Lacey Evans (Arkane Erransaw)
I couldn't believe it when I saw her face in the sky. Yes, I was the one who killed her, but it all felt surreal. There was no way a little girl was really dead because I wanted a weapon so badly. Things just didn't work like that. I knew the fact would settle in someday, but I was fine with complete denial. I couldn't win the Games if I was too busy feeling guilty.
Isaac Carder (Nyle van Buren)
Arkane and I shared knowing glances when we saw the first two faces. I knew that we both saw the face of a murderer, though neither of us would've admitted it. I didn't think I really murdered someone, since it was the Games, and Arkane refused to admit he had killed someone. We both stared a murderer in the eyes without realizing we could've just looked in a mirror.
Cecilia Q. (Radian Sempli)
I didn't know the girl I saw in the sky. Her face flashed with her name underneath it, and without that, I wouldn't have known who it was I was looking at. A family mourned and someone cried, but all I saw was someone I didn't have to worry about anymore. I knew a little girl had died, but I didn't have time to mourn. There was food to find and living to do.
Argentina Hudson (Gallant Deacon)
The first of our alliance to go flashed in front of us. I knew she was one of the strongest of us. I knew she died in a moment's lapse of mind. It was a horrible thing to see, especially when the Careers were already down to two. It wouldn't be long until I was alone, or until I was dead. Once I was alone, death couldn't be far behind.
Jade Hart (Yvette Ishi)
I couldn't help but shudder when I saw Jade's face flicker in the sky. She was being creepy on purpose when she talked, and I knew it, but that didn't stop it from being effective. She was dead, all right, but I was confident someone like that would never truly be gone. She would be haunting the Arena until everyone in it was gone.
Rio Ryine (Amelia Gomez)
Wait, they were already down to four? I couldn't believe it when I saw Rio's face. The Careers were down to four before we attacked them. For once, they were dropping like flies instead of just the outliers. After a few thoughts ran through my head, it hit me that Rio was dead, but I shoved that to the back of my mind like every Victor inevitably did. Rio was dead. I could mourn the tragedy later.
Cassiopeia Palassaqua (Prosper Mallister)
You may be dead, but your killers will pay. Gallant and I didn't have a real plan for what we were going to do, but we were making things up as we went along. There had to be distance weapons we could find somewhere in the Arena. There had to be a way we could beat the people that hurt our allies. We would find that way, and we would make them pay.
Alexandria St. John (Lumara Hansen)
Oh my God. We killed two Careers. There were only two left. That was impossible. That didn't happen - it just couldn't. Our alliance was the only powerhouse left, making us practically guaranteed to win. There were two Careers left. The rest were loners, weren't they? They had to be. It seemed possible, in the weirdest of ways, that someone from my alliance would win. I had to make it me.
Rybbon Marbroox (D8Mentor)
I can't believe I lost them both right away. I'd been through plenty of years mentoring to know that it could cause as much trauma as the actual Games. I still hadn't been prepared to watch my kids be the first two kills - well, the first two official kills - of the year. It seemed impossible that both Eights could go down, one after the other. It seemed impossible that the girl I thought was just like me was dead.
District Eight
Surge never really recovered from Isaac's death. You could see in his eyes every day that he wished he could have taken his brother's place, and you could tell from the way he gave away every single cent he could live without that he wanted to make sure no child would ever watch their dreams crumble again. Lacey's dad would always remember his little girl, the one who fought with all she was worth until the very end, and soon enough the debate team she was on won the District championships, headed to the Capitol for a final round. They'd never be the same without their leader, but they dedicated themselves to one last year all the same.
Talaysa Pool (D4Mentor)
Oh, goodness. However could they have died? It didn't seem realistic that Argentina could have died. She was always so good at everything. And to be a Bloodbath at that! Preposterous. Rio... well, Rio was Rio. He could have known what was coming, and he did his best. Still, he might've won if he'd let me train him better. Some people didn't know that fools could learn from the wise. Is that how the phrase goes?
District Four
The Hudson family was never the same without Argentina, each person grieving in their own way. Australia kept reading her books, but her mother and father stopped nagging her to get her nose out of them. Aeneas quietly dropped out of the Academy, and nobody mentioned it. They just pretended he was always that way, that he definitely hadn't dropped out of training to spite the Capitol. Lilly Ryine spent every day painting pictures of the brother she lost, and her mother hung them on the fridge, baking a few extra cupcakes every day to give to any kids that wandered by.
I'mmm back! Normally I do a POV with cannons, but I absolutely do not have the energy for this. Still, we now know I'm still capable of writing (and not doing half bad, for someone who may or may not have forgotten this existed for a while). As I keep yelling into the void, this thing is getting finished if it's the last thing I do! And if it takes over three years ;)
Also yeah it's totally been more than a day. But I got lazy and didn't write cannons. It's probably been like... four? I don't keep track of time in my stories.
And yeah oof I wrote Eight twice. Yeah, the last one's Four.