TW: This is generally a pretty intense and emotionally charged chapter.

Tatiana Emery, 15, District 2

2 Years Ago

Sweat poured from my forehead in the sweltering afternoon sun, as I strode back across the pathway to my destination on the outskirts of the city.

There was a skip in my step. I was finally making progress at the academy. At first, I was seen as this kind of strange little enigma, I think. An alien of sorts. I wasn't at all what you'd call an "average trainee."

My dad's cover at that time was working as an assistant to a wealthy man.

My mum's own parents, my grandparents, - were killed when she was young by Peacekeepers.

However, I am a social butterfly, and I was finally fitting in. Anyone that tried to bully me quickly met my fist.

I was cool. Even so, my best friend was a shy girl that I'd been getting along with - Affinity. Like her, I knew what it was like to be an outsider. So, in a way, I could relate to her better than any of the cool kids.

At the first tree to appear, in between some squalid-looking flats, there was a scruffy-looking man with a thick beard and a brown hood.

When I was standing just above him, my hand produced a silver coin from my pocket. Carved into the metal, were two lightning bolts.

"Dust to dust," I whispered to him softly.

With his eyes pinned firmly past me, he slipped the coin in between his dirty fingers.

A hood was then placed over my face by the people emerging from one of the derelict apartment blocks.

After about half an hour of bumping around in the back of a truck, the hood was finally whipped off.

I was back in our rustic, warehouse. The good, old, undisclosed warehouse. They still didn't trust me with the location, even after all these years.

That day seemed different, however. People were hurrying about all over the place, carrying weapons and supplies to our deports. Machines were hauling ginormous crates from pillar to post. A bunch of rough-looking fighters were handcuffed and being escorted to a room at the far end of the warehouse.

Bored and left all on my own in the middle of the large building, I paced over to some of the desks, running my hand along it and fiddling with the stationary. There were multiple shifting screens, shining into the dim area.

I could never contain my inquisitiveness. I needed to be involved in everything. So, I started flipping through files. Different faces appeared on the screen, faces from years ago… decades even. I went further and further back. It was rebels… high ranking counter-rebels of our rival factions. Most of them had a large red cross over their face, having already been killed by my organization.

"Tatiana, sweetie!"

My heart jumped and my finger rapidly closed the files down!

My mother was standing above me, big black bags under her eyes, and her face seemed to be getting more wrinkled every time I returned here. Even though she was smiling at me, I knew something was going on under it. Dad wasn't there, he was off at work.

Saskia emerged from behind her with a more genuine yet mischievous smile.

"I was beginning to wonder why you dragged me out of training. It has to be something very important."

"It is," Saskia shot back, her smile disappeared all of a sudden.

"Don't worry, we have a very important task for you today," she continued, her eyes moved around to the hand-cuffed rebels.

"Saskia please! She's thirteen! She's not ready!" Mum piped up, her cheeks red with concern.

But Saskia ignored her, keeping her eyes trained on me.

"Hell yeah you are, aren't you Tati?"

I took a deep breath and felt my fists clenching tight!

"Of course I'm ready! I'll take on anythin' that's thrown my way. I won't let you down!" I exclaimed, huffing my chest.

A smile appeared on Saskia's face.

"See Mrs. Emery, at least your daughter knows her priorities," she said, waving my mum out of the way.

My mother's eyes had fallen shamefully to the floor at that point. She'd seemed to have given up trying to argue with the young, feisty, rebel leader after years of trying.

Saskia dragged me away from the desk and through a dark tunnel in the warehouse. Then, we paused outside a sealed, metal door with yellow and black stripes running all over it.

"You know something I've noticed about you, Tatiana?" She muttered, turning her eyes down to me.

"You've always been good at getting what you want. Maybe your parents are too soft on you but you're good at it."

"Oh…" I murmured.

My eyes stared at the floor while my foot traced it.

"No. It's a good thing. It's why we need you."

My eyes returned up to hers, excited.

"We were gonna use you to convince a lot of people to join our course, after all."

"Although, we may have found a more effective method. Hence, your task today."

She gestured with her hand to a man in the shadows with his hands behind his back. He had a pointed grinning face and a dark black trench coat.

"This is Dr Silver, he'll guide you through the rest of the task," she announced.

He reached into his pocket and attached some kind of comms device to my ear.

"Now what?" I mutter, glancing between them.

