Winter Baromet,13, District 9 female
"Fall here…" I hand him a canteen of water but Fall can barley lift his hands to reach it so I put it next to his lips and he begins slowly sipping it. This is how it's been ever since. During the day, he's extremely weak, can barley move or even talk but it's during the night that he gets a surge of strength, where his senses are heightened, he'll sit far away from me and just tell me how afraid of himself he is, it's very concerning, I want to believe this is all in his head…but it isn't.
"Keep the rest…" Fall mumbles as he forces the canteen away from his mouth, his skin is sweaty and clammy at this point, this is how he is anytime before the night…
"You need to drink some more! I have enough so don't worry." I try to assure him and he takes a deep breathe but it sounds like he's in so much pain.
"I'm fine Winter, now let's keep moving, we can't stay put for long." He suggests.
"The only important thing right now is making sure you don't get enough rest!" I fire back but he lets out a small chuckle.
"Think you meant to say making sure I get enough rest, I get it though." He does a faint smile and I playfully roll my eyes.
"Yeah, just get some rest though, I'll look out for you, don't worry." I assure him and he rests his head against the tree and looks up at the sky.
"Hey you remember those cookies…those sugar cookies you made for me the night before reapings." He suddenly asks.
"Yeah, I do." I answer.
"I ate them afterwards, I just missed mom's cooking so much and those cookies, it smelled just like the way she always made them and I just had to try them out." He states.
"Yeah? I worked real hard trying to nail her recipe, I hope I did good though." I speak in a lower tone.
"They were amazing Winter. It was just like mom's…hell even better. You fucking nailed it, just one bite of those took me back to the past, I can still remember her like it was yesterday." He smiles looking up at the sky and I look up in the sky with him and a raindrop lands on my nose.
"You felt that right? It landed right on my nose." Fall comments.
"Y-yeah it landed on my nose too, what a coincidence!" I laugh.
"That's another thing Mom loved doing, she'll always gently rub the tip of my nose, it used to tickle and I'd just burst out laughing. The rain though, I wonder if that's her crying…" he wipes his eye.
"Crying?" I ask.
"Tears of joy I mean, she always wanted to see me and you together. Just being brother and sister, that's all she wanted…" he continues looking at the sky.
"I just wish I could've met her." I lament.
"She was incredible, and you, you're just a spitting image of her in practically every way. You look at yourself Winter, think about what a great person you are, and that's exactly how mom was." He smiles and I can't help but smile a little as well but I feel my lips begin to quiver, I feel both so happy and sad at the same time, it's weird…
"Attention all tributes." A voice booms out, I think that's the head game maker, this can't be good.
"To start, I'd like to congratulate all of the tributes who made it this far, it tells a lot about just capable you all are. I'd like to announce that we will be holding a feast at the cornucopia, who knows, you may all find quite desirable there." His voice ends and me and Fall looks at each other for a moment.
"We're not far from there, if we hurry, we can go there and grab what we need before anyone else shows up." Fall suggests but I don't have a good feeling about this.
"Fall you can barley even move." I remind him.
"I'll be fine, everything will be ok Winter." He struggles to get to his feet and helps me up to mines, ok fine, as long as we're quick. We will be fine, probably.
Fall looks real exhausted as we begin walking there, I can see so much strain and pain in his face but he's trying to push through it.
"It should only take us about ten minutes to get there…" he grunts and I do a small nod but an arrow suddenly pierces Fall through his torso and he let's out a pained yelp and falls to the ground. I can't even properly react before I feel a heavy blow against my head and I immediately lose consciousness.
"These two little weaklings, are you kidding me?" I hear an unfamiliar voice from a distance away and my eyes slowly open as I'm still in a groggy state and I see a dim light above me slowly rocking back and forth. It seems like I'm in some really dark and rusty warehouse. I can feel my hands bonded to a pole and I can't move at all, but I see three figures standing across from me and I'm quite surprised to see who they are, they're the careers from last year, What are they doing here?
"Finally up I see, I was starting to get bored!" Sedgar cackles as he fiddles with his bow and I look to my left to see Fall who's bleeding profusely and still has the arrow sticking in him, he still seems unconscious but he's breathing.
"Fall!" I cry out but he doesn't respond.
