A/N: This is the first chapter for The monster within us remake. Enjoy.

Ten years ago

The 129th Hunger Games

District Ten's Druid Ray's POV

I couldn't believe it, I just couldn't fucking believe it. After eight days in hell, Saddy and I were the only ones left alive. Despite the odds, despite that there were twenty two other tributes, in which six of them were trained killers, we had somehow survived against everything that had been thrown at us.

I know that I said that I'd protect Saddy and lead her to victory, but I never in my wildest dreams thought that I'd make it this far. I expected to die in the final twelve, then I expected to die in the final eight, then the final four. I never expected that it would just be Saddy and I left in the arena.

It was a good feeling, but one mixed in with sadness as I knew what the future looked like for me.

I could still hear and feel my heart racing as it pumped the much needed blood into my body. I could still feel the air make it's way painfully into my chest due to my heavy breathing, my excitement. My sight was full of multi-coloured blobs that ever so slowly disappeared to clearly revel the scene in front of me.

I didn't need to see in order to see what was in front of me though, I knew that my enemy was dead, I had heard the cannon fire to signal the death of who I wanted dead, but my body still wanted to move, my mind was rushing with a million thoughts a second. I couldn't think straight, all I could think of was fighting and only fighting. My body was on a rush, it felt good, but it also felt wrong. I didn't stop it though, I let it flow it's course with little resistance.

I continued to stab my knife at the dead tribute, feeling the resistance of her flesh as my knife cut through it. It was just like my other fights, I just didn't know when to stop. I didn't want to stop, I just wanted to keep going, it just felt so good for some reason. Each stab to her chest gave me a rush of joy as I felt the knife sink into her flesh, as I felt her warm blood splash onto my hands, my arms, my chest, and my face.

"Druid," Saddy's voice called out to me, no louder then a whisper, but at the same time, it was one of the loudest noises I had ever heard. "She's dead."

"I know." I said as I continued to sink the knife into her body, feeling the pleasant warmth of fresh blood splash onto my body.

"Then stop doing that." She pleaded with her whisper and shout. It was strange to hear the volume of her voice like that.

I stopped, but only for her, if it were up to me I'd still be stabbing this body, it just felt that good for some reason.

I breathed in and out some more, trying to calm myself down, get myself away from my primal instincts and come back to reality again. My breathing grew softer as my heart slowed down and the spots in front of me slowly disappeared, allowing me to see the world clearly again.

I felt Saddy's hands wrap around my chest as she said

"Come on Druid, let's go." I managed to stand up with her help, the burning pain of my injuries getting to me now that I was out of my animal like state. I saw the bright red blood on my hands and knew that most of it wasn't mine, it was from the one I had slayed.

But the burning sensation that I felt was my own. I looked down to see all the deep cuts that I received in the arms, the one long, wide cut that I received to my stomach that threatened to spill my guts out of my body if I moved the wrong way even once. I placed my right hand over my stomach to hold in my guts in, or at least keep in as much as I could. My chest was also covered with cuts and blood and holes, I didn't have long to live with all this blood pouring out of me.

But as I looked beyond myself, I knew that my injuries were nothing compared to the one that laid before me. The girl from District One, also known as Gold, laid in the bloody plain of grass as her blood pooled around her body. The injuries that Saddy and I gave her were much more intense then the ones that I, or even Saddy, had received, but that still didn't mean that the wounds that Gold had given us weren't harmless.

Gold Evergreat had two bloody holes where her eyes should have been, her face was so cut up and caved in that even her mother wouldn't recognize her now, even her hair had turned from the bright sun like colour it had been to a dark red, formed from her own blood, and the blood of her victims. The teeth that she used to smile with, the ones that seemed to sparkle whenever she opened her mouth, were all missing, scattered somewhere in the field around us. And that wasn't even mentioning the rest of the cuts and holes and guts and bones sticking out of her body like some sort of grotesque Capital clay art model.

Gold's body looked like it had been chewed apart by wild dogs, about half of her skin was missing, her ears were missing, not all of her fingers were sill attached, flaps of skin gently moved in the direction of the summer breeze, some of her limbs were twisted into impossible angles.

Even to me right now, it was hard to imagine how the two of us could have possibly done that to that girl. How could we of twisted her body into that shape and form? I didn't think about it too much, this was the Hunger Games, and things like this have happened before. Nothing is impossible in the games.

"Druid," Saddy, her voice much clearer then before, much more normal sounding now, said to me with sadness in her voice. "We're the only two left."

"I know." I told her painfully. We were the only two left, and that meant that one of us was either going to have to kill the other, or one of us was going to have to commit suicide.

