Josiah Okoye, 17
District Eleven Male
Games: the 189th Hunger Games
Arena: The El Royale Casino
Tributes remaining: Belladonna Rotto D6F, Josiah Okoye D11M, Malik Mohsen D12M
x
It felt rather strange at first. The warm, thick blood smeared all over his dark body, dripping down on the carpet floor as if he were a melting ice cream cone.
It isn't his blood, that's for sure. Josiah came into this game, telling himself that he wasn't going to hurt a fly. That he'd rather die than give up everything he stands for. His integrity is everything to him. If he doesn't live by his standards he might as well not live at all.
And yet the Games have their own sneaky little ways of making you turn even on your own morals. 'I'm sorry, I'm so sorry,' Josiah says blankly, without the slightest hint of emotion. He rips the dagger out of the girl's body one more time before wiping the blood-stained weapon on her chest.
'Jasmine, you there?' Bella, the girl from Six, enters the dining hall, looking for her friend. Upon seeing Josia on top of her ally, the blood gushing out of her body, the girl lets out a high pitched scream. No time to think about his actions, Josiah abandons his victim, heading for Bella.
Malik, the boy from Twelve, also makes his appearance in the hall, after hearing Bella's screams. Josiah, surprised by the number of enemies surrounding him at once, loses the girl from Six as he sees her jolting up the staircase and disappearing around a corner. 'Wow, weren't you the one who spoke at the interviews of how you were determined to stay human and what not?'
'Did you?'
'Did I what?'
'Stay human.'
'Ha! No way.' Malik seems to have no problem strolling around the area like he owns the place, knowing it inside out. 'But, here's the thing, I knew I wasn't going to stay pure and cleansed coming out of this. No one does. That's why I always thought you were an idiot.'
'You don't understand… I-I wanted to. I was sure that I was going to… I was… sure.' Josiah trails off, realizing that the boy isn't really interested in hearing him out.
'You're a liar and it's fine. Aren't we all? Just own up to it and don't be such a crybaby.' he rolls his eyes. 'So… are we gonna like fight, or what?'
Josiah's feeling unsure. He's not feeling confident. He really is a liar and, most importantly, a murderer, a monster. Part of him doesn't want to accept that fact, accept the fact that he isn't as pure as his mother raised him to be, that there is something dark inside of him, something dark that didn't even hesitate to murder that girl back there. That part of him also realizes that it is too late to turn back now.
Malik, fiddles with his dual swords playfully. His eyes show no mercy, only bloodlust. It's like Josiah is staring into his own reflection. Malik hops onto one of the tables, covered with a white sheet. He bounces from table to table, letting his arms trails behind him.
All Josiah has is a knife but It'll have to do. He bends his knees in a defensive stance, readying himself for Malik's attack. The boy from twelve, finally, leaps down from one of the tables and brings down his two swords towards Josiah. This is it. Josiah presses his eyes shut, unable to accept the fact that he's about to die.
Malik screams at the top of his lungs as he's knocked to the side, before being able to reach Josiah, a knife sticking out of his stomach. Josiah looks back at the balcony, overlooking the dining hall. There Bella stands, vengeful as ever. 'This is for Jasmine.' she tosses a second knife. It barely misses Josiah, leaving a small cut on his left cheek. Bella hurries down the stairs, throwing another knife. This time Josiah actually has to evade it. Vengeful people are the scariest kind of people. They have nothing holding them back, only their lust pushing them forward. He ducks down behind one of the tables. There must be a way for him to get close to her. Every now and then he'd peek over the table he's hiding beneath, checking if she's on to him. From the looks of it, the District Six girl has lost sight of him.
As soon as she turns her head, Josiah jump to another table. He was going to use Malik's strategy but in a sneakier way. 'Stop hiding and fucking fight me already!' she seems to be getting angrier. Might be the fear starting to get to her. Fear of the unknown. That is good. Josiah's adrenaline starts to kick in as he gets closer and closer, Bella still looking around worried like she'd just gotten lost in a forest. One more table and Josiah would be close enough to pounce. His hands touch the soft floor gently, ready to crawl to the last table.
