Geo Stryker, 15

District 12 Male

The sun tells Geo it's not even five a.m., which is far too early to be out and about when you're not in the Hunger Games. Yet, here Geo is, tiredly trailing behind Everett as they pass by the giant plastic whale and the mangled corpse of some kind of a white machine. "What do you think happened there?" Everett says, gesturing to the destroyed machine.

"I don't know," Geo says quietly. "Maybe it tried to attack someone?"

Everett turns back around and says, "We should keep moving. Staying out here in the open isn't safe."

Geo purses his lip as he makes to follow Everett. He doubts that there is anyone out hunting right now, when the sun is barely peering over the horizon in the distance. But he keeps his mouth shut and continues forward.

As they pass by the carousel and the flying elephants, Everett suddenly kneels down and looks intently at the ground.

"Um," Geo says uncertainly. "Everett? What are you doing?"

"There's blood on the ground here," Everett answers without looking up. "It looks pretty old, but-"

That's when the first horse rears onto its back legs and charges off of the carousel.

Geo yelps in surprise as Everett rockets to his feet. They stand motionless, watching the horse with matching fearful expressions.

Said horse-a small, white creature adorned with gold, pink and blue-gallops all of the way around the carousel and skids to a stop directly in front of Geo. It claws at the ground with its hoof, letting out a soft neigh and swishing its tail. Its eyes are a striking, unnatural shade of blue. They stare Geo down in a scarily human-like way.

Practically shaking with fear, Geo takes a few cautionary steps back until he is standing beside Everett. "What do we do?" he whispers to his ally, hoping Everett has a solution that he doesn't.

"I have no idea," Everett answers, eyes wide and following the horse's every movement. A knife trembles in his left hand.

For a few long, tortuous moments, no one moves. Everett and Geo continue to stare down the horse, which stares back with its eerie blue eyes.

"Okay," Everett whispers. "Let's just...slowly walk away, and never come over here again."

"Good idea," Geo says quickly.

In unison, the pair move backward, pausing between each step to gauge the horse's reaction. The creature in question simply continues to stare at them.

They make it a few steps before Everett's knife slips out of his hand. It lands on the ground with a clatter, and before Geo can even react, the horse charges them.

It knocks both of them over, sending them tumbling in different directions. It stops a few feet away from them before it whirls around and runs directly for Geo.

Geo dives out of the way, but the horse comes back. Its hoof slams down on his lower left leg with a sickening crunch. Geo cries out in pain, recoiling around his leg, as the horse returns for another strike.

He watches it through his hands, too terrified and filled with too much pain to move, and squeezes his eyes shut. The sound of the horse's hooves hitting the ground comes ever closer, and then-it stops.

Something hits the ground with a shattering thud, and Geo chances to open his eyes.

He sees Everett standing over the corpse of the horse, breathing hard and holding a bloodied knife. After a moment, Everett turns around and says, "Geo, are you okay?"

Geo shifts and tries to sit up. "I think I'm okay."

"Oh no, no, your leg," Everett says, eyes wide.

"What about it?" responds Geo with a glance down. "Oh."

The impact of the horse's hoof ripped his pant leg, leaving the wound itself out in the open air. The hoof made an imprint on his skin, cutting downward and filling it with blood.

"Come on," Everett says, glancing around nervously. He reaches out to take Geo's arm and lift him up. "We made too much noise. We need to get out of here."

"Um, Everett?"

"I'm honestly surprised that the Careers aren't already here-"

"Everett!" Geo cries urgently.

"What?"

"Look." Geo points over Everett's shoulder with a shaking hand. "The-the horses."

Everett furrows his eyebrows and follows Geo's finger. "Oh my god."

Sixty-seven pairs of bright blue, striking eyes stare them down, all standing in a line in front of the carousel. The empty carousel, save for the chariots. Sixty-seven white horses, wearing shining shoes and gilded saddles.

"Run," Everett says, dropping Geo's arms and taking off. "Geo? Come on!"

"I know!" Geo yells back, limping as fast as he can.

Behind them, the horses charge all as one. The sound of their hooves smashing against the pavement is practically deafening, but Geo doesn't look at them. He focuses on trying to move as fast as he can-and, besides, he doesn't want to know when he's going to get stampeded.

