Kinnik Verdugo, Day 1:

Time- 7:13 PM (19:13)

Allegro chuckles a bit as he turns and hands me two of the stirps of jerky. "There you-u go." He says, sniffing a bit from the cold.

"Thanks." I mumble, slowly taking a bite of the tough, dried meat.

He takes a piece himself before closing up the pouch and shoving it into one of the backpacks we snatched after the bloodbath. The careers had been stupid enough to leave all their stuff unguarded. But I guess it worked well in our favor.

"Is that enough?" I ask, noticing he only took one piece for himself.

"Yeah, plenty-y." He says popping the jerky into his mouth.

"I can't believe we managed to score these." I whisper, motioning towards the two backpacks laid on the ground beside us.

"Me neither." He says, a small smile flickering onto his features, "good thing the careers left."

"Truth." I reply, taking another small bite of the jerky and chewing slowly and thoughtfully. My mere efforts to not think about the girl failing miserably. How purple her neck turned, the way her eyes rolled back in her head, her last gasp. All of it.

I instantly look down at my hands, the same ones that wrapped around her neck. It's scary how easy she had been so easy to kill. It's scary how I just did that, that I'm the reason she can't return home alive.

"I'm sorry-y about her." Allegro whispers as if reading my mind. He extends his arm to put it around my shoulders. I shudder at his touch and he pulls his hand before biting his lip. Allegro gently gets to his feet, a soft, almost comforting expression labeling his features. "Look, you did-d what you had to do."

He offers me his hand and I take it. The boy pulls me up to my feet, even though I stumble a bit. "Kinnik, we're in the hunger games-s death is in the air." He sighs, his dark eyes shining from the bright lights beaming down on us.

"I know but she just-" I start, the image of her limp body taking over my mind.

"Kinnik." He says, bringing me back to the arena.

"What?" I mumble.

"Don't feel guilty-y, you had to." He comforts, holding my hand in his own.

"But I'm the reason she's gone, I killed her."

"Yes." Allegro nods, not exactly sure what to say, "but, Kinnik, look at me." He says and I take my gaze off the wall to the right of me and place it on his dark eyes.

"I killed her."

"You had to, otherwise you would've died." He says, giving my hand a gentle squeeze.

"But I killed her. She's dead because of me." I mumble.

"You can't think about that now, you did what you had to do." Allegro whispers.

` "I don't think you get it." I say, shaking off his grip on my hand.

"Kinnik…"

"No, I know you don't get it. You're telling me to not think about her, when that's all I can think about. She's dead because of me."

"Kinnik-" he starts but I cut him off.

"She's dead because of me."

"You did what you had to do. It's the hunger games." He reasons. "Stop doing this to yourself."

I ball my hands into fists, nails piercing through the soft flesh of my palm. The pain stopped any tears from falling, emotion from spewing all over. I turn my body away from Allegro in case any tears do fall. Allegro sighs, grabbing my wrist and pulling on my arm to make me turn around. He takes my fist in his hand but I pull away from his touch yet again.

Without saying a word, he grabs my fist again. Allegro slowly, finger by finger, unclenches my right hand and brushes away the blood that drips from the nail marks. I try to pull my hand away but he holds tight. "Allegro." I croak.

"No, we're not doing this." He says softly, letting go of my one hand and picking up the other. He repeats the same process with my left hand before letting it fall down to my side.

"She's dead." I reply, taking a step back from the boy.

"I'm sorry-y." Allegro says but Liz's screams drown out his voice.

Lin.

Lin, no.

You can't be dead. No.

"Don't do this to yourself, please." He replies, his eyes shining as the stage lights reflect off them.

"It's because of me. I killed her." I say.

"Kinnik, no, we're in the games."

"It's not your fault she was reaped."

"Didn't she volunteer?"

"Yeah, but same difference." He says.

"Whatever." I sigh.

"Killing's inevitable. It just stings." He comforts, or at least Allegro's form of comforting.

"I guess." I sigh.

"See, that's a better mindset."

"Whatever." I sigh.

Abram Butcher, Day 1:

Time: 10:59 PM (22:59)

"I can't believe there's snow inside the walls." Lily says, taking a small sip of the water from our small flask before passing it to me.

"Me neither, that was so cool." I reply, taking the flask gratefully.

"Truth." Lily smiles as I lift the small metal flask to my mouth and let the cool liquid coat my lips. I only let a small sum of the water fall onto my tongue before I bring the flask away from my mouth. I hand the water back to her, attempting to be sparing with the water. I have no clue how long it will be until we get more.

