Sienna Asher, District 12, 14

"Hey," someone said. "Hey!"

I opened my eyes, still breathing heavily from the terror of my dreams. I froze as I recognized the face looming above mine- the same one from my nightmares.

"You were having a nightmare," Caligula said. He noticed the look on my face and backed away, giving me some space.

I let out a breath of relief. I'd almost forgotten everything that had gone down yesterday. Still, it was strange to see the District Two boy sitting opposite me on the forest floor and not attacking me. That was where my dream had left off, anyway.

I pushed myself up into a sitting position. "What time is it?" I asked.

Caligula shrugged. "No idea," he said. "Morning."

"Oh, okay," I said. Now that Jess wasn't around to read the time from the sun, I guess I'd have to make do with estimating. My heart panged at the memory of her face in the sky.

I drew my knees close to my chest, hugging them. It had cooled off a lot overnight, and when I looked up, the sky was filled with clouds instead of the sunshine I'd come to associate with the arena. I didn't really mind, though. It kind of reminded me of home.

"You sleep okay?" Caligula asked.

I shrugged. "Um… yeah. I guess."

Caligula raised an eyebrow, clearly not believing me, but he didn't say anything. I was grateful for that. Even if he hadn't killed Salome, we'd only met yesterday. I wasn't really in the mood to be spilling my entire life story.

Caligula twisted around, pulling his backpack out in front of him. He began pulling stuff out of it, looking for something. Watching him, it occurred to me that while I hadn't told him much about myself, he hadn't shared much either. While the old Sienna- the pre-Games Sienna- would have immediately trusted him with my life, recent experiences had made me a little more hesitant. I needed to know more.

Interrogation time.

"What's your last name?" I asked.

He looked up. "What?"

"What's your last name," I repeated. "I don't know it."

He hesitated. "Van Zandt," he said. "Why?"

"Because I don't know you, and therefore don't know if I can trust you," I said. "So I need to know more about you first."

"I thought we already agreed to be allies," he said.

"We did," I said. "But you don't get my trust that easily."

"That's fair," he replied. "I deserve that. What else do you want to know?"

I thought for a second. "Everything," I said.

"Everything?" he asked, incredulous.

"That's what I said," I told him.

"Uh, well, I'm from District Two. I'm eighteen. I have two parents and a younger sister. Now I'm here," he said.

"That's it?" I asked.

"Well, what else is there?" he asked.

"Well, first of all, why aren't you with the other Careers? And why did you threaten to kill them yesterday?" I asked. I had a decent gut feeling already, but I wanted to hear it from him.

His expression darkened. "I left them."

"Why?"

"We had a disagreement," he said. "After the Bloodbath, I started to see things more clearly. I just couldn't do it anymore."

"Do what?"

He looked me in the eye, his face solemn. "Kill."

I stared right back at him, waiting for him to continue.

"After what I did to Salome, I realized what an idiot I was," he said. "She talked to me when she was dying. Her words still haunt me. I dream about her dying every night. You're in my dreams sometimes, too."

"I am?" I asked.

"Yeah. I only knew her name because you screamed it," he said. "Your ally was pulling you away, and you said her name. I keep seeing that moment."

We stopped talking for a minute or two, Caligula waiting while I turned all of this over in my head. It was a lot to think about. After a long silence, I said, "I just don't get it. You trained for this, right? So why would you turn your back on that now?"

"Training for it and actually doing it aren't the same," he replied. "But it took actually doing it for me to see the truth."

"And no one else agreed with you?" I asked. "Not even your district partner?"

"Especially not my district partner," he said darkly. "I tried to help her see the truth, but Sadie's stubborn. She's gone through some shit with her parents, and she's not too forgiving when it comes to this kind of stuff."

I thought back, trying to remember which one she was. "The girl with the red hair?"

"That's her," he confirmed. "God help me if I ever see her again."

"You really think she'd attack you? Even though you're from home?" I asked.

"She's saving me for last. She told me herself," he said.

"She sounds intense," I said.

For the first time since meeting him, Caligula smiled. "An understatement, but yes. She is."

