TW: vomit and gore

DAY 4 (just realised I've been forgetting to mark the days, oops. sorry lol)

Johanna was having the time of her life. What wasn't to like? She got to supervise an arrogant teenage boy in a death match he was convinced he would win despite his obvious incompetence. She got to hassle rich socialites to provide said arrogant boy with money so she could help him win, and she got to do all this without the support of her family. Hey, at least there was free food. And booze.

Although was it really free? Johanna thought that sacrificing her sanity and her family entitled her to everything the Capital had to offer. She made it her mission to drink as much as she could of the most expensive liquors. She didn't have expensive taste, she just wanted to bankrupt Snow, one expensive bottle of champagne at a time.

"Had a fun night, did we?" Mags asked, sticking her head into Seven's compartment.

Johanna didn't look up from where she was slumped over the desk. "Oh yeah, real fun." A fun night of crying in the bottom of the shower while chugging alcohol until her brain was numb. It was her new favourite hobby. She was getting quite good at it.

"Here," Mags said, stepping inside. Johanna heard her set something down on the table.

"What is it?" she asked, still not looking up.

"Hangover cure. Best in the country."

Johanna let out a small, bitter laugh. She sat up, and picked up the light blue box of pills. "Wow, Mags, I wouldn't have thought you the type."

The older Victor chuckled. "Well, not anymore. But in my younger days… well, I threw the best damn parties this country ever saw."

"Good for you," Johanna said appreciatively. Mags had been good for her. She was like Magnolia – firm but soft, and took shit from no-one. Johanna popped a hangover pill, and washed it down with a gulp of 100-year-old wine, which she chugged straight from the bottle. She pulled a face at the bitter taste. Her mom used to love this shit – whenever she could get her hands on a bottle of red, she was the happiest woman on earth. Johanna felt a familiar twist of sadness as her mother's face swum before her eyes, and she squeezed them shut. Don't think, don't think, don't think. Idiot.

Mags raised her eyebrows, but didn't comment on Johanna's sudden stillness. "You do realise the irony of that, yes?" she asked, raising her eyebrows at the bottle of wine.

"What?" Johanna asked, still distracted. She couldn't get rid of her mother's face – the others soon followed – her father, her siblings, Magnolia, Eurydice, Marin – and with them, the even more familiar feeling of guilt. It was all just too much to bear without being drunk – she would learn to live with the hangover, even if it meant she ended up like Haymitch. At least she would always be hotter than Haymitch.

"Never mind, never mind," Mags said. She patted Johanna on the shoulder and headed for the door. "Hang in there, girl. It does get better."

"Whatever you say, Mags," said Johanna. "Thanks for the pills."

Mags winked, before leaving.

Miraculously, the pill worked, and Johanna felt better than she had in weeks. Her head was clear, her headache was gone – she no longer felt like she was trying to walk across a ship. But with the clearness came all the goddamn feelings – the very things she tried to cull via alcohol. She wanted so desperately to reach for a bottle and wash it all away – but she needed to make some effort, at least, as a mentor. Annoying as he was, Ashley deserved that much.

He and the girl from Ten – Grace – were doing amazingly well so far. They had captivated audience with the uniqueness of a Seven-Ten alliance – and they were both charming, strong, good-looking kids, which always helped. They were the second richest alliance in the Games now – technically third, now that the Careers had split into two.

Most of that credit was from Grace, though. She was pulling in most of the alliance's sponsor money, and it was no question why. Tall, strong, golden-haired – she could have easily come from District One. And now that One was officially out of the running – the Capitols needed someone to objectify. Unlucky for her, that person was Grace. Johanna knew that if she got out of the arena, Snow would keep her very busy.

Ashley had racked up a fair amount of his own fans, though. Mainly lonely, middle-aged housewives – that seemed to be his demographic. Johanna had spent far more time talking to them than she would have liked. The thing about Capitol people is that they were very touchy – Johanna couldn't count the number of times her cheeks had been shmooshed and her hair twirled by these disgusting excuses for humans. She had briefly considered taking an axe to sponsor meetings, but Blight talked her out of it.

The two of them worked well as a team. But Johanna was worried, and she knew that Seamus and Buck, the other mentors in the alliance were too – the kids hadn't done anything. Hadn't had any run-ins with other tributes, or mutts. They hadn't done anything but walk, for four days now. Something bad was going to happen – Johanna could feel it. Her time in the arena had given her some kind of sixth sense about these things – she somehow knew when something bad was going to happen. Of course, that could have also been her crippling anxiety and paranoia. Either or.

