Since Akari, Arielle, and Steel died before they fully recovered from their wounds, no sponsor points were deducted for sending them medicine. That would be mean.

Whyte Roberts POV

I just killed my second girl in the Games. I didn't think I'd ever like it, but it wasn't as hard as it could have been. It was easier when we were all Careers. We asked for this, as stupid as it was. The girl shouldn't have hesitated. She must have had second thoughts, or maybe her conscience bothered her. We couldn't afford consciences in the Games.

I'd been cheating death since I entered the Arena. My chances were less than twenty-four to one. It was egotistical to think I'd win. Every second I was closer to death. It was less an "if" than a "when".

I still couldn't imagine dying, even though I'd done it twice. I tried to think of how it would happen if it did. I hoped it was like Floki and I went out with some impossibly cool act that would be remembered forever. But there weren't many people as cool as Floki. He was dead, though. If I died some stupid way, like the incident that was not to be spoken of, he wouldn't be around to see it.

Marley Xander

We hadn't had any trouble with fire watch since that first incident. Now that we knew there was a bizarre goat mutt in the halls, staying awake was easy. Anyway, there was plenty to think about.

Our plan was to target Venus first. If we had to, we'd even let Whyte into our alliance as an auxiliary member. It was unlikely he'd be dumb enough not to see what would happen once we'd gotten rid of her, but killing Venus was a service to all of Panem. After that, we deliberately didn't have a plan. Let the Gamemakers send their mutts and we'd roll the dice.

I walked down the hall and peered around the corner, but there was nothing there. It was hard to sort through the various noises a building normally made. At home, I'd chalk up any sounds to just the house settling, but here, any one could be death coming for us.

I went down the stairs to check the first floor. I swept my flashlight across the room and the beam glinted off something. It looked like a metal face, and I swung my flashlight back at it. It illuminated a knife as it flew threw the air and landed in my throat. I dropped the flashlight and grabbed at the knife with one had while the other held my axe. The spinning light exposed Venus intermittently as she came at me. I tried to yell for my allies, but my voice couldn't get past the hole in my neck. Instead I ran at Venus and swung my axe at her. She dodged back and threw another knife at my leg. I fell to my knees and crawled at her. It may have been too late for me, but she wasn't going to get my allies.

I slumped onto my side and played dead. She'd know from the lack of cannon fire that I wasn't gone, but she might come closer to finish it. Sure enough, she came up to me and crouched down with her knife in hand to stab me the old-fashioned way. I grabbed her leg and wound myself around her. I bit her with all my strength and felt her flesh tearing in my jaws. She stumbled around kicking at me until she finally broke loose. She threw another knife into my chest and left.

I only had minutes left, but that was hardly important. Blood oozed in my throat as I laughed watching her go. She was limping and trailing blood. Whether or not she even noticed the pain, she was hobbled. She'd be no match for my allies now. They'd see her coming and take her out. I'd removed myself from the problem of who was going to be Victor. Lottie and Ava would have to do the rest themselves.

Ava Hanson

A cannon woke me and Lottie. We both shot up in bed and looked at each other and then the door. I checked the clock on the wall and saw Marley's shift wasn't over yet. Without another word, we grabbed our weapons and went out to find her.

We didn't hear any sign of the goat mutt, so that wasn't the problem. Lottie swept a flashlight around the dark hall and then pointed it at the ground.

"Look," she said, and she pointed out the droplets of blood leading down the stairs. I didn't want to think about what that almost certainly meant. It didn't make any sense that Marley would get attacked and go downstairs. She'd come to us, and we would have helped her. More likely she'd fought someone else and wounded them. Her opponent fled down the stairs to die and Marley was somewhere between, too injured to move. We had to find her fast.

We ran down the stairs, not even bothering to check if there was someone waiting around the corner. The door that led to the first floor was closed. I pulled it open and saw the only thing that could have made two hardened Careers scream.

Marley was dangling upside-down in the doorway, held up by a rope around her foot. Blood was dripping down her body onto her face from two knives still sticking out of her. Her flashlight was behind her, casting a halo of light around her. Only one person could have done this.

When Lottie and I saw her, we pulled back and fell against the bottom of the stairs. As we stood up, I heard a creak, and then Lottie cried out. I saw the knife in her back and turned to face what I knew was at the top of the stairs.

5th place: Marley Xander- Stabbed by Venus

First off, it wasn't intentional that Marley had no kills. It was just an oversight on my part. Realistically she should have killed one of the Bloodbaths, but I didn't put much thought into who killed them. I think we all liked Marley. She worked hard and played hard. She was a great friend and more or less the leader of the Party Girls. Things are about to get really real, since Venus is now twenty feet from Lottie and Ava. Thanks to Marley, they have a much better chance of surviving... or at least one might. Marley was the bomb. We shall miss her, and thanks Mysticalpineforest for letting us use her again.

Someone asked if I could note what the Arena outfits were, so here I am. They're Peacekeeper cadet uniforms, which I would imagine would look similar to Marine recruit uniforms, which were a dark green shirt and camo pants.

I don't usually do cliffhangers, but this one was necessary to get the right pacing. I think the next chapter will be extra cool.