The Games Begin:

Chances thrown

Nothing's free

Longing for used to be

Still it's hard, hard to see

Fragile lives

Shattered dreams

Sara practically clings onto my waist so tightly I can feel her nails digging into my side. I gently run a hand down her back as she shoves her face into my chest. Her tears stain my shirt. Fuck, I want to cry too. But I've got to stay strong for the both of us.

"Let's go," the Peacekeeper says harshly.

I wanna shoot him a dirty look, but I don't because he might take it out on Sara. Micah's been awfully quiet this morning; they're never quiet. I expect them to throw a fuss and attack somebody or something. But they stand up from the breakfast table and silently walk towards the Peacekeepers at the door without a single word. No it's matter of detaching Sara from my waist, but I don't have it in me to pry her off.

"You'll do great, Sara."
"I don't wanna die!"

"Sara..." I drop to her level and wrap her in the tightest hug I can muster. Sara buries her head into my shoulder. "It's alright. I believe in you. You'll do amazing."
"I'm scared."
"I know."

"We need to leave now," the Peacekeeper mutters, probably fed up with everything by now. "We're on a tight schedule."
"Sorry."

And then just like that, Sara Ananda and Micah Castro are marched off to their fates. I keep my face blank but the second the door slams shut, the tears fall.

Rhiannon gently places a hand on my shoulder, her warm motherly touch providing a very distant sense of comfort. "Come on, hun. You've got work to do."
"I'm nervous for them."
"Don't worry. You've learned from last year and I can see how determined you are. I think you'll do much better than last time."

I cross my fingers behind my back anyways.

The trip to the mentors's room isn't a long one. We're all seated by district, so I take my spot in between Jacob and Cheyenne. It's a round room with everyone having a monitor to themselves. Bigger screens hang over our heads to display the events of the Games. Meanwhile, our own personal monitors will allow us to follow our individual tributes, while managing all aspects of sponsoring.

I lazily scroll through the amount of information I've got stored. Funds are looking good and slowly, they start to increase. That's probably happening for everyone else too, since the first day is always big on bets. There will be enough money to get Sara anything she might need.

The tributes are preparing themselves to step into the arena. I take a look at Sara's outfit. She's wearing a plain orange dress decorated in white polka dots, with darker orange gloves, sash and boots. She has on thin white stockings and her hair has been curled a little. She looks much older than she actually is.

"Retro style," I hear somebody say. All of the tributes are wearing very simple outfits. Dresses for the girls, cardigans for the younger boys and suits for the older ones. But this kind of style is very dated. In the districts, this fashion is only saved for very important occasions. In the Capitol, they get a lot more whimsical and extravagant.

The tributes proceed into the tubes. Sara's face lights up my screen as she slowly begins to ascend, up, up, up, up. Up into the blue picture perfect sky with a shining Sun and-

"What the fuck," Ira says loudly as we all get our first glimpse of the arena.

What's there to greet the tributes is nothing more but row upon row upon row of houses. Each building is a brightly painted colour and comes with its own manicured green lawn and fence. A camera drone flies into an open window of the nearest house to reveal its insides. Bedrooms, bathrooms, a kitchen. Everything all in place but extremely fake.

Like a house built for dolls.

There's inhabitants too. A mother, father, and two young girls all sitting on the couch in front of a working TV. They're fake. Mannequins. The drone exits through the window and hovers above even more mannequins permanently stuck in their daily activities. Drinking tea on the lawn. Delivering newspapers. Walking the dog. They don't blink, breathe, or move. Like a subject of a photo, forever caught in time.

The Cornucopia stands in the middle of a large circular road, its metallic silver shine completely out of place in the neighbourhood. There's supplies everywhere, though I notice many of the packs are tiny. Majority of the supplies are just weapons and water. Maybe most of the houses have food inside for the tributes to loot.

It's all just so...creepy. Uncanny. But that's got to be meaning to this. Perhaps I'll just be counting down until something catastrophic happens.

"It's a doom town," Ira fumes.
"A what?" Cheyenne asks them.

"A doom town. In the old world before Panem was created, this country called America used to have atomic bombs capable of a lot of destruction. They would build fake towns to test the bombs out on."

"Did you just say they're gonna drop a fucking atomic bomb on our tributes!?" Roman jumps out of his chair.
Ira throws their hands up. "I don't know! Don't yell at me."