His foot hits one of the table's legs, causing the cutlery to move, alerting the girl. 'Sneaky bastard…' she mutters, going in for the kill. Before she's able to get a headstart, Josiah jumps up and throws himself at her, locking his arms around her body. The two fall to the ground. Bella lets out a scream. They tumble around for a while. Josiah tries to slide his knife out but fails as the girl persistently punches and kicks him all over his body, some areas hurting more than others. Bella finds a fork, lying next to her. She aims for Josiah's neck. Instinctively, he blocks the attack with his hand, the fork protruding through his flesh, reappearing on the other side. He growls as her eyes widen with horror. It seems like she, herself, is failing to comprehend how she is capable of hurting another person.
This is his window of opportunity. He slashes his knife across her throat swiftly, watching the blood ooze out. Her eyes, still in shock, start to close gently before the canon sounds.
'Congratulations, to the victor of the 189th Hunger Games, Josiah Okoye!'
Karin Desmarais, 18
District Two Female
Games: The 152nd Hunger Games
Arena: Railroad Island
Tributes remaining: Karin Desmarais D2F, Sicily Maughd D3F, Frey O'Shaw D7M
x
'He's so scary tho!' Sicily exclaims leaning back against the mountain wall.
'Yeah, I know.' Karin splashes her face with some water from a small stream, flowing down the hill. 'I was hoping he wouldn't last till the end. But it doesn't matter. We just have to deal with it now and I'm pretty sure we'll be able to take him down together.'
You might call Karin an unconventional career. After her career pack died out due to being split up repeatedly, Karin found her key to victory in Sicily. Yes, she might only be fourteen and, yes, she was going to get a lot of hate for allying with an outlier but it doesn't matter. Unlike with the careers, there was less talk about kill counts, murdering kids, and who was going to win. Sicily and Karin talked about what their life was like before the Games. What they'd do in their free time. What kind of friends they'd had. Besides that, the girl was smart and had an eye for detail. Thanks to her they avoided an incoming landslide as well as a train collision.
'We only have one hour left before our thingies...y'know… explode.' she fiddles with the collar around her neck.
Not only is Karin unconventional but so is the arena. Gamemaker, Euterpe, was intent on shaking things up as always. The arena consists of mountainous regions and underground tunnels, all connected through railroads with specific trains leading to certain areas. All the tributes were given a digital map of the arena that shows all the train lines. The trick is that twice per day different areas would light up on the map. Each tribute would then have to make their way to that area before the time on their collar runs out and they explode into smithereens. It was an obvious way to get tributes closer together and stir chaos. Every time Sicily and Karin had to go to different areas, they'd agree on an area where they'd meet up after they accomplished their task.
Now, in the finale, it was obvious that all the players were given the same location. Frey, the boy from Seven has been the frontrunner of this competition since he volunteered. He spoke about saving his mother or something but Karin didn't buy it. She knows there is more to it. She sees it in his glistening eyes, seeking fame, she sees it when he walks around the training hall, looking as confident as ever. And, honestly, it doesn't matter right now why he volunteered. What matters is that all Capitol bets are on him.
'Alright, Sicily, I think we should get going because-'
'I'm scared.' Karin's heart melts as she turns around to see the girl's eyes watering. Karin hurries over to her and envelops her in a warm hug.
'It's okay…' she whispers, her lips touching Sicily's forehead. 'We knew it was going to come to this, huh?' she offers the girl a smile. 'There's no reason to be scared… no matter what happens I'll be by your side and I'll protect you.'
'You don't understand!' she shouts. 'I-I-I don't care if I die, okay? I just need… you to make it home. I have nothing back in District Three. Nothing. My parents don't care… my friends don't care… nobody cares… they all just want to survive… they're all just sick, selfish bastards.' she sniffs and covers her face in Karin's chest.
Karin hushes gently as she caresses Sicily's hair. 'It's going to be alright, you're going to be alright.'
Sicily looks into Karin's eyes, still hugging her. 'Thank you, Karin… thank you for this friendship you've given me.'
Sicily's tender and vulnerable facial expression vanishes as she yells in pain, falling completely into Karin's arms, the latter falling over, hitting the ground. 'Sicily, what's wrong?!' Karin looks around hectically and sees it. She sees the axe sticking out of Sicily's back. 'Sicily, wake up! I said wake up! SICILY! FUCK!' she shakes the girl's body with all her might, trying to restore her innocent life.
