"After interest in the Games drops to an all time low, President Snow is determined to regain the once amazing popularity. Twelve tributes. One 'arena.' And one game-changing twist. Welcome to the 80th Hunger Games, the Rebirth."

~ The Rebirth Games ~

Chapter Thirteen:

Chainsaw

"What are you guys doing?"

Obedience spins around in shock and gives me a glare. "Wha- what are you doing in here?!" he squeals.

"I thought you and Igneous were a thing.." I whisper.

"We are. Uh- they are," chokes Solly.

"You can't tell him a thing, Danix," continues Obedience. "He doesn't know any of this."

"That just makes me want to tell him more."

"Don't!"

"Oh, I will. Nothing annoys me more than cheaters."

"But I'm not a cheater!"

"What are you then?"

He pauses and a frown fills him face. "A cheater..."

Suddenly, the knock at the door makes a chill go up my spine. "Danix! Open up!" It's Igneous, slamming as hard as he can to make his way in. I make a few steps forward and stare at Solly and Obedience. I say one thing. "It's not my problem so don't blame me."

The door shoots open and his bulky figure steps inside. "Da-"

He stares straight ahead and his mouth shuts.

Solly and Obedience both shiver in fear, holding onto one another under the bed sheets.

"I can explain," says Obedience.

"No," Igneous growls. "There's nothing to explain."

"There is!"

"No! Danix, can you explain?"

Obedience looks at me while shaking his head, but I must tell the truth. I can't lie. "I saw them kissing."

Igneous turns his head back to the duo, except this time I notice something different. Even Igneous sees it too, the gasp he lets out is nothing but pure shock. Even Obedience, he turns to his left and is completely stunned.

Solly is nowhere to be found. His side of the bed has his sheets pulled back and he has completely vanished.

"Where is he?!" Igneous yells. I turn around to the door and see it's still completely shut. He hasn't run out behind us.. He couldn't have. It's impossible. The window is completely shut too. The only other things in the room are the shelf, table side lamps, a lone desk, the closet... The closet. I run towards it, pull open the door and see nothing but what is in mine. Boxes, old toys, plush bears, baseball bats. Complete junk.

"I don't know where he's gone!" cries Obedience. "You distracted me while we were talking!"

"I thought you loved me," Igneous says in a more quiet tone.

"I do.. It's just.."

"Just what?"

"I need someone else who can satisfy my needs."

By this point, I want to gag myself and get out of here. I even try to scurry for the door but Igneous pushes me back and tells me to stay. "That's fine.." he continues. "But let me warn you with this..."

Igneous' voice turns back into its deep, threatening tone as usual. He stomps forward towards the bed and Obedience crawls into a little ball. "I don't know where that freak is gone, but know that I wish him the best of luck in this house.. How about getting his head sawed off? Nothing would be a better treat than that."

He turns around, opens the door and says one last thing before walking away down the hall. He says it so sternly that sends a shiver down my back.

"Goodbye Obedience."

I think it's safe to say that Ignience is no longer a thing. Such a shame. I don't have to head back to my room and try to sleep in fear of the Mockingjay on the loose. Instead the sun is starting to rise, and an announcement rings through the walls of the house that wakes everybody up.

"All tributes, please report to the living room immediately."

The voice is familiar but very hard to recognize at the same time. The alert stops once all eleven of us- well, only ten now, - show up and sit down on the sofas. That's what is strange to me. Solly is missing yet these alerts only begin once all tributes arrive. So why has the alarm finally stopped? Solly isn't here at all. We sit in silence, Igneous glaring at Obedience with his arms crossed.

"Where is Solly?" asks Are.

"Forget about him," Igneous says.

"Why?"

"Because he deserves to be forgotten."

Are gives him an odd look of confusion and whispers into my ear. "What happened between them? And why isn't he sitting with Obedience anymore?"

I give a small grin. "All couples drift eventually."

Suddenly, static begins to buzz throughout the room. Livvy covers her ears, shuts her eyes and begins squealing like a pig. Celia, beside her, sighs and proceeds to slap her across the face at full force to shut her up.

A hologram appears out of the thin air on the table at the middle of the room and the static stops. The Capitol anthem plays and a familiar face appears.

"Good morning contestants. Hello, I am Caesar Flickerman!" Of course that's who the voice belonged to. You would recognize him anywhere. He's plastered all over every television station, especially the weeks leading up to the Games.

"You have been gathered here today to receive some very important news," he continues. "This year, the Games will have a little twist in the tale... Who killed Mara?"

We all look at one another, not knowing how to react at all.

