Day 5
Taliesin Ulysses, 18, District 4
A field of sunflowers stretches across the waving meadow all around me, lighting up this otherwise dull environment with their bright petals. More interesting to me than the glowing sunflowers though, are the lines of scarecrows dotted throughout. They grimace and smile down at us with their stitched, crooked mouths. The one in front of me is smiling but I have no idea if he's really enjoying this life. This life of being strung out like a puppet for others' benefit? Forced to do their will no matter how painful it might be. Forced to put on this show to scare away the agitators. It's who he is now, he can't escape it and the other scarecrows can do nothing but stand on their own island, trapped in a pantomime like everybody else. Yet he smiles on… because somehow he enjoys it…
Maybe one day he hopes to escape from this life and be the one stringing up the scarecrows to do his bidding but at this moment his power is limited. Not for much longer.
There was a stove nearby next to a tree where the Twelve and Eleven girl had undoubtedly been cooking. We are close to them now. Their days are numbered. Conrad is still hiding out there somewhere but we'll get to him soon and his little bee friend.
While Jade is investigating the extinguished campfire, Serenity appears by my side as I'm still staring up at this scarecrow in a trance.
"We need to talk," she murmurs with her hands in her pocket, glancing back in Jade's direction.
"You know, I've always liked scarecrows. Do you know why?" I ask, turning back to her.
She shakes her head with a slight roll of her eyes.
"You never know what they're thinking. They may be smiling down at you but they could just as easily be thinking about… decapitating you or something. They don't have a… "tell", as you put it," I explain.
"That's because they're inanimate objects," she sighs.
"Listen, I just need to know… why are we keeping Jade alive? She did kill her own District partner… why don't we just kill her now?"
I raise my eyebrow and begin playfully tutting…
"Who is this Serenity standing before me? Plotting to kill her allies… I like it," I laugh.
She immediately pulls her hands out of her pockets, clenching her jaw.
"I'm not plotting!" She shoots back aggressively.
"I'm just… trying to think strategically…"
"Now now… what would your brother think?" I continue to tease.
Her eyes narrow in a glare all of a sudden. Her fists clench near her belt.
"You don't know what you're talking about," she says sternly.
I chuckle back to her, placing my hand on her shoulder.
"I'm just playing… you're on the right track. I mean she deserves it right? After what she's done... just like Ricky."
Her fists relax a little but she maintains her glare.
"The ends always justify the means," I continue.
"Right…" she agrees.
"Do what you think is right but remember people can still have their uses… it's when they become a liability, that's when you…" I then run my finger across my throat with a smirk.
Her hand remains close to the gun under her waistcoat on her belt at all times. She's going to try to use it on me eventually. She'd be foolish not to and I don't think she's a fool. In fact I know she's not.
I turn my attention back to the scarecrow, stroking my hand under my chin. Then, I slip one of my knives into my hand and begin twirling it around until I suddenly slice the scarecrow's head clean off in one fell swoop! Its grinning straw head rolls to the ground.
"You sound like you're talking from personal experience," she mentions, as I stuff the scarecrow's head into my bag.
"Yes… yes I do, don't I…"
"They know I grew up rough…" I mention.
I stare off to the sky where Panem is undoubtedly watching from.
"It was kill or be killed."
It was kill or be killed. That's what I told myself but was it really true?
I only began to question that statement on one of my early missions my family sent me on.
The mission was simple. Sneak into our main rivals weapons stash and set fire to it so that we could send people in later to massacre them. Easy-peasy right?
There was supposed to be no one there that night, it was just supposed to be an empty hallway leading to a room full of guns, comms, and other equipment.
However, at the entrance stood two men on guard. My hands shot up instantly to surrender. My heart was pounding in my chest! Were they going to kill me? What was going to happen to me?
I had been haunted ever since that day my brother forced me to kill that young man one year prior. It shook me so bad to the core, that they told me I needn't be given any more execution tasks, just simple things like stealing and destroying weapons.
Yet here I was, with two guns pointed at my face, stuck like a scarecrow, unable to do anything, my fate was out of my hands.
