I won't lie to you when I say that I was 150% planning on summarizing the story. I've been very defeated in the writing process in this story, and I think it has a lot to do with I feel like people aren't reading, but as I started writing this summary I felt bad, because I know there ARE people reading, just not as many as I'd LIKE to be reading, which are the people that submitted.
So with that said, I won't be summarizing this story, and as defeated as I feel, I am excited for the new project me and my friend Jenna is writing, so it gives me inspiration to power through this one, while working on that one. (Which I don't want to toot my own horn, but we are bringing the FIRE on that thing), so I hope that you'll submit. Anyways, here is day 2…
I will run back to your
sweet loving arms.
Hold on tight, hold on strong.
Cause I'm sailing back home.
To the house on a hill.
Sashen Blaize, 18
District 12 Female
So the last thing I want to do is sound like a baby, but this corn field gives me the heeby-jeebies. I have been up all night, because I swear, actually not even swear, I promise that I've heard noises the entirety of the night. I'm pretty sure I saw a pair of eyes poking through the corn field.
We are all sitting around the fire that Caius managed to build for us making breakfast. After he killed Nickle yesterday, which is something still very fresh for a lot of people, we got tons of sponsor gifts from people. The notes were heartless and cold.
Good job! Keep it up, kids!
As if the price of human life is equivalent to the bread rolls they sent our way after the murder. This whole games is one twisted thing. I wish I never met anyone of these kids. Maybe if I hadn't this would be easier. The idea that Nickle, Shawn, Amandus, even Jinx dying would be something that I could wrap my head around. Something that maybe I could even get behind.
Yeah right, Sashen. Like you could ever get behind taking a life.
"I think we should get moving. The other alliances know where we are," says Hazel.
I appreciate Hazel in this games. She's always been someone I've kind of been jealous of. She doesn't feel anything. She doesn't have any emotional hindrances in this situation. It's always been, get out of the games, get home alive, everything will be okay. What's it like to live like that? To feel nothing?
"Yeah, let's get moving." says Caius.
Speaking of not feeling, I wish he had what Hazel has. He was mumbling in his sleep all night. Something about how he didn't mean it, how he should have himself pay for what he did to Nickle. It's sad. I wonder how our parents are looking at us right now. Wonder if they're proud of how we are handling ourselves, are they screaming their lessons we learned for all those years at the screen? Are they wishing they could stop it?
Does it hurt them to see the ones that died?
I just don't get it. My whole life, well second life, well wait, I guess it's third life now? Why the hell do I keep getting brought back to these things? I'm clearly not very good at this type of situation. I keep losing. Why would parents, raise children to go die? Was it something that just slipped out of their head?
"Oh yeah, we had those kids. Yeah, they're going to die in a short while! Haha, am I right?" How do they live with themselves? Not only did they send us in here to die, but they lied about our past! They let me think that I was adopted. That I was loved enough to get brought somewhere, and was selected. Like I was special. I was chosen because they didn't want to reap new people.
"Sashen?"
Orion's face draws me into reality. He looks concerned for me as I am deep in thought. Everyone else has moved on, and we are the only two left, and it's then that I realized that we are at the bottom of the totem pole. Sylvia, Jade, Caius, and Hazel. They don't particularly care for me or O. They just wanted to not be mean. Why would you leave your alliance?
"Come on, they left us." says Orion holding out his hand.
He helps me up, and we begin to walk. I see a triangle that is standing tall out of the corner of my eye, and I realize it was what I was seeing last night.
"O," I say. "Something isn't right."
Right as I say that, three scarecrows come out of the corn fields looking at us. They look harmless, but the minute Orion and I try to walk past them, they instantly turn lethal. They get knives at the end of their hands, and their plush exterior turns into something that looks firm, and hard.
Orion grabs his sword, but he doesn't have a lot of time to react before the scarecrow jumps at me. I close my eyes, and wait for the impact of the scarecrow, but it never comes. When I open my eyes, I see Orion with a knife sticking out of his back. I let out a yell that brings Sylvia, Jade, Caius, and Hazel running back to the clearing we were once in.
