Hyperion Corvinus,18, District 2 male
My eyes slowly open as I begin coming to my senses and when I see the walls made of skeletons above me, that's when I'm reminded that I'm still down in these catacombs. I expect to feel a sharp pain when I move my arm but I hardly feel anything. I look over and see it's bandaged up and I look across the area to see Beauregard across from me cutting a sandwich.
"You're awake…" she nonchalantly greets me and slides a half of the sandwich over to me.
"Why did you bandage my arm?" I suddenly ask her. I'm more upset that I even fell asleep around her in the first place, I was clearly at my most vulnerable and she could've easily killed me, instead she patches me up, what's her fucking deal? Is she taunting me? Is this her way of telling me that I don't need to be at my most vulnerable to be taken down my her!?
"Why allow you to become a liability, we're not out of the woods yet so you should hurry up and eat so you can get your strength up." She counters.
"I don't need you taking care of me!" I glare her and look down at my sandwich, realizing how long it's been since I last ate something. Without even realizing, I begin chomping the sandwich down while hearing her mumble "You're welcome."
This place is a literal maze, and after walking around in circles for who knows how long, we decided to barricade ourselves in an enclosed section of the "labyrinth" and fortified it with the skull and bones laying around everywhere.
"Well if you're done eating, we should get moving, there has to be an exit around here somewhere." She stands up and grabs her hammer while I pick up the club those creatures were using earlier before we start unbarricading the area we we're in. Once the area is unbarricaded, that's when we hear a piercing screech deep inside of this dark maze.
"Let's follow that screech, that can be our way out of here." Beauregard suggests but I scoff.
"So what, we just throw ourselves into avoidable danger for a possible way out?" I argue.
"Well you got a better idea?" she fires back and all I can do is glare her, can't wait for us to find a way out of here so I can strangle her!
"Whatever, let's just go already!" I march in front of her.
"Lead the way." I hear her sarcastically mumble but I ignore her for now, she's going to regret being a smart ass so I hope she enjoys it while she can.
We hear the screech occasionally and that's what guides us through this maze, we hear this creatures yell again and it sounds like it's in pain, almost like it's straining, this can be good, if we can get the jump on whatever this thing is, then even better.
"We're getting close, just be ready." She warns me.
"I'm aware of that." I growl back at her, and we hear the straining scream again, we only have to navigate around a few more corners before this creature comes into view. It's a lot larger than the other creatures, standing at about 8 feet and its hunched over and appears to be vomitting a red substance out of it's mouth.
"What the hell…" I hear Beauregard mumble.
"This is our chance, let's go." I begin rushing towards this creature and strike its leg as hard as I can with the club causing it to groan in pain and drop to its knee but It spins around and strikes at me with its large clawed hand.
I raise my club to block the attack but it still sends me crashing against the wall. I see Beauregard strike the creature hard In the head with her hammer and the creature groans in pain again and kicks her in the torso sending her onto her back.
The creature then roars loudly and hunches over again before it begins vomiting again and I see what looks like a baby version of this creature coming out of its mouth and I can only look at this creature in shock as the baby drops to the floor and immediately begins growing to an adult size that lets out a loud roar, grabs a sharp bone from the wall and begins rushing at Beauregard.
She manages to easily trip the creature as it rushes towards her and the creature drops to the floor where she immediately smashes her hammer into its skull killing it.
The "mother" giant creature begins vomiting again but I won't let this thing spit out another thing!
