WALCOTT PATEL- Alysanne Audren

That was it, then. The first person I killed. The entire point of aikido was to diffuse a fight without bloodshed and when the moment came I didn't hesitate. I always thought I valued peace. I guess I valued myself more.

Gidget Ford- District Three mentor

Sometimes things went the exact opposite of what you thought. I would have thought Ezra would last a while and Walcott would do some fool thing in the Bloodbath and get herself killed. Walcott, along with Fleur, had the highest non-Career body count and that wasn't likely to change anytime soon. She didn't kill any vampires but she did kill someone so maybe she would be happy with that. And if Ezra had to die I was glad it was early before his family could start to hope.

District Three

The vampires of the world rejoiced at the death of their mortal enemy. Of course, death isn't permanent for a Tribute. Ezra, who possessed no enemies mortal or immortal, left behind much more conventional mourners. What can be said about a parent's mourning that could match up to feelings that have no words?

Edward Matthews- District Five male (18)

Flint tapped Arroyo's spear against the floor restlessly as he sat staring out the window, his back towards me. He radiated unsure and tense energy. It was starting to creep me out.

"You planning something over there?" I tried to make a joke of it. I didn't think Flint was planning anything against me but it still creeped me out how intense he was sitting.

"The only one left strong enough and skilled enough to kill us is Arroyo," Flint said.

"Yeah," I said. I knew what was coming next but I also knew Flint would say it better than I would so I waited.

"He knows the same about us," Flint continued. "He must have spent the last few days thinking about how to kill us. How to hunt us or trick us or get us apart somehow. Because he knows we'll put up a fight. So he's making some plan to kill us and he's going to put it into operation."

"Guess that means we have to kill him." It came out with a joking inflection but we both knew it wasn't. I was scared and trying to make light of it but I knew how serious it was.

"Yep," Flint said. He got up and looked at the door like Arroyo might already be on the other side waiting for a good moment. "Unfortunately, he knows that, too."

"Good. He'll be on the run," I said. But Flint's restless energy told me that wasn't the case.

"Bad. He won't be coming directly. He'll be using stealth. An enemy in the open can be fought even if he's trained. But an enemy skilled in both killing and hiding is like a rat."

I get the feeling you know that from experience. Flint didn't have his back to me anymore but the frontal view was even worse. He had changed. Something had shifted in his face and his voice and even the way he stood as he looked at the door. It wasn't the normal Flint anymore. I was looking at Flint the bodyguard. Not a boy but a professional gangster/bodyguard/very likely hit man. He'd put away all his personality and taken on the look I would see on the face of someone sweeping a house for hidden assassins. Flint had been a bodyguard for a long time. To remain employed that meant one of two things: either his employer was paranoid or he'd found assassins before. And killed them.

It was surreal how people could come from two different worlds. As long as I'd been in the Arena I'd been thinking about who could kill me and how to stay away from them. Flint was right here in the same Arena with me, and he'd been thinking about who he could kill and how to find them.

Flint Kenyte- District Two male (18)

Life sharpens when you could get killed at any second. The focus doesn't narrow, because the danger could be anywhere. It only sharpened. Everything stood out stark, from the doorway that had a blind spot from my position to the glint of light that turned out to be a sunbeam on a window frame and not the movement of a rifle barrel. It often scared other people when I got so quiet and intense. It scared me too. I didn't like feeling like a stalking animal whose brain held thoughts only of hunting and evading my own hunters. I liked being a human with human thoughts of friends and hobbies and silly things friends do together. But on the job I wasn't a boy. I was a bodyguard.

"Where are we going?" Edward asked as I looked at the door.

"I don't know yet," I said. I wanted to put a plan into action but first I needed a well-made plan. By now Arroyo would have another weapon. He'd trained with a spear so it was reasonable to assume it was likely a spear or similar ranged weapon. It would be easier to fight him in close quarters so that was where we wanted to get him. At the same time, Arroyo was out there planning how to get us into an open space so it was easier to fight us. But if Arroyo threw his spear he wouldn't have a spear anymore. He could only kill one of us and would have to fight the other barehanded or with whatever handheld weapons he had on him. Which meant he would try to set up a shot where he couldn't miss. I was stronger than Edward so it also meant that shot would be coming for me.

My lip curled in a little wry movement. I was the target. I was my own bodyguard. My job guarding Aston had always been simplified by the fact that he wasn't a civilian but a trained fighter himself. He knew how to watch out for killers and keep himself safe. The only easier employer was someone whose entire set of skills revolved around keeping someone safe: myself.

"Arroyo uses a spear, right?" Edward tried to draw me out again. "So he'll probably try to draw us into somewhere open?"

I half-consciously made a small noise to indicate I'd heard Edward. My mind was occupied scanning all the locations we'd been so far and making as complete a map as possible as I could of the building.

"You only get one shot when you throw a spear," Edward said, but it was directed more at himself. I barely heard him. I was thinking about how Arroyo would try to draw us out without putting himself in danger. A fire, maybe?

"What if we let him have the shot?" Edward said. The brazen weirdness of the statement finally caught my attention. I lifted my hand palm-up in the universal wtf pose and gave him a weird look. But he wasn't looking at me. He was looking at, of all things, a filing cabinet.

"We have an entire office building of supplies," Edward continued. "Think we can't make some armor?"