"Proceed inside and follow my instructions to the letter," the doctor replied, pointing to the ominous door.

The bolts shifted the heavy door open, and hesitantly, I proceeded inside.

There was a man, tired up, beaten, and bleeding. His eyelids were prized open by these clips, forcing him to stare into a swirling pattern on a screen against a pitch-black room.

He was straining and desperately trying to squint but the shining screen was piercing through his eyes into his brain.

The Doctor's voice rang into my ear through my comms.

"Tatiana, listen closely - you're going to hypnotize him. Repeat the words after me…Breath."

"Breath," I repeated to the prisoner, sternly.

"Empty your thoughts and your mind and you will know peace."

"Empty your thoughts and your mind and you will know peace," I repeated, straightening my back with more confidence.

He struggled and groaned against my words.

"I'm not telling ya anything! Your mind tricks ain't gonna work!" He chokes back.

But I continued echoing the doctor's words into his mind, with conviction.

"Do not resist, surrender everything and you will be rewarded."

They got me to keep it up for what felt like hours until he was screaming and his mind at long last broke. We got so much information out of him, getting the locations of many of our rival leaders and politicians which lead to their inevitable demises.

That day, I was rewarded greatly. I got a promotion but most importantly I gained Saskia's trust…

My eyes shoot open to the sound of a bell tower chiming through the air in the distance. I'm lying on a bed inside one of the houses… I must have dozed off. I only laid down for a brief second to get some shut-eye and now it's already afternoon.

The last nine days have been truly exhausting. But I'm still going. Saskia put her trust in me, there's no way I'm losing this now.

Franz. He's just outside the window, his eyes tied downwards to his fidgeting hands.

A smooth blanket of snow has smothered the entire town. Yet, Franz is just plonked out there, shivering on the stone steps in front of the house.

Instinctively, my mind moves me to him. Stretching my arms, I gently press open the wooden door to where he's perched, directly outside on the steps. The chiming from the bell tower halts abruptly, leaving us in silence.

The freezing air pierces through the layers of my clothes spiking the skin up on my arms.

His eyes shoot behind him to the sound of my light boots on the stairs.

But when he sees it's me, his eyes become downturned again. He didn't take killing that girl from Three very well, it's haunting him. He's been almost silent since yesterday, only mumbling a few things in breaks.

He mutters something to me, now that I'm standing directly above him.

"What are we doing here?"

I have no idea how to answer that. So, I simply sink down beside him, rubbing my shivering arms.

Now we're sitting in silence together under the patter of the light snowfall, staring at the endless stone house together.

We both know that neither of us cares about honouring our district, even if it is for different reasons. We didn't even look for Marissa, in fact, I'm happy it's just us two now.

She'll come after us no doubt and I'll be ready. I won't hesitate, I can't.

On the other hand, I don't want to have to kill Franz, it's tearing me apart inside. He deserves the best out of any of us. Could he be turned to the side of the Storm? Maybe they'd let us both live if they're successful. I have given them a lot. They could give me something in return.

I gotta try.

"Breath," I mutter, monotone.

I didn't even mean to say that but from then on, the words continue to spill from my mouth like I'm still in my dream.

"Empty your thoughts and your mind and you will know peace.Do not resist, surrendereverything and you will be rewarded."

He's staring at me, furrowing his brow, bemused.

"What?"

I…I didn't mean to say that. It just came out. My head shakes and my eyes blink me out of the trance.

"I-It was just an old poem my mum used to read me… I was tryin' to make you feel better," I stutter.

He gazes through my eyes for a moment, blankly, until letting out a small chuckle.

"Make me feel better? Don't go reciting any of your family poems to me again… that was freaky," he laughs, giving me a light thump on my shoulder.

"Yeah… it was a stupid idea," I giggle back, facing the ground.

"Nah… the only thing that would calm me now is spotting a little sparrow - fluttering down on one of those rooves," he says, staring off with a slight smile.

"But there's nothing here, it's dead," he swallows.

Birds. That's how he stays calm. How do I stay calm again?

"I used to like writing… mostly creative writing. That's what calmed me," I shrug.

He turns back to me, smirking.

"Tatiana? Having the patience for writing?" He chuckles.

"I know… crazy," I laugh back.

