I am truly sorry for not updating. I have recently joined the 24 author collaboration and we're currently working on a project. I really didn't want to keep you guys waiting any longer, so please enjoy this chapter. It's a filler, but it's long and hopefully you'll like it. Again, I am very sorry. This chapter was supposed to be up yesterday, but my internet decided to be a b- to me. Excuse my language, but it was frustrating to get the connection going until I decided to give up. Anyways, thank you for all the amazing reviews on the previous chapter (:
Response:
nyan743: Thank you! You should make one, having a FF account is awesome! Thank you for that suggestion and I will think about it. Thank you again!
Zjwafleman: I'm not making any promises about that happening...
Amanda: Same as stated in the author's note above, I'm sorry. I hate to keep you guys waiting for so long. But please understand that between school, cooking club, and the 24 author collaboration which requires 4,000 words per chapter is very hectic. I understand how you feel, because I get like that when a story I love isn't updated for a long time. Moving onto another subject. I like your suggestion of putting up a list of not only the fallen, but the alive tributes as well. Thank you for that (:
"It's no surprise that Gary's district partner was a lunatic. I mean, she had to deal with Gary during the whole train ride to the Capitol and endured living with Gary in both the Capitol and district nine." Caiden grins teasingly at Gary after I finish telling everyone about my fight with Terraine.
Gary glares at Caiden so sharp, it could cut mentally cut him. "Can you be serious for once?"
"I can, but I choose not to." Caiden retorts.
"Don't even start arguing, we have a serious situation at hand here." Vinera says tiredly.
"I don't think that's hard to believe. I mean, she looked crazy." Evan tells me.
"I thought she just looked crazy. I didn't know she was actually crazy."
"We heard her screaming something, but we couldn't hear it clearly. What was she screaming about?" asks Marina. I shine my flashlight around the cave in a paranoid manner. Talking about Terraine's eerie chant gives me the goosebumps.
"First she said something about 'when you enter the games, you're already dead' and then started chanting 'death, death, death'" I recollect that moment.
What if what Terraine had said was true? Could she be right about being dead once you've entered the Hunger Games? She is just psycho, Amethine. She doesn't even know what she's saying. Don't beat yourself up over it. It's not true. A little voice in my head tells me. What I can't place my finger on is that phrase she chanted. I think it was 'mori volo'. What the hell is that supposed to mean? It's most likely to be a language that existed long before Panem was created. If so, how does Terraine even know about it?
"Earth to Amethine, are you there?" Vinera snaps me out of my thoughts by lightly tapping on my forehead.
"Sorry, I was thinking about something. What were you saying?" I say sheepishly.
"I said 'Did she give you other injuries besides the scratches?'" she repeats. My hands go up to the little bandages covering the small cuts I got from Terraine's nails.
"No. Other than that, I'm okay." I answer.
Vinera nods. "I think we should start cooking that animal we killed." When we were walking back here, we saw this white, furry animal scurry past our feet. We gave chase, craving the meat of crispy, fresh game like a pack of hungry wolves. We literally looked like wolves running at our fastest pace just to fulfill our cravings. The creature led us to the nest of its species which was under a rock the size of a bow. Up close, they somewhat looked like a rat with its pink nose and little, plump body. Nonetheless, we wasted no time and speared each one of the rodents and happily carried our kills back to camp. After tending to my wounds, we counted a total of five of the animal.
"Yes we should." Gary licks his lips hungrily. Caiden pats his head. "Is little, baby Gary hungry?" he coos.
"Knock it off." Gary says in annoyance and pushes his hand away.
I assist Marina and Vinera in plucking and cleaning the rat-looking thing while the boys get out all the bowls and spoons. It's really late at night and I can see the bright moon through a tiny hole in the ceiling of the cave. Every here and now a gust of wind would blow into our little cave, causing us to shiver. I give Vinera the game I worked on and she lays it in the pan next to hers.
"Did you know Terraine back home?" I ask Gary while Vinera and Marina fry the game.
"She was my classmate in every year of school and our families would trade a few things with each other."
"Aww, was she your girlfriend?" asks Caiden.
"No, she was not!" Gary says defensively.
"Were you guys friends?" Evan wonders.
"She didn't have any friends. Before, she was normal. She wasn't that crazy looking girl that she soon turned into."
