I jump away. Filled with both shock and growing fear at our situation. I recognize these voices...
Ceres. She stands in front of me. An axe in hand. Even in the dark, I can tell it's covered in blood. My mouth goes completely dry. "Y-You again..." I say.
She smirks. "Who else? I'm definitely not your older brother." She laughs.
I grit my teeth. I'm tempted to rush off but there's a major chance that she's faster than me. She'll just take me out like cattle. Maybe I can jump into the lake and swim away. Actually no, I can't swim...
I turn back to my friends...Selling out my friends is not an option... But I can't play weak the whole time...
Try stabbing her to death? But she has an axe still...
No matter what scenario I create, every single idea I come up with will most likely end up in my immediate death. I can't risk that right now...
This isn't the first time I've been completely afraid during these games... but this is the first time I know in my heart that I'm not coming out of this alive. I'm about to cry in fact. Why does it have to be this way? I-, I don't want this to end...
However, Ceres continues to stare at me with the most sadistic of grins. "Why don't you wake up your little friends." She points behind me with her axe.
My eyes widen in horror. She knows!? Oh no! Oh no!
I first try to play it off. "What friends? Their all gone? Dead. I'm by myself now." I say, lying as if I'm without an alliance.
Ceres begins to chuckle. Only after a few seconds she begins to laugh harder and harder. "Boy. I can see them behind you. Boy and girl from 6. Girl from 4. Wake. Them." She demands, putting on a more serious face.
I stand back. "There's 4 of us. 1 of you. Untrained or not, there's no chance in hell of you surviving this!" I glare at her.
"Well how about I kill you first now. Just to take out the competition." She begins, pointer her axe at my chest.
I gulp, taking another step back.
She laughs again. "I thought so." She plays around with her axe.
"But still." I remind her.
She laughs. "You truly are a fool, boy." She says. Suddenly, another girl walks up from behind her. The girl from 10. Right...
"How about 2 on 4. Sounds a lot more thrilling does it?" She taunts. I grit my teeth.
I look back to my alliance. Byke, Troy Monica. All sleeping in their own worlds. They must feel safe there. We should be safe right now...
I move to Monica, shaking her. She begins to open her eyes. Our eyes meet, the dread on my face only reflecting. "What?" She asks, exhausted.
"W-We..." I begin, struggling to get the words out of my mouth.
"Wake up! We know you're all sleeping!" The girl from 10 announces.
Monica quickly jolts upwards, gripping her spear. Byke and Troy also wake up. Though they seem in and out, still dazed.
Monica opens her mouth to say something. However, her voice is quiet. As if it was a dream.
Ceres quietly laughs, spinning her axe. "You're lucky we're giving you a chance to fight back. Well, then again, You kids know you can't win anyways." She sighs.
I pick up my backpack, slowly pulling out a packet of throwing knives.
My face slowly dissolves to small tears. Does it really have to be like this? Even with the people surrounding me... They can't protect me. I can't even return to their help...
Troy and Byke begin to stand back as me and Monica pull out our weapons. "R-Run." I whisper to them.
Byke and Troy hesitate for a moment, not sure if they really should abandon us. However, Byke nods and rushes off with Troy following right behind her. However, before they can get even a few inches... the girl from 10 begins to run over at them with her axe. The two stand back, horrified.
"Bell. Wait." Ceres says to the girl from 10.
The girl from 10 turns around, giving an annoyed look to Ceres.. "Wha-, why? They're not that big of a deal. Taking them out right now would be better. Especially since the 4 girl has a spear." She reminds Ceres.
Troy gets in front of Byke. "I won't let you harm my friends. You're going to have to get through me first!" He shouts.
The 10 girl [Bell] Shrugs, walking over to the boy. He steps back, starting to regret this. She gives him a sadistic smirk before spinning her axe. "Fine. I'll play by your rules." She sighs.
In an instant, Troy is on the ground. An axe in his neck. Surrounded by his blood... And his eyes are chilling black... Dead...
My mind can barely register it at all.
Byke is horrified. "T-TROY!" She shouts his name.
Everything is happening too fast for my mind to eve understand the fact that Troy... Troy... Is gone...
I'm still staring at the body. The axe is still in his throat. He's still on the ground.
"BOOM!"
And a canon fires. "TROY!" Byke rushes over to his body, weeping over his corpse.
Bell [The 10 girl] Begins to pull the axe from his corpse. She looks down on Byke who looks up. Red tears clear in her eyes. Oliva turns back to Ceres, giving a shrug and a smug smile.
Ceres sighs. "I wanted to wait. Brilliant. Now the boys dead. Well, then again I was keen on wiping them out slowly." She admits.
"Now we're talking." Bell laughs.
"A-Altar... I think I'll take down down both of them at once. You and Byke try and run. I'll... I'll hold them off." Monica whispers to me.
I shake my head. "That isn't going to work." I argue.