I jump to my feet and begin rushing at it but it manages to spit out two more of those baby things which quickly morph into adults, one of them spins around and tries tackling me but I grab ahold of its neck and squeeze it doing a standing guillotine on it. The other 'baby' rushes at Beauregard and tries slashing her but she ducks under its attack and grabs its waist before suplexing it on the back of its head, snapping its neck and killing it instantly, how the hell did she learn that? The one I'm choking out eventually loses consciousness and I let it drop to the floor before smashing its face in with my club and in unison me and Blyana both start rushing towards the "mother" creature. It tries slashing me but I slam my club into its leg causing it to drop to it's knee and Beauregard slams her hammer into the skull of the "mother" causing it to yell in pain but it flails its arm towards me and before I know it, my body is crashing through a wall of bones, I groan in pain as I try coming back to my senses and I can hear Beauregard struggling with the mother but that's when I notice there's a rusty ladder in the area I was thrown in, is this a way out? I groan again before slowly making my way back to my knees and I know see the mother has Beauregard pinned to the floor and is trying to bite a chunk out of her neck. She's using all of her strength to push the mother's head back but she's going to be overpowered very soon. That's when it occurs to me, I have a way out of here, she can just fucking die down here. Me not intervening, I'm inadvertently killing her myself and avenging Blyana. I think of what she did though, Beauregard, she saved me…she patched up my arm when she could've just stabbed me in the throat instead dammit! My body starts racing over to her without even realizing and i start squeezing it's neck as hard as possible with my club. it digs one of its claws into my bandaged armed and I can already see blood starting to seep out of it but I grit my teeth and try to fight through the pain as I continue squeezing it's neck. This gives Beauregard a moment to get her bearings together and she picks up a sharp bone and quickly etches it into the creature's skull causing it to go limp and drop to the floor lifelessly. Just to be sure this thing is indeed dead I bash it's face in with my club several times and both me and Beauregard pant heavilly trying to catch our breath.
"Thanks." She thanks me and I give her a conflicted look.
"We're even now...I think there's a way out of here up ahead." I grunt and begin walking towards the rusty ladder I saw earlier, just hope this leads us out of here and not into some other hell hole.
As we're walking towards the ladder however I turn around to see she's also looking at me, seeming prepared to defend herself if I was to suddenly attack her. I start to wonder if I made the right decision, should I have just let her die? I don't know…
"So you clearly got some training under your belt." I comment.
"Yeah, you too." She responds.
"Hmmph, Very funny…" I growl.
"Looks like your wound opened back up though, want me to take a look at it? She asks and I look down at my arm to see the entire bandage is drenched in blood, some of it is even dripping onto the floor.
"It'll be fine…" I grumble.
"Suit yourself." She responds as the rusty ladder comes into view, and I begin climbing it but feel a sharp pain in my arm need to jump back down.
"You good?" she asks as I clutch my arm but I shake the pain off.
"You go first." I state and she immediately begins climbing the ladder while I slowly tail behind her, she reaches the top of the ladder fairly quickly and begin pushing against the circular lid over us, exposing some light. After pushing some more, she manages to push the lid to the side and I can now see the sky, I'm guessing this is going to lead us outside of the ship, but that's fine with me, anywhere is better than this crap hole. She gazes down at me as I struggle to climb the ladder and when I'm near the top, she reaches her hand down towards me and I give her a hesitant look but my injured arm is starting to give out so I grab her hand and she helps pull me up where I take in a breath of the fresh air. It's looks like we're back outside of the ship, not the cornucopia though, most likely towards the back of the ship but I walk towards the railing and look over the ship where I see gentle tides of the water slowly ripping. I try to look in the distance and theres a lot of fog but It still looks like something is out there, it's very far but by squinting it looks like it can be a mountain or something.
"You noticed it too?" I hear Beauregard, Just that quickly I forgot she was even here.
"Yeah…" I mumble.
"Whatever it is though we, we're heading towards it." She adds and I turn around to face her where she's also looking at me.
"Our truce is over." I announce and there's a small silence but she slowly nods.
"Yeah, looks like it is." She states but I only stand still glaring her, she doesn't seem unnerved at all however.
"So this is the part where we walk away?" she raises an eyebrow. A part of me wants to thank her, she went out of her way to keep me alive when she could've easily killed me. I know I returned the favor but still…
"You didn't have to do what you did…" I admit.
"Well if you're trying to thank me, then you're welcome, but I also want to say something too. I don't regret what I did to Blyana. like I said before, If I didn't act first then she certainly would've, but I can tell you cared about her. She killed someone that I cared about too, so I can at least somewhat relate to how you're feeling." She looks me in the eye and I clutch my fists as I look on the floor.
"…I don't know why I'm so upset, to pretty much everyone she was just an arrogant cocky fool, even towards me but…I saw the real her the night before the games and honestly, we weren't that different from each other, I was able to relate to her and just when it felt like I was starting to know her, you killed her." I glared her and she slowly nods.
"Maybe under all of that, she was a decent person, you seem to be a decent person too though, more than you'd like everyone to know atleast." She looks over into the seemingly endless body of water.