"Oh, come on!" Everett shouts as he rushes forward. In one, graceful move, he picks Geo up and carries him fireman-style over his shoulder. He takes off running, clearly significantly slowed down by Geo's presence. Geo can see that the horses are gaining good ground. Unfortunately, he can't see where Everett is taking him.

Suddenly, Everett drops him over a fence. A moment later, Everett hops over as well, pulling Geo to his feet and yelling, "Come on, Geo!"

Geo stumbles, looking around and trying to get his bearings. He realizes that they're both standing in front of the white-and-gold castle. Below them, plastic boats slowly drift through a narrow canal. Far above them, a clock face smiles down at them.

Everett pulls him toward the canal as the horses begin to leap over the various spiral fences around them. "Get in," he commands, shoving Geo down the dock toward the boats.

Geo limps as fast as he can to a light blue boat and all but collapses in the front row. He clamors into a sitting position as the horses converge on the dock, watching as Everett tries to fight off the creatures with nothing but his knife.

Without warning, the boat suddenly chugs forward, moving far faster than a non-motorized boat ever should. "Everett!" Geo yells quickly, waving his arms in the air.

Everett looks at him and races down the dock. At the same time, all of the horses freeze and, as if they are one, turn their heads and stare Geo down. For a long moment, none of the horses move, and as the boats drops out into open water and Everett launches himself off of the dock, the horses charge once more.

The hoard of gilded steeds pause at the dock. For a moment, Geo thinks they may not come after them.

Of course, he was wrong. One of the horses leaps into the water, and, finding that it barely goes up to its knees, rushes toward Everett and Geo's boat.

"Quick, start paddling!" Everett cries, trying to push the boat forward with the walls.

Geo does the same. The boat gains a little speed as it rounds a bend in the canal. Up ahead, another boat blocks their path, and the water leads into a dark room that appears to only have on exit.

Suddenly, a horse bites only Geo's hair, pulling him backwards and making him yelp in pain. The horse stands above the boat on the grass that lines the canal, and seems to be trying to drag Geo away from Everett.

Before Geo can even raise his hands, Everett appears and slams his knife into the horse's side. It topples over, right into the canal, generating a wave that slams into the boat.

The boat flips, sending Geo and Everett crashing onto the ship in front of them. Geo gets to his feet first, pulling Everett up with him and yelling, "Come on! Inside the castle!"

They splash through the water, listening to the sounds of the horses giving chase.

Another boat suddenly bowls them over, leaving both of them on the ground, but inside the castle. And then the most peculiar thing happens-the horses stop. All in one second, all sixty-seven of them, simply cease to move. The corpse of the horse that Everett stabbed floats down the canal toward them, but the rest of the world falls still.

Everett and Geo stand there for a long moment, knee deep in the water, breathing hard. Eventually, Everett turns around and says, "We need to find a way out of here."

Geo follows him, but not without glancing at the horses first. They still have yet to move.

This is the moment where Geo first notices the song. The sounds of a choir of high voices, probably children, sing in the background. Geo glances around, trying to find the source and wondering if a children's' choir is going to attempt to kill him too, but there is no obvious mouth for it.

It's a small world after all, it's a small world after, it's a small world after all, it's a small, small world~

Geo follows Everett down the side of the canal. They pass by a green snake, who smiles maliciously at them as its head spins in circles. Geo gives it an unnerved look as they pass.

It's a world of laughter, it's a world of tears…

They pass beneath an archway that reads Welcome! across the top. The next room is filled with small dolls dressed in parkas. Two to their left sit upon a column of ice and appear to be fishing for walruses. On the other side of the canal, a similar doll ice skates in circles.

It's a world of hopes and a world of fears…

Geo glances at the ice-fishing dolls as the pair go by. Their beady little eyes seem to follow his every move.

"We need to get out of-" Everett starts, and then there's a splash, and Everett is gone.

"Everett?!" Geo shouts, waiting for the telltale cannon. When no such sound comes, he looks around and notices that the ice-fishers are gone. The walruses are now glaring at him, but they seem firmly rooted in place.

"Geo! Run!" comes Everett's answer from across the canal. Geo finds him on his back, being held back by the ice-fishers with their poles. Sharp teeth are now peeking out of their mouths, and they smile at Geo with grotesque cheeriness.

It's a small world after all, it's a small world after all…

"Hey!" Geo yells. "Let Everett go!" He splashes his way through the water. Just as he steps into the scene, the ice-skater leaps down from its pedestal onto his head, teeth bared. Geo screams, desperately trying to rip the doll off as it sinks its teeth into his skin.