"I doubt that little punk has much time left, but you seem to be in relatively good condition, it'll be fun torturing you!" Sedgar glares me.
"Fall!" I cry out again but Sedgar quickly smacks me across the face and I cry out in pain.
"Shut the fuck up you stupid little runt!" he hisses at me.
"If you're going to kill her, just get it over with, we don't have time to be wasting." The district 2 girl Sarina scolds him.
"We're already dead, we have nothing but time dumbass!" Sedgar shouts at her and notches an arrow in his bow and aims it at Fall.
"No! Please stop!" I beg but Sedgar apparently finds this funny, releases the arrow and it lands in Fall's stomach area as he lets out a weak grunt of pain.
"Fall!" I cry out again but Sedgar kicks me in the side of my head and I'm disoriented for a moment.
"Now, my allies are dead because of you. Literally ripped to shreds, how did a weak skinny little guy like you manage to do that? Hmm?" Sedgar leans over Fall and all I can do is helplessly cry.
"We didn't do anything, just let us go, please!" I cry but Segar looks over at me and spits on my face.
"Winter…" I hear Fall mumble.
"What was that?" Sedgar is now face to face with Fall who can only hold his head down cause he's so weak but he manages to lift his head up and looks into Sedgar's eyes.
"You put your hands on my sister…I'm going to…kill you." He threatens but Sedgar only laughs.
"Oh yeah? Seems like a real intimidating threat coming from a dead man, let's have some fun though, I'm going to beat the living shit out of your little sister and we're going to see just what you're going to do about it!" Sedgar teases him and proceeds to walk over to me and begins untying my hands.
"No! What are you doing! Stop! Stop!" I squeal but after he's done untying my hands he drags me to the middle of the warehouse while his two other allies are just watching and Sedgar laughs as he begins unbuckling his belt.
"N-No!" I cry out and try crawling away but he stomps on my back and I let out a pained cry.
"Fall help!" I cry out and I can see Fall trying to move but he's bonded to a pole as well and is too weak.
"I'm afraid big brother won't be able to save you this time!" Sedgar laughs and he begins whipping me with his belt and I let out a loud cry of pain.
"Oh but I thought you were going to kill me, Fall? Empty words?" Sedgar teases him and slams his belt on my back once again and I let out another loud cry, I can feel my back swelling and blood seeping out of the whelps, I never felt something so painful and I can't help but just cry uncontrollably, me and Fall, we're just completely helpless right now….
"Stop!" Fall shouts in a strained voice, it doesn't even sound like him.
This gets the attention of all three of the careers.
"Leave her…alone!" Fall roars again and proceeds to break through the ropes that bonded him to the pole and I gasp while the careers have surprised looks on their face.
"What the hell…" I hear Sedgar mumble.
Fall manages to get back up to his feet but he clutches his head and seems to be in an extreme amount of pain.
"Fall!" I worriedly call to him.
"Winter…run!" he continues clutching his head and he begins growing in size as fur begins growing out of his skin, what is going on?
Milla the quiet girl from district 1 suddenly rushes at him with a kunai but he simply smacks her away and she flies against the wall landing headfirst into it. I hear a sickening crack as her skull shatters against it and she immediately goes limp.
"Holy shit…kid what the hell! What is this!?" Sedgar panics to me but all I can do is continue looking at Fall in fear as he completely resembles a monster now. He looks like a large wolf like creature. He's covered in black fur, has extremely sharp claws, is standing on his hind legs and drool is coming down his mouth.
"Fall!" I call to him but he doesn't respond to me and instead rushes at Sarina. She manages to throw a knife into his torso but he ignores it and begins mauling her as she let's out a cry of both terror and pain and I can only watch in pure horror.
"I'm out of here!" Sedgar panics and tries running away but Fall quickly pounces on him and has him pinned to the floor.
"Ahhhh! Kid help me!" Sedgar cries out to me but I only sit on the floor frozen in shock and fear. Fall proceeds to slash Sedgar's throat and Sedgar tries to cry out but only a horrifying sound of him gurgling and choking on his blood comes out instead. He continues shredding Sedgar's body until he's a literal pile of guts and he stands up and looks at me afterwards and I gasp beginning to back up.
"Fall…Fall." I call to him but he doesn't seem to recognize me and he lets out a pained growl and slowly begin walking towards me.
