The fifth day
-Kendal, D7M-
I sit awake, the one of my allies allocated to do so for the night, and recite a book I read about climate change.
When I close my eyes, I see the book in front of me, recalling the words I saw on the page again and saying them out loud. It's really an interesting topic, I can't believe that anyone could fall asleep when hearing about it, but somehow Edgard and Raoul both sleep soundly as I read the words off of the pages I can see in my head. I talk to keep away the sounds of the ghosts. It's what we all do. Raoul sings, I read, and Edgard just starts talking about philosophical things. Things like, our purpose as human beings, and the roles we play in society. It's actually really interesting to listen to, but after a long day I couldn't stay awake.
Whether we're ready or not, the sky lightens, announcing the coming of another day.
I just keep on reading, though. I can't say I've never pulled an all-nighter reading. This really isn't anything new to me.
I just keep reading, muttering the words out loud to keep away those noises that made me cower and cover my ears. It doesn't entirely work, and sometimes in the night I heard the laughter of Amari, from 6. So I guess I know plenty well who that cannon was for last night.
It was torture. But the torture is over. The somewhat condescending, hurtful laughter of the 15-year-old quieted as suddenly as it started.
The night vision goggles we got from a sponsor helped, for sure, but they didn't stop the noise. I don't think anything anyone bought for us could do that.
I can tell that Raoul and Edgard are losing sleep over this. When I'm not the one awake, I struggle to sleep, too. I feel the rope in my hands, visualizing what I did with it in training and trying to do that again in the darkness when I can't see as well. I just do my best with what I have, though. We've been very lucky, all three of us, to be sponsored thus far.
I just don't want to disappoint the audience that sponsored us. They want us to put on a good show, use these things they gave us to get an edge over other tributes, ultimately killing them.
I've read about plenty of death, it's a part of our experience as humans. Plenty have written about it, plenty want to talk about it. Some are afraid. Some are open-minded.
Reading about death and watching, knowing death are two totally different things. I never thought they were, of course. But, even though I haven't watched any of the deaths yet, I know that it's very real: and very scary. I know that there are people I've talked to, people that smiled at me and made me feel more comfortable, there are people that I could've considered friends that are dead now… It's chilling. No matter what, that lingering thought is like a ghost that never leaves. I wish it would leave. I don't want to be here. I want to be back in District 7 with Aunt Linette and Agata, teasing and playing, just like we always used to. I don't want to be here, I never did, I never will.
Edgard and Raoul both wake up on their own, maybe at the sudden stopping of my rereading. Not even my passion can save me from this. I still feel constantly like I'm suffocating.
I like to have allies, though. For now. I just try to avoid thinking about what has to happen to them if I want to see my family again.
When you read about a hero in peril, the mood becomes intense, full of energy, apprehension. The authors obviously have never been in peril before. Apprehension is the understatement of the century; every step makes my heart pound. It's not endearing, or exciting, or light. It makes every step harder and harder. It's paralyzing. Painful, almost. I feel guilt and I don't even know why. I'm out of control of my own fate. And let me tell you, feeling powerless knocks the aspirations, dreams, laughter, imagination, energy, positivity… The whole childhood right out of you.
I can't do anything.
I'm trapped.
I can fight my very hardest, but if they want me dead I can't stop them. I'm being hunted by at least ten tributes, maybe more. And, because I scored high, I have a target on my back. I still have no idea why the frick I scored so high, I didn't do anything during my training session but tie some stupid knots.
It's taken a few days for reality to sink in, but now it covers me like a cloak. No matter where I go it's not coming off, it's covering my eyes like darkness. I can't un-see what I've seen, I can't feel anything but this heavy, hopeless feeling of darkness.
Raoul and Edgard yawn as they sit up. At least they're still breathing. As the sky lightens up, I can see their faces, at least somewhat. That's almost reassuring.
"So, should we take survey of supplies?" Edgard asks quietly. I know that it's just a routine, an excuse to stay in the familiarity of the carousel without having to venture out, but still feeling productive. So, as we have for three days now, we empty the backpack and reorganize it.
Not that we have to reorganize much, we keep the food provisions and the small thermos with the night vision goggles in the biggest pouch, then the bandages and extra T-shirt in the next biggest, and finally, the box of matches by itself in the smallest pouch.
"Well…"
"How about we tie some traps?" I ask, taking the knife I got in the bloodbath and the rope we got from a sponsor.
"Can you do that?" Edgard asks.
"I spent some time during training." I start to unravel some of it, picturing the length it was when I was tying then and cutting it to just about the same length. The others watch, but don't jump in.
