Trigger Warning: One of the characters here shows really predatory behaviour.
Amber LeClerc, District 1
"There's a woman inside of me.
There's one inside of you too
And she don't always do pretty things."
Big Thief, Pretty Things
Helen POV
Of course the gamemakers had to send snakes after us! They didn't like how we'd agreed not to split up until we'd killed the last outlier. Except I hadn't agreed to it. The boys and Amber had and Infanta and I had been forced to go along with them. I can't believe that the boys put that clumsy ditz who'd only scored a seven in training in charge of the alliance.
At least we were all separated by the snakes. If I find my allies before they find each other, I might have a shot at taking them all out, one at a time.
A cannon fires. I hope it's Amber. She's the only one holding the boys together, like mortar in the wall between me and victory. Once she's dead, there'll be no stopping me. I could easily kill everyone else in the arena. Even Commodus, my district partner.
Especially my district partner.
I think I see something move in the mist. This arena's one of the worst ones yet, a creepy cave filled with fog and a strange, eerie light. There are statues everywhere, some of which look familiar. On the first day, I recognised poor Sybil from the Seventeenth Games, with her eyes torn out, and realised that some of the statues are made to look like past tributes. I didn't tell my allies. It's probably still bugging them.
A distant sound echoing through the cave makes me turn and raise my spear. As I'm turning, a white-hot pain shoots through my head. It's over in an instant.
Dashing POV
I think I'm in love with my district partner.
The problem with being from One is that everyone is gorgeous. It was so hard for me to find a girlfriend at school, partly because all the other boys were competing with me and partly because, the moment I found one girl, another one immediately caught my eye. There's only been one girl lovely enough to keep my attention for long.
And I'm in the Hunger Games with her.
Emerald had already made me promise that, if we reached the final two, I'd kill Amber. He told me that, if he could bring himself to kill the girl he'd loved, I could kill the girl I was infatuated with, especially because she wasn't the academy's first choice. I'd told myself I'd make it quick. I've trained with the sword for years and I know exactly where to stab, exactly how to end it in an instant. I'm not like that monster, Commodus.
I hate the way he licks his lips when he looks at Amber, like he can already taste her. He acts like she belongs to him but she's my district partner. Mine.
I hear footsteps and ready my sword, preparing myself for an attack. The spear comes out of nowhere. It buries itself in my chest and I'm knocked backwards, into the arms of a statue. I'm bleeding out, my vision blurring. I can just about see the figure drawing closer, out of the mist. I don't need to see them to know it's Helen. She's the only one of us who can throw a spear that hard. I prepare myself for the agony of the spear being ripped out of my body.
It never comes.
Instead, my killer pries the sword from my grip.
Bough POV
My mentor told me not to join the Careers. He told me they'd make me a killer. I know he's wrong, though. I can kill as many people as I can in this arena and it won't change who I am. I'm just doing what I can to save myself.
I just need to remember that my allies are terrible people for volunteering to kill.
So far, I've been doing a terrible job at that. I think that Dashing, Helen and Commodus are all evil. Even Infanta, who was reaped but still joyfully slices people apart, is awful. But Amber...
She's not like the others. She'd tearfully told me her story on the first night of the arena, while all the others had been asleep. Her parents had sold her to a brothel and she'd volunteered to escape. I'd held her in my arms as she'd sobbed over her only kill - the girl from Three in the bloodbath.
I hope Amber's okay. There have been three cannons since we'd been separated. Everyone who was left this morning, apart from the boy from Twelve, is so vicious. The odds aren't in Amber's favour.
I see a shadow move through the mist.
"Amber?" I call.
"Bough!" She rushes towards me. I sigh with relief when I realise she's unhurt.
"Are you alright?"
Amber shakes her head, tears glistening in her eyes. "I'm so scared. C-Commodus, he..."
She can't even finish. She stumbles and I have to drop my axe so I don't hurt her when I catch her in my arms. She's trembling with fear, her heartbeat frantic. I don't know what happened with Commodus but I can guess from the hungry look in his eyes whenever he looks at Amber that it wasn't good.
