Adira Hemlock, 17, District Seven Female

She bites her lip to keep herself from screaming at Alexis as she waits at the floor to the fourth floor, watching for any sign of movement from the door. But she can't hear anything yet, and the door seems to be locked. But she can't risk another moment like with the Threes. That was disastrous, with both of the tributes escaping due to an explosive that the girl had managed to create out of thin air and throw at the two. Adira had escaped with only minor burns, but Alexis had singed her ginger-red hair and burned her back as she had run up the stairs, away from the explosion. They still hadn't checked out the scene yet, nervous that the girl would appear and throw another at them. They can't afford another disaster like that. Adira can't afford another disaster like that.

The girl was tricky. Adira hadn't paid much attention to her interview, but she was smart, cunning. She was a worthy threat in this arena of scared teenagers. She was probably the only one who could make those bombs. And managing to scare even Adira away was impressive. The girl had spirit. But she'd have to be crushed soon. Spirited tributes always meant trouble.

She just has to wait. Wait for Alexis to finish looking at the roof and come back down, and they can finally start battering down the door. And they can finally start to thin down this field of eleven.

It would have been easier if they still had the other two tributes in their alliance, but that Joel had died from a tribute in the hotel and Grace had gone absolutely crazy, - It was called gone wild in Seven - attacking Adira and screaming something about district loyalty and her partner. Adira had killed the poor soul in the bloodbath, the boy coughing one more time before succumbing to her ax. Grace had evidently remembered that. You couldn't seem to trust a Four. They were too loyal, too weak in the ways that they stuck together. So she had stabbed the raging, bloodthirsty girl in the chest, letting her bleed out in the hot, dry arena. In hindsight, she should have avoided killing the boy from Four herself, but it didn't matter now. All that mattered was winning. She couldn't afford to think of anything else.

She yawns slightly as she hears footsteps coming back down the stairs, rubbing her eyes and looking up at a descending Alexis. It's got to be at least 10:00 PM by now; the stars were showing clearly in the sky when they first entered the hotel. They'll go to sleep soon. They just need a kill first.

Alexis finally makes her way to Adira, holding her sword and looking warily at the door. "You ready?"

Adira nods slightly, shifting her ax to her right hand and taking her first swing at the door. The ax slams into the wood with a satisfying crash, the wood splintering as she wrenches it out and starts once more. Alexis does the same with her sword, carving a hole beside the doorknob before she reaches her hand in and pulls. But she brings it out quickly with a scream, holding her now-bleeding hand. One of the kids in the floor has smashed a plate against it.

Alexis doubles back before slamming her sword through the hole, earning a scream of fury as she seems to hit one of the tributes. She smiles and steps back for Adira to attack once more, this time breaking through the top of the door and cutting through the rest of the wood. They're almost in.

It's only a few couches and tables that the tributes had pushed up against the door, and Adira bites back a laugh as she walks into the hallway. The tributes are gone; disappeared into one of the rooms, but they'll find them soon enough. Oh, they will.

Alexis opens the first door and smashes through the bathroom door, quickly looking in the closet before stepping back out with a shrug. Adira nods and moves to the other side of the hallway, quickly scanning each room before slamming the door and moving on to the next one. The thought that they might have hidden in the furniture of their barricade, but a quick glance back to it proves that there's no room for them to hide. They're somewhere on this floor. And even if there's only one of them, it's still one kill. It's still a cannon, and another step closer to winning.

She keeps looking through the rooms, scoffing when she sees a dress laid carefully down on a bed in one of the rooms. It's obvious that it's one of the outfits from the bloodbath, with music notes carefully imprinted on the dress and a pattern of grey tracing down the side. Adira nods slightly and looks around the room, bashing down the bathroom door and shattering the glass door of the shower with her ax. But there's no one there, and she quickly closes the door before moving onto the next room. Where are the tributes?

A cry of satisfaction suddenly comes from Alexis' side of the hotel floor, and Adira runs to the one open door on her side to find Alexis standing over the terrified boy from Twelve. He's quivering with a pen and a piece of paper in his hand, looking up at Alexis with tears in his eyes. Adira smiles with pleasure and steps towards the boy, her ax dragging on the carpeted floor as she gets closer. Finally a kill! Finally!

The boy yells hoarsely for help, pushing past Alexis and attempting to break through the door. "Ashira! Ashira! Help! Help! Ashira, I need help! Please! Ashira! Ashira!"

But there's no answer to his cries, and Adira knees him to the ground. The gasping boy curls up defensively into a ball and screams in fear, just in time for Adira to slam her ax into his side. The boy screams again before she hits him one last time in the head with her blade, and he finally falls silent.

The cannon booms quickly and she smiles, wiping the bloodstains on the spread of the bed in the room before stepping back into the hallway. A girl flits through the hallway and past the barricade, into the stairwell and down the steps before Adira has time to react. Adira curses under her breath as she starts to follow the girl, Alexis right on her heels. They race down the steps, quickly looking down the hallway of each floor before heading towards the next one. But by the time they get outside, they still haven't found her.