"You don't know me. I probably would've snapped your neck right now if it wasn't for Blyana's wishes. She wouldn't want this, to be avenged and that's mainly why I no longer have anything against you, and also cause…you saved me. I'm respecting the both of you but I will kill you If I see you again, it won't be anything personal. just someone trying get back home to their mother." I warn her.
"Fair enough, but I'll be ready, Nothing personal either, just someone trying ro get back home to their brother." She extends her hand and I give it a firm shake as we look intently into each other's eyes before we go start going our separate ways.
"Wait, take this." I hear Beauregard and I turn around to see her holding out a rolled up piece of paper.
"It's a map, I found it in one of the rooms I was staying in, it has all the areas on this ship and it looks like there's a medical bay not far from here. There might be some supplies there for your arm." She states.
"Well thanks…" I practically mumble and she nods before she leaves for good while I watch her walk away, but I look back the map to see the medical bay, I guess that should be where I head next.
Elsie Pengrove,14, District 9 female
I can feel some throbbing discomfort on the side of my head as I start coming back to my senses.
"Elsie!?" I hear Annabeth as I hear myself groan and once my vision clears, I see a worried Annabeth looking over at me.
"Elsie, you're up…" Annabeth greets me as I rub the side of my head feeling a small lump and that's when my memories start returning to me. That creepy girl from 3 ambushed us and injured Harlan, I tried to fight her, but everything becomes blurry after.
"Harlan, where's Harlan!?" I blurt out quickly sitting up.
"Emmerane, I think she still has him…" she mumbles.
"We need to go find him! How, how long was I out?" I panic.
"Since last night, it must've been about 10 hours, I don't really know…" her voice cracks, I was really out for that long?
"We have to go! What if she's torturing him, let's go!" I jump up to my feet.
"But…but we don't even know where to look." She explains to me.
"That doesn't matter, sitting here won't do us any good, we have to try, so come on!" I grab my sword and Annabeth has her knife. Honestly we're probably not going to stand a chance if we run into a larger tribute or career, but we should be able to outrun them at the very least.
It looks like we were back in the library though, I guess Annabeth managed to drag me back here after I got knocked out.
"She dragged him down the hall last I saw, she couldn't have gotten that far from just dragging him, they might even still be on this floor, I'm sorry Elsie…I, I really should've done something instead of just standing there…" Annabeth laments.
"You probably won't be alive right now if you did do something. That girl is very dangerous and that's why we need to hurry up and find Harlan, show me where she dragged him." I quickly look around the dark hallway and when she points down the hall, that's when I notice a streak of blood. That's right, he was bleeding from getting a knife thrown into his leg, if we follow the blood, that should be able to lead us to where Harlan is!
"OK, all we have to do Is just follow the blood." I instruct Annabeth and she hesitantly nods. I know we have almost no chance of taking Emmerane down, but we still have to try…
We slowly start following the blood trail and it eventually leads us to the staircase where the streak of blood continues downstairs, Just how far did she take him?
Right as we start heading downstairs though, that's when we start hearing heavy thudding footsteps underneath and it's enough for both of us to stop in our tracks.
"The hell is that?" I quickly whisper to Annabeth who only has a terrified look on her face but my question is quickly answered as a towering figure suddenly comes into view.
"Oh no…" I hear Annabeth mutter as a grinning Hunter starts cracking his knuckles.
"So what do we got here? Two little mice searching for crumbs huh? Wonder where that little bitch is that's supposed to be protecting the two of you!" he cackles, he has notable bruises on his face like he got into a fight recently? We don't stand a chance against this monster though, we need to run!
"Annabeth!" I quickly grab her wrist and we start racing up the stairs but I can hear Hunter's loud thunderous footsteps quickly racing up the stairs as well as he begins chasing us.
"Where you little fuckers think you're going!? My prey never escapes from me!" he taunts us with his footsteps getting louder and closer!
We quickly dash out onto the floor we were just on and immediately scurry into the library and I flip the lock as we both pant heavilly giving each other a desperate look as I can hear Hunter's loud footsteps outside of the room, I don't think he saw us run into this Room, but it's not going to take him long to figure out we're in here.
