"Know the enemy and know yourself"
~Sun Tzu
Cyrus Sunbeam, 15, District Six
He's made it this long in the arena. Eleven tributes stand in the wake of his victory, all roaming this picturesque arena. He still couldn't believe it when he watched the Three girl's face light up the sky the night before. He also couldn't believe that the end might happen within the next few days.
Cyrus thought that he would never make it past the Bloodbath and now he's here. The last corner of the racetrack before the finishing line. He's not about to fail now, the belief growing strong in his heart. That he can still escape, make it home and live out the rest of his life instead of ending it in the arena. Just another number in the grand scheme of things.
The ornate room that he had been in the last few days is becoming familiar. Eating the last of his rations. The trap he had set up still armed as he watches the door eagerly. He doesn't have much water left either and the realisation that he would have to pack everything up soon and leave the safety of the room is dawning on him.
It scares him, having to step out of the room, it's given him comfort the last few days. He doesn't want to encounter those with weapons, namely the One boy and girl as well as their ally in the Four girl. He tries to get his mind away from them, but the moment he does the feeling of guilt and sadness washes over him as his mind detracts from dangers and back to his ally, Lonan.
Try as he might to move on from that situation when Chevelle had killed Lonan, he just can't escape it. He was scared at the time, he didn't know what to do and the best course of action for him was to run, and he did. He doesn't know that the guilt would take him for a ride.
It's his fault, he knows this, the feeling of admitting it hits him like a ton of bricks. He didn't do anything to help, he just stands there before running away from Chevelle. The tears prick at the corner of his eyes. He often describes himself as unemotional, never dwelling on emotions too long but for some reason he's been an emotional mess after seeing Lonan's face in the sky.
Sometimes he thinks it's the bedroom, even though he feels safe inside the room, the same four walls are what's making him feel crazy emotional. He tries his best to forget it, closing his eyes hard as he thinks of winning and going home.
"I could never forget him." He says out loud laying back on the soft bed staring at the ceiling.
Everything is making him feel that melancholic way. Chevelle, he had killed in retaliation by burning the maze, is from home, and he can't forget about her either try as he might. He didn't feel attached to her, but she was from home, the closest thing to his district other than their mentor.
She cared about their district too, on the downtime they would spend back in the apartment. He sighs, Six, his home, the current goal. They're waiting for him, his mother and father, and even his brother. He wonders if they have stopped crying yet, the tearful goodbyes all those days ago stung a little bit when he was wrenched from their hands at the hands of the Peacekeepers.
He wonders if his brother would be proud of him for thinking outside the box with his contraptions; he wonders if his friends will ever get together, they always did upset the balance whenever both of them were around him.
He chuckles to himself, sitting up again, the silent reminiscing enlightening his mind of what he will be missing if he doesn't make it home. He decided that he would fight, not for himself, but for his family and friends.
His quiet contemplation doesn't last long though as his ears pick up the sound of the doorknob rattling. He can see the handle twist open; he stands with fear waiting for what's lurking behind the door, preparing himself to run if needed.
His eyes flickering between the door and the trap willing it to work in his favour. The mechanism clicks and the whirring sound can be heard the moment the door fully opens, and Cyrus watches as the sharp end of the broken leg chair flies towards the door.
He looks in shock as it grazes at the side of an extremely dangerous individual. His mind too is whirring for an escape route as the girl from Two looks at him angrily. He can see the white blouse ripped from the leg chair and a few splotches of blood start appearing to stain it red.
This is when Cyrus' thoughts go out the window the problem, he's facing making him move on instinct just like before as he abandons everything. He leaps into action not taking anything with him, and he pushes the Two girl as hard as he can to escape through the front door. He doesn't watch her fall to the ground as he makes his way out of the room.
Cyrus runs as fast as he could, but he can hear another set of footsteps. The girl is already up and running after him, he turns back and looks forward again, of course she's fast. His lungs feel like they're burning, and he wants to scream loud. He finds a corner and is about to turn when a sharp pain begins to pulse from his left leg before it gives out completely.