Geo tumbles to the ground as more dolls, dressed like choir singers, drop down from the heavens. He screams and tries to crawl toward a struggling Everett, but the choir simultaneously sink their teeth in his skin. For a moment, his vision pulses black as Everett throws the ice-fishers off of him.

With a scream of pain, Geo flips onto his back, attempting to squirm away from the advancing dolls. Across the room, Everett stampedes toward him as more dolls drop onto Geo's stomach.

The dolls converge, teeth glistening with drool and something that looks scarily-similar to blood, and suddenly it doesn't hurt anymore.

Ottilie Blackwell, 15
District 4 Female

The first true cannon of the One-Hundredth, Fifty-Third Hunger Games is what wakes Ottilie up in the morning. "What?" she exclaims as she bolts upright, looking around wildly. It's not exactly her finest moment.

She hears the sound of someone laughing and finds Calista seated on a crate, changing Shad's bandages.

"What the hell are you laughing at?" Ottilie snaps, getting to her feet. She stalks toward Calista, carefully weaving past Bayou, who remains dead to the world on the ground.

"Well, you managed to sleep through the sound of an entire army crossing the arena, but the cannon is what wakes up children's?" laughs Calista, shaking her head as she unwinds a roll of bandages.

Ottilie drops onto a crate next to Calista. "The what now?"

"It sounded like a stampede of some kind." Calista shrugs. "It was probably just some mutt."

Ottilie scoots closer to her. "You think that's what led to the cannon?"

"I'm almost certain of it," Calista replies, gingerly wrapping up Shad's left thigh.

Ottilie looks down at Shad, unable to tell if he's awake or not. Scoria had said that if he made it through the night, he'd live. But Ottilie knows he's absolutely fucked, whether he's alive or not. These kinds of injuries don't exactly heal themselves in a few days.

"Where did it come from?" Ottilie asks, looking up.

Calista looks over her shoulder. "Somewhere behind the Cornucopia. Probably over there." She points toward Tomorrowland.

"We should check it out," Ottilie says firmly.

Calista sighs. "I'll wake up Scoria."

Ottilie waits on the outskirts of camp, wondering what could have possibly caused a noise like that. Even more so-a noise she did not hear. She doesn't distrust Calista enough to believe she'd lie about something like this. It's not nearly suspicious enough, especially with the cannon shot and everything.

"I told Scoria we'll be back sometime tomorrow," Calista says, appearing behind Ottilie.

It isn't a very long hunt, but Ottilie has learned to take what she can get. Any time spent away from the Cornucopia is time well spent, especially if it leads to her landing a kill.

She hasn't forgotten what the girl from 11 did. It was her job to kill Navarro, and instead, some meaningless little fourteen-year-old from District 11 took it all away from her. She hasn't forgotten it, and she doesn't plan to. Not, at the very least, until Ashe Illyrian lies dead.

She wants revenge, for Ashe stealing her glory. What she could have been, if she was the youngest chosen volunteer Victor in District 4's history, who also happened to stop a rebel plot that could have destabilized the entirety of Panem? Oh, it would have been perfect.

But no. Along came Ashe Illyrian, and Ottilie lost it all.

Ottilie is smart enough to keep this sentiment from her allies. She wouldn't put it past any of them to kill Ashe first, just to spite her. Well, maybe not Bayou. There isn't enough going on in that boy's brain to comprehend the concept of "spite".

Calista and Ottilie pass by the sign that welcomes them to Tomorrowland, effectively shutting them off from the Cornucopia for the time being. It doesn't bother Ottilie; Calista wouldn't turn on her. They may hate each other, but it's clear to Ottilie that Calista has morals. Ottilie wouldn't even be surprised if that is why Calista ends up dead.

Unless, of course, Ottilie gets to her first.

Ottilie is shaken from her thoughts by the sight of movement up ahead. "Look, over there!"

"What?" Calista exclaims, seeming startled.

"There's something moving up the path-I think it's a tribute!" Ottilie cries, almost giddy with excitement and anticipation. She takes off running down the path, jumping over a bench, watching as a pair of tributes-a boy and a girl, by the looks of it-duck into one of the buildings that line the street. Above the doorway, a large sign sticks out into the street, emblazoned with the image of a man with a purple head in a white and green outfit. The words above the image read "Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters".