"I'd probably just tangle it up," Raoul says sheepishly.
"I'm sure you'd do fine," I say absent-mindedly, mostly focused on tying the way I learned in training.
"Where are we going to put this?" Edgard asks.
"Good question…" I was really thinking of using it for defense. Maybe have it secured to the top shelter over the carousel, to trigger when someone steps on it. But I have a feeling if I do that, somehow Raoul will manage to trigger it on accident. "We could… Use it as offense." The words are forced out of the back of my throat.
"Like…"
"By the spicket." It must sound like I'm in pain. I don't know if you've ever suggested to a couple of guys your age that you should set a trap with the goal of murdering someone, but it's not exactly easy. It's what the crowd wants, which is why I brought it up. I'd be just fine if we didn't use the trap at all, it served as a distraction, something to focus on for a while to forget the feeling of weight pressing on my chest.
A heavy silence as thick as the darkness lingers, as my allies realize what I'm suggesting. Neither of them wants to be the first to say yes.
Edgard clears his throat and Raoul mutters a "yeah, good plan."
I'm struggling to find air.
We collect our supplies, I put the backpack over my shoulders, and we start to walk. Edgard carries the rope, Raoul carries the trap and night vision goggles, and I have the knife and supplies.
We trace our path back to the spicket, all of us scouting for tributes. Raoul is able to see better with the goggles on, so he leads, and the two of us stay close behind him. We arrive and, after refilling the canteen and drinking to our heart's content, we start to set up the trap. The darkness works in our favor, as it'll give us a hiding place and not allow the tribute to see what they're walking into. We use some of the old trees around, testing branches to see the sturdiest ones and working from there. It takes us a while, by the time everything is good and ready it's at the brightest part of the day, and we put the night vision goggles away for a few hours or so.
Then, we retreat, ever so slightly, and listen.
Now I feel almost palpably torn.
Just one tribute, Kendal, part of me is thinking. One will give them what they want. One is all you need. You just need to end it quick and forget.
The other part knows I won't forget, and is praying silently that no tributes find us today. Ever.
The trap could fail. There could be more than one, maybe heavily armed. We could get attacked from behind. The Gamemakers could send something on us. Tributes could have lights. They could notice it beforehand and find us before we knew what was happening.
All the ways we could die are flashing before my eyes. Quick, slowly, painfully, we could be dead before we even knew what happened.
We stay there for a while, watching nothing. Nothing. Still nothing. Nothing. Still nothing.
I start to feel relieved that our attempt to find tributes failed completely. In fact, I have to pee, which will give us a great excuse to leave excusably. I'm about to speak up when I hear voices and stop short, crouching down further into the bushes out of fear.
"Alright, alright. Ally, Kill, Torture. With… 6, 9, and 10 boys."
My heart stops completely for a second as I start to quiver with fear.
"Ew, why would you choose those ones?" another voice asks.
"Because it's not Fuck, Marry, Kill, duh. It's Ally, Kill, Torture."
"Alright, alright. Probably… Ally with 10, kill 6, torture 9."
"Interesting. How about you?"
There's a long pause. "Probably… Ally with te-"
"Nuh uh Callum, I've got dibs on Raoul!"
The four of them all laugh at that as they turn the corner.
I exchange helpless looks with the others. There are 4 of them, only 3 of us. Even if one gets caught, we don't have any time to fight, we'd just barely have enough time to get away. The Careers have lanterns, too.
"Alright, anyways, ally with 10?"
"Oh, right. Ally with 10… Yeah. Kill 6. Torture ni-" I hear a small scream come from him and realize that our trapped actually worked. I don't have much time to feel triumph, though, as the Careers recover quickly and I see the flashing of lanterns and flashlights being turned on. In that moment, I begin to feel hyper-aware. Everything is intensified, as my heart pounds with adrenaline. Everything becomes overly clear, and I realize now is when I have to take action.
"A little help here!" Callum says irritably, as the lights get closer.
I know that now is the only time to give the crowds what they want. Heart pumping, pounding against my ribs, I leave my allies' sides to approach the figure hanging down from the tree. I pull the knife back and, after a deep breath and through teary eyes, thrust it forward, hoping to strike him in the heart. Instead, though, I miss and go slightly below, but his cry of pain causes me to quickly pull the weapon out and go looking for my allies.
"They're here!" Maggie says, causing the others to start away. Callum is screaming, practically wailing in agony as Maggie, Riella, and Iridesce pursue Edgard and Raoul. I hurry to catch up to my allies, knowing that I don't want to be alone without them.
I hear shouting behind me, but keep running as fast as I can.