He collapses into a roll as the carpet stings and burns his exposed skin, the momentum carrying him to the wall with a thud, the pain on his back overriding the pain on his leg briefly. He closes his eyes as he feels for his left leg, the blood soaks his hand instantly as he feels the sharp metal.
The pain intensifies as he gasps for air, not used to running that fast for his life before. He's watching as blood leak out from his left leg. He looks up to see that the girl is no longer running. She's got him. The girl looks tired as she approaches him reaching for the dagger on his leg. Cyrus not fighting her off, the pain and everything else making him weak.
She grabs hold of the silver daggers tight before wrenching it with force that makes Cyrus scream in pain clutching at the leg tightly. He looks up at her again, dark brown eyes meeting chocolate-coloured ones. He doesn't sense hostility in them now unlike before at the room, instead she looks at him with a smile, somewhat comforting.
The blood continues to rush down his leg merging with the red carpet. He can feel himself go pale as his eyes lull back feeling tired. He can hear her speak but his mind isn't properly listening. His eyes are about to close, the last thing he notices is the damage he had done to her had been more severe than he had thought of originally, the graze looks worse, and the blouse is covered in blood on her right side.
He smiles too, thinking that the trap worked. His eyes shut, the panic he once felt leaving him, as he feels himself drifting, the cold blade on his neck soothing. The panic leaves but the regret stays; a few things in his life that he could no longer rectify. Running away from Lonan; not appreciating his family enough and not fighting back as hard as he could.
And as the cold blade stings at his neck all he could do was dwell in those regrets before his mind goes blank.
Lily Mendoza, 17, District Four
The cannon sounded like thunder. Carnelian sits up from his lounging position beside him looking around the greenhouse. It's still early morning and it's beginning already. The end of the Games is fast approaching them. Velvet is already up and standing admiring the flowers around the perimeter of the apple tree clearing. The cannon doesn't seem to bother her too much.
"What now, boss?" Carnelian says standing up and stretching, Velvet turns to look at them both.
"We look for Diana." Velvet says out loud and Lily can feel the conviction in her voice.
Lily packs her pack reluctantly, Carnelian and Velvet doing the same. The girl from One leads the way past the tree deeper to the other side of the greenhouse. She thinks about leaving once again. The tribute count is dwindling by the hour and she doesn't want to be caught in a battle that's unfavorable for her.
She should have left when Diana had left. It would have been the perfect time to leave. However, the death of Tony, and the way everything was imploding, if she had decided to leave at that time, she wouldn't have been alive today.
For as calm as Velvet let Diana go that day, she was livid that day. She had gone on a rant for a few hours the rest of the day as she tended to Carnelian's wound. If she had left, she couldn't have fended for herself, the axe feeling unfamiliar in her hand. She doesn't like the gilded weapon preferring daggers to the weapon she currently has.
She wouldn't survive a fight against these two with a weapon with so little experience. She wonders if she would be able to take the two One tributes should they turn on her. Many of the tributes remaining in the arena are capable of fighting. Diana, Gharial from Ten and possibly Kenna and Ashley, who has a bow and arrow according to Diana. She remembers all their names from training because she knows they're contenders.
They pass by more foliage, Velvet leading them closer to the manor. They walk slowly staying as silent as they can, not wanting to attract any attention despite their feet crunching on fallen leaves. A louder noise stops them from walking with Carnelian looking back with wide eyes as he begins to run.
"It's those butterflies!" He shouts, Velvet looks back with Lily as they too start to run.
She runs through various flora, hearing sounds of thousands of wings fluttering vibrating in their ears. Lily has never felt scared in her life and this is pretty close to that as she rushes past more foliage panic setting in as Velvet leads the way.
"We need to get out of here!" Velvet's panicked voice says out loud as she sees the door, an exit away from the greenhouse.