Ottilie creases her eyebrows at this but follows them inside anyway, not bothering to check in Calista is following or not.

The room she enters is filled with railings, snaking across the floor and creating various walkways. She leaps over the closest one, catching sight of the feet of one of the tributes as they round the corner. She charges past a pair of trash can and into a semi-circular room. The ground is lined with railings, but what stands against the opposite wall is what really catches her eye.

A full-sized man, moving rather robotically, stands upon a pedestal. He moves his hands and seems to be talking, but it looks like his face has been projected onto his body. He looks like the man on the sign outside.

Ottilie pauses for a moment, listening as the man says something about needing help to stop Emperor Zurg from destroying the galaxy.

"Ishtar! There's a Career following us, we need to do something!"

"I don't care, I saw Liesel and Tamarah go in here and I'm going to get them!"

Ottilie snaps back to reality, realizing that if what Ishtar says is true, there could be four victims in this one place-there could be four kills in this place, easily the most anyone has in these Games.

She picks up the pace, dashing out of the semi-circular room and into what appears to be a loading zone of some kind. At the other end of the room, Liesel stands beside Tamarah, nursing what appears to be a burn wound on her shoulder.

Ishtar, meanwhile, is making a mad dash for the pair, leaving her companion desperately trying to chase after her.

Small, two-person buggies of some sort, each outfitted with a pair of cartoonish guns, slowly roll past Ottilie as she attempts to rush Ishtar before she can get to Liesel and Tamarah. Ottilie hardly takes any notice of them until Liesel and Tamarah pile into one, watching as the pair disappear behind a curtain.

Ottilie makes to jump into the next buggy, but suddenly finds Ishtar's hands on her shoulder, launching her backwards and through the air. She flips over, laying upside down on the seat of a buggy two behind Ishtar's and her companion's.

She clenches her fists as her buggy moves through the curtain, lights flashing on the ceiling. She makes to jump to the next buggy, only to have a safety bar lower over her lap, effectively trapping her in place.

Ottile grabs the gun in front of her, swearing colorfully as the board in front of her closes over her lap as the well.

The board itself is colorful and busy: a pair of ray guns of some sort are mounted to the top of it, with two displays that say "SCORE" on them in blocking lettering between. Ottilie struggles against it all as the buggy passes through a tunnel, opening up into a large, dark room. Well, not "dark", per se. The walls are black and covered in white dots, and the room is filled with moving cutouts of robots and ships and planets.

She accidentally presses down on trigger of the ray gun in her hands, and a beam of pure light shoots from the nozzle. It dashes through the air for a few moments, before it cuts a whole directly through the buggy in front of her.

A grin spreads across Ottilie's face as she trains the gun on Ishtar's head, imagining what it would look like with a slit cut straight through it. Just as she pushes down on the trigger, Ishtar moves, somehow freeing herself from the restraints in the buggy.

Ishtar grabs her companion and pulls him out, yelling, "Go take care of 4. Liesel is mine."

"Ishtar-but-"

"Afandina. Do as I say," Ishtar growls before she rips a ray gun straight off of the board it was mounted on. With that, she climbs out of the buggy and runs off into the next room, leaving Ottilie alone with...what was his name? Afandina?

Ottilie struggles harder, knowing being trapped puts her at a significant disadvantage. Her buggy slowly begins to turn as she wrestles with her own ray gun, trying in vain to rip it from the console.

Afandina, looking significantly beaten up, yet holding a gun, starts to fire at her.

Ottilie does her best to dodge, firing back at him with little rhyme or reason to her shots. She finally manages to free her legs, now draped out across the seat, still unable to get her gun off of the board.

A shot narrowly misses her head, leading to Ottilie jumping out of the vehicle altogether. She lands hard on her side, knocking the wind from her lungs, as a beam goes whirling past her shoulder. She scrambles to her feet, running down the long, straight sidebar to the buggies's paths.

She hears the sound of Afandina giving chase, but she doesn't look back. The next room is semi-circular again, this time having a different, robotic man standing behind a railing. He wears a long, purple coat and carries a large ray gun, and seems to be yelling that he needs more power.

Ottilie reaches into the nearest buggy and rips the ray gun from the console. It comes off with the sound of breaking plastic, and Ottilie turns and trains it on Afandina.