But they didn't kill me outright. No. They decided to taunt and tease me. They sat me down and began to blow cigars in my face and force me to drink vodka along with them. Which, at twelve years old, I'd never done before. I was the son of one of the wealthiest mobsters in District 4, of course they wanted to humiliate me before they killed me.
That's when I realized. This is all life was… a game…a theatre… a performance. A performance we are all a part of. So I might as well go along with it. Thus, I joked and laughed with them, acted like a buffoon, I gave them what they wanted.
It was then that it dawned on me that with every performance there was to be a twist of fate, a shock to leave the audience speechless, to leave their jaws on the floor and that's exactly what was about to happen.
The only way out of that situation now was my cunning. I waited until they had drunk so much, that the larger one left his gun perched on one of the blank walls. I waited and waited, shaking nervously, until his back was turned for a brief second. My hand then darted out and snatched it up.
With a unexpected grin, I fired two shots almost instantly into the one still with a gun. Then I turned to the remaining one. His hands were outstretched, he was pleading and begging me not to kill him, sweating with terror in his eyes.
"Wait!" I remember him saying.
I could have just walked away at that point, with the gun pointed at him but how dull would that have been? How disappointing to the audience. There needed to be another shock. I blasted another shot straight through his head, leaving blood splattered on the floor. Nobody would miss two crooks.
The game had to go on. Killing is part of any great game or great performance. That was the moment I realized that deep down, I'm just participating in it. A scarecrow with a bit of free reign. A puppet slowly losing its strings. My life had to be the greatest show on Earth and everyone would realize that sooner or later. My hunger games would be the greatest show on Earth.
"To think that just before that scarecrow lost his head, he was trapped in this endless false show. Now he's free," I state.
Serenity raises her eyebrows and heads back through the field towards Jade.
"The ends always justify the means," she repeats as she strides away.
Charon Aytigin, 18, District 12
"Argh!"
My gut jolts back! I almost throw up in pain! Stumbling through the stone streets, lit by the morning sun. My heart is still thumping against my bare chest, all my veins feel like they are boiling and bulging under my skin! It feels like my entire body is getting ripped apart from the inside out! Besides, without a shirt, I'm shivering… a problem I didn't have when I was… the other guy.
My legs almost trip into one of the stone walls, I only prevent my fall by bracing my right hand against the wall. As I pant and puff, staring down at my torn and weathered pants, the events of last night are still flashes in my mind but I'm…
I'm starting to remember more details… it's becoming less like a horrible dream and more like I'm a spectator in someone else's body, fighting for control, trying to stop it from doing something… terrible….
But why? All I've ever done throughout my entire life are terrible things, so why is this any different? Is it Heather? It makes no sense but I truly, deeply don't want to hurt her or see anything bad happen to her. God, I hope she's ok… I hope that I didn't… no I would have felt it if I had. I remember going after her but that's it.
I stagger back into the house and straight towards the wardrobe. Inside, I snatch up a jacket into my hands and wrap it around my shoulders.
Then the coughing starts again, once, twice, thrice… until I collapse down onto the wooden floorboards in a heap. It feels like I'm going to cough all my internal organ out. What…. what have they done to me?
My eyelids feel heavy again, I'm…. I'm slipping off into another dream.
CREEK
My eyes shoot open to a noise on the floorboards directly in front of me.
There's a blond girl standing in the doorway, in front of the rays of morning light beaming in from the outside. Heather?
I scramble my way up, smashing several cups and plates off the table simultaneously.
"Are you out of your fucking mind?!" I bellow.
She simply crosses her arms and raises her left eyebrow in the most Heather way Possible.
"Good to see you too," she responds calmly.
"Did you… did you forget everything that happened last night?" I exclaim, scraping my nails across the table.
"You need to go! Get out of here! Get away from me!" I pant.
She continues her cold stare, remaining motionless with her arms folded. I know Heather by now, this girl ain't gonna budge.
"I thought you said Mr Doggy only came out at night hmm?" She questions.
I roll my eyes and fall back down with a sigh. I don't have the energy to argue with her anymore. If she wants to stick around me to get torn to pieces at night, then fine.
"Besides… I think you at least owe me an explanation…" She continues, now placing her hands on her hips.
