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Taima Larkin
District Ten Female, 17 Years Old

"Where are you?!"

Screaming at the top of my lungs, I raise my machete in the air, trying to find out where Cerise and Liora are hiding out. After the earthquake yesterday, the arena is in shambles, with everything being more visible.

In the distance, I see where the Games all started, back at the circular section of stone. There are still the pedestals, the few remaining supplies that we fought over. The place where Garret was killed. Not too far away from where I killed Zimmer.

I chuckle.

Zimmer. Ardell.

Who will be my next victim?

Cerise? Liora?

Hopefully both.

Jumping down from the piece of stone, I land on my feet, and once I do, I feel the ground shake softly. Shrugging, I take another step forward, and once I do, it shakes again. After taking my last step, it starts to shake more incessantly. Rolling my eyes, I take off into a light jog, knowing what the Gamemakers are doing.

Towards the center – that's where we're going.

They tried that yesterday, but it only resulted in one death; the girl from District Two. I won't die from these pitiful earthquakes. I won't die at all.

Dodging pieces of flying stone here and there, I make my way towards the center, the idea of seeing Cerise and Liora exciting me. I haven't seen them in a while. I missed them, in a way. The last encounter I had was with Ardell.

I leap from one piece of stone to another, landing on my feet. Peering down, I see that I'm above where the Bloodbath occurred. Once I jump down, I see my friends coming. Cerise is sprinting through the cracks of a stone, a sword in her hand. Liora joins us too, a small blade in her hand. We all have weapons, then.

This should be… fun.

When the ground stops shaking, we all stand a few feet away from one another. I smile at Cerise and Liora.

"Hi, ladies. How is everyone?"

They don't say anything. So, I keep going.

"I'm doing well."

"Don't annoy me," Cerise interjects. "You're already pushing it."

"Aw."

"Unless you want me to kill you."

"As if," I say, scoffing. "Don't make me laugh."

"You won't be laughing once I come over there."

"That doesn't frighten me."

"It should."

"I'm the crazy bitch around here. Not you," I say, gritting my teeth at Cerise. She scoffs now, rolling her eyes as she tips the sword side-to-side in her hand. "Do you not believe me, Cerise?"

Cerise shakes her head, a pompous grin on her face. "Do you believe her, Liora?" She asks, craning her neck and glancing over shoulder. "Don't think we forgot about you over there."

Liora opens her mouth, but as she speaks, she stutters with her words. She stares at me, wide-eyed. She looks like an injured puppy, yet neither of us has even laid a finger on her yet. I chuckle, directing my attention back to Cerise. This is between Cerise and I right now, and if she doesn't hurry things up, I will. I'm done wasting time here.

I want to get out of here.

I've had enough of all this bullshit.

"You're first," I say, pointing my machete at Cerise. She chuckles. "I'm not kidding."

Raising the machete in the air, I go right for Cerise. I bring the machete down, wanting to get right into the fighting. I don't want to wrestle or kick. I don't want to punch or pull hair. I want to use my machete.

And I want her to use her sword.

I want to make things interesting.

There's the sound of metal coming into contact, and as my vision focuses on her, I see her holding her sword out in front of her. I smirk, seeing in her eyes that she won't give up. That she was prepared to fight. Putting more weight on my machete, I push her sword, trying to make her hands slip.

She jumps backwards, my machete flying forward, but not hitting anything. I look back up, and as she tries to cut me with her sword, I dodge it, lightly swinging my machete. She spins around, once again dodging my attack, and swings her sword. I chuckle as I watch it miss me completely and send my hand into her wrist. Her hand is pushed backwards, and when it's far enough away from me, I strike with my machete.

"That was stupid," Cerise says, and before I can realize the mistake I have made, her sword comes back around, coming into contact with my shoulder. It cuts my shoulder all the way down to my elbow, and when I try to retract my arm with the machete, she strikes again.

This time, she aims for my chest. She cuts it, but the severity of it I can't tell. My upper-body… It all hurts. I can't let that distract me, though… I have to keep fighting.

"Give up," Cerise says, already confident that she won. I struggle, not letting her have the satisfaction. "Just die."

My vision gets blurry, and when I try to swing my machete, she knocks it out of my hand. I scramble to get away from her, but she pulls at my hair, forcing me down to the ground. I can't do anything… I can't move. It all hurts.

