Author's Note

I do not own the Hunger Games.

The bloodbath is over and we are now well and truly into the Games! The rating for this story has now been raised to an M to be safe for the violence. Eulogies for characters will be included at the end of each day in the Games (to avoid spoilers in at least one place, heh), so eulogies for the bloodbath will actually be at the end of the next chapter, which is the end of day one.


This had not been part of the plan.

They were supposed to be together – they were meant to be together!

She lolloped through the trees, dragging Nathaniel after her. The trees were close together, barely an arm's width apart. Nathaniel stumbled after her, tripping and staggering over the roots and branches. He was as unused to running through the outdoors as little Lucia had been, except she had time to adapt and he had none.

"Keep up cub," she remembered shouting, except not here and not now.

They kept running,


He took off on a diagonal route. From where he'd seen her and assuming she ran straight, they'd run into each other eventually.

Hopefully.

Azrayk and Shelley were behind. Azrayk was keeping up – just – but Shelley was struggling. The girl from Five wasn't used to this kind of terrain. He kept moving, shoving his way through the undergrowth with the spear. It was crude and clumsy, nothing like their once grace, but this was escape, not freedom or hunting, however much it felt that way.

Something moved in the trees ahead.


A living weight slammed into her side, hard and heavy, and for a moment she was falling, slipping and tumbling down a narrow slope to hit the trees at the bottom. She sprang back, landing on all fours, snarling. The girl kicked up leaves as she scrambled to get away. The girl from Nine, Luciente recognised, Azrayk's District partner.

"Luciente!" Nathaniel shouted, breaking through her thoughts.

"Bunny!" shouted the girl from Eleven, who was a little way away from him, a small backpack slung over her shoulders.

"Luciente, come on!"

She glanced up to him, and then at the two girls. Their ally, the girl from Three, was missing. She bounded back up to Nathaniel in five easy jumps. The girl from Nine scrambled against the earth and roots in an attempt to get back to them. Her ally reached down to her, catching her hand. Luciente dropped to all fours again and reached for her other arm.

The other girl blinked at her in surprise.

She smiled. "Come with us."


It was the pair from Six, Luciente's precious Arielle, and her little District partner. They all stared at each other for a moment. Hyperion was the only one with a weapon, clutching the spear tight. The District Six boy looked frantically about himself, grabbing at the girl's arm as though to shove her in front of him. She gaped at him in affronted horror.

Hyperion lowered the spear.

Luciente had been fascinated by this girl. She was convinced she'd be the Victor.

"My sister liked you in training. Come with us."

She glanced at her District partner, who scowled. A beat passed, and then another, and then she gave a tiny, cautious nod and stepped towards him.

Her District partner followed.


They kept moving, cutting their way through the woodland. It was hard going, the trees were all pressed together, in some places the gaps between barely large enough for a person to pass through. They were forced to break branches away or hold them back for each other, and stop every five minutes to help the others across large pits and ditches.

"It's Luciente, right?" asked the girl from Nine. Luciente spared her a glance and a grunt, springing over a large fallen branch. Nine looked at Nathaniel, who shrugged.

"I'm sorry, I don't remember your name."
"Nathaniel; Nathaniel Volkner. I'm from Five."

"Yeah, I can see that."

He scowled. "What's that meant to mean?"

"You have the sigil on your back."

He blushed. "Oh. Well, I don't remember your names either."

"Bunny. That's Heaven. Weren't you were allies with Azrayk?"

"Yeah."

"You were reaped with your brother, right?" asked Heaven. "I didn't see him during the bloodbath."

"I did," said Bunny.

Luciente looked to her.

"He was right round the other side, almost direct opposite you. I'd bet they did that on purpose, split you two up."

Luciente growled softly.

Bastards.

"He killed the boy from Three."

Luciente shrugged.

"She killed the girl from Four," said Heaven. Bunny raised an eyebrow.

"You killed a Career wolf-girl?"

Luciente flashed her a grin.

Bunny smiled. "Clearly we ran into the right allies."


The woods here were nothing like Ten.

They were cramped and crowded, pressing in on them from all sides, the trees tall and towering.

Cutting a path through them wasn't easy.

Hyperion closed his eyes. He was trying to feel what she felt, trying to guess where she was, but every time he wondered if he felt something he found himself second guessing, because it was insanity.

He'd never shown a single drop of what Luciente had.

Why should he show it now?

The pair from Six were having a worse time than Skyla, tripping and stumbling through the woodland.