I wish I'd done the smart thing and axed him to death in his sleep. I could've done it but I'd been so scared of angering my other allies.
"It's okay," I whisper. "I'm not going to let anyone else hurt you."
"Good," Amber leans into my embrace. For a moment, I'm happy.
Then there's something cold and metal sticking into my gut. I jerk backwards and feel the blade of the sword slide through me, again and again. Frantically, I look around, searching for whoever's attacking us. But there's nobody there.
Nobody but Amber...
"Let me tell you a secret, Bough," Amber lets go of the sword and grabs my chin. Her fingers are slick with blood, my blood. "You've always been my favourite. You deserve to know that I lied to you the entire time. I'm an academy kid."
"No..." I gasp. All the sweetness and kindness has drained out of her. I now see Amber for what she really is - a bloodthirsty killer, and one skilled in deception.
"It's pretty irresistible, actually," Amber says. "Pride, honour, glory... Do you still want to kiss me, knowing who I am?"
I find my eyes drawn to the soft, coral-pink curves of Amber's lips. I'd often studied them, wondering what it would be like to kiss them but I'd never dared to ask. I'd never kissed a girl before and I didn't want to make things unpleasant for Amber knowing what she'd already been through.
But now I know that all that was a lie, now I'm going to die having never kissed a girl...
"Yes..." I whisper.
She pulls my face closer to hers and presses her lips to mine. I'm shocked by how sweet they taste. Even though the taste of Amber's betrayal is so bitter, her lips are like spun sugar, strawberries and autumn evenings. Exactly how I'd imagined them.
I close my eyes for the final time as she shoves me backwards. I topple over with one push, like a tree with a sawn-through trunk. I hit the cave floor with a thud and never get up again.
Infanta POV
The odds have to be in my favour.
I'd been worrying about the alliance since they'd let me in. I'm untrained. My work at the docks means I'm strong and decent with a knife but I was definitely the weakest link in the alliance.
Well, apart from Amber. But, even though she can't fight, she has other things going for her, other things keeping her in the alliance.
Since we were separated by the snakes, four people have died. I hope they're Commodus, Helen, Dashing and Bough. They're our best fighters. I can take Twelve easily. I could probably kill Amber as well, if she doesn't shoot me like first. She could be lurking in the shadows, wielding a bow and arrow like a coward.
I spot her before she spots me. She's wandering through the mist with an axe in her hand. I wonder what she's doing with an axe, a weapon she was totally useless with in training. I know I'd definitely be able to kill her.
This is my shot.
I charge, knives drawn. She dodges. I go barrelling into a statue. My nose crunches on the stone and blood starts pouring out.
This is harder than I'd expected.
I whirl around and Amber's right in front of me. Her axe catches me right in the throat. I can't breathe. I can't scream. I can feel sticky blood trickling into my lungs. The last thing I see is Amber reaching forward to take something from my body.
I guess the odds weren't in my favour.
Commodus POV
Someone's been stealing all my kills.
When the fifth cannon fires, I lose control and punch a statue in the face. The stone cracks. As do the bones in my fist.
I can still do this.
There's one opponent left. I hope it's Amber. Ever since I'd watched her volunteer I'd dreamed of making her mine. I'd fantasised about forcing her to beg for mercy, to watch hope light up in those wide brown eyes only to dash it away.
If someone else has claimed her instead, I'll tear them limb from limb.
It turns out, I'm in luck. I find Amber leaning against a cave wall, trying to get a few quick moments of sleep. Her eyelids flutter open when she sees me.
"Hello, Tiger," she says, drowsily.
I saunter closer to her, close enough to lean in and kiss her. I press Amber against the wall as her lips part against mine and her hand reaches up to cup my cheek. She closes her eyes but I keep my eyes open.
So I see her other hand as it drives a knife towards my throat.
I react in an instant, grabbing her wrist and forcing it back against the wall. Amber cries out with pain and fear, dropping the knife. I laugh, savouring the sight of her panic.