Suddenly, above the others, I hear Iridesce's voice booming out, "I'm finishing this!" I turn around and run, not looking back, knowing that I can't afford to.
Before I know it I hear a wet choking sound beside me, as Edgard crumples to the ground. He doesn't make noise.
"EDGARD!" Raoul's voice raises to the shout, the first time I've ever heard him make that loud of a noise.
"We have to go," I say, grabbing his hand and pulling him along.
"EDGARD!"
"They're getting closer!" I shout, pulling Raoul along, away from the corpse. He can't be helped, I know he can't. I pull Edgard along, retreating into the darkness, the feeling of Callum's warm, sticky blood still fresh on my fingers. I can't help but feel like the feeling is never going to go away.
We make it back to the carousel and hide in the darkness. We can see the silhouettes of our pursuers in the distance, but they eventually leave.
I can hear Callum's wails from here.
A single cannon booms, signaling the unchangeable fact that Edgard is dead.
One of our own has fallen.
And it was all my fault.
~.~.
-Maggie, D2F-
Callum screams in pain as Iridesce unties lets him down. They aren't particularly gentle, and even though Riella and I are there to help the fall, Callum still screams so loud my ears ring from being so close to him.
We set him down gently. I can see the pain, the concentration on trying to keep tears away in his eyes, on his face.
I don't know which of the three little rats made this trap, but it was fairly well-constructed. We turned back when Riella said she couldn't stand to hear him screaming, and we'd followed. I wonder if her District partner being in the mix had anything to do with that decision. Iridesce questioned her pretty harshly about it, but Riella swore innocence. Of course, why wouldn't she?
"Can you sit?" they're getting right to business, which is better, I think. More efficient. Callum screams out, shifting and squirming uncomfortably.
When Iridesce sheds light on the wound, I flinch. Blood is pouring out, making a puddle on the ground. By now, his attempts at keeping still and quiet, pretending it doesn't hurt and he's alright, have totally faded. His face is tearstained, he screams and cries out. I feel like my lunch might return if I keep on looking.
Riella disinfects the wound, and I go to get some bandages out of a backpack. Iridesce isn't much of a help in the process, observing quietly as we hurry to help him. In the light, his pale face has lost all of its color, his forehead is dripping sweat, blond hair coated with sweat and clumped to his forehead. The dark circles that were always slightly there are now painfully present, he just looks exhausted. His light blue eyes are desperate.
"You're alright," I say, and he's quiet. Still breathing fine. Each breath brings about a small whimper.
Riella hands him some water, and he drinks. We help him sit against an old metal pipe-like structure, not the spicket from earlier as I doubt this one functions.
"Feeling better?" He swallows a gulp of water and nods a bit, so Maggie and I step back, finding our backpacks to regroup.
Suddenly, Callum screams. When we turn around, Iridesce has a spear clean through his chest. Callum slumps over, dead for real this time. A cannon cracks in the distance, and Riella and I are left in shock.
Iridesce doesn't look guilty. Riella and I glance at each other. My heart beats harder as I realize this may be the end of our alliance, only 5 days in. I grab my foil-like sword, very slowly and deliberately.
"I'm not betraying anyone," Iridesce says, putting their spear back where it belongs in the holster on their back. "He was dead. He wasn't going to make it. He was just sucking up all our supplies by that point."
"W-We could've done something…" I can't force my eyes to leave the corpse. I feel a combination of shock, fear, and overall, just misery. He was 18. He was someone that laughed with us. How could Iridesce do this to him? Why did they give up on saving him?
"Maggie. There wasn't anything we could've done. He was going. I just sped up the process."
It's still unsettling. I still don't think it was justified. Especially because he wasn't begging for death like a coward. He was ready to keep on fighting, no matter the odds.
"He would've slowed us down in the long run. I don't want to fight you two. I will if you fight me, but I don't want to. Not yet."
I glance at Riella, and we make a silent agreement.
"We won't fight," I say. It wouldn't be smart of us.
"You just have to trust me. He was just going to be in more pain and die in the night. I did him a favor by finishing him early."
I still don't entirely believe that. It doesn't add up to me. How can you justify something like that? How can anyone write off the death of a teenager so nonchalantly? What are the Games doing to us as people? As a nation?
"Alright," Riella says. "It's good that it happened before the supplies were wasted." I can't tell if she means it or not, but Iridesce buys it.
The hovercraft comes to pick up Callum's body just as the anthem starts to play. Iridesce leads the way, and the rest of us follow them away from there. We stop in the darkness, setting our lanterns down.
"Now that we're down to three, we should only have one up on watch," Iridesce says. "I'll go first."