The scarecrow pulls the knife out of his chest, and he slumps to the ground. I bend down with him, tears flowing out of my eyes. I can't believe that this has happened.
"O," I say as I weep with my head against his chest. "You can't leave me. You can't. I need you." I say as my voice shakes.
"You...are..strong."
A cannon sounds that shakes me to my very core. I can't believe my childhood best friend, since we could walk, is lying dead before me. We were supposed to have so much time together. We were supposed to be in the final 2.
"Sashen, we are so sorry…"
"Stop talking." I say picking up my head from my dead friend.
"No, Sash, please underst-"
"Stop. Talking." I say forcefully. I've never used this tone with anyone before, and all of my allies stare at me shocked. "You guys should have been here. If you had been here he'd be alive. He wouldn't have had to worry about me dazing off, because we didn't have selfish pricks in the alliance."
I've never spoken this way. I'm full of rage. I'm not worried about their opinions, or their feelings. I'm enraged for my dead friend.
"Now turn around, and let's get moving now that my friend is dead and the hovercraft needs to come and collect his body." I say walking directly between Sylvia and Hazel and pushing through them.
Standing in the hall of fame.
The world's gonna know your name.
Cause you shine with the brightest flame.
And the world's gonna know your name.
Vera Naylor, 18
District 11 Female
Jinx is dead.
One of my best friends, since I was a kid, is dead, and I don't feel anything.
I'm scared of this version of myself. The version of myself that every time I hear a cannon I get excited. It's one less person for me to have to fight through to get to the end. I didn't get a fair shot last time. I didn't get an equal chance to do something spectacular. 18th place.
That's all that reels through my ears. 18th place.
I'm better than 18th place.
Honora lucked out at the bloodbath. Had I been how I am now, she wouldn't be standing here. She's the biggest threat I have here, let's be honest. Carmen is a smart girl, a hell of a lot smarter than I've given her credit for, but she won't win. Mark my words, I'll make sure of that. Artemis has her head so far up her own butt, I doubt she'll be able to pull it out enough to actually focus on the games. Speaking of not all there, I don't even think Edith is even aware of where she is. The girl is perfectly competent, but there is not one thing about her that screams Victor.
"We've seen no action since the bloodbath." says Artemis as she is organizing some of the very limited supplies that we were able to pick up at the bloodbath. A few bags of beef jerky, 2 bottles of water, a weapon of our choice except for me. I was too busy running from Psycho Cashmere Flloyd.
"That could be bad?" ask Edith confused. She clearly isn't paying attention to the patterns of these games. When groups of people don't see any action, that's when people start to die. That's when mutts start to make an appearance.
A creepy laugh shakes the entire room to it's core. We are sitting in one of the main chambers in the maze. There are mirrors on each side of us forming walls, and on all of them are doors that lead to a new part of the maze. We are essentially a sitting duck in this room.
Edith lets out a shrill scream, and we all turn to our left and see a reflection of a scary clown in the mirror. He's not in any of the doors, which means he's getting closer, and he's somehow being reflected to us. He has red hair, and blood smeared all over his face. He looks like one of those creeps that are perfectly content with cutting off your face and wearing it to a birthday party.
"Girl," says Carmen. "I don't think I HAVE to say this, BUT RUN!"
We all get up, and for some smart reason we feel that running in separate doors would be the most appropriate thing. I round the corner of the maze, and make a left, and a right, then another left, and another right. Then I hear a chainsaw. I stop when I hear a footsteps coming towards me, and want to turn around, but I feel too scared to move. I haven't a weapon on me, and that's probably not a good thing when being chased by a scary as hell clown.
The footsteps are running, and they're continuing to get closer.
Vera, you can do this. You can do this. You're better than 18th place.
I take a deep breath and stand up strong as I lift my leg up ready to junk-kick this guy. When the footsteps are about five feet away is when I round the corner and slam straight into Edith.
"WHAT THE HELL!" I scream.
"I don't know how to do this thing." she says as tears are welling in her eyes. We both stand up and dust ourselves off when we hear a chainsaw again. We turn and see the clown at the end of our maze hallway. He looks pleased to see us, as he revs the engine on the chainsaw.