"We could check the lights," Alexis suggests, and they walk over to a point where they can see the red and green lights of the hotel. The second and fourth floors are flashing green, while the others have turned to red.

Adira heaves a heavy sigh, putting her ax down and sitting on the ground. "Do you want to go now, or sleep and wait for tomorrow?"

Alexis shrugs, sitting down next to Adira and yawning widely. "I guess we better sleep. We can't really kill anyone when we've been up for sixteen-plus hours. We better find a place to hide first."

Adira nods, standing up and grabbing her bag and ax before looking around the area for another spot to sleep. It's found in a small shack next to the hotel, housing all sorts of appliances for the maintenance of the hotel. The two quickly settle down and lock the door, waiting for sleep to come.

"I wonder if they had anyone live in the hotel to test it all out. They've got to make sure it's tribute-satisfactory, you know?" Alexis says, turning towards Adira. "Being a test subject for the arena wouldn't be a half-bad job. I've done worse."

"So have I." Adira turns to her sides and clutches her ax, a rush of the years she's spent chopping down trees and hiding from the orphanage coming back to her. There have always been two log houses in Seven near the edge of every logging town for workers; one for men and one for women. She bunked with the women for the night before heading back out to work, her ax diligently chopping down the next tree. She never used wedges. They were deemed unnecessary for the workers, and they were forced to work in groups of two. One spent their time chopping the tree until it was time for the other to cut, and the other watched for the movement of the tree, making sure it didn't suddenly crash down onto both of them. She always liked being a spotter. She liked being able to watch for death, to be able to warn her partner in case the tree was leaning towards them. She felt… in control.

"Well, I'd still like to test arenas. Wonder if anyone had to go into last year's arena to test it out." Alexis laughs at the thought, and even Adira smiles at the thought of shivering Capitolites exploring the small, frigid sea ice arena that was last year. Even if it was surrounded by the stadium that had housed arenas until this year, it still would have been freezing. The tributes had felt the same, with twenty-three dying in only a day and an hour.

"I'd love to stay in this hotel if it wasn't for the fact that we were supposed to kill each other. Have you ever seen anything so fancy?" Alexis whispers, and Adira nods. It was a beautiful hotel, better than anything in Seven. Any form of hotels in Seven wasn't complete there without prostitutes and hookers, whispering seductively to the men and women walking through the dingy lobby. She'd love to experience it by herself. People were too messy, too noisy.

"Well, I'm going to try to sleep. Night!" Alexis turns over on her side and falls silent, soon leaving only Adira left awake. She listens quietly to the sounds of the night, fidgeting as she hears a roar in the distance. The lions were strong, confident animals she didn't want to mess with. They were too powerful together for any tribute to fight, only avoid. And Adira doesn't like running.

A beeping of a parachute falling onto the plains stirs her from drowsing, the sound soon stopping when it reaches its owner. Adira stands up and looks through the window, only seeing the blackness of the arena and the red and green lights of the hotel. The first floor is still green, yet the fourth isn't green anymore, being replaced by the second. Whoever was running around in the hotel was cautious; always moving around to ensure their safety. But they hadn't bet on the lights. With those lights, she could catch anyone moving around. They weren't ever truly safe there. Only the plains, occupied by starving, terrified tributes and predators waiting to hunt them, provided some degree of anonymity.

They'll search the hotel again tomorrow, paying more attention to the first floor. She hadn't been able to properly look through the lobby and kitchen yet, only glimpsing it on her way up. There must be dozens of hiding places in there, waiting for a lonely tribute to find them and wait until more cannons boomed. But they'd be found. No one was ever safe in an arena where even your district partner was against you. It was good that she had killed Grace. She didn't need anyone on her alliance who wasn't trustworthy. She could only rely on herself. Alexis had proved her worth thus far, but if she ever failed to deliver or even hinted at defection, she'd be the next to die.

And when the rest were gone, she could finally be alone.

Another chapter! *sings praises to the heavens for me getting a SIXTH update in a row* Now we finally know who died in this fateful night, and what a night it was! A fierce conflict, our artistic Corey dying, and Ashira abandoning him instead of taking a stand against the girls. Now, we'll have to wait for tomorrow to see if Adira makes good on her promise to find Emmett and Hallie so she can kill them both. Because anything can happen in the final ten, as we'll see in the next few chapters…

11th: Corey Gasson, District Twelve Male, killed by Adira Hemlock

You would have been great to focus on as a pov, Corey. You sparked almost-a-friendship with Ashira, but she wasn't able to commit herself fully to you and fled. We'll see the repercussions of that in the following chapters, and it'll be wonderful ;) I'll miss you, my dear artist!

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(If anyone's confused about the repost, it's b/c I posted it once before the 24 hour marker and now am doing it again to officially update it XD) Let's hope that I can get another chapter finished for tomorrow and make this seven updates! in a row! If I can somehow manage to do that, I'd be very impressed. It'd make up for the long waiting period, don'tcha think? Until our next chapter, TheAmazingJAJ