A/N: Before you read this you wanna head over to the blog section labeled 'other' it'll help you understand a lot more.
Liz Starr, Day 1:
Time- 1:26 PM (13:26)
This isn't what I signed up for when I volunteered. I signed up to be a career, I signed up to win. I signed up to make it home to Harry. He's the reason I'm here now anyway. The reason I'm wandering through row upon row of giant sheer ice walls.
I sigh and quickly wipe the tears that sting my cheeks, making them puff up and stain a bright shade of red. I didn't mean to become attached to my ally, she just became my friend. She meant so much to me and fucking Kinnik, Kinnik of all people, took that away so damn fast. He drained the life from her and for that I will drain the life from him. Lin's death burns but lights a fire that only her murderers' death will extinguish.
There's only one problem, there's two of them, Allegro and Kinnik. I could take one or the other on but not both at the same time. I'll figure something out, I have to figure something out. I will not stop until I find Kinnik and I make him pay, no matter how hard it is.
I'll laugh as he suffers, his pain spearing him inside and out. I'll make him wish he never attacked Lin in the first place. I'll show him pain, so much pain.
Except, I don't have anything to hurt him with. I didn't escape with a backpack or weapon like some of the other tributes did. I will find a way though, even if it's using my own bare hands. Anything will work, even tree branch would be helpful at this point, but there's no fucking trees around. There's just ash and ice, that's it, ice walls that reached up for the sky.
Or what I'd presume is the sky, stage lights making it too hard to see what's above the walls. They shone bright and if you stare at them for too long they make you see spots, I know from experience.
Suddenly and abruptly there's a small collection of footsteps from somewhere to the right of me. I whip around but there's nothing there. Quickly I dash back the way I had come and take a right at the nearest fork, that's the way I heard the footsteps run.
I narrow my eyes as I sprint towards the sound of shuffling in the ashes. My guess it's the group of little outer-district kids, did they escape? Must have, otherwise who would I be chasing? The footsteps start quicken as I quickly gain ground towards them.
Even though there's four of them, that's if all of them survived, I know I can kill them all. The girl from Seven's strong but the rest are pretty physically weak. They'd be easy kills and hopefully they grabbed supplies I can take and use to kill Kinnik. I could Allegro as well, but I'd have to hit them at the right time.
Then as I round the corner I heard the footsteps go, I smack face-first into an ice wall dead end. They couldn't have gone this way, could they? No, they can't pass through walls but I'm sure they ran this way.
No more footsteps echo through the halls of ice as I sink slowly to my knees. Has losing Lin made me crazy? She's the one who kept me from exploding, calm at best. My breathing comes in gasps as I let a few more tears fall out onto the ash-covered ground.
"Lin." I cry, "you can't be gone, can you?"
"Of course she is." I hear a small voice say and I shoot a glance all around me. No one is anywhere close, who in the hell is talking? Lin's death is making me crazy. I can't do this without her.
But I have to. I have to make it back home to Harry, I'm everything to him and to take that away from him is unfair. Harry is the reason I'm here, I need to finish this for him. I need to finish this for Lin.
Lily Rosett, Day 1
Time- 2:19 PM (14:19)
"I can't believe." I say, breathing hard from our sprint away from the cornucopia, "you killed James like that."
"I saw him at just the right time." Abram chuckles, "now that he's dead, we got targets off our backs."
"Exactly." I say lightly sitting down on the ashes. I shift my body and shoot over a bit so I can lean up against the ice wall. As I push my body weight against the light blue ice, I can't let out a small scream. I flail my arms above my head as my body slips straight through the wall.
I sit straight up and whip around to face the ice. I extend out my hands and shiver as they float through the hologram wall. Abram looks at me with a blink of confusion as he makes his way over to the nearest wall. He narrows his eyebrows but they shoot right back up as his hand slides right through the holographic ice.
"What in the name of what?" Abram asks, obviously shocked.
"It's a hologram?" I say, not very sure of my words.
"Hologram?" he asks.
"That's my guess, are all of the walls like this?"
"I don't know." Abram says, his eyes still wide as he runs his hands up and down the wall. "I think you're right, they're all projected or something."
"Yeah," I sigh, getting to my feet and crossing over to another ice wall. My hand goes directly through. Even though I was expecting my arm to reach into it, a gasp still escapes my cracked lips and out into the bitter air.
"Guess it's all the walls then." Abram laughs.
"Oh shut up."
"No can do." He chuckles and I roll my eyes.
"Wait." I say, "if it's a hologram, we can walk though it."
"Yes, captain obvious."