Nadia Miniera, 13, District 12

A torrent of tins, empty boxes, and rotten food crash onto the wooden floor behind me, as I fling them over my shoulder. We need to travel lightly - if we're gonna have a single chance at beating the weather and we have to leave tonight. There's a terrible tingly in my heart. A feeling that I'm overstaying my welcome here. A sense … that we've left it too long.

I finish stuffing the last of my vitals into my sachet and…

There's one last thing left on my bedroom desk. A silver, heart-shaped locket. My locket. The only possession from home that I was allowed to keep.

My hand reaches for it and clasps it in front of my eyes, delicately. Then, my fingers flip it open to reveal a tiny portrait. Me, Katia, mum, and dad. It's dim and grey but it tells the story of a happy family because that's what we were.

But that was then, and this is now.

The small glimmer of hope, that their faces give me, expels the fear from my beating heart. Even if it's just for a second.

My throat swallows the tears back. I hope they know, somewhere, I figured out how coal can become diamonds.

Flipping the locket shut and placing it around my neck, I hurl myself towards the wardrobe for a big fluffy coat I found inside.

Beckett is taking a minute. I think I understand his dilemma but we don't have time for it, unfortunately. I have to get him to come with me, otherwise, he dies.

And I don't want to be alone, not anymore.

Still, I really hope Seia and Conrad don't take it too badly. They can get far together. I believe in them.

The snowflakes are heavy outside my small bedroom window. I instinctively move towards them, observing them pile up on the already thick blanket of snow.

I know people are dying all around me in this place but I can't help but find the snowflakes magical. They are all unique, like diamonds… like people.

Another cannon earlier. That means I'm over halfway. There is, however, the inescapable fact that I am going to have to kill eventually. Every diamond gets tainted a little, but it doesn't stop it from remaining a diamond, even if it isn't shining as brightly.

My potions will do the job, I should save them for the careers.

Ok, I've given him enough time to think.

"Beckett, it's now or never!" I call down.

Beckett Amory, 13, District 3

Nadia gave me a day to think about it. For one of the first times in my life, I'm struck with indecision. Normally I just take things as a honeybee would, no need to concern myself with plans, just go with the hive.

But with Conrad it's different. He's the first person in my life I've had to stop for a moment to think about.

"It's now or never," Nadia's soft voice calls from the other room.

My gaze zones back out of the window at the snowflakes fluttering down under the twilight sky, one last time…

I can't do this… can I? I can't leave him like this…

It's betrayal… but I'm doing it to protect him. To protect him from himself. Because he's my brother and I care about him.

"Sometimes to protect the people we care about… we have to distance ourselves from them."

I'm unable to keep up my train of thought as Nadia comes running back in with a quickened breath and her eyes darting all over the place.

She's now wearing a big, fluffy coat that she found upstairs. Her sachet is fastened around her shoulder, ready to leave.

"What's the rush?" I inquire, raising my eyebrows.

"I…there…"

"Nadia, what's wrong?"

Her chin drops down, she begins fidgeting with her hands.

"There were some tributes after us… I'm sorry… I should have told you earlier, I-I was just scared to," she murmurs.

My breath holds itself, preventing my frustrations from being unleashed.

"It's ok," I nod.

My eyes find their way around the inside of this manor by the lakeside again… our manor… our home. I wish that day when we watched the sunrise together by the lake could have lasted forever…

It was too perfect.

I should have known that reality would have caught up with us eventually.

"What if… what if they're in danger?" I stammer.

"Did you see their faces in the sky?" She shoots back.

Her dark eyes glance down at my chest.

"What does your heart tell you?" She shrugs.

I pause for a moment, closing my eyes to search deep inside that beating organ for the answer.

Seconds later, my eyes shoot open again.

"He's ok," I answer, nodding my head.

"I… I need to write something to him though… to make things right," I affirm, fighting back the tears welling up in my throat…

"Ok, I left a potion upstairs. I'll go grab it… then we're going," she nods.

She then spins around and bounds back up the stairs.

At the far right of the room, behind the fireplace, there is a desk with paper on it. It is glowing behind the flames, calling to me.

My feet straddle over to it. I have to do the inevitable now, it's the last thing on Earth I want to write but I have to do it.

I want to tell him everything's going to be ok, and we'll be able to live in the moment as brothers, together. Just like we agreed. That we will get our own house by a lake, it doesn't have to be large, as long as we can watch the sun come out together and glow against the water.

But that's not the reality. That's a different world and I've come to accept that now.