I couldn't help but smile back. From what I could tell, Caligula was genuine. Even with everything I'd been through, and even though I knew better, I wanted to trust him. I wanted so desperately to believe that he would help me through this. I wanted to have hope again.

I just needed to let myself.

Levi Viscose, District 8, 18

"Hello? Levi?" Ianto asked. He poked me in the shoulder.

"Hmm?" I asked, blinking back into reality.

"I said, did you feel that?" he repeated.

"Feel what?"

"I think it's raining," said Ianto. He held his palm out in the air, and sure enough, water droplets appeared in his hands after a few seconds. I think he said something else, but I didn't hear him. He wiped them on his pants and pulled his hood over his head, looking at me expectantly.

"Levi?" he asked.

"What?" I asked.

"I said, are you going to put your hood up?"

"I… I don't know," I said.

He sighed. "Here."

Ianto stood, brushing the dirt off of his shorts, and came over to where I was sitting, pulling my jacket hood over my head for me.

"Thanks," I said.

He gave me a strange look. "Are you okay?"

"I… I'm fine," I said, waving him off. "I just get like this sometimes."

"Get like what?" he asked.

"I don't know," I said. "Overwhelmed, I guess?"

"Overwhelmed how?"

"Like… like everything… is crashing down all at once," I said vaguely.

"Does that happen a lot?" Ianto asked, sitting down next to me.

"Sometimes," I said. I leaned my head back to rest against the tree, letting the gentle raindrops hit my legs. They were nice and cool and numbing.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Ianto pressed, trying to catch my gaze.

"I just need a second to process," I said, rubbing my forehead with my hand.

"Maybe you need to eat," Ianto suggested. "We've still got some stuff in the bags. It should last us a few days at least, especially since it's just the two of us." He began to dig around in his bag for some of the dried fruit.

I sighed. I needed to snap out of it, and I knew it. Yesterday had been a mental breaking point for me. I'd been trying to keep everything light and positive, but I was burnt out. Everything was coming at me at once but I was so, so tired and all I wanted to do was give up and go to sleep. Curse my stupid insomnia. Plus, now was a terrible time for one of my depressive episodes, especially because they reminded me of my mom, because she had depressive episodes too, and my mom was in the Games, and she was scared I'd be in the Games, and now she's dead and I miss her and…

Focus, Levi, I told myself. I needed to fight. Maybe if I kept talking, it would help my head clear for a little while.

"Just two of us," I echoed. I frowned. "Do you think Sienna's okay?"

He looked back up at me. "I'm sure he's fine," he said, thoroughly unconvincing.

"I heard a cannon late last night. What if it was hers?"

"We'll find out tonight," said Ianto.

"Well, I hope she's okay," I said. "I hope we see her again."

"That would be nice," said Ianto. "For now, though, let's just focus on taking care of ourselves, right? It'll take both of us to figure this whole survival thing out."

"Right," I answered. "We can eat the plants."

"We can eat the plants," Ianto agreed. "We just need to figure out which ones."

"I don't know if I can remember," I said, shutting my eyes for a second.

"You can," said Ianto, his voice a little more urgent now. "You have to."

Alula Callahan, District 11, 15

I woke up to raindrops hitting my face. I groaned, pushing myself upwards to look around, but before I could get a good look, my arms gave out with a flash of pain. I fell back to the ground with a gasp, my shoulder burning.

Get up.

I groaned again, only using my good arm this time. I winced at how stiff I was- how long had I been asleep, anyway?

Too long.

I ignored her and looked up at the sky; it was cloudy and dreary, and with no sun to tell me the time, I had no idea what day it was. Glancing around me, everything mostly looked the same, so I hadn't moved since passing out last night. As I turned my head, something silver caught my eye.

A parachute.

I reached for the small box, pulling off the silver fabric so I could access it better. Inside was a small tube- medicine? What did I need medicine for?

Your shoulder.

My shoulder was fine.

Maybe if you didn't block me out, it would be.

My heart sinking, I slowly turned my head, peering around at my shoulder. I peeled off my jacket and lifted up my shirt in order to see the skin underneath. I choked back a shriek at the sight of it. My shoulder was visibly swollen and covered in layers of blood, most dried but some fresh. The skin around the cut, which was oozing a dull-colored fluid or pus or something, was mottled with reds and purples. It was most definitely not fine.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I shrieked.