"Okay, everybody shut up for a second." Spinnaker's rather calm voice carries like a ship through the sea of panic in the room. "The countdown is on. Please, let's just focus on the task at hand because the Games are starting in a few seconds."

The chatter is reduced to whispers, everyone turning to the mentor beside them as the clock slowly ticks by. Forty seconds. Thirty seconds. Less then half a minute before all hell breaks loose and the bodies start to fall.

Ten...

Nine...

Eight...

Aramon closes his eyes and begins to mumble to himself. He places a hand against his heart.

Seven...

Six...

Across the table, I see Marie staring back at me. Her hands wring together and her face is pale. I flash her a thumbs-up and she nods back, but the colour doesn't return to her cheeks.

Five...

Four...

Rosie pulls a flask from the jacket, unscrews the lid, and takes a sip. She closes her eyes and leans back in her chair. "Good luck, fuckers. May the best tribute win."

Three...

Two...

One...

The 22nd Hunger Games have begun.

The Careers all burst off their pedestals as quickly as they can. Everyone actually takes off running towards the Cornucopia. Some tributes try to head for their allies, some to whatever is scattered on the edges, but there's also a few who go straight for the middle of the horn to grab all that good stuff. Nobody wants to traverse the arena empty-handed.

The first tribute to get their hands on a weapon is Siren, armed with a simple short sword. He passes by his allies, heading straight out of the Cornucopia and for the first tribute he can find. That happens to be Nileen from 8, who can't even see what Siren is up to before his sword is thrown right into her back. She collapses and Siren rips the sword out, then stabs her again. And again. Swift, who was running towards her, immediately changes his mind and heads in the opposite direction.

"FUCK!" Ciera yells loudly. The first kill of the Games has just been made.

With one tribute dead, Siren turns his eyes onto someone else. Poor Velour from 6 is still very weak. She can see Sara and Lavender holding hands as they skirt the edges of the carnage and she calls out to them. They can't hear her. She won't be able to catch up. She doesn't have the energy. Siren sticks his foot out to trip her, leaving Velour writhing on the pavement as Siren looms over her.

"Please..." Velour begs him. "Please, my baby-"

She gets cut off with a sword shoved through her chest. I hear Gardenia wail softly and Rolanda attempting to calm her mother. Sara looks up from the small bag she's trying to heave over her shoulder, her eyes welling up with tears. I choke back a sob.

Other Careers are joining in. Hydra must think they don't need a weapon because they drop their spear to circle in on another tribute chasing them with a small knife. I don't know what Petra thinks. But she must realize this is going nowhere before she turns around to flee. Hydra easily catches up with her. Petra brandishes the knife, which Hydra easily rips from her hands. They grab her head and proceed to smash her skull into the pedestal.

I look away. I can't watch this. Nobody else seems to like it either. Marie gasps in horror while Mariette cringes. Evelyn covers her eyes. Roman's lips curl into a cold smile before he suddenly stops grinning. Aramon remains stone-faced, but slowly shakes his head.

Pryce is armed now; rather than chase the tributes, he throws knives at them instead, hoping to slow someone down. One sails past Ace, another one just barely over Matzo's head which causes to younger boy to take a dive. A third knife lands in the back of Academia's leg. And a fourth straight into Sawyer's head.

District 8 is officially gone. Both Maurice and Ciera's screens go dark. Neither of them have anything to say. Maurice's eyes crinkle a bit as he tries to find the good things in what just happened, but there will be none found. It always hurts, losing your tributes before they have a chance.

Matzo is on the ground. He's spotted by Lockhart, who runs towards his ally. But Urzelynne reaches Matzo first and pounces on the boy with a cry for blood. The hook swords she's carrying look way too big for her. But she practically tears Matzo apart with them, ripping through his skin and flesh as he weakly throws his arms up to protect himself. It isn't when she manages to messily slit his throat open that he's finally gone.

Rutabarb has no response to the blank screens before them. They simply reach under the chair and pull out a can of beer. They open it and take a long sip.

The trio of Academia, Thea, and Esmerelda has finally met up. Thea and Esmerelda help Academia to her feet with the supplies on their backs as they all make their escape. I glance back up at Marie. Finally, some of the colour is back in her face, knowing that at least one the District 5 tributes is guaranteed to survive the first 24 hours.