Velvet practically jumps into the doorway breaking it open. Carnelian stops to help Lily out the doorway before he jumps out too. Velvet doesn't stop running screaming at the two of them to keep going as the butterflies flood out from the roof of the greenhouse like a giant green wave, big enough to block the sunlight.
"Let's go!" Velvet continues to shout reaching the grand steps into the manor.
Carnelian runs beside Lily feeling her body screaming in pain with every two steps she tries to step over. Velvet opens the door into a hallway her shouting for the two of them to hurry up but the sound of fluttering deafening them, Carnelian and Lily make it in first followed by a panting Velvet.
They back themselves against the wall seeing the wave of green hit the glass door. The swarm hit the door dispersing like a puff of viridescent green disappearing before their eyes. Carnelian's eyes are still wide as he watches the butterflies retreat.
"Well, that was fun." Carnelian says panting, out of breath from all the running. He looks at the ceilings and walls shouting for no reason, other than to get the Gamemaker's attention "We were already going here!"
"We can't stay here long." Velvet says standing up and heading down the hallway, Lily follows suit with Carnelian forming the back, speaking how he has never been inside the mansion before.
Carnelian admires the ornate walls and paintings, the occasional door they would encounter he wants to peek in, but Velvet tells him not to do anything and to just follow her lead. She leads them towards the courtyard stopping at the sight of Rye, his ally stands up, the Eight girl holding onto her dagger.
Lily tightens her hand around the handle of the axe. Velvet looking at Rye and his ally in turn. Carnelian too gets ready. There's a calm before Velvet rushes towards the girl from Eight, golden sword clashes with golden daggers sparks flying as the girl holds her own.
Rye tries to deliver a kick at Velvet, but Carnelian stops him gripping onto his leg pushing it back. Lily doesn't waste anytime rushing into the battle helping Velvet by bringing the axe down on the dagger with all her might. The golden weapon flies from her hand and she screams.
"Rye!" She says out loud, panic in her voice, she stumbles backwards.
Rye pushes past Carnelian, his shoulder injury making it harder to work the weapon he has, but he is too late. Lily hears a gasp beside her, and she looks to see Velvet had plunged her sword into the girl's stomach.
The cannon is instantaneous echoing between the four of them. The girl's body falls backwards into the water with a splash of red. She watches as Rye rushes over to the water. Velvet's face is emotionless as she watches the Eight girl's body float on the water.
"NO!" Rye shouts, he turns back grabbing the dagger on the ground, he's quick as he rushes for Lily.
Lily misses him with her axe, her inexperience with it showing as it passes by the boy's head. She feels stings on her legs as she collapses on the floor. Rye had slashed her leg as hard as he could making her buckle in pain. Carnelian is by her side in a second. Velvet chases after him but stops before she can be out of view, returning to the two of them.
"I'm sorry." She says to Velvet, who shakes her head.
"You're fine, does it hurt?" She says looking at the wound herself, the wound is deep.
"I'll be fine." She lies and adds, "I just need to clean it up and rest it awhile."
"Let's hope so." Carnelian says.
Ashley Allspicer, 15, District Eleven
It's not even noon time and the death count has risen to two already. She watches Kenna looking around the office space they had wandered in as another cannon fires in the background. The office is bigger than the other ones they had seen and judging by the furniture she surmises that this is the President's office. It's bigger than her house and the furniture more expensive than her neighbourhood put together.
Ashley keeps her eyes on Kenna, eyeing her up and down. She's been acting odd for some time now, but she brushes her off every time she brings it up in conversation. Ashely can tell she's more paranoid and there have been more times that she had caught her talking to herself rather than to Ashley.
The feeling of wanting to break away from her is almost at her forefront now seeing her become more unstable by the minute. Ashley does not need that type of ally that's going crazy, especially with so close to the Games' end. She can be her downfall, the last hurdle that will definitely trip her up as she reaches for that finishing line.
She's sitting on one of the lavish sofas counting the arrows once more. There's twenty-one left, Kenna carrying one for self-defence. She doesn't know if she regrets giving that to her or not, she supposes she will find out when it's sticking out of her back.