Another axe comes flying. Karin tilts her body to the side. Frey walks up to the murder site slowly. 'Oops…' he places his finger on his lips in a cheeky manner.
'You monster…' She raises her broad swoard, making the boy from Seven her target. Frey takes out his hunter knife and gets into combat stance. Karin's aware that he's aiming to reach his axes but she isn't going to let him.
She charges at the boy who stays calm, not moving an inch. Once close enough, Karin brings the sword down on him but misses as he slides past her, between her legs. Frey sprints to his weapons. At this point, she wouldn't be able to get to him before he reclaims his axes. There's only one thing she can do now. She's done it before, it has worked, rarely, but she's done it.
Karin focuses on Frey, lifts her sword high up, the pointy edge falling behind her back, she closes her eyes and tosses the sword, watching it twist and turn in the air, flying in a surprisingly straight line. Frey grabs one of his axes, turns his body, ready to aim for Karin, but is greeted by Karin's sword digging itself into his abdomen.
Boom.
'It worked! Oh my god! It worked…' Karin's legs give in, she burrows her face with her hands. 'It worked…' She crawls over to Sicily and gently slides the girl's eyes shut with her thumb and her index finger. 'I failed you…' Karin collapses next to her deceased friend, the tears running down her face, mixing with the sweat and blood. 'I'm sorry…'
'Congratulations, to the victor of the 152nd Hunger Games, Karin Desmarais!'
Applebee McMavis, 12
District Nine Male
Games: The 179th Hunger Games
Arena: Drylands
Tributes Remaining: Harmonee Odenson D1F, Vince Heffron D1M, Rogue Dupris D2F, Blade Aozora D2M, Salima Marts D4F, Sheldon Carty D4M, AppleBee McMavis D9M
x
There isn't much space for Bee to move freely inside the hole. Wiggling his toes and latching his fingers onto the edge, to pull himself out, is just about as much flexibility as he has. It doesn't matter, however. What matters is to keep a low profile because right out there, on the surface, are where the big players are. The careers.
Bee still has trouble remembering what exactly did happen during the bloodbath. Varya, his district partner, died at the hands of the District Two female, that he can recall. It was definitely a bloody feast this year with limbs flying across the battleground and screams synchronizing in a beautifully harmonious orchestra of pain and suffering.
There was no way Bee was going to look out for anyone but himself. And only himself. After grabbing a backpack laying next to a bunch of other backpacks, a particularly oddly-shaped hole in the ground, next to the cornucopia, caught his eye. Realizing that the number of tributes at the cornucopia were dwindling down and soon the attention was going to be turned towards him, he slung his backpack across his shoulder and snuck into that hole.
It's been six days now, six days full of uncomfortable, looming anxiety. Not only for Bee, but also for the careers. If there is one thing Bee realized, then it is that the careers really don't get along. At all. These past few days, there's been non stop arguing between the trained killers. Whether it'd be about a knife that went missing or one of them snoring too loudly, there was never a moment of peace between them and Bee knew that he needed to use that to his advantage.
Every night he'd sneak out of his hole, grab something from the career's supplies and hide it, causing more discord and today is the day, he's aiming for a lot of chaos.
'Where is that little prick?!' Harmonee stomps around the campsite like an angry baboon. 'I can't anymore, I seriously can't! I just want to find that boy, slit his throat, and get to the real battle so I can get out of this goddamn shithole and-'
'Would you shut up for a minute?' Rogue, the girl from Two, interrupts Harmonee's tantrum. She sits on the floor, legs crossed, hands leaning against the dusty surface.
'Go to hell Rogue. You've been nothing but a bitch so far so how about you go-'
'Alright, ladies, let's calm down a tad bit, shall we?' Vince gets in between Harmonee and Rogue.
'Butt out, Vince! I'm going to kill this girl, I swear!' Harmonee tries to tackle Rogue but is intercepted by Sheldon who pins her to the ground. 'Get off me you idiot!'
'I think we've had enough drama for today.' Blade rolls his eyes. 'It's late, let's just go to bed.'
