CHAPTER XLIV. DAY X


"The future belongs to those who anticipate it."
-Baptiste Tricoire


PIPER SANDERSON (16) - DISTRICT 10 FEMALE


Even though she was alone, Piper could feel the tension in the arena growing as she realized that she was one of just five remaining tributes. As the hours passed, the District 10 girl sat under the tree counting the clouds, finding things to eat that wouldn't kill her and doing anything to pass the time as she thanked whoever it was that was controlling everything that was happening around her. She had had enough of it, especially the rough taste of pine leaves in her mouth even if the rough digestion process meant that she was alive. Piper didn't realize how utterly boring being alive could be even in a place where being alive was all there was to do.

The District 10 girl brushed the handles of the club she had recently fashioned, hoping it wouldn't have to use but at the same time hoping it would since she didn't want the effort she put into making it to go to waste. She longed for the earlier days in the arena, the magical pegasus ride, Saf, Saf. Piper missed the girl more than she wanted to admit, not realizing how starved she was of intimate connection until their paths intertwined. She missed the simplicity, the way the earlier days almost felt like she was back at home, back at home but better. The Hunger Games certainly weren't meant to bring about a sense of familiarity, something to miss nevertheless, but Piper couldn't help it.

She missed Shane, Elodie, her father, and even her mother. She missed the horses, the comfort they brought her every waking hour, the pegasus from earlier in the week a worthy substitute, hence why Piper was thrilled to see the very beast flying above her, slowly descending.

Piper was pleased to see something familiar in a place where unfamiliarity was the norm. She called at the pegasus, a click in her voice as it began to approach her. Once again, its colored hooves reminded her of her own horse. The District 10 girl wasn't afraid when she stepped towards the pegasus. She knew horses, she knew this horse.

And the horse, err pegasus, knew her too! It let out a neigh as Piper approached it, her arm raised as to give it a pat on the nose. As her hand neared the pegasus' mouth, it's map opened as to lick her, accepting that Piper's company was warranted. She rubbed the nose, happy to finally feel at home again. The District 10 girl wondered whether or not she would be blessed with the opportunity to ride the creature again, the only thing that could fully put her at ease.

She crouched over and snapped as to signal to the pegasus that she wanted to ride it, hoping that it would allow her to mount it. The beast hesitated, Piper confused and lucky that her club was within an arm's reach. As it layed down, the District 10 girl got on top of the animal, her club in tow, excited to see where her adventure would lead to.

This time though, the horses wings flapped aggressively, Piper unable to keep her balance as she held onto its back. They were 10 feet up in the sky before Piper realized what was happening to her.

Even though this looked like the same friendly creature that allowed Piper and Saf to visit paradise, it no longer had good intentions.

The beast flew in circles, Piper unable to hold on as she got an aerial view of the arena once more. She was getting dizzy, her head spinning a million miles an hour. Frantically, the District 10 girl spit on the pegasus, something she did when she needed to control the horses back at home, but it was no hope. This creature was reckless.

Piper looked at the club in her lap, upset about the action she would have to take if she wanted to ensure her safety.

I have to do this. I have to do this or else I'm going to die. I have to do this.

She grabbed onto the weapon and smashed it against the creature's head, grabbing onto the sides once more, bracing for impact as she came crashing down to the ground.

She heard a roar coming from the pegasus, as if it was in pain, and Piper was frightened by it. She didn't want to hurt a horse, she didn't want to hurt anybody or anything. All she wanted was to be at home in District 10 with her horses, the type that wanted to protect her, not hurt her.

When the horse finally collided with the ground, Piper felt a shock run through her spine. She looked down to see that there was blood coming out of its head and she couldn't help but be upset. The District 10 girl began to weep as the horse whimpered and closed its eyes.

She threw her club aside, not wanting to look at the blood of the type of animal she cared about more than anything in the world. Piper knew that she had to attack if she wanted to survive, but that didn't mean she wasn't upset. How she thought she could cause pain to people was a mystery, when she couldn't even kill something that was actively in the process of killing her.

In a fit of rage, she lifted the club once again, her body agitated as she went to take out her frustration. She needed to hit something that wasn't a horse, a tree or something like that. As much as she wanted to let her anger at herself be consuming, she needed to get rid of it.

She journeyed around the area she had landed in, not extremely similar to where the horse lifted her when she saw a girl with red hair. The girl looked feeble, an easy kill that would not only allow Piper to express her anger at everything, but allow her to get one step closer to going home. The girl was crouched over as though she was fidgeting with something.

Buzz. Buzz.

Piper needed to hit her though. She needed to for the boys, for Saf, for everybody. She needed to hit the girl so she couldn't say that the sole purpose of her club was to slaughter a horse. As she approached her, the District 10 girl's hands became sweaty, even though they were firmly wrapped around the club. She was one step away from ensuring her survival even longer when she felt a wicked pain in her ankles.

