A/N: The reason I updated so quickly is because I know that if I don't start the Games soon, I won't have much of an inspiration to write. So I started the Games!
This chapter goes out to aprilgirl01! Thank you SO much for Wing, she makes the Games SO much more interesting! You'll see why...
Just so everyone knows: This chapter contains lots of detailed death, so if you don't like that kinda stuff (I don't know why you're reading this..) I would suggest skipping the Bloodbath or something. Also, there's some cursing.
Chapter Nine:
Are you gonna hurt me now?
Or are you gonna hurt me later?
Are you gonna go to town?
Maybe you should play it safer
Vesta's and Fletcher's interviews went better than any of mine ever have. Then again, that's saying absolutely nothing. But honestly, people actually liked Fletcher. Caesar, who is apparently retiring after this year of Hunger Games, commented on his liveliness and cheerfulness, and by the things that random people have telling me, everyone agrees. In all conscience, I'll agree with them; Fletcher is quite lively and cheerful. Which isn't necessarily a good thing all of the time.
Vesta, however, didn't receive quite as many fans, as she was quite blunt and didn't do anything to humor Caesar or the Capitol people. She did though come across as a no-nonsense person who was confident in her skills. Watching her interview brought back memories of watching Cato's, which, while was a somber thought, seemed to inspire me to keep my tributes alive.
But reminiscing is over now. The tributes have risen onto their platforms around the Cornucopia. Parker, Emberlynn, Skittora, Larkin, and I have gathered in District Two's quarters in front of the giant television to watch the initial Bloodbath and first day of the Games. The tributes scan the horizon, but all they can see is a large field of chartreuse grass and the outline of a forest to their north. The screen projects an image of the arena from a bird's eye view.
The Cornucopia in directly in the center of a circular island with patches of forest smattered around the edges. Four rocky paths extend from four points around the island, each leading to another, smaller, island. The one on the top left is a volcanic island, the volcano sitting ominously and waiting for someone to set it off by walking near it. The island on the top right is a dense jungle, and according to words flying all over the screen, is swarming with vicious mutts. On the bottom left is a swampland with little to no drinking water and no shelter from nature. The last island, on the bottom right side, is a cliffy area that looks as if trying to tread around in it would lead to you falling through cracks in the earth.
The screen flashes back to the tributes, which still have forty-five seconds left to plan their attacks. The silence usually encasing the tributes heading to their deaths is abruptly interrupted by the mentally unstable girl from Ten, Lilith Zink.
"NO! I CAN'T DO THIS!" she screams at no one in particular, but everyone there is listening. "I'll die… I'll die…" Her hyperventilating and worrying disappears in a second. She clearly has something on her mind. And within the instant that the beautiful brunette girl still has a chance at life, she cuts it short. Lilith jumps off of her platform and goes out with a bang, literally and figuratively. As soon as she hits the ground and explodes in a cloud of blood, the first gong of the Games sounds and little bits and pieces of the girl fall through the air, and some land on the two Careers surrounding her platform; Crystal and Oceanus. Oceanus remains emotionless with his eyes fixed on the Cornucopia, but Crystal tries to flick off pieces of Lilith's skin off of her own. Despite this, she only appears to be annoyed with it, but on the other side of the Cornucopia, tributes turn green with disgust.
There's still thirty seconds left. I decide to look at the order of the tributes at the Cornucopia. The north most pedestal is occupied by Kiyoko Mori from Three. To her right is Calem Hav from Twelve, then Charlie Milfay from Five. On from there are Annaliese Mayer from Eight, Kaitriona Menosei from Twelve, Jasmine Asantha from Eleven, Garnet Shynes from One, Carr Gibson from Six, Alisondro Tomas from Ten, Jonah Willys, the other tribute from Nine, Fletcher, Rosaline Bishop from Five, Grayson Grane from Eleven, Mahogany Woods from Seven, Dominique Carase from Nine, Oceanus Blue from Four, the empty place where Lilith was, Crystal Shimmers from One, Thomas Weiss from Eight, Vesta, Andrew Darwin from Three, Wing Spherings from Six, Lumber Mason from Seven, and lastly, Coral Clear from Four.
Nineteen seconds.
The wait in unbearable, with no suicides to keep me occupied, but eventually a second gong goes off and the tributes go running. Coral, Calem, Charlie, Annaliese, Rosaline, and Thomas turn tail and go off to avoid the bloodshed. Jasmine attempts to do this as well, but is tripped by Garnet, who was on the pedestal beside her. The skinny girl falls to the ground with a thump. Because of her abnormally small size, Garnet is able to pick her up by the neck with his hands completely clasped around it. Jasmine's silky black hair falls behind her and tears appear in her chocolate brown eyes. She chokes and sputters as his hands grasp tighter around her throat, but her breath doesn't come for much longer. BANG! Jasmine falls limp in Garnet's hands and he runs back towards to Cornucopia.
