Disclaimer: I do not own the lyrics or The Hunger Games

~The Games, Part V~

We booked our flight those years ago,
I said, "I love you," as I left you.
Regrets still haunt my hollow head,
But I promised you I will see you again, again.

~Black Veiled Brides, The Mortician's Daughter~

ѮѼѮ

District 10: Rowena Wilder

"Please, Bee?"

I sympathize with Beech sometimes; I really do.

Wendy is always bugging him for something. Do this or that. Play this game. I'm not too tired to keep watch, really! I sometimes wonder why she doesn't bother me. I mean, aren't I nice enough? I don't talk to her in the same tone as I talk to Beech, which isn't all that pleasant considering the circumstances. And I do my best to grin and appear content when she's watching, so there really shouldn't be an issue.

Not that I actually care or anything.

So what if Wendy hardly says anything to me? She let me in the alliance and that's good enough for me.

"No, Wen. You have to stay here with me." Beech is using that odd gentle-yet-stern tone of his, which I'm sure he thinks is the best way to deal with kids.

She shakes her head and folds her arms across her chest. "Why? I want to go with Rowena."

Well, that's a first.

Beech looks at me, a desperate expression on his face.

I roll my eyes. While I'm sort of touched that Wendy wants to hang around me, it's not going to happen. Not even if she tries to cry or throw a tantrum. If she leaves camp with me, I'll not only have to make sure she's close by 24/7, but I'll have to make sure she doesn't pick up anything poisonous along the way. It would suck if she gave Beech a handful of berries and he dropped dead two seconds later

Sure, it would make my job easier in the end, but I don't want her to get upset either.

I shake my head.

He turns back to Wendy. "I'm sorry kiddo, but Rowena has to go on her own."

"But why?"

I search through our pile of supplies and find my knife. For good measure, I grab a few more bandages, just in case I run into Angelina again.

"Because I need you to help me." Beech explains. "I can't watch for intruders all by myself, can I?"

For a second, it looks like she's going to protest, but then she closes her mouth and nods. "Okay, Bee. Sounds like fun!"

"I'll be back soon," I tell him.

He doesn't say anything to counter my statement. He never does. Beech Lignum isn't a leader, not by any standards. He's too kind and besides, if he ever dared to contradict me I'd kick his ass.

"Okay."

I begin my trek through the woods by exiting the area the same way I entered it—I think.

I remember seeing that sideways tree a few days ago, so I decide that it will be my landmark. As long as I know where it is I'll be okay. I take several turns once I'm able to figure out how to tell the trees apart. There's a lot of markings on the older ones, so I'm probably farther away from Beech and Wendy and general safety than I'd like to be.

Moving left, I look for a river or something. Anything that would be a source of food.

Eventually, I stumble upon a patch of berries. I pick a few, examining them to make sure they are edible.

Yes! We can eat these!

I take as much as my right hand can hold and I soon realize that I can't carry them all, I'll just end up losing them along the way. So I tear some fabric from the sleeve of my dress, using it to make a little bag I can hold onto.

"Why can't the Capitol give us prettier bandages?" a whiny voice asks.

I freeze.

That's Angelina!

My body enters immediate panic-mode. What am I going to do? What if she's on a killing-spree? I sling the bag over my shoulder and make sure my knife is ready. If she so much as looks at me the wrong way, I swear I'll kill her this time.

"Why do you ask such stupid questions?" somebody else responds—Scout, her district partner.

Their voices aren't getting any louder, so they must be staying in one place. Which means... a smile spreads across my face... I've found the Career's camp!

I crouch down, looking through gaps in the trees, hoping to find them.

Sure enough, there they are. All fiv—four of them? I think back, counting the number of cannons I've heard the past few days. There is the bloodbath cannons, where one tribute from nine, ten, and eleven died. Then later, the girl from District 12 got killed. I know that both tributes from District 4 are gone, and just recently, the girl from three died.

The Careers are down one ally.

I don't wait for her to say anything else. I don't need to; I've got all of the information I need.

I quietly slink away, putting my knife away.

Beech jumps ten feet in the air when he sees me walk back into camp. He hods something up... a spear? Where the hell did he get that?

"Oh Rowena," he says, relieved. "It's just you."

"Where did you find that?"

He looks at the weapon in his hand as if he's just noticing in for the first time. "I don't know. I was telling Wendy to go to sleep and I turn back around and there it is."

"That's convenient." I say, rolling my eyes. "Now put that down, you'll never guess what I just found out."

