Hosanna Guerra - District 2 Female - Age 18

Hosanna was well aware that things were getting down to the wire, and with every new death, it meant she was closer to having to face another situation where she'd possibly have to take another person's life. She couldn't believe it had been nearly an entire week in the arena, and all her friends were still alive and while she wanted to be optimistic about it, she knew it was only a matter of time.

"Can we have snow again?" Adira asked when it was time to vote for the weather that day, "We had so much fun last time!"

They did have fun that morning in the snow, and thankfully they were able to warm up inside their tent, but maybe another tribute wouldn't be so lucky and would get frostbite or something which would be one less person that Hosanna would have to kill, "I second Adira's notion!"

It once again began to snow, but this time was miles less fun than the previous time. There had been lots of tension in the alliance in general, as they all knew the competition was narrowing down, and nobody wanted to be next to go. The time for fun had passed, and everybody, especially the boys, wanted to hunt somebody.

"The boy from 8 seems like an easy target," Ammo said.

"The sponsors adore him," Sapphira replied, "Surely he's been supplied some weapon of sorts, or at least a way to kill us."

"The girl from 12?" Brycen asked.

"I'd feel horrible," Adria said, "She's a baby, and will probably die of starvation or dehydration or something out of our control."

"Why are we hunting somebody?" Hosanna stuttered, "Let them come to us."

"Fine." Ammo rolled his eyes, "But if nobody dies today, then we make a move."

"That sounds fair." Sapphira conceded, "Maybe we can try to have snow fun again?"

The group attempted but it wasn't the same. The snowballs hurt slightly more, and the snow angels made deeper marks in the ground. Hosanna was slightly afraid there would be a killing within the alliance, since they certainly lacked her fear. She just hoped she wouldn't be the one who was betrayed since her fearfulness could easily be taken advantage of. Hopefully Ammo wouldn't let that happen, but as time went on, even he wouldn't be able to be trusted.

Brandon Colt - District 10 Male - Age 18

Another day of snow, UGH! Brandon had never experienced snow before and he honestly despised it. Well, actually he had experienced snow, but it was never a storm or anything, just a nice drizzle, and the arena snow was disgustingly cold, to the point that even the fires he set would be blown out. Brandon wasn't blind though. He knew the only reason the weather was never in line with how he voted was because of the career pack who always got their way since they could create a voting block. Brandon knew that he had to kill one of them, but he wasn't sure who or how, since he had no weapon. He'd been considering the girl from 2 or the girl from 4, since they seemed to be the more docile of the bunch. The girl from 2 even looked genuinely terrified during the voting based execution. In preparation, he'd gathered some loose wire from the city, and sticks, so he could set a trap of sorts. He had experience with traps from his days on the farm, and he finally settled on a noose-like device which he planned to attach to a tree, and then set up a lever of sorts to release it. He thought it was called a snare but he couldn't quite remember.

At about 4pm, Brandon headed to where the careers had been camping out and attached his device to a tree. His plan would be to yell as loud as possible, in hopes one of them would come to him, release his trap, then run.

FUCK!

Brandon screamed and then hid behind the tree. Just as he expected he heard footsteps approach him.

"Why isn't there a canon?" He heard a male voice, "We should maybe finish whoever it is off."

More footsteps followed.

"What if there's two people?" It was a female voice, "And the other person kills us."

"We have weapons." The male voice replied, "It'll be okay!"

The voices got closer so Brandon released the lever.

SWOOSH!

Brandon poked his head around the side of the tree to see the girl from 2's head snap off of her body and onto the ground, when BOOM!

"FUCK!" The male voice, which could now be identified as the boy from 2 screamed and fell to the ground, giving Brandon a chance to run away.

After five minutes without looking back, Brandon paused for a moment, to take a few deep breaths, certain he was safe.

TWACK!

Apparently not! Brandon fell to the ground as he felt a pain in his head, but quickly got up to see the boy from 2 with a sword in his hand. Maybe Brandon wasn't a fast runner after all. He punched him back, since that was all he was capable of doing, and as he fell, Brandon noticed a dagger in his pocket, which he put in his own.

"You're going to fucking pay for this!" The boy yelled, charging at Brandon with his sword.

Brandon continued to run away when he felt a pain in his left side. He looked down to see a red splotch on his shirt, so he rolled it up, revealing he had stupidly put his dagger in his pocket the wrong way up, meaning he had just stabbed himself. He figured it would be something for him to deal with later, so he kept running, when he felt more sharp pain, this time in his back. He turned around to see the boy from 2 with a wicked smile on his face and he pulled out his dagger, slashing down his cheek, however Brandon was unable to cause real damage, because by the time he readied himself for another strike, everything turned to black. He closed his eyes and put his hands on his heart, which was fully exposed, hoping Cadence knew that he'd always have it.

Adira Price - District 4 Female - Age 17

After seven long days with the careers which felt like forever, Adira had finally had enough with the careers. While Hosanna's death was upsetting, as she was probably the closest one to normal, what really pushed Adira over the edge was the events that followed. There wasn't much conversation that night, which made sense since everybody was coping differently, and Hosanna dying was unexpected to say the least. It was the first night that they decided not to watch the projections of those who died, and instead decided to stay in their tent. Ammo wasn't with them though, as he was keeping watch for the next few hours, but Adira had to relieve herself so she went outside, but she really wished she didn't because of what she saw. Ammo was sitting naked on the clifftop, doing well, teenage boy things, screaming "HOSANNA" as he looked up at her projection in the stars. Adira pretended she didn't see him, and went back in the tent, deciding she could wait a bit longer before peeing. The only good part of that moment was Adira could no longer mourn Hosanna, or even feel upset about her dying, since her memory would forever be plagued by Ammo's moans. Sometimes Adira wished she was like Sapphira or Summer in the sense that they weren't attracted to men. Adira was certain she was straight, which was unfortunate since men can be so… insufferable at times.