After a couple of minutes, everyone settles down, wrapped up in their sleeping bags. Now it was time for Bee to crawl out. He makes sure to keep his eyes on the ground as not to step on supplies, waking the careers. He makes his way over to Rogue, dagger in his left hand. Rogue's long, silky, ashen hair cover her pale cheeks. Bee knows that she's the one to kill. The blame will automatically be directed at Harmonee who made her resentment towards Rogue very clear. His heart races but it has to be done. He readies his right hand and shuts the District Two girl's mouth with it. The moment she tore her eyes open, Bee plunges the knife into her heart. She barely had time to react before the life was ripped away from her. Quietly, he slithers back into his hole.
The following day, everything goes as planned.
'Oh my god!' Salima screams, waking up the rest of the pack.
'What, what, what?!' Sheldon jumps up, running to his partner. His eyes glide over to the murder scene. It takes a few moments for him to truly process the situations. Immediately, he looks at Harmonee who's just in shock as everyone else. 'Don't pretend… it was you, wasn't it?'
'Me?!' She rests her hand on her chest, dramatically. 'We agreed that we'd only go for each other once everyone else was dead so why would I betray you guys? I'm not fucking stupid!'
'I always knew you were impulsive… but I never thought you'd really play such a dirty game…' Blade ushers, eyes staring into nothingness, still impacted by the death of his District partner.
'Are we really just going to point fingers towards Harmonee?' Vince, once more, takes his partner's side, trying to handle the situation.
'Yeah, how do we know it wasn't the District Nine boy?' Salima, finally ads her input to the blame game.
'Don't be stupid, Salima, we would have known if it was the boy. He couldn't have snuck past all of us… and even if he would have made it to our camp, why target specifically Rogue.' Vince shuts her down.
'To make us do exactly this, point fingers. We can't fall for-'
'I think it was Sheldon,' Vince interrupts Salima. 'He, who out of all people expressed the most how he hated the way Rogue was sulking all the time.'
'Don't do that, Vince…' Sheldon coils his hands into fists. 'You know that I'm a man of my word…'
'I think you… are a murderer.'
And with that phrase Bee watches the chaos unfold. Sheldon picks up his sword and charges at Vince. Vince tries to arm himself as well but fails as Sheldon slashes his stomach. Vince coughs out blood, watching his innards spill onto the floor.
Harmonee retreats, grabbing her bow. She loads it with an arrow and points her weapon towards Sheldon, who is still staring at Vince's lifeless body. Both Salima and Blade take cover. 'Go die in hell!' she lets the arrow fly, hitting Sheldon's shoulder. He shouts in agony but wastes no time, disappearing behind the cornucopia. Harmonee follows his trail. Bee can't see what is happening back there. He hears metal clashing against metal and, finally, a boom rings. Blade and Salima stare at each other, both realising that there is no going back now and that the final battle has begun. Salima, slides out her knife and pounces at the boy from Two. She stabs at him repeatedly, the boom ringing in unison with the boy's last scream of pain.
Salima, getting to her feet, is surprised as the remaining career, Harmonee, hits the District Four girl's lower back with a sledgehammer. Salima, collapsed on the ground, sticks her knife into Harmonee's leg. The girl winces but bashes her sledgehammer into Salima's head repeatedly until there's nothing left but a mush of brains and skull.
The sledgehammer slips out of Harmonee's hands, she, lifting her head to face the sky. Bee crawls out of his hole for the last time. This was his shot. The girl is recovering from the battle that just took place. She's unsuspecting. She's weak. She's easy prey. He sprints towards Harmonee, dagger lifted, and ready to attack. She hears the footsteps behind her but is too late to react as the weapon enters her gut. Bee twists the knife and adds pressure before pulling his weapon out. Harmonee falls to her knees.
'Congratulations, to the victor of the 179th Hunger Games, Applebee McMavis!'
Nivea Godness, 16
District Five Female
Games: The 181st Hunger Games
Arena: Mountainous Heights
Tributes remaining: Nivea Godness D5F, Lupei Karrigan D8M
x
He has her cornered, not good. The young boy's copper hair falls to his shoulders in curls, his gentle green eyes, with so much pain and sorrow in them, pierce her soul. Nivea, looking behind her to see if, perhaps, there is a way out, has the breath knocked out of her lungs as she stares down at her inevitable death. The cliff starts to crack, fissures forming along the edges. She doesn't have a lot of time. She's seen this boy before. If Nivea is to be correct, he's thirteen-years-old. Amazing, he defied all odds and made it to the end.
