Azure Copenhagen, 18, District 4 Female
Magnolia seems extremely nervous. I can almost see the drops of sweat forming on their ashen face. If I intended to just intimidate Magnolia I am doing that perfectly. However, I have more to follow through on. If Coilee really is dead, I'll bring back the severed head and spine of the person who hurt her if I have to.
No… that's too much… My consciousness always tells me when I get too brutal for my own good, but that was for real life, so I didn't scare people off. This isn't real life, is it? Not until I get out of the arena. For now, anything goes. I can act however I please, even if it seems off putting to some people. A Victor has to do what she has to do in order to win. Plus, I'm avenging Coilee. That's honourable, right?
What if this silly firefighter is right? Maybe Coilee's still alive after all. Still, Magnolia did mortally wound her. She was not in good shape when I left. Pangs of guilt form in my stomach for abandoning her in the state she was in. I mean, Coilee didn't seem too sad… she wasn't calling out for me to come back. She'll understand. She will. Just like how I understand why she kissed Aslan on our last night in the Capitol. Hormones probably got to her, or something like that. How could you resist a kiss from Ash? He's pretty cute. Then again, I'm cute. And I pushed for her to be in the Careers in the first place. There weren't even any Betas for her to weasel into. Ash was a jerk to her. He doubted her. Made her prove her worth. I already saw her worth! Isn't that something more worthy of her trust than a stupid kiss?!
Mid thought, Magnolia turns on their heel and flees, the image still cloudy before I refocus. What a coward. Running away certainly makes a person look weak but this is the person who was supposedly going to be a match for the Careers. They scored an 8! Yet here they are, activating their flight instead of facing the consequences of their actions.
They dash past the lumpy hills, staying on their feet despite the uneven terrain.
Despite this, Magnolia is not too far away, perhaps around ten feet ahead of me. I ready one of my slimmest shurikens and send it hurling in their direction, grinning as it left my fingers. It sinks right into their left shoulder blade. I cringe slightly, knowing that if I had angled it a little better, they'd be dead. Oh, well. Might as well draw this out a little bit.
They're going past the hills and to the area filled with holes. Magnolia leaps over some and around others.
I do the same, never losing my speed despite not having a ton of room for long, clean strides.
Suddenly, the solid enough footing collapses, like a rug being pulled from underneath you. I scream as I flop into a giant hole I did not see before. A bunch of blankets trample over me as I fall in. They must have been covering the whole thing. That's a pretty dumb move on my part to not notice such a simple trap.
I hit the ground with a hard impact. It feels like my rib cage is shattered. I look up, trying to see how far I fell. All I can see is a tiny sliver of light directly above me.
The hole itself is bigger than I thought. It appears to be connected to a system of tunnels, its walls velvety to the touch. Velvet has always freaked me out for some reason. It's abrasiveness that reminds me of stubble from a freshly shaved face has made me shun most clothes made from this accursed material. Its feel is the last thing I register before the throbbing pain in my head overtakes me.
Lilac Rafflesia, 16, District 12 Female
Lavender is one of my favourite scents, though for a slightly morbid reason. Stuffing the corpses with this particular purple flower made them more bearable and less damaging to my nose. The smell of death burns, not like fire but something more rough, acidic, almost debilitating. Hopefully I've seen my last dead body.
The lotion is nourishing my naturally dry skin in a way that most people in Twelve would consider a luxury. Most of us are so malnourished, even after all these years, that our faces are as rough as the side of a house! I can't say I haven't enjoyed being a little pampered these last few days. Damon enjoys his share of it, too, telling me how nice it is to not smell like death for once. He practically slathered in on his arms and legs, when I told him a little drop would probably be enough. Ryker says lotion is too fragrant.
Damon is asleep and Ryker is sitting by me, our legs dangling off a cliffside that leads into a swirling pond with purple water. Ryker's dared me to jump in a few times, but my fear of not resurfacing has kept me from following through.
"Come on, what have you got to lose?!" Ryker would ask me, in an almost pleading way.
My life, for one, I would answer in my head.
He hasn't been egging me on as much lately but still seems a bit restless, like he's waiting for something to happen.
"I think peace is a good thing," I tell him after an unusually long stretch of silence, undercut by Damon's snores. "I mean, we're coming on the third day and we have yet to run into anything bad."
"You're right," Ryker admits, running his hands through his dark hair. "But the anticipation of something happening is killing me."
I chuckle. "Give it a few days."
