Oswine Nanshope,12, District 10 male
"Oswine wake up! Oswine!" I hear sariah calling me through my door as I rub my eyes and sit up on the bed before looking out the window. Wow it's already morning? I felt like I was only asleep for a second.
"Oswine you up? C'mon there's probably treasure downstairs just waiting to be discovered!" Sariah shouts through the door. This is literally all she's been talking about. She's asked me numerous times if I liked treasure and I just gave her a slight shake of my head but she just goes on to ramble about it anyways and eventually asks me again if I like treasure. It's like she completely forgot that we're going into the arena to get slaughtered.
After getting tired of knocking she finally opens my door and sees me sitting up on my bed as I only give her an awkward look.
"Oh you're up! C'mon get up!" she jumps up and down in excitement and I only give a small nod before going into the restroom to wash up. Once I arrive in the living room area I see Sariah and my two mentors Charlotte and Bretson who won the 48th hunger games sitting at the table with a ton of tasty looking breakfast just waiting to be eaten.
"Hey! You slept for a while, guess you were tired huh?" Charlotte greets me and I do a light nod as I sit I between her and Sariah, I wish I can sit some where else, I'm already starting to get nervous. I grab a plate, put some eggs and bacon on it and pour me a cup of orange juice before Bretson clears his throat.
"So you two, first day of training, what are your plans?" Bretson reaches for a biscuit.
"Look for treasure! I can't wait to see what kinds of treasure there is to find down there!" Sariah excitedly shouts.
"Uh that's interesting, but don't you also want to train? Maybe look for an alliance?" Bretson responds.
"Oh uhmm well my dad found a ton of old weapons during his adventuring days. He doesn't like me playing with them but whenever they're not home I'll sneak into his closet and play with them." She speaks with her mouth full of chewed up eggs and waffles, yuck.
"Interesting, what kind of weapons did he collect?" Bretson seems interested.
"Oh so many! He has a sword, an axe, knives so many others but I like the short sword!" She stuffs more eggs into her mouth.
"I see, if you see a similar weapon down there at the training facility, you should train with it! What about you though Oswine, any weapons that interest you?" he turns to me as I gulp, I really don't like being the center of attention, why did he have to put me on the spot like that?
I shrug my shoulders because I don't really know what to use, I don't have any preferences really, whatever I can use to defend myself will be good enough.
"Hmm why not train with Sariah with short swords? They're light, easy to wield and you two can probably even form an alliance together, is that something you two will be ok with?" Charlotte takes a sip of her apple juice.
"I tried asking him but he kept shrugging his shoulders…" Sariah explains. Yes that's true, she did ask a few times if I wanted to ally with her but honestly I kind of preferred to be alone. People makes me nervous as it already is and having an ally would be even more scary, like them stabbing me to death while I was asleep.
"You're not interested in an alliance Oswine?" Charlotte turns to me.
"I don't know…" I mumble.
"Oh well maybe you can think about it, I think it'll benefit the both of you if you were in an alliance." She explains.
"I asked the boy from district one too but he said no!" Sariah whines.
"Well he is a career, not sure what you were expecting there but there's plenty of other tributes you can speak to." Bretson states.
"Hmm ok" Sariah sips her orange juice. We eat for a few minutes more but have to head downstairs.
"Alright you two, make the most of your training, see you guys later!" Bretson sees us off and we leave as we head to the elevator and wait for it to arrive. The door opens and thankfully there's no one In there and we begin riding down to the facility before it stops on the third floor, oh great and I was hoping for a smooth ride down.
The really big and tall guy enters the elevator and I can literally feel the entire area shake as he walks into it and the small girl follows behind him as she's gazing at a book. I shudder in fear a little just looking at the size of this guy, he can squash me like a bug right now if he wanted to, he however turns to me and gives me a warm smile and i start feeling a little better.
"Hi! I'm Sariah!" Sariah happily greets him.
"Xavarion! You can call me Xavi though, nice to meet you!" Xavi smiles as he gently shakes Sariah's hand.
"Hi I'm Sariah!" Sariah extends her hand to his district partner who has an annoyed look on her face.
"The human hand has twenty seven bones." She quickly informs us.
"Huh?" Sariah asks seeming as lost as ever, something about this girl doesn't seem right though.
"Do you like Treasure!? Sariah asks the girl.
"…Actually I do, would you like to be my special little treasure I can experiment on?" The girl grins and I step away from her as Xavi only let's out a small sigh.