"We don't have to make our way through the maze, we can just walk through the walls." I reply.
"Oh." Abram says. "That's actually a good idea,"
"I know." I laugh.
"Excuse you?"
"Excuse me? Excuse you." I chuckle, kicking some ashes up towards him.
"Oh it's on." He says, grabbing a handful of ashes off the ground before flinging them towards me.
"Missed." I reply as I step quickly to the right to dodge his throw. I step into the shimmering wall and suddenly feel even colder than before. A harsh wind blows from somewhere behind me as the cold bites at my fingers and nose.
A small snowflake lands on my nose before quickly melting away, the small water stream running down my face. I smile and tilt my head towards the sky, closing my eyes. A snowflake falls softly onto my tongue as the snow starts to surround me in it's cry of silence.
"Lily? What?" Abram asks, stepping into the ice wall. It's about ten feet across so he could stand in here comfortably with me. A small smile creeps up his face as he realizes the snow falling from the ceiling, or whatever is above the blindingly bright stage lights.
"Snow. It's snowing in the wall." I laugh.
"Wow," he says holding out his palms to catch the beautifully unique snowflakes. The snow falling around him dances in the light, an almost choreographed ballet conducted by the harsh breeze.
"I know, right?"
"It never snowed in Ten." Abram says in absolute amazement and wonder.
"You know it was snowing in the Capital, right?"
"Yeah, but I-I never really went out to enjoy it." He replies, a smile beaming on his lips as the cold starts to sink into my bones. The hoodie I'm wearing helps a bit but doesn't compete against the wind's fierce rage.
"Snow-w was pretty normal in Twelve, at least every winter."
"It's so cold, was it this-s cold in Twelve?"
"Not nearly-y."
"This is too cold, I'm used to a lot warmer weather-r." Abram chuckles, but I can see his body start to shake the tiniest bit.
"Yeah, let's go see what we got in the backpack." I suggest.
"Alright then."
Zacharian Paisley, Day 1
Time- 2:47 PM (14:47)
"Hurry up Sunna." Anne whispers, tugging on the girl's hoodie.
"Guys." Sunna croaks as we continue through the ice maze.
"Yes?" Ciara snaps whipping around to face me, Anne and Ciara, clearly not in too good of a mood after Vienna's death.
"Look at the walls…"
"The walls?" Anne asks, turning around beside me as Ciara tightens her grip on Sunna's wrist.
"Yeah, you see him too right?" Sunna asks.
"Felix." Anne gasps, recognizing the small tan skinned boy with light auburn hair, who's picture shines so vividly on the ice. Watery light blue eyes stare back at me as the boy smiles a welcoming and comforting smile. Anne lets out a small whimper, letting go of my arm. Sometime while we were running through the maze she had fallen and grabbed my arm, she just hadn't let go since then. Her breaths come in short bursts as Anne drops her backpack. Anne runs toward the ice wall, kicking up ashes in the process.
"Felix?" Ciara asks, her dark eyes wide. "That can't be right." Ciara shakes her head as Sunna's jaw hangs all the way down to the floor. Anne reaches the ice and stops, a small tear starting to form in the corner of her right eye.
"Anne." Sunna whispers and Ciara narrows her eyes.
"It's the arena messing with our heads. Anne it's not Felix." Ciara sighs as Anne rubs away the tear and throws her fists against the wall.
"He's right there." She croaks, tears welling up again as she throws another punch against the wall.
"Anne…" I start but my words stop coming from my mouth as the image of Anne's little brother starts to swirl and suddenly there's a girl sitting beneath a tall oak tree. She sits there, twirling a small gold bracelet in with her fingertips. Tears drip down the girl's pale face and down onto the soft grass. Her dark curls frame her face, hiding her exact features. The small girl sniffles and fiercely wipes her tears away.
She looks oddly familiar but I can't quite place her face. The small girl adjusts the blue glasses on her face, and looks up towards the tree's giant branches. Isn't that- that's the girl Jocylin volunteered for.
"Felix…" Anne mumbles, her knuckles a shade of dark red but she pays no mind to them. "Where? Please don't go."
"Anne it's just something to mess with our minds, it's not real." Ciara whispers, her hard expression breaking into a soft and almost emphatic one.
Suddenly as quickly as the image appears it fades into a young boy. He can't be more than eleven but holds out a spear in his right hand. A grunt escapes his mouth as he shoots the spear forward. I can feel Sunna beside me wince at the sound the spear makes as it sinks into a foam dummy's chest cavity.