"Fall!" I say louder but he let's out another pained growl and suddenly tries to slash me but I gasp aloud and manage to stagger out of the way. I begin running to a ladder I see in the near distance and I can feel myself hyperventilating with Fall's heavy thudding footsteps behind me. I jump up the ladder and begin climbing it. He tries to slash my leg but I manage to move it out of the way in time and he slashes the ladder instead. The ladder is now hanging off the surface and I gasp in fear but manage to make it up the ladder before it falls off onto the floor and Fall leaps up to the surface where I'm at. I'm now trapped with nowhere to go and all I can do is crumble against the floor helplessly as he makes his way towards me.
As loud as I can, I scream. This the scream of death and I hear Fall let out a pained roar. As he clutches his head for a moment. He shakes it off though and begins to pierce his sharp claws through me but he stops himself again and I can see his large arm trembling as he's trying to fight whatever is taking over him.
He inches his sharp claws even closer to me but he manages to pull his hand back slightly.
"WINTER!" he roars and I give him a shocked look.
"Fall!" I look up at him.
"G-oooo!" he roars using his sheer will to try and keep himself from attacking me but I'm too scared to move! He let's out another pained roar and breaks off a piece of the metal railing that's next to me.
"You…won't control me!" he roars into the air and stabs the sharp metal railing through his chest and I cry aloud.
"Noooo!" I cry and he looks over at me and I see tears coming down his eyes as he begins gradually shrinking in size and his fur begins going back into his skin.
"Winter…" he lets out a weak mumble, falls to the floor and I quickly crawl over to him.
"Stay with me, Stay with me!" I cry but he wraps his hand around mines and gives me a saddened look.
"Winter…this is as far as I go." More tears come down his eyes.
"No it's not, it's not Fall, don't leave me, please! Don't!" I beg him.
He breathes heavily as he struggles to fight off his body shutting down, but I know theres no fighting this.
"I got you as far as I could Winter, there's only seven more tributes with you, you can do this." He struggles out.
"I can't, I can't Fall, not without you, just don't die, please don't!" I continue begging him.
"You can Winter, and you know that, You're so strong, so strong and…you don't even realize it. All you have to do is believe in yourself, that's it, that's all you have to do. Just promise me…that you'll try doing that, please." Fall's eyes begins closing but he forces himself to keep them open.
"…I will. I promise." I cry and Fall does a faint smile.
"Thank you Winter, I love you…" Fall mumbles.
"I love you too Fall…" my tears fall onto his face and mixes in with his own tears.
He does another faint smile, close his eyes and I feel his hand go limp as a cannon fires off shortly after and I cry into his chest. It's just me…I'm all alone now, just how, just how am I going to be able to get through this? How?
Victoria Aspen,18, District 2 female
A loud cannon fires through the air and both me and Oswine look up into the sky in unison. Well there goes another tribute, only eight tributes left now, and this is where tributes start showing just how desperate they are with how badly they want to live, does that make us evil though? That we just want to continue living even if we have to take other lives to make that possible? Now here I am, hunting down my former ally like he's some kind of wounded animal, I mean he kind of is but still…
Me and Oswine won't be attending the "feast" though. Not yet at least. This is a very personal journey for the both of us and it's important that we complete and go our separate ways afterwards. I had an extra spear so I gave it to Oswine. Basically though, if Barbel is even still alive at this point, I'll be fighting him head on while Oswine just provides support.
"We're getting close…" Oswine informs me and he seems a bit shaken up, understandably though.
"Everything will be fine, just remember to stay behind me." I remind him and he nods. We continue walking for several more minutes and I can hear breathing nearby.
"We're here…" Oswine states and I look around me, I can still see blood stains on the plants around here and the soil is disturbed, just what I'd expect a place to look like after a brutal fight took place. I can hear him though and he's close by.
I follow the raspy breathes with Oswine following behind me and after making our way through a small area of long bushes there's Barbel, who's slumped against a tree with his trident next to him. He's covered in wounds and bruises and he definitely already has one foot in the grave, Xavarion did a fucking number on him.
He hears our footsteps though and weakly raises his head to look up at us.
"You've seen better days." I tell him as he spits blood from his mouth.
"What…are you doing here?" he weakly asks.