"We should leave." She says to Kenna, they need to keep moving and not stop, even more so now that two tributes have died in the space of an hour.
Kenna only nods at her suggestion. Her eyes look at her tiredly, she knows that Kenna has spent many nights not sleeping, talking to herself constantly. Ashely too have been sleepless the last couple of nights worrying about her own life and, to an extent, Kenna's wellbeing too.
They pack their bags Ashley putting her arrows back into their quiver. Ashley looks at Kenna once more, her mind must be working overtime as she opens the white doors of the office and into the massive ballroom.
She follows Kenna out of the office, stopping when she stops following her gaze to see Gharial and his ally. Ashley looks at Kenna and then down to the arrow she's holding, the knuckles going whiter than ever never looking away from Gharial.
"On my signal." She says and all Ashley does is prepare an arrow.
There're a few tense seconds, the air thick around them before Kenna rushes forward, her shoes squeaking on the marble flooring. Ashley supposes that's the signal and she follows Kenna's direction with her arrow.
The girl from Seven leaps into action too circling around Kenna, she has no weapon, but she heads towards Ashley. She's heading towards her and she redirects her aim to her now. She stops eyes wide and scared as she raises her arms high.
"I'm unarmed, you wouldn't do that would you?" Her voice panicked as she looks at Ashley pleadingly.
"You were heading straight for me." She replies to her. "How do I know you're not lying to me?"
"True, but you're a good person, are you not?"
"I guess I am, but so are you, right?" She says to the Seven girl her stance still ready to fire an arrow anytime. "And yet, here we are…"
"Look, I just want to get home." She says exasperatedly. "I want to see my family again…"
"You don't think I don't?" Their conversation is not going anywhere. They both want to go home; she expects that being so close to the end.
She fires the arrow, and it hits the girl right on her thigh. She screams, a little too loudly for Ashley's taste. It attracts Gharial's attention hearing his ally's voice echo in the vast ballroom. He's currently engaged in a fight with Ashley but he's a lot stronger than the girl pushing her to the side easily and rushing towards the Seven girl.
Ashley backs away preparing another arrow, readying to fire the moment he moved towards her, twenty arrows left, every shot has to count. She can hear Kenna shouting at her and she looks briefly at her ally.
"Kill him now!" She shouts running towards her. "Don't you want to get out of here?"
She does, more than anything, she can escape that horrible place she lives in back in Eleven and live a lavish life in the Victor's Village. She can take her uncle and not have to work a day in their lives from then on. She wants that. To be untouchable by the predatory Peacekeepers.
"You do this you become a murderer." The Seven girl pipes up on the ground, her bleeding thigh dropping blood on the white marble surface when she tries to stand up.
"There's no other way." She says out loud more to herself rather than to answer back.
In that moment she lets loose another arrow striking towards the girl's head and in an instant her cannon sounds. She's dead before she even gets a chance to speak back falling backwards into Gharial's arms. The boy looks at her with sadness, laying his ally down on the floor before shouting in rage.
He picks up the golden spear and with a guttural shout rushes towards Ashley thrusting the spear at her with full force. She stumbles back, dropping the bow with a clatter on the floor, shock on her face at him grazing her side.
The pain blossoms as she falls to her knees. She doesn't know what's happening, her mind going a mile a minute as she tries to recollect what had happened the last minute. She glances at Gharial, a slight shock to his face and then at Kenna who looks at him angrily. He had missed her, but she had never felt the closeness of death before.
She doesn't feel anything other than pain, she's not dead but she nearly died. Thanking some higher power that she still lives another day She looks at the Kenna as she prepares to attack. She wants to help Kenna but the moment she moves the pain intensifies.
Gharial Rivers, 18, District Ten
The rage that he had felt melted with that attack on Ashely. He didn't get a chance to react as Kenna jumps onto him so fast. His grip on the spear loosens and he stumbles to the floor. She's on top of him, Gharial squirming under her. He's trying his best to fend her of, but he has never seen someone so angry as she tries her best to deal as much damage to him.