"Did you think you could outsmart me?" I hiss, as Amber struggles to escape my grip. It's pointless. I have her pinned against the wall and I'm so much stronger than her.
"I'm sorry," she sobs, tears sparkling in her eyes. "Please don't kill me."
She hangs her head, taking big, gulping breaths. I feel a surge of pride. I've finally managed to terrify a girl so much that she can't breathe. I reach my injured hand forwards and tilt Amber's chin up, forcing her to look me in the eye. It hurts a little but I'll bear the pain to take in the fear shining in her eyes.
"Don't worry, my pretty thing," I say. "I'm not going to kill you yet."
"Glad to hear it, idiot."
Something cold and sharp slides into my stomach and slices up through my chest. I can only stare, helpless, as Amber's lips twist into a wicked smile. She winks at me as she raises the bloodied knife to my throat. I feel my blood begin to gush out of the slash up my chest. My hands fly there, desperately trying to hold it all in.
"Well, would you look at that," Amber shoves me backwards and sweeps her leg out, knocking me to the ground. "I had two knives."
She pounces on me. Soon I find I'm the one begging for mercy.
Amber POV
Commodus is fading fast. I'm tempted to ask him, as his body twitches weakly, how it feels to be second best but I know he won't answer.
His tongue was one of the first things I'd cut off.
I'd been angry when I'd started killing him. Angry at Commodus for trying to use me, at everyone who'd ever upstaged me at the academy, at my mother for abandoning my family when I was just a little kid...
Maybe at myself, a little. Maybe I could've won without letting Commodus' slimy, disgusting tongue anywhere near my mouth. But I'd volunteered to prove a point to everyone in the academy. They'd turned me down to be this year's chosen volunteer. They'd pointed out that I wasn't the best at anything. I was a Jack of all trades, master of none.
But since the girl they'd chosen hadn't been the one girl in the academy faster than me, I'd volunteered anyway. I'd beaten her to say the sacred words. I'd made myself a promise on the train to prove to the world that Jacks of all trades were good enough to be victors. I was going to win this games with every weapon in my arsenal.
Including my beauty.
Everything had felt wrong when Commodus had pressed his body against mine. I'd volunteered for district pride, for honour, for glory, and here I was being treated like an object. There was only one way to claim the power I'd been craving, with Infanta's second knife hidden in my boot, stolen away, like I'd stolen the weapons of all the Elites I'd killed. When I'd plunged the knife into his gut, something had occurred to me.
I was about to do something so horrifying, so twisted, that no man would ever lay eyes on me again without thinking of this moment. Maybe they'd picture me, vengeful and drenched in blood, and they'd think twice about calling me a pretty thing.
I know there's little honour in torturing a boy to death. There was little honour in anything I did during the games. The only tribute in my alliance with any honour was Bough, the gentleman. Part of me wishes I'd been the helpless, innocent girl he'd believed I was, rather than the lying murderess I'd turned out to be.
When I'd left him, Dashing's sword buried in his stomach, I'd felt so ashamed. I'd wondered if my mother had felt ashamed, when she'd walked away.
Now there's a sense of justice in it all. Boys like Bough get stabbed in the stomach. Boys like Commodus get stabbed everywhere.
There's little honour in what I did but as the bloodied, broken body at my feet gives his final, gurgling whimper, I can't help but feel a little proud of myself. The trumpets blare and I wait for the hovercraft to come and take me to the glory I've earned.
That's another chapter that turned out dark. I guess I've been warming up for the Quell. I think Commodus is one of the most loathsome characters I've ever written. As for Amber, I may have taken a bit of inspiration from the Betrayal at House on the Hill character I named her after (yes, I'm still naming characters after board game references). Unfortunately for her, her decision to torture Commodus to death really backfired, since it just made her even more popular in the Capitol. She's probably the ultimate tragic Career, sacrificing her humanity for nothing and inspiring countless others to do the same. On the bright side, Amber's one of the few victors who I think may be capable of surviving the rebellion - even in her seventies. She's definitely cunning enough to survive undercover and bitter enough to stay undercover once the rebellion has ended.