Yeah… I guess she's right.
I take a deep breath.
"Where do I start? Remember back on day two when we were getting chased by those careers?"
She nods.
"Well…. something happened to me, I was frozen momentarily and this…. spirit or whatever told me to go inside a house and claim the curse of the werewolf…."
"And you did it?" She interjects.
"I don't really think the old spirit was asking…. anyway I drank from this vile that was inside a chest. They said every night I would be granted incredible power but…."
I trail off, gulping as the memories of the first transformation start to flood back.
"But I knew almost instantly that something was wrong…."
The dark blue haze of the looming night hung above me. The voices of the boy from Eleven and the girl from Four echoed in around me. They were getting closer and closer but I was groaning and coughing through the narrow streets… Something was happening to me…My heart was pounding suddenly like it was a drum being played.
For some reason, I felt the insatiable urge to clamber up onto the roof towards the giant glowing moon in the sky. It was then I started to change. My skin and bones were shaking and shifting. It felt like a thousand insects were crawling around inside of me. I screamed and howled at the moon until everything became a blur.
Heather is closer to me now, next to the table.
"That's why you wandered off on the third night…." she mutters.
I nod solemnly.
"Oh, you have no idea how hard it's been… having to try to find new shirts every day…." I say.
Her lips curl into a little chuckle… yeah, I guess that was funny…
But I soon sink back down into gloom. She must see that there's not much left in me. That this is taking everything out of me…
"So… there must be some way… some kind of cure…" She murmurs, her lips quivering ever so slightly.
I throw my head back, letting out a disgruntled sigh.
"What?" She pokes.
"It's just… I …. I can't help but feel like this is what I deserve…" I croak.
She furrows her eyebrows, demanding elaboration.
"Let's face it. I'm a piece of shit. I have been my entire life. I've always had a monster inside of me… this beast has always been a part of who I am and they knew that. That's why they gave me the werewolf curse… they were just personifying what was already there…."
I can't help but smirk slightly at the whole irony of it as I say the words, turning my eyes back to the window.
Suddenly I feel a hand on my shoulder. She's crouched down next to me now with the first warm smile I've ever seen on her.
"Hey! If anyone deserves this… it's me," she retorts.
"Huh?"
"I've killed people Charon, even before the games. There was no escaping it in my line of work."
"And I don't even remember feeling bad about it…"
Her eyes fall downwards, and I look up to the corner of the house for the cameras. Did she just admit to murder in front of the whole country? I guess it doesn't surprise me.
"Fuck the cameras," she blurts.
"We're both likely gonna die here anyway so we might as well come clean… no more secrets… no more lies."
She merrily raises her eyebrows.
"No more lies," I smile back.
She nods, pushing herself up by the knee and then offering out her hand.
"So dumbass… the cure?" she asks, as she pulls me up by the hand.
"Ah yeah… in that chest, it said I needed to find the potion master before the blood moon," I explain.
"Cryptid…" she replies.
Her eyes suddenly roll upwards.
"Now the potion obsession makes sense…" She sighs.
"And who do you suppose the potion master is?"
I shrug.
"I dunno. On the note, it said it would be someone familiar. So, naturally, I thought you but I think it's safe to rule that out now…"
After some pondering, our thoughts suddenly conjoin in an epiphany.
"Nadia!" We both realise in unison.
Heather swings round instantly, tightening the straps on her bag.
"We haven't a moment to lose! We don't know when this blood moon will be!"
But I'm frozen, hesitant all of a sudden.
"What if she won't help me?… I mean we didn't exactly leave each other on good terms," I mutter.
Yeah, I remember now. I tried to manipulate her on the train. You dumbass Charon!
Heather turns back to be.
"I wasn't planning on asking nicely Charon," She says.
My arms fall down, feeling limp all of a sudden.
"Come on… the poor girl's been through enough," I sigh.
She raises her eyebrows like an exasperated teacher. Clearly, she's not going to take no for an answer. I do find her commitment to not wanting me to die…touching.
I… guess I'll go with her just to make her happy. I think somehow, she'd be lost without me now. Something I never imagined in my wildest dreams. Maybe this is all my wildest dream.