"T-the closet!" Annabeth says just loud enough for me to hear and I waste no time following her into the storage closet, it's cluttered with a bunch of books but there's still enough space for the both of us to fit in here and we're both panting so loudly that I'm afraid he may hear us, dammit I wish Harlan was here, he'll stand a much better chance against him than us…
"You think you can hide from me you little midgets!? Wait till I find you!" I hear Hunter barking before I hear a door shatter into pieces causing us both to jump in fear, dammit he's in here, he broke right through that door like it was nothing. I'm beginning to hyperventilate at this point, just knowing how helpless we are, how much damage he's capable of doing to us, how no one is going to be able to help us but Annabeth holds my hand tightly and gives me an assuring nod , that everything will be ok, and I just hope that's true.
I can hear his heavy footsteps as he's now roaming around the library and I squeeze Annabeth's hand harder in pure fear.
"Where you runts hiding at! I know you're somewhere around here!" I hear him flipping over tables and knocking down shelves, as me and Annabeth tremble in fear. I still have Harlan's sword and Annabeth has her knife but I still feel so powerless, the closet we're hiding in blends in well with the darkness in here, I'm just praying he doesn't notice…
"Fucking bitches are probably in another room…" I hear him mumble to himself and I can feel his heavy footsteps walking towards the exit as I try to slow down my breathing. I no longer hear his footsteps as he's likely heading towards another room on this floor, just to be safe though, we're going to stay in this room for a while longer. Me and Annabeth look back at each other again as we can no longer feel Hunter's presence and she gives me another assuring nod but a large arm suddenly bursts through the door and grasp Annabeth's neck, pulling her out of the storage closet as I scream aloud.
"Annabeth!" I cry aloud as Hunter effortlessly lifts Annabeth up in the air with his hand around her neck and slams her through a table, causing her to go limp.
"You little dumbasses thought you can hide from me!" Hunter curses at the unconscious and possibly dead Annabeth but this is my chance to take him down while he's distracted, Annabeth he's not getting away with this, even a guy as big as him will drop dead with a well placed strike to his heart! I try to picture where his heart is as I aim my sword to that area and rush towards him but he quickly spins around as the back of his hand connects against my face causing me to go crashing into a chair as I let out a loud cry.
"Heh, thought I forgot about you!?" Hunter grins at me as he starts marching towards me and I gasp aloud as I start crawling towards the sword that's on the floor but he reaches the sword first and kicks it away before stomping down hard on my hand and I hear a loud pop followed by severe pain which causes me to cry out loud. He then kicks me on the side of my head causing my face to slam onto the floor which disorients me.
"Help...H-help!" I cry out to anyone who may be nearby to help us but Hunter only laughs as he starts marching towards the unresponsive Annabeth who's still laying still through the smashed table. I try moving my hand but I feel a sharp pain causing tears to run down my eyes, I think my hand is broken!
"Been waiting for a while to get my hands on you!" Hunter effortlessly picks up Annabeth and seems to regain consciousness as a squeak eeks out from her mouth and holds her up in the air as she helplessly dangles her feet in the air.
"No, leave her alone! Leave her alone!" I cry out but he throws her against the wall and she motionless lays on her side as Hunter cackles and walks towards her.
"Someone help us! Please!" I cry out again and with full force Hunter kicks her in the torso with full force. The kick is so powerful that it nearly puts her through the wall and he kicks her again as hard as possible and she lets out a pained squeak as blood and vomit wretches from her mouth.
"Stop it, stop it you fucking monster!" I beg him, but he kicks her in the torso yet again as more blood comes out of her mouth.
"Heh, stupid little bitches!" Hunter spits on Annabeth who looks like she's now convulsing on the floor and he begins marching towards towards me as I crawl against the wall crying.
"Stop, stop leave me alone, please! please!" I beg him.
"Heh, not so tough anymore huh? Now look at you, all weak and helpless, tell you what though, beg me enough and I'll probably let you go!" he cracks his knuckles.
"Please, don't kill me, please…" I cry profusely as I can only helplessly cower in the corner. Harlan, where are you!?
"Not good enough! Say please don't hurt me daddy! Say it now!" he roars at me , this is so degrading, i…I
"Please don't hurt me…daddy!" I cry out and he chuckles aloud.
"See now was that so hard!? Guess you never realize how terrifying death is until you're staring it right In right in its face? You'll be willing to do the unthinkable, just to take a few more breaths huh? I'm done with you though little punk, you did good!" he kneels down to pick up the sword.