The boys eyes well up in tears, axe still lifted in combat stance. Nivea has no weapon, no special fighting skills, no escape plan, and yet she has her most deadly weapon by her side at all times. Her words.
She's going to break that boy.
'Why are you crying?' she asks simply to open up the conversation. The tears now trickle down his face. He wipes them away with his palm.
'I… don't know. I've just killed so many people… and…' his lips quiver. He forces himself to finish the sentence. '...I just can't do it anymore.'
'Then don't.'
'What do you mean?!' he screams at Nivea. Good. He's becoming more emotional. More vulnerable. 'I have to get home, don't you understand?! I have to get home!' the axe in his hand shakes.
Nivea tries to hide her smirk. 'Do you think anyone will want you back home?' now the real plan is starting.
'What…?'
'How many people have you killed so far, Lupei?'
'Three…'
'… And with me, it would be four. You're going to leave this game, having killed four people. Four people who all had their own lives, their own stories to tell, their own bright futures ahead of them.'
Lupei tries to stay calm but the way his body reacts, begs to differ. The girl gets closer to him, one step at a time.
'But I had to! Otherwise I was going to die!'
'Ah, I see, the infamous I. If everyone thinks the way you think, we'd all be dead by now. It is thanks to people who think of the we and not the I that we, humans, have made it as far as we have.'
Lupei stays silent, processing her words.
'Nobody is going to want a murderer back home. You killed four people for goodness sake! Four people! Do you think your mother or your father are still going to love you?!
'I had to…'
'No, you didn't. Don't lie to me. You could have hid. Look at me. I've made just as far as you and I have not killed anyone. I don't even have a weapon!'
'We're supposed to kill… this is the way…' he lets the axe drop, his head sinking, tears still dropping like little raindrops. '...this game works.'
Nivea, finally, reaches the boy and hugs him. She could just toss him off the cliff now and get it over with, but no. Nivea wants to see how far she can really push this. She touches his face gently and lifts it up so that his eyes stare into hers. 'I know what you can do,' she whispers.
'W-what?'
'If you really want to prove that you are not a murderer and if you want to show your parents that you are still human and that you regret your decisions… you need to kill yourself.'
He falls into her arms more, still maintaining eye contact. She's got him enveloped in her embrace of darkness and she won't let go until she's completely molded him the way she wants to. Whoever said that you need a physical weapon to kill was an idiot.
'But-'
'No buts… listen to me. If you show the world out there that you care, that you wish it was different, that you are so saddened that you can't live with your deeds anymore, you will die a hero. When people think of you, they will be happy, they will feel love, not resentment, but gratitude for showing humanity that there still is good in this world. You'll be a hero.'
Lupei disappears from her arms, staggering towards the edge. He looks back at Nivea one more time, she, nodding at him, giving him the last push needed for this ultimate sacrifice. 'I love you mom, I love you dad. I'm not a monster… I'll prove it to you.' and with that sentence, he drops to the bottom of the abyss.
Nivea smiles. He'll die a hero, but she'll live a villain.
'Congratulations, to the victor of the 181st Hunger Games, Nivea Godness!'
Okay, so that got a bit dark...
Now, we've met our last four mentors: Torn Josiah, unconventional Karin, sneaky Applebee, and Nivea... who talked a little kid into committing suicide. Fun.
Who was your favorite out of these four? Who was your least favorite?
I've closed all the POV spots and I'm really happy with the submissions I've received. Now, however, submissions for the D2F, D3M, D4F, D6F, D7M, D10F, and D11M are still open. So you can still submit to seven spots and I promise that Non-POV tributes will still get a ton of airtime since I love tribute interactions. I also hope to see some new submitters who haven't submitted yet!
After this chapter, I'll publish the final prologue with the confirmed tribute list! I am still unsure if I'll be doing introductions for the POV tributes before the pre-games or if I should introduce the POV tributes as the Games go on (My idea was to perhaps have small flashback interludes between the pre-game chapters, featuring one of the POV tributes. So you'd have kinda like character-centric chapters in between to get to know each tribute a bit more). What do you think?
So, yeah.
Random Question: How is the length of my chapters? Should I make them shorter but faster update speed?
Goodbyeeeee!