"Hey little girls," he says. "Wanna play?"
"We're good for now I think." I say grabbing Edith's hand and running down the corridor I was hiding in. We make a right, a left, another right, and then another right. When we are standing face to face with the clown again.
"There is no way." I say backing up when he turns to face us.
"Look what I can do." he says as he steps into the mirror, and then steps out. "Wanna see another trick I can do?"
He steps back into the mirror and walks up to Edith's reflection. When he stands behind her, he revs the chainsaw and slashes Edith's head off. I scream because that's so gruesome, but then I feel some red and sticky stuff on my hand.
I look over at Edith, and her head is currently on the floor. Her body is starting to slump, and her cannon has just sounded. Holy crap, he can kill us through the reflections.
"You're next girly." he says as he looks at my reflection.
I turn and punch the air, which in my reflection happens to be the place of his nose. He screams out in pain, and then I junk kick him like I originally planned. I run down the corridor, and he continues to appear in all of the mirrors I run by, constantly swinging his chainsaw attempting to kill me. It's causing me to do a weird dance like run, as my reflection is constantly having to dodge the blade.
When I get to the main clearing, Artemis and Carmen are there, and they're panting as they both stand with their hands on their knees.
"Guys," I say finally able to breathe a second. "We need to run, he can kill people through their-"
"Reflections." says Artemis showing me a nasty cut on her arm. "Time to move, I hear the chainsaw."
We run out of the way we think we entered the maze yesterday after the bloodbath, and to our great pleasure, we end up at the opening. We lay down on the ground and take a minute to just breathe, and it's then when Artemis looks up at me and notices Edith isn't there.
"He got her." I say quietly.
We sit there in silence. I don't think we were expecting someone in our group to die so soon. This was such a random event. She didn't have to go out that way. She didn't have to die. She didn't even have a chance to understand the situation, or what even was going on with the reflection killer.
"We can't mourn the losses until we are sure we won't be one of them," says Carmen as she is wiping a tear away from her eye. "Girl might have killed me in a past life, but she was a good one."
"Good people never win the games," says Artemis standing up. "We can't sit here and whine and bitch until something new happens. We need a gameplan. That came from pure irresponsibility."
She's not wrong. There was no communication. We never talked about what would happen if someone came into our base to try and kill us. We never discussed battle plans, and who would fight who.
"Let's move. Edith wouldn't want us to sit around and be killed ourselves." says Carmen.
I turn back to the maze as the other girls are walking off in the general direction of the carnival games section of the arena.
"Rest in peace, girly." I say as I follow them off into our new base.
Round, and round, and round we go.
Where it stops nobody knows.
It ain't slowing down.
This merry-go-round.
Keanu Hargrave, 18
District 11 Male
This merry-go-round is sick. In the center column, there is a room, and it has three beds. We initially thought that there was something a bit wonky, but we would have been dumb to pass off such luxury in a game where there isn't much.
The center column's entrance was hidden really well, we actually found it because Ellie tripped, and fell onto a certain horse. Had she not done that, we wouldn't be sitting pretty.
"I can honestly see us staying here at least until the top 15." says Kat as she runs her finger through her hair. Some things never change, and one of them being the fact that my sister is incredibly vain.
What also doesn't change? I know I'm going to have to kill her relatively soon. I know the Katarina has a good shot at winning this whole game. She is not even good with weapons, and yet she consistently placed high in the training ranks. She is a smart girl, and certainly not one to underestimate.
Ellie on the other hand. I have half of a mind to take her to the final two with me. Maybe she would trip and fall on her own weapon, and I wouldn't have to do a thing! Don't get me wrong, I love my sisters, truly I love them.
What I don't love though is dying, and when it all comes down to it I'll do anything to not do that again. I came so close last time. So close to actually becoming a Victor. 3rd place is such a let down to die in. 3rd place is saying "well, you were almost, almost good enough." Although I will say that second place is way worse that third.
"Can we talk about something?" ask Ellie as she sits down.
"What's up, L?" ask Kat as she is now putting her hair up into a tight bun.
