Day 6:

Stravos Brodie, 16
District 1 Male

The blood caked underneath his fingernails had hardened like dried paint. He just stared down at his hands as the sky slowly grew lighter and bluer, until all the little details on his skin properly came into view. The blood stains had gone from ruby red to an ugly brown. He probably could've picked it off, but he didn't care. It was like a bit of a trophy. You play dirty, you get dirty. And you wear your fucking mud on your hands like a champ.

It had been...satisfying.

In an odd way. He wasn't a fucking serial killer or whatever. Those dumbasses didn't see him coming and he was literally as exposed as possible. Just one turn of the head, and they still would've had ample time to stop him. It was so preventable. Then that girl just had to jump in front of the guy last-minute and it screwed with his plans a little. In the end, he still got a kill, so who cared?

Here, everyone was an enemy. Stravos didn't care whose throat he had to slit. He was just looking out for himself. After all, nobody else wanted to look out for him.

Home was a lot closer than it seemed, yet still so far away. He had work to do. Scores to settle. He had to find his district partner and give her and her stupid alliance of simple-minded morons absolute hell. It just had to happen. The cards would fall in favour to ensure it. Oh, he wasn't worried about being outnumbered. They had a chance to kill him already and they fucked that up. He outsmarted them once and he could probably do it again.

He'd get his revenge. It it wouldn't even take him multiple tries or any backup. Stravos already knew what he was capable of. Holy shit, it was just way too easy. Once he went in the right direction, Elise could kiss her chances of victory goodbye.

Too bad the sponsors hadn't been paying him much mind recently. He hadn't received any gifts in a few days, which was disheartening. Damn, all those kills for nothing? Maybe there was someone else matching his numbers. All the more reason to seek other tributes out. Then the audience would have to pay attention to him.

Well, Stravos wasn't the best at playing the popularity game. He was more of a poker and cards kind of guy. But that didn't mean he couldn't branch out and still give the popularity game his best shot. In the most convoluted cards metaphor he could think of. Fuck it. It was way too early in the morning for metaphors.

"Now..." Stravos said to himself as he began to pace back and forth. "If I was Elise, where would I be hiding?"

He decided to work backwards. He had last seen Elise at the Cornucopia, when he ran. Maybe she was still there. After all, the Cornucopia had tons of cool swag that could an alliance or two afloat for the duration of the Games. It just made sense. If Elise was clever enough to pick up on that. Plus, he could always raid the horn for himself if nobody else was there.

So he casually strolled off without a care in the world, except with the goal to have the highest kill count in the 9th Hunger Games.

He hated this arena. It made it way too easy for other tributes to spot him, meaning they had plenty of time to run away before he could start the chase. How was that any fair? Or any fun? What was even the point? It was like herding cattle, except he was from District 1 and never had to herd cattle before.

Now, it was time to look for more lambs to slaughter.

Again, not because he like, really enjoyed stabbing people or whatever. He had to do it, and if that was the case, then so be it. Plus, if Elise hadn't done shit yet, even better.

You'd think after almost a week in the arena, it would become a little less confusing. Yep, Stravos still found it really easy to get lost. Constantly, he had to stop and re-evaluate his options. Which way was the right way to get to where he wanted to go?

"Hmmm, let's see here...that way, no...oh shit...this way? Fuck! Hey Foxy, a little help would be nice, ya know? Something? Anything?"

There was no response.

"Oh yeah. Typical. You know what, fuck this. If you don't wanna help me, then that's fine. I'll take everyone down myself!"

The clouds picked up their pace as they rolled over the Sun, slowly covering the arena in darkness. Was that a sign? An omen? Maybe the Gamemakers were showing him some support and giving him a cover to hide in. Too bad he was wearing the whitest outfit imaginable. Although, after a couple of days, it was starting to get really dirty.

After a little more wandering, the Cornucopia was in sight. And there were plenty of ways to get over there.

Stravos just cackled to himself, his fingers lacing together the way a super villain from an old cartoon would. He could even pick out two other figures, and he knew exactly who those ladies were. Better yet, they wouldn't even see him coming. What was with tributes and not watching their backs around him?

They were down to less than half of the tributes remaining. And if everyone was as clueless as the District 8 pair and Bellona, and Elise, it was all too easy. He'd be coasting to victory and back home to the glamour of Victor's Village faster than he could say "fire the cannons."

Hell.

Fucking.

Yes.

Zilla Odbody, 16
District 6 Female

"What do you want to do today?"
"Red, you know for a fact the amount of activities we can do is very limited."
"So...what do you want to do today?"

"You already asked that," Zilla reminded him, but a small smile spread onto her cheeks. "But perhaps, to conserve energy, we could take it easy today. We are in a very good spot and we're lucky not to have encountered anybody else yet."
"Sure. I'd love to just chill out for the day."

"Yes, chill." Zilla was starting to get the hang of Red's more casual talk. She...liked it. Even if small talk could be pointless and occasionally left them both searching for words to fill the gaps, she didn't mind. It felt nice. It was good to have someone she could talk to.

