Trigger Warning: Eidolon

Honeydew "Honey" Wrack, 17, District 1 Tribute POV

Hunting in the jungle at night isn't the best. It's so hard to see, we could've walked past other tributes without even knowing. But Eidolon seems determined to press on and I don't have the heart to tell him to stop.

It's hard to get used to my brother, the silent shadow of his former self. I try my best to read him but I feel like he can't say half the things he wants to. It's even worse at night. The moon is bright in the sky but the canopy is so thick that I can hardly see Eidolon's signals.

I'm grateful for the weather. It's a clear night. There was lightning a couple of hours ago and the rain started an hour or so later but it never reached us. Maybe it'll be useful later, when we run out of water but, for now, we can survive with the two bottles that Gloss sent us.

I just want to kill someone. I disappointed people last games. I know I need to get some kills or I'll disappoint again.

Suddenly, the rain shuts off. Eidolon stops, just as abruptly.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

He sniffs the air, loudly, and points to a wall of fog beginning to form in front of us.

"Great," I mutter. "We won't be able to see."

Eidolon sniffs the air again. This time, I copy him. My nose fills with something sweet and sickly. Chemical.

"Run!" I cry.

We turn and run to escape the wall of fog advancing on us. I'm confident that we can escape. I'm fast. Eidolon is slower than me but he's strong enough to bat aside foliage that I have to duck and weave to avoid. My heart races with fear but also with a sense of exhilaration. This is thrilling.

I know we won't get hurt. We'll make it. I know we'll make it.

Then I realise that Eidolon has stopped.

I whirl around, panic bubbling up in me. A net has closed up around my brother. He thrashes and struggles against the ropes, eyes full of terror. The fog begins to creep towards him.

I can't leave him.

I grab the knife from my belt and, hurriedly, start cutting Eidolon free from the net. I work fast. Having lived in the fishing district all my life, I'm used to dealing with nets.

But I'm not fast enough.

Eidolon transforms the moment the fog hits him. His eyes fill with something wild and animal. Foam bubbles at his lips. He howls - the first sound I've heard from him in ages.

"It's okay," I whisper, "I'm going to get you out of here."

But he doesn't hear me. Eidolon surges forwards with all the force of a tidal wave. The ropes holding him back snap and he crashes straight into me. I'm slammed backwards, my head hitting the trunk of a tree.

I flop to the ground like a doll. My vision swims. I realise that I'm about to black out.

I don't know if I'll ever wake up again.

Eidolon Wrack, 19, District 2 Tribute POV

Pain. Agony. It's all over my body. I have one thought that takes over my entire mind.

Get away. Stop the pain. Get away. Stop the pain. Get away. Stop the pain.

Eventually, it begins to fade and all the animal instincts that kept me going relax their grip on me. I sink to the ground, exhausted.

Honey's gone. I don't know where she is. I don't know what happened to her.

Did I kill her?

I cast my mind back to when I last saw her. It's completely blank. I can't remember anything that happened, only that I lost control.

I'm strong enough to kill people when I lose control.

I curl up on the forest floor. There's no point looking for Honey. I won't be able to call out for her. If she's still alive, she's likely to be nearby.

If she's dead, I'll find out.

If she's dead, there won't be any point to doing anything. I might as well just let myself die.

Asteraceae Croft, 16, District 10 Tribute POV

Houghton and I had a close call with some strange-smelling fog. Luckily, we must've been at the very edge of its territory. After a short run, it seems to be out of sight.

A cannon fires. Maybe another tribute wasn't so lucky. Sure enough, a hovercraft appears a short distance away, just over the fog.

"Didn't you build a trap there?" Houghton asks. "Somewhere... in the fog?"

"They must've escaped," I say. "If they were still caught, the hovercraft wouldn't be able to pick them up."

"Maybe they just weren't fast enough."

I run through the remaining tributes in my head, trying to guess who'd just died. Most of the weaker outliers died in the bloodbath and the ones remaining like Sankie Earthash are known for their speed. I realise that, aside from myself, the slowest tribute remaining would be smart enough to escape a trap.

"Fawkes Chau," I whisper.

"What?" Houghton asks.

"Who's smart enough to escape a trap but not fast enough to escape the fog?" I ask. "Fawkes Chau. The boy from Three. The one with the glasses."

Something terrible dawns on me and I frown.

Not only is Fawkes one of the few tributes I could probably beat in a fight, he's my only way of getting sponsors. Once he's dead, I won't have anything to hold over Manel anymore.

Which reminds me... Manel's been a little lax with the sponsor gifts. Houghton and I have received some water but that was from Liza.

"Is something wrong?" Houghton asks.

"I'm hungry," I say. "I'd kill for some food."

I tilt my head back and look at the sky.

Come on, Manel. Give me a sign.

Nothing comes. No parachute. No food. Nothing.

"You're doing it wrong," Houghton says, looking up at the sky. "Hey, Liza! I want a sandwich! Please, Liza! I haven't eaten for-"

A parachute appears in the sky before he can even finish his sentence.

Some tributes get all the luck. I'm sure I have a lot of sponsor money. The problem is that my mentor is a useless peasant. Not to mention a pretty rubbish boyfriend.

It's time to remind him of that fact. If Manel's darling Fawkes wasn't the tribute who'd died in the fog, I'll make sure he's the first tribute to die tomorrow.

But, for now, I'm hungry.

The clock arena claims its first victim! I planned for different tributes to encounter different hazards based on where they left the bloodbath. There was one tribute who I wanted to encounter a specific hazard so I put the others in a circle corresponding to that particular hazard and let the tributes find their way to their ideal sectors. In the Wracks' case, they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were the nearest tributes to Asteraceae's traps.

15th: Honeydew Wrack, poisoned by the fog (after a head injury caused by Eidolon)

I knew from the start that I had to kill Honey off and have Eidolon deal with the aftermath. Last time, Eidolon was the first to die so i wanted to have it the other way around. Then I realised that I could have Eidolon lose control and kill Honey which would be really, really, really evil but also kind of fitting. Eidolon is incredibly strong but not very good at controlling his strength. In an earlier draft, Honey was the one caught in the net and Eidolon tried to save her but panicked and accidentally broke her neck but I decided that that particular death and the aftermath would be a little too cruel. In this draft, Honey died trying to save Eidolon and he didn't actually kill her. If the fog hadn't been there, Eidolon and Gloss would've probably helped Honey recover from her injury and she'd actually be in with a decent shot at surviving the games. I know that the Wracks were quite popular so sorry for killing Honey off so early. She could've been a real force to be reckoned with but she sacrificed her chances of winning to protect her brother and, as long as Eidolon lives, her sacrifice won't go to waste.

I decided to add an Asteraceae POV just to make the chapter a little longer and tie her into Honey's death. It is her fault to some extent. Then I realised what kind of impact the breakup between Fawkes and Manel would have on her. Even though we're yet to see the state Manel's in after being dumped, it's safe to say that he's less in love with Fawkes than he was before and much less desperate to save him from the arena. That explains why Asteraceae isn't getting any sponsor gifts - her threats don't work on Manel anymore.