He howls in pain when the golden arrow pierces his arm and at that moment all common decency flies out of the window. He forgets everything his father has ever told him about treating girls right, as he uses his other arm to punch her off of him. His fist connects to the girl's porcelain face and she rolls over beside him.
He's panting now, looking at the arrow stuck in his arm. He wants to pull it badly but he's not out of the fight yet. He stands up quickly, briefly flashing a look at Maggie's body as he does so, feeling an overwhelming sadness wash over him. He doesn't want to leave her, but he has to if he is to survive another day. He needs to get out of here and try to recover.
There's two of them and just one of him, he knows he's not going to survive if he stays. He needs to buy himself time and escape the way they came in. He looks at Ashley who is still processing her near death experience, the spear sitting by her side. He then flashes his eyes at Kenna who's still lying there from the hard punch he had delivered.
He needs to move now, reaching for the spear just in time that Kenna gets up. Before she can get closer, he thrusts the spear towards her direction, the girl dodging and stumbling back. His punch must've disorientated her slightly. She attempts another lunge when Gharial withdraws the spear, and he delivers a kick to her side and this time she falls to the ground once again.
He takes that opportunity to escape. He holds onto the spear tightly as he runs towards the entrance they had come in earlier. An arrow flies past his head, whistling through the air and colliding with the door. He can hear Kenna shouting at him, goading him to come back and fight but he ignores her, he knows when to run away from a fight he can't win.
He hobbles away as fast as he can, his bad leg acting up now and the arrow in his arm still hurting like hell. It's times like these that he hates his little limp and just as he's about to turn a corner he collides with something. He falls to the ground with a thud trying to get up quickly, feeling exhaustion creeping up on him.
He locks eyes with the boy from Nine. Rye looks at him with fear and panic, Gharial mimicking the same expression. He holds onto the spear tightly and then he notices the golden dagger in his hand too. He looks back at Rye.
"Truce?" He says, standing up slowly, holding out his hand at the boy.
"Truce." He says taking the hand and pulling himself up.
He nods and runs away from the ballroom. They don't say anything the truce had come and gone as they run the opposite direction. Gharial down the red carpeted hallway and Rye towards the way he had come from, Gharial not telling him anything like a pair of tributes that can kill him.
He continues to run as best as he can, trying not to think about Maggie but he knows that it's inevitable, the sadness suffocating him already. He's lost every one of his allies, apart from Ander. He laughs cruelly at himself, perhaps that's karma for doing what he did to Ander. He knew that doing bad things to good people would always come back and bite him in the ass.
The boy from Seven is probably sitting comfortably somewhere as he runs for his life. He continues to run down the hall only stopping when he hears voices. He peeks over the corner seeing both Carnelian and Velvet carrying an injured Lily into a massive room. The blood from the girl's leg leaking profusely despite the makeshift bandage.
He stands there waiting for them to disappear behind that room, catching his breath. Once they have gone from his line of sight, he continues forward entering the courtyard. He sees water first rushing over to it only to back away at the sight of the girl from Eight floating in her own pool of blood.
The feeling of vile and vomit rising from his stomach urges him away from the scene and back to the hallway, entering one of the rooms and unloading the contents of his stomach on the carpet flooring in one of the offices.
He drops the spear by his side, leaning against the door as he places a hand to his head unable to take the image out of his head. The way her face remains permanently in shock her mouth filled with bloody water.
Now that everything is calming down, the pain in his arm is more apparent now. The arrow still stuck to his arm. Looking at it he knows that he needs to take it out. He grits his teeth and grasps at the arrow tightly. He counts to three before wrenching it hard and fast, with muffled screams and shouts he takes off his sweater vest and wrapping it around the wound.
He has not felt this badly for a while. Losing Bailey, then Maggie and then seeing so much death in one day. The trauma, the image of Maggie's death replaying over and over, the Eight girl's face haunting him. He grips onto his arm tightly as he begins to cry, the feeling overwhelming him, feeling sad over at what a failure he has become.