But she was right. She saw them first on one of the other monitors – the ones that showed the main sectors of the arena. A pack of dogs, creeping closer to her tribute and his ally. They were still streets away, but it was obvious where they were headed.

"Aha! Do you see that, Claudius?" Caesar Flickerman's loud, jarring voice cut through the hum of the monitors and the other mentors, making her jump. Grumbling, Johanna began to search for the remote. Fucking Blight kept moving it.

Claudius hummed. "Yes, Caesar, I do. Mutts, quite literally in this sense! Rabid dogs, with twice the usual strength of regular dogs – part of a special project by the Gamemakers, I believe."

"Correct! The Gamemakers have many plans for these mutts in particular – watch carefully, viewers, because this won't be the last you see of these dogs."

There it was! The remote was wedged firmly between two of the cushions of the couch in the corner. What it was doing over there, she had no clue. She pressed mute and Claudius and Caesar thankfully shut up. She turned back to the wall of monitors – on the largest one, Ashley and Grace were still oblivious to the danger lurking streets away.

"Is it nice in Seven?" Grace asked.

Ashley glanced at her, sandy hair falling into his face. He brushed it away. "Why?"

She shrugged. "Oh, I only wonder. I've never seen a forest in real life – I always wanted to visit."

"Really?"

"Oh, yeah. Ten is very sparse. Lots of large, open areas for livestock, and the factories of course, and not much else," Grace said. Despite her tone, something in her face changed as she spoke of her home – talking about it obviously brought her comfort. Johanna understood that. "I think Seven must be the opposite."

Ashley nodded, and smile. Like Grace, his face lit up as he began to speak of his district. "Yeah, It's mostly covered in trees – it's beautiful, especially in fall. Half the trees go orange –"

Grace suddenly raised a hand, her eyes going round and wide. Johanna wasn't sure what she had heard, but she heard something – alert and quiet, Ashley realised something was wrong and immediately shut up. Johanna was thankful that he at least had half a brain. "I heard something," Grace breathed. "Over there." She jabbed her thumb to the right, where the mutts had made it to the street over.

There was a moment of tense silence – alone in her booth, Johanna thought it lasted forever. On the health monitor, Ashley's vital signals beeped – his heart rate was quickly going up. Don't panic, Ashley, Johanna thought. Panicking was the worst thing to do.

It was quiet – and then they leapt. Bursting through a narrow alleyway, the dogs charged Ashley and Grace, surrounding them. The two kids went back to back, Ashley's battle-axes ready to be swung, Grace with a dagger between her teeth and a lasso ready for throwing.

There were about ten dogs, unusually large, muscles rippling under her skin. They reminded Johanna of a fairy-tale she'd read in a book from the Acorn, Seven's black market – werewolves, a legend from the old days. That was disturbing enough in itself. But what scared her the most were their eyes – they looked almost human. "Their eyes," Ashley said. "What's up with their eyes?"

"I don't know," Grace said, fear evident in her trembling voice. Johanna glanced at Caesar and Claudius's monitor – they were showing the picture of a boy who had died in the Bloodbath, red arrows pointing towards his eyes. Johanna was confused but had no time to think about what the arrows meant.

One of the dogs leapt forwards, snapping its teeth, missing Grace's nose by mere inches. She reacted quickly, and soon had the dog's head pulled tightly in her lasso – she slit its throat and kicked it from the looped rope, quickly and efficiently. She'd done this before, that much was obvious, whether with cows or sheep or whatever the hell it was they did in Ten.

At the sight of their dead friend, the dogs went crazy, snarling and howling. They crept closer and closer – and then they attacked.

The allies fought well together – amazing considering they hadn't fought together yet. It was an almost methodical process – Grace lassoed them, sometimes two or three at a time, and Ashley cut their heads off with his axes. It was going extremely well until another dog leapt – this time, Ashley yelped in pain, sounding almost like a dog himself. There was a horrible crunch as the dog's jaws closed around Ashley's thumb, biting it clean off. Johanna looked away, feeling sick to her stomach.

Ashley screamed, and threw one of his axes into the dog's spine. It crumpled, and its jaws released Ashley's hand, taking his thumb with it. Blood spurted from the wound, but Ashley, to his credit, ignored it and kept fighting.

There were tears pouring down Grace's face, and Johanna had no idea why – maybe she was just scared? Johanna glanced at Claudius and Caesar again. They were now showing a clip from the Bloodbath – of Grace, snapping the heels off her shoes and stabbing a boy in the throat. Hold on, that was the boy they were showing before – Johanna began to realise why they were highlighting his eyes.