"What do you think made her go crazy?" I ask out of curiosity. There must've been a breaking point in some part of the girl's life.
"I'm not sure. Not a lot of bad things have happened to her. At least, none that I know of. Though there have been rumors of her grandparents getting secretly executed by the Capitol." Gary tries to think.
"Why were they executed?" Evan questions.
"They might've been convicted of being active rebels." Gary replies.
"Well, what do you think?" Caiden asks. He finally decided to shut up and listen.
"I don't know. Maybe it's just a lie. Every year we've been in the same class, she has barely spoken to me. She usually sits at the back of the class and stays quiet."
"Was she even smart?" Caiden asks.
"Yeah."
"What a surprise." I say. How could a psycho, nail-biting, 'death, death, death' chanting girl be intelligent?
"Everyone made fun of her." Gary continues. "She would always run away and hide whenever she was teased."
"Let me guess. She would get laughed at all the time and you would stick up for her and you both lived happily ever after." Caiden jokes.
"No! I didn't stick up for her." Gary looks at the ground in shame, full of regret for not standing up for his dead district partner. Does Gary care about Terraine? If we had all found Terraine, would he have done something to save her? I'm sure he wouldn't want to risk getting killed by stopping us, but would he have thought about it? There's only one person who has the answer to these questions and that's Gary. I could ask him, but why would I even care? I killed Terraine, that's it. She's dead and gone.
"Do you regret not standing up for her?" Evan asks the question that's on my mind.
"A little. Although we barely spoke, I should have done something. My mom would've wanted me to do that. My parents knew Terraine and would be disappointed if they found out that she was teased and I did nothing."
After that sentence, there's a silence between the three of us, the only sound being Vinera and Marina's voices discussing the preparation of the dish.
"Food's ready." Marina breaks the silence.
We fill our bowls with the meat and sit down on a clear spot on the dirt. By the time everyone is seated, we all have a bowl in our hands and are spread on areas throughout the cave. We engage in conversation about the last two tributes that need to be hunted: Marcus from district 5 and Mina from district 12. After we kill these two, we either split up or turn on each other. I'm not scared of either, I can take one these guys.
"I saw Marcus at the camouflage station at training back at the Capitol. The kid was excellent with disguising and blending in." I pop some meat into my mouth. Tastes good.
"Does anyone remember seeing him taking anything from the Cornucopia?" I ask everyone.
"I did." says Marina.
"What did he take?" I ask.
"A small blue bag. I'm not sure what was in it."
"Must be paint." I hypothesize.
"How 'bout the district 12 girl?" Gary asks about Mina. I'm surprised at how far she's made it. I always thought of her as the depressed girl from the sad, faraway look in her eyes. I wonder if it's all just an act. Based on my incident with Terraine, I can't end up underestimating both of these tributes and end up getting proven wrong.
"I'm not sure she has skills." Vinera says with a mouthful of food.
"I didn't pay attention to her in training." Says Evan.
"Same here." Caiden agrees.
"Well she has to be good at something. How is she still alive if she isn't talented?" I ask. The girl has got to be good at something. Healing, archery, hunting, I don't care. I just need an explanation to how she is still alive.
After a discussion to what possible skills Mina could possess, most of us have already finished their food and are ready to sleep. I rise and put my empty bowl on the ground next to the utensil bag. I get into my sleeping bag and keep my eyes open. The thought of Terraine's words come to mind. I know that I dismissed this earlier, but I don't think it will ever go away. Was she right? No, she was not. The voice responds.
I hope it's right.
From now on, I will also post up the list of the remaining tributes. This was suggested by the guest reader Amanda, so a thank you to her for the idea. Guess what? Someone is going to die in the next chapter! Things will get interesting since there are only 7 (about to become 6) days left of the games! Thank you for reading and again, I am sorry for not updating.
The fallen:
District 3: Electra and Bolton
District 5: Augustina
District 6: Latteine and Nick
District 7: Sequoia and Tanner
District 8: Amber and Derek
District 9: Terraine
District 10: Bonnie and Timothy
District 11: Maggie and Feltrix
District 12: Calvin
The Remaining Tributes:
District 1: Amethine and Evan
District 2: Vinera and Caiden
District 4: Marina and Sebastian
District 5: Marcus
District 9: Gary
District 12: Mina