I'm going to have to be honest and tell him the truth. Tell him why I have to leave him. I know he'll understand.

With an old pen that, I scraped out of one of the draws, I begin writing my note to him. It comes so naturally to me that I barely even have to think whilst I'm doing it. It's like the words from my brain are spilling out all over the page, along with my tears.

At the end of it, when I've brushed and swallowed my tears away, my fingers gently fold the paper in half, covering up the contents of the message. Then, on the top of it, they squiggle the words: "Dear Conrad." In big bold writing.

A creak on the floorboards to my right. My eyes dart up to find him there!

"Conrad!" I jump back in shock, almost falling off my chair!

He's standing in the doorway, silently. His face and body are almost completely covered in shadow, with only some of the light from the flames touching his arms.

However, his messy, blond hair is clear.

"I… I… I…"

A deep breath runs through me, drowning out my emotions.

"I'm glad you're here. I think we've both known something for some time. Something we couldn't admit…" I stutter.

He steps forward an inch, still silent. So, I push up off my chair, raising my head to face him directly, inhaling.

"I know things are hard for you… I know they always have been in a way, losing your family so young. I know now why you fought so hard to protect me. Because you've never had a family, that's why it was so important to you…"

"I want you to know that I'll always be your family. I understand now that neither of us can lose the other. That's why I think it's best that we split…"

He's still silent after my entire speech. Now that he's directly above me, his face is becoming more clear.

My eyes drop down to the floor.

"I'm sorry."

Still nothing from him. He can't be taking it well. He has to say something, this is just as hard for me. I poured my heart out into that note!

"Conrad?"

Suddenly, he produces a knife from his jacket! A dark, pointy knife!

A gasp escapes my mouth as he plunges it into my torso! When it leaves my body, I'm groaning and crying in pain, clutching my wound on the wooden floor!

The sting from the blade was nothing compared to the sting of betrayal! Why? Has he lost his mind? What happened to him?

His eyes! His eyes were different. They weren't dark blue like Conrad's, they were dark brown. They weren't loving and gentle, they were malicious and sinister.

Everything's blurry now around me but my vision can make him out. He has his back to me, already disappearing into the hallway.

My arm stretches out to him.

"Conrad!" I cry.

His eyes tilt one last time at me with a smirk, they are dementedly lit up from the light of the fire.

After everything we've been through together, he can't have betrayed me like this!

Taliesin Ulysses, 18, District 4

My blade is still clasped tight in my hand, shaking. Conrad's ally, Beckett, he is lying behind me on the floor, groaning.

The plan worked perfectly. With Conrad's mask, there was no way he could see me coming, no way to escape. Plus, he thinks Conrad did it. How beautifully tragic. When Conrad returns he will be broken, he can't come back from this. His soul will be destroyed. There are some things worse than death. He was never supposed to get a happy ending - I told him that. I had to follow through on my threat.

I've made sure he knows what I did, count on that.

I'm so lost in my twisted mind, that I never saw the girl that appeared in front of me. The girl from Twelve. In all my madness, I had forgotten all about her.

She and her ally were the one's that I tracked here and it led me straight to Conrad's world, which I've promptly destroyed.

I want to thank her really but I do have to kill her too.

Her eyes are lit up bright with shock, in her hand she grasps some kind of bottle with a green liquid inside.

Her frantic eyes zoom down to the knife in my hand.

"What the hell are you doing?" She gasps, tightening her grip on the glass bottle.

I don't respond, as my answer wouldn't make sense to her. I'm not really Conrad, after all.

Before I know it, she has already unleashed the bottle directly at my face, gritting her teeth!

My head ducks out of the way behind the door, just in time!

SMASH

The bottle shatters to pieces against the doorframe, missing my face!

However, the contents still explode out all over it! It burns through my mask and onto my skin!

A cry of agony bursts from my lungs!

The liquid is then suddenly transformed into a poisonous gas in the air around me, spreading all throughout the hallway and clawing into my throat!

Just mere moments go by after the bottle was smashed near my face and I have already returned the attack! My right hand instinctively hurls the knife directly into her torso!

Her face is frozen in dread, under the growing cloud of poisonous green fumes. Her head falls down with her wide-open mouth at the blade in her body. Her eyes soon turn droopy and sink down along with her body.