"I'm sure you already know the answer to that." I answer and he lowers his head again almost like he's already accepting defeat.
"Just sit still, we'll make it quick." I assure him and he lets out a weak chuckle as his body starts to tremble and I give him a weary look.
"So…you two little weaklings came here hoping to finish me off, like I'm some kind of fucking bounty." He mumbles but his voice sounds completely different, what the hell? He begins trembling more and starts making his way to his feet picking up his trident and I take several steps back and do a defensive stance.
"I don't need to hide who i really am, this is the one time, that I need this power…" he states, what is he talking about?
He then raises his head and his eyes are now a bloodshot red and has a menacing grin on his face, it's like he's a completely different person now, shit!
Barbel lets out a horrifying roar of anger and immediately rushes at me with his trident and I gasp a bit and pierce him through the shoulder with my spear but he completely ignores it and quickly punches me across the face, the punch is strong enough to send me flying back several feet and I slam against a tree, groaning in pain.
"Victoria!" Oswine worriedly calls to me as I try and get my bearings together.
Barbel or whoever the hell he is now immediately tries and pierces his trident through me but I quickly roll out of the way and he stabs the tree instead, I quickly use this opportunity to try and stab him through the chest but smacks my spear away with his trident and I stumble back but Oswine stabs his spear into Barbels back and he simply turns around and punches Oswine square in the nose and he crumbles to the ground, dammit he's knocked out…
Barbel prepares to finish off Oswine but I intervene by blocking his trident with my spear and he gives me an angry look forcing me back with his sheer strength, how does he still have so much power left?
I regain my footing after he shoves me back and I point out my spear to create distance but Barbel just continues to recklessly rushing at me, I stab my spear into his torso and he lets out a faint grunt and slams his trident through my spear breaking it in half, shit!
He tries punching me in the face again but I duck under it and pull a knife out of my belt stabbing him in the abdomen and he grunts again before kneeing me in the face which knocks me to the ground as I grunt in pain.
I try crawling to my feet but he grabs my arm and snaps it and I cry out as pain shoots through my arm, I can't move it either, I think it's broken!
Barbel then pins me to the ground and lets out an angry growl as he begins raining punches down on my face, I try covering up with my one arm but it's no good, most of the punches slip through and I can feel blood pouring down my nose and mouth and he lands a hard punch in one of my eyes and I cry in pain as I can immediately feel it beginning to close up.
I try punching him in the face but this only angers him more and he grabs me by my neck choking me and pulling me back up to my feet with one arm, he punches me in the body twice with his other hand and I spit up some vomit before he throws me into a tree and I let out a pained groan landing on my torso in a battered mess, dammit he's too strong…he's too fucking strong!
He picks up his trident and lets out another animalistic growl rushing towards me and I see Oswine beginning to move again.
Barbel tries stabbing me with the trident but I roll out of the way and kick him in the chin so hard that he bites a piece of his tounge off but it doesn't seem to affect him much, just anger him even more than he already was.
He tries stabbing me with the trident again but I kick him hard in his heavily wounded torso and he stumbles back slightly and I pull out a throwing knife and throw it into his face and it lands in the side of his cheek as he stumbles back slightly again. Oswine is moving a little more and starts crawling to his spear.
I take out another throwing knife but Barbel quickly steps on my hand and I cry out in pain. Barbel then picks up the knife and stab it into my torso twice and I cry out again but kick him in the face trying to clutch my bleeding abdomen but it doesn't slow him down at all and he proceeds to try and stab me in the torso again but I block it with my hand and the knife pierces through it. He punches me across the face again and the back of my head slams against the earth disorienting me for a moment and he tries punching me again but I move my head out of the way causing him to punch the ground and I quickly stab him into the eye with the knife that's still pierced through my hand and he let's out a pained growl stumbling back and clutching his eye. This gives Oswine enough time to pierce the spear right through Barbel's torso and Barbel let's out a defeated roar but he doesn't sound like a monster anymore, he sounds like himself.
He looks down at the spear that is still through his torso and falls to his knees before falling onto his side.
"No…n-no…" I can hear Barbel mumble, I'm so injured that I can barley move, this isn't good…
"I can't…die here…I can't!" Barbel manages to force out and I see a tear come down his eye as he tries pulling the spear out of him and Oswine picks up the trident breathing heavilly.
