Of the Insane

by The Whispering Panda

*CLOSED* 101 years after Katniss and Peeta's Games, Cato won, and the Games have continued as planned. This year is a Quarter Quell, and it's full of surprises. So enjoy the family you have now, because it's most likely the winner will lose their mind.

23. Day Three

I made a mistake, there are twelve Careers left, not ten. Sorry everybody! And zorack1995, I promise this will be the last chapter with many POVs. I already had this one written before your suggestion. Okay, on with Day Three!

Day Three

Circe Saron's POV- D1

Luckily, I'm still awake when Jesse, Jess, Axel, Mace, Alacia, and Shimmer return after their nightly hunt. There were no cannons, so I assume they found no one.

"This arena's too big!" Shimmer tells Jesse.

"No, you just suck at tracking!" he argues back.

The others who are still awake, Alicia, Austre, Blake, and Skye all perk up when they hear the others' voices. Corey is asleep. He didn't make it through the night. He had suggested we sleep in shifts, but I said no, not wanting to risk one of us falling asleep, not waking the others, and then we'd all be dead in the morning. But he slept anyway, and when Jesse, Mace, and Alacia (the self-appointed leaders) see this, I know it's the end of him.

Jesse pulls out his knife and slits his throat mid-snore. This makes Alacia swoon. Since they're together, and both leaders, they think they're the power couple of the century. I'll probably kill one of them just to make the other suffer. All I have to do is figure out which I hate more. Then I kill the other one.

A silver parachute floats down in front of me. I unwrap it and am delighted to find a bow and a full sheath of arrows. "Yes!" I whisper.

Jesse Tame's POV- D1

BOOM!

The sound is reassuring. I've just re-enforced my status as a leader in the Career pack and gotten Alacia to jump into my open arms. I twirl her. She giggles. I never want this moment to end. But we're interupted by something shiny falling on our heads.

Jess Malice's POV- D1

It happens simultaneously. Eleven silver parachutes drop in front of us. It's weird, all of us getting a gift at the same time. And that's Circe's second gift in less than ten minutes. But it happened, so I just go with it.

I rip open my gift eagerly and find what looks like a watch inside. Everyone else has the same thing, and I have a feeling these gifts aren't from our sponsors.

I put the watch thingy on. The screen is blank, so I tap it, waiting for something to happen. Then a square hologram pops up and hovers in mid-air. The others follow my lead and soon every one of us had a floating square.

Then the holograms begin to move.

Tara Lyn Ruben's POV- D6

I can't believe what I'm seeing. My dad, eating a peaceful dinner at home. There'a knocking at the door, and when my father opens it, Peacekeepers march in and arrest him. At first, I think it's because of all the trouble he makes. But he's handcuffed and gagged, and loaded onto a train, not onto the whipping post. He's so helpless, so unable to fight back, that all of a sudden I'm filled with a lonlieness and a longing for him that I've never felt before.

Avery Davis's POV- D8

The image cuts to an empty white room, much like a TV would. There are chains on the walls and cold metal tables. The most haunting thing is the drain in the center of the room. Then my family is marched in.

My parents are chained to the walls by masked figures, my siblings strapped to the metal tables. My sister, Sydney, squirms under the straps, while my brother's, Sam, expression remains un-readable. For a few moments they all wait there, silently.

And then the screams begin.

Mace Andrews-Ajax's POV- D2

I try to look away, to close my eyes, to avoid this torture that's happened to my family and is now being used against me. But I find that I can't move. I am frozen by the band on my wrist, just as I was frozen on the ladder in the hovercraft. And I hate it. I want to be free.

Shimmer Star's POV- D1

I'm forced to watch the horrors. I can't tell whether or not this really happened. Or is happening live right now. The world outside is frozen in time and becomes nothing but a motionless blob as I endure the pain this hologram gives me.

And then it resumes when the illusion disappears.