"I wanted to talk about our original games. I want to know how you two did," she seemed really upset. I wonder how she did her last games.
"Well, I mean. I did okay," she Kat as she leans back against the wall that her bed is up against. "I didn't do exceptionally well or anything."
"I don't buy that." I say.
She looks at me confused, and a little hurt. She should know by now that doesn't do anything to me. I'm one of the only people in that whole family who was able to tell this girl the word "no". She is a very entitled person, and I was hoping this time in the games would make her grow up a little before I had to kill her.
"What do you mean you don't buy it?" she asks.
"Exactly what I said. You don't do as well as you did in training all these years, and then only do okay." I say.
"I agree, Kat." says Ellie.
"What the hell is this?! Gang up on Katarina day?"
"We are just saying that it doens't make sense for you to do okay when you're clearly doing exceptionally well now-"
"I got third okay?!"
There is a pause in the room, and everyone is looking off to the side. I expected Kat to do well, but I never expected her to do that well. She wasn't someone I pegged to be exceptionally strong. Let alone get third place. We might have to dissolve this alliance faster than I thought.
"What about you two?!" she snaps at us. "How'd you two do!?"
"I…" Ellie trails off as she bows her head in shame. Something tells me that this girl didn't do too hot in her first go around in this. "I got 24th."
The room fills yet again with an awkward silence that allows for more tension to become present. Kat goes over to her and wraps her arm around her.
"It's okay, girl." she says. "You've already done better this time."
"What about you, Keanu?"
"I got 10th." I say.
There is no reason for me to give away vital information. Katarina is the kind of person who plans five steps ahead, and me doing well in my last games would make her recalculate anything. I might be able to out brute her, but one thing I can't do is outthink her. She's a smart girl, and knows exactly what she's doing. It would be like me signing my own death warrant.
"Well then, now that we have that all out of the way. It's time for something to happen." says Ellie.
"What do you mean."
"It's been too quiet. Something is bound to happen today."
A voice comes on into the column, and little black seat belts appear on our beds.
"Tributes! Please buckle up! Safety first. You have 10 seconds."
We fumble with the buckle, and I hear two clicks as Ellie and strap the belts around and get them in place. Katarina is still fumbling with her.
"4, 3, 2, 1" I hear her seatbelt click. "Let's ride!"
The merry-go-round shoots up.
We are nothing without each other.
When it's said and done.
We are oceans crashing together.
The storm is on the run.
We are madness, we are beauty, we're our own redemption.
Can't let these walls come between us,
our hearts will bleed, as one.
Ava Willows, 18
District 3 Female
Joseph has been acting so weird since we made it into the games. He's been very antisocial with the rest of since the bloodbath. He didn't kill anyone, I didn't kill anyone. I mean he lost one of his siblings, but he and Jinx never seemed close.
He's sitting by the fire by himself. That's all he really does now. He keeps the fire and makes sure that everything is set to go for when someone wants to cook something. The good part about being in the Frat or Srat alliance is the fact that we have more than enough food.
I cross over to the fire and tap him on the shoulder. I just got a sinking feeling in my stomach, and I wish I could instantly take this choice back.
"What do you want, beautiful?" he says with a forced smile.
"Let's talk." I say.
I help him up, and we interlock fingers as I lead him towards the tower that started the bloodbath. It might be morbid, but the sun is starting to set, and I've always wanted to do this with him. We just never got around to actually doing it. When we get to the top he sits there, and I immediately feel him shutting down. I just want to know why. Why won't he let me help him? Why won't he realize that this is our last few days alive?
"Joseph, what's wrong?"
He makes a face and shrugs his shoulders as he shakes his head. "Nothing." he says.
"Don't tell me nothing. We've been together since we were twelve. I know when you're upset."
The fact that we have been dating longer than most marriages is a real testament of my feelings for the kid. He's special, and he makes me feel special like I can do anything. I just want to help him. That's my only concern right now, is making him feel better.
"I got my memories back." he says as he is avoiding eye contact with me.