The young boy sighs, walking over to the dummy. He softly grabs the handle of the spear before reaching forward. The boy gently traces the spear's cut with his fingertips. Making sure to position his body away from the spear, he turns and grabs the handle of the weapon. He heaves the weapon from the dummy's chest but stumbles backwards with the amount of effort he'd put in.
He steadies himself, holding out his arms for balance. He sighs again and picks up the spear he had dropped. His light brown skin and amber eyes shining against the light of what I guess is a career training academy. The boy's curly red hair bounces this way and that as he makes his way back to the marked line, he had originally thrown the weapon from, on the concrete floor.
Then, much like the images from earlier, the boy's picture is gone and in his place is a tall young man. He sits up in a tall oak tree, much like one the girl from earlier had been sitting under. As he turns his gaze towards the rolling farms beneath him, the small tree shakes in the harsh breaze.
The wind's rath obviously not having a lot of an effect on the man, as he just stays seated calmly on his branch. His icy blue eyes scour over the district beneath him, searching for something.
Due to the farms rolling in the background and Anne's little brother already being shone, I know this is Abram's brother. The man looks too young to be his father but looks an awful lot like the boy who had come from Ten.
The man suddenly whips around to see another boy climbing up towards him seated in the tree high in the sky. This boy looks younger than the man but older than Abram. His dark windblown hair keeps falling into his face as he climbs up the tree to meet the man but the boy takes no mind.
Yet again the image fades and I turn back to Ciara. "We've gotta go." I say.
"That's not our families. The walls are messing with us." Sunna replies.
"Come on let's go." Anne whispers, glancing to the right towards another wall showing a new image.
"Alright. Just try not to look in the walls, they're all cursed." I say.
"I guess." Sunna whispers as bright stage lights shine down and reflect off the ice.
"Let's go, wait is it on all the walls?"
"Yeah, they're all made of the same ice." Anne sighs.
"Well what do we do then?" I ask, "where do we go?"
"There's no sunlight but I'm guessing it's around evening time, we could stop here for the night."
"Yeah why don't we stop here and see what we got from the bloodbath."
Elizabeth Oakseed, Day 1
Time- 3:28 PM (15:28)
"I got a small knife and a sleeping bag in this one." I say, tracing the small detailed lines set deep in the blade.
"Looks like some flint and magnesium." Celosia sighs, opening her small bag.
"Fire, you can start a fire, can't you?" I say, attempting to sound some-what optimistic.
Sage's features fall into a small smile, "can she?" they laugh.
"Of course I can." Celosia mumbles, biting her cracked and dry lip.
"Not yet though, smoke would be like a trail to us." Sage sighs, the smile disappearing from their face.
"Yeah…" Celosia croaks, her stare burning into the ground. There's a long minute of silence before I turn to Cel, who's obviously trying to hide her pain but not doing too good of a job at.
"He's in a better place now Cel." I whisper, my voice flowing softly towards the girl.
She looks at me, her eyes pleading with herself not to let the tears building up out, "but he had so much potential." She cries.
"Hey," I say, crossing over to the girl. I take her hand in mine and wrap my other arm around her shoulders.
"He's gone." She croaks.
"He's with his mother now, please, we have to be happy for him." Sage says, in an attempt to comfort their district partner in their own way. Sage isn't very good at being empathic but they're trying to help.
Cel buries her face in my shoulder, her tears staining my hoodie but I pay no mind to them. I normally hate physical contact and avoid it at all costs. But Cel means a lot to me and I can't watch her like this. Her tears leave scars down her face and I don't want her to gain anymore scars. Scars were all that filled my life before I met these three and I don't wish that on anyone.
Sydney was always there, always such a strong and happy part of our team. I miss him, I miss him a lot, but I can't let these two see. At least not with Cel like this. She's too innocent, I don't wanna break down in front of her.
"But what if I can't?" Cel asks, still pressing her face into my shoulder.
"You have to try." Sage says, trying to be helpful.
"I don't wanna be happy for him. He's gone. Forever." Celosia sobs. Her words sting like a dagger being thrust into my chest. I close my eyes, still hugging the girl, as to not let the tears fall towards the ash painted ground.
"Hey, it's gonna be alright." I whisper as Sage gets off the ground and makes their way over to us. "Everything's gonna be just fine."
"It will be." Sage says, wrapping their small arms around Cel to form this weird group hug.
"I guess." Cel mumbles, letting go of me and with a swift motion, wipes her tears away.
"See, it'll all be fine." Sage says. I know Sage's trying to be as positive as Syd but it's not working very well for them. Cel retreats into my arms as more tears start to fall from her face.