"Alright…" I agree, following her out of the house.
"Oh and Charon…." she begins, as we weave our way through the streets.
"Yeah?"
"Next time can you try to tell your… friend to take it easy hm?"
She rubs the bruise on her cheek to further drive the point.
"I dunno. Depends on how nice you are to me today," I laugh.
Conrad Martell, 18, District 6
The sound of a small bird whistles past my right ear. The flap of its wings shifts me from my half-asleep state as it sings through the air.
There is a voice that follows.
"Conrad… Conrad…" It mutters.
It's Beckett of course. Who else?
I grunt and groan my way awake, lifting my head off the soft, cushioned grass in which we slept last night after exiting the train. The golden morning rays have barely even pierced through the bottom of the tree line yet, so it's still almost completely black.
"Conrad!" Beckett mutters again, louder this time.
"Wha…what?"
I finish rubbing my eyes open to find him peering behind one of the silver birch trees with his usual cheeky grin on. It's still foggy and hazy all around me in the dark, anything further than the first trees seems like a grey, cloudy abyss. I have no idea how far the train took us last night, but I have awoken in this wooded area. We were so exhausted after last night's little adventure that we ended up collapsing not too far away from the track. I can still even hear the train rattling against the tracks just through the trees, a few meters away.
We stayed on the train for as long as we could, bypassing several stops in the misty, dark town and hoping no one else would get on. We had to get as far away from those careers as possible. They're fractured already, we know that now but the thought that we will be forced to face them hasn't left my mind. When we're forced to fight, I'm not sure how long I can protect myself, much less Beckett.
A pebble bounces past my head on a rock nearby.
"I want to show you something," Beckett murmurs.
"Alright…" I yawn, standing up and stretching my back until it cracks.
The pain remains from where the Four girl struck me hard with that kick in the spine yesterday.
Still half asleep and rubbing my eyes, I follow Beckett through the dusky woods, brushing any bushes and buzzing insects out the way. Now that the light has filtered through the leaves, I can make out the details of the flora and fauna around me. From warm wooden bark to croaking, bouncing toads… this is heaven compared to that hellhole forest which I found him in on day two. In fact, I've never even seen anything like this in my life. I'm just used to the muddy, colorless back streets of District Six.
After we push our way out of the leaves, clearing the tree line, Beckett begins scrambling on some of the rocks onto an escalating hill. I follow him up, clambering up for a few meters.
"Where we going?" I ask, sleepily.
"You'll see," he responds, glancing down with a smile.
He disappears over the summit of the hill above me and I'm fast to follow suit, clinging onto a bit of grass and yanking myself up.
Almost immediately, I'm struck with a glowing orange array of morning light. I shield my hand over my eyes, narrowing my vision to the sight of a huge sparkling lake, ablaze with the rays of the rising sun. Across the water, the sun half peaks behind a gravely, stony mountain at the other end of the lake, a warm blanket smothering the land and offering protection from the darkness.
The lake itself is surrounded by more blowing trees and vibrating warm meadows around the crystal water. The sun, along with the fresh lake air from this vast area, is enough to leach most of the anxiety out of me. Even if, it won't be permanent.
"Beautiful," Beckett comments.
Yes, it is. Even if it is artificial, it's supposed to draw us in as something beautiful that we might be able to relate to but, the reality of it is that people are dying all around us as we peacefully watch the sunrise. So, maybe I can't enjoy it as much as Beckett for that reason.
However, as we continue standing and watching the sun climb above the horizon, I can't help but be mesmerized…maybe not by the sight itself but by this moment I'm sharing with him. With Beckett.
He turns back to me with a smile on his face.
"You see Conrad… in the end, the sun always comes out," he says, the peach light of the lake now glowing off his skin and brightening up his eyes.
I can't help but feel a smile form across my face, looking down at my small ally. I never knew someone so small could have a heart so big. Then, I glimpse back out at the sun to finish watching its rise above the lake.
Although my peace is soon broken. Out of the blue, a hand darts out and taps my arm.
"Tag! You're it!" Beckett exclaims.
I turn back to him.
"What are you doing?" I ask, bewildered.