I hand them the night vision goggles before Riella and I lay down together. For a flash of a second I catch her eyes in mine, and we exchange a look that says "I don't trust them." Riella's eyes flicker over to where Iridesce is sitting awake, and we make a silent agreement to never be asleep at the same time. I close my eyes and try to get some sleep while Riella's awake pretending to be asleep.
It's hard when all I can hear are Callum's screams.
~.~.
A/N: So, to make up for my slight absence, here is a super intense chapter! Thank you so much to the submitters of Edgard and Callum, they were both so fun to write with and I hope you liked how I portrayed them!
So, I'm currently typing this from my college dorm! Hurrah! So I got here on Wednesday and my week's been jam-packed, but I finally got some free time so I decided to shoot for one more update before classes start tomorrow! So I'm so glad I was able to make it!
As always, still posting on the blog, though drawings are probably going to be more scarce. Every once in a while if I'm not updating for extended periods of time I'll make a blog post, you can also PM me if you ever want to get into contact with me. The afterlife AU will come when I'm feeling it. Maybe when I don't have a lot of time to sit down and write something proper.
So yeah, I think that's all I've got to say for now! Reviews are always appreciated, and more reviews means more motivation which probably means slightly faster updates as well, just saying.
Chapter Question: I know I said I was going to make you make one, but this time I actually have one so I'll save that for later. Here's the real CQ: Are you on Iridesce's side or Maggie's? Oo, it's becoming Civil War up in here!
Until next time, so long! Thanks for your support!
Edit: Whoops, forgot these:
Scores:
AbbyCorabby123: 10
A-Bookworm-Named-Steph: 41
Apollo's Slytherpuff Daughter: 113
bagelswift: 2
Beauty. Is. Strange: 61
Blonde4ever: 62
calebbeers21: 6
Coolgal02: 61
CrissKenobie-the-Numenorean: 110
CptAwesome: 10
Culturalchicken: 2
deathless. smile: 15
Dreamer: 671
dreams and desperation: 205
eldergrayskull: 4
elisa. anya: 5
Emrys Holmes: 98
epictomguy: 24
erica1024 (I'm assuming you're the same person who reviewed as a guest named Erica, but let me know if you're not!): 16
fat necrosis: 64
falyn. oliver: 43
GirlOnFire (assuming you were also the guest with no title): 20
GryffindorOnFire: 9
hopefuldreamer1991: 387
Ibbonray: 35
Jalen Kun: 17
Jess: 572
johnsonmiranda70: 6
Josephm611: 177
Kate: 638
Xx-Katerina-xX: 56
Kyoko Rose: 26
Lady Lysa Arryn: 127
Legend: 574
Littlefoot876: 2
LokiThisIsMadness: 114
magicharity: 163
Master Maedhros: 10
Medium-Indigo (Guest): 60
MicaaAmaya: 4
Music Rules The World: 4
Mystical Pine Forest: 30
nevergone4ever: 2
OncerTillTheEnd: 4
xxPeppermintxx109: 54
PrimroseEverdeenmyLittleDuck: 10
Programming: 7
xQueen-of-Applesx: 40
rising-balloons: 80
Red Roses1000: 5
ReignRain: 2
Rosemarie Benson: 12
Sagerose the Divergent: 10
santiago. poncini20: 116
Seahorse8: 32
seaotter99: 22
Shaunaicecream (Guest): 20
stop-pulling-on-mariazell: 30
superneet1214: 6
Skyflapple: 21
starrymidnight16: 4
ThisWorldWeHate: 17
TyeTheLurker (Guest): 50
the victor of panem: 61
We're All Okay: 71
W. R. Winters: 286
youngpatriot: 24
ALSO, prices are going up as we are officially halfway through the Games (and inflation)! Here are the new ones:
Prices:
Battery (for flashlight/lanterns): 15
Small Canteen (Empty): 22
Large Canteen (empty): 32
Blanket: 30
Compass: 30
Bandages: 35
Pillow: 35
Simple foods (bags of jerky, crackers, or dried fruit): 40
Socks/shoes/shirts/extra articles of clothing: 40
Basic First-Aid Kit: 50
Functioning Flashlight: 55
Small Canteen (with water): 55
Iodine (to disinfect water): 57
Matches: 73
Functioning Sleeping Bag: 80
Well-functioning Lantern: 90
Large Canteen (with water): 90
Night-vision goggles: 110
Tribute's Favorite Capitol Meal: 110
High-Quality Food (bread from a District, meat, broth/soup): 120
Knife: 130
Complex First-Aid Kit: 150
Medicine: 200
Tribute's weapon of choice: 250
Arena Map: 500