I tried. You weren't listening, Cataleya whispered, her voice sickly sweet.

"I don't understand," I said. "It was fine a few days ago. What happened?"

Told you not to drink that water, she responded. It was only a matter of time.

A wave of revulsion hit me as I peeked at my shoulder again. If there'd been anything in my stomach, I would've thrown up right then and there. Now that I knew what was happening, the pain was hitting me all at once, and it hurt so badly. I grabbed the medicine tube and squeezed some of the gel out onto my hand. Bracing myself, I slipped my hand under my shirt, rubbing it onto my shoulder. It immediately began to tingle, and not in a good way.

This is what you get for not listening to me. Next time, pay attention.

"I'm sorry," I whispered.

You should be. Now go find something to eat.

"But I'm not hungry," I protested. "And you never have to eat."

Perfect people don't need to eat, she replied. You do.

I sighed, letting her comment sting me. I deserved it. I needed to listen to her, not block her out. If it weren't for me, I wouldn't be in this situation.

But then again, I wouldn't be here if it weren't for her, either.

Glowla Lush, District 1, 18

Around the middle of the day, it began to rain pretty heavily. The three of us took shelter under the Cornucopia, whose roof thankfully kept us from getting too wet. The rain was a nice relief from the heat of the arena, though, and I welcomed it.

"So," I said, "we should probably talk about our plan again, yes?"

"Probably," said Muir.

I looked over at Sadie, who just shrugged. Since we'd returned yesterday and updated her on what had happened, she'd mostly been back to brooding.

"So," I said. "Even though yesterday wasn't as objectively successful as it could have been, it was still good. We got a kill, and we got information."

"And there was another kill late last night," Muir added. "So there's eleven."

"That too," I said. "But we don't know who. So after that, I doubt anyone is hanging around that lake. But we know who's with who, right? The Eights are off somewhere, and that girl and… the other person, they're together. We split them up, and that'll make it harder for them."

"Especially the Eights," said Muir. "No survival skills."

"Yes," I agreed. "Good point. So we know they're over there. For the other cabins, we haven't been there in a couple days, but Sadie and Virgil went to the lake and scared off some tributes. We know there's a girl over there, or at least there was."

"The Nine pair was in a cabin earlier," Sadie said. "Might be around."

"Only the one," Muir corrected her. "One died the other day."

"Right," I said. "So that's nine accounted for. Which leaves…"

"Both from Seven and the boy from Twelve," said Muir. "And we have no idea where they are."

"I don't like it," Sadie muttered. "The girl is whatever, but the guys…"

"Me neither," said Muir.

"Well, where haven't we been?" I asked. "They're probably along some path somewhere."

"I don't know about that," said Muir.

"Why not?" I asked.

"We would've seen them by now," said Muir. "This arena is kind of like Seven, I think. They know what they're doing."

"Great," said Sadie. She picked up a few of her knives.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"I'm doing some target practice," she said.

"In the rain?" Muir asked.

"Sure," she said. "A little fall of rain can hardly hurt me now." She pulled her hood over her head, pocketing a few more knives.

"Sadie," I said, noticing the look on her face, "are you sure you're fine?"

She sighed. "I just don't get it."

"Get what?" I asked.

"Him!" she exclaimed. "Cal!"

"Here we go again," Muir mumbled. Luckily for him, Sadie didn't seem to hear him. I elbowed him when she wasn't looking, and he scowled at me.

"I think he's trying to do what he thinks is best," I said. "Maybe he wants to protect her so when only two are left, he'll win easily."

"It's not that," said Sadie. "It's obvious he's going for redemption after being so torn up about killing that girl. But I don't get where it came from. Why, after everything, would he throw everything away? Throw me away?" she said, her voice cracking on me. "He's picking some pathetic outer district girl over me, and it fucking hurts."

"I'm sure he doesn't mean-"

"It doesn't matter if he doesn't mean it," she said, her nose turning red. "He's doing it. Some rando is more important to him than one of his best friends. Because apparently, she should live and I shouldn't."

