Dionysus Bacchus (17) D1M
Nailah, Allure, and Anthony were all fawning over their gifts. I loved my sword, but I didn't get the big deal about the second item. It was just a slice of cake and some sparkling grape juice. That was hardly worth all the fuss. Sure, it was a nice break from pre-packaged sandwiches with inexplicable flavors and water that was probably only partially water, but it wasn't a huge deal. I didn't understand it at all until Anthony wandered over.
"Who wrote you?" Anthony innocently asked me, showing me a picture of his mom. She looked delighted in it and I hated how upset that made me. My parents didn't look at me like that. Dad didn't even acknowledge that I existed.
"Wrote?" I asked sadly, unable to keep the disappointment out of my voice. I could tell myself Mom was busy. I could tell myself Dad had to save face and it didn't hurt me when the situation was no different than it had always been. I could tell myself a lot of things, but none of them would actually convince me to be anything but shattered over it. "I just got the cake and a drink?" It wasn't like it was something new. It wasn't like I could reasonably expect more.
"What the hell?" Anthony asked right back, answering a question with a question. He almost dropped his picture, then caught himself and put it back in the case it had come in before continuing. "You can't just do that. What the hell! Your kid's getting trauma and fighting to the death in the Games and you can't be bothered to give them the time of day? Who does that?"
Anthony's anger seemed unreasonable to me. Some parents aren't nice. Some parents abuse their kids. I didn't have parents like that. I just had parents that never forgave me for getting addicted to alcohol and would only value me if I brought back the pride I had already lost the family. I just had siblings that were too busy training to care about me, or ones who didn't even know we were related in the first place. It wasn't the end of the world. Until I realized that it was. He was still going off about how unreasonable it was, saying that I deserved better and that people like that didn't deserve kids, and... he was right.
I never hated myself for my drinking. I thought it was fun. I thought it made me a party animal. I never hated my parents for their reaction about it, either, but I went further than that. I never even allowed myself to feel anger. My parents told me I was a bad person and a failure because of an addiction I started when I was fourteen and shouldn't have even had access to alcohol in the first place. And I told myself that was a fine, normal reaction, not something that was absolutely insane. They never got me rehab. They never even tried to help. They just yelled and said I was bringing shame onto the family. At least mom did. Dad just retreated into his mansion.
"Yeah, they're dicks," I replied, confidence coursing through me while I admitted that. "You know they never stopped me from drinking? They'd say they hated it and then give me beer money when they wanted me out of their hair. Guess that was pretty messed up."
Desiree Redwood (17) D7F
We ate, drank, and were merry. Even if it was just juice and not wine, the drinks were a lovely delight to four people who hadn't had water since the Games started. I was pleased to find that we all clumped together instead of naturally breaking into two groups of two, even if I wished that Bess was by me instead of being sandwiched between the boys. I could hardly be blamed for wanting her all to myself, even if I knew that it was hardly fair to want to keep her joy from spreading to others.
But it couldn't last. We were full on slices of cake bigger than any of us could have afforded back home and merry from getting any sponsors at all, even if we knew they probably weren't personal presents. They were just something the President gave us all so that the rest of the Games would be more interesting. But still we had joy from the food, energy from the drink, delight from the reminders of home, and terror of what the rest of the Games would hold. Our bottles didn't last two minutes and already we were thirsty again, leaving us headed the rest of the way to the oasis.
As soon as we got near the water, one of the messed up birds approached us. I assumed it was a mutt meant to intrigue us more than anything else. It didn't look dangerous, and none of us had seen any actually threatening mutts so far. This Arena was intense enough that they didn't need mutts to thin the herd, and I wasn't about to be kept from water by a silly bird. Its doofy eyes were enough to make it cute instead of threatening, even if its claws were somewhat impressive. It wasn't like a bird could really kick very high anyway.
I noticed Bess hanging slightly back and saw my chance. Flirting was fun, but it was only getting me so far. I puffed out my chest and grinned at her. "I'm not going to get scared off by some lousy birds," I announced, a bright glint in my eye. I had my axe on me just to be safe, but if I knew anything about birds, I wouldn't need it. I could just run at it and it would run off, not wanting to risk its hollow bones in a useless fight.
Yelling my battle cry, I ran up to the bird as fast as the sand would allow. Much to my surprise, it held its ground. I raised my axe and kept going forward, ready to swing a mighty swing, and came to a sudden stop. I didn't really want to. I could take a bird. The world just blacked out around me.
Nailah Nebit (18) D2F
We all jumped when we heard the cannon go off. We waited for a second or third and none came, but we couldn't believe what we were all hoping for. It seemed stupid. They had been so tightly bound together; there was no reason for the outliers to split up. Unless one of them was completely heinous. But we'd all just gotten food and water and surely a mutt that could take out one of them could take out two of them. If they'd fight together against the Careers, we could only imagine they'd fight together against a wild animal.
"Guess it's time for a hunt," Allure announced almost serenely. It seemed like such an odd thing to say with such little feeling, but I understood it. It was just a fact of life. We'd hunt down the outliers, we'd split, and then we'd die. There was no reason to be unserene over such a simple fact.
"Maybe they didn't split. It would still be three versus four," Dionysus countered reasonably. I shook my head.
"Doesn't matter. The Capitol won't like Careers that are just sitting instead of fighting, and the four of us are trained Careers. We'll win. We might take a loss or two, but we'll win." I spoke with more confidence than I had, remembering Allure's tips of how to seem like I knew what I was doing. Speak clearly. Talk just a little louder than necessary. Maintain eye contact. Don't mention that everyone's hoping we'll take losses in the fight so we don't have to fight each other. Pretending to be confident was so much easier than actually being confident.
With no further arguments, we split. I was a little surprised that I had convinced Dionysus, but I knew the real truth: He had never intended to stop us in the first place. He just wanted to pretend that he was a reluctant killer and not a willing one. It didn't matter. One way or another, seven more kids were going to die. We marched towards that reality, racing full-tilt toward the death of our souls. Allure walked in the back with me, both of us already preparing to fire, and Anthony and Dionysus were in the front, ready to flank and stop the outliers from blocking.
It was a perfect arrangement. We could take out an outlier or two before they knew what was coming, and in their panic they wouldn't have time to react to the boys reaching them. It should have been a piece of cake to reach them, but the Capitol had other plans in store. Specifically, they had two very large dogs in store for us, ones that easily strolled into the break between the girls and the boys. And they were looking at the boys.
"Really?" Anthony asked, already preparing to fight the massive, bristling dogs. "Whatever. This is nothing for four Careers, right?"
Allure and I had already run the numbers and run away. These mutts were nothing for four Careers, but they could take down the two that we'd have a hard time fighting.
8th Place: Desiree Redwood - Actually beheaded by an ostrich
We all know Des is a bit of a legend, and she's also one of the physically strongest people in the story. I had to kill her for what I had planned, but really, who would attack Des? The answer is a 300 pound mass of sheer rage and sharp claws. As awesome as Des is, she's not my chosen Victor for this story, and she wouldn't want to fight Bess anyway. Thank you to Tinks for Des, who remains a legend (and managed to get top 8, so that's pretty cool).