THUD

She hits the floor, while I'm still coughing and stumbling forward to get out! Desperately trying to exhale the poison from my lungs!

But it's clogging them up like a blocked pipe and they are fighting to keep breathing!

Any kind of thoughts of what has just occurred… what I've done…. they're like a whirlpool in my mind, zooming around and flying off in all directions.

What have I done?

Nadia Miniera, 13, District 12

My chest convulses up and down like a balloon pumping, lying here on the floor in a hall of poisonous toxins. I'm bleeding to death… that's the last thing I remember.

Tik-tok, tik-tok, tik-tok.

The sound of the clock ringing through my ears is the only thing I can hear…

Everything else is like the fuzzing of a swarm of insects.

It's getting dark in here… very dark, closing in around me, gradually, through the doorway. An approaching doom. My vision is fading but my hearing seems to be more acute.

Deep coughing echoes through my cloud of poison. I got him good. It just so happened that I had the potion in my hands at that time. The potion I left upstairs.

Then… footsteps on the floorboards. He stumbles forward through the gas cloud… half of his face seems to have been melted off… wait no.

He was wearing a mask. It's not Conrad. Half of his real face is now visible with scorching, burnt tissue.

His teeth are gritted tight, wrathful.

A pale, pointed face. The boy from Four…

"You!" I realise out loud.

The word hurts me to say.

He trips forward, bracing himself on the wall, still coughing profusely but sneering down at me.

I can't produce words easily anymore, but I need to strike one last bit of fear into him. My poison will kill him but before that reckless boy from Six? I don't know. The bond that he and Beckett shared… they were like brothers. I've never seen anything like it.

"He'll come for you…" I murmur with one of the last of my breaths.

He's now directly above me, his venomous eyes crawl down to me.

"I'm counting on it," he replies.

Then he's gone, crashing through the door and slamming it behind him.

Tik-tok, tik-tok, tik-tok.

It's the sound of the clock again, running my time down. Yet strangely, I can feel a little smile forming on my lips. My time may be ticking down but I was given enough to finally figure out life's big question.

There are so many questions that need answers, so many discoveries to make. I wish I had time to unlock the answers to all of them.

But I figured out the big one. I did it. I found out how coal can become diamonds. It was a metaphor all along. There was a reason in all this insanity for the loss, for the pain and heartache. So that we could all become diamonds together. It's sending one last warm feeling through my chest against the coldness of the world.

Despite the dreadful situation, we all became diamonds together. Me, Seia, Beckett, Tristan… even Charon and Heather. Thanks partly to me. Conrad too. Although, unlike us, I have a crushing feeling that he won't die a diamond…

He's left alone now with nothing to lose, and I dread what he'll do.

Tik-tok, tik-tok, tik-tok.

Time has become meaningless. A void.

The dark, wooden hallway is so blurry and empty. Yet, I can spot a faint silhouette of a person at the end of it.

They move closer, to reveal a middle-aged man with grey stubble and tired eyes.

Dad…

It doesn't feel so bad anymore.

And suddenly I feel like I'm somewhere else. Back home. The cold, dark hallway evaporates into warm green leaves, blowing through the breeze. I'm lying on some waving, cushiony grass. It feels like it, anyway.

Mum and Katia will be waiting for me somewhere. I know it.

My thoughts are of dad though. He'll be a diamond too even if it takes him a while.

He's still here with me in this hallway, to see me to the other side.

Dad fades in above me and whispers something through the silence.

"Hey baby girl," he smiles, delicately.

Everything fades to darkness…

Conrad Martell, 18, District 6

The train is behind me. Now it's only a short walk towards the manor. I did it. I escaped from that dungeon. Well, they seemed to let me go but not after what felt like Twenty-Four hours! It can't have been that long, can it? It was long enough that I was forced to eat some of the food from the feast. I know… I'm terrible. Though, I'm not gonna turn down the chance to eat some roast chicken, I'd be lucky to even get a chicken bone growing up and it did taste splendid, I'll give them that.

The whole ordeal cost me time… a lot of time. Time that we don't have.

Beckett! I have to get back to him now!

But I feel awful… I left Seia behind. I did look for her… but that place was like a maze and far too dangerous to stick around. I was just so desperate to get back to Beckett. To keep my promise.

My promise is the finish line! Now I'm heading right at it! I'll just have to hope Seia finds her own way back. She's smart. She can do it!