"What? You never played tag before?" he giggles.
"Well yeah, it's just…"
All the thoughts of the last few days haven't quite left me. The monsters, the careers that could ambush us at any second. With each passing day, our luck could run out…
"We don't know who's around the corner, so this isn't exactly the best time…" I say, fidgeting with the back of my neck.
"Then when is?" he retorts.
He takes a deep breath, and his eyes fall to the ground.
"Call me crazy but I don't think I'm scared anymore…not when I'm with you. When I'm with you, I've nothing to fear. When I'm with you I'm…"
"Home…" I finish his sentence.
His sparkly eyes meet mine in the same surprised wide-eyed realization and his warm smile returns again.
"Yeah…"
He moves back to face the lake so that the sun is touching his face directly again.
"Remember back on the free day… when you told me about yolo and we got the hot chocolates?" he begins.
"Taking every second as it comes," he continues.
"Living in the moment… yes," I start to recall.
He nods, facing back towards me.
"Well, that's what I'm doing… so why don't we try to make this the best day of our lives? What'd you say?" He smiles.
It engulfs me like a wave from the ocean, a warm fuzzy feeling in my chest. He just threw my words back at me from that fateful day on the Capitol street. I had forgotten and this place was beginning to make me forget what made me… me. Until he just reminded me, this very moment.
"Alright, sounds like a plan," I smile back.
His arm shoots out and he tags me on the shoulder again, unexpectedly.
"Tag you're it!" He beams again, already ducking out of the way of my return tag, zipping off and sliding down the thick grass on the hill.
"Why you little!"
"Wooooooo!"
I hurl myself towards the edge of the hill and slide down after him to the forest floor below, almost howling with laughter.
I pause when my feet hit the bottom, hastily surveying the now sun-beaten, sparkling forest for him whilst more insects buzz past my messy hair.
Beckett skips just ahead of me through a small corridor in the woods, waving his arms about. So I jog after him, ducking and leaping over the branches of the forest. The twigs and roots crack beneath my feet with no care in the world. With each leap and bound my anxiety starts to dissipate until my heart is pounding joyfully in my chest once again.
I finally catch up to him with a playful tug on his frail shoulder.
"Gotcha!"
Now it's his turn to chase me. So, I stride on, careful not to go too fast, not to lose him. I'm constantly checking over my shoulder to see his blissful face but even so, I'm quickly starting to forget why I'm here or how. And you know what? It doesn't matter. Right now, we're a leaf in the breeze, not sure where we're going or why and it doesn't matter because we're together.
I hop over a shimmering stream that cuts a path through the forest ever so slightly. Using a rock in between to get over. Beckett on the other hand catches his leg in the stream, drenching his boot.
"Oops," he shrugs.
When we've almost exhausted ourselves, we fleetingly agree to stop our fun for lunch under a willow tree by the edge of the lake.
Just under the dangling green strands, Beckett taps my shoulder.
"Look Conrad!"
I glance up from my sandwich to see what he's pointing at. There are two rabbits bounding across the water's edge, only a few meters away, sniffling their little noses about. One is much larger than the other and looks like it could be its parent or an older sibling.
"It's us," Beckett smiles to me, as they disappear into a hole in the ground.
We soon resume our games in these sparse woods around the lake until the sun is approaching the other side, close to where we woke up this morning. As it gets close to setting, it transforms the valley into a deeper red hue, casting a crimson radiance across the water on the lake until it shimmers like a ruby, piercing my skin.
The dazzling display is reflected onto the circling clouds above, but they are turned purple like a passion fruit (a deep purple fruit I only discovered recently while arriving at the Capitol on the train). While we trace our way around the bank of the lake, we are almost mesmerized, entranced by the sight.
I point towards a large house just ahead in the distance, illuminated by the reflected light. It has at least two floors with a chimney and a roof that looks like it's made of straw. The building juts out from the bank of the lake into the water that heads onto a pier. As we approach it, the house looms greater and greater over us. It has two large, double doors and windows that are grey and old-fashioned looking.