Piper looked down to see a spinning blade scraping off bits of her flesh. She turned her head to see her target with a blank expression as if she was scared of what was happening.

The District 10 girl had no choice but to run away, to run faster than she ever had needed to. She didn't have an ally, she didn't have anything. It was just her, fighting for herself, and she had to move quickly. As she ran past trees upon trees, she looked behind her to see the girl chasing towards her, that same blank expression on her face. Piper couldn't afford to look back any longer. She ran even faster until she felt herself hit the ground, looking at her toga to see a tear where her knee was.

Fucking hell.

She tried to get up but the girl was now even closer. She had the same spinning blade and a box in her hand. Piper stood up, spitting at the girl as water hit her face before she tried to run again.

As she ran, she once again thought about home. She didn't realize just how much she missed it. She didn't realize just how much it would hurt when the spinning blade hit her neck.


MARCEL HEMLOCK (16) - DISTRICT 7 FEMALE
This P.O.V features depiction of rape. Please proceed with caution.


Just when Marcel was finally over the loss of Teresa, everything seemed to take a turn for the worse. She thought she was fine, she wanted to be fine, yet the disgusting creature with the body of a horse and the face of her friend. She had to kill her friend, she had to kill something with the face of the person she had began to cherish more than anything. Marcel didn't want to feel anymore as she saw Teresa cry, the realism in her face disheartening to a fault.

That night as she slept, the District 7 girl saw monsters, the same ones she used to see every night, the start of the nightmares that she hadn't experienced since she left home. She saw the boys, Leroy, Marv… Tucker. They stared at her disheveled body crouched on the ground, as she screamed for help, she wanted help.

Nobody helped.

Marcel cried as the boys undressed her, scratching against her back, their nails somehow sharpened into claws. Why won't anybody help me? She didn't realize how much she didn't like being alone. She didn't realize how desperately she needed somebody until Tucker dropped his pants and shewed the other men away.

Marcel wanted to move but her body wouldn't let her. She wanted to wake up but her eyes refused to open. She knew that what she was seeing wasn't real yet she felt everything when he placed his hand on her stomach. She felt everything when he snarled, telling Marcel that she was a whore, a slut, a cunt. He told her that she was a disaster, worthless, as he scratched down her side and placed his lips on her neck. Tucker's lips made the District 7 girl scream even though nobody could hear her.

She couldn't control anything that was happening. She was paralyzed.

Marcel cried as Tucker positioned himself over her, not wanting to look at what he was packing. She didn't want to see anything yet even in her sleep she could see everything. Marcel saw all of Tucker and he saw all of her. As much as she hated seeing him, she didn't like him seeing her even more.

He lowered himself inside her, looking in her eyes as she told him to stop even though her words faded into oblivion. Tucker pinned her hands to the ground so she couldn't push him away from her. Tears streamed down her face yet Tucker didn't mind. While she felt everything she felt nothing at the same time.

That's when everything got better.

"Get your hands off her," A familiar voice called at Tucker, "She's my friend."

Marcel rolled her eyes to the back of her head to see Teresa, a golden cast illuminating her as though she was an angel from heaven, an ethereal being. She ran towards Tucker before clawing at the boy, his flesh tearing like it was paper. She pried him out of Marcel and wrapped her in her long jacket.

"You're going to be alright Marcy," Teresa smiled, "Don't worry about me, win for yourself."

Marcel snapped awake her hands running against her own chest with glee regarding the fact she was fully dressed, Tucker wasn't there, and she was alive. It had been too long since her last flashback, since the last time she saw Tucker in her sleep brutalize her just as he did that one day when she didn't want to go to work and he caught her behind her house.

Teresa saved her though, even in death an angel cast among the cosmos. Marcel wanted to thank the girl, even though she couldn't. She didn't fight for her when she needed to be fought for and she killed her mutated form. She didn't deserve anything.

Marcel deserved everything.

She needed to realize that she was here for a reason. She needed to realize that Teresa was watching her, that her parents were watching her. Marcel needed to realize that she had been through it all, that she had suffered long enough and hard enough, and it was time for her to do something for herself. She needed to win, to be free. To start over her life of hurt and be reborn into ecstasy. She needed to realize that she had come so far and hadn't backed down yet so it was foolish for her to quit.

Even though every part of her body hurt, even though her mind was still a warzone, Marcel finally realized.


