Day VII

Too Far Gone

11th- Aurelia Loret, District 4 Female

When the sun rises for the Seventh day, Nan's fingers curl out towards her district partner. In her sleepy state she begins to lightly shake Aurelia awake. Since Aurelia started getting sick, she knew her time with her was running out.

Nan's conversations became one-sided and she learned to occupy her time by dreaming up stories in her head of being home. Away from this devilish place that was taking her friends left and right.

After several shakes, Nan realizes this could be it. She scooches over to her friend and wraps her small hand inside of Aurelia's. There's a pulse, but it's hardly there. Aurelia is too far gone to come back to her.

So focused on the lashes that will never swoop up to show her sea blue eyes, Nan does not even hear the girl from 7 come up behind her. In fact, she does not even notice anyone exists besides her and Aurelia until a canister rolls towards her and hits her feet. A cannon sounds when Nan turns to look at Shay Auburn behind her and Nan shudders with a broken heart. She does nothing. Says nothing. A tear just rolls down her cheek as she waits for Shay to claim her kill.

"I'm sorry about your friend," Shay says softly, "I lost mine too." The girls both stare at each other, fresh tears in their eyes. With their unspoken words, a new alliance is forged.

Nothing good in the games can ever last. Arabella knew this, but yet she kept looking at Light and seeing no end. She knew there was no way she would make it out alive and still have him by her side, but that didn't stop her from imagining having a future with him. Her friends at home always called her a hopeless romantic and for once she believed them. Her love was in fact, hopeless.

When Light decided to split to forage, she knew she could protect him. Fighting was what she was trained to do since she was a child. She came into these games willingly and yet she had no blood on her hands, yet. She wondered if that was because of Light; if he had changed her for the better, not made her into the killing machine she was made to be in District 2.

10th- Light Rivers, District 12 Male

But nothing good in the games can ever last. With her back turned she hears the faint snarl of a beast. And when she whips her head around a large monster has already mounted himself on top of Light's chest, shredding his abdomen to bits of flesh. The piercing screams from Light leave her ears ringing, but she cannot move to save him. Bella stays standing with her mouth covered and limbs frozen.

When the beast is finished it turns and stares her right in the face. Its eyes are black and cold. She hopes it will attack. To let her die knowing she couldn't save him. But instead the beast walks off into the forest, as if knowing it had done all it needed to do.

With one last final push, the doors leading out of the mines finally open and a rush of light floods into Nirvana's eyes. She falls back 10 feet onto the mine floor, unable to take in the new surroundings. These tunnels were no longer a reminiscent of her childhood back in District 12, but a reminder that she has always been trapped; back in 12, in the Capitol, in the games. She has never had control. Shit hit the fan no matter what she did to prevent it. Her family fell apart, she was reaped into the games, and her allies killed each other. None of it was her fault. So why was this happening to her?

As she lifted herself up, she realized she still only saw darkness even as the daylight filled the small section of the mine beside the mountains. She felt around until each hand had a firm grip on the ladder that would take her out of that hell hole. Slowly, she pulled her aching bones up the steps until she could smell the fresh flowers in the meadow.

Fresh air. She had waited three days to smell it again. Three days was all it took to forget the sharp smell of grass or the overwhelming smell of wildflowers. It smelled so much better than her home in 12, but with her vision gone, she took in deep breaths of this wondrous meadow and pretended that she really was home. Home with her friends, Destrey and Winnie, or home with her sister; maybe even both sides of her family. Home was all she lusted for.

9th- Nirvana Filmore, District 12 Female

Yes, home was her last thought. With her body half spilled out onto the meadow floor and the other half still in the mine, the girl from District 3 dove her knife deep into her neck, because home was not only the dream of Nirvana's, but Amelia's too. Amelia only hoped Nirvana could find that same peace somewhere else.

Day VIII

Revenge

Fear. It was for the first time in the games that Lexi had really felt the extent of this emotion. Before she had buried it deep inside her; swallowed it like a big lump of cotton in her throat and hoped she wouldn't choke on it. She was the one who was supposed to take out Julian. Not the girl from 3. She was never supposed to be the one being saved, and yet she was that girl.

