He's been asleep for too long.
.oOo.
Jackson Kennedy, 18
District Six Male
1 Kill
He's… he's…
He's been asleep for too long.
Two days ago - or three? Four? It's hard to tell, now that the mist is so overwhelming that he can't even see the sun and there's never an interlude for him to walk through the arena - he watched Aloie and Mona die in front of him, watched the girl from Five kill the boy from One before giving him her knife and telling him to leave, he ran and ran and now… and now…
Now, all he has is the lake that he can't see to the other side of. At least he has water here - a small mercy, considering that he's lost so much already.
The sand and pebbles that are underneath his shoes make a sloppy, crunching noise as he pushes himself up to stand. He had stumbled below an overhanging ledge of sand and fell asleep last night in a moment of delirium - if he was able to string together coherent thoughts, he surely would have been able to remember that he should stay away from hills of sand and dirt. If a kid messes with them, they'll get themselves buried - he doesn't know if he'd make it out if it fell on him.
But it didn't. And he's still here. He's still here.
Jackson doesn't know if he's alright with still being here.
A leaf from the forest that hangs over the edge of the lake falls from its branch, sending waves of ripples throughout the water until their tiny, miniscule waves reach the shore and brush the soles of his sneakers. Jackson smiles - somehow, his shoes look dirtier than the ones he has at home, ones that he's been wearing for years now. Over the week - weeks? - he's been here, they've been scuffed and waterlogged, muddied and crushed into shadows of their former selves.
His clothes aren't much better - the saggy grey t-shirt that he was given by the Capitol is covered with blood, mud and the sand that he slept on last night, and he knows that the knees and hems of his pants are ripped up from sprinting through the thorn bushes of this arena. He's a mess, yet he's still here.
And he needs to put himself together now, he's realized that - or else he won't be able to stay in this arena for much longer.
There's only a handful of tributes left. Racking his brain, he realizes that he doesn't know how many there are any more - he recalls a cannon sometime ago, but it's hazy. It's like that… it's like the darkness he saw tainted his memories, swirling its finger into his brain and muddling everything up. There are supposed to be two careers left, Emma, and the girl from Five - he can't remember anyone else. He doesn't know, he just doesn't know.
As he starts to walk into the forest, he keeps an eye out for the berry bushes that Aloie told him would be there. He stays far away from the poisonous bushes - no, he remembers that much from training about what berries were poisonous. For a while, he finds nothing except maroon berries that are poisonous, nightlock that dangles from its large bushes, and strange parodies of strawberries that he doesn't recall the name of - or if it's poisonous, for that matter. He stays far away from those ones. He's not messing around with poisonous berries, even if he'll starve to death first.
Then again, he thinks as he shifts his grasp on his knife from the Five girl, he might have better luck if he looks for something more sustainable.
Perhaps it's time for him to get vicious.
.oOo.
And soon, he'll need to make his next move.
.oOo.
Aeson Humpford, 18
District Two Male
3 Kills
It's the ninth day, and he still hasn't figured out how to get rid of the plagues that are the girl from Five and the girl from Nine.
He's tried to bring Tourmaline on a few hunts through the arena, trying to find the other two tributes that just can't go off and die like they're supposed to, but the mist thickens even more whenever they step outside. They're supposed to stay in and wait for something to happen - or, as he views it, tear each other to shreds until it's time to find the other two tributes. Their confinement in the massive mansion is to make sure that they finish off the rest of the competition, finally get moving - it's just that the girls don't think the same way.
Oh, he wishes he hadn't drugged Tourmaline and Duchess like that - how was he supposed to know that it would be the stupidest thing he could have done? It's what led them to lose that battle, to have Tourmaline bring back the girl from Five who doesn't seem to sleep and guards the girl from Nine with a passion. But it had seemed right then, and he had went ahead with it - it's a high-stakes game that he's been playing.
And soon, he'll need to make his next move.