Suddenly there's a crackling sound before the blindingly bright stage lights disappear. As if turned off by a lightswitch. With no light shining down upon us, I notice torches that line the walls of the ice maze.

They have a long wooden handle, tied to the ice wall by a metal bracket. The small flame that rides on top of the torch burns straight up, illuminating the space Lily and I had stopped to rest for the night.

"What in the name of what?" I ask.

"I'm guessing it's night time, I couldn't have slept with the light on anyway." Lily sighs.

"That's very true," I nod.

"They'll turn back on in the morning, right?" Lily asks.

"They've got to, they can't make us fight in the dark. At least I don't think so-" I start to say only to be interrupted by the blaring of the Capital's anthem. I look at Lily who stares straight at the sky, the seal reflecting off her pale face.

The first face in the sky is the small girl from Five, Sasha, her dark hair plaited in two braids that fell down the length of her back. A strong smile shadowing her dark and deep eyes. Eyes that pleaded for forgiveness, pleaded for freedom. She holds her hands down at her side, as if not sure what to do with them.

Her image is quickly replaced by the girl from Six's face. Vienna's small and almost petite features hold a small smile on her dark lips. Her tan face framed by dark long hair that fell over her shoulders in waves. Soon her image starts to fade and is replaced by another girl.

The next face in the sky is the girl from Three, Jocylin. I don't remember seeing her during the bloodbath, who killed her? Her features somewhat resemble the two girls before her- the same dark hair. Yet the girl stood out, her eyes a light shade of chestnut brown with a small sense of sweet surrounding them. The girl bares a big grin with her arms crossed over her chest.

As quickly as she had appeared, the girl vanishes and in her place the blonde boy from Nine. Sydney's electric blue eyes shone full of young innocence that comes with youth. He was way too young to die, too young to suffer such a terrible fate. His smile as pure as snow is white. Sydney's hands resting on the collar of his shirt with his head tilted slightly to the left.

The boy's face quickly disappears and is replaced by a new one, this time Gage's. The shy boy's sharp blue eyes framed by a set of bulkley black glasses. Freckles lightly dot his nose and a small smile takes his lips. His curly blonde hair matches Sydney's, a light honey color.

Quickly Gage's picture fades out into the sky and James's face takes it's place. His dark eyes raging with pure angry fire. He held his hands on his hips and wore his annoyingly sarcastic smile on his lips. Lily lets out a deep breath beside me and I look over at her. She has her light blonde hair tied in in a high ponytail and her blue eyes shone with the light James's face reflected.

I cast my gaze back to the sky and watch as James's face fades into the boy from Five's. Keir's soft features shine bright as he smiles at the camera. His dark curly hair falling unevenly along his forehead. Keir's light ocean-blue eyes stare back at me, looking, almost searching, for something. His face slowly starts to disappear and another boy's face starts to take his place.

Tyree's hair matches Keir's- both a dark curly mop on top of their heads. Tyree bore a smile on his lips that is the absolute sweetest one I've ever seen. His dark eyes shone bright with a happy little light, the same one Sydney's eyes had. Both were too young to die. How did he die anyway?

Soon his face fades and the sky turns to pitch black. The starless sky stared down at us as I look over towards Lily. Even though neither of us were very close to the fallen tributes, their faces struck a nerve in Lily's heart. A small tear slides down her face and onto the soft ashes.

"Hey, they're in a better place now." I comfort.

"I know." She snuffles, laying on her back to face the open sky.

I don't say anything, just lay down beside her. She shivers a bit, her small frame obviously cold.

"You want me to set up like a trap or something to block the wind?" I suggest.

"No, I'm fine." Lily sighs, obviously not very fine.

"Whatever." I laugh. "You wanna talk, or you want space?"

"Meh, I don't really wanna talk." She sighs, looking straight up at the clear black sky.

"Alright then." I say, casting my glance out into the darkness of the night.

Sunna Saccharin, Day 1:

Time- 11:51 PM (23:51)

I look over at Anne, both us having volunteered for the first watch. She sighs looking out into the darkness surrounding our small camp like a giant blanket. Her short curly hair flowing softly in the extremely bitter breeze.

"I'm sorry about Felix earlier." I whisper.

She stays facing away from me and our camp for a minute before replying, "it's fine."

"I don't think it's fine, but if you don't wanna talk it's alright." I whisper.

She slowly turns her body back towards me and shoots me a small wispy smile, "thanks." Anne's eyes land on mine for a few seconds before she looks away sheepishly. "What was life like in Nine?" she whispers.