I turned around to look at my district partner, my friend, the girl I loved, and saw that her face was full of pain. The pain on her face wasn't from her left eye missing, or the fact that her face had a huge diagonal slash across it, or from the other numerous cuts across her body. No, her pain was from sadness, and I bet I had the same painful look on my face as well.

I knew what this as about, because I had the same thoughts rushing through me head as well.

"We have choices Druid," Saddy told me with tears building up in her eyes. I knew what those choices were, but that didn't mean that I wanted her to say or do any of them. I already made up my mind long ago. "We can either fight to the death," she said as I clutched my bloody knife tightly. "One of us can kill themselves so that the other will live," I started to lift my knife up so that I could get the deed done. I wanted it to be over, for the both of us. "Or we can die together." She said.

I stopped raising my knife in surprise. This was unexpected.

"What?" I asked her, wondering what she was thinking.

I saw her pull out her own seven inch combat knife and held the point to my throat. I could feel the cold steel, mixed with some warm blood, on my skin as she began talking again.

"We can kill each other," she told me calmly, like she wasn't talking about the both of us dying in the next minute or so."If we both can't go out, then none of us should win this damn game."

"Is this a joke?" I asked her with deadly seriousness. "If it is I'm not laughing, you think that we can just pull off a Katniss and Peeta stunt like that? You think that I'm stupid? Am I a Peeta to you?" I shouted that last sentence angrily at her. It was so loud that I could hear the echoes perfectly, even after the first three echoes, until it disappeared completely, somewhere in the grassy plain that seemed to stretch forever in every direction.

Last time someone pulled a stunt like this was back in the seventy fourth Hunger Games, a sixteen year old Katniss Everdeen and a sixteen year old Peeta Melark were supposedly in love with each other, but it turned out to be one sided. While Peeta Melark loved Katniss Everdeen with all his heart, or so it seemed, Katniss Everdeen was nothing but a manipulator and a heartless bitch. When they threatened the Capital with a double suicide, the Capital accepted their challenge, and won. Couldn't say I was surprised.

It turned out that fire bitch didn't really love camo boy. The berries proved it. Peeta ate the nightlock berries, but Katniss didn't. She manipulated everyone in order to survive.

Was I about to know how Peeta felt when he went to where ever the hell he went? Was I about to be betrayed by the girl I was trying to save?

"I'm not fooling around Druid," she calmly, gently said as she looked down at my knife. I looked down at my knife as well as she grabbed it with her free hand and raised it to her throat. "I'm serious about this, wither you, or the Capital approves of this, I'm not a Katniss Everdeen, and your not a Peeta Melark. I'm Saddy Neo, eighteen, resident of District Ten, and your Druid Ray, Seventeen, resident of District Ten and the best kid I know." My heart filled with joy hearing those words from her. But I still had my doubts.

"What makes you think that I should believe you?" I asked "Katniss said the same thing before making Peeta commit suicide."

"Because I promise you," she simply said "and when have I ever broken a promise to you?" Never. You always kept your promises, even in this hell hole, you kept your promises. Something that rarely ever happened.

"Okay." I told her before she lowered her knife to my stomach.

"At the same time." She said, lowering her knife to my stomach.

"Yeah." I told her, knowing what to do.

"I promised," she said to me "now what about you?" After all this, there's no way that I'd not do this.

"I promise you." I told her with every feeling that was inside me.

"Good," she replied happily. "I'll count down. We stab each other on one."

"Sure." I told her, not caring how we did this. And even though I believed her, I crossed my fingers just in case she pulled a Katniss stunt on me.

"Ten." She started. "Nine." Did she really mean it though? How do I know that she wasn't manipulating me like Katniss did with Peeta? "Eight." No, she wouldn't, she never breaks a promise. But Katniss did act pretty good when she pretended to be in love with her district partner. "Seven." Was this all an act? Had I fallen into her trap? "Six." I loved her, but did she love me back? Did she really love me back? Was this all fake? "Five."

Had she just manipulating me this whole entire time?

I stabbed her in the stomach before twisting the blade and ripping the weapon out of her gut.

I gasped at what I had just done as the situation dawned on me like a stampede of animals hitting all over my body.

I felt terrible, I had just stabbed her on a whim.

I dropped my knife in shock as Saddy feel to her knees.

"Saddy!" I shouted as I grabbed her and hugged her tightly with my arms. What had I done? "I'm sorry Saddy!" I cried to her, feeling the tears in my eyes burn me. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Why did I do that? Why did I stab her like that? She was the one that I had protected this entire time. She was the one that was supposed to live, the one that was supposed to get out of here alive.