"You ever seen what a baby cow looks like?" Red asked her. "Because they are adorable."
"There's not a lot of animals in 6."
"Huh. So no cows?"
"No."

"Too bad," Red laughed. "Because again, they're adorable. They're like the cutest things ever!"
"I believe you."
"You ever have any pets?"

"No," Zilla said flatly. "Pets are expensive to look after."
"Wait, really?"
"Yes."

"Well in 10, it's like pretty much everybody you know has a farm. The richest people have big farms, and they can actually hire other people to work for them."
"Interesting."
"Yeah. But in town, there's a lot of shops and butchers. I like visiting them."

Zilla pulled out some of the remaining food they had, carefully dividing it up. Supplies were starting to dwindle now. They had to be very careful because unless it rained sponsor gifts like crazy, they were doomed to starve to death.

Zilla didn't know what it felt like to starve. Things had been tight after her father's death, but they always had money. Her mother could afford to put something on the table. She wondered if her mother and sister even missed her at all. Or without Zilla, they could actually feel like a normal family.

She really needed to stop thinking like that, didn't she? Of course her mother and Koia missed her. Why wouldn't they? Koia had always been very emotional and surely she could be crying herself to sleep every night and...um...Zilla did not want to conjure up that mental image.

She didn't have to know how her sister felt. She just wanted to know that there were people who wanted to see her com back. If she ever came back. Zilla didn't really want to try and calculate the odds and all the factors that went into it. It was too much to handle.

Red sat on the edge of their little stone platform, humming to himself and idly swinging his legs. Zilla watched for a moment, then joined him. Whatever, she didn't have anywhere to be at this exact moment. They deserved a peaceful hour or so.

"Have you ever done cloud watching?" Red asked. "I used to, but...eh, kinda loses its spark after a while. But unless we get sponsored a board game, I have no idea how to pass the time. And I'm sure you don't want me talking you ear off."
"No worries. It's fine. You're not talking my ear off."

Red gave her an dramatic sigh of relief. "Okay, that's good."
"I apologize if I seem a little...well, it is hard to feel normal in a situation like this."

The Gamemakers probably wouldn't be too happy to hear that. Oh well. Zilla realized, she couldn't bring herself to care.

Around them, the normally white and fluffy clouds were slowly starting to darken as they rolled by. Zilla and Red watched as they turned a deep plain grey. The sky was dark too, and even colder than before. Finally, it started to rain. Small drops at first, landing on Zilla's skin and clothes, before they began to fall like crazy, making loud splat sounds as they dropped onto hard rock.

Plop. Plop. Plop.

Zilla just unscrewed her canteen and held it up to the sky so the rain could fall in and fill it up. Red was trying to use his hands as a cup or a scoop, with limited success. Normally, rain was a sign of gloom and dread and staying indoors to keep warm. Not in here. It was actually refreshing. Or the Gamemakers didn't want to the tributes to die out too soon.

The droplets of rain on her tongue felt so good. In a strange way, it gave her hope. Water's importance could not be underestimated, so a literal life force dropping from the sky into her hands, it had to mean something. Even if Zilla was just gonna put all the water into her canteen and not bother searching for its meaning or symbolism.

Suddenly, two cannons fired in the distance, one about a minute or so after the other. Zilla and Red looked at each other in surprise. The clouds parted, turned back to white, and the rain was gone.

"Oh shit," Red muttered. Zilla didn't say anything, but she'd definitely have to agree with him on that.

Elise Starbright, 16
District 1 Female

As several parachutes floated down containing an ostrich egg, caviar, and a frying pan, Elise wanted to pull her hair out. "You gotta be kidding me."

Bellona sighed. "When I get out of here, I'm kicking Honouria's ass. This is ridiculous."
"What are we supposed to do with all these eggs? This is insane!"

Bellona pointed lazily at the frying pan. "Duh. What do you think we're supposed to do with them?"
"Do we even have a stove top? Or wood for a fire? No."
"I'm we can find something."

Bellona rummaged through the Cornucopia supplies, leaving Elise behind to clean up all the caviar and parachutes. Each little piece had come with its own parachute. Holy crap. There were parachutes everywhere. There had been so many that some had missed the girls entirely and floated under the sky below them, disappearing from view. Everywhere Elise looked, there was caviar.

It took them way too long, but eventually, they had all the caviar in a small pile. Now, what to do about the ostrich egg? There was no way they could cook it.

"Great. Now what?"
"Should we just let it hatch?" Bellona asked her. "Or leave it?"
"I don't know. Leave it, I guess."

Elise gave the frying pan a practice swing. "Mmm. I did a play like this once, when I was like eight or nine. I was a lowly Capitol housewife making dinner in the kitchen, then got ambushed by a rebel. He was played by a classmate, his name was Antony. I pretended to hit him with a fake frying pan but actually hit him for real and bruised his chin."
"Holy shit," Bellona snickered.
"He was a good sport about it, though. The older boys called me Pot-Shot Starbright for a month."

"That's hilarious. But hey, anything's a weapon if you're brave enough." Bellona twisted a small strand of hair around her finger. Elise wasn't really paying attention. By now, she had tried her damn hardest to memorize each district's colour, although a few were escaping her. But she was often able to list them off in her head. District 2's red, District 11's brown, so on and so forth.

