Seconds by U2

Lightning flashes across the sky,
East to west, do or die.

Arena Day Ten

Verden Arell, 16, District Nine

My first instinct when I see the barrel of a gun appear in front of me is to duck.

Crouched on the ground, with my head thrown protectively to the side, hopefully hidden away from a clear shot through the tree branches, I wait for the telltale sound of gunfire. I count to five in my head, but the sound never comes. I peer through the branches and see that there is no one there.

For a second I am convinced that I am simply going insane. That moment of stillness, even as I contemplate my sanity, is enough to save my life for another second. I am able to hear the footsteps break through the tree line and send my body to the ground just in time to avoid being taken down.

The second I find the handle of the gun in my waistband I flip around to face my attacker, the barrel of the gun pointed directly at her. Then I notice her hands are also holding a gun, pointed straight at my chest. I am on the ground, clearly in the more vulnerable position of the two of us, and yet she doesn't shoot right away.

I pounce on that as soon as I recognize the uncertainty in her eyes.

I know that I could shoot her easily, before she even realized what had happened she could be dead on the ground. I am not a perfect shot but I don't think I would be able to miss from this close range. Her feet are only a very short distance from mine, and I reckon that there is barely seven feet between us. I could shoot her and it would be over in a second.

In the back of my mind, though, I know that I shouldn't waste the bullet. I opened the gun up a few nights ago and saw that there was only one of the little metal spheres left inside. If I use it on her then I won't have this easy out the next time I find myself in this sort of situation. I decide to jump on her uncertainty and find another way out.

"Aren't you going to shoot me?" I ask in an innocent voice, making sure to lock her gaze in mine.

She eyes me for a moment, her gaze flickering between my face and hands. If she thinks I'm trying to distract her so I can shoot her, she's dead wrong. Dead being the key word here, of course.

Finally she answers me in a hushed voice. "Aren't you going to shoot me?"

"Maybe," I throw back. "But probably not. I'm not a monster you know."

The sarcasm is evident in my voice, but I can see that my words hit her hard. I furrow my brow, not quite understanding what it is that I said that had an effect on her. I see weakness, though, and I know that I have to capitalize on it. If it goes to shit, well I could always shoot her.

I continue. "You're not going to hurt me are you? That doesn't look like something you could do. I'll bet you've just been hiding out since this whole thing started. Keeping the gun just because it looks pretty, am I right?"

"You know nothing about me," she says flatly, but her eyes give her away.

I smile. "You're right. Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Verden Arell."

She says nothing and I am beginning to think I might not get anywhere with her. Then it hits me, who she is. She doesn't look much different than she did in training, long dark hair and eyes like daggers. "Santana, right? District Two."

"You didn't think I'd remember you, hm?" I continue, seeing the slight fall of her face when I say her name. She was one of the few I had been looking at recruiting for my alliance, but it was clear from early in the training day that she was set on staying with the boy from her district, Connor, and that quiet boy from District Four. "You and Connor and the other boy were allies if I remember correctly. Where are they, did they run off?"

I see her flinch at the mention of Connor's name. A smile creeps across my face when I remember seeing his face in the sky a few nights ago. He's dead, the boy she was so eager to ally with is gone. That's the weakness.

"Oh that's right," I say, pouring mock sincerity into my voice. "He's dead. It's a shame you couldn't save him. He was such a nice guy."

"I killed him," she says firmly, the hand holding the gun remaining steadily pointed at me. The way she says it makes me want to take a step back. She killed her ally?

"Oh, so we're not all that different," I say, forcing a smile onto my face despite the sickness that washes over me when I think about my own ally. "I've killed six people and you're no better than I am. No one else seems to understand this game. No one but you and me, Santana."

"I'm nothing like you," she says, and I can see the anger clouding in her eyes. I have to be careful with what I say. I don't want to make her angry, that might make her lash out, I need to just get her mind off that gun. I need her to think too much so that when the time is right I can get up and unarm her before she can even think to pull the trigger.

"That's where you're wrong," I say, forcing the smile off of my face. Her stance remains strong, but the emotion is all but dripping from her face. In all honesty I don't think we are much alike at all. She feels the guilt for what she has done and I am numb to my own. That's where I am better than her, because I do not have a weakness like this that could take my mind out of the moment.

I do not have an opponent in Santana. She is nothing but an obstacle standing in my way. A soft, guilty obstacle that will be so easy to step over. As soon as that gun is out of her hands there will be nothing left to save her from me.