"Now, I'll be taking my leave , might want to get your friend here a doctor though, she doesn't have much time left!" he laughs as he looks back over at Annabeth who's now twitching on the floor and that's when Hunter finally begins walking away. Once he's gone that's when I crawl over to Annabeth, wincing in pain every time I have to put even a little bit of pressure on my broken hand. Annabeth, her eyes are open and she's breathing raggedly as blood and vomit is still oozing from her mouth.
"Annabeth, Annabeth!" I cry out but she only continues that terrifying breathing as tears stream down her eyes, that monster, that fucking monster! How can anyone do this? How!?
"Annabeth, stay with me, stay with me please!" I cry but only more tears comes down her eyes.
"H-Hu-Hurt..." she tries to mutter but she coughs up more blood, this is not good, she needs a doctor, but…there's none here…
I start hearing heavy footsteps again closing in on my area and I tremble again, Hunter, what is he coming back for? Can he leave us alone!?
"Leave us alone! Leave us alone!" I cry but the footsteps only get louder and a knight
wielding a golden sword appears in the doorway and my eyes widen, No, is this some kind of mutt?
"No, go away, just go away!" I cry and the knight begins walking towards me but a female suddenly dashes in front of the knight and raise her hand in the air causing the knight to stop in its tracks. It's the girl from district 8, I think she's deaf according to the interviews but it's possible this knight heard my cries and she just followed it here, just wish she got here sooner, this knight would surely be able to take down Hunter!
"Please help her, please help Annabeth!" I cry and she looks down at Annabeth and sees the horrible condition she's in. She suddenly pulls a book out that she was carrying under her arm and opens it revealing a blank page and begins writing in it, what is this?
"Please heal Annabeth!" she writes in her book and after a few seconds the text begins fading away.
"That is beyond my power." Replaces her writing and I still can't help but stare at this book but Paisley gives me an apologetic look afterwards but it looks like she's thinking of something, does this book make your wishes come true?
"Can you at least make her comfortable?" she quickly scribbles in her book and it's replaced by
"Very well." But nothing happens, Annabeth is still laying here on the brink of death, is likely suffering some internal bleeding and doesn't have a lot of time left!
I look back at Paisley but she seems focused on something else so I look where she's looking and laying next to her is a revolver, a revolver? This is supposed to make Annabeth comfortable!?
I hesitantly pick up the revolver and it trembles in my hand for a moment, but when I open the chamber and see there's only one bullet in here, that's when it occurs to me. Annabeth is beyond fixing at this point and the only way to make her "comfortable" is to end her suffering, I can't though…there must be some other way to help her, there must!
"Thank you…" I hold my head down thanking Paisley, she did her best when she didn't have to, she could've easily had her knight slaughter the both of us but tried to help us instead. She nods again and even leaves behind a canteen of water before her and her knight walks away. I rest Annabeth's head on my lap and hold her gently as she continues crying.
"E-e-end it, it-it h-hurts." She struggles to get out.
"It'll be ok, you'll be ok, I promise…" I cry as I continue holding her, This one bullet I have, it's going right into Hunter's skull, I swear on that!
Harlan Ryeson,17, District 9 male
"Harlan, oooooh Harlan!" I hear a creepy voice and I let out a low groan.
"C'mon cutie, wake up! The teas gonna get cold and Spectra wouldn't like that!" the creepy voice continues and my eyes slowly open but everything Is pretty blurry.
"Yay you're finally awake! I was afraid I might have to pour hot tea down your pants to wake you!" she cheers and I groan again as my vision starts clearing, I try moving my arms but I quickly realize they're bound to a chair. I see that I'm seated at a small table with Emmerane sitting across from me with a cup of steaming tea in front of each us, there's even an empty seat next to emmerane with a cup of tea there as well. The room seems to be some kind of playhouse. I can see shelves in the background with numerous stuffed dolls in the background and the walls have doodling of butterflies, trees, stick figures and other things you expect small kids to draw.
"What the hell!? What the fuck Is this!?" I curse aloud trying to break free from the ropes that have my hands and feet tied but it's no good, how long was I out? Where's Elsie and Annabeth!? I need to get to them!!
"Relax silly, it's just a tea party!" Emmerane giggles while stirring her cup of tea with a spoon.
