It's Christmas Eve guys whoooooo!

Here is another update, ooooh it's getting close to the 74th Hunger Games now, I'm getting pretty excited to hear what you all think! Thank you ever so much to kisses-A for all the regular reviews, I love the feedback but I might torture you a little longer as Annie's insight is coming up very soon. ;)

Hope you enjoy, this is a bit of a career domination chapter!

55.

Char Nialsden, Female, District 1.

I wince at the pain they must be in, my hands have blistered too. I peer down at them as they smart and I can barely hold the thing in my hands, the games have only just begun and I've had an accident with the blasted thing. It's really too big for me, but it's the most powerful weapon I've ever see in the history of the games and I'm following my mentor's advice. Tributes around me scream in agony as their skin blisters and I'm crying, it's smudging the bit of sultry make-up my stylist has put on me. This wasn't supposed to be my angle, I was supposed to be the Beauty to my District Partner's 'Beast'. He isn't attractive at all, but I'm the one turning into the beast as I continue to literally blaze my way into the top three. It's as dangerous and uncontrollable as I am, it singes everything it touches and soon the whole arena will be gone. I can't stop that now, I don't even think I know how to turn it off, all I can do is aim it away from me. It's only when I see the giant gamemaker controlled tidal wave come rushing towards us all do I realise that even the Capitol can see I've gone too far now. The flamethrower is washed out of my hands, I never see it again and I'm sure they've removed it from the games completely. It hasn't made an appearance again since I used it.

56.

Marie Atlas, Female, District 3.

The terrain is scrub, I can't tell much more about it. I don't care about what I'm standing on, only what I have to get away from. I only light my fires in the daytime, but it's a night when they come. This year the trees are the deadliest of hiding places, it's where the snakes all live. Giant rubbery snakes, with eerie glowing eyes. It's the only thing that stands out in the night and they are burned into my retinas forever, I jump from my tree not caring about the fall I might endure in the process. Just get away from those snakes. I don't know if they are mutants or just starving for us. There is no water in the games at all, the lakes are full of the snakes too so no one is going near it, something the Capitol overlooked. But where there is a will there is a way. I've begun attacking the snakes instead of the tributes and soon I've been handed what I need, a glass beaker. I begin to attach the dead snakes to the beaker in an attempt to extract their venom but it doesn't work, they need to be alive so I try again. My sponsors were kind enough to send my a pair of gloves to aid in my work and while I'm sure it's not the professional way to do it, I have a beaker full of the stuff. I set to work dipping everything I can find into the venom and marking everything along the way. Later I find it's also a powerful cure for the snake bites, but I'll keep that information to myself.

57.

Althea Corhting, Female, District 4.

I glare at the little platter of sweets lining the tables at the party for me in the Capitol. It's an insult to me. A Capitolite, all sugar sweet smiles comes over waving a candy cane in front of my face and he presses it into my palm with a secretive smile. I drop it in the bin the moment I can as if it has stung me. I spent half of my second night without food and water scraping my nearly destroyed tongue against the bark of a Candy Cane Tree. The whole arena was a Candy Land. It was the sweetest dream of miracles, a chocolate river of mud, candy floss pink sky, gummy bear bushes, fluffy animals and Candy Cane trees which were just bark but everything looked so real and tangible you tried to eat everything. They gave us no food and slowly the tributes went insane. It is the first games anyone has committed suicide in the arena. And it wasn't just one, about four of them must have done it by the fourth day. My salvation came in the form of a glorious rabbit who had got in somehow, I must have checked it out for eleven hours before I deemed it as just a rabbit and it gave me some form of encouragement. I hadn't eaten anything but that rabbit, but it was more than any other tribute. When I finally held my trident over that final girl from 2 she begged for me to end her suffering, so I did.

58.

Cecelia Luminerre, Female, District 8.

I grin, it was my idea after all and once their dead there is a collective nod to me before we all disband. I laugh as I watch the re run of it back and see the shocked faces of all their mentors. Oh they tried, but they had never expected us to all unite against them. Districts 1, 2, 3 and 4. They had all become too comfortable with gaining victors for our liking, so this time we made sure they weren't going to win. We allied up and got rid of the whole career pack. It was like a battle in a battle, a game within a game. We lost some and they lost all. The odds were finally against them, two each, eight against sixteen of us. My smirk widens as all the mentors seem to be at a loss at what to do, it's rare they are all in the same camera shot but since they were already a team it made sense. Mentors work together in alliances. It was only temporary, only till the careers were destroyed but it changed the games instantly. I wouldn't have won if I hadn't suggested the idea to Woof in the first place. I still giggle a little on the inside when I recall their eyes widening in horrified surprise and their jaws hanging open as for once they can do nothing to help their tributes.

59.

Carnal Sedastorm, Male, District 2.

I stand bare chested as the Chariot rides around and roses are thrown at me, I still smell of the damned things from the Capitol's odd showers, why there has to be so buttons is beyond me. I'm not waving though, I'm calculating. Let District 1 be the flimsy little show-offs I'm here as a favour for my brother and that's all. His name got called out and now I'm here in his place. I'm in no mood to wave and flash flirty little winks when the Capitol has claimed me as their own. They were determined to have one of us. I've been sneaking off lately, shirking my responsibilities and not attending my training sessions at the Academy, I suppose I was arrogant enough to think I wouldn't need training anymore. I stare fixated ahead of me and I catch the rose pinned onto President Snow's suit jacket. It's pure white which to me has always been the oddest thing about the President of Panem, why a white rose when everyone knows how corrupt he is? Our chariot pulls into the spot where we are to listen to his speech, my District Partner has been glaring and nudging me the whole time, for I'm making her look bad. I might kill her off first. I don't hear a word of Snow's monologue, it's the same every year; instead I pick up one of the red roses from inside my chariot and the President breaks off the moment he realises he doesn't have my undivided attention anymore. I chuck the rose as hard as I can so it hands on his podium and he picks it up, raising one eyebrow. "Thats for everything you do for us." I tell him with a smirk and the Capitol eat it up at once. They think it's very sweet of me but I can tell he understands my true meaning, but I can see the respect in his eyes. My chariot rolls away and I know the games have already begun to be played.

60.

Brik Sedastorm, Male, District 2.

I have to win, losing is not an option. Not after what my brother did for me last year. He is a hero, he volunteered to take my place, he wins the games and his reward if for me to be chosen the next year. And he can't volunteer for me this time, even with all the money in the world. So I train as hard as I can, I flop on my bed exhausted every night. I have a mantra of my own, train, eat, sleep. Gain as much muscle mass as I can and become as heavy as I can. I'm only fifteen and he was eighteen at the top of his game. Stepping off that Capitol train and seeing him again, the embrace we shared was the best moment of my life so far. We'd both grown up in the games but it didn't matter at that moment. We were a family again, we'd managed what we had thought was impossible but right now my family and I are untouchable. They can't do anything to us because we are victors and we are invincible.

Ah hah I just loved the idea of a battle within the games, something almost monumental and why wouldn't you get sick of the careers always winning. Time for a guaranteed underdog haha and I thought Cecelia seemed strong despite her cruel fate in the 75th Games. Some interesting arenas in here too, I guess the candyland torture is a shout out to my Charlie and the Chocolate Factory story 'As Sweet as Surprises' :-)

Keep on reading and reviewing, following and favouriting!

xoxo