Bethany Joy Carrington, 18, District 1 Female Tribute's POV
Bethany was furious. She could feel her heated veins warming her skin from the inside, a fire pleading to escape her on outstretched wings. However, Bethany Joy knew better than to let her thoughts overwhelm her.
A single kill. She had only managed a single kill in the bloodbath. Even though Bethany knew from their chat as they had searched the mansion for somewhere to settle that most of them only managed a single kill, it still flared red hot in her blood. Arius had gotten three. Bethany refused to be second to anyone, especially not the arrogant Arius Armani.
She eyed the room heatedly, landing Kukla and Lachlan giggled together on the large bed of the master suite they had decided to call their base. They were like children - their immaturity only made her more annoyed. Milo and Asher were sorting through the supplies they had gathered, taking an inventory of their spoils, and her own district partner was just leaning against the wall, lazily tracing patterns into the thick carpet with the head of his spear.
This arena was a joke. How could they go hunting for tributes like this? They'd hear them coming if they had to open a door. Not only that, but surely they'd be boring deaths since the tributes wouldn't even be able to escape? Her win needed to be more glorious than just cornering twelve year olds to slaughter.
"Hey guys! We just finished the bloodbath - it was crazy! But we all made it out pretty good." Lachlan's voice was so loud that Bethany was surprised that everyone in the damn mansion couldn't hear it. Didn't his stupid camera have a mic on it? He didn't need to shout.
"We each got a kill." Kukla added, leaning over his shoulder to smile at the camera. "District partner goals!"
"But let's give a round of applause to the man of the hour - Arius, dude, how many kills did you get?" Lachlan turned the lense to face Arius, whose face lit with a smirk.
"Just three." He said, a plastic nonchalance to his voice that made Bethany need to take a deep breath to keep calm. The cocky son of a bitch was on her nerves and they had barely spent a few hours in the arena.
"That's quite the accomplishment." Kukla asserted, to which Arius gave a shrug of his shoulders. The smile didn't move from his face, however.
"It's what I was trained to do."
The latina rolled her eyes. They were all trained. Just because he was from the most prestigious Academy in District 1 didn't make him any better than any of the rest of them.
"So," Bethany cleared her throat. All eyes - and a single camera - turned to look at her. She gave a grin, hoping her irritation didn't show too clearly on her features. "What's our game plan?"
"We've got plenty of supplies and weapons." Milo zipped up the backpack he had been checking. "So there's nothing we particularly need to find. We've got food, a few things for first aid, plenty of water…"
"And we don't really need stuff for camping - matches or sleeping bags - since we're in a house." Asher pointed out, "But that means the others probably have stuff too."
"We should send out a hunting party," Bethany said, standing from the armchair she had been seated in. "We could send out three and have three stay here. I'd be happy to go."
"I'd like to go." Milo said. "I'd like to check out the arena a bit. See what we're working with."
"I'd like to stay, if you guys don't mind. I figure I'd be best here, anyway." Asher said sheepishly.
Kukla wrapped an arm around his waist. "Of course! We wouldn't want our medic getting injured, now would we?"
"I want to go as well." Arius said.
Bethany snorted. "Can't you save some kills for the rest of us?" Her tone was playful, but when their eyes met she knew he could feel the iciness.
"I don't mind staying." Kukla offered, breaking the tension.
"I don't either." Lachlan slid smoothly into the conversation. "We can grab the next hunt."
"Okay. Arius, Milo, and I will go out then." Bethany dusted off her tights and grabbed her sword. "We can be back before sundown, I'm sure."
"Bring us back stuff from the kitchen, will you? I want to try and cook something." Kukla tossed her hair over her shoulder to look at Bethany.
"Hunger Games cooking challenge?" Lachlan said with a gasp.
"Hashtag yummy!" Kukla giggled, whacking him in the side.
They kind of made Bethany want to vomit, if she was being completely honest with herself. The time would come where she could slit their throats herself, but she needed to wait. Like a panther with her haunches risen for the kill, Bethany would wait.