"Let me the fuck out of here! You can have these sick tea parties by yourself!" I growl at her and she seems insulted as she cups her mouth but looks over at the empty seat next to her and looks back over at me.
"Spectra doesn't take kindly to rude guests, young man, so I suggest you tone it down, we're just going to have a little party and you can go back to your two adorable little girls, keep being mean though and even I won't be able to guarantee your safety." She does a creepy grin, even with her grinning, I can see the killer intent in her eyes, if all I need to do is drink some damn tea to be released from her clutches then so be it.
"Fine, what do I need to do?" I glare her and she excitedly claps her hands.
"Yay! See it's not hard being a good boy right!? Now Spectra is happy again!" she looks over at the empty seat that I assume 'Spectra' is supposed to be sitting at, this girl is fucking nuts…
"Now let the fun begin!" she pulls a knife from her pocket, jumps out of her chair and begins walking towards me.
"Whoa, hey!? What're you doing?" I panic as she walks behind me and puts the knife to my neck.
"I'm just making my guest feel welcome, isn't that so kind of me?" she whispers in my ear and I feel her knife cut through the rope that bonded my hands and feet freeing me, she then giggles as she spins the throwing knife in her hand and plants it in the table next to her before taking a seat and I'm a bit surprised, just like that I'm free? Should I just make a run for it? No, I doubt I can move at full speed with the wound she inflicted on my knee, besides, I'm pretty sure she's ready to launch that throwing knife at me if I try anything…
"So Harlan, you're going to do a taste test, why don't you take a gulp of the tea and let me know how it is, If it needs more honey, more water, more tea? I can't allow my special guest here to drink bad tea!" she grins and I look down at the tea, it looks like pretty normal tea at first glance but, I give it a hesitant look, what if she did something to it?
She bursts out laughing when I look up at her, almost like she knows exactly what I'm thinking.
"Of all of the creative ways I can kill you, poison…Really? You think I'm Zananova?" she giggles. Zananova, she was that crazy girl from last year, they're both from the same district too. Why are the district 3 girls always a fucking nutcase anyways? I glance at the tea again and pick up the mug before taking a sip of it, it actually doesn't taste bad…
"It's…good." I admit she claps her hands again.
"I'm happy you're enjoying the tea, Spectra here gave me the recipe, so it's all thanks to her!" she looks back at the empty seat next to her.
"So uhhh, am I free to go now?" I hesitantly ask and she stirs her spoon in tea before folding her hands .
"Let's see, you should have about 2 days left, it's a fairly fast acting poison you just consumed." She smirks and my eyes widen.
"What!? What are you talking about!?" I panic and she giggles more.
"You drank poison silly, was I not clear enough?" She smiles.
"You lied to me, you fucking lied to me!" I clench my fists as I begin walking towards her but she only calmly remains seated. I'm poisoned, dammit how can I fall for such a simple trick! Fuck!!
"Oh come on, two days is still a long time, you'll still have a chance to say goodbye to your two daughters!" she laughs, I guess she's referring to Annabeth and Elsie, this girl is sick! I lose my cool however and immediately charge at her in a fit of rage but she launches her throwing knife at me and it lands in my shoulder but I fight through the pain and try tackling her but she manages to jump out of her chair in time and I crash into the shelf full of stuffed toys instead. All I can do is groan in pain as she pulls her knife out of my shoulder and stand over me.
"Spectra is not very happy with your behavior, she wants to kill you now, but then who's going to care for your two daughters?" she taunts me.
"You poisoned me, I'm dead anyways so why the fuck should I care?" I curse at her while still groaning.
"Hmm hmm hmm hmm, you can do a lot in two days young man, don't waste it." She chuckles as she begins walking away.
"You think I'm just going to let you walk away!?" I jump to my feet and rush at her but she spins around to weave my hook, and I try jabbing her in the face but she grabs my arm and snaps it causing me to yell out as pain shoots through my arm , I manage to grab her throat with my other hand though and force her against the shelf causing her back to skam hard against it and she grunts aloud but I lose my balance and fall to my knees. She quickly tries to kick me in the head but I duck under it and quickly tackle her sending both of us sprawling to the floor, she quickly prepares to stab me with my knife but I kick it out of her hand and try kicking her in the face afterwards but she moves her head to the side and I manage to sweep her knees with my other leg causing her to land on her back which gives me a moment to lunge at her but she quickly kicks me in the nose which sends me sprawling to my back groaning in pain. I try to regain my senses as I get up to my knees and look around the room but she's nowhere to be seen, dammit she got away, that fucking bitch!