"I don't think I've seen this many trees in my whole entire life," Arielle grumbled, bashing her way through the branches. Hyperion shot her a look.

"You have to go around and past them, not through them. The trees aren't your enemy."

"This is the Hunger Games; everything is our enemy!" spat Shelley.

"What's your name?" asked Azrayk, edging a little closer to Arielle.

"Arielle. This is Wylie."

"Shelley. That's Azrayk and Hyperion."

"Yeah, him I remember. Wolf-boy, right?"

Hyperion ducked under another branch.

"Didn't they say you killed your father during the interviews?"

"You don't have to stay Six."

Wylie looked up at Arielle. She laid a hand on his shoulder. "I think we should stay with them."

"What?"

"I- want to stay with them. Safety in numbers, right?"


"What was going on between you and Twelve last night?" Heaven asked as they worked their way through the trees. "I know I was missing something, but I don't know what."

"That boy is evil," Luciente replied bluntly.

Heaven frowned slightly. "Isn't that a little harsh? I don't think anyone is truly evil."

"That boy is evil."

"How could you possibly know that?" Bunny snapped.

Nathaniel shrugged. "

"She's like that. She knows things I think."

Bunny rolled her eyes. "Like what? The weather next Sunday?"

"Dark. Cold," Luciente said.

This place would only ever be dark and cold.

"Very funny."

Nathaniel shook his head. "I don't think it was a joke. She knew the bloodbath was going to be over water. That's why you had us all practise swimming, isn't it? You knew."

Luciente shot him a glance. "Blood in the water."

"What's that meant to mean?"

She said nothing, rubbing at her arm.

A cannon rang through the air, quickly followed by another, and then a third.

Four.

Five.

Six.

Seven.

Eight.

"Eight," said Bunny when the last cannon fired.

Heaven flinched. "Eight dead."

"More than last year," Nathaniel noted.

"Any idea who died and who's still alive?" asked Bunny.

"Well there's us," said Nathaniel slowly.

"That's four."

"The girl from Twelve. The girl from Four threw her a backpack and a knife," said Heaven.

"The five Careers," Nathaniel added.

"Unless they killed the girl from Four after her District partner was killed," Bunny said.

"So that's either ten or nine."

"Bethany," Heaven said, and choked.

Bunny nodded. "Yeah."

That must have been the little girl from Three, their other ally.

"Noel too."

Maybe the boy from Eleven? Luciente wasn't sure.

"Pair from Seven," she said, trying to think of who she had felt go. There had been so much panic and fear during the bloodbath it was hard to keep track.

"Dead or alive?" Nathaniel asked.

"Dead."

"So that makes five. Who are we missing?"

"Shelley," Nathaniel said, and then when they looked at him, "my District partner."

"Right."

"Azrayk as well. And Hyperion."

"Six," Luciente said.

"Both, or only the girl?"

She shrugged.

Bunny frowned. "Only the girl?"

Nathaniel shrugged. "She has a thing for the girl."

"Right. And then…" Bunny wet her lips.

"The boys from Three and Eight," Heaven said.

"Yeah. But we know two more of them must be dead."

"I guess we'll find out."


Eight dead. He knew, at least, Luciente wasn't one of them. He'd seen her escape. The girl from Eight was, however, and likely the boy from Three too, the one he'd cut open because he got in his way.

He had deserved it.

He'd been in his way.

"So many," Arielle whispered.

"Nathaniel," Shelley murmured. Azrayk reached to squeeze her shoulder.

"I'm sorry."

She sighed and shook her head. "He was just a little kid."

"He's fine," Hyperion grunted. "He's with Luciente."

Luciente would sooner stab a bitch than let anyone hurt that boy. For some reason he was unable to explain, he was pack. Just as she would defend him and he her, they would defend the boy.

"You sure?"

He grunted again.

"I guess we'll see tonight."

Arielle ducked under a tight cluster of branches to join him at the head of the small group. "What did you mean back there that your sister liked me in training?"

He shrugged. "Nothing."

"It must mean something. You didn't kill us."

"Maybe it means I don't want to kill you Six."

Luciente wanted her for Victor.

Luciente wanted her alive.

"Why not?" she pressed.

"It's not worth my time."

"Oh, well thanks for that clarification."

"Luciente wants you alive, so you're alive Six. Happy?"

"Why would she want me alive?"

Why did she ever want anything?

Hyperion had grown up with her for seventeen years, run wild and free, cared for her, protected her, killed for her – and even he didn't understand Luciente sometimes.

"Ask her yourself."