She needed to get rid of Milo first.
Drey Attison, 14, District 6 Male Tribute's POV
Drey had nothing more than a satchel that was near his column during the bloodbath, but for the first time since his reaping, things were looking up. They were in a home - his luck was hard to even fathom. He might not even need supplies if he could find things around the house. He had rushed to the second floor as soon as he got to the interior - tributes would surely find places to stay that were closer to the cornucopia, so the farther he got from it the safer he would be.
When he finally had stopped moving, he found himself in a large living area. It seemed smartest to stay in an area that wasn't closed off. Here he had many escape routes. Still hesitant, he sat on the long sofa, colored a soft cerulean that stood out against the white marble flooring and the tall walls painted a similar sheen of white.
He was startled as the television on the wall blinked on, static hissing through the room before the screen flashed red and the sound disappeared as quickly as it had come. A face flashed on the screen. Drey recognized it faintly as the girl from District 9. Words popped up along the screen with a typewriter sound effect. 24th place: Jocelynne Scape. 15 years old. District 9.
It lasted for about thirty seconds until it flashed to the next face and name popped up. Then the next. In total, it showed eight faces before the television flashed back to an empty void of black. Drey forgot to breathe until his lungs burned with a fire that brought him back to reality.
Eight tributes were dead.
It took a moment for Drey to fully take it in. Eight tributes. A quarter of them were gone already. More importantly, he hadn't died yet. He was already proving people wrong - the young tributes didn't always die first.
Drey moved away from the sofa, peering out the window into the garden. He felt his stomach churn when he realized that the bodies were still there. Blood stained the unnatural vivid green of the grass, like swipes of a crimson paint brush. The most frightening thing left, though, was Henrietta. Her body was in a sitting position against one of the decorative marble columns, but her eyes were wide open, a lifeless stare paired with a smile that was etched into her dead face. Drey shivered. Usually tributes didn't see the bodies this long… They were typically picked as soon as there weren't other tributes around.
This thought made him stop for a moment. How were they going to have the hovercrafts retrieve the corpses? He had seen them before in behind the scenes of the Hunger Games documentaries before, so he knew they'd be much too large to fit inside the courtyard, much less actually inside of the mansion itself.
Not sure what else to do, Drey returned to the couch and looked through his satchel. In it was a small bottle of water and a protein bar. He felt his stomach gurgle in disappointment as he zipped the bag once more. If that bar was the only food he had, then he'd need to save it until he was much hungrier.
A rustling caught his attention and he whipped to turn behind him. The curtains, willowy lengths of champagne, rustled. There was a noticeable bump between the fabric and the window. Something must have been behind them, but there wasn't enough space for a tribute to fit behind them.
Drey approached it hesitantly, but stopped midway. He had no idea what was behind the curtain, and as much as curiously beckoned him forward, Drey knew better than to risk his life to find out. Instead, he grabbed one of the decorative pillows off of the couch and threw it.
There was an angry squeal and the creature rushed out, a blur of black matted fur towards the hallway. He barely got a glimpse of the pink tail in time to recognize it as a rat - but not the same kind of rats that would sometimes lurk in the alleyways of his home apartments. No, it was much bigger, about the size of a small dog.
But it hadn't attacked him. Drey's shoulders drooped in relief. He had been bitten by a rat before; rats had long teeth that could cause quite a bit of damage. Although Drey hadn't seen its teeth, he knew he wanted them nowhere near him.
His mind whirred as he went back to his hiding spot on the sofa. How many of those rat mutts were in this mansion? Were they scared of people or would they attack? How much damage could they do?
But there was one question that sang the loudest in the chorus of his thoughts: How could he get these creatures on his side?
Emmeline Clayton, 18, District 7 Female Tribute's POV
"Hello people of Panem, and welcome to The Shit Show! I'm your host Emmeline, and today I have with me the lovely Viola Wynn." Emmeline swept her arm grandly from her seat on top of the porcelain toilet that she had sat on. Viola ignored her, still going through the supplies they had managed to grab before their exit of the bloodbath.