"So that means we can be allies!?" Sariah jumps up in excitement.
What? Did Sariah not hear the part where this creepy girl said she wanted to experiment on her?
"Hmm yeah, we can be allies, we certainly can…" the creepy girl does a sinister grin.
"Sariah I don't th-" Xavi begins, probably trying to warn her about the trap she's clearly walking right into.
"Yay! I have an ally! Yay I have an ally!" she jumps up in excitement as we reach the training facility. Oh boy, Sariah really is just so naive...
Annabelle Royce,18, District 1 female
We're down at the training facility and me and all of these poor looking tributes all stand about a space away from each other as the head instructor is getting ready to begin his rehearsed speech. I apply some lip gloss and spray some perfume on me and I think some gets into the eye of the boy from district 5 as he flinches and rubs his eyes but I don't care, infact I give my bottle another push as more perfumes goes his way and he does an irritated grunt as he steps away from me.
"Attention all tributes, my name is uh Franz lorebells. I'll be the head instructor of t-this facility for the next three days all of you are here for." He begins. He seems a bit nervous, he must be new. Victoria suddenly walks towards the racket of spears and pulls one out.
"Excuse me tributes are not allowed to train until I finish." He tries to sound stern but comes off as a little wimp instead.
"So?" she nonchalantly say before throwing her spear at a dummy and it pierces straight through two of them, fucking show off. It seems everyone besides the two tributes from district 12 are here. I'll be shocked if that little runt is still alive and Karen well I'm sure she's hiding thinking she's all safe and shit, I honestly don't give a fuck but Victoria clearly has a limb out for her, what a dumbass, why should anyone give a fuck about that little maggot?
Anyways this wimpy instructor finishes going over all the rules like how to not neglect the survival station, how tributes aren't allowed to fight and whatever, I honestly don't really give a shit. Everyone is free to do what they want and i I immediately see the girl from district 11 walk into a dark corner and sit inside of it and I roll my eyes before shoving the small the boy from district 7 out of my way and he falls on the floor and begins crying immediately after. I just laugh before seeing the rest of the careers are huddling together in the center as the rest of the tributes are just looking around deciding on the first thing they should do. I hope they train well, I do want a challenge after all.
"Good, everyone's here." Barbel states looking at everyone except Teddy who's only pouting like the little boy he is as he crosses his arms.
"Yeah so what you guys want to do first?" Amos scratches his head.
"Whatever you guys want to do just hurry the hell up, I don't have all day!" I hiss at all of them as I apply some blush to my cheeks.
"Actually, we do." Barbel sternly say as he glares me with his cold eyes and I roll mine at him, this dude got some issues.
"Let's go to the weapon stations, it'll keep most of the tributes away when they see us there." Vendetta comments.
"Oh shit Professor! Wonderful idea!" I sarcastically say before putting on some eye shadow. Vendetta doesn't seem to appreciate what I said as she only gives me an annoyed look.
"Well I'm going to the spear station, you guys can just stand here and gawk at each other if you want to." Victoria begins walking towards the spear station and the girl from district 8 lets out an overdramatic gasp and flees the station once she sees Victoria approaching it.
I hear heavy footsteps behind me though and turn around to see the tall guy from district 6 walking towards us with a smug look on his face.
"Who's running this gang here?" he immediately asks before spitting on the floor.
"Hey buddy we're not a gang, we're an alliance." Amos corrects him but Vladimir immediately gets in his face, this seems to catch Amos a bit off guard but he stands his ground.
"I'm not your fucking buddy, let's just make that clear right from the jump!" He warns Amos, but Amos only does a confident smile.
"Alright then, Vladimir right? I'm Amos. is there anything we can help you with?" Amos smiles.
"Like I asked before, who's running this little charade here?" He spits on the floor yet again and Barbel steps up closer to him as they both lock eyes.
"No one's the leader yet, but make no mistake about it, it'll be me calling the shots, now is there something you want to say? Otherwise get out of here and quit wasting our time." Barbel stands face to face with Vladimir, Vladimir doesn't back down though and just does an evil grin
"Well tough guy, I want in." Vladimir states.
"Hmm how convenient, we just so happen to have a vacancy." Barbel informs Vladimir as he shoots Teddy a glare but Teddy only glares him back.
"Alright well you think we're just going to let you in and call it a day? You got to earn that shit, show us your skill with the weapon you're most proficient with." I spit at him.