I know the path before me, even if it has been buried under a mountain of snow.

All the same, my progress trudging across the snow is painfully slow, my numb legs drag their way through, knee-deep.

At the same time, the freezing snowflakes in the air bite and rip against the exposed skin on my face and all the skin under my clothes is shivering along with it.

The Gamemakers really do have a sick sense of humour, don't they? Sending us off to the feast without winter clothing, then suddenly making it winter…

The snow envelopes the evening air in a kind of mystic silence. So, the thoughts in my mind are louder than ever…

I halt for a brief second. My numb, freezing hand goes to my pocket. I don't really know why, to be honest, but it brings out Beckett's bee necklace.

My stiff, frozen fingers clasp it between them.

My promise. I may be a shitty person for leaving Seia, but my promise is the only thing that matters to me. It's the only thing that matters. It's blinding me, I know it. I've never left a person behind before. I've also never broken a promise.

So, my eyes focus upward on the path through the snowy trees ahead. I've always had my foot on the gas, I've never taken it off. Not once in my life because I don't know how to, truthfully.

I'm close now. Close to making things right with Beckett.

But whilst moving through the silent trees, my heart is suddenly frozen… but not from the cold.

There are notes… on old stale paper. They are pinned to almost all the tree trunks and blowing through the gusts of snow.

Leaping forward out of the snow, I snatch one of them off the wooden bark.

The words become visible after my hands brush the snow off.

"Long time no see - Bloodtide," it reads.

My heart begins firing up with panic, blood rushes to my cheeks.

"Taliesin!" I growl under my breath, screwing up the paper and tossing it aside.

What has he done? What has he done!?

My heart is set ablaze!

I've already zipped off through the snow, faster than full speed! It's dark now but my legs won't stop, they are on autopilot, crashing through the trees!

"I'm coming!" I cry through the freezing night air.

"I'm coming Beckett!"

BOOM

A cannon! No! I can't be too late!

The trees zoom past me through the falling white, in a blur, as I scramble over the last mound before the manor.

There it is! Light from the fireplace is still radiating out of the window against the blanket of snow but it's so eerily silent.

My rasping, exhausted breaths take me the rest of the way, ripping their way into my eardrums, toward the front door!

But when my hand clasps around the door handle, a wicked voice pierces through the silent air.

"Conrad. Conrad. Conrad."

Condescending tutting follows.

It's him! Taliesin! His voice stabs into my heart, lodging my feet in the snow. I haven't heard it since that night on the Free Day but the venom on his tongue is unmistakable.

Boots, deep in the snow, come after…

He emerges from behind the manor. His snake eyes scanning me all over. His grin punctures deep into me.

He doesn't need to say anything else. That alone tells me he's done something terrible.

His face is half him, red with burns but it's him. The other half is a mask… a mask of… my face. And he's wearing a blond, messy wig!

He… he didn't do what I think he did… did he?

He rips off the remainder of the mask and the wig with it, revealing the non-burnt other half of his face! His eyes are stinging cold into mine, locked together in death.

I release the door handle, clenching my fists tight!

"What have you done!?" I bellow!

"What have you done!?" I screech again.

He doesn't answer. He just stands there. Not even grinning anymore, just staring into my soul.

"Did I not warn you, Conrad? I always win."

Those are the last words that come out of his mouth before he has disappeared into the blizzard.

"Beckett!" I scream, swinging the door open and crashing inside the hallway!

Immediately, I'm hit with a toxic green cloud that invades my throat and crawls into my lungs. Coughs erupt from my insides!

My Jacket! I stuff my jacket over my mouth and nose while staggering through the corridor.

I want to throw up! My eyes dodge away from Nadia's body, lying against the floor but I'm soon through the hallway, into the main clean room, out of the poison!

There he is… clutching an open wound with his tiny hands and groaning in pain.

"Beckett!" I scream again!

I practically collapse onto my ally, tears streaming down my face!

"It wasn't me… I swear… it wasn't me," I cry, looking him dead in his fading eyes.

A single tear is running down his red cheek.

"Con…Conrad…Conrad…"

He's muttering with his finger pointed off to the desk for some reason.

"It's alright bud. I'm here now… don't try to talk."

I place my hand against his wound to put pressure on it, catching a faint mumble under his groans.

"I'm sorry."

My head shakes in response…

"No. I'm sorry!" I choke.

The poisonous cloud begins seeping its way into the main room around us.