Santana Belmont, 16, District Two

"That's where you're wrong."

I swallow thickly, trying to force myself out of these dark thoughts. I am nothing like Verden. He is the monster not me. He's trying to toy with me, just like I'm sure he did with the other six people. I never did this. I never made them suffer. I'm nothing like him because I don't enjoy this. The result is the same but I'd like to think that it counts for something that I've never killed anyone with a smile on my face.

I want to shoot him right in his smug, little face. I keep my gun trained on him as if I were considering doing it, but only I know that I cannot take the chance. I never checked the gun after I grabbed it from Connor. I don't even know if it's loaded anymore. I can't risk shooting a blank, not when he has a gun pointed at me as well. I need another way out, I can't take this chance it's far too risky.

Then suddenly I see Verden on his feet and running straight at me. I am too slow to react, shooting the gun just a second after he tackles me and firing it into the sky. The air is knocked out of me as I hit the ground and he lands on top of me. I push up with all of my strength and to my surprise I am able to knock him off of me. His fist lands on the ground beside my head far too close for comfort.

I throw my hands over my head to protect myself and kick out wildly with my legs. I land one kick somewhere on his lower body before I feel a fist hit me in the stomach. I gasp and my body is stunned for a moment, allowing another punch to land itself on the right side of my jaw.

I roll myself over onto my stomach and push myself up off of the ground. Verden is too slow to react and I am able to find my way to my feet before he can pull me back down again. Pain radiates from every place that he managed to hit, but I take off in whatever direction I am facing. If only I can get far enough away I can lose him in the trees and find somewhere to hide.

Something knocks me to the side and I don't even have to look behind me to know that Verden has been easily able to catch up to me. I lose my footing with the impact and stumble for a few feet before I find myself back on the ground. I can see Verden's shadow over me and I try to crawl away, unwilling to waste the time to get back on my feet.

I am bracing myself for another hit, but instead I hear quick footsteps followed by a loud grunt from behind me. When I turn around I see not only Verden behind me, but also Venice.

Verden is on the ground at Venice's feet, shielding his face from Venice who kicks out at him wildly. Verden pushes one foot out and trips Venice, sending him down on top of him. The two trade a couple punches, fighting to trap the other one underneath them. I stand, frightened into inaction, and watch as Verden finally manages to straddle Venice.

I hear a sickening crack as Verden's fist connects with Venice's nose. That is enough to shock me back into reality and I rush forward, knocking Verden sideways off of Venice. He throws a punch towards my head but I this time I am able to see it coming, dodging it enough that it only clips my shoulder. I lash out with my own fist, but it barely has an effect on him.

I only notice that his hand is at his boot when I see the glimmer of a knife out of the corner of my eye. He slashes at me with it and I, on first instinct, reach out with my right hand to block it. The pain as the blade cuts deeply into the back of my hand is almost nonexistent with the adrenaline and I grab the top of the knife handle with both hands.

I realize quickly that I am losing the fight for the blade, but I hold on for as long as I can to allow myself time to think of another plan. My mind is racing, searching every crevice of my brain for some idea of what I'm supposed to do to get Venice and I away from Verden. The knife slips from my grip, cutting the inside of my hand which I am able to feel almost fully. I bite down hard on my tongue to keep from screaming.

The sound of gunfire barely registers in my ears as I try to scramble backwards to avoid the attack I am certain is coming. My eyes are locked on Verden as I try to anticipate what his next move is going to be. His eyes go blank for a second, but I don't think much of it until a moment later he falls forwards. His head lands face down just a foot from my legs, a bloody bullet hole in the middle of his brown hair.

I look above him, confusion probably evident in my expression, to see Venice standing just three feet away with his eyes closed and a gun in his hand. His arms tremble and when he opens his eyes they are wide with fear. I want to reach out and touch him, anything to show him that I understand.

"Venice," I choke out, the deep set relief threatening more tears.

He looks up at me suddenly as if only just realizing that I am here. Then his expression changes, fear turning to disgust but not at himself. He drops the gun onto the ground in front of him and begins to back away.

"Don't say anything," he says, and his voice tells me that he means it. I say nothing and watch helplessly as he runs out of the clearing, leaving me with a million more questions than I had had before.

Eileen Garreti, 17, District Eleven

As soon as the anthem begins to play my eyes snap open and turn up towards the sky. I don't know how many more of us there are left in here, but it can't be that many. I wish that I would have thought to keep some sort of tally, though I'm not sure how I would have done that without anywhere to write things down. Right now there is only one face I am looking for in the sky, and I have yet to see it.