"Unfortunately the weapon I'm most proficient with isn't here, but I have something else in mind." He states as he begins walking towards the weapon station and the rest of us just follow along.
He quickly pulls a scythe from the racket and begins examining it before suddenly slicing a dummy's head clean off.
He proceeds to behead five other dummies with his powerful and quick blows. He was a bit sloppy but also strong,malicious and pretty fast. He then throws his scythe as it lands In the torso of a dummy and turns to face all of us.
"Hmm, not bad especially for a district 6 tribute. You guys usually suck." I comment.
"Your technique is poor, but your speed and power makes up for it, I'm impressed." Amos smiles.
"Well-" Teddy begins.
"Guess I'm in your alliance then!" Vladimir glares Barbel completely cutting off Teddy and that seems to trigger the stupid kid as he storms away.
"Yeah you're in, for now. As long as you score a 7 or higher in training, you're good to go." Barbel informs him.
"Heh, that'll be too easy." Vladimir scoffs before walking away from us. Guess he'll be our replacement for Teddy. He should add some excitement to this otherwise bland alliance.
Lysta Crank,16, District 5 female
I finish mixing up two chemicals in a vial and watch as the color goes from a purple to an orange color and I can see small bubbles starting to form in the fluid, great, this was all going according to plan! I grab another vial of lemon juice and begin pouring it into the orange chemical as it turns into a brighter orange as steam begins emitting out of it. This should be a powerful acid now, I carefully pour the acid in a plastic encasing and apply some powder into it being molding it into a ball. This right here is an acid bomb, powerful enough to fully dissolve teeth and bone, I then sit it next to the poison bomb I created earlier.
This poison bomb explodes into tiny little particles that the naked eye cannot see. The particles can easily travel through the air and it inflames the lungs of anyone who breathes it in. Their lungs will begin to fill with fluid shortly after and they'll die a rather painful death later. I don't really want to envision myself having to resort to such measures, but i may not have much of a choice. The two siblings from district 9 are sitting a distance away from me and they're both laughing together as they identify plants together. They did seem nice…
Thomas is also here in the survival station and is reading a book about first aid. He glances at me for a moment and suddenly has an uncomfortable look on his face, he's probably just a little nervous. I give him a smile but he just continues giving me an odd look before he turns back to his book. I disregard this and just continue mixing up more chemicals but I hear an evil snicker behind me and I jump slightly before I spin around and see the small girl from district 3 standing directly behind me as she only has a sinister smile plastered over her face, how long has she been here and why is she standing right behind me!?
"Uh hi?" I greet her.
"I'm rather intrigued by your skillset, it appears we have some stuff in common." She sits a small distance from me and quickly and effortlessly creates a poison bomb but it uses different properties from mine before holding it in the air and examining it closely.
"The poisons and chemicals here aren't potent enough. Likely done intentionally so tributes won't try to hurt each other or themselves. The vapor inside this bomb isn't strong enough to affect humans unfortunately. Guess I'll have to wait until I get inside of the arena to see how their bodies react to it but it's more than strong enough to affect plants." She states doing an evil grin as she looks over at the siblings who are still happily identifying plants together. What is wrong with this girl? She suddenly throws the bomb into a field of plants the siblings are sitting over and it explodes and disperses into vapor as it immediately rots all of the plants in the area.
"Hey what the hell!" the boy, Fall angrily jumps to his feet as Winter seems somewhat intrigued as she continues looking at the wilted plants.
"Which one of you threw that? You think this is funny!" he barks as he looks at me with his fists balled up and I scramble to my feet as I back away.
"W-wait it wasn't me!" I protest.
"Yeah you can think I'm a dumbass if you want, do that shit again and you'll regret it!" He threatens me.
"Fall calm down, what if it wasn't her?" Winter walks next to fall and stands infront of him as he's shaking in anger.
"It was me actually, you seem like a stupid reckless boy though." Zananova laughs.
"What the hell you just said you little midget?" Fall prepares to storm towards Zananova but Winter grabs his arm.
"Honestly was that necessary?" Winter asks Zananova trying to sound as polite as possible but I can tell she's upset. I kind of just take several steps away as I realize I was just awkwardly standing in between all of them.
"Anger, do you know that stems from an overblown sense of self-importance?" Zananova questions them as they give her a confused look.
"What?" fall asks in a puzzled tone.