The mist is a dull grey today - nothing shines into the mansion, which feels rutted now that he's stuck with the emptied boxes from the careers. They had hidden most of the supplies on the first day, and had never bothered to replace it after the first week had ended. Now that the girls have joined them, he's almost glad that they never tried to replace the most valuable stuff - if they ever try to run away in the night and last a few days by themselves, they won't be taking the things that they've deemed important. At most, they'll get a few knives and salt.
Oh, he hates that salt.
"Has Tourmaline asked about sorting through the supplies in the cornucopia?" Colleen asks when he walks towards her, fiddling with a knife that she's found in the cornucopia so that she can chop up something for tonight's meal. That's one thing that he can find about the girl that works out in his favour - she can cook well, and she uses that skill every night. It's a blessing that she's not stupid enough to try to run with a knife as she works with the food still left in the cornucopia, because she's good at this. It's the best meal one can get in here. "I'm heading to the kitchen soon, but it's messy here - you can't find anything. Why is there so much salt, by the way?"
"Ask the gamemakers," he replies wryly. "They're the ones who stocked the cornucopia."
Colleen laughs. "I suppose so, but they're not exactly available at the moment. Right now, I guess we'll have to wait and ask after one of us gets out of here." She shrugs, looking into Aeson's eyes with an innocent, cloying look. "Maybe it'll be you, or me. Or neither of us."
He doesn't let the girl see it, but his fists slowly clench up into balls as she walks away with the tray of food that she'll prepare. Oh, oh, oh, oh…
He's letting himself get overwhelmed. He's found himself a bad alliance, he knows that, and it's time to leave.
Tonight, he'll go. First, though, he'll try to deal with the outliers.
It'll only be fair.
.oOo.
Maybe if she gets out of here, she'll start making better choices.
.oOo.
Emma von Hapsburg, 18
District Nine Female
2 Kills
She's hoping that Colleen's ready to leave this alliance soon. But first, she hopes that they do something to the careers.
It'll only be fair.
Over the past few days, Emma's done nothing but think. She doesn't regret the fact that she killed Tim back in the bloodbath - no, that was necessary to get them all out of the alliance - but she does regret being rude to Mona at first. She shouldn't have acted like the girl was dead weight, even if she was. That was cruel of her, unthoughtful, something that she wouldn't have done if she had a full stomach and a good night's sleep.
Maybe if she gets out of here, she'll start making better choices.
She regrets not killing the girl from One as well, but that doesn't weigh as heavily on her mind. She does like Tourmaline, from what she's seen of her so far - the girl's smart, strong, and ready to fight, to lead, to make something of herself. If she came from One, Emma could see herself being a bit like the girl.
She shouldn't dwell on what could have been, though - after all, she has to be ready for when she kills the careers with Tourmaline, or run, or whatever the girl from Five has planned for them both. She has to be ready - filling her mind up with false relationships wouldn't help matters at all.
No, she'll stay patient and wait. When the time comes, she'll be ready. She knows it.
"Hey, Emma," a voice calls to her as someone enters the mouth of the cornucopia, and Emma makes sure that her knife is hidden between her legs before looking up to see who it is. "Would you like to come out for supper? I know you're the prisoner, but we're all here - I don't know, it feels better to have you with us." Tourmaline trails off, blushing a bit as she says it.
"I suppose I have time on my hands," Emma drawls with a smile, and the career laughs. "I'll come - I probably don't have a choice in the matter."
"Here, let me help you up," Tourmaline says, hoisting Emma up and untying the ropes that bind her to the weapon's rack. "Aeson probably won't like it, but Aeson is Aeson - we have to do something to stay human around here. I think a lot of people go a bit crazy around the final eight - it's something that we studied back in One, how to keep your composure later in the game. I guess you didn't do the same in Nine, huh?"
"We had lessons on survival, too," quips Emma, "But it was more on how to preserve your food rations in case we ever had a bad drought again." She shakes her head at the thought - in bad years, they'd go without most food for weeks. Her family would be lucky if they could scrape together more than a few loaves of bread and melted bits of butter to put on the dinner table.
Tourmaline bites her lip, thinking about Emma's statement. "I suppose… I suppose here, we're on equal footing at least."