"You get it? The shit show? Because we're camped in a bathroom?" Emmeline egged her partner.
"I'm not in the mood to joke around right now." Viola said, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath through her nose before turning her gaze to Lina. "Why didn't the Career kill us?"
"Because I overtook her with my intelligence and quick thinking." Emmeline puffed her chest out jokingly, but Viola didn't crack a smile.
"I should be dead." Viola shook her head.
"Maybe. But you aren't." Lina replied.
"We didn't get much. We've got some breakfast bars, a knife, a box of matches…" Viola murmured. It felt more like she was talking to herself than to Emmeline, but Lina pushed her insecurity away.
"Better than nothing. Maybe I could wield this plunger as my weapon." Emmeline picked up the plunger from beside her, chuckling slightly. "Imagine the clips they'd show if I managed to do some damage with this baby."
Viola twisted the knob of the sink, and they were both surprised to see water come out of the faucet. Running water was something that most arenas wouldn't have. "Woah…" Emmeline reached under the faucet, letting the water wash over her fingers. It wasn't cold or hot - and didn't cause an immediate reaction. "Do you think it's safe?"
"Seems a little too good to be true." Viola answered. Emmeline sniffed her fingers. The water had a slight tangy scent.
"It smells… almost salty?" Lina said, unsure of her assessment. "I don't think I'm willing to taste it to see though."
Viola nodded before she turned the tap off. Emmeline watched the water swirl as it went down the drain. Salt water in all of the plumbing actually made sense if they were trying to keep the tributes from getting easy access to water. Lina did feel that it was a bit unfair when she considered that most arenas had rivers so the tributes could drink.
"We should get moving." Viola said curtly, turning to open the door to the bathroom. "You can bring the plunger, if you want. I guess it's better than being defenseless."
Emmeline knew she should argue - why would Viola immediately choose herself as the one to get the knife? Just because it was in the bag that she had picked up? At the same time, though, Emmeline knew that Viola was already very tense and didn't want to make her any more annoyed. None of her jokes had managed to get Viola to laugh, just making her way through the house with a deadpan look on her face.
"Yeah, I guess we should get out of here. I'm kind of getting a little bit claustrophobic anyway." Emmeline twisted the plunger in her hands nervously, "But where should we go?"
"I don't know." Viola said, a simplistic defeat tinging her tone. "I just don't want to be cornered anywhere."
"That's hard in a house." Emmeline bit the inside of her cheek. "I haven't seen an arena like this before… I can't say I have any hindsight from other games to help us."
"We're on our own here." Viola agreed, "But at least we're all on the same playing field. Nobody else is going to have any idea either."
Emmeline murmured in agreement. The two girls left the bathroom, but the pace was fairly slow since neither of them knew exactly where to go. They quickly got into battle stances, however, when the sound of thudding came from down the hall. Emmeline felt her heart hammer in her chest as an animal burst around the corner, running with small pink hands outstretched. Emmeline's eyes widened in realization - it was a giant rat.
"Watch your feet." Viola took a running start towards the creature, leaping the almost two feet to jump over its body and the length of its tail. Lina followed, but her feet landed awkwardly on the end of the tail, causing the rat to turn bank and bear its long teeth, yellowed and pointed into a sharp point rather than the usual blocky shape.
"Sorry!" She blurted, moving off of the rat's tail. It made an angry hissing sound, but hastily turned back around to continue running. Emmeline watched it disappear down the corridor. "What the fuck."
"We're lucky it didn't attack…" Viola murmured before shaking her head. "I don't know why it didn't. Maybe it had a different plan."
"Rats are disgusting." Emmeline wrapped her arms around herself.
"There are worse things in this house I'm sure. We need to be more vigilant in case there's more of them."
Viola waited a beat for turning and continuing the way the rat had come. Emmeline took a deep breath and followed her district partner down the hall.