One of them...

I scan the ground for Ace. There he is, fighting with Elaena for a mace. No! What the hell is he doing!? Neither of them wants to be the first to let go. It's like watching a game of tug-of-war, that could actually end up with somebody getting killed...

Ace manages to get the upper hand.

He tears the mace away and for a moment, as he runs back into the fray, I think Elaena might actually give into the chase. Instead, she scowls and circles back round to grab the nearest weapon she can find, a sword. She throws herself at the nearest tribute, which just happens to be Elsorian. Elaena knocks him to the ground, then stabs him multiple times in the stomach.

The cameras pans out and I notice Lavender and Sara at the very outskirts, trying to slip away. I clutch my hands together. Come on girls, you can do it. Just a few more steps, and nobody will notice you're missing. Yes, yes, yes, yes! Lavender and Sara take off running. They're not followed; the Careers are too distracted by everyone else.

Sara may not be out of the woods yet. But it makes me so happy to know I have a fighting chance at keeping her alive.

Tansy is the only Career who has yet to make a kill, but she chases after Ace, who has yet to the do the smart move of cutting his losses and running away. Echo, Lockhart, and Micah have all met up. The tributes are starting to rapidly drop now and they've already lost several allies. Why the hell aren't they leaving yet?

"Let's go!" Echo grabs Micah's sleeve and gives it a tug. "I wanna leave!"
"But we need supplies and weapons!" Lockhart insists. "What's the point if we don't have any weapons?"
"Follow the plan!" Micah insists. "They killed Petra and Matzo! We've got to make them pay."
Echo frantically shakes their head. "You numbskulls! I don't wanna stay here! Or else we-"

Echo is cut off by the knife that has been thrown into their back. They weakly sink to their knees before rolling onto their side. Hydra passes a second throwing knife between their hands like a soccer ball before they spot another tribute making an escape. Brea has a good amount of supplies on her, but it won't matter when Hydra throws the knife as hard as they can and it gets embedded into her chest. She's now slowly crawling as quickly as she can with her own blood leaking from the wound.

She probably won't make it. Beside me, Jacob mutters a couple of choice words, then smacks the side of his monitor as hard as he can.

While the Careers continue to run around the Cornucopia in search for any remaining tributes, the screen splits into two to reveal another set of cameras following the trio of Esmerelda, Academia, and Thea. They have somebody following them. They haven't noticed, and with Academia's limp, it makes it too easy for William to catch up. He must be pretty desperate, I suppose, given both of his allies are already gone. He's looking straight at Thea's back, probably so he doesn't target his own district partner. He raises the dagger in his hand...

"Thea, look out!"

William barely has time to jump back in shock before a pair of sais are thrown into his chest by Esmerelda. She quickly grabs onto them and pulls them out as hard as she can from his dying body. The other two girls just stare at her and Esmerelda tries to shake it off. "What? Let's move!"

"Dumbass." Ira's tone is flat.

There's only a few tributes left at the Cornucopia who aren't Careers. Lockhart and Micah seem to have the same idea, and that's attack any Career they come across, hoping to try and avenge their fallen allies. Lockhart picks up an axe and takes a couple swings at Elaena. Micah has a baton they try to swing at Siren's legs, before someone grabs them and pulls them to the ground. I want to scream at the sight of Urzelynne and Micah wrestling each other, each trying to win the upper hand.

Tansy still hasn't given up on Ace. But every single knife she throws either misses him completely, or he's able to dodge with ease. Starting to get a little fed up, Tansy swings her arm back as far as she can. but her knife gets caught in something that emits a loud scream. Curious, she pulls her arm forward, the blade stuck in Swift's head. She tries to shake his limp body off.

This gets a couple of murmurs from the other mentors, ranging from surprise to disgust. It's always pitiful for the dead tribute when their killer has no idea what happened. It never results in a quick end. And even worse, Tansy is distracted. She can't see that Ace has stopped running.

"Turn around, girl!" Dane is practically yelling at his screen. "Turn around! TURN AROUND!"

WHAM!