"Hey," I comfort gently, my arms pinned to my side by the girl, "he's happy now."
"But he's gone, I'm the reason he's gone."
"No you're not." I say.
"I'm the one he was helping, if I hadn't rolled my ankle, he'd still be here."
"Don't blame yourself."
"It's the truth, you know it too." Cel says, pushing away from me.
"No it's not, you didn't know Misty would be there."
"But he saved me, pushed me to the ground." She shouts.
"It's not your fault, stop blaming yourself." I say.
"Guys, please, we have to be quiet."
"I'm sorry Cel, stop blaming yourself, it's not your fault he's gone."
"But it is…"
"I swear, if you say it was your fault one more time I will stab you. His death wasn't your fault." I say grabbing Celosia's wrist.
"I'm sorry Elizabeth," Celosia croaks, "I'm sorry."
"Stop being sorry, you didn't do anything wrong." I say, my voice coming out raspy and hoarse.
"But I-"
"No buts." I sigh.
"Hey guys?" Sage asks randomly, trying to ease the tension, "do you smell that?"
"I don't smell anything." I say.
"Smells like the fields back in Eleven."
"What?" Celosia asks, slowly inhaling through her nose, "what?" she gasps.
"Eleven? I smell pine trees."
"Pine trees?"
"Yeah like the one's back in Seven…"
"But there aren't any trees around." Celosia points out.
"That's the problem." Sage says. "I think we each smell something from our own district. Myself and Cel smell the fields while you smell trees, those are pretty far from each other."
"Oh wow." I sigh, "why?"
"Some sorta arena twist." Sage says.
"I guess so." I say, happy to be talking about something other than Syd's death.
Angel Mayfield, Day 1
Time- 4:32 PM (16:32)
Onyx shoots me a sarcastic look as Misty and Kai buzz on and on about the kills they got. I roll my eyes back at them as we trudge through the ice maze, back towards the cornucopia. I hold a crossbow shakly in my hands in case we see anyone, but I doubt we will.
"Do you guys hear that?" Misty asks, stopping dead in her tracks.
"I hear nothing."
"It sounds like, ah, what's-his-face. The boy from Two." Misty says.
"Allegro?" I ask, as Onyx lets out a small laugh.
"Yeah him and his ally."
"Kinnik?" Onyx says turning to me as I chuckle a bit.
"Misty, why don't you remember any of the names?" I ask, smiling at Onyx.
"Calm down. I knew Kinnik's name, I just forgot Allegro's for a second."
"Sure." I sigh.
"Whatever, but seriously I hear them."
"Come on let's go kill them, make it ten person bloodbath."
"You're sure you heard them, right?"
"Of course. This way." Misty says, holding out her spear as she jogs.
"Alright then." Onyx replies, taking their sword outta their belt as I load my crossbow with an arrow from the quiver I had thrown over my shoulder.
"Over here." Kai says, "I hear them too."
"No they're this way, what are you doing Kai?"
"But." He starts but stops when Misty points her spear at him.
"I heard them over here."
"Alright." Kai nods.
"I swear, you guys are so slow." She mumbles as we follow her though the maze.
"Whatever." I sigh.
After ten minutes of tracking the boys, following behind Misty, she stops in a dead end. All of us had heard the voices loud and clear at least once, so we weren't exactly just chasing Misty's idea.
"Their voices end right here." Onyx says.
"No way." I reply and Misty raises her eyebrows.
"What the fuck?" Misty asks.
"I swear I heard them."
"Me too." Kai agrees, staring right at the ice wall that constructed the dead end.
"Are their voices coming from the wall?" Onyx asks, studying the ice itself.
"That's stupid. Of course their voices aren't coming from the wall." Misty sighs.
"Whatever." Onyx rolls their eyes and shoots me yet another look. Onyx stares at me and taps their fingers lightly against their temple. I try not to smile at the fact they were using our secret language.
I'm done with this.
During the week of recovery Onyx and I had started making a secret language of hand gestures to talk with one another around Misty and Kai. Most were pretty simple, much like taping fingers against their temple.
I turn back to Misty and Kai and run my fingers through my hair.
Same.
Not only did that make Onyx smile, it made them giggle.
"What, you think this is funny?" Misty snaps, obviously not in the best mood.
"No." Onyx sighs.
"But seriously their voices are right here." Kai says.
"I know, this makes no sense." I reply.
"What if it's just the arena messing with us?" Onyx says, crossing over towards the giant ice wall that stretched all the way up to the ceiling. There must be a ceiling up there, considering there are bright blinding stage lights pointing down at us.