I am torn with whether or not I want to see August's killer in the sky at all. I want so badly to be the one that is able to witness his last breath with my arrow burrowed deeply in his black heart. I want him to realize what he took not just from August but from me. He was my friend, and if we wouldn't have met by these circumstances I think there would have been a chance at more. I've forever been the girl to go for the bad boys, but August was like no one I have ever met before. Every bone in his body was kind, every word he spoke was genuine. That is hard to come by in District Eleven where everyone has been taken past breaking point and back again.

I still cannot imagine how someone like him could have ended up in this hell. When the Hunger Games were first announced it was rumoured throughout Eleven that only rebels would be chosen, but I can't picture August as a rebel. Not that I can picture him as a Capitol supporter either, but I imagine that he was one of those people that remained out of the fighting throughout the war. I never respected those people, but even imagining August as one of them I do not lose any respect for him.

He was one of a kind, a boy filled with kindness in a world with so much evil in it. I wanted to protect him and live in the perfect bubble that he seemed to create around the two of us. Just by the way he looked at me I knew that he couldn't know me for who I am, because he admired me in a way I would never deserve. I didn't realize how much I wanted someone to expect nothing but good out of me until I experienced it.

Now, I don't think I could ever happily go back to the way things are at home. My parents expect rebellious, back-talking Eileen and Hayden, well, he expects the sneaky, sarcastic Eileen. I don't want Hayden or my parents and their built expectations no matter how much I deserve them. I want August who looked at me like I could do no wrong. I want to prove his expectations right and no one else's.

But if I do that I'm going to die. It's that plain and simple.

My thoughts of August distract me from the sky show, and I barely catch a few seconds glance at the only portrait that shows up. Tears come to my eyes when I see him- the boy that took August away from me. My body trembles and I hiccup, unsure if the sudden emotion is relief that he's dead or sadness at August's memory.

Finally he's gone. That monster is dead and he deserved it. Even though I know that August wouldn't have wished it on him if he were still alive, I find myself hoping that the boy suffered. Even though I know it's not possible, I want so badly for the boy's death to have mimicked the pain that he caused when he stole August away.

As the anthem fades from the quiet night, the tears find me once again. I hate that it wasn't my hand that took his life away and avenged August, but I'm just so glad he is dead. A monster like that doesn't have any right to exist outside of nightmares, and finally he won't.

"Attention, tributes, attention."

The mechanical voice cuts through the night and makes me flinch, my hand going instinctively to my bow. It takes me a moment to get my heart rate back down once I realize that the voice is not attached to an enemy. I'm unable to put a name to the voice, but it has a very flat, robotic sound to it and every word sends shivers down my spine. I force myself to listen carefully to every word to go over what is said later. If the Capitol is choosing to speak to us now after such a long time then it must be something extremely important.

"Congratulations are in order for our remaining tributes," the voice continues. "After ten days of survival and courage, only three of you are still standing. Ensure that you get plenty of rest tonight, for tomorrow one of you will overcome the odds to become victorious. Goodnight and may the odds be ever in your favour."

Verden Arell, District Nine

Song: Seconds by U2.

A/N: Whoops this took longer than expected. I kind of got consecutively hit in the face by school and work which threw off updates a bit. It wasn't too late so I hope I'm forgiven?

First off I'd like to apologize to and thank Davi for creating Verden. I bet you never expected what he turned into when you made him, but I hope you enjoyed it anyway. He was a lot of fun to develop, but he jumped into the deep end a while ago. In terms of favouritism, well, he was pretty hated by nearly everyone. The fans called for his death and I decided to comply this time. May he rest in hell where is probably going to end up.

I really appreciate any and all reviews I get, and I'm very happy that people are still taking the time. I've had a few very loyal reviewers and I am very thankful for them. If you can review, even a line or two, you'd make me really happy.

Are you happy with the final three?

Who do you think will win?

Who do you want to win?

Well next chapter the games will come to an end in the finale. A big congratulations goes out to Eileen, Santana, Venice, and their submitters. I'll say that as of writing this chapter I still do not know who will be winning, so good luck to them all.

Also the deadline for All Eyes is in one week! If you haven't already then I'd love it if you would go over and check it out. I'll be starting writing for that story likely between the finale and epilogue of this story, so it'll be VERY soon and I am VERY excited for it.