Here's an update after my long but necessary pause. Trust me, if I had to remember school stuff, softball shit, and organize a story all at the same time with the little breaks I have had to simply calm down, I would've got batshit crazy and slapped a few bitches in the face. Repeatedly. With words of course.

I still have little time to update until softball as over, and to be honest I am too pissed off at a whole load of crap to do it anyway. I won't go into the boring details, but it's all a bunch of stupid crap that nobody really wants to deal with, and when you have to deal with it, your patience wears thin. Well, my patience has worn thinner than thin to the point where I'm snapping at my friends over band preference because basically, I wake up too early because of school to deal with people in general, especially my more dramatic friends.

So here's an update! I went to check how long it had been since I updated and literally cringed.

You finally get to learn about the mysterious Day Seven. Well, I guess you know because Anya's chapter spoiled it but whatever. This one's a bit more yay woo day seven aww noooo what the fuck you killed them off?

Or did I? I honestly don't know because I don't have time to plan all this stuff out! But my top three victors are officially chosen (YAAAAYYY) and I think people expect one of them to win… and at the same time you all don't. So we'll see. Eventually. I've got to get on a killing spree, and trust me, by the time softball is over I'll be so pissed off that I'll just kill all the characters.

ALL OF THEM.

Anyway… sorry for the wait and sorry in advance for the wait that is certain to come!

D2- 16- (Azaleigh Rommel)

"Do you think we'll make it?" I ask Jackson privately, helping him lug the supplies we gathered when Adelina was still alive. I look toward the woods. Compared to how far away they used to be, they may as well be three steps away. But they're still too far to collect too much hope yet, even though today is our deadline. I don't know what will happen if we don't make it through and I honestly don't want to find out.

He shrugs. Even Jackson has little optimism.

…

"We're coming up to our destination," Daphne reports monotonously, far ahead of us as we're carrying the supplies. Gleam was helping, but she stopped after our quick noontime break. Now it's closing in on nine o'clock, or so Jackson tells me. I kiss his cheek as halfhearted congratulations that we've made it, but neither of us believes that we have. We continue to trudge at the quick pace. It seems agonizingly slow.

He looks over at me and sighs slightly. "You have pretty eyes," he says weakly, but I know this wasn't what he had originally planned to say.

"Thank you," I reply quietly, not even daring to compliment him back. Though he's told me countless times that my eyes are pretty, I know this time it's not a real compliment—it's a cover-up for the words that would doom us which almost came out of his mouth. "Let's try to catch up with the rest of them, yeah? So we're not left behind when they all make it there."

He nods. "Yeah," he says. Jackson looks down, positively refusing to look at me. "I wouldn't want to face the 'or else.'"

I smile. "Nobody would, Jack."

…

"Right ahead!" Stone yells back at us. Vixen has begun to help us carry all of the supplies, but though it helps it's also made what pathetic conversation we had going before instantaneously vanish to awkward, agonizingly boring and worry-filled silence. I cannot go a second without thinking with terror of what might happen. It is dark now and there's no telling when a mutt named Or Else is going to jump out and tear us to Career nothingness.

I watch as she and Daphne rush into the woods. "We need to hurry," I tell Jackson, pushing myself and my pace to my absolute limits.

"I'm trying," he grunts, already getting ahead of me but I keep on trying. It's too far away to be so damn close with an unknown amount of time. He looks over at me and frowns. "Hurry up. Go ahead."

My eyes widen. "No!" I protest forcefully. "Hell no, Jackson! I'm not entering the woods with you behind me lugging this. We're going in there right next to each other."

His eyes soften and his calculative frown evaporates and he nods, seeing the flaws in his rash, split-second plan. It's too dark to rely on time saving us.

Vixen awkwardly says, "We can't leave you, Jackson."

I swallow hard. "Vixen, you go," I tell her.

He looks at me. "So she can leave us behind but you won't go on ahead."

I narrow my eyes. Then I roll them and kiss him briefly on the cheek. "Come on, jackass. We need to run!"