"Fernando, I will come home…I won't leave you!" Barbel pulls the spear out of him as more tears come down his eyes but Oswine is hesitant and frozen in fear.
"Oswine, kill him! Hurry!" I shout but Oswine is still frozen in and Barbel still somehow has enough strength to start making it back to his knees holding onto the blood soaked spear.
"I won't die…I won't die here!" he struggles out and is now on one knee.
"Oswine!" I shout again but he won't budge.
"I will kill all of you…all of you!" Barbel threatens us in a weak voice and manages to stand back up but his body is trembling and slouched over as he barley has any strength left but he manages to raise his spear slowly at the petrified Oswine and I try my best to crawl towards them but I won't get there quick enough.
"I…" Barbel struggles and slowly reaches the spear out to Oswine.
"I will…kill…you all." Barbel threatens once more and his eyes close before he collapses onto the ground I stare at him for a moment in shock. A cannon then fires off afterwards and i blink several times. He's…he's dead.
Oswine let's out a loud gulp and a sigh of relief afterwards before looking over at me.
"Victoria…" he gives me a worried look walking towards me.
"You did good Oswine…you did good…" I praise him.
"Y-you're hurt though…" he reminds me, I can barley move, my face is swollen and covered in blood, I'm pretty sure my arm is broken and I have two stabs wounds in me but hopefully the blood will clot causing the bleeding to stop soon.
"I should be ok, you'll have to press on without me though, I'll just slow you down." I admit but he seems hesitant to leave.
"I don't have much…but here's some water." He hands me a bottle of water.
"Thank you Oswine…I appreciate it. You're a sweet boy." I smile faintly and he fiddles with his hands for a moment.
"W-what are you going to do now?" He asks.
"I'm just going to rest for now, yeah that's what I need." I gaze up at the sky.
"Ok…well goodbye Victoria and thank you." Oswine thanks me
"Goodbye Oswine…and thank you as well." I thank him and he does a soft nod before walking off with the trident and that's when tears roll down my eyes, I'm in so much pain right now, so much and I don't know if I'll be able to get through this…
Zananova"Zan" Pixa,13, District 3 female
So that's two cannons now and they weren't even that far apart from each other, seems like today is going to be a very 'busy' day so why not join in on the fun? I happened to be very close to the cornucopia when the feast was first announced so I've been laying low in some small bushes around the area. A short distance away I can see a table with multiple bags with numbers on it representing the districts. There were nine bags in total. There's a bag for district 2 and obviously the one from 3 is mines but I'll blow my cover if the bag wasn't there so I'll leave it there for now. There's a bag for district 4, two for district 6, one for 8 which I left a very special surprise in, two for district 9 and one for district 10. Two of these tributes are now dead hence the cannons ringing out but I lie in wait for Mercedes to show up, if she's even still alive that is.
I put a new toxin in that bag that I made myself, and I was quite curious to see how it performed, she'll be my test subject! After waiting for several more minutes a tribute finally appears, it's the girl from district 6, Rylee is her name if I'm remembering correctly. She cautiously looks around the area seeing if anyone is nearby and after not seeing anyone, she grabs one of the bags from her district and opens it pulling out a shiny looking rapier and looking at it in awe for a moment. A towering figure suddenly emerges from some bushes nearby her though and it's her district partner, Vladimir. Rylee immediately let's out a gasp and scurries off but Vladimir curses and starts chasing after her and just like that they're gone. Hmm I wasn't even aware someone got here before me, that'll mean he saw me putting the toxins into Mercedes' bag, but for whatever reason he decided not to attack me, I need to be more careful.
It's quiet again for several more minutes as I continue lying in wait, There's only seven of us left, seven. It doesn't surprise me that I'm still alive, but I'm sure plenty of other people are. Everyone probably took one good look at me and just wrote me off as a bloodbath, it really does irritate me when people look down on me! Yeah I'm small, yeah I may not be the strongest, but I'm still the most dangerous tribute here and after I win, everyone will realize that!