"You two will be quite the fun experiments to have in the arena. I look forward to it!" Zananova lets out an evil laugh before skipping away and me and the siblings just awkwardly gawk at each other for a moment.
"What a fucking weirdo." Fall grumbles breaking the silence.
"I'm sorry for what she did to you two, I don't even know her honestly." I try and apologize but this only seems to confuse them even more.
"Really? I figured she was your ally or something, she was standing behind you almost the entire time you were here." Winter informs me and hearing that sends shivers down my spine, oh my, she was really here this entire time?
"Oh my, she was? I really had no clue!" I tremble a little bit and turn around to look behind me but she's gone and the girl from district 10 is excitedly trying to pull her to the camouflage station.
"Well yeah sorry for snapping at you earlier, I'm Fall." Fall introduces himself.
"I'm Fall." Winter states and I give her an odd look.
"Huh? I thought your name was Winter…" I raise my missing eyebrow at her.
"Y-yeah Winter that's what I meant!" Winter lets out a cute laugh as she seems pretty embarassed and I smile along with her.
"Well I'm Lysta Crank, nice to meet you two." I smile at them.
"Yeah, well just watch your back, there's really something off about that little girl." Fall tries to warn me.
"Yeah tell me about it, you guys be careful too though." I warn them aswell and they nod before they both walk off towards the rock climbing area. I'm going to continue my chemistry here while making sure that odd girl doesn't sneak up on me again.
Citrus Sabrilla,17, District 11 male
"Phew!" I pant heavily and wipe sweat from my forehead as I'm pretty gassed out after running twenty laps with Percy, but goodness this guy's stamina is endless. He's still jogging in place and hasn't broken a sweat.
"C'mon you're done already? You're really done? You can't give up yet! C'mon let's run some more!" he quickly say as he continues running in place.
"I think I'm ok buddy, I need to go get a drink, a snack or something." I pant.
"Oh man! Well if you want to run some more I'll be here!" he quickly say before beginning to run another lap and I only shrug my shoulders before walking over to the snack bar. It's pretty much just a room full of snacks and drinks and I wipe more sweat off my forehead as I enter the "bar" only to be met by a bunch of empty candy wrappers on the floor along with chatter in the back. Well looks like someone is very comfortable in here. I sneak behind the aisle where i hear the chatter and the girl from District 8, Mercedes I think her name is, is sitting on the floor talking to a candy bar in her hand.
"I'm so pretty aren't I? Oh aren't I you handsome dark tasty chocolate bar!" She seductively say before taking a ginormous bite out of it. I mean should anything surprise me at this point? I casually just grab two small packs of cookies and leave while she's still talking to her candy bar.
I figure I might as well check out the weapon stations but I look over there and see all of the careers hoarding the stations. They're not really doing much either, just casually hanging around the stations. I see the small boy from seven hesitantly walk towards the area but Barbel immediately starts walking towards him and the kid wastes no time scurrying the hell out of there. Ok I see what they're doing now. They're sabotaging the weapon stations. They know they'll have an even bigger edge if they ensure that no tributes here have a chance to try and learn a weapon skill. It's pretty smart to say the least, but let me give this a whirl. I start walking towards the stations. Annabelle is doing some weird dance while putting some lipstick on. Her district partner Teddy is standing a short distance away from the rest of them and leaning against the blunt weapon rackets. Victoria is sitting on the floor stretching out her limbs while Amos is standing next to her as they converse. Vendetta seems to be the only here actually training as she's viciously smashing dummies in with her war hammer while Barbel just looks like he's on guard making sure no "Intruders" show up. I also notice Vladimir is wafting around the area, I saw him talking to them earlier so he's probably with them.
I get closer to the stations and Barbel almost instantly turns his head to me and begins walking towards me, but I give him a friendly smile.
"Something you need?" he grumbles.
"Hey good day to you! just wanted to check out the weapons, see if I can find one I can train with!" I smile.
"Hmmph, well as you can clearly see, the stations are occupied. There's plenty of other stations you can visit." He speaks in a dark tone.
"Occupied? Your district partner is the only one over there doing anything even remotely productive." I explain.
"Like I said before, the stations are occupied, if you want to check out a weapon, you need to wait till we all leave." He calmly fires back, but I can tell he's running out of patience.
"Actually, I think not." I say and try to walk past him but he quickly blocks my path, stands in front of me and I narrow my eyes at him.
"I'm not going to say this again, now I suggest you leave before you end up getting hurt." He warns me and Victoria and Annabelle begin marching towards me along with Amos.