She couldn't be more right about that, thinks Emma, and she follows the career towards the kitchen.
It's time to eat.
.oOo.
She eased into the role of the chef, making sure to let them know that her cooking was harmless - well, until it won't be.
And that'll be tonight.
.oOo.
Colleen Tosse, 18
District Five Female
1 Kill
She whips together a small salad as she waits for the pasta to cook on top of the stove, chopping up tomatoes and cucumbers with leaves of lettuce to mix together into a bowl that'll serve as their appetizer. From there, she takes shredded carrots, peppers, and other assorted vegetables to mix into the salad - the sauce, that she's chilled for a bit in the large fridge that the mansion is handily equipped with, is drizzled onto her work last before she mixes it all together. The others will be happy to eat this - she knows that she can cook well, and they're happy with her fixing them all meals. It's a good set-up.
And it's her solution to the problem that she's been mulling over for close to three days.
She looks over at the bottle of poison that she was gifted a few days ago by some kindly sponsor - she's been saving it for quite some time now, waiting for the right moment to slip it into the careers' food. Her first few meals, she avoided it - it would do no good to try to pull tricks on them when Colleen cooking was a relatively new phenomenon to them. She eased into the role of the chef, making sure to let them know that her cooking was harmless - well, until it won't be.
And that'll be tonight.
The pasta comes to a boil once more, and she turns down the heat on the stove so that the water will stop foaming over the sides of the pan. To make sure that it doesn't stick together in clumps of grain, she throws a few teaspoons of olive oil into the mix - it calms the churning water and swirls around in the middle of the pan. It's the oldest trick in the book, and it works every time.
What she doesn't touch, however, is the meaty sauce that she's cooking on the other side of the stove.
She adds a little more poison to the sauce mix - the flavour hidden with extra tomatoes that she's mashed up for tonight - and stirs it around so it'll mix with the rest of the sauce. Hopefully, it'll mix evenly. She doesn't want to give any of the careers a smaller portion of sauce than needed to kill them - no, that would complicate matters. She needs this to be a clean kill. It would be good to have a clean kill. Two dead, and then the rest of the cornucopia would be hers for the taking.
It's a risky gamble, but it's about to pay off.
She carries the pot of sauce to the table, where the others are waiting patiently. Emma - wait, why is she here? She's supposed to be back in the cornucopia, Colleen thinks - has one hand lightly bound to a chair, presumably so she's not able to run away from the alliance. Aeson and Tourmaline sit on both of her sides, Tourmaline chatting about the other two tributes out there while Aeson mutters his replies.
Colleen's alarmed to see that Emma's here, but she'll think of something. She will. She'll figure it out… she'll figure it out in time.
After all, she has as much time to think as it takes her to carry the salad and pasta back to the table so they can eat - and by then, she has her answer.
"Careful, Emma," she says as she begins to ladle portions of pasta onto the other's plates. "You've got a tomato allergy, right? You better pick out the tomatoes in the salad - and avoid the stew." Emma looks up at her peculiarly, and Colleen's breath is caught in her throat until the girl from Nine realizes why Colleen is bluffing like this.
"Of course, of course," Emma murmurs, and waits for Tourmaline to pass her the pasta. She casually nods towards Colleen - she understands.
Colleen's not able to breathe until she sees that Emma knows why she's lied.
"Could you pass the salad?" Tourmaline asks, reaching over Emma to take a spoonful of pasta. "I like to eat my greens first - helps with digestion and all that. Ooh, I like the smell of that dressing!"
Colleen calmly takes salad as well, not bothering to look over at Aeson and Tourmaline as they continue to eat. It's just a matter of time. It's just a matter of time, and then she can run.
Of course, she hadn't accounted for the fact that one of the careers - at least it was Tourmaline - might not eat the sauce before the other - Aeson, thankfully - started choking to death.
Of course, that's exactly what happened next.
.oOo.
She needs to get back in and stop them.
.oOo.
Tourmaline de Metz, 17
District One Female
3 Kills
The first signs that there's something wrong with the food come when Aeson starts to choke on his pasta.