LIANA TAYLOR (15) - DISTRICT 3 FEMALE


When Liana saw the girl from 10 –Piper's body on the ground after she hit her in the neck with her blade, she was embarrassingly unemotional about it. She wanted to feel something, anything about the fact that she had just taken another person's life, but when she blinked her eyes, no tears came out and when she rubbed her stomach, no guilt came sinking in. The District 3 girl stared, trying to examine what she should think of the fact she killed somebody in cold blood and the fact that she probably had a family at home who was crying because of it. Liana was aware of all of that yet she couldn't even feel slightly sad about it. To her, the girl she killed was an obstacle, a simple task she had to get past if she wanted to survive.

Does this make me a horrible person?

This wasn't the first time that Liana had killed somebody, but it was the first time she saw the aftermath of it. Piper's hands gracefully at her side, her ivory skin turning gray, her hair behind her back and her blue eyes shut. It would have been a beautiful site had Liana not cut her neck to deliver the fatal wound, yet the bleeding made the District 10 girl's body all the more real. Was it screwed up that Liana was almost enchanted by the view of somebody she had just killed? Perhaps, but the girl compartmentalized the crime out of her brain and focused on the work of art that was laying in front of her.

She glanced over at her box, once only carrying her dissection equipment now full of knick knacks she had been tinkering with ever since she took the parts out of that mutt. Liana dug around until she found the scalpel that she was looking for. This could be the District 3 girl's last chance to figure out the inner workings of a person who had died of violence, and she wasn't about to let it go to waste. She found a sponge and dabbed the blood from the wound away until it was finished clotting. While stains were still present, she didn't have any water on her that she could use to wash it away so she would just have to make due.

Holding onto the body with her left hand, Liana carefully used the scalpel to cut down from the place where she had delivered the injury until she reached just below the shoulders. She peeled back the layers of flesh, her fingers beginning to stick together from the fluid as she grabbed a pair of scissors and cut the tendons that prevented her from completely ridding the body of skin. The District 3 girl used two pins from the kit to secure the flaps away from the neck before using a pinching tool to examine the vessels that were now present.

While the average person would be squeamish at the sight of the aftermath of a homicide, Liana was the exception. As she examined each and every artery, she all but screamed with excitement. The District 3 girl was able to deduce that Piper was killed when the blade collided with the left external jugular vein which as a result affected the functioning of the left common carotid artery, immediately cutting off the girl's breath and causing her to collapse on the ground.

Interesting,

Liana was somewhat perplexed with the fact that no effort had been made to pick up the body and she was unsure whether or not the Gamemakers were horrified by her actions or disgusted. Either way it was clear that they had absolutely no clue what to do with Piper's body now that Liana had done her examinations on it. She was done though, satisfied with the knowledge she gained regarding what exactly killed her, so she wiped her hands against a tree before packing up her supplies and patiently waiting for the body to be lifted out of the arena.

A few minutes later a helicopter descended into the arena and lifted Piper's body. Liana stared at the ascension, curious what both her and the District 10 girl's parents were thinking as she performed her exploratory discretion.

She didn't have to think hard to imagine what her father's reaction was, picturing him clapping at the screen chanting "That's my girl!"

Liana figured her mother covered both Cece and Si's eyes saying it was "too scary" for them to look at despite the fact Liana was sure that many aspects of the Games were worse so maybe the twins weren't watching at all.

Abby probably produced some sort of nervous scream before excusing herself to the bathroom to throw up. Her father would say something along the lines of "Aren't you proud of your baby sister?" and Abby would lie and say that she wasn't at all disgusted, the puking a result of morning sickness. Hopefully her father would be able to realize the truth.

Then Liana thought of Piper's parents and family if they existed, probably screaming that the District 3 girl was a monster and crying in a circle as a result. They probably turned off the television they were watching the Games on and yelled profanities regarding Liana's actions. She was sure that whatever it was they were saying was explicit and unfair. Despite the fact she had done an extremely horrible thing, Liana didn't feel like she was a cruel person at all. She saw the District 10 girl in her direction, noticed that she had a weapon, so she eliminated a threat and rellived the momentary stress she was under by pleasuring herself with scientific exploration.

She knew she didn't have time to worry about the reactions people had to her actions, since all that mattered was the fact that she did something she was proud of. Liana had more important ambitions to attend to though. If she did the math correctly, she was one of only four people left in the Games, and that meant that the end was quickly approaching. She'd been keeping track of who was dead and who wasn't in her head and she was nearly certain that the only major threat remaining was Eros from District 1. While Liana didn't want to explicitly plot a murder, if she did it would be his.

With all the hustle of Piper's body though, Liana had nearly forgotten her plan with the volcano. She had forgotten that she needed to find a way to pressurize the magma to the extent that rocks would form and the volcano would erupt. She had forgotten that she realized it would be way easier for her to just create some sort of a bomb that would be denoted when thrown into the volcano, allowing Liana ample time to run away while destroying those in the direct proximity of it.