"Ok, ok you guys hold your horses. I know I'm a very attractive guy and you want to get a picture with me but just form a line and I'll get to each of you one by one." I joke but they apparently don't find this funny.
"Alright pretty boy, I suggest you get lost, you don't want to do anything you're going to regret later" Victoria glares me.
"Get the fuck out of here you fucking peasant!" Annabelle hisses at me and I look at Amos.
"Just make it easy for all of us and go somewhere else." Amos smiles and I only sigh.
"Alright well guess we can take pictures later." I shrug my shoulders and walk away. I'm obviously not going to stand a chance trying to get past four careers, so I'll just have to come back here later. I look around for Calla though wondering where she is before I finally spot her in a dark corner sitting alone, and I smile as I walk towards her.
Calla Fable,16, District 11 female
I found my cozy spot in this facility, here in this dark corner where hopefully no one can see me just waiting for time to pass. I look to the camouflage station where I see the tall guy from district 3 with the small boy from district 10 as they're trying out different paints. The giant man looks very happy as he's laughing and demonstrating the process to the small boy who's only nodding and listening intently.
I look away and look at the hand to hand combat station where the district 7 girl is. She appears to be a really good fighter as she's holding her own against one of the instructors.
"Hey!" Citrus' voice rings out and I look at him as he's smiling and holding a bag of cookies out for me which I accept, but he uses this opportunity to grab my hand and pull me to my feet, he's a lot stronger than he looks…
"What are you doing?" I ask.
"We're going to eat cookies, and go for a walk." He suggests as he's still doing that bright smile he always had.
"i…ok." I mumble. Citrus, I was warming up to him, whenever I think about him, I just can't help but feel better, happier.
"Let's see where can we go first. Lets check out the camo station. The careers got their panties in a bunch so we'll just stay away from there for now." He smiles and I smirk. They were completely obstructing the entire weapon area preventing anyone else from using it, most of the tributes knew to stay away but the few that did try were quickly scared away. The guy from district 3 was like twice the size of all of them though, I doubt they'd try messing with him if he tried to use a weapon of some sort. I follow Citrus to the camouflage station and the two boys from 3 and 10 are still here on the other side trying out the other paints. Citrus then chooses the darkest paint possible and begins to cover his entire arm in it.
"Bet the careers won't see me walk past them if I cover my entire body in this paint!" Citrus jokes and I laugh which surprises even me, I actually laughed….
I dip my finger in the dark paint and begin drawing on his face as I smile.
"Hey, what are you doing?" He playfully laughs as I draw a mustache, goatee and angry eyebrows over his face and I laugh some more as he looks himself in the mirror.
"See now I totally have to get you back for that!" He laughs as he dips his hand In some paint and proceeds to draw whiskers on my cheeks and before I know it, we're both laughing together as we take turns drawing ridiculous pictures on each other. We wash the paint off of ourselves afterwards and thankfully it comes off relatively easily.
"Haha, ok that was fun, let's see what else we can find!" he laughs as he begins to leave the station but I wrap my hand around his arm, I don't know why I did that but he turns around and seems a little surprised at first but smiles as we start walking to the survival station. The only tribute here was the girl from district 5 and she seemed to literally be having a blast as she was experimenting with a bunch of handcrafted mini bombs while she boiled chemicals near her.
"Poisons huh?" Citrus mumbles to himself as he grabs a book about it and I sit down next to him as we begin reading it together.
"Wow that seems almost too easy to understand." Citrus laughs as he hands the book to me.
"Let's try to make this kind of poison" he points to it in the book.
"We can turn it into a paste and coat our weapons in it, we're allies after all right?" Citrus smiles and my eyes widens a little.
"A-allies…" I mumble.
"Yeah, why not? Unless I stink or something and you don't want to be so close to me!" He jokes and I do a slight smirk.
The last people I cared about, they died gruesomely. The only reason my father is dead is because he was too busy trying to save me and I couldn't even return the favor. What if something like this happened to Citrus? I don't want to be the reason why he died…
"You ok?" He asks as he notices I haven't responded to him.
"Citrus I…I'll just slow you down, put you in more danger." I admit. I have no talents whatsoever, I don't want him protecting me and putting himself in harms way.
"No you won't, we're going to learn this together and everyone will be too scared to mess with us in the arena." He jokes, I can't help but smile but still.