I think of Tyvon though, he's pretty much the closest I had to a parent even though I wouldn't consider him one, but still, I wonder if he's proud…
Another tribute emerges and as I hoped, it's Mercedes. She is going to pay after what she did to me, it was only a scratch she managed to inflict on me but still, it stings. She's looks around for a moment and after not seeing anyone, walks up to her bag, opens it and my special powdered toxins flies right up into her nostrils as she immediately begins coughing, good! That dumbass fell into my trap once again, time to finish this!
Mercedes Swift,17, District 8 female
I continue coughing uncontrollably after I inhaled some kind of powder, I finally stop coughing after a bit but I feel extremely short on breath and my body feels like it's on fire! What is going on?
"So I see you breathed in my little surprise!" A familiar voice echoes above me and I look up to see Zananova sitting up in a tree kicking her legs and cackling.
"You, Y-you!" I struggle to say as I begin coughing again.
"I wonder how you're feeling right now, it must feel like your body is one fire right?" I hear the same voice behind and I spin around to see the small girl standing behind me, what the? Wasn't she just sitting up in a tree?
I quickly stab her in the shoulder with my katana but I feel a sharp pain in my shoulder and I look to see a stab wound is there, i…I just stabbed her! How am I hurt?
"Oh you thought that was me?" I hear another voice to my side and I turn around to see her again swinging on a swing, how did a swing get here? I can feel my breathing getting heavier though and I look around me to see the world is disorienting, it looks like so many different things at once. A park, a desert, a carnival, what's going on, what's going on!?
I begin panicking,letting out scared moans and I can hear echoes of her laughter.
"Yes, it's definitely taking effect, I'm curious though, how many of me do you see? How many voices do you hear? How many areas do you see?" I hear numerous voices behind me and I spin around to see dozens of Zananovas cackling and one runs up to me but I stab her in the arm and I feel a sharp pain across my arm and I gasp.
"Oh look at you, you're hurting yourself! You can't help it though after all, you probably see dozens of me thinking it's actually me. What you're experiencing right now are severe hallucinations, the mental stress is taking a large toll on your brain and is releasing numerous stress hormones through your body. Your heart is being overworked as a result and you'll likely suffer a heart attack or a cardiac arrest, but there's one more special effect this little toxin of mines is doing to your body. It's sucking the moisture right out of you, you'll soon shrivel up and drop dead, I can already see your skin wrinkling so you don't have much time left." She cackles.
"Stop, Stop! What are you doing!?" I cry out, this is a nightmare, this is a living nightmare! I look around me and Zananovas are everywhere, hundreds of her and I can feel my heart pounding rapidly at a dangerous rate along with the heavy breathes I'm taking.
"You won't be suffering for much longer, no worries!" I hear her laugh and a Zananova rushes at me and I punch her across the face but feel a powerful blow against my face and I stumble into a tree hearing her laughs become even louder.
"Still hurting yourself I see, want me to join in on the fun?" her voice echoes and numerous Zananovas begin running after me, it's now thousands of them, if not millions! I let out a deafening scream of terror and fear feeling numerous stab wounds enter my body and i can feel a growing pain in my chest getting more and more severe as my heart continues pounding rapidly and I can feel myself wheezing at this point.
"Your poor little heart is reaching it's limits." Her voice echoes and I fall on my knees clutching my chest as the pain grows more severe and I'm having difficulty breathing, am I, am I dying?
"You're having a heart attack, looks like this was just too much for your body to handle, just shows how horrible your genetics are!" She spits at me and I see hundreds of thousands of Zanaovas circling around me and all of them giggling and armed with knives.
"Help me, help me!" I cry and she only laughs in response.
"It'll be over soon unfortunately, I was hoping you'd last a little longer though. It's no fun when test subjects die too early!" she scolds me and I feel a stabbing pain through my chest before I collapse on my torso, taking my last breathes, I wanted to win, I wanted to return home to my daddy, to be in his arms but…that won't be happening, not anymore…
Vladimir Licht,18, District 6 Male
Yeah keep running bitch! Do what you're best at!" I scold her as she continues running ahead of me but I'm keeping a steady pace and slowly closing in on her. I've been planning this ever since the feast was announced. I knew her skinny wrinkly ass would show up so I waited for her to show up and I'm taking her out now! I would've preferred to kill her in the feast, but if she wants to make me work for this kill then we can do that as well!
