-Eric: Day 4 of the Hunger Games-

"Andrew. Andrew!" I'm not gunna lose someone else. "Andrew!" After those few hours of searching, the flutter of leaves in the breeze was the only thing that answered my call.

David trailed behind me, glancing to our surroundings every few seconds. Like usual, he hasn't said a word.

I shot him a glare over my shoulder. "Come on, David. The least you could do is try to help. We're not going to find Andrew by staying silent."

He shook his head and continued to scan the tree line.

"Or don't answer me. That's cool too." I didn't really expect him to answer anyways.

"Eric, you already know this. We heard a cannon blast shortly after he left. The Capitol got him. Sorry. All you're doing is alerting anything within 200 yards of us of our position. You should stop."

I think that's the longest I ever heard him talk. In my surprise, I could barely stammer out my justification. "Um, uh... well, we don't know he's gone. That could have been anyone's cannon. We are going to keep searching until we know for sure. We have to."

I felt a sense of urgency. We needed every moment to continue looking for him. But, it wasn't that I thought that Andrew was out there somewhere, fighting for his life, barely holding on, and waiting for us to come at any second. I was racing against the clock. I had to continue until sunset, when the death list would be presented. Until then, I could still search in denial, in the hope that everything would fix itself...that Andrew was still alive.

I called out: "Andrew!"

"Andrew. Where did you go?" I turned around, checking to make sure I wasn't hearing voices. Apparently not, because behind me, David was cupping his hands to his mouth, projecting his small voice to reach the farthest crevices of the forest. Aware of the stare that I was giving him, he glanced down at the ground and grinned.

I gave him a nod. I'm sure he was just humoring me, but it felt pretty good, nonetheless.

I too cupped my hand, ready to call out to the world. But, before I could begin, something interrupted me. Who would have thought that David's one call would be the one to get a response?

"Hahahahahahaha!"

That laugh sounded too familiar.

The joyous laughter echoed around the entire forest, coming from all sides and leaving from all sides. My eyes spun in their sockets, trying to find the source. The laughter crawled to a quiet stop, both of us ignorant of its direction.

My head still darting around, I whispered to David. "I've heard that voice before, on the night Remington died. David, was that...?"

"Her name is Mia, and we need to go." I glanced towards him. His face was stone, cold and expressionless (like always), but in his eyes, could I sense fear?

He pushed me forward. "Now."

My legs understood half a second before my head did, and though I couldn't really comprehend what I was doing, I sprinted forward, with David close behind.

"Hahahahahahaha!"

This one was louder and closer. I could feel the force press in all around me. Regardless, I kept running, the sheath of my sword slapping against my leg with every bound.

Taller and with longer legs, I had some advantage over David, and the distance between us slowly stretched. I could tell that the sounds of his footsteps, despite being barely audible, were growing further and further away. In front of us, the foliage spread out into a clearing, so with no fear of running head first into a tree, I looked back at David.

Twenty feet away from me, David had his head cocked, staring into the distance behind me. After a moment of squinting, his eyes widened.

"Eric, get down."

With no hesitation, I trusted him and dove into the ground. As I descended into the earth, two spinning knives passed where my head used to be.

"Good job, Eric." A few yards from me, the chipper voice spoke. "But, I have more important things to deal with than you." She laughed at me.

I pulled myself from the dirt, and unsheathed my sword. Dragging myself to my feet, I met eyes with the girl. She smiled, and for some reason (she's completely insane, I guess?), she twirled around in a circle, occasionally gesturing with her finger. One gesture landed on a tree directly to my left. I glanced at it, but I couldn't see anything.

After her twirl, she reset her gaze upon me. In her hand, she flipped a knife back and forth.

The pounding of dirt told me that David finally caught up with us, and he slid to a halt by my side. He pulled out his bludgeon. I gripped my sword, ready to leap out of the way of a knife, but nothing came.

I stared at Mia. "Well, aren't you going to attack us?"

She continued to spin her blade around. "Are you kidding me? Talking is free action. If you can't finish it instantly, there's no need to rush things." She smiled.

She can outrun both of us, she's insane, and I heard her laugh that night. Suddenly, it dawned on me. I knew who killed Remington. It was so simple.

I kept my guard up, but I humored her craziness. "Fine, we'll talk. I have a question for you. You killed Remington, didn't you?"

"Well, that's more of a statement with a question at the end. It's like this sentence, isn't it?" She snickered at her joke.

"Fine. It's a statement. You killed him."

For a moment, I watched her. Her smile faded away, and she stared at the ground. She glanced to the tree to my left, shook her head, and the smile regained its former glory.

"Yup, that was me. Doesn't it make this fight so much more interesting?" I bit my inner lip, drawing blood. She paused, like she needed to time to consider something. "I don't see your other friend. Andrew, was it?"

I glared at her. "Did you kill him too, you bi-"

"Yup, that was me too."

Why was I even hesitating to kill her at this point?

Hoping to catch her by surprise, I lunged forward. The gap was large enough, however, that I had a few seconds of awkward running before I was close enough to strike. In that time, she hopped in another direction, but she kept her gaze on David. She completely ignored me.