Damon wakes up a couple hours later, and we decide to head past the cliff ponds and to an area of the arena that houses large, crystalline caves. It's not very expansive, but it sits on a hill. It'll be easy to see who is coming from all sides, even in this arena's strange perpetual dimness.
As we make our way to the top, I stop in my tracks. I ask which cave we should venture in first. Damon points to an entrance on the left and Ryker points to one that would require crouching.
"I pointed first," my brother tells Ryker, who shrugs and follow him into the glittery depths
We're walking for around fifteen minutes when I freeze, causing both Damon and Ryker to look at me confused. I glance in all directions, my heartbeat becoming heavier and more distracting.
"Do you hear something?" I ask them. They both shrug.
"It sounded like someone sniffing, really loudly." I'm probably sounding like some kind of nut but I suppose you can't be too careful in this place. I notice Ryker's face fall, and I turn around to see exactly what I was afraid of.
It's not another tribute, but a Mutt isn't exactly much of an improvement.
Ryker Haynes, 17, District 10 Male
A woman-like figure that seems to have come out of nowhere is standing around ten feet away from us. Her hair is flowing in all directions, in almost snake-like strands, and a crown of purple flowers sits on her head. She has a childish element with her rosy cheeks and purplish eyes but I can tell she is trouble. She's inhaling and exhaling deeply, smiling widely at Lilac and Damon.
The anthem has started outside but none of us bother to glance outside the mouth of the cave. The walls are illuminated with the blue light coming from the sky, though the anthem lasts less than ten seconds. Not many people died on Day 2, it seems.
I want to move, but I can't. My muscles feel extremely stiff. Lilac and Damon must be in the same situation, though I can't turn my neck to look.
This must be it, I think to myself. I can feel the panic coming on. The dizziness, the sweating. What a pathetic way to die. Tyler and Emmy must be really disappointed. Zane is probably cringing at this sight. Or crying. I hope it's the former because I always used to clown him for crying when he saw an animal slaughtered.
Suddenly, a sweet smell fills the cave, like a combination of sugar and morning dew. It's a strangely nostalgic smell, though I'm slightly noseblind on account of being around so much manure.
The woman is approaching us. She's slithering around Lilac, grabbing her arm and blowing some kind of pink smoke in her face. Lilac looks like she's about to go ballistic at being touched so much. The Mutt then slinks over to Damon and does the same, whispering in his ear when she's done intoxicating him. I can hear Lilac straining. She seems to be using all her strength to free herself. Suddenly, she falls to the ground, landing at my feet.
"Just hold your nose!" she yells. I do as she says and stop breathing through my nostrils. My limbs feel much more loose by the second, and before I know it, I'm on my hands and knees and Lilac is helping me up. We both look at Damon and notice him still unmoving.
"Damon, dude! Do what your sister said!" I shout at him. He doesn't acknowledge me or Lilac, instead continuing to stare at the Mutt creature, who is grabbing onto Damon like he was a piece of driftwood in the sea. The ribbons on her head are waving as if in a sharp wind. I have to hold my breath every few seconds or it becomes hard to move again. What is this thing?!
Lilac is crying out to Damon, trying to pry the Mutt off her brother, but Damon seems almost oblivious to her calls. The Mutt shoves Lilac off her and sends her flying into a wall, screaming as she smacks hard against it. In a slight moment of recklessness I try the same attack despite seeing the result it had on my ally. I lunge at the woman, pulling her hair and trying to claw at her neck. Lilac had our knife, as if that might do any good against this thing at all. I continue to strangle the Mutt until it gets more and more agitated, and it elbows me in the jaw with surprising force. I land hard on the floor of the cave. Thankfully, being thrown off a few horses prevents the wind from being knocked out of me for too long.
I can only glance through my clouded vision weakly as I see Damon turn to dust, falling to the ground in a fluttering grey pile. The cannon booms loudly, and my screams are the only ones filling the cave as Lilac is still unconscious. My anxiety levels are skyrocketing, and pure adrenaline is what allows me to fish the pillowcase from my bag. The Mutt is still distracted with its strange task of scooping up Damon's ashes and barely notices as I throw the pillowcase around its head. It starts to screech, now unable to peel me off its body from behind. It keeps struggling and thrashing around until it finally, finally goes still and crumples onto the ground limply. Like Damon, it too dissolves into grey dust, mixing into an already formed pile.
The Mutt is gone, but I would have a much more difficult task the moment Lilac woke up. I walk over to her, my head pounding. She's practically impossible to lift up with how slack her entire body is, but I manage to sling her over my shoulder like a sack of grain. I'm not about to let her stay in this place for much longer. The yellow, chuckling moon illuminates her still face in an almost angelic way.
