Tabitha Sparks, District Three female (15)

Obviously we had to defeat Alice. Also obviously after Alice was dead we'd still have four Tributes and only one Victor. Obviously, we were only talking about one of those things.

"Let's just find her and dogpile her, I guess," Nene said in her typical no-nonsense way.

"I think the hardest part is going to be finding her," Lester said.

"Yeah, she has a mask. It'll be hard to recognize her," I said in a serious tone. I perked up when Lester smiled.

Nene turned to me with a confused expression. "But she's the only other person in the Arena," she said.

"Oh, that's true," I said.

It was ominous how quiet Irina had been lately. She used to be the most outspoken of our group. She always had her opinion and she was usually the one who suggested what we did when we hung out. She was never bossy, it was just that Lester just enjoyed quietly being with his friends, while I just wanted to do whatever was funniest. Usually it was Irina who came up with ideas and if it wasn't her it was Skada.

A jab went through my heart when I thought of the name. It was Skada. Was. One little word, three little letters. It was so cold, so permanent. Every time I thought of Skada for the rest of my life it would be Skada was. I suspected that for the rest of my life it would be that same jab, fresh as the first time.

"Where would you go if you were the only Career left against a big alliance?" Lester asked. Trust Lester to ask a logical question like that.

Irina considered. "I'd hole up and try to find more poison or something," she said.

"Alice seems too impatient for that," I said. She'd always struck me as energetic and almost hyper in the Capitol.

"She's just been hiding out in the wilderness all day. There must be a lot of wolves out there. She keeps shooting," Nene said. She got up and walked toward our collection of bottles across the room.

"Seems weird she wouldn't just..." Lester's head jerked up and I flinched at the fear on his face.

"She's learning to-"

There was a blaring crack and the sharp shattering of glass. Nene was.

Nene Palmer, District Six female (18)

It was nice to have a short-term goal. We were all focused on killing Alice and that meant we had an excuse not to talk about what would happen after that. Truthfully I wasn't as worried about it as I could have been. The future had always seemed nebulous to me. I preferred things I could hold and touch. I simply had no idea what might happen in a few days. Things could change or something entirely unexpected could occur.

Probably at least one of us will die killing Alice. It was both a chilling thought and a cold matter of mathematics. From a human standpoint, some of us were going to die. From a pragmatic standpoint, some of my competitors would be eliminated. Alice would be focusing her attacks on Irina, her only real competition. Other than that the most likely to die was Tabitha, but if she died, Lester would likely die first. My best guess was that at the end of the battle Alice would be dead, Irina would be wounded, and Tabitha or Lester may or may not be dead. As for myself, I couldn't really predict. I liked my friends but I had neither their long-term bond nor their selflessness so I anticipated I'd take a more reserved approach in the attack while the rest would be throwing themselves into defending each other. That increased my chances, if not my moral standing.

I'll never have friends like this again. I'd had friends in the motorcycle gang. I'd known them far longer than my circus friends and I still thought of them often. But when I got home- if I got home- I'd have an entirely different life. I didn't know if the Capitol would even let a Victor be friends with biker ruffians. We'd never done anything worse than shoplift or vandalize a public park but we were still not exactly upstanding citizens. A Victor had to be a Capitol darling. I had no idea how to be a social darling. Hopefully they'd assign me a handler.

The thought of losing my friends, both motorcycle and circle, made my stomach hurt. I stood to get a drink of water and distract myself. Despite my better judgment, it warmed my heart to know that when I turned back around I would be looking at friends.

Alice Mason, District Two female (17)

I was losing my mind. I was losing my entire mind.

I'd been lying on my stomach at the corner of the pharmacy for hours, waiting for someone to come into view. More specifically, waiting for someone threatening to come into view. Of course I had to kill all the circus kids to get home but each time I set up shop to snipe one of them I only had one shot before they all knew where I was and I had to move. So when Tabitha walked by the window- I was pretty far away but knew her by her short red hair- I let the shot pass me by. I could kill Tabitha anytime. It was Irina I was waiting for. But it had been at least four hours, judging by the movement of the sun. I was bored, I was stiff, and my left leg was cramping.

When a shape crossed the window I almost jumped up and gave myself away. I felt an instant of disappointment when I saw how tall the figure was. Irina was tall but not as tall as Nene.

But then... After Irina Nene was the biggest threat left. She was strong, cold, and had an idea of fighting from her background. Anyone could kill me but Nene was definitely a distinct threat. And a bird in the hand was worth two in the bush...

I took the shot.

5th place: Nene Palmer- shot by Alice

So now the secret's out. It was Nene who was voted to die along with Talise. Since I had this sniper thing in mind from the beginning of the story I saved her for this. Right after I marked her as dead a handful of votes came in for her and I was like really? I actually debated how best to follow the voters' wishes but concluded that it wouldn't be fair to Talise if Nene got extra time but she didn't. Anyway, Nene was really popular from the start and is still pretty popular now- she only died at -1 vote. Some people changed their votes most likely because of the previous Victors from her submitter but even with that as common knowledge she still had a lot of life votes. A lot of people here identify as weird kids so I wasn't surprised. Nene was strong for realistic reasons and she had a cool and unusual backstory. She made a found family with the circus kids and they will miss her just like they miss Zara and Skada and the others. Thanks SparkaLeah and while it sucks she got brought down largely by metagaming, she probably would have died earlier in a nonvoting Games because while I DID like her a lot I would have assumed the readers didn't want a repeat Victor, though clearly it's not impossible ;)

Timeline: I don't know the exact day off the top of my head but it's three days after the last chapter. That gives Alice a little more time to practice so it's a little more realistic. Also fun fact from firsthand experience, the prone shooting position Alice used is hella stable and makes shooting really easy tbh. It would still be hard with a crappy gun but she was only like 100 yards away and at that distance we don't even use our scope. We literally just point and shoot.

OH SHOOT I forgot there's only four left now. So as you would expect, votes go down to ONE VOTE FOR VICTOR and that's it! Should make things simpler...