Being in the final eight meant her friends and families back home were being interviewed by Flickerman. After the events that just occurred all she could picture was her father's face riddled with disappointment. Part of the reason she joined the games was for him to notice her, but not in this light.

She tried to calm herself down. She still had two kills under her belt, surely that was keeping the Capitol fulfilled for a while. There were still seven others she could get her hands on. The only problem was that she had no idea where any of them were.

She needed sleep. She stayed awake the entire night after seeing Julian's face in the skies and now that it was daylight she could barely keep her eyes open. She staked out a tree that she could sleep in. Certainly tributes would be lurking around below her since the end of the games was coming closer.

She tossed and turned in her sleep, yearning to impress the people she loved back home. Her mind thought of Riley, how she was unable to follow through with their plan, wondering if he escaped a mad Apollo. She hoped he did. As much as Riley angered her, she had a soft-spot for the boy from 3. She would prove to him she could win. Take back what she thought was hers.

8th- Lexi Miller, District 1 Female

But like the fire in her belly that was ready to fight again, flames slowly engulfed the tree she slumbered in, swallowing her in a blanket of heat. Arabella watched from below the tree as the blazes of orange and red contrasted with the purple skies. She stared for a long time, a blank look stirring in her eye, as the flames she had conjured became more and more wicked as branch after branch was overcome by fire.

Bit by bit, Arabella would become the killing machine that Light had kept her from becoming from the beginning of these games.

BOOM, another cannon sounded. The cannon he heard before he killed Ren he now knew was Julian's. He killed for Julian more than once in these games and now it was for nothing. He came into the games ready to lead, only to be kicked to the curb to become the side-kick. The boy from seven's death was supposed to push him from the top. But now he had no one to prove himself to.

His lips began to curl into a sneer as he realized how Lexi was at the heart of all of it. She always had it out for him and Julian, and he knew she would start things when he and Riley left to hunt, but he would have no idea that Julian would fall short to her.

He could redeem himself. He could kill for himself. He could kill to go home. He could kill Lexi. Those thoughts riddled his mind for hours as he scoured through the forest to make it back to the beach. Perhaps Lexi had made a run back to the camp to grab their supplies and claim whatever else was Apollo's.

So set on his journey and the thoughts that were mangled in his head, he barely noticed when Arabella Hathaway stepped in front of his path. His head shifted up to see his district partner. Her white hair which once glowed in the sunlight now looked like the color had been sucked out of it. When he looked into her eyes, he felt a hollowness that wasn't there before. This was no longer his district partner.

Apollo quickly raised his spear and threw it towards her way, the arrowhead positioned right to the middle of her chest. Before Apollo could react, his body still poised in a post-throwing position, Arabella raised her weapon as well, a hunting bow she took off of Lexi, and fired her arrow right back at him.

7th- Apollo Lunor, District 2 Male

Both were hit simultaneously. Apollo fell to the ground with an arrow to his neck and BOOM, his canon sounded. Arabella slowly fell to her knees and then onto her back, much more gracefully than her district partner. As the blood drained from her abdomen and into a pool on the forest floor, she thought about Light one last time. BOOM.

6th- Arabella Hathaway, District 2 Female

Day IX

Wreckage

5th- Nan Weatherall, District 5 Female

"There are only 4 more cannons until the end of the game," Nan says looking up at Shay. Their alliance had seemed so short-lived, only a course of two days, but their time together felt too long to split. In their grievances for their friends, they bonded almost like sisters. It was hard to make Nan smile after losing the two people who almost saved her life in the games, but somehow Shay managed. That's why Nan had to go. She couldn't see one last person die, and she most certainly couldn't do it by her own hand.

Shay looked at her feet solemnly, "I know." Nan hadn't even mentioned the words to let her know it was time to split, but Shay knew all too well what time it was. "We should split the food," Shay started.

"What food?" Nan chuckled until her stomach growled and the sorrowful look returned to her face. They had foraged and scavenged the last few days, but all that was left in their packs were a handful of berries and stale bread- neither enough to keep their bellies full until the finale.

Shay grabbed their shared backpack and pulled out their remaining rations. After some consideration, she handed it all to Nan, "you should have it. I'm better at foraging, I could find more." It was true that Shay would probably be able to find more berries, but Nan also knew that Shay was smart, and being smart would not be giving up all your food to someone you've only been allied with for two days.