Ander Bayleaf, 12, District Seven
Ander sits up at the chair at that last cannon, looking around the massive library. There's been a lot of cannons today. He's hiding himself away on the second floor of a library that he had found. The library has been quiet the last few days and he supposes with all the cannons today means that the Gamemakers will leave him alone for a while.
Tucked away in a corner all by himself, courtesy of Gharial and Maggie. He has been here two days now, holed up inside the library wandering and exploring every nook and cranny the area can offer. The only thing that was worth finding is a silver blunt knife in one of the desk drawers downstairs.
He uses that same knife to scrape at the desk he's sitting at rather harshly and angrily. He hates them with a passion. They left him. They left him for dead! Left him to fend for himself, he could have died. He huffs to himself his face contorted in anger. Is this how they repay him for saving their lives?
He sighs looking around the majestic library, despite the hatred he harbours for his former allies, he does feel very lonely. Everyone that's ever been good to him has left him, first his sister and now his allies. He didn't want Bailed dead. He wanted to help but at the time he had been too scared. He feels the guilt rising up again.
Maybe he did this to himself?
He scrapes the desk extra hard at that question. The last few days alone leaves him time to contemplate his time in the Games. His betrayal of Bailey, pushing her toward Carnelian and into her early demise and then keeping it all to himself without telling her district partner. The only saving grace that he can think of during that situation is that at least she died quickly, but is that really the only consolation to that?
He dwells on her a lot, even if he doesn't directly think of her, she comes up in the back of his head or in his dreams. Keeping that secret and not telling Gharial and Maggie had been a bad move on his part and maybe he is in the wrong. He chews on his bottom lip; he can't expect them all to go home. Someone had to die for him to survive and that just happens to be Bailey, and Avena, and Tey.
No.
He can't think about all of that, mulling over the deaths of his allies is not healthy and he knows this. Other than the death of his allies he has eliminated competition for them. Antonio, from Two, was definitely a heavy hitter and thanks to his poison trick he had been successful.
Does he feel guilty about that? Yes, well not as much as Bailey. He had time to think about it over the last few days and he doesn't think he feels very guilty about his death. He felt the pang of guilt, sure, but he did it to win, and he knows that if it was the other way around the Two boy would have done the same.
He huffs again. He knows he's right. He might be young but he's not stupid to know that only one tribute can ever leave the arena alive. In fact, they should be thanking him instead of leaving him for dead. He grips the blunt knife tightly scraping hard on the desk once more.
The fury he will unleash when he sees the both of them will be immense. He'll use the poisonous flowers that calls out to him from inside his bag. He picked extra for a reason; he didn't think he would have to use it on his ex-allies so soon. He grabs the bag on the floor and opens it up but hides when he hears voices and the door opening downstairs.
Ander ducks underneath the desk keeping quiet. He doesn't recognise the voices and his curiosity takes the better of him crawling on the floor and peering through the banister only to see Carnelian carrying the girl from Four, who looks injured.
"Are you sure you're okay?" He asks the girl looking worried.
"Yes, I'll be fine, go look for food I can still defend myself." She speaks out loud.
"Fine." Velvet says beside Carnelian, Ander only now noticing she's there too, she looks at her softly before heading back out the door, the One boy following her.
"We'll be back soon." Carnelian says closing the door.
Ander hears the door close. He looks down at the girl resting on one of the desks, a makeshift bandage soaked through with blood on her leg. She's injured, he can see that as he grips the blunt knife tightly in his hand. He can take her on.
The idea about the flowers return to him, the boy moving quietly back to his bag finding the purple flowers he had taken from the greenhouse. He crushes them silently spreading the juices on the knife. The plan to sneak behind the unsuspecting girl and stab her and hoping the poison helps in speeding up her death; another big hitter gone.