"Calla, you don't see it yet, but you're a beautiful and good person." Citrus puts his arm around me.
I think of my dad again, how he screamed for me to help him, and how I just left him there to burn.
"No…" I answer.
"Huh?" Citrus asks.
"I'm not a good person…I'm not!" I raise my voice at him as his eyes slightly widens in shock as I stand up and speedwalk away from him and i can already feel my eyes begin to water. He tries to call me back but I only ignore him. I didn't mean to raise my voice at him, but he just has so much to live for. I don't want him throwing his life away for me.
Xavarion "Xavi" Odoro,18, District 3 male
"Finally got it!" I cheer as I finish tying up a hammock, Oswine was doing the same and is still learning. I've been with Oswine all day pretty much. He seemed to be struggling at some of the stations, so I just decided to help him out. I honestly wasn't very good at most of this myself but at least we were improving together.
"I was close…" he mumbles and I smile before patting him on the shoulder gently.
"You almost got it, just keep at it!" I encourage him and he smiles being nodding. I know I said I didn't want to be in an alliance, but still when I see a kid struggling, I have to try and help them. Oswine is very quiet too, something I prefer honestly. An announcement suddenly rings out though signaling us to go to the cafeteria, good I'm starving.
"Alright we'll continue this later, let's get some food!" I happily stand up and Oswine nods. I can tell he's very shy and doesn't like being around people much so we part ways for now as i follow the rest of the tributes. I see Sariah still tagging along with Zananova up ahead and Sariah is constantly trying to make conversation with her but is being ignored completely. This poor girl, I'll try speaking to her again but she doesn't seem to realize the danger Zananova brings. I again tried warning her about this "alliance" but Sariah snapped at me, calling me mean and to not insult her "treasure hunting buddy" like that.
"Couldn't even train with a weapon, those fucking careers are hogging them and won't let anyone else over there!" Fall complains to his sister as they walk past me. Yeah I looked over at the weapons a few times and the careers there didn't budge. That's where I expected the careers to be at for the most part, but it's a problem when they're sabotaging all of the equipment for themselves and not giving anyone else a chance to practice. If they're still doing this tomorrow, I'll personally approach them about it.
After reaching the cafeteria, I waste no time seeing what food they have. This is like an enormous buffet. Rows upon rows of all different kinds of food is sorted out In different sections, one for meat, grains, pastas and so on, it was too much to name.
I go to the meat section and I'm happy to see they have more chicken stew. I make sure to put a bunch of that on my plate and add some white rice to it and pour me a cup of juice before finding an empty table to sit at. I don't waste any time digging in and it's so good, I might go and get seconds after this. The careers seat themselves several tables away from me and I can see one of them occasionally glance at me but I pay them no mind. Almost every tribute is sitting alone though. Sariah and Zananova are sitting together and Sariah is still being ignored as Zananova is more focused on reading her book while her plate of apple slices sit in front of her. The two tributes from 11 are also sitting together but on opposite sides of the table. Citrus has a worried look on his face as he keeps looking at Calla but she doesn't acknowledge his presence. The siblings from 9 are also sitting together and they're both laughing together as they seem to be reminiscing about the past. There doesn't seem to be a lot of alliances yet, it's still the first day after all.
I finish up the last of my stew and I'm about to get seconds until I see Barbel approaching me.
"Barbel Beacher." He extends his hand to me. I already know where this is going but i'll brush him away in the nicest way possible.
"Xavi." I greet him back as I shake his hand.
"I'll get straight to the point, I think you'll fit in well with us careers, and we're inviting you to join our alliance." Barbel offers me.
"Thanks for the offer, but I'll have to respectfully decline." I answer. This seems to catch Barbel off guard but I see a flash of anger appear over his face.
"You should take more time to think about this." He suggests.
"No, I don't. I already decided that I don't want to join your alliance." I sternly say and his face flusters even more.
"Fine, but I'll let you know right now, you're making a big mistake." He warns me but I only look at him, he doesn't scare me, none of these careers do, but they do annoy me.
"Enjoy the last few days you have left." He threatens me before walking away. Well look at me already making friends. Still though, if it's a fight they want, I won't back down. I'll defend myself diligently.
Vendetta McClain,18, District 4 female
I couldn't sleep, no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't sleep. I drift off for a few seconds but something wakes me up. This is how it's been for two days now and I can feel it taking a toll on me. Training went just as I expected. Vladimir is apart of our alliance now, but I'll keep an eye on him, definitely seems like the type to stab you in the back in broad daylight. We executed our plan of sabotaging the weapons away from the rest of the tributes, and I was able to get some training in. My muscles are still a bit sore but this is just second nature to me at this point.
