District 7
Chance Alector
I feel a hand push against me lightly. I groan and turn over onto my stomach, trying to cling onto the last remnants of my deep sleep. Someone pushes me again, harder this time. I move my hand out of their way. Finally, they shove me out of the bed.
"What the hell?" I demand as I hit the ground. I jump to my feet to see the attacker. Dara's standing on the other side of my bed with her arms crossed. She looks at me disapprovingly, as if she thinks it was rude for me to sleep in.
"You should really care more about your tributes," Dara clucks, shaking her head.
"What, and that means I can't sleep?" I ask. "Besides, Ruce is doing fine for himself. He got an 8 in training and apparently almost joined the Careers. But then the girl from District 1 said no, so he was hoping when she got replaced the new leader would let him in. You bruised my elbow." I inspect my throbbing elbow; it hit the floor really hard, and it's definitely going to turn purple in the next hour.
"Well, he still needs you for interview-coaching," Dara adds, completely side-stepping the issue of my hurt elbow. "He may be strong, but he sure as hell does not come across as likable. He needs some coaching in that department, and that's your job."
"Just have Leon coach him in the morning so I can get my beauty sleep."
"I would, but he's not in his room. Leon banged on his door for thirty minutes before he realized it wasn't locked -"
"Leon is an idiot," I mutter, rolling my eyes. Dara ignores me and continues talking.
"Sprucen is not in his room," she finishes. My obvious indifference seems to bother her.
"So what?" I ask. "He probably just got up early or something."
"We checked the entire floor; he's not here. Leon said that he went up to the roof last night for some fresh air, and still hadn't returned by the time he went to sleep. That was around 2 AM or so," Dara sounds really worried, which I think is an overreaction. No one needs to worry about Ruce - he can take care of himself. What could have happened? He can't have fallen or jumped off of the roof, there's a forcefield that would shoot him right back up.
"He probably just fell asleep or something," I shrug. "I wouldn't put it past him - that kid can sleep like a rock."
"But-"
"You don't need to worry. I'll just head up to the roof, wake him up, and we'll both come back down here to begin preparing for the interview. Okay?" I ask, heading over to my closet. Dara bites her lip nervously and nods. Her eyes widen when she finalizes realizes all I'm wearing is my underwear. "Could you please leave, now?" I ask. She doesn't need to be asked twice.
I don't bother actually getting dressed. I simply pull on one of the fluffy white bathrobes hanging in my closet and tighten it around my waist. It'll do. I don't put on any shoes since a short walk from my room to the roof would make wearing shoes unnecessary. I walk out into the dining room, where Dara, Zaira, and Leon sit, feasting on breakfast. Dara and Zaira are deep in conversation, already strategizing for the upcoming interviews.
"Hi, Zaira. Hey, Leon," I call as I pass, purposely ignoring Dara. I'm still bitter about how she woke me up. I punch the UP button and patiently wait for the elevator. I'm not worried. I'm confident that I'll get up to the roof and see Ruce sleeping on the ground or something. It's the most reasonable explanation to why he's not in his room.
As I wait for the elevator, I look at myself in the shiny metal doors. I have a major bed-head, which definitely detracts from my attractiveness. I squint into the shiny metal, which isn't doing a great job as a mirror, and attempt to flatten it. Before I can make sure it's looking neater, the doors slide open. I sigh, slightly disappointed I didn't get to fix my hair but step onto the elevator anyway. I press the button for the roof and lean against the wall of the elevator. My head is still foggy - I should have quickly gotten coffee or something before heading up to the roof. How much time would I have lost had I been getting a mug of coffee? Not much.
I consider heading back downstairs to get some, but the doors slide open again and I remember it's unnecessary. I'll be going back down in a moment, as soon as I wake up Ruce.
"Ruce, wake up!" I call out, stepping out of the elevator. He doesn't respond, which isn't surprising. It usually takes a lot of effort to wake him up, so calling his name once won't do anything. I wander through the maze of plants, looking for Ruce. He must be lying down, which is why I don't see him yet. Eventually, I turn a corner and see a figure lying facedown, not moving. Just as I predicted, he's asleep.
I rush over to him, rolling my eyes. Dara's panic was for nothing. He's right here, fast asleep.
"Ruce, wake up," I demand, hitting his shoulder. He doesn't move. I rub my eyes - they're getting a little clouded since I just woke up. It doesn't do much good - I think I'll just need to fix my vision with a cup of hot coffee when I get back downstairs. "Wake up," I say again, this time a little more irritated. I hit his shoulder even harder, but he still doesn't do anything. I use my hand to roll him over, so the sun is in his face.