District 2: Adrian Perham

Killing more than one person: -20 karma points.

"Adrian!" Angelina whines, "you agree with me, don't you?"

"Sure." I say, biting my lip. How many karma points would Scout lose since he killed Cameron and lied to Angelina?

I scribble his name into the dirt, right underneath where I wrote "killing."

-81 karma points, I decide.

I'm the only one who has all of their karma points in tact. See, I devised a full-proof system. Everyone in the alliance started out with ten karma points regardless of their actions before the entered the arena—I'm giving everybody the benefit of doubt—and I subtract the number of points based on their actions.

Needless to say, Scout isn't the Karma Gods' favorite person.

"He isn't even listening to you—nobody cares."

… But his is right, I really don't want to here about how gross Angelina's bloody bandage is.

"Yes they do!"

"Really?" Scout says with a sneer. "What was Angelina bitching about, Adrian?"

"Oh... um... I don't know." I answer nervously. "Maybe Mandy knows."

Almandine sends a knife flying over my head. "Never call me that again!" She goes over and yanks the blade out of the tree it got stuck in.

"Got it!" I say.

Mandy: -30 karma points.

"See," the District 1 boy continues. "Nobody. Gives. A. Shit."

"Whatever." Angelina says, shoving her hand in Scout's face. "When did you say Fall would be back?"

She turns to me and I cover my chart with my hands. "Um... I hope soon?" It sounds like a question.

"You better be right about that!"

I don't know that I want to be, Angelina. I really don't.

District 8: Drizzle Plont

"So..." Brandon says, in yet another attempt to strike up a conversation. "Who will you be going back home to? You know, if you win."

Not Skylark... I think bitterly. And old woman who hates me, an almost empty Victor's Village, a brother with one leg, and parents who make-out constantly. Which isn't so bad, I guess, when it comes down to it. I mean, some kids don't have either one of their parents.

"An old lady named Mrs. Twill." I tell him.

"Is she your grandmother or something?"

The thought is almost enough to get me to laugh. Grandmas are supposed to be nice and Mrs. Twill is a bat out of hell. I can't picture her giving me candy or sneaking a piece of jerky for me from my father's butcher shop. She spends way too much time chasing Skylark and I off of her property.

"No way. And I'm glad, if she were my grandmother I'd be dead by now."

Brandon doesn't look too happy about this. "Why?"

"She thinks that we're witches." I say gleefully. That's almost as funny as the grandmother suggestion, and it's made even funnier by the fact that my prep team probably still believes I put a curse on them.

"What?" he says with disbelief, though he cracks a smile at this one. "Why?"

"She thinks we killed her cat, Mr. Needles. He went missing a year or two ago and Skylark told her we made cat soup for dinner."

"Wait... she really named her cat Mr. Needles?" Brandon asks.

"Yup." I grumble impatiently. "Just ask Skylark when he comes back." I crane my neck, trying to peer into the darkness of the woods. I hope that I'll be able to find him before he finds me. Then I'll be able to scare him—which he more than deserves—for running off on me like that.

"Um... Driz?"

"Don't call me that!" I snap, not even looking his way.

"Drizzle," he corrects. "I don't think he's coming back."

This gets my attention. "What makes you say that?"

Some part of me feels like I might have stepped over a line, that Brandon doesn't really like being treated like shit and he'll leave if I continue to talk to him like that. This theory pisses me off; the idiot started following me around—he even weaseled his way into my alliance—and he wants to leave me?

Bullshit.

"Well, in case you didn't notice, your brother took half of our stuff—he didn't even think twice about it." I can tell he's irritated, which pisses me off even more.

"No he didn't!" I say through clenched teeth.

"Uh, yes he did." Brandon glares at me.

"NO HE DIDN'T!"

I storm off before he can bad-mouth Skylark any further. I weave in between the trees, praying that I will lose the sound of his footsteps behind me. An unfamiliar stinging sensation attacks my eyes. I know that I won't be able to stop my tears, so I can only hope that no one else will see them. Not Brandon and not the rest of Panem.

I just want to be alone.

When I'm satisfied he's not following anymore, I fall to the ground and start sobbing.

It's like a floodgate opened from behind my eyes. All at once, a waterfall begins to spill down my face. I rub my eyelids, but the crying doesn't stop. If anything, it gets worse and worse and worse. I bet my eyes are puffy. Red. Gross.

Damn Brandon! Damn Skylark! I hate the both of them! They're good-for-nothing wastes of space. One of them ditched me and the other one won't shut the hell up!