The District 3 girl waved to the sky, saying farewell to Piper's body before she packed up her box again and started walking to the place where she would execute her next big plan.


SPERRY HOLSTER (16) - DISTRICT 6 FEMALE


Sperry could tell the end was near. As she looked up at the sky she noticed the face of the girl from 10, a signal that only three tributes besides her remained. It wouldn't be long now. It wouldn't be long before she was finally able to return to District 6 and start a new life for herself, a better life for herself. It wouldn't be long before she could tell somebody about what had happened to her and rid all the other girls of the devastation that was life in the bunker.

Sperry previously wasn't brave enough to do that. She previously thought that if she told anybody about what happened to her, The Boss would find her. The Boss would find her and The Boss would kill her. He wouldn't hesitate. Why would he? Sperry didn't mean anything to him. She was just another girl, another cog in the devastation that was his wicked machine.

Sperry didn't mean anything to anybody. That was the hard truth, that the two lives that the District 6 girl at all positively affected were dead now. They were dead and she was just the aftermath of a life of starvation and ruin.

Sperry had to win.

She had to win if she at all wanted to mean anything in her sixteen years of living. She had to win for the other girls in the bunker despite the fact she could barely remember their names. Sperry was worried. She had literally nothing to lose but that didn't mean that she wasn't going to try her hardest.

She had already killed the manifestation of The Boss, the small robot that her withdrawal concocted into something bigger and more powerful that it already was. So many things could be next, so many battles that Sperry could fight and was motivated to win.

She just needed to figure out the next steps.

As she sat in the forest, the same place she had spent most of her time, the District 6 girl realized that the lack of people around her meant that she had a better chance at survival. She hadn't seen anybody in days yet that didn't mean that people weren't around.

She could stay put, allow the remaining Tributes to find and kill each other as she hid, but she had no idea how long that would take and she didn't have a clue as to how she would survive any more time in the arena.

It wasn't that she was ridiculously bored, but she could feel the days growing longer and as one of what she assumed was the few people with a weapon, she felt a twinge of guilt for not helping out. She knew that the concept of finding allies was stupid, she had been there and done that, but Sperry was sure that there were some easy targets remaining. She was sure that of the two people that weren't her or the Career boy, any of them could go down easy.

One of the remaining Tributes was the ally of the girl she easily killed. While the District Six girl had no trouble imagining the fact that that girl probably hated her with a burning passion, Sperry was certain that passion could easily be turned into rage, and said rage could be used to allow her to win in a fight. She just had to remain calm.

The other girl who was left was on the shorter side, and Sperry was curious as to how she had survived so long since she just seemed so easily killable. She would be surprised if she wasn't taken out by the Career boy, but in a pinch, she could easily get her.

The boy was the only person left to worry about and the only one Sperry felt worthy of worrying about. He was a trained killer and Sperry was the opposite of that. She knew he was ruthless, that he could easily kill her, and for that reason, Sperry knew she would have to play smart. She knew she would have to camouflage herself in anything she could find if she wanted to get past him. She knew that the dagger would barely do anything to stop him, yet she knew she had to try.

Sperry was worried, fearing and knowing that the end was near. Knowing that she was capable of winning, more than capable for that matter. It was just a matter of finding the others and getting rid of them on her own terms.

District 6 was about to have its first Victor.


Well well well everybody! We are one chapter away from the grand finale of this stunning tale. I honestly cannot believe it either and I'm so excited to share it with you. Until then, I'd love to hear the predictions that you have for the conclusion of the Games!
Best,
Lindsay


Piper Sanderson, District 10 Female - 5th Place (Killed by Liana Taylor)
Piper has been one of my favorites from the moment I received her form. I have a soft spot for tomboy Tributes, and she is just that. She was just such a kind person, helping those kids even when she regretted it, and loving Saf until the bitter end. Watching the juxtaposition between those two alliances was a treat, and I'm glad I got to help Piper grow. I'm already worried for the horses, even though I'm the reason they don't have Piper. I'll always remember the swan story, as it really stuck out when I first read her form, and I'm glad I got to share it during her interview. I loved writing Piper so much, and killing her really hurt. I hope that wherever she is now, it's a better place and it has tons of horses. Thank you to Annabeth-TheTributeWhoLived for submitting her.


THE LEADERBOARD

Arena: III
Liana Taylor: II
Eros Fortuna: I
Sperry Holster: I
Lana Lotus (DECEASED): V
Moira Mikkel (DECEASED): III
Fila Ollaris (DECEASED): I
Bell Christos (DECEASED): I
Kingston Havlock (DECEASED): I
Ares Krishnan (DECEASED): I
Alabastor Contreras (DECEASED): I