Instead of countering my blow, she flung a pair of knives at David, who barrel-rolled out on the way. Landing on his feet, he took out his bludgeon and raced towards her. I too dashed to her, sword ready for her blood.

David got there first. In short quick jabs, he forced Mia to retreat. Every time Mia tried to strike, the slice was parried and countered. The crazy smile drained from her face and turned into a grimace.

Once I got there, I slashed a few times in her general direction. She bounced away, and David leapt to strike. Although she barely dodged it, the bludgeon scrapped across her arm, before slamming into a tree. She ran a few steps away and flung three more knives at David.

Though none of them hit, the attack pushed David far enough away from her, onto the slope of a hill. Now, it was just her and me.

She twirled again and stared into a spot directly above me. In an overly dramatic fashion, she put her hand to her mouth and cried: "If only I didn't have to fight you both at once."

Who the hell talks so much in the heat of battle?

I slashed at her, and barely concerning herself with it, she bent sideways. Seeing that Mia was finished with her attack, David ran for us. Ready to attack again, I raised my sword above my head. We can finish this. We can avenge them both.

Unfortunately, Mia had dragged the world itself into her pit of crazy. Above us, huge branches fell from the sky and rolled towards David. He attempted to jump away or get around them, but I could only watch as he was sent tumbling down the slope.

"David!" Was he dead? I hadn't heard a cannon, but...

"Hahahahahahaha."

I glanced to the slope where David had disappeared. I promised to come back to him after I dealt with Mia.

"Come and get me, Eric!"

In my surprise, Mia slipped from my grasped and fled. I ran after her. She killed two of us and hurt another. I can't just let her get away with this.

Veins full of adrenaline, any advantage her head start gave her was nullified by my drive to kill this crazy girl.

In no time, Mia appeared in my vision. Noticing my intrusion, she stopped running and, once again, twirled around. She made direct eye contact with me. A knife rose in her hand, and I braced myself for the inevitable.

When I reopened my eyes, the knife was lodged, not in my head, but in a tree. Small sparks came from the point of the knife. And a mechanical whirring slowed to a stop.

In a voice more sincere than I thought possible from such a monster, she spoke to me. "Stop. There are no more cameras nearby."

I gripped my sword. "I'm not falling for your tricks."

"I'm not crazy. You have to believe me. You need to know the truth." Her eyes dotted back and forth. "There's not much time. They're going to send a mobile camera any minute now."

I lunged at her stomach. As she dodged, she sighed. In a few motions, she elbowed me in the arm, I let go of the blade, and she picked it up, pointing at my chest.

"Are you listening to me now?"

"Um...yeah."

She dropped the sword on the ground. "Look. I was there the night all of that went down, when you're friend," she glanced at me, "when Remington died. She pulled out a pair of dark glasses from a red pouch at her waist. "Through these, I saw the whole thing, and unfortunately, I saw who killed Remington."

Should I believe her? Well, I didn't really have a choice at this point. "Who was it?"

She turned away from me. "You."

My brain swam through molasses, trying its hardest to comprehend what she said. "But, that's impossible...there...there was another person..."

"Yeah, Jon. Remington shrugged Jon off right before. Then, he pushed Jon into David, who actually landed a hit. You didn't stab Jon..."

I stared at my hands. Half of me cried out that I shouldn't believe her; that this was all lies. But the other half knew I couldn't live in denial any more: I had known this all along. "I killed Remington, then?"

"I'm sorry."

"And Andrew?"

"He's dead too, most likely, if you guys lost him." She kicked the dirt. "The mobile camera will be here any second. I know this selfish, but I need to put on a good show. I'll have to kill you." She handed me my sword.

My hands shook as I limply took the blade from her. She took a few steps and turned to face me. For a few awkward seconds, I sat staring at the blade.

I heard a skitter, and seconds later, a small squirrel came into view.

"So, Eric, do you want revenge?" Evidently, the scene had started. "As if you can take me. Once I'm done with you, I'm going to finish off David as well." I'm sure she was smiling, but I merely continued to stare at the blade I had killed my friend with.

"Come at me then." She threw out her arms.

I didn't make a move.

"Fine. Get ready!" My body seemed to move on its own, dodging her outstretched knife. It then backed up and limply swung the sword at her. She leapt backwards, and our eyes made contact.

Although her body feigned a bubbly stance, her eyes betrayed her character. They pleaded for me to play along, to try and kill her, to put on a good show.

I shook my head in denial.

"I'm not playing your game, Mia." I turned towards the camera. "Everybody, she-"

She elbowed me in the arm. I dropped my blade. She picked it up and stabbed me through the chest.

I tried to talk and finish my sentence, but my breath left me, not from my mouth, but from the newly formed hole in my chest.

I collapsed to the ground; warm blood squished beneath me. I tried to hold my eyes open, grasping onto consciousness like sand in my fingers. Mia blocked out the glare of the sunset above me. She shook her head and mouthed something I couldn't make out. A small tear dropped on my face. She turned around, calmly strolling back towards David's location.

Good luck.