Day 17

Annoyingly I have to rewrite this which sucks because I feel like what I was writing wasn't half bad and I don't remember a lot. I'm kind of hoping it'll come to me but we shall see. But if this chapter isn't very good it's my usual computer's fault for being a douche bagel. I do remember that I meant to write a confession on this chapter so here goes. Some of the dialogue I use is taken from Once Upon a Time. Now, let me be clear (feeling like Obama here) that I don't take like whole conversations. It's more if I hear a line I love and think I could fit it in somewhere I will. Just didn't think there should be any lies between us is all. Enjoy the Chapter and May the Odds be Ever in Your Favour!

Scout Parker POV

Whittier pushes me up against the tree and kisses me again; I don't respond because I don't feel. Whittier doesn't seem to mind; she likes that she's made me feel like nothing but her toy. She lifts up my shirt teasingly but I try to move away.

"Don't worry sweetie; Juliette wouldn't mind" she smirks.

She goes back to kissing me. I'm too cowardly to try and run. Where would I run? Anywhere I go, I'm a dead man. Even if I'm not found by Santana or Ares, I'll get hit by some mutation or something. I hate Whittier but at least with her I'm safe. Maybe I'll feel braver tomorrow. Suddenly Whittier's pulled away from me.

"Whittier!" he roars her name "You owe me! You owe me!"

"Calm down Lupus. You know you shouldn't-"Whittier starts.

"Shut up bitch! I'm sick of your excuses and I'm sick of being put off for that shrimp!"

"Careful honey; be very, very careful."

She steps back slowly past me and grabs her sword from behind the tree; she doesn't move without it. Lupus grabs her and pushes her out of my sight.

"No! I'm taking what's mine and I'm taking it right-"

I go slightly closer; Lupus's speech has been stopped by the blood pouring out of his mouth. Whittier twists the sword in his chest before kicking him down.

"Poor broken toy" she whispers.

BOOM

She comes back over to me, a spec of his blood on her chin.

"Now" she pulls me close "Where were we?"

"No" I shove her slightly.

"No? What do you mean "no"?" her voice isn't angry; it's confused.

"I don't feel anything Whittier; not with you."

"Dearie I don't need you to feel."

"But I want to feel something! I'm not a toy; I am a human being!"

I slowly walk away from her, not turning my back for a second. Whittier doesn't move. When I pick up my machete her lip trembles. Then she laughs.

"What exactly are you going to do? Kill me? I don't think Juliette would like that very much" she pouts mockingly.

"I'm not going to kill you. I'm going to leave you here- alone. I just hope you get exactly what you deserve."

Whittier goes still again though something about her seems more shocked. Her grip on the sword tightens.

"You can't leave me. You won't leave me" she raises her sword "You won't leave me!"

She slams her sword down on my shoulder and I have to clutch it instantly to stop it bleeding. Her next hit is better aimed but I'm already running. I know where to run to now. I'm going to the only other person who cared about Juliette.

Ruby Roderiguez POV

The forest is filled with huge willow trees; I wish I wasn't here just so I could swing on one into the river. It's hard to be happy here; the only way I can be happy right now is by wishful thinking and even that's not real in the end.

"These trees are so big; all they have back home is boring old apple trees and you can't climb them that high. You can't even eat the apples but one time this boy tried-"I say.

"Shut up Ruby" Annaliese interrupts.

"Well what are we looking for anyway?"

"Just- someone."

I don't want to ask anymore. I don't want to ask who she's talking about. Because I know. All she's been talking about is getting rid of the dangers for me. She'll do anything to keep me safe. She's going to kill the girl from 9.

Ares Tower POV

I draw six stick men in the dirt- one for each tribute left. I don't have time to grieve; I can't anyway. But then what does that say about me? Maybe it says I'm heartless or just plain pathetic but Juliette told me what to do and I'm not about to disrespect that.

Flashback

After that bitch from 1 left with her minions, I examined Juliette the best I could. But I'm shit with any kind of medicine and even I could see she didn't have long left. Her little pale face smiled at me.