"What was it you used to call him?" I asked. "'Dingus?' Seems appropriate."

"He's such a dingus!" she shouted. "Ugh!"

"Dingus," Muir agreed.

"I'm practicing now," she said. "I need to clear my head."

With that, she headed out into the rain, knives in her hands. She positioned herself near a tree and began to aim.

"We didn't finish our strategy talk," Muir said.

"Shouldn't we all be here for that?" I asked.

"I don't think she was really listening," Muir said, glancing over at Sadie. "But if we can't find the other tributes, what are we supposed to do?"

"Search, I guess," I replied. "We could try going north again- that worked out pretty well last time."

"Cool," he said. "You and me again?"

"I think Sadie will want to go this time," I said. "I'm fine sticking back."

Muir groaned. "Ugh."

"What do you mean, 'ugh?'" I asked. "Sadie's a great Career."

We both looked over at Sadie again. Somehow, even in the rain, she hadn't missed a throw. She whipped another one at the tree.

"Yeah, but I'm tired of hearing about all of this Cal stuff," he said. "It's all she cares about."

"Fine, I'll go," I said. "You hang back."

"Cool," Muir replied.

Dale Orion-Poplar, District 12, 17

"Where the hell is your shirt?" Travis asked.

I looked down at my bare chest, then shrugged. "I mean, Aurelia said to be eye candy. I just forgot until we talked yesterday."

Travis scoffed. "It's raining. At least put the jacket on. Apparently it's water resistant."

"Cool," I replied. I went over to the tree branch it was hanging on and pulled it on. "So, you know, about yesterday…"

"What about it?" Travis asked. "You finally agree with me?"

I hesitated. "Well…"

"Dale," Travis groaned. "We talked about this."

"Wait wait wait," I said. "I… I've been thinking about it a lot. I know I agreed to just go with it, but there has to be a middle ground, right?"

"What are you thinking?" Travis asked, crossing his arms.

"Well, I still don't want to kill anyone," I said. "At least, not anyone innocent. Not people like Sienna or Chaney who haven't done anything wrong."

"Okay," said Travis, nodding slowly. The corners of his mouth tweaked up. "Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

"Um, I don't know," I said. "But I'm saying… if we have to kill people- and apparently we do, as you made clear yesterday… we could make a point of only killing the bad ones, right?"

Travis was full-blown smiling right now. "The Careers."

"Yeah," I said, shifting my weight from foot to foot. To be honest, I still wasn't comfortable with Travis's aggressive strategy. If he was willing to hunt down and kill other people, who was to say that he wouldn't do that to me someday?

"You'd be willing to do that?" Travis asked. "You're done with all of that 'blood on my hands' bullshit?"

I sighed. "It's not bullshit. But I think my family would want me to fight. Still, though, I want to do it on my own terms."

It wasn't a lie. But I hadn't told him everything, either. In all the excitement with the wolf attacks and secret-sharing and hiking, I'd forgotten why I was here- my mother. By this point, I was completely convinced that she'd rigged the Reapings to pull my name. If the wolves themselves- like Mr. Wolfe- weren't a sign, then what was? My mother thought I would die here, and I didn't want to give her the satisfaction. That didn't mean I wanted to become a monster either, though.

Travis smiled again. "I can get behind that."

"You can?"

"Oh, yeah. Think about it- getting the last Careers out of the way would change everything. And if you're willing to go after them with me, we could do some serious damage, especially if they're split up. There's only four of them now- the girl from One, both from Two, and the boy from Four. Getting rid of any one of them, let alone multiple? Of course I can get behind that."

"Which one is in charge?" I asked. "Which one has, you know… done the most damage?"

Travis thought for a moment. "Out of the four of them, probably either one from Two."

"Yeah," I agreed. "Makes sense."

"So you have any ideas on how to do it?" Travis asked.

"I figured that would be more your department," I said.

"What, too busy being eye candy over there?" asked Travis.

"Oh, are you jealous?" I replied.

He scoffed. "'Course not. You're not that great-looking. Anyways, like I was saying, we need to figure out a plan."