"Are you okay?" she asks, getting up from her chair just in case he needs help. She hasn't dealt with many choking incidents before, but she remembers how to perform that one maneuver - all of the teens who entered the Academy back in One learned basic first aid skills in their first year. But Aeson doesn't reply - he starts to turn an ugly shade of blue, one that matches an ugly painting that hangs behind him on the wall, and begins to froth, of all things, at the mouth.
"Aeson? Aeson!" she yells, trying to shake the larger boy out of his seat. "Aeson! Aeson - what - what happened?"
And then it hits her - the girls did something. She doesn't know what they did to the food, but they poisoned him, tried to kill her ally - tried to kill her.
As she looks up to see what they've done, she sees the back of the girl from Nine as the two dart away and into the hallway that leads back to the mansion.
A cannon for Aeson booms, and Tourmaline charges through its echo to catch her newest prey.
She can still run faster than she thinks that she can when she wants to, and now that the troublesome tired feeling that's been lingering for the past few days is gone she can focus on whatever she needs to. She skids around a corner, bruising a shoulder and avoiding a nasty gash from a nail that juts out of the wall before she continues to chase the girls. She's not going to stop - she'll catch up before they get out, catch them, and kill them. It'll be simple. It'll be easy.
But as she rounds a final corner and heads for the door, she hears the click of a lock, the rushed percussion of running feet, the sound of metal hitting the floor as the girls begin to root through the cornucopia - they've locked her out. They've locked her out.
She needs to get back in and stop them.
How could she have trusted them? She doesn't know anymore, it's like the mist played games with her that one day. And she did trust the girl from Five, and she had been a good ally to her - until now, at least. It's obvious, though, that they didn't feel the same way. She should have known it as soon as Colleen had insisted on keeping Emma alive - even if it was a failsafe, it was a flimsy one at that. Colleen had wanted numbers on her side, and she was too stupid to see through it.
If Tourmaline was a rookie, she'd be taking pages of notes on all of the mistakes she's made through these Games. But she thought she had grown past that - it's obvious that she hasn't grown very much after all.
She hurls a shoulder at the door, wincing at the impact before trying again. There's no use listening to the pain at this point - right now, she has a goal. The pain doesn't factor into that. She can feel the bruise on her shoulder growing, but the door begins to eventually buckle - a final kick sends a large chunk of the wooden frame flying into the room that houses the cornucopia. From there, she pushes through and runs towards the cornucopia.
Surprisingly, the girls are still there - they obviously hadn't counted on her getting through so soon. Emma trips over a bag of salt as she tries to get through the mess of crates, holding an armful of supplies and packs that she's rummaged through, and Tourmaline feels a new wave of appreciation for the much maligned bags of salt rush over her again. But it's not over. She seems to know that without thinking, so she reaches for a spear as if she's dreaming and gives it a quick, methodical throw. Her aim is perfect, her stance strong - it's a textbook throw.
It arches towards the girl from Nine, then spears her through her chest as she tries to get back up from where she's sprawled on the ground. Emma collapses back onto the bag of salt, reaching up to feel where the spear's head is poking through her back, then gives a harsh gasp that chills Tourmaline's bones. "It's over, isn't it?" she mutters, trying to push herself back up.
"I wish it wasn't," murmurs Tourmaline, then finishes the girl off by pulling the spear back out the way it came. For a moment, she watches Emma's hazel eyes film over, then throws her spear in the direction of the fleeing girl from Five.
It misses, of course, and Tourmaline shakes her head as the second cannon begins its rumble. Her time here's over - no, she can't stay. The Capitolites will want her to stay out of the way of their way as they retrieve the bodies, of course, and she doesn't think she can stomach staying here any longer.
Not until she processes what just happened.
.oOo.
Well, she's living those nightmares now.
.oOo.