The shot hits him square in the chest, but it doesn't burn through his skin like she thought it would. It burns through his shirt, and he drops to the ground and starts screaming, but it didn't exactly have the desired effect.

Ottilie looks at him for a moment before she turns and follows the buggies on their trail. A wound like that should have no trouble killing Afandina within a few hours.

Ray gun clamped firmly in her hand, Ottilie charges into the next room. It's bright and filled with spinning cutouts, each color seemingly more shocking than the last. The busyness almost makes Ottilie miss the shoot-out happening in the midst of it all.

Ishtar is crouching behind a pedestal with spinning plants on top, shooting wildly in the direction of Tamarah and Liesel.

Speaking of which: Liesel hides behind a cutout that says "Alien in a Box!", while Tamarah is at the back of a green-and-purple alien with its mouth open wide, on the other side of the buggies from Ishtar at all.

Ottilie sneaks up to Ishtar, about to shoot in the neck, when the girl suddenly whirls around. She tosses away her gun, lifting Ottilie into the air by her shirt, and carelessly throwing her into the nearest buggy.

Ottilie slams into the seat, her head smashing against the console and ricocheting forward. Everything is dim and blurry, and the world seems to, almost, slow down.

All until the sound of Ishtar shouting, "YES!" breaks into Ottilie's reality, forcing her to sit up in surprise.

"NO! LIESEL!" Tamarah screams, popping out from behind the alien. She looks at something that Ottilie can't see, and she makes a break for it. She disappears into the next tunnel, and then she's gone.

The world sways as Ottilie tries to get to her feet, watching as Ishtar blurrily runs as well. From what...well, Ottilie has no idea.

"Ottilie? Ottilie, are you alright?"

"What?" Ottilie says, looking around wildly. After a moment her eyes zero in on Calista, standing in the archway between this room and the last. "What are you-"

BOOM!

Ottilie jumps.

Calista glances at her and crosses the room. She kneels down by something. After a moment, she stands up and says, "It's the girl from 5. She's dead."

Ottilie stands up, waiting for everything to stop spinning. It only takes a moment. "Really? I thought it would have been the guy from...what, 10?"

"...why?"

"I shot him," Ottilie says off-handedly. "Wasn't he back there, in one of the tunnels?"

"Um. No," Calista answers uncertainly. "We should get out of here. Probably head back to camp, too-"

"I'm fine, Calista. We need to get more done than we did today," Ottilie growls, taking a few steps toward her.

Calista eyes her. "If you're sure."

A/N: Well, hello again. My update schedule continues to be a mess but we're...we're getting there.

I'm also going to shamelessly self-advertise the fact that submissions are now open for my next SYOT! It takes place in the year directly after this one, so whoever our Victor will be will be there. You can find the link to submit on my profile.

EULOGIES:

18th Place - Geo Stryker (D12M). Gored by the dolls on It's a Small World.

Did you really think someone wouldn't get gored by those creepy dolls? It was just too perfect. It fit for Geo really well, because Ezra had him marked for violent slaughter. It would have been a very freaky way to go (I'm not sure about painful, but I definitely don't want those things to be the last thing I ever see). Geo himself was a really interesting character who just caught in the crossfire. Unfortunately, Geo doesn't work nearly as well when he isn't around other people, and he just wasn't going to be that interesting in the long term. RIP.

17th Place - Liesel Leenheer (D5F). Shot with astro blasters by Ishtar Marmaduke (D12F).

So Ishtar got what she wanted, and now poor Liesel is gone. Gosh, Liesel was a riot. From the moment my friend gave me her form, I knew she was going to be super fun to play with. Liesel was really interesting to me because she had such clear flaws and wasn't a great person, but everyone kind of loved her anyways. She was petty and stupid and fun. I'll miss writing her. RIP.

ALLIANCES:

Spooky Scary Skeletons: Shad (D1M), Calista (D1F), Scoria (D2F), Bayou (D4M), Ottilie (D4F)

Flower Power: Lana (D3F), Eris (D7F), Ainsley (D9F), Ashe (D11F)

Less Sad Lesbian + Even Deader Weight: Afandina (D10M), Ishtar (D12F)

Disaster Lesbian: Tam (D10F)

Probably an Equinophobe Now: Everett (D9M)

Literally Just Vibing: Wonder (D2M)

Killed Olaf: Quinn (D11M)

Oh. Fuck: Sterne (D5M)

Until next time,

-Amanda