"Well the Careers are probably still at the Cornucopia, probably," I said. "So we don't need to worry about finding them."

"True," said Travis, rubbing his chin. "But I'd rather not take them all on at once. I think it would be ideal if we could lure one off alone, and then ambush."

"Ambush," I repeated, the word unfamiliar in my mouth. I wasn't sure I liked how it felt. I guess I still had a ways to go in terms of the mindset of the Games.

"I think tomorrow I'll go check things out, see what their setup is, and we can iron out the details afterwards, yeah?" he said.

"Yeah," I said.

As night fell, I strayed a few feet from our campsite to get an ideal view of the sky. Travis hung back, whittling a stick to a point with our knife. Only one face was in the sky tonight, and the sight of her made my heart drop. The anthem finished, and then the night was still again.

"Who is it?" Travis called.

I returned to our campsite, where Travis was leaning against a tree. "What?" he asked.

I swallowed hard before I spoke. "I'm really, really sorry, Travis."

He understood immediately. "Chaney."

"Yeah," I said.

"That sucks," he said. Then he returned to his whittling. "Was she the only one?"

"Yeah," I said, hesitating. His reaction was bothering me. "You're not upset?"

He looked back up, eyebrows raised. "I said that out loud, right? 'It sucks?'"

"Yeah, but you don't seem sad," I said.

"We all mourn in different ways," he said. He tested the point of his stick with his thumb, then frowned and continued whittling.

"She was your district partner," I said. "Your friend from home."

"We didn't talk much," he said. "I mean, it's sad that she's dead, but it would've happened eventually, right? And since when were you and your partner close?"

"We weren't, but that doesn't mean I'm looking forward to seeing her face up there," I said, gesturing upwards.

He sighed. "Dale, man, you have to learn not to take things to heart. It's really not that deep."

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were a robot or something," I said, only half joking.

"Ha-ha, very funny, haven't heard that one before," Travis replied. He tested his pointy stick again, seemingly more satisfied this time. "You still want first lookout?"

"Sure, yeah, whatever," I said, kicking at the dirt with my boot.

"Cool," he replied, not noticing my discomfort. He set his stick and knife down. "'Night."

"'Night," I said.

Ianto Baines, District 8, 16

As the night settled in, I looked over at Levi, who was leaning up against a tree, fast asleep. We'd managed to find a fairly sheltered spot to spend the night. I was glad to see her rest- I couldn't remember ever seeing her sleep before, so this was good, right? But at the same time, I was worried. I'd never seen her act like this. When I'd first met her, Levi had energy. Right now, it looked like the light in her eyes had gone out.

Maybe it has something to do with yesterday, I thought. I cringed at the memory. It was a pretty rough day. I felt horrible about ditching Sienna. I had no idea how she was still alive, but I wasn't surprised. She was probably the smartest person I'd ever met. And Jess… God. What a terrible way to go. We hadn't exactly gotten along, but no one deserved to die like that. I was confident that if I hadn't been Reaped this year, the band would be writing a song about her death right now.

At the thought of the band, a chill ran down my spine. If I died here, would I be the next song? Was I going to be the next fallen tribute the band sang about at our underground concerts?

I sighed. Who even knew if the band was together right now? The last time I'd seen them, I'd been throwing a chair at them for ditching me during the Peacekeeper raid. The memory made me feel even worse about Sienna, but I shoved that aside. I was a little surprised I hadn't truly lost my temper since then. Yeah, I'd kicked a chair two days ago, but I'd done a lot worse in my time. I smirked at the memory of me lighting my drums on fire during a show once. It had mostly been to spite Tyra, but it also looked pretty cool. I guessed that the Games just didn't really have room for that kind of stuff. Juvie was one thing, but the arena was a whole 'nother beast.

Speaking of Tyra and my bandmates, I was regretting throwing that chair at my bandmates now. I hoped they were doing okay; I was positive that they were watching closely. And Owain… I hoped they were looking out for him. He was a pretty capable little dude, but he was alone right now, and I hated that. If it weren't for that stupid force field, I'd leave the Games right now and hitchhike back to him.

