Night 8:

Hey now, hey now

Don't dream it's over

Hey now, hey now

When the world comes in

They come, they come

To build a wall between us

We know they won't win

I don't know how long I stay by myself for. By the time someone finally comes for me, it's had to have been a few good hours. Cheyenne leans up against the wall, eyes glancing towards my feet. "You've been sulking here for quite a while."
"Come to mock me about it?"

"No. I just want to ask you what you wanted to do."

'What I want to do?" I wipe at a final tear on my face. I don't have it in me to cry anymore. I'm just exhausted.

"We can go home, if you'd like. If you don't think there's a reason to stay anymore. And there is no reason for us to. The next train out leaves at eight tonight and will take us back to 10. They run one every day. But if you want to stay, you can."
"Are you going home?"

"Actually, I'm going drinking." Cheyenne scoffs. "Catching the shit with Dane later."
"You and Dane hate each other."
"I have no other buddies in the Capitol. But tomorrow night, I'll be on the train home. Unless you want to stay."

It's tempting. How can I face the others, knowing I failed? Maybe I should just hop on that train, and say my apologies to Sara's family the second I run into them. Then I can just wallow in my misery until the next Games and repeat the process all over again. Will I have learned anything from this? I don't know.

But the Games are so close to being over, so maybe there's no point. I might as well wait it out. And keep Marie company. Eventually, the same thing's gonna happen to her too and at least one tribute from 5 is going to die.

"I'll stay."
"You sure?"
"Why not. I'm in no rush to head home. Are you staying, or are you still leaving tomorrow?"

Cheyenne sits down next to me. "If you did something stupid in your grief and I was not there to stop you, Rhiannon would never let me hear the end of it."
"Oh my God, Cheyenne. I'm seventeen years old. I'm not some dumb little kid, alright? I can look after myself."

"What, you don't want your mentor to baby you anymore?" Cheyenne's face grows serious. "But you're not gonna like what I have to tell you. I know we lost Sara. I know we're not bringing home a victory this year. But don't take it so hard."
"She's my charge and she's dead. It was a horrible scene. Urzelynne did it. How would you like me to take this?"

"That girl from 2's been brutal on everyone."
"It's personal."
"And how would you know?"

"She didn't do the same thing to Matzo. But she just rips Micah and Sara to shreds like they're not even fellow humans to her. She's got it out for me. She hates me. And this happened last year too. Goddamn it, how the hell am I supposed to save someone when 2 keeps targeting our tributes because of what I did?"

"It's not gonna last. It wouldn't have lasted this year, but then you ended up all friendly with that Troy kid, and his sister volunteered when she wasn't supposed to. This is different. Trust me, next year, you'll be old news and the Careers will find someone else to be pissed off at. That make you feel better?"

"I don't know." I mutter. "I just feel so stupid. Like there was something more I could have done. I guess I was always just delaying the inevitable, but I hate how preventable her death was! If I didn't waste funds on flowers and tea, and-"

"VR, if you keep playing mom to every tribute you're in charge of and run away when they die, you're never gonna learn. If you keep acting like a hero, you'll become delusional. Here's the cold, hard truth. In twenty-two years, 10 has won twice. We are not powerhouses. And I'm not saying we'll never ever have a Victor again because realistically, we will. And you'll be there for it. But you have to understand that out of 24 tributes, only one of their asses is getting saved."

Shit. She's right.

"I can't help it."
"I know you can't. And you wanna be a good person and save them. Come on, the second I saw Sara get pulled, I knew our odds weren't good this year. Hell, our chances went down the drain the second Urzelynne volunteered. Not to count younger tributes out because we know now they can win. But neither of them could put up a decent fight to protect themselves. And the Gamemakers secretly weren't supporting them. They probably weren't going to let Sara have an easy path."

Something clicks. "Oh. They would rather the Careers or the Frehleys win over her."
"Storywise? It just makes sense that way. Back-to-back Victors are always a big deal, so if they can score that for 5, they will. Tributes with preexisting relationships are always appealing. And Careers always mean crazy payouts with the betters and sponsors. Sara was the underdog and while the Capitol likes to pretend they actually root for the little guy, they don't want underdogs like her. Underdogs who..."

Underdogs who remind them of their own children.

"Anyways, we try again next year. And the year after that. And after that. We'll drop out early, we'll fall short, but that's just how it is. If I threw in the fucking towel when things didn't go my way, you wouldn't be here. You can cry all you want, but you better be ready to get your shit together for the next kid that comes waltzing into the arena. Don't wanna end up like Rosie, do you?"

"No," I mumble.
"That's what I thought."

It's a cold harsh truth but it is the truth nonetheless. There's a part of me that does want to give up and guard myself so I can't let anymore tributes down. That isn't happening. District 10 doesn't have a third Victor to spare me from another year of mentoring and won't have a third Victor unless I do something about it. And yeah, I see how little Rosie cares and that's not gonna be me.

"Can we go back now? I'm not tired."
"Sure." Cheyenne checks her watch. "I still got a few hours before I can drag Dane out."

Everything is as I left it, my screen still dark enough for me to catch my reflection. God, I look like a hot mess. At least I'll have a somewhat decent sleep schedule soon because I don't have to stay for the half the night worrying. That's one way of looking at the current situation.