Andrew Rodriguez, 17, District 11 Male
Is it strange to say I'm already bored in this place?
My feet are aching like nothing else. My throat's parched and dry. Little white spots leap before my eyes whenever I get up. I guess it's unrealistic to think the Games would be action-packed fun but I can't help but feel let-down by how painfully dull my stay in the arena has been so far. And when I say pain, I mean it. Since last night my entire body has been in a constant state of agony.
I force my feet in front of each other in a sad, stilted dance, probably looking like a wobbling idiot with a limp. I wish there were people near me. I know they'd probably just want to kill me but I need someone to talk to. If Sixtine wasn't dead she'd probably be here to at least keep me some company.
Past the playground I just walked through, the arena descends into a beach-like area. The shore, with its pink sand and beach toys littered on the ground, looks whimsical but there's probably some garbage trap waiting, just from how welcoming it looks. I stare particularly hard at the purple water. I wonder if they packed it with salt or decided to give whoever wandered into this area a break.
Suddenly, I get my wish and hear footsteps from behind me. Panicking, I scamper behind a pile of stuffed animals, piles that seem to spring up every half mile or so. The gigantic green bunny is more than enough to cover my body as somebody emerges from the trees separating the playground from the sandy, pastel-coloured path that leads to the beach.
"Are you sure it's good to travel at night? The Careers might be hunting already," a soft voice says with uncertainty.
"They haven't even gone near the playground yet. If they check there next, at least we'll have a head start."
Part of me is thankful for the information, but I'm also apprehensive just at the mention of the Careers. There's hardly any opposition to them this year. Although, judging from the sky, there's only four of them left now. If the rest of us teamed up against them, I suppose there's a slight chance of us beating them? My mentality has always supported that strength is in numbers. In this case, however, the rest of us might just be little bodies of meat to slice through, considering not many of us are trained with a weapon. Still, a 4 v. 10 isn't going to be over that quickly… right?
The girls walk past me without noticing. I emerge once the footsteps fade away, checking to see if they're still within earshot. The only trace of them is the footsteps they've left behind. I grimace at the sight, because if they were worried about the Careers coming this way, these are a dead giveaway of where they went after they left the playground. For me, they're a godsend. I step onto the larger pair of footprints, walking in exactly the pattern they've imprinted on the ground. My taller height forces me to almost tiptoe for how tiny my strides are. Once I'm at the beach, I scan the area to look for where they are. I spot them camping beneath a giant rock, painted green and with a pair of strange-looking eyes on the front.
My eyes widen at the sight of the bag sitting at the girl from 5's side. I could stay here as long as one of the girls falls asleep. Maybe when the other girl starts to doze off or look like her guard is down, I can snatch it. Then again, the Careers might come this way soon… I'm not very eager to be a casualty along with them.
The rock the girls are sitting under sits against the small, bush-covered cliff I'm hiding inside, giving me a perfect vantage point of the girls without them noticing me. The path down to the beach is around 100 feet to the right, and rather steep, so unless any predators feel like jumping down from so high up and possibly breaking their ankles, I'd have a good place to run away being so far from the action.
Still, part of me hopes it doesn't come to that. Strength in numbers means the bad guys can't outnumber us.
Azure just got knocked out, in case you're wondering, but she is a bit injured.
16th: Damon Rafflesia, District 1 Male: Pretty much Thanos-ed by Lavender Mutt
Damon got unlucky when the Mutt decided it wanted to take him out a bit more, and he had put on slightly more of the lavender lotion than Lilac. I am always a sucker for brother-sister pairs and Lilac and Damon were no different. As a non-POV, however, he wasn't going to be long for the world. That's not to say he was just a number for me, I loved writing him and Lilac and I think he made everyone around him just a little more happy. Thanks Sakura for Damon, I enjoyed him and I hope I did him justice.
Kills
Vinna (2): Sixtine (assist), Garrett
Coilee (1): Ethan
Azure (1): Nerezza
Aslan (2): Sixtine, Sophia
DW (1): Armahni
Tributes remaining:
Vinna (1F), Coilee (2F), Albert (3M), Azure (4F), Aslan (4M), Pontiki (5F), Aston (6F), Indy (6M), Magnolia (7F), Esther (8F), Altaïr (9M), Salalai (10F), Ryker (10M), Andrew (11M), Lilac (12F)