Misty looks like she's gonna say something sarcastic back but then stops and ponders the idea for a minute. "That actually… that could work."
"I mean, yeah I guess." Kai nods.
"Obviously they're not here," I say, "I think Nyx is onto something."
"I think it's just a trick." Nyx replies.
"I guess so." Misty heaves, swiftly placing her long spear into the long leather sheath she had strapped to her back.
"Should we head back to the cornucopia then? Maybe grab extra jackets? I'm freezing." Kai says.
"I guess so, get a plan for tomorrow." I say.
"Exactly." Onyx agrees.
"I guess that sounds good," Misty replies.
"Why is the arena so cold?" I chuckle.
"I don't know." Misty snaps and I just glance over at my district partner. They bite their lip not to laugh at least a tiny bit with how much she's been snapping lately. I bend down and untie my boat lace.
I seriously don't.
I tie my shoe back up and Onyx cocks their head. I click my tongue to the roof of my mouth as Misty and Kai start to turn and make their way back to the cornucopia.
Trust.
Onyx rolls their eyes but nods, giving me a knowing look. "Come on we gotta catch up with them." They say.
"Come on then, slowpoke." I laugh rushing forward to catch up with the rest of our alliance.
No deaths occurred this chapter
Alliances-
The Bread Queens (and Zach): Sunna, Ciara, Anne and Zach
Still Mighty: Celosia, Sage and Elizabeth
Happy As Fuck Cause James is Dead: Lily and Abram
Dysfunctional yet Functional: Angel, Kai, Misty and Onyx
Emotional Mess: Allegro and Kinnik
Sub-alliances-
Hospital Gang: Abram, Lily, Ciara and Zach
Just a Pact: Anne and Abram
Stick With Me Please: Celosia and Sage
Loners-
Can I Be Iconic Alone?: Liz
Kill Count (underlined ones are gone)-
Sasha: 1 (D5F, self)
Ciara: 1 (D6F)
Kinnik: 1 (D3F)
Misty: 1 (D9M)
Kai: 1 (D5M)
Abram: 1 (D12M)
Angel: 1 (D3M)
Tyree: 1 (D6M, self)
A/N: Annnnd we're back with the first arena chapter! Shaboom. This was really fun to write honestly and I really enjoyed showing how the tributes reacted to the bloodbath deaths. This is the only exception, but from here on out the chapters might be formatted a little differently. I'm gonna break up each day into three parts (morning, afternoon and night) and each chapter will be two outta the three. So the next chapter will be Day 1 night/ Day 2 morning and the one after that would be Day 2 afternoon and night, that makes sense, right? If not please tell me xd.
Alright with that knocked out sponsor points- I've already had one person submit a few things and ahhh this is gonna be so awesome. None of the gifts will be brought in this chapter but next chapter there'll be at least one? I'm not exactly sure yet.
Also to my submitters reading this right now- thank you, you're truly amazing. I'm gonna tell you this, over 2/3 of the submitters aren't reading so if you're part of the lucky few that are, love you. To my readers who aren't submitters- y'all are fan-freaking-tasic and I love you as well.
Here's some stories that are also amazing and I recommend them 100%-
'We Made it Out' by Averyrandomauthor (this isn't an SYOT, it's a victor tale, but his writing is so detailed and amazing and it'd mean the world if you checked it out)
'If They Survive: The 101st Hunger Games' by MeTheFanatic19 (closed SYOT by one of my dear internet sisters, who's the sweetest person of all time, go show her some love)
'One Big Explosion: The 204th Hunger Games' by cartierscrown (another amazing SYOT of a good friend, it's amazing, most definitely recommend)
'And We Run' by contemporarydancer2 (already at the arena! Haha both my tributes have died butttttt the Tia's writing is awesome, definitely check it out)
'Killer Vacation: The 45th Hunger Games SYOT Parody' by Willuna (parody SYOT that is bound to be heaps of fun and I'm really excited to watch my joke subs die xd)
'Borrowed Time' by My_Mental_Mind (holy crap even with just the intro I died, truly gonna be such an amazing SYOT and it's open, incase if you're looking for a great place for your next sub, this is it)
'Echos Between Worlds' by Remus98 (verse collab with Mental -mentioned above- that's just ahhhhh so fucking good)
'The Loudest Become the Strong' by Rubytree7 (Closed SYOT but major hype because Ruby's rocking this story, definitely recommend)
That's all I got! Have a good day/night/afternoon. Also if you havn't checked out the blog *even tho I told you too* I'd recommend it, it'll make the chapter make a lot more sense.
Bye for now,
Marie