Tansy is sent sprawling onto the ground, courtesy of the mace Ace smacked her in the head with. Before she can get up, he smacks her again. And again. Tansy screams weakly and throws her arms over her head. It won't protect her. it's too late. She becomes the first Career to fall victim to the arena and the other tributes within it.

Dane looks just about ready to send his monitor through the wall. Spinnaker places a hand on Dane's back and begins whispering to him, in an attempt to calm his fellow mentor down.

Ace finally runs off with whatever supplies he has. Leaving only Lockhart and Micah to face an alliance of five. I cringe. They're done for. Lockhart is no match for Elaena, a trained Career and in between swings of his axe, she manages to jump in front of him. Her shoving her sword straight into his head is all she needs.

"Oh God," Cheyenne says nervously. "They're fucked."
"Micah?"
"Yeah."

I hate to admit it. But Cheyenne is right.

Urzelynne pins Micah to the ground by placing her foot on the neck. She slowly rises upwards, until she's practically standing on top of them. Micah snarls at they grab at her ankle and try to trip her, or pull her down to their level. But she has swords. They're unarmed.

Urzelynne laughs hysterically at Micah's attempts to counter her. "This is what you get for messing with me, motherfucker."

I actually don't look at my screen. I don't see what happened to Micah. I can hear them scream and swear and it sounds like...it sounds like...they're crying? They're crying. Throw in a couple of high-pitched giggles from Urzelynne, the sound of metal meeting flesh and...ugh, I don't want to look. I can't look. I don't want to know what she's doing to them.

That's when I hear other voices. "Urzelynne!" Elaena shouts. "That's enough! They're dead!"
"Fuck off, I'm busy here! HEY! Let go of me!"

I turn back to the screens to watch Hydra pick up Urzelynne and just hold her there for a moment while she flails her arms around. At her feet lies Micah...or what's left of them anyways. They don't look human anymore, covered in their own flesh and blood and God knows what else. I can see organs and bones.

And with their sombre death, it's all over.

I'm surrounding by silence. For some reason, nobody wants to be the first to first to talk, probably out of fear of starting an argument. No doubts some harsh words are going to thrown around soon. We just stare at our monitors, or the screen overhead if our monitor is blank.

The cannons begin to fire.

Thirteen. Thirteen cannons in total. Thirteen tributes, dead on the first day.

Micah's one of them. That poor kid, pain in the ass as they were, is never going to see the light of day again. Three whole alliances have been decimated. Lavender and Sara may have lost Velour, but they're still alive and they have a good amount of supplies. I've got to help keep them that way.

Everyone is currently making their way to a nearby house. Whether they open the door like Esmerelda does for her alliance, hide in a flower garden in the back like the one Sara pulls Lavender into, or smashing a window and crawling into the house like Ace. Everyone the Careers retreat inside, to let the incoming hovercraft collect the bodies. There's still blood all over the ground and it probably isn't getting cleaned up anytime soon.

What happens next?

I don't know.

Yeah. I did that.

But first, eulogies:

24th place: Nileen Laclunne, District 8. Stabbed in the back by Siren.

For personal reasons, I don't have anything to say about Nileen. She ran fast and died.

23rd place: Velour Crusida, District 6. Stabbed in the chest by Siren.

Pregnant tributes are always tough to read and write, for a number of reasons. When I got Velour, I felt bad for her because she was going to be too weak to hold up in the arena after just giving birth. But I was never gonna make Velour take her baby into the arena and while her time with her child was tragically cut short, at least Lennox will have a good life. Thanks for Velour, JoStew!

22nd place: Petra Inkess, District 12. head smashed into pedestal by Hydra.

I love writing rebels. I also love writing rebels with nothing to lose. Petra was quite the spicy girl and her "take no shit" attitude made her so much fun. I also loved her little alliance, whose sole plan was to cause a ton of chaos. Obviously, the Capitol isn't going to give such an openly rebellious tribute a fair chance and neither will the Careers. Thank you so much for her, Fiona!

21st place: Sawyer Lacey, District 8. Knife thrown into head by Pryce.

I do admit I kind of wish I did a little more with Sawyer. But I think with more vibrant personalities and characters all competing for a limited amount of screen time, he simply got a bit lost in the shuffle. He was a nice, normal kid. His alliance name was dope and I am proud of it. Thanks for Sawyer, Tyquavis!