"Do you see this, Liora?" Cerise calls out, but Liora keeps quiet. "Watch carefully."

Cerise puts her sword right in front of my chest, and when I try to swat it away, I can barely move my arm. It's all numb now. Cerise shoves her face in mine, whispering something that I can't hear. When Cerise thrusts the sword forward, I close my eyes, only seeing black now.

It all goes dark. This doesn't scare me, though.

I was never afraid of anything.

Not even dying.

Liora Marcette
District Six Female, 16 Years Old

"Just me and you left, honey."

Cerise stands up from being on her knees, tearing the machete out of Taima's hands. Cerise's sword is in Taima's chest, the blood still profusely pouring out of her body. The pool around is getting larger, and Cerise steps away, her knees soaked in Taima's blood.

"Did you enjoy the show?" Cerise asks, a crooked grin on her face. "I did."

My fingers twitch around my blade, not sure whether Cerise really wants me to answer. I open my mouth, but no words come out. I don't know what she wants me to say… Or to do. I realize that this is where we fight, where the Victor is decided. This is what it's all come down to.

"You used to talk so much," Cerise says, turning this into a more informal conversation. "What happened? Did the Games harden you?"

"No," is all that I manage to come up with. "No."

"Then, what?"

"I don't want to talk," I deadpan, knowing that she probably doesn't want to talk either. After seeing what she has done to Taima, I know that she is ready to fight. Ready to kill me too.

Cerise holds the machete in front of her, looking at herself in the reflection from the metal. "What shall we do, then?"

"Don't play stupid," I snap, the nerves and anxiety getting to me. I don't want to fight her, but I know that I have to. That's the only way to get out of this arena, to get away from her. "You want to kill me."

"Everyone has," she says, a little too quickly in response. "No one has ever liked you here, you know that?"

"My allies did."

Cerise spits out laughter, her facial expression distorting. "Are you kidding? You were only a piece of meat for the boys and a whore to the girls."

I shake my head in disbelief – I meant more than that to them. I survived just as long as Darya and Caelia did. I even survived longer than Trent and Darien. Larron, too. I'm still here.

I'm still surviving.

"That isn't true," I say, realizing that my argument is weak. That I'm not my witty and sarcastic self anymore. I don't have it in me… To be the girl that got me into the Careers. "I'm more than that."

"Don't delude yourself, Liora. I thought you were smarter than that."

I am.

I am smarter than that.

Staring at Cerise, I inhale a deep breath, getting upset by her words. No one's ever spoke to me like that… I'm sure people thought poorly of behind my back, but not once ever did they confront me about it. I don't like the way she is speaking to me.

"Aw, did I hurt your feelings?"

"Shut up," I snap, the anger getting to me now. It's not nervousness or anxiety anymore. "Don't patronize me."

"There you go!" Cerise says in a cheery voice. "I've finally evoked some emotion from you. You look better with a scowl on your face."

"I don't like you," I say, gripping the blade in my hand tightly. "I really fucking hate you."

Cerise makes a pouty face, titling her head to the side and looks me up and down. "No one does, darling."

"I can see why."

As Cerise stares me, she goes quiet. She stands there, the machete still in her hand, looking me up and down repeatedly. I fix the hair that has fallen in front of my face, pulling it behind my ears. I feel uncomfortable after a while, shaking with a mixture of emotion as she stares at me.

"I can see why the boys like you," Cerise comments, finally looking up at my eyes again. "How many have used you? You can tell me."

Clenching down my teeth, I raise the blade, my muscles tensing up. I shake my head, trying to not let her words get to me, but I can't help it. Is that all I am to people? Another pretty face? A bubbly girl that people use?

Do I have that little worth?

"No," I say aloud, responding to my own thoughts. The frustration with Cerise builds up in me, and as I take a step forward, I don't think about my actions anymore. I have to fight her. I have to kill her.

I have to go home.

"You're so young, Liora. You've wasted any potential you had."

And, with that, I charge towards her. I catch her off-guard for a moment, only scraping her shoulder with my blade. She kicks me in the knee, making me buckle over, everything happening so quickly. I shoot back up, watching the metal swipe nearly an inch away from my face. She grunts, and with another kick to my knee, I'm sent flying backwards.

I manage to get up, surprising myself with how quick I am. I never thought I had it in me… I always have, haven't I? This anger. This frustration. Towards Cerise, towards people who don't believe in me, towards myself.