While Fletcher runs to the Cornucopia, he literally runs into Jonah Willys. While Fletcher only stumbles from the hit, Jonah falls to the ground upon impact. Fletcher quickly picks up a small, generic, knife lying on the ground near him. Fletcher stabs the knife into Jonah's large stomach, and Jonah's shirt is soaked with thick crimson liquid. Fletcher impales in knife into Jonah's heart and another cannon sounds; the third of the Games.
On the north side, both Kiyoko and Lumber take backpacks that were near their starting positions and run in opposite directions away from the Bloodbath.
On the other side of the Cornucopia, Vesta had obtained a sickle. She slams it into Andrew, who was trying to pass her on his way to the Cornucopia. Blood trickles from multiple small wounds in his chest. Vesta looms over his plump body, which is lying in the grass, and rakes her sickle against his throat. Only a thin line of red appears at first, but more starts gushing out of the wound within seconds. BANG!
Nearby, Oceanus and Dominique have been locked in hand-to-hand combat since they left their platforms. Even though the girl is only thirteen, she actually has a shot at beating Oceanus, mind you, the chances are extremely slim, but considering they're still fighting, she must be reasonably good. But by the looks of it, Oceanus was taking it easy on her, possibly not wanting to kill a girl younger than him, though she is only two years younger. She is starting to get tired, I can tell by the way her hits aren't quite as accurate as they should be. Oceanus takes this chance to finish her off. He kicks her hard in the stomach, and she groans and topples over. He places his foot overtop of her neck and pushes it down until a sickening crunch emerges from her neck and a cannon goes off.
He got that from me! It was how I killed Rayn last year…
Another cannon goes off and the screen focuses on Grayson, who has his hands around the point spear erupting from his stomach, originally protruding through his back. The tall boy falls to the ground, and his killer, Mahogany, runs back to fetch her spear, then runs away from the Bloodbath.
Fletcher, eager to kill off more tributes, sprints over to where Carr is trying to obtain something from the Cornucopia. Fletcher already acquired his weapon of choice, a scythe. Fletcher runs the blade over that back of Carr's legs, and he stumbles to the ground, managing to kneel on his knees. Blood drips down his legs like a small, trickling, stream, leaving dark red stains on his pants. Fletcher raises the scythe, and then buries it deep into Carr's stomach, ripping it to his left side. Carr screeches in pain as Fletchers tears the scythe out of his lean stomach. He clutches the wound, but it's no use. His hands don't stop the blood from surging forth from the wound and covering his hands. He faints and his body sprawls over the ground, his head bashing into the side of the silver Cornucopia. BANG!
Alisondro, close to leaving the Cornucopia with a pack full of various supplies, is cut short by Crystal skewering her short sword into his back. His eyes dilate as she yanks it back out, blood flying in a stream with it. Alisondro shouts curses at Crystal as he falls to the ground, dying. Crystal immediately turns around when she hears him insulting her and kicks his brown-haired head into the dirt with her special boots designed for the arena, then slices more cuts into his back. He lies in the ground, unable to stand up, slowly dying from his wounds.
The mysterious girl from Twelve, who apparently volunteered due to her current family situation, as all of her family was killed by President Snow, is slammed into the side the Cornucopia by the new Career tribute, Wing. Kaitriona coughs in Wing's face, fear in her eyes, and Wing punches her in the face and shoves her against the Cornucopia again. A bruise starts to accumulate on Kaitriona's cheek and blood can be seen beneath her skin. Blood drips from the corner of her mouth, running down her tan skin and falling off of her face. Wing beats on her many more times, now with all of the other Careers watching. One last time, Wing grabs Kaitriona's thin shoulders and slams her against the shining metal of the Cornucopia. This time, Kaitriona falls limp in her hands. BANG! The Bloodbath is over.
Wing turns to the Careers from One, Two, and Four, sweat gathering at her brow.
"Nice job," commends the tall girl Oceanus without much effort. Wing nods as an answer.
"Well, c'mon Big Ears, we gotta go hunting. There's no time for you to show off anymore," Vesta grunts, annoyed. She glares at Wing.
Wing walks slowly towards Vesta. "What did you call me, you spoiled bitch?"
"Look, I think we both know that the person with the actual weapon would win this fight." Vesta flicks her sickle around in her hands and raises her eyebrows. Wing glowers back, but doesn't respond. Clearly, Vesta was right; Wing would be dead in an instant if she tried to fight Vesta. The other four Careers; Crystal, Garnet, Fletcher, and Oceanus, stand awkwardly around the two, none knowing what exactly to do.
"C'mon, this isn't gonna do anything," breaks in Oceanus. Both Vesta and Wing turn their scowls to him, but he stands his ground. "We gotta get going if we wanna get anything more done before the day's done." Fletcher, Crystal, and Garnet nod in agreement.
