust himself.
And he has to hope that an awakened Tourmaline won't be as perceptive as this girl from Five is.
How could it have gone so wrong? He doesn't know, he thinks as he walks over to the door and through the hallway that leads to the bedrooms they brought Tourmaline to. Aeson had hoped that the sleeping medicine would have kicked in later in the day, after the fight - when the two would be weakened enough for him to dispatch of two more competitors. But somehow, it had taken its toll on the Ones earlier than he thought - as he fumbled around with his urinary tract infection, the two yawned their way through a battle that Tourmaline barely survived. No, nothing had gone right - he should have been with them, they should have killed the girl from Nine, and then he could have killed them both. He was so close to winning. He was so close.
He could kill the girl from Nine now, but Colleen won't let him. He's argued with her about it for too long already - she has the upper hand. He knows that it's risky to head out into the arena with just Tourmaline - and judging by her high score, the girl from Five knows how to do something. She'd be a useful ally - he just doesn't trust her.
He'll have to find a way to get rid of her. For now, though, he's in a stalemate - with Tourmaline on their side, one misstep from him could mean that his time in the arena is over. He's outmatched.
"Aeson!" a voice calls from the bedroom, and he opens the door to see Tourmaline stretching on the large bed that he and Colleen had laid her down upon. "I just woke up - are Colleen and Emma still here?"
"They are," he replies, forcing a cheerful tone into his voice. If he wants to stay on her good side, it won't do to seem unhappy about their new ally and prisoner. "Colleen is guarding Emma again - I came to see if you're ready to get up. The anthem's about to play, you know."
"Oh, there it is!" Tourmaline points outside, and she's right - the emblem of Panem stays affixed in the sky as their national anthem plays, before four faces flash across the sky - Duchess, the boy from Three, the girl from Eight, and the girl from Eleven. "So it was Three who died… maybe the boy from Six killed him. He got Duchess, after all - he's a threat. We'll need to find him."
"Maybe we can ask Emma where he could be," mutters Aeson, trying to remain positive. He doubts that she'd give them any useful information - after being tied up for hours, there's no way she'd trust the careers with the lives of their friends. It would take torture, something that he's never been good at - something that he doubts the girl from Five would let him do.
"I guess so," Tourmaline replies, and they sit on the mattress for a while. He has so many things that he wants to say to her - that she shouldn't trust the outliers, that it's alright that Duchess is gone, that they'll be fine - but he keeps silent. For now, silence is safest for him - he doesn't know if Tourmaline trusts the girls or not, and he has no desire to test how deep their bond is right now. He'll have to find a way to convince his ally that he's the only one she can trust - even if he tried to kill her off without knowing.
This isn't what Aeson expected to deal with when he entered the Hunger Games. But it's what he's been given, and he's going to make the most of it.
He hasn't made the final six for just anything, after all.
Final six!
7th: Antimony Sinebad, District Three Male; Killed by Magnolia Rosa-Tran. Created by goldie031.
This was one of the harder deaths. Antimony was cunning and willing to do anything needed to win - I liked his character a lot and found it a lot of fun to write him through the Capitol. But he wasn't one of the people I had in plan for victor, so I reserved him a spot in the bloodbath until I had second - no, more like fifth - thoughts and switched him into the top eight. I think his arc was much better this way - instead of a reckless action cutting him down in the bloodbath, he had time to make little mistakes and build his resentments until he snapped and killed his ally over a bottle of water - thirst and sleep deprivation can do strange things. After that, he was somewhat of a loose cannon, never meeting up with anyone until he essentially stumbled his way to the creek, where he met Lee, and lost his life because he hesitated to kill a pregnant woman - I mean, almost every other tribute hesitated at the least. It's Lee's first kill, and I hope it's a good death for Antimony. Thank you, goldie! I enjoyed him a lot.
And now we have three arena chapters to go - what will happen? Who will persevere? What will happen to the only alliance left? Find out in the next chapter :o And I'll leave you at that. Enjoy, and until next time, TheAmazingJAJ