A/N: Yooooo. I woke up early and stupidly starting writing instead of going back to sleep. I've got a hell of a headache, but I've also got a finished chapter, so fair trade I guess. Urghhhh. Enjoy the chapter!

Nyso Torrent, District 5 Male

4:16 AM

Darkness. Adrenaline. Pain. Hot fingers of fear crawling up my soul, leaving purple bruises and harsh marks on my heart. Running. Running. Running. Heart pounding, feet aching, nothing but the bleak and terrible dark. Chest heaving. Ragged gasps. Go go go. Animal instincts. Pain and fear and sick and everything wrong with this world. Thudding footsteps behind me. Pointed teeth gleaming in the gloom. Screaming, my throat burning. The crackle of a match coming to life.

But it's still dark.

Why is it still dark!?

Breathing in the putrid smoke. Lungs wailing. Invisible flames biting at my feet as I stagger on. Bile searing my mouth, burning through my enamel. The hot breath of death on my back. A cold hand at my neck, yanking me backwards into inky fire. My skin crisping, roasting, the smell of my own shriveling black flesh filling my nose, an overload of my most potent sense. My moans of pain and my screams for it to end, for me to just die. Death's callous answer in the form of a silver blade plunging into my stomach, ripping through meat and organ and splintering bone. My blood, soot-black like everything else in this midnight hell. Fire and steel eating at me. Me looking up.

Catching a glimpse of death's face.

First it's the boy from nine, the one with the silky tongue and angry eyes. Then the one girl, her teeth bared and amber eyes wild. The one boy, the two boy, and the four boy fused together, faces wicked with glee. The girl from two, her eyes shadowed by a curtain of greasy hair swaying like a pendulum. The four girl, nothing clouding her expression but sheer determination and willpower. The three girl and the seven girl blurring together, faces expressionless as they whisper "we will do anything." Even the puny pair from twelve, sobbing as they twist the knife in my gut. Every single tribute flashes by. Every single tribute pulls out a knife and a match and murders me with steel and smoke and fear.

My lifeblood seeps out of me as my vision dulls, gray clouds eclipsing my sight. But I still live. I still cling to life, scrabble at it with dull fingers, determined not to go gentle into this good night.

Then I feel the claws gripping my waist.

I scream, flopping around in the metal claws, my body contorting, nails raking down the hovercraft's claw. But it's no use. I rise, my blood sprayed across my body like red paint across a canvas. I'm pulled, up, up, up. And just as I see a smear of dawn on the horizon, I'm hurled into darkness once again. My breath hitches as I hear the snap. Dirt showers into my mouth, and I hear a systematic banging. I'm in a coffin! They're nailing me in! I scream, throat raw, but nobody hears me…

And then I'm alone, suffocating quietly, worms and maggots writhing in the wounds in my stomach, happily eating my stomach lining. I sink deeper and deeper into the ground like I'm made of metal, until the dirt bores into my eyes and the world winks out.

I wake up screaming.

Rodrick Olivier, District 9 Male

7:21 AM

There's a gaping hole in my mind. Vague memories of frightened eyes and the scent of prey. I snapped back into memory in front of the shaking girl from eight. It does not take a genius to realize what I was doing. That is not what alarms me. What alarms me is my total lack of memory. A black hole, eating up my mind, a gaping abyss, a chunk of yesterday just gone.

ONE FISH TWO FISH RED FISH BLUE FISH

It scares me.

I used to think I was above terror. I used to think I feared nothing, that there was nothing in the world that could bring me to my knees.

Now I know I am wrong.

ONE FISH TWO FISH RED FISH BLUE FISH

"Up and at 'em!"

The horrible, squeaky voice of our escort pierces my ears. I groan and heave myself up, reluctantly untangling the sheets wrapped around my. I throw on the clothes lying in a neat pile at the foot of my bed and stagger out, eyes chilly. The escort flinches away from me and runs to Teryn's side, chattering all too loudly. Pathetic.

ON-O-ONE FISH… T-TWO… RED… ONE… BLUE TWOREDBLUETWOFISHSEABLOODPAINTEARS-

A shriveled child is strapped to a chair, body pulsing with electricity.

He is screaming.

So much blood. It's everywhere.

I blink and then it's gone. Teryn lets out a shrill squawk, staring at me in equal amounts terror and apprehension. I bare my teeth at her, snarling. She stares at me for a long second before whipping around and heading down the stairs to the dining room. I follow her, feet slapping against the floor.

I eat like an animal. Fitting, because I am one.

Zap!

The boy writhes in the chair, moaning, his mind a shattered, pathetic, feeble copy of it's former glory.

RedFishREDfishREDFISH

I groan aloud and fall face-first into my parfait.

Everything is so dull and blurry. The sky is a mishmash of black and white. The blood is black and white too. Everything is so dismal. So gray. The weight of it makes me want to shed a tear. The world is stark, bleached of color. There is so little life here.

Less.

Less.

Less.

Always less. Always stifled, always gray. Always lesser. That is me, that is all of us, born and tied in bonds of blood.

Strange thoughts dance in my head is the gray leeches away. I groan as another bout of psycho leaves me, limp, swaying. I can feel the tendrils of oblivion curling around my brain. The world flashes black.

And it's dark. Dark and cold and lonely and broken. The sky weeps for me.

I open my eyes and there's a knife in my hand, the point of which is sifting through the insides of a dummy. I blacked out again.

This is not good.

This isn't good at all.