He leaves the pack, making his way down the library steps. He keeps his eyes on her, the girl trying to rest with her eyes closed. He sneaks past bookshelves no sound coming from his feet at all as she makes his way behind the girl.
He holds his dagger high as he is behind her and in an instant he plunges it right into her back. Her screech is deafening as Ander stumbles back the knife flying away from behind her. She flies from the desk trying to stand up but buckling under the pain.
She opens her eyes, and he panics as they both rush for the knife, Ander narrowly beating her. He kicks at her hands and she growls back at him. He looks scared as she fights her pain and stands up with the axe.
"Clever." She says looking at him. "Maybe you have a death wish."
"Maybe." He smiles, the same innocent one he always tries to put on.
She is about to attack him when she stops, collapsing in front of him coughing up blood. The axe falling out of her hand. She looks at him a panic in her eyes as he approaches her, gripping tightly onto the knife.
"What…did…you do to…me?" She says raspy as Ander stops in front of her. Her arm grips at his leg weakly, no more strength as the poison travels quickly from her spine all the way through her system.
"Poison." He says simply before plunging the knife back down on her left eye.
There's no screaming, just a cannon the grip on her leg stops and he backs away from her. He looks at what he's done, feeling sick at the sight of the dagger in her eye. He closes his eye as he wrenches it out hearing the squelch of her eye.
He puts it away and picks up the golden axe. He feels the weight of it, heavy in his hands. He doesn't hesitate any longer as he runs away from the scene out the door forgetting any packs. He moves quietly to the left going to one of the rooms he had marked safe.
He has made it to the final eight.
A/N - Final Eight vibes? Yes? This is the first of two chapters where we escalate the deaths from a paltry one last tribute to a big brain 8.
Now that we're in the final eight, surprised? It was a very hard decision to make and I've done it now.
Let's start with the Eulogies:
12th - Cyrus Sunbeam, District Six Female - throat sliced by Diana Grey
Cyrus I had planned on not making him survive so long. At first impressions he didn't stand out so much in comparison to the others, but I re-read his form more and more and actually liked him. He ends up twelfth ultimately because I felt that this is all he had. Top 12 is not so bad, but he managed to do a little bit of damage to what would have been an unbeatable Diana. Thank you, the consulting marauder for Cyrus. He was a pleasure to write.
11th - Francesca Appiani, District Eight Female - stabbed through stomach by Velvet Eclatant
I will admit that at one point I envisioned you as Victor. However, that was a long time ago now. You struggled internally between going home and betraying your allies which I found such a great quality. Francesca had big dreams back home in Eight and now she won't be able to achieve those dreams. I felt that she should have killed Rye long ago, but I think she had a soft spot for him that she did not want to lose. Thank you for Francesca, Elements08
10th - Magdalene Juniper, District Seven Female - arrow to head by Ashley Allspicer
Where do I start with you? You cared so much for the smols more than your own at times and became their leader. However, Gharial's accusations and that precognitive dream that you had seemed to cement your decision to leave Ander. Tearful as it may have been. You had motherly qualities that I think Ander liked and clung to and with you leaving that made him worse. You were the Ander whisperer. Thank you for her, DefoNotAFangirl.
9th - Lily Mendoza, District Four Female - dagger to the back and eye by Ander Bayleaf
Lily. I did envision you as one of those that could win. I just think that after everything with the Ones that you too faded to the background. You were never really the type to kill people without them attacking you first. The way you hesitated in every fight after killing Avena. Feeling that scared feeling of what you could become. I think you were close to Tony in a way and his death too had affected you. It's a shame that the arena didn't give you the weapon you would have been good at. I truly enjoyed your presence so thank you, SparrowBirdEliza, for her, really.
So there we have it. Our final eight!
Carnelian Wolfe and Velvet Eclatant from D1
Diana Grey from D2
Kenna St. Clair from D5
Ander Bayleaf from D7
Rye Durum from D9
Gharial Rivers from D10
Ashley Allspicer from D11
Who will go next? You can read the next chapter now!
Cheers!
~Alec