Zenia Weissman's POV- D7

The horrors I just witnessed still play before my eyes, even though I had crushed the wretched device under my boot the moment it freed me to move. I crouch on the ground, squeezing my temples between my sweaty palms, eyes tightly shut, rocking back and forth on my unsteady heels, waiting for the nightmare to end. But it never will. Not as long as I live.

Alacia Odair's POV- D4

Jesse rubs my back as I sob into his shoulder. I just watched my whole family being tortured. Their dignity stripped. Their beauty shattered. I saw my mother's beautiful face burned away, my father being injected with some liquid that makes him thrash and claw at himself while screaming horrible things. Even my grandfather was there, being beaten and crippled until he was nothing more than a bloody pulp.

As the image plays again and again in my mind, I scream. But it's not a normal scream. It's an inhuman, terrifying shriek that I didn't know I was capable of making.

Lavender Jones' POV- D3

I've been running now. I find myself in the Winter Section of the arena. The cold air freezes my lungs but gives me something to focus on besides the awful things I saw earlier today.

The wind is getting rougher by the second, and soon the flying snow makes it impossible to see. Then I'm picked up as well.

I've heard about winds so strong they could rip whole buildings out of the grounds. I bet this is one of them. I scream as loud as I can as the wind carries me back towards the desert section. But my voice is swallowed by the wind and lost forever.

Doon Wainright's POV- D8

Just a little ways away, in the winter section, a storm is brewing. The wind is flying here and there, and doesn't seem to be confined to one place. Soon there's sand flying in my eyes and tributes dropping from the sky.

All of a sudden the wind dies and I get a good look at the fallen tributes. There's Avery Davis, Leo Decar, Leartus Thatecus, Lavender Jones, and Shade Bucket. All of them get up slowly, totally disoriented. But Shade doesn't move. I cautiously step over to her and check for her pulse. I feel nothing, and then her cannon sounds.

Kaeit Grey's POV- D10

I'm hesitant when the parachute arrives, since the one I recieved earlier was an absolute nightmare. But this one is larger, so I unwrap it. And inside, to my content, I find a little dagger, all polished and ready to go.

As the Games go on I will allow you to transfer points from dead tributes to your other tributes if you'd like. I will inform you all when you can start transferring!

---

Points:

I'mALittleCinna:
Lavender Jones- 95
Blake Walters- 95
Skye Wilder- 95
Zea Dillum- 95
Beau Atkinson- 95
Keahi Lanash- 95
Charity Jackson- 95

neb88:
Doon Wainright- 100

zorack1995:
Circe Saron- 35
Axel Kahmari- 95
Zark Prometheus- 95
Leartus Thatecus- 95
Magnum Harron- 95

CharmyXcream14:
Shimmer Star- 75

Turq8:
Nan Weatherall- 75
Mace Andrews-Ajax- 75

Headmund:
Blane Audy- 75
Leo Decar- 75

Skywriter5:
Alicia Evans- 70

kitresskat:
Kaeit Grey- 75

Pynnelopi:
Lara Lynn Case- 70

Nightfall12:
Austre Mason- 75
Jess Malice- 75

Rachina:
Amaryllis Field- 70
Alacia Odair- 70

TwiggySpazz:
Jesse Tame- 70

Anonamous1:
Tara Lyn Ruben- 70

Becky Barnes:
Avery Davis- 70

Queen of Conspiracies:
Zenia Weissman- 70

primrose98:
Genevive Hawkins- 70
Lani Tuckerson- 70

ButterflyBliss8:
BeBe Collins- 70

KiwiRawr:
Derek Rathburn- 70
Ollie Prevo- 70

LawAndOrderSVUAlways:
Katryna Aden- 70
Pearce Shaw- 70
Ryker Hawk- 70
Daryll Lamat- 70

LuvUrself:
Belva Hunt- 70
Hatcher Robeson- 70

GLEEK101:
Willow Stream- 70