I'm fine, I think to myself. I'm perfectly fine. I'll be okay. This sucks, but I'll be alright.

How selfish. Am I just ignoring Sara this way? Am I just completely glossing over the fact that she's dead? How the hell am I supposed to approach this with her family? What kind of apology could make up for losing her?

Cheyenne nudges my shoulder. Right. I quickly regain my composure. let's see where the remaining tributes are at.

Are you okay? Marie mouths to me, eyes darting between my direction and the two screens in front of her. She's running everything by herself. Damn it, Rufus.
I'm fine, I mouth back. Saying the words help me believe them.

Pryce appears to have mostly recovered from his headache, and even received a little sponsor gift, a crystal skull on a string. He places it around his neck. Elaena and Siren are done hunting for the day, making an exhausted trek into the mouth of the Cornucopia. Siren spends the whole time scowling.

"Who died?" Pryce asks. "And who did it?"
"Don't know," Elaena says gruffly. "And it wasn't us."

Pryce just nods before lowering his voice and leaning close to his district partner. "Is that's what got him in a foul mood?"
"Of course."
"I do not want to hang around for the fallout."

Elaena scoffs. "Please. We can't even decide how to split up in the morning without getting into a huge argument each time."
"I can hear you two!" Siren yells from inside the Cornucopia. "And I'm not in a bad mood!"

The three of them wait for Urzelynne and Hydra to come back. If I was in the arena right now, I'd probably slap that big bloodthirsty grin right off Urzelynne's face. How dare she. How dare she have the audacity to be proud over what she's done. How could anyone be proud of that!?

"Guess who killed the 10 tributes!" Urzelynne sings, tossing her bloody swords to the ground. "Me, me, meeeee!"
"You got both?" Pryce frowns. "But I thought that-"

"Only the girl was left and I got her! I killed her! Look, I got the blood to prove it!"

"Fucking widower," Hydra mutters under their breath as they slip off to the side, brushing past Siren as they do. Man, you can really feel the love between them. I don't know how much longer I give this alliance, but they're not going to last longer than a few more days.

And I think the District 1 pair notices. As Urzelynne continues to brag and Hydra and Siren tune her out, Pryce and Elaena stand on the outskirts, whispering to each other. Why is nobody trying to stop them? District loyalty does not last forever, but I've seen times where one pair will make a pack to take out everyone else and only turn to an "every man for himself" strategy if they're both alive and nobody is left.

"Hey, Ones!" Hydra finally speaks up. "Making dinner! Hurry up and get some before Siren's dumb ass wolfs it all down!"
"In a moment!" Elaena calls back. She turns to Pryce. "We'll figure it out tomorrow. But we're good?"
"We're good," he agrees.

The Careers settle in for the night and the cameras cut to Thea. She hasn't stopped moving at all, and I can tell she's growing tired, by the way she has to drag her feet along the road. Eventually, she finds a house with a closed door and slips inside, somehow missing the open front window. She runs into the living room and flops across the couch.

Only for a mace to come flying over the couch and miss her head, smacking into the wooden coffee table next to her.

"Holy shit!" Thea screams. A nearby lamp flickers on and for the first time since they arrived in the arena, the Frehley siblings have stumbled into each other.

"Thea?" Ace snickers. "What the hell are you doing in here?"
"Getting a good night's sleep, obviously. What are you doing in here?"

"It's my base. But you've got to leave." Ace retrieves his weapon from the floor.
"I just got here. And I have none of my allies left."
"Yeah. Saw their faces in the sky the other day. Um...sorry to hear that?"

Thea can't look him in the eye. "It's...fine. Hey, I'm still here. And I'm alive. You wouldn't want to lose your baby sister, am I right?"
"No. There's so few of us left, though. We should really split up so it's harder to find us."

"Come on, Ace!" Thea sits up and grabs Ace's wrist. "I finally found you in this fucking suburban hellhole and I am not letting you go. What if you die tomorrow and I never see you again? Huh? And if the Careers come a-running, then we'll kick their asses together! Five on two is way better than five on one."

Thea does have a point there. Ace hesitates before he finally pulls his wrist free from his sister's grasp. "You really wanna stick together? You don't think I'll slow you down or anything?"

"If anything, I'll be the one slowing you down." Thea lets out a nasty cough. "I'm tired, so I'm going to bed. And tomorrow, we'll figure out how we're gonna destroy the Careers."
"That sounds like a plan to me."

It's going to be an interesting next couple of days.

Current Alliances:

The Careers: Pryce, Elaena, Hydra, Urzelynne, Siren

The Frehleys: Ace, Thea

Kills:

Pryce: 1 (Sawyer)

Elaena: 2 (Lockhart, Elsorian)

Hydra: 3 (Echo, Brea, Petra)

Urzelynne: 3 (Micah, Sara, Matzo)

Siren: 3 (Velour, Lavender, Nileen)

Tansy: 1 (Swift)

Ace: 1 (Tansy)

Emserelda: 1 (William)

Other: 2 (Academia, Esmerelda)

No loners in the arena? That's a first!

I've wanted to use this song as a chapter title for a while so I finally did it lol. What do you think of the alliances and pairs we've got so far? Who's up to something and who's in trouble?

As per usual, sponsoring is still open but will be closing very soon, so send in your gifts while you still have the opportunity. See you all next chapter,

-Vr