Act 12
"Good-Bye"

Now Dezji had come up with a plan and I have to admit, I was asking myself a lot of questions as I listened to him explain it. Like did I agree with his plan? Did I feel safe with his plan? And while I agreed that I wanted to avenge Douglas' death too, I had to ask if this was the right way to get it. He had planned for me to distract Helena and Marcello, while Gavin distracts Coriander and Delphine. We would go in separate directions to spread them out. With them gone, only ones left at their camp would be Aur and Gypsy. Dezji would then go in and set fire to all their supplies. So I ask myself again, is this really a good idea? Gavin would be chased by two strong tributes, risking his life. I would be chased by two strong tributes. Still, I couldn't think of a better plan to punish them for taking Douglas' life in such a cruel manner.

The second night in the arena came and went. I could barely get any sleep. The next morning came with the songs of the mockingjays. It was a beautiful way to start a horrible day, I say.

"Ready?" asked Dezji.

He had already been awake before I had woken up. Gavin was still sleeping peacefully where he had all night. Dezji might have been upset at losing a friend, but he didn't put any of that anger on us. In fact, he was incredibly calm around Gavin, maybe because it was his brotherly instinct. He was defiantly patient with the kid.

I nodded my head at Dezji's question and went to wake Gavin up. Our plan was set to begin when the Careers were still waking up. If we could catch them when they were still a bit groggy, we might have a chance at pulling this off.

And without much idle chit-chat, we set our plan in motion. I went around the west side, while Gavin went around the east and Dezji from the north. I was to gather their attention first.

"Hey, you District Two assholes!" I shouted.

I couldn't see them from where I stood, but Dezji had signaled to me they were there. I could only trust him and continue on.

"Helena, you already killed four people in a ruthless fashion, one of them being a fellow career," I continued to shout. "So answer me this, how does it feel to be the biggest bitch in the entire Games?"

I guess I must have set her off as she finally came into view out from in the Cornucopia. Behind her stood Marcello and Coriander. She looked pissed. And without even answering me, she began to charge; her sword already drawn.

"Shit," I muttered, turning tail and running.

"Let her go, Helena!" I could hear Marcello call out to her, but Helena didn't appear to be having any of it.

I turned my head slightly to get a glance of what was behind me. No surprise, Helena was chasing me through the trees. And much to my happiness and somewhat fear, Marcello had also taken chase. Now I could only hope for Gavin to pull off getting Coriander and Delphine away and for Dezji to start the fire.

I continued to run, listening to the sounds of the thuds of feet following me. I felt like I was in a horror novel, being chased by a monster. Actually, I was being chased by a monster; two in fact. And if they caught me, I would indeed be ripped apart, brutally killed for millions to watch. It was the real-life horror novel, the Hunger Games.

"Get back here!" snapped Helena.

"Ah, no!" I shouted back.

Like I would totally just stop in my tracks and let the monsters of District Two kill me. It is hard to answer, but I would have to go with a big, fat N-O.

"Helena, think about it," called out Marcello from behind. "This feels like a trap!"

He was right there. It was a trap and it defiantly felt like it too. We hadn't done a good job hiding it.

"Helena!"

Marcello's cry seemed a bit less argumentative and more out of fear and surprised. Stealing a glance back, I knew why. Dezji had done his job and black smoke had begun to pile upwards from the center of the arena, right where the Cornucopia was. Helena apparently upon hearing Marcello and seeing me smirk, had stopped and turned back. I continued to run away, getting as much distance between me and them, but I did see Helena's shocked body language as I got away. Helena and Marcello began to race back to the Cornucopia, while I ran to our planned meeting place south of the Corncucopia.

Upon arriving there, I came only to see Dezji.

"Where's Gavin?" I asked.

"He hasn't returned yet," said Dezji.

That was a big concern. Our plan was that Delphine and Coriander would give up the chase of Gavin and return to the Corncucopia after seeing the fire. If that was the case, it still wouldn't have taken Gavin so long to get back. The only idea I could think of was that Delphine and Coriander got him before the fire was set.

"I'm going to go look," I said.

I went to run towards the east, where Gavin had went, but Dezji had grabbed my arm. I whipped around to snap at him for stopping me, but instead quieted when he put his finger to his lips to silence me. He then went to point towards the Cornucopia. Upon further look, I noticed Coriander and Delphine had returned. They were dragging a struggling figure behind them.

"Gavin!" I whispered.

I went to run out to help him, but Dezji held me back. I could only assume because Helena and Marcello had also come back. With the fire still going and all six of them there, it was dangerous to head out into the open. Still, I wanted to help Gavin, but Dezji held me back.

"This your idea?" asked Delphine to Gavin.