"We gotta get outta here," I say, glancing around the room.

I lift him up into my arms and begin carrying him through the hallway. He hugs his arms around my neck snugly in response.

I can't avoid the poison this time and it spreads into my lungs again. My chest erupts into more chokingly painful coughs!

It wasn't me.

It wasn't me.

It wasn't me.

Or was it? I don't even know myself anymore. I'm the one who left him, despite his pleading.

"This is all my fault," I realise out loud with a cry.

After barging my way through the door with him still cradled in my arms, my legs begin to trudge through the snow once again. Not really sure where I'm going, all I know is we have to get away from the poison. From that house.

Once we've made it over the mound, he begins mumbling in pain again.

"C-conrad…"

"Conrad!" Louder this time.

"Yeah?" I mutter back.

"Please… can we stop… it hurts," he croaks.

"Please."

My eyes tilt down to him, wrapped in my arms. His own are dreary and blank but he opens his mouth to speak again.

"I just want to watch the snowfall," he begs.

"...Okay…okay…" I murmur, nodding.

There's a tree over there… just by the frozen lake… where we watched the stars dancing in the moonlight together. On that log.

I told him I'd never stop being his Guardian Angel. I lied.

So, I lay him down against the tree, keeping pressure on his wound with one hand but holding his other hand firmly.

It should be his family here, holding his hand but I'm the next best thing, I suppose.

My sword is tossed to the side and it wedges into the mound of snow.

"We'll just rest here for a bit… until…"

Until what? I have no idea how to finish that sentence.

His hand moves up to tug at my arm.

"You came back for me…" he says softly, staring up at the fluttering snowflakes.

The tears have blocked up my throat so badly that I can't even speak… but I'll try.

"Well… I made a promise didn't I?" I swallow.

"You always keep your promises," he finishes my sentence with a soft whisper.

"Don't worry… I'm not going anywhere," I stutter.

A few more minutes go by with only the silence of the snowfall caving in around us. I'm just kneeling here, shivering, with my hand on his wound while the freezing, icy flakes settle all over my body, cutting into my skin, and jittering my bones.

Seeing no other option, I simply stare out into the darkened clouds from where the snow is coming and take a huge inhale into my lungs.

"Please!" I scream into the night.

I'm begging a sponsor to give us something. Something to save him. Someone will respond, surely?

There's no response.

"Anybody?" I whimper.

I'm not really sure who I'm asking anymore…

It makes no difference. We're just met with nothing but the empty silence of the snowfall.

"Do Something!" I beg again, my lips shaking.

Then, a faint voice from below me. Beckett is tugging at my arm again.

"Conrad… Conrad…Conrad…"

My attention goes back down to him, he looks me dead in the eyes with a faint smile.

"The sun will come out… wait and see," he murmurs…

His hand slips from mine, quickly becoming as cold as the snow around us. His eyes drift off into the night and he falls still.

"No…no…" I stutter, feeling desperately for the pulse on his neck.

But I find nothing…

A cannon fires in the distance…

I want to cry but why can't I? My face feels so numb. I don't know if it's just from the cold.

My frostbit hand automatically produces his bee necklace in front of my eyes. Reminding me of my failure, as the frozen wind suddenly gushes at my hair.

"I've got something for you," I smiled, reaching into my pocket and taking out his bee necklace.

"Keep it," he said, looking me dead in the eyes.

"It's to bring you luck."

My heart is stricken with emptiness for the briefest of moments but then… boiling inside of me.

The blood is boiling under my skin with rage… ready to explode at any second. My hands begin shaking and stammering with my breaths. My right-hand finds its way toward the hilt of my sword. It crushes it down heavily.

Then my eyes shoot up to the direction in which Taliesin went. His footprints are still there … in the snow.

My vision becomes so narrow all of a sudden through the snowflakes.

Taliesin!

My teeth smash together.

Like a wolf after a sheep, I'm going to hunt him down. I'll hunt him to the ends of the Earth if I have to. I'll never stop.

Dark thoughts begin to creep into my mind… thoughts of what I'm going to do to him when I find him.

I see nothing now but a red mist descending in front of my eyes…

Taliesin Ulysses, 18, District 4

BOOM

The sound of a cannon. Beckett.

Snowflakes drift gently all around me through the looming tree trunks. The freezing wind envelops my very veins.