Magnolia Rosa-Tran, 18
District Seven Female
1 Kill
She looks up when she hears the first cannon, setting down the tray of food and making sure that no one is too close to her. When she's satisfied that no one's around this part of the creek, she lets herself take a cautious step forward. She resists the instinctive urge to jump when she hears the second - something's happening in a corner of the arena, and she doesn't know what it is. She'll just have to be ready. She'll just have to make sure that she won't be the third.
Maybe it's the careers who are fighting one another, she thinks as she paces along the side of the creek. They seem to be the type who would self-implode at this stage of the Games - she remembers several different situations playing out in the same fashion back when she was a young girl watching the Games for the first time. The careers never seemed to know when it was the right time to break up, and it led to battles that haunted the dreams of her younger brothers - when she was older and aware of the world around her instead of focusing on only herself, she remembers hearing Linden whimper to himself about a fight that had happened that day.
As a little girl, she had never dreamed that she would be one of the tributes in the Hunger Games, of all things, yet here Lee is now. She had occasional nightmares about the Games, as did every other child in Seven, but they were usually about her brothers getting reaped because they took too much tesserae, her older sister getting ripped apart by mutts, little Pine walking up onto the stage during his first reaping. They had never focused on herself.
Well, she's living those nightmares now.
A splashing noise startles her from her thoughts, and Lee reaches for her axe as she listens for whoever is out there. She can't see them, but she hears someone rushing into the creek and up the other side - someone's fleeing from where they were before. It could be any of the five others she knows may still be alive - the careers, the girls from Five and Nine, and the boy from Six - Jackson, that's what his name was.
It could be any of them, she realizes, because the anthem's already gone off for the night. No one is going to know who just died in the past few minutes until tomorrow night - they'll all have to wait it out. The final four won't know who their fellow three are for the next twenty-four hours, not unless they stumble into one another in the mist that still lingers in the arena.
She plans to not be the first to find one of those final four - she's going to hunker down, finish off the food that she earned yesterday after killing the boy from Three, and see what the gamemakers would like her to do. Only three to go. Only three to go, and then she can go home.
The world might think that she's no match for the others. But she knows that she is - how else did she make it to the final four? Now, all she has to do is outlast three more. She's almost home.
She's almost back to normal.
And just like that, we've made it into the final four.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
6th: Aeson Humpford, District Two Male; Killed by Colleen Tosse. Created by 66samvr.
Aeson was the first submission to Hiraeth, like summer 2018 long ago. I loved him instantly, and he fit well into the career pack - hiding his own secrets while trying to prove that he could make it through the arena and win for Two. He was a good addition to the trio, adding a bit of tension into the alliance with his semi-kinda-rivalry with Duchess before fighting to break Tourmaline out of the alliance. In the end, he just wasn't able to think ahead enough - instead of predicting that Colleen might try to off him after easing into a few meals, he simply just simmered in a brew of resentment until he was poisoned. Thank you, 66samvr, for Aeson. You knew that this was coming for a while now, but I hope you enjoyed him nonetheless. Also, happy 6th place!
5th: Emma von Hapsburg, District Nine Female; Killed by Tourmaline de Metz. Created by MRKenn.
Emma was done dirty D: she was definitely one of the contenders for victor this year for me, always being placed somewhere in the top ten throughout my drafts of the arena until she got to cement her place in the final five. Originally, she was supposed to die in the fight with Mona, Duchess, and Aloie, but halfway through I realized she was too strong to plausibly get out and it could lead to some more interesting conflicts along the line if I brought her further. I think I was right - she was cunning and calculating, not regretting much and ready to do what it took to win the Games. It was just bad luck that Tourmaline managed to get her in the end: a few more seconds and she would have lived, but my mind was made up for the final four and I couldn't find any other way to bring her further. Thank you, MRKenn, for a lovely girl! Definitely one of my favourites to write this time around.
Yep, it's the final four! Before we head into the next chapter, I'd like to hear some of your predictions: who'll win? Who'll lose? Who are the underdogs of this group? What are your thoughts? It'd be great to see what you all think will happen - mainly so I can laugh at how wrong you are but who knows? Maybe you'll be right!
I'll leave you at that - have a marvellous day, and enjoy! Until next time, TheAmazingJAJ