When I do, I gasp. I feel my heart begin speeding up, and I take a step backward. Only now do I notice the warm liquid under my bare feet. Blood…
I no longer want coffee. I doubt I'll ever sleep again.
The Capitol
Leda Dashlon
"Sprucen Willes is dead?" I ask skeptically. The youngest Gamemaker, Nestor Willabye, nods his head. His face is pale. "How?"
"He was stabbed in the throat multiple times - his mentor, Chance Elixir found him," he says. "His body has already been taken for an autopsy, but his cause of death is pretty obvious."
"Who killed him?" I ask. I don't care about how he died, I care about who the murderer was.
"We don't know."
I sigh and roll my eyes at Nestor's incompetence. The guy is smart when it comes to ideas for the Hunger Games, but common sense is lost on him.
"Have you considered checking the security tapes?" I ask. Nestor freezes then shakes his head.
We're currently sitting in the Control Center, adding some last-minute touches onto the arena. I can see the rest of the Gamemakers desperately trying to listen in to our conversation. I yell at them to get back to work, which they immediately do. The Control Center, along with having access to the cameras in the arena, has the only access to the cameras in the Tribute Center.
With Nestor watching behind me, I power on my computer and click on the file marked, 'TC Footage'. From there, I click on the folder called, 'Roof', and select one of the cameras at random. All footage is immediately uploaded onto my computer, so we don't have to bother taking the cameras on the roof to watch what happened. I play the footage that was taken last night and hit PLAY.
Nestor and I watch Sprucen walk out of the elevator and leans against the roof. The angle makes it so his back is facing us, but it's obviously him. He's still wearing his training uniform, which means there's a large 7 stitched onto his back.
I speed up the video, worrying it might last thirty minutes before the murderer walks in. I switch it back to regular speed when someone walks up. Once again, I can't see their face, but it's definitely a female. She's no longer wearing her training uniform, so I can't tell which District she's from, but I'm sure we'll find out soon anyway, so I don't bother switching to another camera.
She smashes a flower pot, uses one of the shards to attack Ruce, and stabs him several times. When he's dead, she looks up and we finally get to see her face.
It's Yael Harident.
"Do you want me to -" Nestor begins, but I cut him off.
"Go see the footage from the night before," I demand. "See if there's a motive."
"Sure thing," he says. I lean back in my chair and watch the screen as Nestor looks through the different chunks of video. The cameras have motion sensors, so the only parts that are filmed actually have people in them. Nestor scrolls through the different chunks of footage; most just have a bird or something. We quickly watch the footage for the second day but realize it's just the District 3 male standing by himself for an hour.
We decide to look at the footage from the night before that, and the only video takes place in the very early morning.
"Click on that," I say, leaning forward with curiosity. Nestor complies.
We see a guy wearing childish pajamas walk out onto the roof with a woman. The guy is obviously Malakai Mavericks, last year's Victor, but the woman's head is turned away from us. She looks slightly familiar…
When she turns around I gasp and hit pause.
"Isn't that…" Nestor begins, but I don't allow him to finish.
"No, it's not who you're thinking of," I lie. Caught up in shock, I delete the whole hour of footage. Nestor looks shocked at my impulsivity.
"Why…?"
"Go call District 7's Head Peacekeeper," I order. "Tell him we need a new male."
As I said last chapter, I'm saving eulogies for the next chapter to keep it surprising. I know it's very tempting to look to see the deaths, so I'm simply not going to give that option until the chapter after.
25th: Sprucen Willes (D7M): Stabbed in the neck by Yael Harident (D11F) - Ruce was a character who was really fun to write, but literally everyone hated him. I like him because he was a villain, but unlike a lot of the story's other villains, he wasn't crazy or psychotic or anything. He just had an inflated ego, lack of empathy, and was super annoying. He died prior to the Games for a lot of reasons, but most of them are spoilers so I'm not going to go into them. I'm glad that no one's upset. I chose Ruce to die early because I didn't think anyone would be upset - on the contrary, most people were pleased. Sorry for killing your tribute so early, Anna, but you did submit him as a Bloodbath and like other people, were rooting for his death. You still have Ara, though, and I promise I won't kill her during the Interviews or something :D
QUESTIONS:
1. Are you glad Ruce is dead?
2. Are you excited to see who the new District 7 male is?
3. Why do you think Leda deleted the video of Malakai and the woman?
- Lilah