We halt in front of the entrance, wiping the heated sweat from our foreheads while the cicadas hum around us. It's all dark inside which gives the impression that no one's home however my mind can't help but ponder that there could be a trap waiting for us inside. So, I slowly slide my sword out from my back to have it ready. Beckett gulps whilst his eyes observe my blade.
"It's just a precaution," I tell him.
I attempt to barge my shoulder into the hollow door to get inside but it won't budge.
"It's locked," I announce, jolting the handle repeatedly.
"Well, if it's locked then there's a key," Beckett chirps next to me.
He starts investigating around the door for any sign of a key, lifting up pots and junk around the outside. He disappears behind the barn and emerges sometime later, waving the key proudly in his hand.
"Got it!"
"It was hidden under some hay."
He hands it to me, and I allow the key to do its work in the keyhole.
CLICK
We are hit with a chilly breeze as we enter inside causing the hairs to shoot up on my skin. The floorboards squeak beneath our feet but other than that it's silence inside. I make sure Beckett is always a few inches behind me but never further.
After a thorough sweep of the aged house, I find no dangers. We're safe.
Beckett lit the fireplace in the main room. The crackles of its flames are now breaking the silence of the empty room. Beckett is sat on one of the wooden chairs in front of the fire, twiddling his thumbs, quieter than he's been all day. When he notices me, he does his usual smile with the flames now dancing against his eyes.
"I'll go look in the kitchen… see if this place has got anythin good," I say.
Heading into the kitchen, I rapidly rummage around on the kitchen sides, lifting tins, and moving pans and pots. One cylinder tin does catch my eye, leaning next to a large wooden cupboard. It reads.
"Hot chocolate."
Instantaneously I snatch it up into my hand and shoot my head out of the kitchen.
"You'll never guess what I found!" I exclaim, holding up the tin to Beckett.
"No way!" He cries out, leaping up out of his chair in a hail of excitement.
I'm able to calm him down eventually and sit him back down on his chair before I make the hot chocolates using a saucepan and some milk from the cupboard. I stroll back into the main room by the fireplace to hand him his cup, he is fast to snatch it up and also to begin guzzling it.
I slump myself down on the other seat, half facing him and half facing the fireplace. Déjà vu. That's the easiest way to describe how I feel. This was almost exactly like that day in the Capitol after all. Thanks to Beckett, for reminding me of who I am.
"I can't believe you found hot chocolate," he laughs.
"I know," I laugh back, taking a sip of the hot liquid.
"It's almost like they put it here on purp…"
My laugh descends into sudden gloom as I realize the truth. That's exactly what they did… didn't they? They were watching us the entire time during the free day. This is nothing but a charade, it's not real. None of it. Our brotherly bond we've developed… it's all for the audience. For the cameras. It's exactly what they want.
The dark ball of anxiety expands out rapidly again in my mind. The parasite has returned. I'm brought back to the reality of the situation. My chest tightens suddenly, crushing down on my lungs. The air compresses around me in this room until I almost pass out. I'm going to die, it's the truth and I can no longer escape it.
Before I end up collapsing, I slowly place my cup down, stagger up from my chair and barge my way out of the door into the fresher, evening air. It does fill my lungs with some relief.
…
I strut out of the lakeside manor, my heart pounding in my chest with a convulsion of emotions. The sun has almost finished its journey downwards now however the purple twilight on the lake hasn't yet vanished. I spot a log just on the edge of the bank and so I plonk myself down on it, hunching over and covering my eyes with my hands to fight back the tears.
However, not long after, my hands slide off my face to the sound of footsteps behind me in the grass, light footsteps. Beckett waddles in front of me sorrowfully to face the evening lake with his hands in his pocket. I can sense that he can sense something's up with me, we're in tune like that.
I clear my throat.
"The days almost up… I can't keep pretending like nothing's wrong," I mutter pensively.
He half turns back to me, keeping his purple, glowing eyes pinned downwards at the grass below me.
"I…I don't want you to die for me, I never did… it's… it's not fair," he stutters, his voice almost breaking with sudden despair.
"Life's never fair. You'll learn that when this is all over," I respond.
Then, I take a deep blue breath.
"Besides…why does it matter what happens to me?" I ask, throwing my arms out.
He shifts his attention fully to me now, locking his poised and now slightly irritated eyes with mine.