"Watching my siblings mostly, my parents weren't ever home." I sigh.

"I'm sorry." Anne mumbles.

"No, it's fine, I love my little siblings so much." I say, smiling at the idea of seeing their little faces again. I will make it back to them, I promised Lav I would.

"I feel you," Anne sighs, "my little brother was my world."

"Felix, right?"

"Yeah, that little bugger."

"What's he like?"

"The smartest little kid you've ever seen." Anne says, shaking her head as a small tear rides the corner of her right eye. She turns and blinks it away, her face duly and dauntly illuminated but the shadows of the touch lights.

"He'd have to meet Lilac then, those two would get along."

"Oh yeah?" she asks, turning back towards me with a small smile planted on her freckled face.

"Of course."

"How many siblings do you have?"

"Three, what about you?"

"Two." Anne whispers.

"Felix and?"

"Butch."

"What's he like?" I ask.

"Smart I guess… we're not very close." Anne says. "What about you?"

"Besides Lilac? Lav and Miller." I reply, tucking a loose strand of my blonde hair behind my ear.

"All younger?"

"Yeah, I'm the oldest."

"That's cool. I'm in the middle." She chuckles quietly to herself.

"I've always wanted an older brother or sister." I sigh.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah," I nod, "really, I just wanted someone that I can talk to."

"Aw why are you so wholesome Sunna?" Anne jokes, punching me lightly in the arm.

"Why are you so wholesome?" I say joining in her whispered laughter.

"I'm not that wholesome idiot. I used to street wrestle back in Ten." She whispers.

"Oh? Tell me more."

"Well," She laughs, "it's hard to explain"

"Not like we got anything better to do." I say motioning towards the dark emptiness that surrounds us. Ciara and Zach's sleeping bodies resting besides our small pile of backpacks.

"Nah." She laughs, "I don't know if I can."

"That's alright."

"Thank you." Anne smiles,

"That's why you got voted in, isn't it?" I ask.

"Yeah." Anne nods, her face turning a light shade of red underneath the touch light.

"I'm sorry." I whisper. Anne smiles a sad little smile at me, pain writes itself so blatantly across her features, that somehow stick out even more in the ghostly torch light.

"Don't be, I wouldn't have made these friends." Anne giggles.

"I guess so." I sigh.

"Do you know why you were voted in?"

"Nope. I guess I'm kinda smart, but I've never really paid any attention in school. I don't know why they thought I'd be a good fit."

"That sounds really sucky, I'm sorry." She says.

"Meh, what's done is done." I sigh.

"I guess so." She says.

"Well, during the night we can't see the walls, but if we could, who'd be shone for you?"

"Probably my little sister Lav." I say, "wait let me show you something."

"Huh?" Anne asks as I dig into my pants pocket. A small smile escapes my lips as I pull out my token, a small seed pack of Lilacs.

"What? Is that a seed packet?" Anne asks.

"Yep. It's my token."

"That's so cool wow. They let you bring seeds into the arena?"

"Yeah, I was skeptical at first, but I think they let me cause there's no way to plant them into ashes."

Anne giggles, "I guess so."

"What's your token?" I ask, placing the seeds gently back into my pocket.

"This." She says, rolling up her right hoodie sleeve to reveal a small silver chain on her wrist.

"Oh pretty."

"It was from my, um, boyfriend."

"That's sweet." I say, but I can tell there's something else Anne wants to say but she stays silent.

"Yeah." She nods.

Sage Greenberg, Day 2:

Time- 5:58 AM (5:58)

"What's that beeping?" I ask quietly, as to not wake up either of the girls. It's my watch, I want to let them sleep. Elizabeth stayed up though the night and had finally given up and shook me awake.

"What in the name of what?" Cel asks, springing up from underneath the tiny blanket. I suppose I wasn't quiet enough oops.

"Beeping?" Elizabeth sturs, opening one of her eyes as well.

"There's a beeping, but I'm not sure where it's from."

"Sounds like it's above us." Elizabeth sighs, obviously not too happy because she had just been able to finally close her eyes.

"No way." I say, my mouth open wide as a small parachute floats down toward us.

"What is that?" Cel asks.

"A sponsor gift." I answer.

"A gift? For us?"

"One of us." I sigh, "one of our mentor's pulled through and managed to give us something. I don't know what we need so early in the games but whatever it is it's important."

Cel gets to her feet and reaches toward the small metal box. It drifts smoothly into her open hands and a small smile briefly passes over her pale face. "How do we even get it open?"

