Nero Augustus, District Two- 18

The Games were almost over, and I was sad. Only other person was left, and I'd been looking for him for weeks. It wasn't fun in the Arena with no one else around. I couldn't pick on anyone if there was nobody to pick on. All I could do was roam around all day looking for Aurum and hide in trees throwing rocks at the dogs all night. It was stupid and boring.

I played back all my greatest hits in my head as I looked for the final mouse in the Arena. First there was Ruby, who couldn't even squirm with her broken back. Then the kid who actually was named Mouse, and boy did he squeak like one. I was lucky the fire took out all my allies. It meant I didn't get to kill them myself, but it also meant they couldn't kill anyone before I did. I'd picked up the slack in full.

It took another three long, boring days before I found Aurum. When I saw him, I thanked my lucky stars it hadn't taken me any longer. He was stretched out flat on his belly, his arms all the way out in front of him where he'd tried to drag himself along. He wasn't long for this world, and I couldn't have that.

"Hey, buddy," I said when I reached him. "How about some water?" I poured out some water from my bottle into his parched-looking mouth. He was too far gone to see it was me, so he drank it.

I sat by him the rest of the day until almost sundown, coaxing him to drink and sit up. As he started to realize who it was who was sitting next to him, he looked at me suspiciously.

"Why are you helping me?" he asked.

"What, you think I'm a bad guy or something?" I asked. "Because I am." I punched him in the face, knocking him flat on his back.

"Here's why I helped you," I said as I kicked him in the side. "I can't kill you if you're dead." I just wished he'd believed me more. It would have made it even more fun.

Aurum made it as hard for me as possible. He didn't fight back, but he moved into every punch and kick. He was trying to die as quickly as possible just to take away my fun. I had to hold back a little just so it wouldn't be over in five minutes.

There are a lot of organs in the body. Some of them aren't really needed to survive, but they still hurt a lot when they get hit. Your kidneys are way far up on your back, which is funny, since you pee out your bottom. I kicked Aurum's over and over. He would have pissed barn red if he'd had long enough to piss again. It was okay, though. There was still plenty of blood all over the rest of him.

Aurum didn't make as much noise as I'd hoped, so I made up for it by making him look even worse. I'd been smart enough to take a pack of matches from the Cornucopia. I'd always wondered if eyes sizzled if a match hit them.

"You know, I'm getting bored. Why don't we take a break? I'll give you an hour. See how far you can get," I said. Aurum tried to get up, but not hard enough to make it.

"Really. I mean it. You might get lucky. You're not dead yet," I said. Aurum looked at one of the knives scattered across the ground and pushed up onto his feet.

"Kidding," I said, kicking his legs out from under him. "But we both know you didn't believe me."

I started in on his ribs that time. I never was good at counting, but I must have broken at least a dozen of them. And there was still plenty more body after that.

A cannon broke in as the sun was about to finish setting. Blaring music put an end to the fun.

Way to spoil it, I thought.