I'm now wandering almost aimlessly through this white wilderness, reflecting into the dark sky. With only the occasional tree to break it up.

It all happened so fast. Everything. I didn't expect the Twelve girl to appear like that. I didn't even expect Conrad to make it back at the perfect moment.

But it all just happened. I don't truly know what Conrad will do; does he have the spirit to stand up to me? The Twelve girls' warning has stuck with me though - maybe Conrad and Beckett were closer than I could have imagined.

My fist moves up to my mouth. Two more coughs slip out… the poison is still burning my insides… my chest. It's getting worse; it feels like the poison is slowly crushing my lungs from all sides while the icy wind rips into my burnt face.

Conrad ran back into that house. With any luck, that means he'll be poisoned too. Now we're bound together in death.

How did it come to this? I was just a kid once, begging for the attention of everyone and everything… and now I have it. I went to extreme measures but sometimes you have to. Nobody could possibly forget me now.

I'll be remembered forever.

With a heart of darkness but I'll be remembered.

My pacing has stopped and I'm simply staring off into the wall of snow that is the blizzard. Barely anything is visible except my destiny.

They got exactly what they wanted, didn't they? A show? A performance? A pantomime? I'm the big nasty villain that everyone despises and is rooting to die. Simple. That's what they wanted, was it not? That's what every great pantomime has. How shocking would it be for them all if the villain won?

I did something awful. Unspeakably evil to most. But it's all just a show. That's all life is. So how can good and evil exist?

It's so quiet now. My face tilts up into the oncoming snow.

A great audience is up there, watching the show. Just imagining their mouths dropping in shock brings me delight.

He thought it was his ally, Conrad. Then, surprise! It was me! Every great show needs a twist, a terrible twist. How boring would it have been otherwise? The Capitol gave me the tools and I delivered.

I did it. I won.

No matter what happens next. I won.

"COUGH."

A smile begins to creep onto my face. A smile of victory.

My hunger games…

The greatest show on Earth.

So… I don't really have much to say but I'm sorry for this chapter lol but it was just as hard for me as it was for you. This was Nautics only chapter - see you next time.

Roles

Serenity: Vigilante

Taliesin: Disguiser

Harrison: Vampire Hunter

Conrad: Guardian Angel

Nadia: Potion Master

Charon: Werewolf

Marissa: Ambusher

El: Pirate

Tatiana: Arsonist

Franz: Transporter

Darrah: Medium

Eulogies

Day 1

24th: Ricky James (D9M) Killed by Serenity Jasper - decapitated.

23th: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

0 deaths.

Day 5

0 deaths.

Day 6

15th: Jade Hastings (D1F) Killed by Charon Aytigin – Throat ripped out.

14th: Charon Aytigin (D12M) Killed by Serenity Jasper – Shot in the chest.

Day 7

13th: Heather Monroe (D5F) Killed by Taliesin Ulysses – Throat slit.

Day 8

12th: Electra Shielle (D3F) Killed by Franz Kubo.

Day 9

11th: Seia Loam (D11F) Killed by Harrison Jones – Stabbed through the back.

10th: Nadia Miniera (D12F) Killed by Taliesin Ulysses – Knife thrown in into torso. Where do I even start with Nadia? What a great a well thought out character. I read her form through so many times, and I really hope we did her justice because she was such a dynamic character. The coal becoming diamonds was such a sweet metaphor and at a certain point in the story I realized I wanted to focus on that. All the loss and trauma in her life is what made her into a diamond, and I wanted her to realize that. I think she was the first death I've written that actually made me cry. RIP Nadia you are a diamond in heaven now. Thanks for the submission Rising-Balloons!

9th: Beckett Amory (D3M) Killed by Taliesin Ulysses – Stabbed. The second death I've written that made me cry. Beckett was a special boy that saw the world in a unique way. To be honest when I first got him, I had no idea that he would have this much impact on me but he learned with Conrad so much and he taught Conrad so much. He started this process off terrified out of his mind but him and Conrad learned to relax together and live in the moment as brothers. I'm so sorry it ended in complete tragedy but at least they were together in the end. He'll be watching the sunrise over the lake in heaven now. Thanks for the submission Lilah32!

Jade: 1

Taliesin: 6

Marissa: 1

Heather: 1

Serenity: 2

Charon: 1

Franz: 1

Harrison: 1

Mutts/arena: 2