"Thank you; for everything you've done" she said.

"Letting you get stabbed by a Career? Yeah I'd say I've done great things" I shrug.

"No; you're making sure I'm not alone. I'll die having a friend, having someone care about me. That's a great thing. Can you do something for me?"

"Sure Juliette."

"Be brave."

I understood and nodded. She closed her eyes and died.

End of flashback

I figured she wouldn't want be to waste the time mourning her; Juliette just wanted people to be happy. I don't know what Angel would have wanted. But that doesn't mean I'm letting Cersai get away with what she's done. That's weird; it's getting a kind of smoky. In the distance I see a figure walking towards me clutching it's shoulder. I load my bow but then the figure stops.

"Don't shoot" he comes closer; it's Scout.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't shoot a coward like you" I growl.

"I-I can't."

"I wouldn't have a problem with killing you right now" I sigh "But Juliette would; so you have to thank. Now what the hell do you want?"

"Hear me out; the two biggest threats right now are Whittier and maybe that girl from 9. Juliette always said she was nuts."

"Yeah… she killed a friend of mine."

"I'm sorry. But the next biggest threat after them is probably Santana."

"So?"

"Let's just say Santana isn't any bigger a fan of Whittier than you or me."

"Yet she was happily just stood there while Juliette died. So did you if I recall correctly."

Scout goes quiet for a minute. I don't trust him but he sounds like he could be onto something.

"Sorry, go on" I prompt him.

"Well if we can get her on our side we have the majority. She might even to get Annaliese and the girl from 10 to help. So what do you think?"

He looks a me and I shake my head. Then I hold out my hand.

"You've got yourself an ally."

Ruby Roderiguez POV

I think we're close to finding her. Annaliese is getting faster. As I pick up pace she stops me with her arm; I don't see it coming and jump back.

"There she is" Annaliese says, almost relieved.

"Annaliese I'm scared. I don't want to do this" I cling to her arm but she yanks it away.

"Don't you want to avenge Dani? Our friend? Your friend?"

She's so close I can see the tiny beads of sweat on her forehead. I nod. I don't know what I'm more scared of.

"Now go!" she says pushing me forward.

Shaking, I walk past the district 9 girl but she doesn't notice me.

"I didn't mean to" she whimpers.

"Excuse me?" I reply.

"I didn't mean to kill you."

"What?"

I turn around and see she's not talking to me. She's talking to nothing.

"They made me do it Angel. Can't you see them? Please make them go away; tell them I'm human! Tell them! Don't go! Somebody help me!" she backs into a corner and starts sobbing.

"Are you ok?" I go to comfort her but someone pushes me down; Annaliese.

"Finally; now you're going to get exactly what you deserve you little bitch" she says.

"Annaliese don't!"

I'm not quick enough. Annaliese lunges a throwing knife through the girl's neck; the girl coughs through her sobs, choking on her own blood. But Annaliese doesn't stop. She rams two more knifes into the girl's shoulders pinning her to the tree.

"Not so funny when you're the one feeling the pain is it you freak?" she takes a fourth knife and stabs her in the chest.

BOOM

She keeps on stabbing even though the girl has become motionless.

"Annaliese stop; she's dead" she ignores me so I try to get her away "Please stop!"

Annaliese swerves round and pins me to the floor, putting the knife to my neck.

"Don't you ever do that again, you hear me?" she spits.

"B-b-but."

"This is the Hunger Games Ruby; people have to die if I'm going to keep you safe. You want that don't you?"

I just nod again. She takes her throwing knives and puts them away. As I follow her all I can focus on is the fresh blood on her hands.

Oh jeez; Annaliese is back to semi Career mode again. Now who the heck thought that would be a good idea? Oh… stop judging me. I can see all you little eyes scanning these words. You think you're so badass? Bring it biatch! On a serious note, I loved writing the Ares and Scout bit. As I'm writing I'm just casually singing The Boys Are Back in Town because you know what? I feel like they are. We're down to the wire now folks and if you think what's happened so far is bad then you'd better read the next chapter.