"And…?" I ask
"I was in the first Hunger Games." he says. I let the initial shock of that sentence fall over me before he continues with what he was saying. "There was a girl, her name was Brynlee, and she was from District 10. Ava, I loved her...I'm scared to admit that I still do."
Just like that the house that I built fell, and the walls that were surrounded me closed in. I can't breathe, there is sudden change in the air, and before I know it trying to control myself as sadness is boiling over me. I will not cry. I will not show him that this has upset me more than anything ever could,
"Oh…" I say.
"These years with you have been the best of my life, Ava. They weren't a lie. I still love you. I do, I just am having to balance so many different emotions and feelings right now, and I don't know how to process them."
I just continue to stare at him. I don't know what to say. How do you begin to even talk about the boy you love loving someone else?
"This is too much." I say getting up from the edge we were dangling our feet off of. As I cross the platform I notice two things. The first, is that there are a huge flock of birds flying towards us. The second, is that they're not flying for us. They are flying towards me.
I scream, and Joseph gets up and sees the birds. He runs and tries to pull me to the cart, but when I get close enough to where I can jump in, a thousand little birds are pulling my shirt backwards towards the ledge. Screaming I try flailling my arms, but everytime I swat some away, they just switch positions. They're dead set on killing me.
"Ava! Hold on!" screams Joseph as he runs into the birds. He begins physcially pulling the birds off of my shirt as they continue to peck away. I am running in one direction, while Joseph is helping pull me, and then the birds let go. I jump into the rollercoaster cart, and turn around and see that Joseph is being surrounded by them already. They are pulling him towards the edge, but I notice he is pulling them towards the button that sends the cart soaring to the bottom.
"Joseph!" I scream as I attempt to get up out of the cart, but the seatbelt wraps around my waist, and I realize that he is already at the switch.
"I love you." he says as he pushes the button, and then birds pull him over the ledge and carry him off.
Tears are flying down my face as I watch him get taken into the sky by thousands of little black birds. Once they reach a certain height, they throw him into the air, and once again surround him. His cannon sounds, and I scream as I watch a human like structure fall near our campsite.
I run through the camp, and everyone notices I'm extremely distraught. They all follow me as I am sprinting towards where I saw Joseph land.
To my horror, when I get to the clearing, all I see is bones. Skeleton pieces that are broken apart, and no skin to show that this was once a perfect. His beautiful face that once gave me so much happiness, that I kissed so many times, is now gone. Standing before me is the bones of my one true love.
"Woah." says Ares from behind me.
A hand appears on my back, and I realize that it's Honora. The once heartless girl wears a face of pure sympathy as she brings me into a hug, and holds me. I don't know what I'm going to do now. The one thing I know that has to happen is I have to win.
I will not let him die in vain.
Night falls, and the sunset we were trying to see is gone. We watch as the seal of the Capitol plays into the night sky, and flashes the names of the fallen from today.
Joseph Aleds, District 3
Edith Blackwood, District 7
Orion Aquarius, District 7
"This is getting real." says Wyatt looking around at the group.
"Sure is." says Ares. "May they rest in peace."
I didn't plan on killing three people this chapter. It just kind of...happened. I'll explain why so many mutt deaths happened this chapter, next chapter.
Eulogies
19th Place: Orion Aquarius(Killed by Mutt)- Orion was a good tribute. I was having trouble figuring out who I needed to kill, and Red offered him up. I chose to follow through with it because through his death I was able to figure out a way for Sashen to grow. I'm excited for her new arc, and I hope you guys enjoy it to.
18th Place: Edith Blackwood (Killed by mutt)- I killed Edith this chapter, because like I said, I look at who's reading. Wizzy you've reviewed a bit, but I needed to take someone out in that alliance, and out of the three girls you were the one that I didn't see reading very often...I still love ya though man! I understand life gets busy. :D
17th Place: Joseph Aleds (Killed by mutts)- Joseph and Ava were getting annoying to write for me, and ultimately it came down to one thing. I created Joseph. So I killed him. Meh, he wasn't going to make it much further than this chapter if he didn't die here.
Surprised?
Predictions?
Cliffhanger for the Vixens! Any idea what's happening?
Keep it classy,
Caleb