Gavin kept his mouth shut as he struggled in Coriander's grasp. Delphine and Aur just chuckled at Gavin's uncomfortableness. Helena went to draw her sword from her holster, but Marcello stopped her.

"Do you always have to turn to your sword whenever you get angry?" asked Marcello.

"He's right," said Aur. "I have a better idea."

She walked up to Gavin and placed her hand on his shoulder. Even at a distance, I could see her hand had been wrapped from the injury caused by Douglas. Gavin, even as the sweet little boy he looked like, let loose a nasty sneer at the District One tribute.

"Are you going to tell us where your friends are?" asked Aur.

Gavin continued to glare at Aur, as if answering her with only that angry look in his eyes. Aur just chuckled and raised her hand. She looked at it for a bit, like she was contemplating something. Seconds after doing so a loud sound echoed through the clearing. Mockingjays flew from the area, running away from the assaulting sound. Aur had smacked Gavin right across the cheek, leaving a large red mark outstretched across his cheek. Gavin's body fell limp to the pain I could only imagine. Aur might have looked weak, but I had a feeling she was hiding a lot of strength inside of her. Aur went on to grab the dark-skinned boy be his black hair. She continued to drag closer to the fire.

"She isn't going to do what I think she is, is she?" I asked in a whisper.

I turned to Dezji for an answer, but he instead continued to look forward at the scene. I couldn't tell if he was scared or curious about what was about to happen. I turned back to see Gavin terrifyingly close to the still heavily burning fire.

"Well, here's your punishment," said Aur.

Without a single hesitation, she pushed Gavin far into the flames. Dezji covered my mouth as I went to scream. My mind went blank after that. I don't remember much of what happened, though I remember Gavin's screams. He was screaming out my name, crying "Calico, Dezji! Help me!" as he burned alive.

Dezji ended up pulling me away from the scene as I continued to remain a blank mind.

"We let him burn," I muttered. "You let him burn."

I turned to Dezji and pulled my arm from his grasp.

"I wanted to help him and you let him burn!" I shouted.

Dezji just sighed and shoved a bag into my arms. I hadn't noticed at first, as I was too preoccupied with Gavin, but Dezji had managed to grab a few bags from the Careers before burning their stash.

"You reveal yourself and everyone dies. I'm sorry, but I prefer living over dying. Besides, we avenged Douglas and that is all I set out to do," he said in a cold manner. "There is a slingshot in there for you. Now we can split our ways."

Before I could protest, Dezji left. I just ended up standing there alone in shock. Because I followed Dezji and let Gavin do so too, Gavin is dead. It is partially Dezji's fault for letting Gavin die, but it is also my fault for leading Gavin to his death. I fell to the ground thinking of how was going to be able to live with the idea I let a 13-year old kid die like that.

So there is Act 12. What do you think? Poor Gavin. I didn't want to describe his death any further because I felt like I was going to cry. I was debating whether to kill off Gavin or Dezji, but with Gavin's age, it ended up being him.

So here are a few things I have noticed in this fandom that are bugging me. I submit OC's under a separate account set aside for doing just that. With this account, I have submitted to over 200 different stories. And of those 200 stories, I have submitted to multiple, and I mean multiple, Hunger Games SYOC's. A few trends I have noticed with Hunger Games stories in particular make me want to stop submitting to them though.

1.) Their form. The form is usually a lengthy form with unnecessary information. Is the author so lazy they cannot come up with their own interview costumes or chariot costumes? The long forms make it feel like the author just wants the submitters to write the story themselves. I do not want to have to fill out how my character dies, "if they die", because I want to be surprised when they die.

2.) Also, don't say you're going to randomize the dying order. That makes no sense. What if the strongest tribute ends up dying first because of your randomization? It won't work with the story. Besides we all know your District 12 girl you created is going to win the story.

3.) The Sponsoring Systems. Come on people! To quote David12341, it is just crying a GMFR-story at that point. The sponsoring system never works out for a story, instead just makes it more difficult to maintain the story. One of the many reasons I will not ever have one. I am just too lazy to keep it up, like most fanfiction writers.

4.) The first 24 chapters are all just the POV of the tributes being reaped. I find having to read a 300 word chapter of a poor attempt at my OC quite annoying. They all seem to be the same anyway. When my District Two crude and ill-tempered girl's opinion of the Games sound exactly like another person's sweet and innocent District Seven girl, there is a problem. Besides, usually the story doesn't last long enough to get through all 24 tributes' POVs.

PS: There are 904 SYOCs/SYOTs, not considering multiples, and only 62 are finished.

QUESTION: Are you guys also annoyed by this stuff or am I alone?

Deaths in this Chapter:

*Gavin - Placed 14th; Killed by Aur.