And we do run, pulling the contraption Adelina made us make behind us, racing up to the others. We don't catch up to them but we make good progress.

A distant bang! comes from behind us. I turn around and see that walls are trapping the woods in from the rest of the arena. They bang down. "Holy crap!" I yell. Vixen squeals and dives—literally—into the tree line. I follow her quickly behind, when suddenly an eardrum-shatteringly loud BANG! hits behind us. The wall. I sigh in relief and smile widely. "We made it!" My ears hurt and so does my head. I can barely hear my voice over the banging in my brain.

I turn to the side of me that Jackson was on and look all around. I frown and pull off my backpack, getting my flashlight out and flicking it on. I wave it all around. When I don't see him, I drop to my knees and call, "Jackson!"

"Hush!" Stone snaps from near me. Tears fall from my eyes and I don't bother hiding them. Vixen pats my back and the others set up camp.

Jackson is dead. A cannon hasn't fired so that means he's being tortured on the other side of the wall.

Jackson's gone.

Jackson.

Jack…

Eventually, I fall asleep near the fire, tears still streaming from my eyes, lulled by the distant memories of his voice.

D9- 15- (Aeris Lockhart)

We don't make it to the woods. Asher says we needed to but we didn't. I try to ask him why… He ignores me.

Sometimes I remember him and sometimes I don't. Every hour he seems bitterer and bitterer. It scares me just how angry he gets sometimes at me when I don't remember a detail, or when I seem to get loopy. Everything in my brain is fuzzy so I don't like when he gets like that. It's not my fault. But I guess… I guess I even scare myself, so…

The thoughts I get in my head are… are awful. I want to slit his throat sometimes. Occasionally I have delusions of having claws for fingernails and I try to attack him, and then get confused and snap out of it when scratching his chest doesn't kill him. I think those times might be dreams but I'm not sure… What is a dream and what happens when I'm awake gets all squished together and I can't think of it straight. I tell him I just don't know, and he says the next time I say that he's going to… to… he doesn't know. But he never does anything, and I say it once at least every two hours.

I think he loves me, somewhere in the back of his mind. I just don't know.

But… do I love him? That's an entirely different story. Sometimes he is the only person I remember, but sometimes he's the only one I don't. I miss him somehow when my mind is rid of him and it seems I know less of him every time I forget and then remember him. It fades in and out, but through all the memories and the pain there is one single constant: love for him and for the long ago family back in District Nine, which even now, even with far greater worries than the troubles and the distance of my home place, seem so, so far away.

"Aeris," Asher says, coming back from his little fishing trip. He waves three in front of me with a smile. "Let's make a fire. It'll be good eating tonight, yeah?"

"Yeah," I agree softly, standing up and walking to our makeshift fire pit. I pick up a few sticks for him and begin to set up the fire like I remember from the training center—oh, great, I think, I remember that hell but I don't even remember what my room at home looks like—and then allow Asher to drop his big logs into the fire.

I smile at him and he returns the smile.

And then I'm falling back. My eyes are closing. And I don't believe I'll wake up.

D4- 13- (Nelly Carter)

I make it into the woods with little time to spare. The bang of the wall hurts my ears, but I tough it out as I get up and walk further into the woods, always thinking of Calypso. Got to make it for her. For that matter, I've got to make it for Skylar, Kayla, and Allegra. I knew Calypso the best though; we were like sisters. I miss her so much right now. She left the arena a long time ago though.

Lucky her.

Then it finally gets to me: Where are we supposed to go?

I begin to panic as I look around and wonder if I missed some part of the feast announcement. I don't remember what all that was said! What if I die because I didn't go to the right place? What if the "or else" applies to me? What if I don't win for Calypso? I promised myself I would. Oh, God, oh no—where the hell is this feast at? I turn in all directions but I don't know what to do.