I can't even bear to look into the damn mirror anymore because of her, half of my face is gone because of her and now I'm going to cut off her entire face and show it to her before chopping her little fucking head off! Something that resembles some sort of mall comes into view and Rylee manages to run into it and slam the door shut and I curse under my breath, so she wants to play this game again! Fine let's do that then! I reach the door holding onto my scythe tightly and kick the glass door causing it to shatter into pieces. She really thought she can hide from me behind a glass door? Ha what a dumbass! After walking into the mall it seems relatively dark, I don't see the junkie anywhere in sight but I almost slip on an oily substance that's on the floor and I look down to see to see gasoline is surrounding the entire mall, hmm looks like she did some planning, not that it'll make a difference, she's still going to die! It seems like in almost an instant I hear a flick and just like that, the entire area around me is set ablaze as a large ring of fire surrounds me and I can feel the heat of the fire burning my exposed flesh on the side of my face but I let out an angry growl, clutching my scythe tightly.
I continue looking around but still don't see her and I'm getting pretty fucking frustrated now.
"Well come out you fucking pussy! It's just me and you now, just like you wanted so show yourself and accept your death!" I threaten but I hear something cutting through the wind behind me and I turn around in time to block Rylee's rapier strike with my scythe and I head butt her in the face causing her to gasp In pain and stumble back nearly falling into the flames but she catches her balance and gives me a weary look, holding her rapier out in a defensive stance as blood begins running down her nose.
"Finally decided to show yourself huh, let's finish this!" I state.
"I'm going to kill you!" She threatens and I strike at her but she blocks my attack stumbling back a little and I slash at her again but she maneuvers out of the way and quickly slashes me across the face causing me to grunt in pain and I shoot her a furious glare afterwards as the flames are dancing around us.
"You're gonna wish you never did that!" I angrily swing my scythe at her again and she once again evades it and tries slashing me across the face again but I block her attack with my scythe and punch her across the face with my free hand causing her to grunt in pain and fall to the floor. I bring my scythe down towards her but she kicks me hard in the body causing me to stumble back and I regain my balance near the dancing flames giving her enough time to jump back to her feet and cautiously circles around me. I see her hand trembling though, she's so terrified, just look at her! I let out a cough afterwards and she does the same as we continue circling each other, I need to end this and quickly!
Rylee Turbin,16, District 6 female
Focus Rylee, just focus. I let out another cough and he does the same as the fire continues dancing around us, things are starting to look a little disoriented but I try and regain my composure, my hand still trembling, he just looks so terrifying especially with all the fire around him, he…he looks like a demon!
"Arrgh!" he lets out an angry roar and tries striking me but i dodge it and quickly stab him in the shoulder causing him to grunt in pain and he angrily swings his scythe at me but I duck under it and stab him in the torso.
"Fuck!" he curses aloud briefly clutching his wound but recklessly swings at me again and I dodge it once again before slashing him across the melted half of his face causing him to stumble back and he curses again but I see a look of desperation on his face as his breathing is getting heavier.
"You're going to fucking die!" He roars at me and swings at me again and I try blocking his attack but the sheer power of his knocks me down I drop my rapier. He quickly brings the scythe down on and I roll out of the way but it still manages to cut into my shoulder and I let out a pained gasp but roll back to my feet and pick up my rapier as we both let out another cough. I swing at him but he blocks my attack and takes a step back and I strike at him again but he once again blocks my attack as sparks fly from our weapons and into the dancing flames further aggravating them. He shoves me back with his scythe and delivers a powerful blow that I dodge and I counter trying to strike his face but he blocks my attack once again and we lock eyes for a moment and I can see it in his eyes, I see it! I see fear! He's not a monster, he's a human, just like me, just like all of the other tributes and now he's coming to terms with his mortality!
He shoves me back with his scythe once again and tries to strike me but I duck under his attack and stab him in the legs causing his knees to buckle and he curses aloud falling to his knee. I then close in on him, trying to stab him through the chest but he sticks his hand out and it pierces through it instead only coming inches to piercing through his chest.
"Arrgh! You piece of shit!" he yells in pain and tackles me to the floor, the heavy thud causing the flames to bounce.
I let out a pained gasp and he punches me across the face twice. My head slams against the floor twice and I feel dizziness and can taste flesh in my mouth, I try punching him back but he grabs my wrist and slams it on the floor before punching me in the face again. He then starts strangling me and I can feel myself choking as everything starts to become a blur and fire is starting to make it's way up to the ceiling.