I pant heavilly as I rest against a shelf and my arm, I don't think it's broken, but it's clearly dislocated and I pop it back in place causing me to curse out loud. I'm poisoned though…and probably in the most avoidable way possible. Two days… I think of Elsie and my eyes start swelling, I'm supposed to protect her, to be there for her and just knowing I'm going to be dead soon, that I'm not going to be able to shield her from the dangers here, there's no worse way to break my promise. I make it back to my feet though and I take in another deep breath. Every second I spend here is a wasted one, I need to find Elsie and Annabeth!
Caspian Delamar,18, District 4 male
I hear Nyx wince as we all arrive down a flight of stairs and I look over at her in concern as she clutches her wrist.
"You alright Nyx?" I worriedly ask.
"Y-yeah…I'll be ok." She continues clutching her hand. I can't even begin to imagine the pain she's going through, physically, mentally, emotionally, and its all cause of Hunter, he ruined her entire life in one fell swoop. I honestly thought Nox would able to take him but no that was far from the case, he got completely dominated and after seeing how Nox fell to him, he's clearly a threat to every other tribute in the arena. I think of the talk me and Nyx had, how she wanted me to promise her that I'd be the one to bring him down. I'm not going to go around actively pursuing him, but the time will come when we meet each other and I won't be able to forgive him, not after what's he's done to my allies, Annabeth and the other tributes he's been terrorizing, i won't hold back…
"Caspian?" I hear Ryena and I jump a little and look over at her to see she has a bit of concern on her face.
"You ok? You just suddenly went quiet and stopped moving." She comments.
"Yeah I'm fine, sorry was just daydreaming!" I do a faint smirk and it causes her to smile as well, her smile really is adorable!
On this new floor we can see a pair of double doors with a first aid sign on it, is this a hospital?
"Looks like a hospital, there might be something in here we can use for Nyx's arm." Ryena suggests.
"We don't have to go guys…" Nyx argues.
"We know you're in a lot of pain Nyx, if we have the opportunity to ease some of it, we'll be more than happy to, let's just be careful, doubt this is going to be some walk in the park." I state as I clutch my trident tighter and we make our way towards the double doors and Ryena does the same before I slowly open the double doors.
It looks like we're in a waiting room of some sort and theres barley any light in here but I see chairs and paper are scattered everywhere with blood smeared across the walls.
"What the hell happened in here?" I hear Ryena mumble and I look around to see if there's a first aid kid or something around, the only thing that catches my attention though is another pair of double doors that lead elsewhere, probably to the operating area.
"Looks like we're going to have to dwell a little deeper in here, let's just make sure we got all angles covered." I inform the girls and they both nod but I can see the knife trembling in Nyx's hand, she's nervous, but I'll protect her.
"Dive down deep Delamar…" I hear a deep voice echo and I stop in my tracks looking around almost frantically.
"Caspian? What's wrong?" Ryena quickly asks.
"You heard that, right?" I look over at her but she seems confused.
"Heard what? I didn't hear anything Caspian…" she gives me a concerned look.
"I didn't either…" I hear Nyx mumble.
"Was probably just a mouse or something…" I dismissively say before opening the double doors but I can still see Ryena from the corner of my eye giving me a concerned look, hope she doesn't think I'm going crazy…
I carefully open the double doors while keeping my trident poised for any surprises and three of us cover each other's backs as we arrive in the operating area where there's rows of rooms separated and closed off by privacy curtains, I see a spot on the wall where a first aid kit was but it looks like someone beat us to the punch.
"We'll cover more ground if we split up, I'll take this row." I instruct them as I start heading over to the first row.
"Alright fine, me and Nyx will stay together." Ryena clarifies.
"Thanks Ryena, I'm ready to protect you too though." Nyx says with some confidence, I'm glad some of her confidence is returning.
I begin checking the rooms one by one but I find nothing so far other than stained beds and broken operational equipment, damn there has to be something here!