We had only known each other for the past two weeks or so, but I felt closer to her then I ever felt for any other girl.

I protected her from every danger in this whole damned arena, I killed people, other kids, to protect her. We were supposed to kill each other at the same time, and yet, I stabbed her so soon.

All this time I was worried about her betraying me, but in reality, I was the betrayer.

Why? Why did this happen? How did this happen?

I grabbed the knife in her hands and pulled it, but it wouldn't come out of her hands. I tried again, but she held on to that knife with an iron grip. "Let go Saddy!" I shouted "I need to make this right!" I tried to pry the knife from her, but she continued to hold.

Let go damn it! I need you to stab me! I need to let at least your knife stab me!

"Druid," she said weakly, but happily for some reason. "You did make it right."

I was confused by her words, what did she mean that I made it right? I betrayed her, how was that making everything right?

"wha-" I said confused "what do you mean?"

"Because Druid, I'm not ready to be a Hunger Game champion." She explained. "Or rather, I simply can't be the next champion."

"But," I thought we were going to kill each other, it was her idea after all. "We were going to die together."

Saddy gave out a weak cough, sending out a small amount of blood from her mouth, to my arms.

"Druid, I'm not strong enough to survive in this world anymore. You however, are." She then gave out a weak laugh that sounded painful for her to even do. "This is probably the worst time to say this, but I really do love you Druid, even though we've only known each other for fifteen days."

I cried even harder.

"I love you to Saddy." I told her.

"And Druid," She weakly said "I was never going to stab you anyway." Her saying that, only made me feel worse.

I held on to her for the last seconds of her life before she expired. Her cannon fired, telling me that she was dead, because of me.

"I now give you the winner of the One hundred and twenty ninth Hunger Games," the announcer's stupid voice boomed through the arena. "Druid Ray!"

I had won, but at what cost? I thought I was protecting her, so my actions were justified, that's what I thought when I killed my first victim. I told myself, you're protecting Saddy, they were trying to kill her, you have to protect her from these monsters.

But looking back now, even just a minute ago, I saw that I was also a monster. I started out as many of the other kids back home, scared and unwilling to kill anyone.

I made my first kill on the first day of the arena, back then, I was a scared kid that was horrified when I killed Cane Kellar, the boy from District Six. Back then, after I killed him, I just couldn't believe that I killed another kid, it haunted me, it sent chills down my entire body to think that I had taken another kid's life.

But I had changed from that scared kid that I once was, to someone that would murder and mutilate another teenage girl so badly that her mother wouldn't recognize her before stabbing the girl that I loved, simply because I didn't trust her for a second. I was a murderer and a betrayer.

I now realized that I was a monster as well, and protecting Saddy didn't justify anything.

I now realized that while I was worried about her becoming a Katniss Everdeen, I was actually the fire bitch in another body. This entire time, I had played the game with my own selfish reasons guiding me.

I also realized now, why decent people never win the games.

Six months later.

I watched the third quarter quell for the, who knows what the number is, I just know I've watched it many many times, watching the former victors go back into the arena because the Capital wanted to show that even the strongest couldn't take down the Capital.

Everyone that thought they were safe from the Capital's reach, were actually now the ones in danger.

Wither it was just a fluke, or because President Snow changed the quarter quell card I did not know, but it the perfect time to kill Katniss Everdeen, the girl who manipulated the Capital.

I read in some Capital history books that Katniss was still kind popular in the Capital, even though she betrayed the boy who loved her, and had an influence in the increasing levels of rebellious acts throughout Panem. Even though she was a lair, traitor, selfish bitch, she was the icon of Panem for the short while she was still alive.

It made me sick to think that this girl was the influence of the, not even started, second rebellion. There were so many things that could of started a rebellion, and this girl was the catalyst? Not the hunger? Not the deaths? Not the Capital? Not the games? But her? sickening.

What did she do that was so special? Love in the arena? No, that was fake. Try and challenge the Capital with those berries? That had been a failure. Showed pity for her little ally Rue? Others had done it before her.

Maybe it was when District Eleven sent her a gift for showing that she cared about Rue, or maybe it was what the twenty four victors did during the interviews of the third quarter quell, held each others hands like a chain that was linked together, to symbolize that the districts were once one, and they could be one again if they all worked together. That could of been it.

I just couldn't understand how she could of started something so big.

On screen, I watched the bloodbath for the seventy fifth Hunger Games begin.

Some tributes dived into the water immediately after the gong sounded, others were hesitant, but they all jumped in eventually. After all, they couldn't stay where they were forever.