"Why don't you get some sleep little man, you have a big day tomorrow!" a ghostly cackle echoes through the room, no not again.
I sit up on my bed to see my father sitting on the edge of it and he turns to me with a devilish scowl over his face.
"Go away." I warn him.
"That's where you want me to go? Away?" he laughs as he stands up from my bed and begins walking around the room.
"Well as long as that twisted fucking brains of yours is still functioning, I'm here to stay little man, however let's talk about you." He cackles continuing to walk around the room.
"Go away, go away, go away…." I plead as I close my eyes and cover my ears but it's no use, I can still see him, I can still hear him, I can smell him.
"Ever since that faggot loser boyfriend of yours died, you've dedicated your life to destroying the person responsible, now my question to you is why is she still breathing?" He turns to me.
"You had quite a few opportunities to get rid of her, you could've just stabbed her in the neck and got it over with, but no you want to just put this off for as long as possible." He adds
"I'm waiting for the right opportunity…" I answer but he only cackles louder.
"Don't give me that bullshit, waiting for the right opportunity my ass, there's never a wrong time to strike, but I know why you won't do this, it's cause you're afraid, a fucking coward! What did I do to deserve a gay son that just so happens to be a complete coward as well? You're just all talk you damn coward!" He scolds me.
"Shut the…fuck up!" I say a little louder than intended, I hope no one heard me.
"The truth always hurts doesn't it?" He continues to laugh and I jump into my slippers as I storm out of my room and go to the living room area where Maria is sitting on the couch flicking through channels.
"You ok?" She asks as she gives me a concerned look and I look at her for a moment. A coward…is that what I am? Can I really not bring myself to do this?
"Yeah…" i answer as I sit across the couch from her.
"You can't sleep either?" She questions me.
"Can't sleep." I take a deep breath as I look up at the ceiling.
"I can't sleep either, it's been tough." She mumbles as I look over at her and I see an empty pill bottle on the table along with a half empty glass of wine.
"What do you mean?" I ask and she only lets out a small sigh.
"I…i- never mind." She sighs again.
"You can talk to me Maria." I pretend to actually care but she looks towards the window for a moment and sniffs as she wipes her eye.
"Vendetta, I haven't had a decent sleep in so long. Ever since I walked out of that arena four years ago, I've just been having the same nightmare every night." She begins to sob.
"What are the nightmares about?" I ask almost instantly.
"Mattias, you know my district partner." She sniffs and my eyes widen slightly but I don't want to show I'm too surprised so try and relax myself.
"Those screams, those screams he made. I hear them every night, every night. I didn't want to kill him, I didn't but he would've killed me, I was only trying to survive." She continues to sob but I can only look at her in complete silence as I try and process all of this.
"I can hear them right now, I hear them, and there's nothing I can do but just hope they go away, but they won't, I just have to endure it as I'm reminded over and over what a monster I am. That death I gave him, I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. He was a good man, he deserved better than…melting in a sea of acid!" She covers her face between her hands.
"Maria…" I mumble as she continues sobbing.
This whole time, I thought she murdered him and was so proud of it, just so happy she was the one who stood over him in the end, enjoying every moment of seeing his body melt into a puddle of flesh, but this…This is what she's been going through this whole time. I don't know what to think. I put my hand on her shoulder and she sinks her head into my torso.
"I just wish I can say I'm sorry, I just wish I can speak to him again." She cries as her tears soak my shirt but I hesitantly put my hand on her back as I stare ahead of me still trying to fully process this. I only wish I can speak to Mattias again too, he'll let me know if it was worth it or not to avenge him, I think I know what his answer would've been though…
Wow my longest chapter yet! Here's the first day of training and i had so much fun with the interactions between the tributes. They are all such diverse characters and i love each of them immensely! Once again thanks for all of the reviews! They really do make me so happy! I'll have the current alliances listed below and they'll be updated as the story goes on, Till next time!
The Careers- Annabelle Royce, Teddy Trismegistus, Victoria Aspen, Amos Walton, Vendetta McClain, Barbel Beacher, Vladimir Licht
Pinky&The Brain- Zananova Pixa, Sariah Hurd
Unbreakable Bonds- Fall Baromet, Winter Baromet