So when she saw someone running towards her in her own District 1 white, she didn't even have to second-guess herself. It was much too obvious.

"Stravos."
"Stravos?"
"He's here."

"Shit." Bellona shoved a knife into Elise's hands. "Let's go. We'll get him this time."
"What the hell am I supposed to do with this?"
"What do you think? Don't let him get away!"

The second Stravos's foot left the bridge, Bellona charged at him. The clashing of their knives made a clanging sound as the clouds rolled in and the rain began to pour. Bellona slipped and her foot flew out from underneath her, but not before she grabbed Stravos and pulled him down with her. They began to wrestle, with Bellona managing to practically flip herself over, strangling Stravos with one hand as she prepared to stab him.

Fuck. Elise needed to do something.

Suddenly, Bellona screamed as a knife went straight through her gut, before being pulled out and sending blood flying everywhere. Her hands began to shake, allowing Stravos to rip her weapon from out of her hands. Elise felt her knees knock together as Stravos pushed Bellona off him, grabbed the back of her neck and slammed her head into the ground. There was a cracking noise.

When Elise saw Bellona resurface with blood spilling from her broken nose and cut lips, it sparked something her. A rush of adrenaline, a call to action. She didn't even think about running at Stravos as hard as she could, jumping into the air, and slamming into him with her body.

It worked. Stravos let go of Bellona. Elise felt stunned, and she was sure Stravos was too. She scrambled to her feet, just in time to catch a fist swung in her face. Elsie turned her head sharply and Stravos punched her in the back of her head, leaving a giant bruise behind. Elise let herself tumble backwards until she was kneeling over on the ground.

Her eyes stung. God, that hurt! She took a quick breath and began to force herself to cry. Loud, ugly sobbing, much too distracting to ignore.

She couldn't see Stravos's face as he laughed. "Holy shit! You gotta be fucking kidding me, right!? I didn't even hit you that hard!"
Her tears were starting to dry up, so Elise started dry-heaving instead. She couldn't believe she was actually going to try this. This was stupid, wasn't gonna work.

"Oh, please. That's just the way the game goes, Starbright. Any second now, your girlfriend's gonna die and you're next on the chopping block. It's hysterical. It took you two shots to even land a hit on me and I'll be nailing you on my first try."

The cannon fired. Bellona was dead. Elise kept her head down as Stravos's shadow loomed over her and his fingers grazed the clothes on her back...

Then she stuck her leg out and kicked him as hard as she could. Stravos cussed loudly as Elise turned around, grabbed his waist, and pulled him towards her. Stravos was slammed onto the ground as Elise drew her knife.

She didn't waste any time carving his throat into a giant, deep, blood red smile. Then just for good measure, she stabbed him just below the neck.

Stravos coughed weakly, then went still as his cannon fired out. His blood was all over Elise hand's and she didn't know how she felt about that just yet. It was...satisfying? He had underestimated her, fell for her tricks. It had been a pretty stupid move to forget that she knew how to act.

But she had just killed someone. And she didn't even feel sorry about it.

Did that make her as bad as him?

11th place: Bellona Pierce, District 2. Stabbed in the gut by Stravos.

Bellona was great. A rebel from the most Loyalist District? What more could I ask for? Ultimately, despite how much fun it was to write her alliance and Stravos's one-man-plan to wreck havoc on them, she becomes his latest victim. Despite that, Bellona didn't give two shits and she was here to make kills and kick ass. tributes like her who aren't exactly patriotic and have nothing to lose are always so much to write. Thanks for her, Professor R. J. Lupin1!

10th place: Stravos Brodie, District 1. Throat slit by Elise.

And finally, down the joker goes. I realized that having Stravos just running around snatching kills was gonna get old pretty quick and a confrontation between him and his ex-allies was inevitable. And despite him managing to survive two thirds of the alliance, Elise outfoxes him. He played his part of an antagonist well and his story gets wrapped up here in a neat little bow. RIP, bastard boy.

Alliances:

The Stronk Alliance: Darra, Weller

The Wholesome Alliance: Zilla, Red

Loners: Elise, Amelia, Veles, Twill, Clair

Kills:

Stravos: 4 (Bellona, Haruhi, Claodis, Lily)

Elise: 1 (Stravos)

Toren: 2 (Charles, Argen)

Bellona: 2 (Corbyn, Acacia)

Amerlia: 1 (Stryker)

Veles: 1 (Cleveland)

Darra: 1 (Gear)

Weller: 2 (Toren, Adella)

Stryker: 1 (Astrid)

Down to single digits now, lol! And in case you're a bit confused, the cannons Zilla and Red heard were the ones belonging to Bellona and Stryker. Zilla's POV takes place later in the day, for suspense and drama reasons, obviously.

Just to let everyone know before it happens, once we hit Final 8, I will be reducing the amount of sponsor gift you can send from two gifts per chapter to one per chapter. So if there's some gifts you wanna send, it's best to do it soon.

See you all next chapter,

-Vr