"One among you is not who they appear to be at all... No. Instead, one of you is out to hunt you all until just one lone victor remains. Welcome, to the eightieth Hunger Games, the Rebirth!"

"It's Danix!" yells Celia. "I just know it's him. Always so weird and creeping me out."

"Can you please shut up?" I reply. "He's not even finished talking!" Celia tuts and the broadcast continues. I can't figure out her obsession with me and I don't think I ever will. The broadcast continues to play.

"The killer among you has been picked randomly from the reaped tributes and was told before the Tribute Parade. This person has the chance to win the Games and live on with just one other tribute of their choice. These two will get their typical rewards that the victors expect, alongside their own houses in the Victors' Village! However these will not get the choice to team up. Instead this killer must murder you all until the last tribute is who they wanted to let live... But that's only the first of two options to win the Games.."

I lean forward on my seat, listening to every single word Caesar announces.

"The other way to win is for the tributes to lynch and kill the murderer. If you think someone is the killer, murder them! Guess it right and you all get to live. This can happen at any single time during this adventure. You can kill the murderer in the next ten minutes and the Games will be over, or you could risk it and wait a few days to whittle down the suspects.. Anything is possible this year. And with anything possible, nothing can prepare you for anything... Happy Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favor!"

The hologram vanishes, and of course the loudmouth is the first to speak up.

"Danix is the killer. Lets murder him now so the Games can end instantly and we can all survive and be victors!"

"Woah, hold up," says Tren. "He is not the killer. It's clearly Solly! Why else would he not be here right now and why would Danix kill his own friend?"

"Are you stupid?" Celia asks. "Of course Solly is not here. He probably has a bad stomach and is in the toilet or something." Tren is stunned by Celia's stupidity and tries to get words out from her mouth, but she can't. Instead Are jumps in for her.

"I don't think it's Danix at all, but I don't think it's Solly either... I say we wait for something else to happen."

"Something else already has happened," I say. "I was attacked last night."

"Attacked? You can't be vague. Give me more details!" yells Celia.

"Fine. I was attacked by someone in a costume looking like the Mockingjay."

The room goes quiet, all until Libby bursts out laughing. "Ha! Of course you would know what it looked like because you were the one in the suit while murdering Mara!"

"Oh my god," I mutter. "How many times do I have to ask it? Why would I kill my own friend?!"

"And how many times do I have to say that she was not your friend?!" Celia yells.

"But she was my friend!"

"No she wasn't!"

"How would you know?"

"Because I am telling you that I know! I know because I know! And now I know that because you won't believe me that I know, I know that I am going to know the moral thing in this argument which is to go to my room and tell you all to leave me alone!"

She jumps up, pulling Livvy along by the hair as Livvy screams in pain. "Come on, slave. It's time to leave these freaks to be freaks by themselves."

"No, not this again!" I shout and I stand up. "This happened just before Mara got murdered. You went and locked yourself inside your room.. It was a perfect time to attack. I'm not letting anyone die again. You are not going to your room. You are staying here like everyone else!"

"Oh really?" she says. "Try me."

She sprints forward, lets go of Livvy's hair and Livvy's shrieks, falling face first onto the floor. I chase Celia up the stairs as she squeals like a mouse. She eventually leaps inside her door and slams it should. I bang on the door, yelling for her to come out, but it's too late. She's probably dragged a chair over and positioned it under the handle.

I head back to the others, tell them the story and everyone splits up. It's all so typical. Have an argument with Celia, make everyone go off and do their own things which will only lead to another attack. Something bad is going to happen if we don't change up our act. I can just feel it.

"I have a plan," I say to Are, Fern and Tren. "In ten minutes, we break into Celia's bedroom."

"Why in ten minutes?" Fern asks.

"Yeah," agrees Tren. "We could do it right now."

"If she's the killer, in ten minutes she'll have dropped her facade.." I explain. "She'll be planning attacks, maybe not even in her room anymore. She'll have probably sneaked out by then. That way, we'll know instantly. Lets all meet up in the living room."

"Sounds good," says Fern. "How do we break in?"

"Maybe we don't even have to break in. We could just spy through her window around the back of the house," says Are.

"Wow," I say. "Good idea. Lets do that."

"Do what?"

I turn around and see Livvy standing there, her hair in knots from Celia. I can only guess what Celia makes her do when they're online...

"You better not be planning something..."

"We weren't," I lie. "We were just.. heading to our rooms."

I head up the stairs first. "See you guys later, I guess..."