"I have no clue." Elizabeth sighs, "can I see it?"

"Sure." Cel says, handing the metal box laced with light grey depictions of flames over to Elizabeth.

"You just twist," Elizabeth chuckles, taking the small box in both of her hands and turning it sideways. She twists the two halves and they break apart, revealing a small set of knives and a note which both fall to the ground.

"Knives?" I ask.

"Daggers." Elizabeth nods, picking up the set that is so neatly tied together with a red ribbon. Cel grabs up the pure white slip of paper and holds it up to her face. In the torch light she reads the faint writing. "It's Elizabeth's." Cel says, still studying the piece of paper.

"Me?" Elizabeth asks, "are you sure?"

"Elizabeth, beheld, the greatest weapons of all time. Have fun, Jeremiah. That's all it says." Cel reads.

"What now?"

"I don't think daggers are the greatest weapons but I'll take all I can get. Of course, they're not just for me, there's six here. Two for each of us." Elizabeth says.

"Oh wow, thanks Elizabeth." I say as she unties the bright ribbon keeping the daggers together. Her fingers dance over the blades before taking two in each hand and holding out to Cel and I.

"These are so cool." Cel says, slipping her knives into her belt.

"Wait I got an idea." Elizabeth chuckles. "No one will think to check." She picks up her two knives and slips them into the padding of her sports bra. "Disguisable. Shaboom." She smiles.

"No one will know." Cel chuckles.

"Exactly, with how baggy the tribute hoodies are, perfect hiding spot."

"They're my bra knives. I love them."

"Amazing." Cel chuckles as I slip my own two knives into my right pant pocket.

Suddenly the bright stage lights from yesterday flicker back on. Creating blindingly lustrous pinpricks of light.

"Oh boo." Elizabeth sighs, having stayed up all night last night.

"I'm sorry, I'll take tomorrow's watch."

"No it's fine," Elizabeth sighs, rubbing the last remnants of sleep from her bright eyes.

"Ready to put our plan into action?" Cel asks, still holding the small sponsor box.

"Slow down turbo." Elizabeth chuckles.

"We might wanna eat a bit of breakfast first, then we gotta set up." I reply.

"Whatever." Celosia sighs.

I get to my feet and make my way over to the two backpacks we had managed to grab from the bloodbath. "Let's see, last night we shared a quarter of the dried fruit. Y'all want half of the crackers or some more fruit?"

"Crackers sound good to me." Cel says and Elizabeth nods.

I dig through the smaller of the bags and close my hands around a small pouch of crackers. They're all broken but broken is way better than nothing. I open the pack and dumb out half the crackers out onto my hand. Out of that pile I dump a third into Cel's open palm and do the same to Elizabeth's.

Both Cel and Elizabeth scarf down their crackers. They turn to each other and giggle at how fast they had managed to eat their breakfast. I take one of my crackers and pop it into my mouth, chewing thoughtfully.

Our plan was going to work, right? It had too, it was the best idea we had. Even without Syd, it'd have to work. We can't take out big threats on our own, this was our only shot at victory. Our.

There could be only one victor though. Only one. If I win, I'd have to say goodbye to both of these girls. Can I do that? Probably not, but I'll see what happens when the time comes. I'm not ready to lose either of them.

I sit beside Cel and merely push the idea of watching my allies die from my brain. I turn back to where they are still laughing and meekly join in.

Kai Morgan, Day 2:

Time- 6:47 AM (6:47)

"Come on, can't we go out for just a second?" I ask.

"I don't know…"

"Misty and Onyx will be gone for a while, it'll be fine."

"Yes, and we're supposed to be watching the cornucopia." Angel reasons.

"Just for a second, please. I hate missing the action."

"Then you should've gone with Misty and left me and Onyx here. Onyx didn't wanna go."

"But Misty…" I start but quickly stop, I don't wanna talk about Misty badly with Angel. She could tell Misty and I'd lose my relationship with both of them.

"Misty what?" Angel asks.

"Nevermind."

"Whatever." Angel sighs, turning away from me to look towards the third quadrant.

"Please, we won't be out long."

"What if we get lost and Misty and Onyx come back?" she asks.

"But we won't get lost." I reply.

"It's a maze, you don't know that."

"Fine, I'll go then." I say, getting to my feet. She rolls her eyes at me and lets out a small sigh.

"Go ahead, but don't go the way Misty and Onyx went."

"I won't." I nod, picking my spear off the ash covered ground. I lightly slide the spear into the sheath in my belt, the belt that came with the tribute uniform. She looks at me and picks up her sword.