"You little shit! I should've killed you long ago!" He spits on me still strangling me and I feel all the oxygen being squeezed out of me and I reach into my belt to pull out a knife and try stabbing him in the neck but he smacks the knife out of my hand and punches me across the face twice more as everything becomes even more disoriented.
"Just fucking die! Die!" he hollers at the top of his lungs still strangling me and I extend my hand to the knife that's still a short distance away from me but I can feel myself starting to lose consciousness as my hand touches the handle of the knife, I think of Scrap, my little brother and how I promised I wouldn't let him down, Scrap…I won't let you down! I wrap my hand around the handle of the knife and quickly thrust the knife into Vladimir's neck causing him to yell in pain and falls off of me to his side as blood is starting to spurt from his neck, I then make it to my knees and clutche the knife tightly, let out a loud cry and plunge it into his chest but he only curses in pain, I continue crying aloud and stab him in the chest over and over and over, I lose count of how many times I plunge the knife into him and only stop when I hear a loud cannon fire off. I continue crying as I look at him, dozens upon dozens of stab wounds in him and his frozen and cold dead eyes only gazing up at me. A fiery piece of the building lands next to me though and the entire mall is starting to come apart as I'm choking. I begin crawling towards the exit as more pieces of the mall begin falling around me and as I approach the exit I dive out of the building and roll across the ground several times as the mall completely crumbles down. The flames erupt more and I'm sprawled on my back looking up into the sky as tears comes down my eyes, he's gone, he's gone…he won't be able to come after me, he won't be able to haunt me anymore, these chains that bonded us together…they have set me free!
9th place-Fall Baromet-Sacrificed himself: Fall i grew to relate and love you dearly. You were such a complex character but you always loved your sister and would've done anything for her. For me, it was extremely important to develop the very complex relationship between you and Winter. I've seen siblings in syots before but i always felt they just weren't done right and i wanted to develop the bond between you two as much as possible. I was absolutely thrilled to recieve two siblings and it was an absolute joy to write. The fact that you were able to use your sheer will to prevent yourself from attacking Winter during your transformation shows just how much you loved your sister and how precious she was to you. R.i.P. Fall you were an amazing brother and your mom is so proud of you!
8th place-Barbel Beacher-Stabbed through torso by Oswine Nanshope: A death you likely all saw coming. Barbel you were also a very complex character as you battled your internal demon and i always had so much fun writing you even if you weren't very likable in general. You sustained a severe amount of damage in your fight with Xavi and you were pretty much a dead man at that point. You had to become the monster you despised so much just to obtain power and try to fight off your adversaries, but it still wasn't enough unfortunately. R.i.P. Barbel!
7th place-Mercedes Swift- Heart attack caused by Zananova Pixa: Mercedes the moment you were submitted to me i almost immediately considered you a bloodbath. You were sort of like a joke character and i planned on giving you an early death but i grew to really like you and you developed so much into a resourceful and strong young woman! Your daddy is very proud of you so R.I.P.
6th place-Vladimir Licht-Stabbed to death by Rylee Turbin: Possibly the most shocking death this chapter. Vladimir you were an absolutely horrible person, always leaving a trail of blood and death where ever you went and doing whatever you needed to do to get what you wanted. You were built as a monster, cutting down anyone in your way and still have the highest kill count thus far. The moment i received you, i already knew you were going to be the "villain" of this story. This is the death i always envisioned for you though, i always wanted a much weaker tribute to score a massive upset against you and Rylee kept her composure, weathered the storm and defeated you. R.I.P. Vladimir. Many people will be happy you're gone, but you still had Ingrid who loved you immensely!
So here is the the long awaited blood filled chapter some of you predicted and just like that, we're in the final 5! Next chapter will be the family interviews and after that we'll be back in the arena to complete the rest of the games, thank you so much for sticking with me every one and I'll see you all soon, till next time!
P.s. So sorry if there's a ton of typos. I proof read it once as i need to get to bed and wanted to post this tonight, so I'm sure quite a few typos may have slipped through the cracks.
Finalists: Victoria Aspen, Zananova Pixa, Rylee Turbin, Winter Baroment, Oswine Nanshope