Monica starts to look around. "Well either you try using a 99% chance of getting away or you just waste your damn life. I won't allow that." She argues.
I take a deep breath. Ceres snickers. "Do you three really think there's a way to escape? Because there really isn't anyway you'll live tonight."
In literally no time, Monica flies at Ceres. Ceres however, manages to avoid Monica's spear and pushes her back with a kick to the stomach. Monica nearly falls to the ground but she manages to recover. Bell charges at me. I grab my bag and begin fleeing.
"You're not getting away!" She shouts at me.
I'm clearly going to be unable to outrun her. However...
I turn around and roll out a knife, throwing it at her head. However, it misses completely. "You've got to be kidding me!" I shout.
Bell laughs. "You're only going to tire yourself out. I'm just going to give you some time to recognize that." She tells me as I continue running from her.
She's right. Maybe I can score a hit though. Just gotta concentrate...
I turn around and throw my next knife. This time though, it grazes her side. She stumbles, giving me some time to escape. I enter the woods, now surrounded by darkness. I stop for a moment, catching my breath and feeling safer now.
I begin looking around. "I wonder. S-Should I head back in the direction of my alliance or should I-," I begin to plan.
"I'm still following you!" The girl shouts.
I'm panicking. Which direction? Which god damn direction!?
I take a sharp turn to my right hoping that this is the direction away the lake.
However, before I can do anything. "WHAM!" I run straight into something. It only takes a millisecond for me to recognize that I just ran straight into my killer.
"You're dead!" She yells in my ear.
I quickly get up, picking up my bag and ready to stab her with my knife. Only to realize it isn't in my hand. It's on the ground somewhere around me...
That's the moment I chose to book it. I'm barely jumping over bushes by the time she's already up, armed with her axe and still chasing me. This gives me bloodbath flashbacks...
As I continue rushing through the woods, I'm reminded that Monica and Byke are still in the middle of battling Ceres. Will they manage to survive? 2 on 1. God knows... Maybe?
I look behind myself. No sign of the girl in the darkness. No doubt she's still behind me though. I keep running. Only the more I run reminds me how little I've eaten. I'm losing stamina quickly and I'm already breathing heavily.
I eventually find myself on the other side of the lake. I stop dead in my tracks though. I find her. She isn't behind me like I thought... but Bell seemingly went back to the other side of the lake to finish the job...
Bell and Ceres are currently fighting both fighting Monica and Byke. Somehow though, Monica is putting up a pretty good fight. Byke however is getting kicked around like a ragdoll, screaming each time she's hurt. Crying...
I can tell I'm crying too. My eyes are watering. My eyes tingle. I'm scared...
"No... Please..." I say to myself. Praying to whatever is out their that the two won't fall... Please...
All at once, Byke begins to dash off like I did. However, this time Bell quickly stops her, jumping right in front of the smaller girl. Bell quickly kicks her down like a door. Byke falls to the ground, screaming out in pain before Bell puts her foot on Bykes back before laughing.
She says something to her before lifting the axe. Before Monica can even react... Before I can scream her name... The axe has already found a place in her neck.
"BOOM!"
"BYKE!" I shout her name, my eyes filling with tears as I fall to my knees, starting to sob.
Monica and the rest stop and notice me across the lake. Bell begins rushing around the lake, running after me in order to take my life next.
"ALTAR! JUST GET OUT OF HER! FORGET ABOUT ME!" She shouts.
I'm barely able to bring myself to do that but I quickly jump and rush off in the opposite direction, fleeing from our attackers. I'm almost too stunned to try and process everything. However, my mind is still repeating the same words. Monica. Please... Please don't die out there...
My head is spinning with confusion as I continue running through the woods, secluded in darkness. I'm almost certain that the District 10 girl is still chasing me but I'm almost certainly not going back to see.
However, after almost 30 minutes of running and jogging and then walking... I finally stop. I look around.
"I think I lost her..." I say to myself.
After a few minutes of nothing, I sit down. I'm no longer in the woods. Instead, I'm in another meadow. I'm in the wide open but from the looks of it, nobody is around.
I sit down, looking up into the sky. My eyes fill with tears before I suddenly begin crying. I become an emotional wreck, crying for minutes at a time.
"They're all gone... Byke... Troy... Monica might be next?" I say to myself.
During the almost 30 minutes I spent running away, there wasn't another canon. Monica is currently somehow still alive...
I sigh, looking back up at the sky. I rub my eyes before laying my head down. "I-I couldn't protect them..." I say to myself.
I repeat that, questioning myself. Why? Why did it have to be this way? After a long period of time though, I just shake my head and lay my head against my backpack.
I should just rest myself right now. I'm so exhausted that I don't even know how to properly react to any of this. My heart is still pounding and I'm still taking giant gulps of air after all that running and being afraid earlier.