"Are you okay?"

I jump at the sound of his voice. "Does it look like I'm okay?" I wipe my eyes, ridding myself of the last of my tears.

"No, not really."

"Then why did you ask?"

He sits down next to me. "I don't know. Isn't that what people say to someone who's upset?"

I don't answer, so we sit in silence for awhile. The only noises that can be heard are the sounds of crickets chirping somewhere far away. Out of sheer boredom, I start counting the number of chirps. It's something to distract me from my crying. One, two, three—

"You really care about him, don't you?"

There he goes with those stupid questions again! "He's my brother. It really isn't all that surprising, and anyway, I already told you that I don't want him to do anything stupid."

"Yeah... but you really care." he says, wiggling his eyebrows.

"What? Ick... what the hell are you talking about?" I demand, grimacing at the implication.

He shrugs. "You're just insanely over-protective of him. It's sort of weird."

"No I'm not!"

"Really?" he asks, not convinced in the least. "When was the last time you met one of his girlfriends?"

"Never." I say, smirking. "He doesn't date."

"Why? Does Skylark have an STD or something?"

I smack him. "No. He doesn't do that either."

"Wow. He must really be ugly compared to all of the other guys in your district then."

I fold my arms across my chest. He's being so difficult and it's so fucking irritating. "Plenty of girls like him, they're just not good enough for him—I told him so."

"And who is?" asks Brandon.

"Not her." I mutter.

"Don't you mean anyone that's not you?" he puts his arm around my shoulder, and even though part of me wants to, I don't pull away.

"Shut up." I say halfheartedly.

"You know I'm right..."

"No, I don't."

But I do—at least, it makes sense. Skylark doesn't need anyone besides his family. And he'd better learn that pretty quickly, or else there's going to be some serious issues.

"... And you're just sad that he left. That's okay, you know." he goes on, as if I'm sad instead mad. "I'll never leave and there won't any reason for me to come back."

I roll my eyes. "Stop being cheesy."

But it's nice to know I'll never truly be alone.

District 3: Clint Manti

Remember, he did this to you.

I want to open my mouth, ask questions, talk. I can't though, it feels like my lips have been sewn together.

Everything is painful. Even thinking. It makes my brain hurt and I get dizzy and I want to throw up. Only I can't. It's one huge cycle that I can't escape. Think, get sick, remember that I can't even vomit. Think, sick, not vomit; over and over again. I just want it to stop, but I know the chances of that are slim.

I don't really know where I am, but I do know that wherever it is, death is my only way out.

Ransom Sage got you into this mess. He's one of Them!

Wait! I know who they are! Stupid people. Careless morons.

Get rid of Them.

I will. I have to. As soon as I get out of this, I'll make sure that they are gone forever.

District 2: Mercy Tenebrae

My screams echo throughout the entire house.

"What's wrong with you?" Skylark demands, covering my mouth with his hands.

My hands are shaking, but I still manage to point to the source of my fear.

Two skeletons. Laying side by side in bed. Their bony fingers intertwined.

"Holy shit."

I'm too busy regretting my choice to explore the rest of the cabin to answer him. I wish I hadn't made fun of Skylark for wanting to look around. I wish I had pushed him in front of me and made him open the door. I shouldn't have screamed, either. It makes me look like a damsel in distress or something. And I most definitely don't want to be that.

He drops his hands, pushes me aside, and ventures into the bedroom.

"What the hell are you doing?" I hiss, following him before I realize where I'm going.

"Looking around." he says sarcastically. "You know, since you're too scared to do it." The last part is said in a poor imitation of my voice.

"I'm not scared," I protest. "They just startled me."

Stupid excuse.

"Sure you aren't." Skylark wanders over to the bed, where he inspects the corpses with a morbid fascination.

I watch him from where I stand a few feet inside the doorway, wondering how he could be okay with this when the mere sight of them makes me want to run and hide.

He looks at their faces as if he's actually making eye contact with them. But he's not, they don't have eyes—thank God. Unless the thin layer of cobwebs veiling their sockets count, but I don't think they do. Skylark then proceeds to pick up the skeleton's hands—the ones that are stuck together—and smiles. I shudder. He's doing it on purpose because he knows it creeps me out!

"Look Mercy! They're married, isn't that romantic?" he points to their fingers, which have two gold rings on them.

"Were," I say. "They were married, they're dead now." I try to say this with a calm voice, but my entire body is trembling by the time I finish my sentence.

"Til death do us part." he says, dissolving into laughter.

"It's not funny!"