Quark Kirchhoff, 15, District 5 Male Tribute's POV
Their entire alliance was dead. If Quark had been anybody else, he might be upset at the fact, but he almost thought it was kind of funny. Out of everybody they had in their little island of misfit toys, the career reject and the beanpole hacker boy were the two that managed to survive.
The two were - almost fittingly, considering that their ages - in a bedroom that appeared to be a children's room. There was a large toy chest that looked like a pirate's chest and a bunk bed with ocean themed pillows and blankets. Raven was sitting on the bottom bunk, rummaging through her bag while Quark himself just stood in the middle of the room.
He had made it out of the bloodbath. It was a miracle. Graciousness was the farthest feeling from his mind, though.
"We've got a few different things to eat and a nice amount of water, but that's about it." Raven sighed softly. "I was really hoping for a weapon."
Quark smirked, "Maybe there's a pirate sword hidden somewhere in here."
His joke earned him a small smile from the blonde, who turned to him and hiked her legs up to sit criss cross. "Somehow I feel like a children's toy sword won't be very useful."
"Well, I also thought that I wouldn't be very useful, but here we both are alive and kicking." Quark said with a shrug of his shoulders. Raven laughed.
"I always knew you'd be useful." She said, offering him a smile. "You're the smart one."
Quark snorted. She'd probably be the only person that would ever call him the smart person of any group. His grades were lackluster and he had never really been great at math or quick thinking. Computers had been his only skill - the only thing that made him feel like he could stand out and do something impressive.
"Since you're the smart one, maybe you have an idea of what we should do next?" Raven asked, in her voice a seedling of hopefulness sprouted between the cracks.
"We probably need to arm ourselves, but I'm not really sure how we'll do that… Maybe we can use the arena to our advantage."
Raven tilted her head in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"If we're in a house, there's bound to be a kitchen, right? And kitchens have knives." Quark said. "It's a longshot, but I don't know what else we would do."
Raven nodded, but a shadow of fear crossed her face. She seemed to be debating whether or not she should speak, but eventually she did. "Do you think the careers are out killing people right now?"
"That is what they usually do." Quark answered quickly. He moved over to the toy chest, opening it up and digging through to see what was inside. The toys reminded him of something a very young child would have, mostly stuffed animals and blocks.
"I think… I think Bethany might have it out for me." Raven admitted, still not moving from the bed. "She wanted me to kill Milo in the bloodbath for her."
"What, for real?" Quark turned to look at her over his shoulder, tossing some of the toys as he did.
"Yeah, she said we could team up if I killed him for her."
"What'd you say?"
"I said no."
"Why?"
"Because she wouldn't let you join." Quark stopped his tossing of toys, lingering halfway inside of the toy chest. He had to blink a few times before he pulled himself out to face Raven once more. "I-I couldn't just leave you, you know? We're partners."
"Bethany would've been a really good partner to have. You're crazy for telling her no." Quark said, causing Raven to wince. "I would've understood. She'd be way better than some untrained kid from District 5."
Raven looked up from her lap to smile at him. It was gentle and melancholy. "I would choose you over her a million times. I trust you."
Quark turned his attention back to the toys swiftly, mostly to hide the pink that was tinting his cheeks. He couldn't imagine why she would've turned down a career ally, but it made his chest feel warm and airy in a way that he couldn't quite describe. "Well… thanks. For sticking with me, I guess."
"I would do it again in a heartbeat…" Raven replied. The finality in her voice warmed Quark somewhere deep in his hollow heart. He dared glance over his shoulder at her as she started digging in the toy chest. "Wait a minute… Do you see that?"
"See what?"
"It looks like… A switch of some sort." Raven pushed a teddy bear to the corner of the chest, revealing a gleam of silver. "Should I pull it?"
"We don't know what it does." Quark said slowly.
"That's true…" Raven pursed her lips to hide a grin. "But I still kinda want to pull it." She put her hand on the metal switch to turn it, but hesitated.
