To the guest reviewer: sorry, this story is full, but I think some other people are writing right now so take a look and I'm sure one of them can give you a slot.

Nero Inculta, District One male (18)

We tried to tell him. It was stupid to try to help one of our competitors, but we tried to tell him not to drink the gross sludge he called alcohol. He must have been really addicted to try something that smelled like that, so I felt a bit bad for him. I was lucky I thought alcohol tasted so disgusting. I wasn't supposed to drink it anyway, since I had a strict diet as an athlete, but it would be harder if I liked it. Oh well. I thought. Less competition for me. As far as I knew, there weren't any alliances left that could give us trouble- but I shouldn't count them out, either. Anyone could give us trouble. Getting a big head got careers killed.

"This really sucks." Kjole said as we were waiting for the hovercraft to pick up Dionysus' body so we could go back to our camp.

"Why? He eliminated himself and now we all have a better chance Not MUCH of a better chance, though. He was never going to win." Allure said.

Kjole's eyes flashed. "Don't you care at all? Someone just died. Dionysus might have had problems but he was still a person. It means something that he died!

"You're so soft." Allure said, with a sneer.

"We all signed up for this." Nailah shrugged.

Kjole seemed to think about it. "It's not even your fault," she said, glaring at the ground.

"Whose fault is it?" Allure's eyes glittered as she jumped on the statement, hoping to draw something out that might get Kjole some unwanted attention.

Kjole glared past her. "The rebels, of course. They did all this." Her tight expression and voice gave her away. Kjole was starting down a dangerous path. If she kept at it, none of us would have to kill her. The gamemakers would take care of that for us.

Me, I didn't know how I felt about it. I could hardly say I had any moral high ground when I'd killed my own ally in the bloodbath, before the careers even broke up. Allure didn't care about anyone but herself. I wans't sure what Nailah cared about, since she hardly talked to anyone.

But what about me? I cared about... not exactly myself. It was more that I wanted to be something MORE than myself. I wanted to leave a legacy, to be remembered. To be more than just a rerun of my uncle. If people had to die for that to happen, I could live with that. I wouldn't just run out and murder people, but these people were going to die in the games anyway. I didn't ask for the games to be made and the capitol couldn't blame me for profiting off them.

Still, I was weirdly impressed that Kjole was starting to turn against all this. You had to be really brave to even think something against the capitol. Most of us managed to convince ourselves they were right or at least acceptable, since we were afraid of getting found out even if we didn't do anything. If we had more people like Kjole in this country, maybe things wouldn't be so messed-up. She was so determined and formidable, too. Someone like her could get a lot done if the odds weren't so stacked against her.

But that doesn't really matter. I wasn't going to rebel, and things weren't going to change. I just had to keep focusing on getting ahead in the country I had. That meant winning the games, and that meant killing everyone else. Dionysus wasn't my biggest threat, (that would be Nailah, in my estimation, and then Kjole and Allure- I didn't underestimate her just because she cared about her appearance), but he was a trained tribute out of the running. Then for the others I was worried about Des and Bess, both because they were so strong. If those two got together, they could really pose a threat to the careers, so I was just hoping they didn't figure that out. If the career pack could last long enough to kill those two, then it would be safe for us to kill each other. Well, not SAFE, but at least we wouldn't have much to clean up before one of us won.

There really aren't many of us left. It was weird how fast the games were going. Maybe this was normal. I'd never looked too hard into how long the average games lasted. Trying to remember, I guesses it was around 2-3 weeks. We'd been here almost a week and already we were at the final eight. But I wasn't sure that meant we were 2/3 of the way done. A lot of people always died in the bloodbath, but then things slowed down. I would have expected things to take longer in an arena with so many hiding places, but things should really slow down the more of us died, since then there were even fewer tributes spread out along those hiding spots. Really it was less than it looked, even, since four of us were careers. I had a lot of work left to do if I wanted to earn my own legacy.