I begin walking towards the next room but that's where I hear a loud gasp from the two girls and I quickly turn around to see Ryena block a strike from a large figure in a trench coat with two hooks for his hands, the impact sends her stumbling back against the wall and the figure tries to strike Nyx but Nyx weaves it and manages to slash the figure across its face with her knife causing it to grunt and stumble back slightly.
I begin rushing at the figure with my trident and it quickly spins around upon hearing my footsteps but I quickly pivot to the side as it tries to slash me. It tries to strike me again but I parry it's attack causing it to stumble back again and a trident suddenly lands in its chest stunning, good job Ryena! I try beheading it with my trident but it quickly raises up one of its hooks to block it and Nyx stabs it in the head with her knife stunning it again. This gives me the opportunity to overpower the figure and I pull my trident down between its hook detaching it from it's hand and it tries striking me with it's other hook but I duck under it and pierce my trident through it's neck. It convulses for several seconds and and falls to the floor, presumably dead but Nyx stabs it in the skull several time just to be sure and both me and Ryena collect our tridents from its body, what the hell was this thing anyways?
"Sheesh, that thing was pretty strong, they're getting more and more creative with these weird mutts…" Ryena mumbles.
"They certainly are, you two ok?" I ask the both of them and they nod.
"Yeah, just hope there aren't any other surprises here…" Nyx takes a few deep breaths.
"Wait, there's something…" Ryena kneels down and that's when I see a card of some sort partially hanging out of its pocket reading "V.I.P" This supposed to be some kind of key?
"That's a key, where the hell is a V.I.P. room anyways? Nyx scratches her head.
"Beats me, I'm assuming it must be a pretty big deal though considering we had to take this thing down to get access to it." I gaze at the key in Ryena's hand and that's when we hear a creak behind us causing all of us to spin around.
"Hyperion?" I give him an odd look as he has a look of confliction on his face and he slowly closes the double doors behind him.
"Hey…" he greets us.
"We were looking for you, you ok?" I walk up to him.
"I'm fine…" he mumbles but that's when I see his arm with blood soaked bandages on them.
"You're hurt Hyperion, what happened to your arm?" Nyx asks.
"Just ran into a few mutts, nothing serious…" he mutters.
"Hmmm, so I'm guessing you haven't found her yet?" I suddenly ask and he remains quiet as there's now an awkward silence, I expected a quick yes or no...
"Why does it fucking matter to you?" he suddenly snaps at me catching me off guard.
"Well if you found her and got your ass kicked, you can just say that too." Ryena glares Hyperion and he turns his attention to her.
"Say one more fucking word!" Hyperion tries to charge at her but I block his path.
"Whoa, Hey, take it easy!" I try to calm him down. Ryena, she only lashed out at him like that cause of the way he spoke to me. None the less, it does seem like he did manage to find her, he has a few new bruises and injuries too so there was a struggle, but no death…
"OK Hyperion, well are you ready to join us again?" I ask him but he gives Ryena another nasty look as does she and he shrugs his shoulders.
"Yeah." He answers.
"Well good, cause we found a key, think it opens a VIP room or something…" Nyx informs him and that seems to get his attention.
"A key?" he asks.
"Yeah, right here. Would you happen to know where this room is?" Ryena asks in a friendlier tone and that's when Hyperion pulls out what looks like a map and begins examining it.
"There's a set of V.I.P. rooms on the top floor." He informs us.
"Guess that's our next stop then, you all ready to head out?" I look at the rest of the team and they all seem to agree.
"Yeah…let's go." Hyperion begins walking ahead of us and we start following him. It seems pretty clear he did have an encounter with Beauregard, I just do wonder what the outcome of that was…
Hey guys here we are with day 4 of the arena! I wanted to get this chapter out much sooner but I found a near perfect ps2 emulator for phones and let's just say I was distracted for quite a while. As you can see guys, things are going to start picking up and I got some interesting things planned out so stay tuned!i also realized that i recently made a year on this story! I see how quickly I completed the first story and I really wanted to get this one done in under a year but yeah, life happens so I can't lament too much about it. Thank you so much for the reviews everyone and see you soon with day 5 which I already so many insane ideas for, Till next time!Also I'm interested in hearing you guy's thoughts on some things, such as who you see as the most likely victor and if there's still a chance for Harlan and Annabeth to be saved.