Swiping the blade in front of me again, I feel Cerise grab at my wrist, but I pull it down and avoid her grasp. She sends a fist right into my jaw, and when she tries to kick me again, I jump to the side. Sending my own fist into her neck, she stumbles backwards, coughing. When she comes at me again, I jab her again in the throat and then sending the blade towards her face.

Trent taught me that.

To the throat, he said. Then your fist.

The blade cuts her cheek, and as the blood drips down her cheek, she smiles. It's a smile that I'll always remember – the type that you see in your nightmares. It's as if she's enjoying this. Cerise brings her machete upwards, slicing the lower part of my leg. It burns for a second, and when I put more pressure on it, I squeal in pain.

"How does that feel?" Cerise asks, the blood still dripping down the side of her face. "Does it hurt?"

She's only teasing you.

Don't let her get to you.

Cerise backs up, wiping the blood from her cheek with her hand. Looking down at my leg, I see my suit turning a darker color, the blood coming out quickly. I ignore that, focusing all of my energy on Cerise. She stands there, and when I notice her heel lift up from the ground, I know that she's going to attack me again.

When she does take a leap towards, I jump to the side, sending the blade in the back of her leg. Before she can fall down, I rip the blade out, and for the first time, I hear Cerise feel the pain. She gasps, clutching onto her leg, the machete still in her hands. She blindly swings out in front of her, and I back up, not wanting to get hit by it.

"You bitch," she spits, falling to her knees. As she gets up, her whole body shakes, and before I can go at her again, she holds the machete towards me. "You…"

"No," I say, cutting her off. "You are the bitch, Cerise. You deserve to die."

"I do," she says, her voice almost a whisper. "I do deserve to die, don't you see? Just not by your hands."

Cerise thrusts the machete forwards, but she trips over her own leg. She falls to the ground, trying to grab at my ankle, and as she does, I swing my blade at her. I pull it away, sending my foot down onto her wrist. I hear a crack, and when Cerise pulls it back, I know that must have hurt. She deserves that.

"Get up, Cerise," I retort, watching her squirm on the ground. She tries to go for machete, but she doesn't have the energy in her anymore. "Oh, that's right. You can't."

Kneeling down next to her, I stare her in the eyes, watching the blood begin to drip out of her mouth. She gurgles, seeing that my blade must have cut the bottom of her neck.

"Say something, Cerise."

In the heat of the moment, I grab her by the hair, and with one last exchange of eye-contact, I shove the blade up the bottom part of her chin. The blade goes through her head, and after I release my hands from the blade, I look at what I have just done… I killed her.

I… I killed Cerise.

"Cerise?" I ask, scooting backwards on my knees. What just happened?

Shaking my head, I close my eyes and open them again. Cerise lies there, her body unmoving and not breathing anymore. I begin to shake, the emotion consuming me. The anger… The frustration... It's all too much for me to handle.

She brought that emotion out of me.

She got to me, even when I said I wouldn't let her. She made me kill her. She made me do it.

"Cerise… Are you still there?"

Her cannon sounds, and I drop to my knees. I place my hands on her head, twirling her hair around my fingers. I sit there, sobbing to myself, wanting to run away. Wanting to run away from what I have just done.

I killed her… I did it.

"I'm not sorry, Cerise," I whisper, leaning forward so that my head is near hers. "I didn't want to, but you deserved it."

All I get is silence in return. I realize that I'm alone now; there is no one else here in this arena. Larron, Darien, Caelia, Trent, Darya – they're all dead. So are Taima and Cerise.

Except for me. I'm still alive. I won.

I proved everyone wrong… I'm not the girl Cerise thought I was. Or the girl that Caelia thought I was.

I am strong. I am smart. I am confident.

I deserved to win.

"May I present to you the Victor of the Seventieth Annual Hunger Games – Liora Marcette of District Six!"

District Ten, Taima Larkin – Placed 3rd

District Eight, Cerise Hessian – Placed 2nd

District Six, Liora Marcette – Placed 1st – Victor.

Author's Note:

There is the Finale! A fight between Taima, Cerise, and Liora, with Liora turning out as Victor.

After this chapter, we will have the Epilogue. Nothing new there. That will come out within a few days (maybe even tomorrow). So, I'll end this with a question. I save a lot of questions for the Epilogue, anyway.

Are you surprised with who the Victor was?