"What if it kills us?" Quark asked, jutting his hand to cover hers.
"If it doesn't, something else will try." Raven met his eyes, a mischief glittering in the brown of her irises. "Let's do it together."
Quark paused before he relented. "Together."
Hand in hand, the two turned the switch.
Lachlan Aberforth, 17, District 4 Male Tribute's POV
"Do you think they're out there getting kills without us?" Lachlan asked, watching Kukla as she primped herself in the full body mirror that was leaning against the wall.
"I'd hope so. The faster people die, the faster a Victor is crowned." Kukla replied.
"That's morbid…" Asher murmured. "I think-"
His voice was cut off as the entire mansion quaked underneath the feet of the Careers. Kukla's hand shot out to the wall to keep her balance and Lachlan rose to his knees on the bed to be ready to flee. The shaking only lasted a moment, though, with the house quieting back down as if nothing had happened.
Lachlan's brows furrowed in confusion. He brushed off the feeling, cracking a smile at Asher. "Maybe you shouldn't be thinking anymore, it was too powerful."
Kukla laughed, but it was breathy with a clear apprehension. Lachlan couldn't deny that he felt similar feelings of unease about the quake - what happened? Was it some sort of arena event? Or did a tribute cause it? He wasn't sure.
Kukla's voice broke through Lachlan's thoughts. "It felt like a teeny tiny earthquake. We have those at home sometimes."
"If there's one in the arena, you know it has to be planned." Asher added, locking his hands together nervously. "I don't think the Gamemakers would let a natural disaster just… happen."
Lachlan pressed his lips together into a taut line and nodded. Asher was right. There had to be something more to this than just the shaking of the earth. "Do you guys think that there might've been an effect on the arena?"
"It's likely." Kukla agreed. "I hope that everybody is okay… Who knows what could've happened."
Lachlan opened one of the satchels, rummaging around for one of the candy bars he had seen Milo hide. When he found it, he tore open the wrapper and took an excited bite. The caramel filled his senses quickly and he sighed in content. The earthquake was bad news - he was sure of it. But sitting around and worrying wasn't going to make the problem any better.
"Milo's going to be pissed when he finds out you ate her Crunchamel bar." Asher warned, a wry smile on his lips. "I'm surprised you even managed to find it. He wrapped it pretty well with that gauze."
"Oh, I never miss a Crunchamel bar." Lachlan laughed. "We used to eat these all the time in the Academy - they had this giant vending machine with the greatest snacks. Sabrina used to tell me that all the sugar would be bad for training, but I always ate them anyway."
"Man, that was a great read, Lachy, but I'm not quite sold. You're gonna have to say something better if you want them to sponsor you on your Victory tour." Kukla chided, a playful lilt to her voice. "Besides, those things are gross. The salty peanuts with the caramel? Yuck." She shriveled her nose in distaste.
"More for me and Milo then." Lachlan said with a laugh. "I wouldn't mind a delicious sponsorship though…"
"I'd much rather something classy. Maybe a perfume or something." Kukla fluffed her hair with her hand. "Something that would make me look good. What about you, Asher?"
"To be honest, I'll just be happy to not die here." He answered. "Not to be a downer or anything. I guess I just don't see this whole experience the same as you guys do."
There was a silence that fell over the three of them. Of course. Asher might be a part of the Career alliance, but he wasn't a Career. He didn't see the games as a means to glory and fame - he saw it as a death sentence. Lachlan couldn't help but think back to what Diana had asked him at his interview. Was he causing kids to see something as dangerous as the Hunger Games a good idea for them? Lachlan was trained his whole childhood, it was different for him.
They weren't a death wish for a Career.
He knew without a doubt that he could win this thing.
He wouldn't die in the arena.
Right?
For the first time in his life… Lachlan wasn't quite sure.
Gillian Silks, 14, District 8 Female Tribute's POV
"I still think that we should investigate the quake." Alina insisted. Gillian rolled her eyes, sitting back in the fluffy armchair that she had claimed as her spot.