"Fine," states Wing, "as long as she doesn't get in the way of anything."
Vesta scoffs. "Whatever the hell you want."
"Well, I really wanna see blood spilling from your throat, so can we just make that happen now rather than later, your majesty?" Wing retorts.
Vesta narrows her eyes. "There's nothing stopping me from killin' your sorry ass, you know."
Wing crosses her arms. "Then let's see you do it."
Vesta almost takes the challenge, but Oceanus puts his hand on her shoulder, and she stops in her tracks.
"I think you'll be perfectly fine doing things my way for the next week," Wing jeers.
Vesta laughs. "If you even make it that far."
That ends the argument, and the six of them head off to hunt down more tributes.
I finally fixate my eyes away from the screen. Emberlynn, Skittora, and Larkin leave, probably to watch some more in the communal area with the giant screen. That's where a lot of Capitol people like to watch the Games and make bets about the tributes. I'd have to guess that many are already betting on Vesta and Wing fighting to the death, and also who would win.
Parker looks flustered.
"Oh god…"
"At least we have Fletcher," I add.
"That's not really that much better," Parker retorts. I shrug.
"At least it'll be interesting."
"Yeah, I guess so. Might be frustrating, even though we're not actually there," Parker acknowledges. "Hey, did Fletcher ever write anything in that stupid notebook about Wing and Vesta?"
"I don't know… I'll look." I look around the room for Fletcher's red notebook, which is on the stand next to the couch. I open it up to the first page, which, ironically, is a table to contents. Honestly. But anyway, he has something listed as 'Alliances/Relationships', which are pages twelve through fourteen. First of all, I don't understand how he could've possibly filled up fourteen pages to begin with; secondly, there were a few more sections after the alliances. Also, he went through the effort of numbering all of the pages himself, which is kind of sad. I flip to page twelve, which starts out with writing about the Careers. He has a list of all of the members, plus some side notes, which takes up a bit over one page. The next starts another alliance. In the side notes, I notice something containing both Vesta's and Wing's names.
"Shouldn't be left alone together. Hate each other," plainly states Fletcher's writing. I read it to Parker.
"Does it say why?" he asks.
"No," I answer. "He does have notes about what happened each day of training, though." I flip to those pages. When he wrote about the first day, he said something about Vesta and Wing facing off at the gauntlets. "Wing challenged Vesta to see who could complete the gauntlets faster. Vesta won, and Wing instantly had a grudge against her." I pause. "That's so stupid! She lost a freaking challenge and now she's out for blood!"
Parker looks puzzled. "I guess she's just not good at losing. She might not feel satisfied until she proves that she's better than Vesta or something." He shrugs. "I know a lot of people at the Career Training Center like that. Not that bad, but still."
"Yeah, me too. I don't think any of them would kill for revenge though."
After a second, Parker bursts out laughing.
"What?"
"Just think about what you just said," he says through muffled laughter.
"I don't think any of them would kill for— Shut up. That's different."
"Yeah, whatever." He stops smiling. "Hey, um—" He stops himself.
"What?" I ask, creasing my brow.
He shakes his head. "Nothing, it's not important."
"It is now."
"Just forget it, okay? It's nothing."
"Whatever. You are telling me at some point though."
He sighs. "Fine. But not now."
"Why not?"
"Just because."
"Okay, whatever."
So you think you're in charge?
Do you?
Actin' like a big shot
'Flipside' by Lana Del Rey
Tributes:
District One:
Garnet Shynes
Crystal Shimmers
District Two:
Fletcher Byrde
Vesta Reddira
District Three:
Andrew Darwin (Killed by Vesta) 21st Place
Kiyoko Mori
District Four:
Oceanus Blue
Coral Clear
District Five:
Charlie Milfay
Rosaline Bishop
District Six:
Carr Gibson (Killed by Fletcher) 18th Place
Wing Spherings
District Seven:
Lumber Mason
Mahogany Woods
District Eight:
Thomas Weiss
Annaliese Mayer
District Nine:
Jonah Willys (Killed by Fletcher) 22nd Place
Dominique Carase (Killed by Oceanus) 20th Place
District Ten:
Alisondro Tomas (Killed by Crystal) 17th Place
Lilith Zink (Killed self) 24th Place
District Eleven:
Grayson Grane (Killed by Mahogany) 19th Place
Jasmine Asantha (Killed by Garnet) 23rd Place
District Twelve:
Calem Hav
Kaitriona Menosei (Killed by Wing) 16th Place
What do you think will happen with Vesta and Wing?!
Any surprising deaths?
Are you happy with what happened to your tribute (if you have one)?
Who do you think will die later in Day One?
Thoughts on the chapter in general?