"Look, I've never had a purpose in all my life. Just bounding from one fucked up situation to another and… and maybe I'm not the man you think I am, but I think I do finally have a purpose and…"
My voice breaks off entirely. I take a deep breath to allow myself to finish my sentence.
"And that's dying so you can go back to your family," I croak.
"And what about my purpose?" He retorts, firmly, harsher than I've heard him before.
He strides closer to me and throws himself down on the log next to me. He has managed to grab my attention so much to keep my eyes trained on him the whole time.
"Yeah, you listen to me now ya big dummy!" He starts.
He folds his arms.
"Is my purpose to have someone die for me? Someone I care about? To trade lives?" He exclaims.
I can't answer that. I have no words to express the flood of emotions I'm feeling right now.
His head falls down to the ground mournfully again.
"You know what? I think I can come to terms with dying. That I can abide," he says in his softer voice.
But then he steadily stands up again to face the lake.
"But I refuse to die as some… show, some theatre… like a puppet on strings. That's why I'm so carefree. You may think I'm in denial, I'm not. I'm just determined to go out on my own terms," he finishes, now heaving his chest.
Jeez, I never knew this kid could give speeches in such a way with words. I don't even know what to say. He never ceases to amaze me. What happened to the little goofball by my side? I think it might be the first time I'm left speechless in my life.
"I… I…well I guess that told me," I chuckle, my throat tight from the tears welling up inside me.
He returns the laugh, wiping the tears from his eyes.
"So, if we're living this moment together then we die in the moment together also… as brothers," he announces with conviction in his eyes.
I cannot make any kind of agreement that involves him dying but I can't disagree with him either because I think he's right? So, I simply nod and swallow the tears back down my throat to say the words.
"As brothers."
The stars are now glistering behind Beckett in the clear night sky along with the pale moonlight.
Water rolls down my cheek…a tear.
He sits down next to me again and hugs me tightly to keep warm whilst we watch the stars dancing in the moonlight, shining across the mountain and lake together. It's like a beacon, giving us one last ray of hope.
"Conrad…" he murmurs in the silent night air.
"Yeah bud?"
"Tomorrow it will have been three days… you'll stop being my guardian angel…"
"I'll never stop being your guardian angel," I reassure him…
…
"Just as long as I get to keep the sword," I joke.
He returns to his normal goofy giggle which echoes across the lake. I know now that I'm reborn tonight, so it must be right that I have a brother by my side.
So this is part one of day 5 and written entirely by nautics. No deaths again but just some character development for you. This was more of a continuation of day 4 and Team Shadow will be back for day 5 part 2 to write three povs focusing on different characters and story lines, so no one will be missing out. I didn't 00write this in 2 days lol I wrote most of this a while ago. Anyway this is the start of our new formatting so hope u enjoy!
Roles
Serenity: Vigilante
Taliesin: Disguiser
Harrison: Vampire Hunter
Conrad: Guardian Angel
Nadia: Potion Master
Charon: Werewolf
Marissa: Ambusher
Eulogies
Day 1
24th: Ricky James (D9M) Killed by Serenity Jasper - decapitated.
23rd: Tristan Card (D8M) Killed by Jade Hastings – Slashed through the chest.
22nd: Jonathan Priel (D10M) Killed by Taliesin Ulysses – Knife thrown through neck.
21st: Elijah Axenfros (D7M) Killed by Taliesin Ulysses – Blunt force trauma.
20th: Emily Lynch (D6F) Killed by Heather Monroe – Knife thrown into torso.
19th: Kalen Demner (D5M) Killed by Marissa Grey - Sliced with a sword.
18th: Aeliana Decima (D8F) Killed by vampire mutts – bitten in the neck.
Day 2
17th: Henry Haines (D1M) Killed by Taliesin Ulysses – Throat crushed and neck snapped.
Day 3
16th: Adelina Claire (D10F) Killed by Gargoyle mutts.
Day 4
No deaths.
Day 5
No deaths so far.
Kill count
Jade: 1
Taliesin: 3
Marissa: 1
Heather: 1
Serenity: 1
Mutts/arena: 2