"We can't just leave her here…" Raul looked over at Avril's body, which was laying on the bed. He had taken great care to make sure she was situated perfectly, wiping the blood off of her with the sheets and closing her eyelids. If Gillian didn't know any better, she would've thought the petite girl was simply sleeping.
Gillian felt like she was watching her allies lose their minds, and it wasn't even nightfall of the first day. Raul hadn't done a great job of hiding his sobbing, but it had been almost an hour and now he just seemed tired. Gilli felt bad for him - truly, her heart went out to him - but they were in the Hunger Games. If he was going to cry about every single death, he wouldn't last very long. Alina, on the other hand, was restless. She had been coming up with excuses for them all to get out an explore since Avril had breathed her last breath.
"Well, we can't take her with us either." Gillian said, the corner of her mouth dipping into a frown. "And I assume you don't want to lug her around."
Raul's eyes flashed hotly, "You guys are talking about her like she's a backpack. She's a human being."
"Now she's a corpse." Gillian muttered, shaking her head before rising from the chair to look at Raul. "Man, I understand that you're upset. We're all upset. But Avril did what she did to make sure the rest of us had a better chance to survive and she'd be rolling in her grave to know that we just sat her like sitting ducks for the Careers to come slaughter. She would want us to live. She would want us to survive."
Raul blinked a few times, taking a deep breath before he sighed. "You're right… Just… Let me say a last goodbye."
The boy from District 10 rose, pressing his lips against her forehead. He murmured something to her that Gillian couldn't quite make out, and then straightened his posture. Alina stood beside him, rubbing a circle on his back reassuringly.
"She's so cold already… I've never seen a dead body before." Raul said, his voice catching in his throat. "She feels like glass."
"Like glass?" Gillian moved over to Avril, pressing her finger tips to the pale fingers of the corpse. He was right - it didn't even feel like skin. It felt like she was made of something else. Gillian tried to move one of the fingers, only to break it off entirely. Alina screamed, a sound that was swiftly stifled by Raul's hand - though his eyes were widened in shock.
"What did you do!?"
Gillian stared at the finger in her hand, unsure of what to say or feel. It had just… Snapped. Like an icicle hanging off of a tree. "I… I didn't mean to."
"I-It just broke off like it was a piece of a toy." Alina's lip quivered and she wrapped her arms around Raul.
"I barely even pulled it." Gillian knew she should feel horror, but instead she was morbidly curious. Her body almost felt like it had turned fully to ice, minus the fact that it didn't feel wet. It was cold and hardened. "That's so weird…"
"Do you think the other bodies turned like that too? Or just hers?" Alina asked tentatively. Gillian shrugged.
"I have no idea, but I don't know if I even want to find out." Raul replied, shaking his head. "Come on. You guys said you wanted to leave, right?"
"We should find weapons, I think." Alina suggested. "I have my shovel, but I think it'd be best if we all had something to fend off attackers."
"I agree." Gillian nodded. Raul and Alina picked up the few bags that they had and started out of the room. Gillian took one last look at the broken off finger, checking to see if her allies were looking before shoving it in her pocket. While she couldn't place why she did it, she just felt like she should.
Maybe it would come in handy.
no deaths
AN: I know, for someone who is so excited to slaughter some tributes, I sure did write a whole chapter where nobody dies. But that's because whoever guesses the first tribute death after the bloodbath has the opportunity to win a priiiiiiize! Leave it in your review, everyone who guesses correctly will get a sponsor for the tribute of their choice! And if you've already won a prize and wish to use it, don't forget to shoot me a message!
www. throughthedollhousecurtains. weebly. com
Confirmed Alliances:
Career Pack: Bethany Joy, Arius, Milo, Kukla, Lachlan, Asher
Team Clip Clop: Raul, Gillian, Alina
Hackers4Lyfe: Raven, Quark
Tough Girls: Viola, Emmeline