Nan took a long look at Shay, wondering if she should take the food. "But, Shay is also selfless and stubborn," Nan thought to herself. If Nan didn't take the food, she knew very well that Shay would not eat it either. With that, Nan took the berries and bread and put it in her jacket pocket for later.

They were silent for a long time, until Shay leaned in to give Nan a final hug goodbye. They parted ways afterwards and Nan made her way towards the Cornucopia in the desert, hoping she could stake it out before the tributes would be driven there for a finale.

At the top of the hill, on the edge of the forest, Nan can see Shay finally going out of her sight. "Goodbye, Shay," she says. And with those words, a sword plunges into Nan's stomach, and she lets out a bloodcurdling scream.

Shay turns around sharply, her pigtails flying in the air as her head swivels to face the direction in which Nan's screams are coming from, "Nan, I'm coming!"

When she gets to the top of the hill, Shay is greeted with a pool of blood with Nan centered in the middle of it. Her abdomen split open to show all of her insides. Regardless of how gruesome, Shay runs up to hold Nan's hand in her final moments, dropping her axe and kneeling in the red liquid that has painted the ground. She sees what little life is left in her former ally's eyes, but strangely her eyes don't look back at her… but behind her.

That's when Shay realizes something is wrong. She turns right at the moment when Riley swings at her throat, his sword still dripping with the blood of Nan. BOOM. Shay doesn't even have a chance to look back at her good friend leaving before Riley lunges at her.

Shay grabs the small knife from her holster and makes a large slash on Riley's chest, "that was for Nan," she thinks to herself.

Riley doesn't even wince, he swings again, but Shay is quick enough to dodge him by falling to the ground, and Riley's sword is buried into a nearby tree. Shay fumbles for her axe beside her frantically, it's her only hope to survive. Riley pulls out his shortsword and brings it down hard towards Shay's neck. While she's able to move in time, it lodges itself deep into her shoulder. Her hands grip her axe and she swings at Riley's leg, cutting deeply until it hits bone.

Riley backs away in pain while Shay tries to remove the sword from her shoulder, sucking in her breaths sharply. When she finally gets up on her feet, she realizes she can win. Riley lies on the ground, blood oozing from his leg, while Shay centers herself over him, "this is for me to go home!" she yells. Before she can bring down her axe, Riley swiftly reaches behind himself, grabs his sword, and puts it through Shay's heart. The axe's momentum halts and Shay falls to the ground, dead, beside her friend. BOOM.

4th- Shay Auburn, District 7 Female

As soon as Shay's cannon goes off, the earth rumbles uncontrollably, as if the two girl's deaths erupted something from the ground beneath them. Riley, unable to walk, falls down the hill into the green brush below. The remaining three tributes are shaken from their living nightmare by the earthquake. This is it. The final three.

As Toth reaches shore and gets off her raft, she realizes her legs barely remember how to walk. Aside from that, she's dehydrated and weak from the lack of food on the water. But overall, she's surprised the gamemakers let her live this long without sending her back to shore. Although, there was a few treats sent her way by the gamemakers. Once she learned how to fish, they sent her the biggest meal they could: some shark-like mutation that was more interested in eating Toth for dinner. And once Toth was down to the last drinkable water she had, the gamemakers sent her a storm to help hydrate her with fresh water. The lightning was just a bonus.

Surprisingly, Toth was glad to be back on shore. If she remembered correctly, there were only two other tributes left. Toth figured she could manage them. She hadn't killed before, but she was eager to go home.

Toth lied on the ground, her sea legs still not used to holding her full weight, and grabbed bunches of wave-soaked sand with her fists. She has done it. She had managed to escape the madness in the games and only had the home-stretch left. In Toth's celebration of her achievement, she hardly realized the retreating shoreline caused by the earthquake.

When she was hungry, Toth managed the strength to get up and look around the beach for food. Kelp and beached fish littered the now expanded beach, which she gladly grabbed to eat. When she was finished eating, Toth laid her head in the sand and went to sleep. That would be the last time the audience saw Toth before the tsunami swept her away.