It's getting too dark to walk. I'm used to traveling in the daylight. Then again, traveling in the daylight got Calypso killed. I decide to make it to dawn before I sleep. Maybe after I sleep I'll remember what all was said… But it isday seven right now! It'll be day eight by the time I go to sleep, wake up, and try to remember! Hell, it'll be damn near day nine! I don't know what to do. I wish Calypso was here. I wish Ryan was here.

I'm so alone. And I'm afraid. I've never felt more like a little girl in all of my life.

D7- 17- (Decon Crow)

"Hey, look," Damien says in the dead of night. I was beginning to fall asleep, leaning against the trunk of a tree, until he said that… I reach my hand out and shove him, but he persists. He shoves me back harder, which wakes me up, and points. Close by is the light of a campfire, and that can only mean one of three things: The Careers are near and we need to head out, a careless tribute has made a huge blunder and we've found ourselves a kill, or it's time to say hello, feast, where have you been?

We made it with a couple minutes to spare. The wall fell but we were just far away that it didn't shatter our eardrums… I wonder if anyone was closer and it literally broke their eardrums or something. I have no clue what that would feel like, but I can just guess: ooh that would hurt. I consider myself lucky for that little fact alone and put my hand to my ear impulsively, as if checking for brokenness.

"Yeah," I whisper back to my ally. "Should we check it out?"

Damien looks at me and grins slightly. I'm not sure if that means fuck, let's kill a bitch or …time to run. I can guess though. Damien is in a generally good mood, which leads me to believe he's in a kill-a-bitch mood rather than a running-time! mood. Although I'm more of the leader than him, I don't refuse even though I'm tired. I'll let him do all the offense and defend him when needed.

We get up and head toward the fire.

D10- 17- (Nick DiLaurnetis)

The trap is set. I walk away in silence, leaving the fire behind, luring tributes away from my path. I made it to the woods, and that's as far as I'm concerned. The feast can come to me because I'm sure as hell not looking for it myself.

As I walk away, my thoughts are filled with memories of my life at home and memories of Astrid. There are so many things I can think of, so many ifs to apply to the relationship we had—or could have had. But I think I need to let it go, and that's what I'll do for now. I'll let the emptiness where love should be in my heart fill up with anger and the fiery passion to return home and refill it. I cannot let it overwhelm me and I can't let grief stop me from winning.

Now I'm angry. Now I'm ready to kill everyone, whether it's an entire pack of Careers or even my old friends, Decon and Damien. They're no longer marked as friends in my mind anymore; now my brain supplies the word traitors. Traitors must be killed, right? The Capitol cuts out traitors' tongues, but I don't see how that's going to win me the Games. I'll just have to be harsher with my justice.

Even the youngest of tributes, if there are any young ones left. I don't care if I come across a twelve-year-old: though it will guilt me later, they've got to be killed. I've got to win.

D12- 16- (Carlyn Hansen)

We get into the woods, walk a couple feet, and then the wall comes down. Krumr cringes and puts his hands over his ears and I follow his lead, an immediate headache in my head. "THAT WAS LOUD," I say, realizing after a second that I totally screamed it. Krumr glares at me and takes his hands off his ears, looking at the wall that trapped us into the woods. I almost pity the idiots that didn't get to the woods. They'll be dead soon probably.

He looks around. "Where's the feast?"

I shrug nonchalantly, knowing we'll be driven together soon. "Told ya it was a trap," I taunt playfully.

He glares at me again and touches the wall. Nothing happens. He gets out his axe and hacks at the wall as hard as he can. I step closer and inspect the place he hit. Nothing. He pushes me aside and hits the spot a few more times with all his might, and I look at the spot again. Nothing. So maybe that's not a real shocker, but Krumr is strong so I raise my eyebrows. I didn't inspect a big tear in the thing but maybe just a reassuring scratch or dent. Nope—nothing.

"Well, then," I say. "While we wait to die, I'm starving. Hunt."

Krumr rolls his eyes and punches the wall in frustration but turns towards the woods with his bow slung over his shoulder and his axe in his belt.

There were no deaths. ...Probably.