Death List

27th- Lewis Simmons: I had no problem with him but I thought one of the alliances should have a loss plus I think following Ruby is the kind of thing Lewis would do. I will miss him though; he was all cheery.

26th- Mai Moonheart: I always felt so sad when I was writing for her; I had no idea what to do with her character. I thought it'd be best if I just ended her pain.

25th- Coal Hartcell: I felt kind of bad killing him because he's been pretty popular but I struggled to write for him.

24th- Terrian Demetrius: I'm sorry to his creator but he was one of the hardest characters for me to write for. I have no idea why. Plus, he was all bitchy towards Cersai and I'm thinking "this girl has enough issues without you targeting her".

22nd- Dusty Abernez: In short, I thought I should have another death and believe me, choosing who to kill off was pretty bloody hard. In the end I chose Dusty, just because I thought he'd fallen under Whittier's spell the most and was therefore most likely to do something stupid.

21st- Ruby Rachel Rodriguez: I literally chose the first person who I could think of a death for; it was the only way.

20th- Annaliese Slate: Pretty much the same reason as Ruby but also because I didn't want her death end up too cliché.

19th- Jayden Williams: He wasn't as popular as some other tributes and I thought he'd run his course.

18th- Reedman Phelps: Like Jayden, he wasn't overly popular but I did like him quite a bit; at least he died a good man.

17th- Jenneth Myra Speare: She was actually reasonably popular but I just wasn't feeling her storyline anymore; also, I unfortunately left her in an awkward position what with her critical injuries and all.

16th- Clio Slate: I just couldn't think of much more to write about him and I thought he should go out before his storyline got boring. Also, selfish as it is, I kind of felt like his death will somewhat do Annaliese good.

15th- Nicole Jade Smith: I just felt like- "You know what, she's done enough." Also, it was a crazy on crazy meet up so… WHAT THE HECK DID YOU THINK WAS GONNA HAPPEN?

14th- Luke Matthew Pond: I've always considered him a pretty smart character, the type that looks at things from a logical point of view so it's the not that surprising the whole Ruby thing freaked him the crap out. To be honest, I did think about him winning at some point, but after Jenneth got stabbed I was just like, this isn't gonna happen really is it? Still, an awesome character and I'm sorry to get rid of him.

13th- Angel West: Call me self centred, but I love writing for my own characters. However, Angel's story had to come to an end because I've been writing it like that I guess. Plus, love has to end in tragedy in the games. It's a shame really because I loved her and Ares as a couple.

23rd/12th- Riddell Thicket (first time): After not giving him an alliance, I didn't know what to do with him. Sorry to everyone who supported him.

(second time): I quite liked him and like I said I probably could have given him more storyline but ultimately while he was a good character, he was one of the harder to write for characters.

11th- Aurora Felici: Poor thing was basically just another victim in Cersai's little riot; I always liked her but I just never really thought of much storyline other than the one at the last minute.

10th- Dandelion Wildflee: Loved her; loved her a lot. She has always been one of those character who actually cares about a lot of people. She never went crazy but she had a cowardly moment and I dunno, I just feel like, after a while, she got lost in the crowd.

9th- Juliette Ryde: Ok I'm gonna level with you guys; when I kill someone off I'm not entirely honest in why I kill them off. A lot of the time I love the character but I just find a way that their death will fit for a good story and I'm afraid this was the case for Juliette.

8th- Lupus Cobaine: He was killed by popular demand basically; you guys were saying one of the evil people had to die soon and frankly he was starting to piss me off so I imagined Whittier's patience would probably ware thinner than my own thus no more Lupus.

7th- Cersai Grace Helms: I guess I decided to have a 2 for 1 sale on killing off the bad people. But honestly, in one of my personal brain rambles I thought "Seriously Ellesse this girl is just too crazy and she's not going to get that back in the like few days left of the games." Plus I just thought her time was up in general and I wasn't sure how else I could write for her.

Remaining Tributes

Both District 1 Tributes

Annaliese Slate of District 3

Santana Wolf of District 4

Ares Tower of District 6

Ruby Rachel Rodriguez of District 10