She gagged as she realised why Grace was so upset about the dogs. Their eyes – their eyes were the same bright blue as the boy Grace had killed in the Bloodbath. She gagged again, and grabbed the small bin under the desk, throwing up watery vomit and bile.

Wiping her mouth, Johanna shuddered – both at the lingering vomity taste and the horror of the dogs.

Grace shrieked – a dog had closed its jaws around her leg. She stabbed it in the head with her dagger – her lasso had become tangled around two of the dogs, leaving them without the advantage of it. She had abandoned it, but in her distraction, one of the dogs had snuck up on her.

There were only three more dogs – their eyes that piercing blue, an almost blinding shade. These three were the largest of the bunch, with prominent muscles and even longer fangs than their dead counterparts. They had lingered around the edges of the fight, waiting for their prey to tire and weaken – they were saving the strongest for last. Those fucking evil Gamemakers.

Grace didn't wait for them to attack first. She leapt forwards, slashing one of the dogs across the throat. It growled, and blood began to leak from the wound, but the cut wasn't deep enough to do the dog any real damage – she had only succeeded in pissing it off. Behind her, Ashley was eyeing down the other two dogs, waiting for them to strike first. He had his axe at the ready, the handle covered in his own blood.

In the blink of an eye, the dogs struck. There was a noise from behind and Johanna leapt to her feet, snatching up a cheese knife from one of her discarded snack platters and holding it at the ready. "Easy," Blight said, holding up his hands. "Sorry. I didn't mean to startle you."

"Fucking idiot," Johanna grumbled, dumping the knife on the desk.

"How's he doing?" Blight asked, peering at Ashley's vitals.

"Well, he's not dead yet." On the screen, Grace had managed to kill a dog and now it was a one-on-one fight. The final two dogs fought ferociously and the two kids barely had enough time to recover between strikes before the dogs leapt at them again.

Blight frowned at the screen. "What's with their eyes? I was looking at them on my way down, couldn't figure it out."

Johanna shuddered. "The Gamemakers are trying something new, apparently. They somehow duplicated the eyes of the boy from Nine, the first person Grace killed."

"To rattle her?"

"No, just for the hell of it," she said, rolling her eyes. "What the fuck do you think?" The kids were down to one dog, and they were still fighting well despite their numerous injuries – Johanna supposed that adrenaline had taken over.

"That's messed up."

"Yeah," Johanna agreed, watching Ashley and Grace intently. "Apparently this is a test run for these mutts. They're gonna use them again."

"Oh, great," Blight said sarcastically. "Can't wait to see them again."

Ashley landed the killing hit on the final dog. With one final whimper, it collapsed to the ground. The kids didn't say anything for a second as they tried to regain their breath. "Shit," Grace breathed through tears.

"What the fuck were they!" Ashley asked, panic evident in his voice. He's gotta fuckng calm down, Johanna thought, glancing at the monitor that showed their bank balance. Money was steadily trickling in from their current sponsors – they had obviously enjoyed the little show.

"I don't know," Grace whispered, staring down at the body of one of the mutts. Its now-glassy eyes were still staring up at her, and she trembled.

Ashley ran a hand through his hair – something he did, Johanna had picked up on, when he was nervous. Which was constantly. He was in an arena after all, but he'd better pick his shit up at some point or he'd die a horrible death. "We should get out of here."

"What?" Grace asked, not looking away from the mutt.

"Come on. If there's anyone around, they probably heard the barks. And the screams. We need to leave."

Something in Ashley's words seemed to bring Grace back to the present. "You know what this means, right?" she asked. She reached for Ashley's hand and looked at the damage.

"Huh?"

Grace pulled a first aid kit out of her bag. "They want us to fight," she said, dabbing anti-infection cream on the stub of Ashley's thumb. "The Gamemakers. They want us to fight a person." She rustled through the first aid kit, her jaw clenched. There was something in her face that Johanna couldn't quite read.

"How do you know that?" Ashley asked, watching as she wrapped his hand in crisp white bandages.

Grace scoffed, and began to dab cream on her own wound – which wasn't that bad, comparatively, but still held the risk of infection. "I mean, we've got the corpses of ten pretty big hints right here."

Ashley sighed. "Good point."

"Come on, then," Grace said softly, nodding towards the horizon, where the sun was beginning to set.

Ashley nodded grimly. They packed up their things, and began to walk again.

ended a friendship today, feelin good.

actually I kinda feel like shit but its whatever ig

My pants are. Too small because I put them in the dryer and they shrunk because I am lazy and I did not hang them up and now my. Legs don't fit