When it was her turn to watch the tent, everything finally became real. She was really running away after all that time! Would Summer and Luca even take her back since she had voted to kill Pow. She felt horrible about that though, and didn't want the careers to think of her as suspicious and she hoped they would understand. At the very least, Adira would finally be away from the terrible monsters she'd spent far too much time with. After half an hour of waiting, Adira went over to the weapon stash and grabbed a spear, knowing Luca was good with them, a dagger, knowing Summer had a bit of experience with one, and some small knives for herself. She was debating taking Sapphira's dazzle razzle or whatever it was called, Adira couldn't find it, probably because Sapphira slept with it beside her. She grabbed some food, and a first aid kit, and then she was off.

She tiptoed down the cliff and through the forest, before she realized she had no idea where Summer and Luca were. She did remember seeing them run towards the city after the voting period was over, though she wasn't sure if her memory was correct, since she followed the careers' lead and basically sprinted from the cornucopia in order to avoid conflict. As soon as Adira arrived in the city, she realized how big it was, and how hard it would be to find her friends, if they still considered her one. She looked at the tops of the buildings, thinking maybe one of them would be on the roof, and luckily enough, she saw a figure on the top of a building walk down the stairs and inside. As she walked towards the building she realized she'd have to explain the whole Ada thing, and couldn't help but dread it. Maybe she should just go back to the careers. No! She couldn't. She remembered Ammo on the cliff and kept heading towards the building.

She arrived at the building which had a sign on it that said "MUSEUM" and slowly cracked open the door, hoping the girl she had seen on the roof was indeed Summer.

"Somebody's here!" Adira heard a voice, Luca's, climb down stairs and into the lobby room of the building, which was full of beautiful statues.

"It's me!" Adira screamed, "Adira!"

"Summer," Luca called out, "I think they made a mutt that sounds like Adira."

That would have been a smart idea for the Capitol but damn, Adira was sort of offended he didn't believe she had returned.

"Oh." Luca stopped in his tracks, lowered the knife he was holding, and called back at Summer, "It's actually Adira."

"Hi!" Adira said, dropping her weapons to the ground, "I'm not going to kill you if that's what you're worried–"

Luca ran over to Adira and squeezed her, "I missed you so much."

"I missed you too Lu!"

"Why are you so nice to her all of the sudden?" Adira let go of Luca and saw Summer at the end of the staircase, "You told me yesterday that you hated her!" Summer walked over to them, "Which was stupid of you by the way."

"Why did you hate me yesterday?" Adira was confused.

"Well I–"

"I'll explain." Summer cut him off, "He was upset that you contributed to killing Pow, which I told him was valid, but then I told him you probably did that so that the careers wouldn't think you're suspicious."

"She's right," Luca sighed, "Though I really didn't think I'd see you back here."
Adira explained everything that had happened, and how much she hated being with the careers, and how bad she felt for poor Pow.

"Ammo is gross." Summer said, "I'm so happy I'm gay."

"That's what I thought you'd say," Adira laughed.

"Wait!" Luca interrupted, "Do you have any idea what happened to Ada?"

Ah yes, that dreaded question. Adira sighed and explained the whole suicide thing and how she felt horrible that she had to watch it.

"At least she's with Pow now." Summer was trying not to cry, "But that's so upsetting, you're right."

"I really didn't think she'd do that either," Adira said.

"Pow thought she might have killed herself," Luca wiped his eyes, "I was just hoping that wasn't the case."

"Nobody wants their friends to kill themselves." Summer laughed.

"True."

"Well," Summer said, "I'm going to try to sleep."

"I can keep watch!" Adira offered.

"I've got it," Luca stood up, "Welcome home Adira!"

Ooooooh! Things sure are getting spicy!

Food for thought:

Do you think that what Brandon did was foolish or do you understand what he was trying to achieve?

If you were Adira, would you have ran away?

Do you think Luca actually trusts Adira again? How about Summer?

Now that there's eight tributes remaining, who do you think will win it all?

10th Place, Hosanna Guerra (D2F) - Killed by Brandon Colt

Hosanna gurl you were an absolute blast. You were by far the most sane of the careers and I admired you for that. I'll miss you'll level headedness for sure. Caleb, I know that on the form you put "of old age after she wins" as your preferred way of her dying, and I'm sorry I couldn't do that for you but just know I loved Hosanna so much.

9th Place, Brandon Colt (D10M) - Killed by Ammo Lawson

Brandon, I honestly hated you when I first got your form, not in the sense that I didn't think you were a good tribute, but I thought you were an awful person. Turns out, you're not that bad after all! You were the best out of the whole fraternity, and you were a blast to write. You were well-rounded which I appreciate, and at the end of the day you're a good person, as misunderstood as you are. Also Zach, dude thanks so much for submitting him and Wendy. It's been so nice getting to know you because of this story, and you're a really neat person. I hope you keep reading even though they're both dead LMAO.

KILL COUNT

Brycen: 3

Sapphira: 2

Ammo: 4

Hosanna: 1

Pow: 1

Adira: 1

Luca: 1

Brandon: 1

Christabel Rose: 1

ALLIANCES

Careers - Brycen Rosenthal (D1M), Sapphira Starlett (D1F), and Ammo Lawson (D2M),

Wholesome Gays and Adira - Luca Pargus (D4M), Adira Price (D4F), and Summer Lindell (D9F)

Lone Wolves - Logan Webster (D8M) and Christabel Rose Clade (D12F)