The tributes that reached the cornucopia soon discovered that the only supplies it held were weapons. The Capital was going for a quick game, no messing around with backpacks of food, water, medicine, or protective shelter, they wanted the games to be done and over with as quickly as possible.

I could see why they needed to do that, history says that the third quarter quell was unpopular among the Capital audience, as they were going to miss their precious victors, idols, sex toys, and so called friends. But they were also trying to kill Katniss Everdeen in hopes that it would put out the fire she started.

The bloodbath took out the weak, the old, the drunks and the drug addicts while leaving only the strong left to fight.

Among the strong were two main alliances, the anti-careers that consisted of District Three's Betee Micro and Wires Coil, District Four's Finnick Odar, District Seven's Johanna Mason, and District Twelve's Katniss Everdeen. The other alliance, the careers, consisted of District One's Cashmere Sparkle and Gloss Sparkle, and District Two's Brutus Maximums and Enobaria Vice.

District Four's Mags Kale, District Seven's Blight Oak, and District Twelve's Haymitch Abernathy, I suspected, were going to be in the anti-career alliance, but Mags got speared in the back by Brutus while Blight ran into the force field as blood rain fell from the sky while Haymitch easily got disposed of by the District One twins.

Slowly, one by one, for the next three days, the careers killed off the anti-careers and anyone else they could find.

The anti-careers main fighters were Katniss Everdeen, Finnick Odar, and Johanna Mason, those three were the front line warriors while Betee and Wires were support.

The anti-careers had been planing something, as they were setting something up before the careers attacked them.

The epic fight between the careers and the anti-careers was quick and brutal, but both sides took major casualties.

Katniss, taken by surprise, was useless at close range as she got stabbed in the neck by Enobaria. Enobaria was then skewered by one of Finnick's tridents as Johanna single handedly fended herself against the District One twins.

The twins attacked as one, and while District Seven's only living female victor managed to defend herself against one attack, the other got through to her and sliced through her neck.

Gloss, having a second mouth also appear across his neck, started to bleed out. Cashmere, momently stunned by her brother's unstoppable death, got stabbed in the back of the head by Finnick.

The final showdown between Finnick and Brutus was the climax of the quarter quell. Finnick, despite being younger then Brutus, just couldn't fight the sharp reflexes and over whelming strength of the older victor.

After killing Finnick with his own Trident, Brutus gleefully murdered the District Three pair, claiming that he never liked them anyway.

I shut the T.V off and sighed.

"And that's," I said to myself "is how you kill the second rebellion." I said that every time I finished watching the third quarter quell, it was like a tradition for me now.

As I sat in my victor house, I thought of what the events of the rebellious acts of some of the districts, mine included, did for the districts of Panem.

Because of that girl, that fire bitch, the districts only became worse then they were before. I don't know what happened to the other districts, but I know that just by my home, things have gotten worse. My grandparents, who lived through the changes following the rebellious acts of the district, said that poverty in the district became higher, starvation rates soared while the number of peacekeepers increased and more people were whipped, tortured, and publicly executed.

Our lives had gone down the drain because of that girl.

But in a way, I was glad that it had happened. After all, it was bound to of happened at one time or another, since the tension was high before. The rebellion was done and over with, and now we were suffering even more, but at least we all knew that it was impossible to defeat the Capital now.

We weren't going to go on any rebellions, we weren't going to make our lives any harder then they already were, we weren't going to sacrifice more lives in vain, we were just going to live.

Now here we are, living like nothing had ever happened. The Capital continues to rule us, and the Hunger Games continue.

Katniss Everdeen, the girl on fire. A fitting name for her since she was the one who created wild fire across this damn country. She was a beacon of hope, but all she was was an unsteady oil lamp that fell and burned her home before spreading it's inferno to her neighbors.

But for all she had done to everyone, Katniss Everdeen somehow remained a symbol, an idol, unforgettable. While Saddy, who was a better person then Katniss could ever be, was nothing more then another, forgotten tribute in the arena.

Guess the only tributes that get remembered are monsters.

No. We're all monsters in our own way.

Hell, even Saddy was a monster for letting me kill her and leaving me in this dreadful world. And while I did want to join her in the afterlife, I wasn't going to let her gift of life go to waste.

A/N: Well, I'm this chapter here just to show you that I really wasn't giving up on this story.

So, what do you all think of the first chapter remake? Constructive criticism is appreciated. Everyone, do your worst, tell me anything that is wrong with this. I want to be proud of this fic, and I also want all of you to be satisfied with it as well.

Don't expect any updates anytime soon. Don't expect the new story to be posted anytime soon.