"Go but don't be gone long." She says, "I swear if I get attached 'cause you're gone I will tell Misty."

"Alrighty." I smile, taking off into the fourth quadrant. I rush into the maze, holding my breath as I turn the first corner. Adrenaline pumps though my veins but I slow my pace down. My footsteps falling into a steady heartbeat.

I take a sharp right and then a quick left. There are no footprints in the ashes, so tracking is extremely difficult. I just have to keep my eyes for signs, I guess. Right? I've never tracked much in my life, I'm probably doing this wrong. But do I care? No.

After walking for a bit come to a fork and take a left turn. Each of the different sets of walls look the exact same, so I gotta remember this list in my head- left, then a sharp right, left twice, right and then left again-

Suddenly I hear a small shuffling noise and I quickly whip around. Is this another sound thing? Probably the same type of thing as yesterday. I shake my head as the sound comes again, this time closer.

I can't help but sigh as I turn back towards the sound. I follow it for a bit before I find myself out in an open clearing between two walls. The clearing ended in a dead end, how stupid am I? I feel for the same trick twice. Fuck.

"Kai!" someone shouts, the voice relatively feminune but from farther away. I recognize the voice, it's Angel's. "Kai!" she yells again, the panic in her voice sends a shiver through my body.

"Angel!" I scream, whipping around towards the scream. I take off, back the way I came. Angel. I had to help her, she needed help.

"Kai!" I hear her scream again, this time louder and laced with more panic.

I pick up my pace to a sprint, turning this way and that. I travel through the maze until I reach it's mouth. I can see the giant bonfire, raging up to the sky. There next to it, stood Angel battling the boy from eight and the girl from ten, Zach and Anne, as two other girls collected supplies.

"Angel!" I scream and the boy stops to look at me. Panic sets in his eyes and he whispers something to the girl next to him.

She nods, but the two keep fighting with Angel as I approach. "Ciara, Sunna. Kai's here!" Anne shouts out to the other girls.

I sprint forward and before anyone can move, I grab the girl from nine by the shoulders. With a small grunt I throw her small frame to the ground. She lands on her back with a loud crash. I unsheath my spear and hold it out to Ciara's neck, keeping an eye on Sunna as she gets back up onto her feet.

"Kai? Angel?" screams a softer voice, Onyx's voice.

"Shit the rest of the careers are here." Zach curses, turning to Anne. "Come on we gotta go."

"Yeah." She nods.

"Sunna, Ciara, we gotta go." He shouts.

"Fuck, Misty's right here." Ciara says, startled at the appearance of the rest of our alliance.

"You bitch." I sigh as Ciara jumps away from my spear point. Sunna grabs my ankle, which sends my falling into the soft ground. The girl from Eight's eyes go wide as the rest of her alliance starts to head through the ashes and to the mouth of the ice maze. Ciara and Sunna sprint towards the others, Ciara carrying a long machete in her hands.

"Did they attack you two?" Onyx asks, as they and Misty round the bonfire and out to where Angel and I were standing.

Angel casts an angry look at me but just sighs, "yeah."

"Oh wow, did they get anything?"

"A machete and whatever the girl from night managed to grab."

"I don't think much."

"That's good."

"Why did they attack you guys in the first place?" Misty asks.

"I don't know." I repy, hoping Angel wouldn't take this time to expose that I went out. That's why they attached, there were four of them versus one career. Seems easy, if I hadn't come they probably would've succeeded.

"Whatever." Angel sighs.


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

Mentor issues: Kinnik and Elizabeth

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 yet another arena chapter! Shaboom! No deaths this chapter but we're getting there. Plans are forming, attacks are happening ahhhh this is great. I love being in the arena, I have so many plans. WE ALSO GOT OUR FIRST SPONSOR GIFT TODAY! AND A FEW HAVE BEEN ORDERED AHHHH. I love this.

Also warning, I typically update the blog the day after I post with deaths/really any info, so don't go there if you don't wanna get spoiled. :)) RIP the tributes who've already died. I really miss them ngl. Butttttt so when I was writing the reapings I had one victor picked out then I switched to another. Recently I've debated this one or another tribute and thanks to the amazing contemporarydancer2, I finally figured it out. I'm so ready for the finale, it's gonna be epic.

Sooooo we've come so far with this and I'm really curious which of my submitters are reading. Check-in time :)). Just PM/DM me your um favorite color yeah. Or anything ashes related, really anything to let me know you're reading.

Bye for now,

Marie