20th place: Matzo Lavash, District 12. Stabbed repeatedly and throat slit by Urzelynne.

Man, Matzo is such a mood. All he wanted to do was play in the mud and eat cakes. He's just your average kid but compared to his angery little allies, he's the sole functioning brain cell by comparison lmao. Thanks for Matzo, CreativeFanatic!

19th place: Elsorian Raiken, District 11. Stabbed in the stomach by Elaena.

Another tribute who got lost in the shuffle, though more for his personality, I suppose. Elsorian is a pretty quiet guy with a pretty tragic backstory I didn't get much of a chance to delve deep into. In any of my other SYOTs, he'd probably have way better odds and and more potential with a proper amount of screen time. Thank you for him, DracarysWolf!

18th place: Echo Montero, District 7. Knife thrown into back by Hydra.

Even with their limited presence, I liked writing Echo. It's so refreshing to see a young tribute so confident and sure of their identity, but so much more than just being the token non-binary kid. Honestly, they were a pretty good foil to Micah and those two made a fun pair. Thanks for this little spitfire, beawesome89! And nice work on the interview outfit, that was awesome.

17th place: Brea Ainslee, District 11. Knife thrown into chest by Hydra and bled out.

Brea has such an interesting backstory and it's a shame that she ended up in this SYOT because otherwise, I could really do her justice. It would be so much fun to explore her life and what happened to her family and how she even ended up creating mutts for the Games. Unfortunately, there was just no natural way I could incorporate the details into the storyline without it sounded forced. Thank you so much for her, FrsotyShadow. She deserves better.

16th place: William Willson, District 3. Stabbed in the chest by Esmerelda.

Again, another tribute lost in the shuffle. I could honestly say that about his entire alliance. Although William had a pretty lit name that I think helped make him a bit more memorable but I wasn't really sure what to do with him, so he attacks his district partner's alliance and karma bites him in the ass. Ethan, if you're reading this, thanks for William!

15th place: Swift Stoovgard, District 9. Stabbed in the head by Tansy.

It would appear that not even Swift was swift enough to escape death. Honestly, I thought that would be pretty funny and that's pretty much why he places here because I'm a heartless bastard lmao. Props to him for having a pretty freaking awesome name and props to him for being the second running tribute I received. So glad I made that zig and zag joke before he died. Thanks for him, Isaac!

14th place: Tansy Tavish, District 4. Head bashed in by Ace.

Why did I give such a fun Career such a brutal death? Honestly, in comparison to her fellow Careers, Tansy was a much-needed breath of fresh air and added a lighthearted aspect to the whole alliance. But then I had some ideas for what I wanted to do with the Careers and there wasn't really a way to properly fit her in, unfortunately. Thank you so much for this meme queen, Anna!

13th place: Lockhart Tikkas, District 6. Stabbed in the head by Elaena.

And this is what happens when you start a fight you'll never be able to win. Another smol angery little shit, but I fucking love writing those so that made Lockhart really fun. I think in comparison to the rest of his allies, he got overshadowed a little. But at least he went down raising a good amount of hell. Thanks for him, Guesttwelve!

12th place: Micah Castro, District 10. Stabbed repeatedly by Urzelynne.

I debated this one for a while. Then I pulled Micah from the Bloodbath, then I had Sara dying in their place, then I reverted some of my plans around and went with my original idea. And honestly, I feel bad about Micah meeting such a gruesome demise, especially when it was no doubt meant as a "fuck you" from Urzelynne to VR. They could be a pain in the ass but they had their moments that made you realize Micah was just a kid and was as vulnerable as everyone else. Thanks for them, James! I hope I didn't break you this time round!

You wanted the Bloodbath? You get the Bloodbath!

As for alliances and kills and stuff, I'm going to start including that in the next chapter because this is getting a bit too long lmao. Anyways, we're officially in the Games and that means sponsoring is open! Remember, one gift per person per chapter. You can start sending them in now.

And the arena is a doom town. To give you an idea, it was based off the doom town from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Honestly, I have never seen the idea before and I thought it would be hilarious. VR's literal hell arena is starting look more like a heaven now at this point.

As for the thirteen victims of the Bloodbath, were you surprised to see some of them fall? Or was it more the fact that I killed off thirteen tributes in 4.5k words? XD

See you all next chapter,

-Vr