3rd- Toth Attaway- District 6 Female

Day X Finale

Finale

The crown was fair game. While Riley had more strength and skill than Amelia, the Capitol knew Amelia was two steps ahead of every tribute. Not to mention, Riley's leg was barely able to keep him mobile while Amelia didn't have a single scratch on her. Riley had been more experienced with kills having twice as many as Amelia, begging the question if Riley would even think twice about killing his own district partner. They both had changed tremendously throughout the games- but they both were there for one thing- to go home.

On the final day in the games, Riley and Amelia both awaited some sweep of misfortune to bring them together for the final fight- whether it be mutts, the gamemakers, or another natural disaster. But it was none of these things that wrangled them into the same space. It was, most simply, fate.

Amelia, stumbled upon her district partner at the bottom of the hill, where he was last seen by the viewers. His leg was swathed in a plastic wrap, but blood still found its way out of the clear blanket. He had only so long before the wound would be infected; it was already obvious he was weaker than before from the blood loss. Nevertheless, he had what Amelia didn't have- weapons. The small make-shift camp at the bottom of the hill was littered with heavy artillery. It was obvious Riley had been waiting for this moment, hoping maybe his prey would come to him since his leg wouldn't have allowed him the travel.

Amelia reached behind her back to grab the knife tucked into her jeans and under her shirt. She held a firm grip, hiding it stealthily behind her, knowing this small dagger and the element of surprise was all she had. "So this is it? Now we kill each other?" Amelia asked, stepping forward.

Riley straightened his posture sitting on the log, "well, I'd be honored to be your first, but I don't think I can let you go home that easy," he replied. Amelia tried not to show her sigh of relief. Riley had no idea she had the two kills under her belt, maybe under some miracle he would try to go easy on her and she'd gain the upper hand.

Riley stood, his build still powerful and overwhelming, but you could sense he was weaker than before. With his ally dead, possibly at his own hand, and his leg chopped to the bone, he had a sorrow in his eyes that was hard to look away from. Riley had fought harder than any other person in the arena to be where he is. He would be the one to come out alive. He had to after all he had been through. "Let's dance, then," Riley sputtered out, as he grabbed a knife buried into his log.

A knife fight it was, then. Amelia waited to lunge at him until he was close enough, but Riley kept his distance. It wasn't until a knife whizzed past her ear that she realized he had throwing knives instead. She barricaded herself from the flying metal objects by hiding behind a tree. She had nowhere to go… except maybe up. As she got her footing on the bottom of the tree to climb, the knife throwing stopped. She climbed faster, making it to the top of the tree, about 40 feet above the ground. Panicked, she waited for Riley to get close enough. She only had one shot to finish him.

Slowly, Riley makes it up the tree, his left leg useless in climbing and only bearing more weight. When he finally reaches Amelia he grabs her by the leg and with his last knife, begins to aim for her gut.

Quickly, Amelia slides her knife into his left eye socket, making a horrendous squelching noise. Riley screams in pain and reflexively slits Amelia's throat, cutting into a major artery. Both tributes fall down 10 feet before they grab branches to save their falls.

It would be a game of "who bleeds out first." With Amelia beginning to choke on her own blood and losing consciousness fast, it was very clear who would take home the crown. Riley hung there from the tree branch hoping it would be soon. He barely knew how long he could take being awake with the immense pain of his eye and leg at the same time, "please, just go already," He begged, now looking up at her a few branches away, "I'll take care of your family, just go."

Amelia, curled up on the higher branch, looked down at him with tears in her eyes, only to see alternating darkness and blurs. She couldn't let go yet. She wouldn't.

Then, suddenly the tree shook violently, in an aftershock from the earthquake a day before. Amelia, not ready to let go, tightened her grip the best she could. Riley, did the same, but he was not so lucky. With the shaking of the tree and his heavier weight, his branch snapped, sending him 40 feet to the ground. His head hits a rock with a CRACK- a sound that will live in Amelia's head forever.

Amelia loses consciousness before she can hear her name be announced as victor. She did her part. She held on. Now she just needs to go home.

2nd- Riley White- District 3 Male

1st- Amelia Arthurs– District 3 Female