Bess Carver, District Ten female (16)

I was at the bloodbath. Gigi was right next to me. We were allies. We were holding hands as we ran away from all the fighting. People were screaming everywhere. It was so hot, like we were in a furnace. My skin was burning. I heard someone running behind us. I turned my head and saw Allure trying to catch up to us. Gigi pulled me forward, screaming something I didn't understand.

"Run!" I screamed. Gigi stumbled as I yanked on her arm. I had a horrible feeling. I didn't know what it was but something told me something horrible was going to happen. My stomach was churning and my head was pounding. I kept waiting for the spear to pierce through my back and to see my blood spilling out to the ground.

We were almost at the nearest building. If we could just get there, we could hide inside and sneak out the back. There were so many building to block the view that the careers wouldn't see us until we were miles away.

I threw open the door and stepped inside. I turned to smile at Gigi and froze. She'd fallen behind and was fifteen feet behind me. How had she fallen behind? We'd been holding hands the whole time. I opened my mouth to scream, and went speechless when I saw Allure behind her. She wasn't chasing us anymore. She was kneeling on the ground, and in her hand was her bow.

I was too late to say anything. The arrow was already leaving her bow. Gigi saw my face and turned to see what I was looking at. While she was still half-turned, the arrow hit the back of her skull. It pierced through so easily, like a pencil through paper. It erupted out through her eye, blood and juices exploding outward and running down her cheek. But she didn't fall. She stood looking at me with her ruined eye, her expression horrified but so betrayed.

"Why did you do this to me?" she asked, blood dripping from her mouth when she opened it. "She was aiming for you. Why did you kill me instead?"

"I didn't mean to!" I screamed. "I'm sorry!"

"This is your fault." Gigi said. She stumbled toward me, teetering like a zombie. Allure had disappeared behind her, along with everyone else. It was just Gigi shuffling toward me. I tried to run away, but my feet were stuck to the ground. I couldn't move, and when I opened my mouth to scream, nothing came out. Gigi kept stepping forward, but somehow she wasn't getting closer. The distance between us seemed to stretch out to balance every step she took. The world was falling apart and nothing made sense-

My stomach flipped as I sat upward sharply, panting for breath and covered in sweat. I struggled to make sense of the world around me. I was in a broken-down house, with cracked tiles for the floor and water stains on the walls and roof. I was huddled on the floor with a backpack under my head for a pillow. Beside me, Omar was still sleeping.

It was just a dream. I tried to tell myself it was true, but my eyes were still filling with tears. I wrapped my arms around my knees and buried my face in them. I tried to keep silent so I wouldn't wake Omar with my noise and shaking.

Almost every day since the games began, I'd had the dream. Sometimes it was different in the details, but always the story was the same. Me and Gigi being together, even though we weren't allies in real life. Allure coming for us. Aiming for me. Gigi dying instead. It wasn't right for me to blame myself. I didn't ask to come here, and I didn't ask Allure to try to kill me. But I couldn't stop myself. Something throughout the day would remind me of Gigi and it would happen all over again. She was so innocent, and if Allure hadn't been aiming for me, she would still be alive. Or maybe she wouldn't be. Maybe someone else would have killed her. But it wouldn't be my fault.

I wondered what kind of person she'd been. When I was dreaming, I always forgot I hadn't spent any time with her in the capitol. I didn't even know what color her eyes were. I didn't know who she had back home, or what she wanted to do with her life. She might have even been a terrible person, but that wouldn't make me feel less guilty. None of this made any sense and not even that would make it better.

Seven of us died in the bloodbath, and all of them had stories I didn't know. I didn't even remember some of their names. I felt bad for all of them, even a little bit for Ceto. She signed up for this, but just the fact that anyone signed up for this probably meant they had mental health problems or someone had failed in raising them. Yes, I felt bad for every one of them. But Gigi I would remember.

Nero and Bess were the only ones who needed POVs left this cycle so I did a shorter chapter with just them.