Skylark doesn't answer. Instead, he breaks their hands apart, several of their fingers falling onto the comforter.

I put my hands on my hips. "And just what do you think you're doing?"

"Giving us somewhere to sleep."

I stare at him. Is he insane? Like I'd actually sleep in a bed where dead people have been lying for God knows how long.

"And if I don't want to sleep there?" I've recovered enough to speak in my normal voice.

He lifts the husband of off the bed and walks over to the closet, where a bunch of old-fashioned clothes hang. I wrinkle my nose at them. They're covered in more spiderwebs than the dead people!

"Suit yourself. You can sleep out there." he gestures toward the general direction of the living room. "Alone."

I cast a glance at the couch. An old, ugly, piece of crap made from horrible fabric. "No thanks."

"What about in there?" he goes on, a smug look on his face.

He's pointing to yet another door. I can't help but think about what could be inside that room. Monsters, demons, ghosts, the boogeyman... I cringe at all of the terrible images inside of my head. Sure, they're unlikely, but I wouldn't put it past the Gamemakers to turn these Games into something that nobody could imagine. Not even crazy lunatics or Capitol citizens.

"Why don't you?" I retort.

He takes the wife over to the where the husband sits and places her hand in his, shutting the closet door. "Nope. I'm the one who did all of the work."

"Fine." I relent, looking out the window. "I guess you're right."

It's funny, because I don't remember it being so dark outside when we go here and just seeing the sky a different color suddenly makes me feel tired. I walk over to the bed, flinch as I brush bone-dust of of the bedspread, and lie down.

Skylark looks at me incredulously.

"What?" I ask with a smirk. "Are you going to lie down or not?"

"Sure."

"What's wrong?"

He sighs. "I don't know, I guess I'm just worried about Drizzle. I figured she'd catch up with us eventually."

"She's probably just fucking—" I stop short when I see the pissed off expression on his face. "She's fine." I say in a gentler tone. "I haven't heard any cannons fire and I doubt Brandon would let anything happen to her anyway. You have to admit, he's amazingly loyal, even if he is an annoying little fuck."

"I guess..." he takes the empty spot next to me. "I just feel like she hates me for some reason."

"She doesn't. Trust me, you'd have to do a lot worse to make her hate you." I think of Gabe, who probably can't stand to see my face on his television screen.

You have to leave and not care about saying goodbye, I say to myself.

"I hope you're right."

"I am, just like always. Now go to sleep, I'll take first watch."

I think I hear him say, "Thanks Mercy," but I can't be sure, not when he's already asleep.

I turn on the lamp that sits on the table next to me, surprised that it works. I keep my eyes trained on the door, but turn my head quickly when I see something red flicker in the mirror. I see another flash of red and a shadow dancing in the light, but then it's gone.

But I still feel like we're being watched.

District 5: Autumn Coville

I exit the little house as quietly as possible.

I'm glad I finally found them, but I'm not at all happy that I have to go back to the Career camp.

Stupid Angelina! Who the hell does she think she is? Even if I hate Scout, I still prefer him to her and I wish that he would just kill her already. I can guarantee that everyone in the arena will be so much happier without that dumb bitch. The Capitol people included.

I spit at the thought.

Those idiots! I can't believe that I've actually found someone I hate more than them! Maybe if she stopped talking to me like I'm a baby, I'd tolerate her a little more.

I shake my head. No, not even then.

My dumb sleeve brushes against a branch, making a much louder noise than I intended.

Crap!

"Who's there?" a voice demands.

I roll my eyes when I step into the clearing and see that it's only Scout—who won't kill me because then he'd have to face Angelina's whining and nobody wanted that.

"Me."

"Well," he asks impatiently. "Did you find her?" I can tell that he's excited to find out if his little lie worked. He's like a kid in a candy store when it comes to manipulating people. Idiot.

"Yup. She's with that District 8 boy. They've found a house with a TV and bed and everything." I turn around. "You can tell Angelina that."

I start walking away, grumbling curse words under my breath, when he puts his hand on my shoulder. "I've got a much better idea, Autumn."

The Dead:

District 9: Kale Anson

District 10: Max Bane

District 11: Bengal

District 12: Clara Hellebore

District 4: Cameron Knight

District 4: Fawn Nolan

District 3: Sukara "Suka" Ravo

So, only one more chapter of no deaths before there's more fighting again. I'm not very good with foreshadowing, so what little of it I put in this chapter is probably glaringly obvious, but I hope you guys will be a little bit surprised when you read it.