I'm still in shock as well. My thoughts are split. I'm afraid that the two will come charging in my direction in literally no time flat and end my life right here. However, I hear no trace of them as I lay across the ground.
They're both gone...
Byke... and Troy... They both seemed annoying in their own little ways... but they were so special in their own ways...
"And I just let them die like that." I say to myself as I breathe out. My heart is still pounding. My voice is scratchy, almost quiet.
The wind picks up. "It should have been me... They didn't deserve any of that." I say to myself.
I look up at the stars, they slowly start to become blurry as my eyes start to fill with tears again. "I could've been there for them... And I just gave up on them and let them die." I cry to myself.
After what feels like hours of me crying to myself, I run out of tears. I lay back down of the ground, my voice going silent. I don't have anyone to protect me anymore. Monica is off somewhere. I don't even know if she's dead or alive but she's most likely dead.
My brother... is somewhere. Just not here. He's dead or going to be soon. And I'll be next soon...
Only 4 days in and the gamemakers have already beaten me. They've broken me. The ever growing fear of death builds within me. After a long while, I feel like I'm about to drift off to sleep though...
I remember grandfather. He was pretty old, especially for someone from our District where it seemed rare for someone to even make it into their 40s. He worked pretty hard and it always seemed like he never broke a sweat. He seemed tough. Hard as nails. However, not even nails could break the smile he shined us when we saw him.
He was there for our family. Ready to defend us and ready to assist us. He loved me and my brother dearly. He told us stories at night while mom and dad were working. He watched us play in the snow and he made us hot chocolate. Of course, he's not around anymore as he died of exhaustion years ago.
We got a small loan from 11 to compensate for his death. Though that money was meant so we could have some more food... my mother made sure it'd go towards a school so I could go there. I never understood that, however momma told me it was what he wanted.
The school was different than the fields. It was cleaner [Barely, but that's just being picky]. The people were nicer. I went there for about a few years when the events of the 96th Hunger Games took place.
The ending was shocking, a form of rebellion and a slap to the face of the Capitol. And it happened on a nationwide scale...
And then the day after, the teacher dropped knives on our desks and told us to throw them at the wall... and we practiced... and practiced... and never stopped throwing them at the wall. There were times where they constantly reminded us of what would happen if we didn't break down the Capitol.
This thought of failure, and the deaths of everyone we knew and cared about what one repeat. Beaten into our heads like nails. There were some days where we did learn but most of the time, it were these tests that we did.
I never understood what the teacher was trying to get from this. What could she gain from emotionally scarring children and teaching them how to fend for themselves like savages?
I always grew up thinking that maybe she was trying to build an army to we could fight. Stupid idea though. We'd all be gunned down, children or not. She was a teacher, she wasn't stupid though.
As the 98th and 99th Hunger Games passed though, I came up with a scenario that maybe she was aiming at getting us to volunteer for the Hunger Games when we got older. The thought horrified me. Training children? To volunteer for the games? Only the best Districts did that. Districts 1, 2 and 4...
However, before the 100th Games I'd heard some speculation that even District 5 and 9 had done something like that. Nobody really believes it is true because we'd know... Though to be fair, 5 and 9 were in an alliance in the 99th Games as well and were shaping up to be that way in the ones before.
Were we also supposed to be like them? Trained killers? Supposed to fight and die for something that can't be changed. It can't... Troy and Byke are gone... forever. All the people that died in the other games are gone... If it's been this way for a hundred years than what'll change in the next hundred years?
I suddenly wake up. I'm sweating a little while all my memories come back to me. I look up at the sky, it's grey but it's still bright. I take a deep breath. "They're gone... Both of them..." I say.
For the first time, I feel true guilt and sadness. My dads death was horrifying as a child, I'll admit. I cried a little. Those two though... They were there for me. They were there for each other. They fought for each other. They didn't deserve to be in the games nor did they deserve to die.
Maybe... Maybe in a way I deserve to die...
The immoral 12 year old from a poor District. I should've died day 1...
However, I shake my head and stand up.
I want to open my mouth and talk more... but I pick up my bag and begin walking off into the distance, the unknown up ahead... all by myself...
School has begun again but thankfully we aren't at a point where things are too hectic for me so I'll have enough time to write. I got a computer from the school that I can take home (Which I've been using since I started writing but I was lucky to hold onto another computer for the summer) so it'll make things a little easier for me but school might be a lot tougher than it was last year, first year of High School after all.
Anyways. This chapter was kind of interesting as we see the first death of major characters. Sad :(
Byke - I kind of liked her. A lot of my female characters felt the same, being a lot tougher and cold on the inside. She kind of had a more sarcastic and oblivious personality to contrast our main.
Troy - He was originally just me throwing in the towl but I grew to think of him as another alternative to Altar. Gonna miss him.
Icytopia - Yes, that's actually what happened. However, these were the only ones who managed to cross arenas at that moment. Others will come in later.