I wondered if Levi had siblings. I looked over at her again, but she was still asleep. I thought back to meeting her on the train- I didn't recall her mentioning a brother, mostly just her mom. I tried to picture her, and vaguely remembered seeing her a while back- a tall blonde woman with a gaunt face. She was standing on the stage during the Reapings. Yes, that was her. A memory from Levi's interview came to me- something she'd said about her mom once.

I found her in the bathroom. She was gone.

Suddenly, things started to make a lot more sense. Of course she was freaking out- her dead mom was in the Games, and now Levi was too. I nearly smacked myself in the face, I felt so stupid. I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of it sooner. Still, though, whatever was going on with her seemed a lot more intense than that. I resolved to talk to her tomorrow and see if I couldn't get to the bottom of this.

Piers Morgan, District 6 Mentor, 20

"How's it going, buddy?" Finnick asked. "Didn't expect you to still be hanging around."

I had wandered over to Finnick and Annie's desks, where they were keeping an eye on the Career pack. Acadia had already turned in for the night, and I was pretty bored.

"Fine," I said, shrugging.

"What are you up to over there?" he asked.

Annie gave a rare smile, albeit small. "He's been talking to that girl."

"The new one?" Finnick asked.

"Acadia," I confirmed.

"Oh, I remember her," said Finnick. "The girl with the axe."

"I met her the other day," Annie ventured. "She's nice. She said you were helping her with her tributes since yours are gone."

"Yeah, that pretty much sums it up," I said. "Figured she could use the help. I mean, I'm not busy, but Marius and everyone else was, and she was confused…"

"You don't need to explain, bud," said Finnick, waving me off. "We're just glad you found a friend. Her, too."

"Oh," I said. "Thanks?"

"Of course," he said.

"How's your tribute?" I asked.

"Oh, Muir?" Finnick asked. He glanced back at his screen. "The kid's doing pretty well. Not super pleased that he killed Isla, but there's not much we can do about it."

"Oh, right," I said. "That was… intense."

"Braun nailed it, though. I don't know how he always predicts these things," Finnick said, shaking his head. "The man has a sixth sense."

I looked over Kellin's empty desk to see Braun having a conversation with Godric. Braun had always intimidated me, and I doubted it would ever change.

"Well, I'm glad he's doing okay now," I said.

"I'm sorry about your tributes, by the way," said Finnick. "That wasn't pleasant to watch."

"No, it wasn't," I said quietly. "At least it was quick."

Finnick studied my face for a moment. "Are you doing okay?" he asked.

I shrugged. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Helping Acadia helps me take my mind off of it."

"Good," Finnick said. "Be sure to let us know if you need anything."

"I will," I said. "I'm gonna head to bed now, so, uh… goodnight."

"Goodnight," said Finnick.

"Goodnight," said Annie, her voice soft as always.

*No eulogies today!

Kills:

Glowla- 2 (Ethan, Jess)

Caligula- 1 (Salome)

Sadie- 3 (Virgil, Ainsley, Deltro)

Damion- 1 (Halley)

Muir- 3 (Damion, Isla, Parker)

Travis- 1 (Samuel)

Chaney- 1 (Reese)

Mutts- 1 (Chaney)

Alliances:

The Careers: Glowla, Sadie, Muir

Chatty/Secretive/Planning Bros: Travis, Dale

District 8: Ianto, Levi

Bodyguarding: Caligula, Sienna

Loners: Journie, Alula

And that's Day 7! I know this one was on the shorter side, but after all the insanity of the last three days in the arena, I figured it was time for another breather in terms of action. If you caught the chapter title reference, you probably thought someone would die today, and for that I say: consider your expectations subverted! Oops. But I'll make it up to you! If you name the title reference you get another brownie point. Bonus brownie point for naming the tribute that also made the reference. The brownie points still count for nothing, this is mostly just me entertaining myself at this point. Feel free to ignore this part haha.

Can't wait to hear everyone's thoughts on this chapter! I know the action was low, but I'd love to hear what you're thinking about the other stuff going on here. Happy Valentine's, hope everyone is doing well, and I'll see you next weekend!

-r-b*