Crap. Celia's little rat has screwed things up just as bad as the witch herself. Hopefully they'll realize what I meant, that we should still meet up in ten minutes. I head into my room, shut the door and bounce onto my bed. Time sure does go slow, but maybe it's because all I find myself doing is ticking down the minutes in my head, and I keep getting distracted by the littlest of things. The flowered patterns on the wallpaper. The specs of dust on the carpeted floor. The creases of the covers on my bed. I guess you could say I'm not the most patient person in this house.. Maris sure was though.

It's so horrible. Things from my journey to the Games all have small links to her. It's almost like they've been placed purposely, and the more I think about her, the more I believe that she was all a dream. Seeing her in the Justice Building. Was I really that crazy? No. I couldn't have been. Why did Beetee and Finnick both ask me many times 'What secrets do you have?'

In fact, what secrets do I have? What did they even mean by that? Did it even mean anything? Finnick is always one for a good laugh, just like me, but was that even supposed to be a joke? It easily could have, but for me it wasn't. If it was, it was a pretty lame joke. But why would Beetee say it too? What was with Finnick in the Launch Room just before the Games? Why was he acting sad for me? Why did he suddenly turn evil and happy? Why did he look like he didn't care for me?

There's too many questions, but will they be answered? Maybe. Maybe not. All I know is, when I-

I remain completely frozen and my eyes bulge once I feel the vibration run through my bed. Do I get up? Do I look underneath? Another two question to add to the long list. What could it be under my bed? Maybe I am just crazy. Maybe I didn't feel anything... No. No! I did feel something. I lean forward, grab the edge of the bed and slowly duck my head down. I see the dark space, I peer underneath and what I see makes me want to scream, but it's like there's no air in the room at all. I see the Mockingjay.

I leap up onto the carpet and run towards the door, but suddenly I feel the glove wrap around my arm and I'm thrashed up against the wall. I tilt my head to the side and see the Mockingjay in their full figure centimeters away from me, but they're terrifyingly close. Not like last night, no. Not at all. This time there is no escape, not at all. They're squeezed right up against me and I can see every little detail on every single one of the feathers on their face. Their long beak even tips the top of my noise just slightly. I don't know who it is under the mask, and even though they're not like any of the other tributes out there, I know it's human. It's almost like I can feel them breathing out of their nostrils and onto my face. And even though they're not talking, and even though I can hear their voice, I know what they're saying, I can read their mind.

In my brain I can hear them telling me "You got away yesterday, but not now. Now it's time to die."

Except I don't die. That's not what happens at all. Instead, with one arm they continue to press me against the wall. With the other hand they spread it across the mask and completely pull it off their face. But I'm not shocked at all who it is. It's Solly.

"Don't kill me.." I whisper.

"You told Igneous that me and Obedience were a thing," he grunts.

"I know.. I know," I say as quiet as possible. "But I can make it up for you."

"By what?"

"Let me be your Mockingjay partner in crime.. I'll help you do whatever you want me to do as long as you keep me alive..." Shockingly, he then proceeds to laugh in my face and he sprays saliva all across me.

"You actually thought I was going to kill you! Not at all. I'm not even the Mockingjay."

Relieved but somewhat betrayed, I push him off of me. "If you're not the Mockingjay, why were you wearing the suit?"

"I was going undercover. You were my first target," he explains. "I'm going to try and see how everybody reacts to me.. I'm going to see what everybody does in private while they're not with anyone.."

"That's invading their personal privacy, you can't just do that!"

"Oh, yes I can.. But I have something to confess.."

I take a pause before asking him what, then he presses me back against the wall again, this time more forcefully. I'm not escaping whatever he's going to tell me, I know it. He leans up against me and whispers in my ear.

"I love you."

I'm shocked. Stunned. Confused. What the hell is he talking about? First he's with Obedience who is cheating on Igneous, now he loves me and wants to cheat on Obedience with me. It's a web of lies in this house. He puckers up his lips, leans in towards me and I yell at him to stop. I shut my eyes and I hear a metallic sound, a squishing sound. Certainly an odd sound. Gargling. Sloshing. And that's when I feel moisture. Something wet. Water. Blood.

I stick my hands out in front of me and feel it all over me and I open my eyes once I feel a thud. I look down and I stare into Solly's eyes. Shot straight open, green pupils staring right back at me. Completely stained in blood he is. I tilt my head up and see the rest of his headless body standing there, spewing blood out from his neck which now remains as a big stump. His body leans forward and drops onto me and I roar. I drop his head onto the ground and it rolls like a ball across the floor. Once I shove the body and it flops onto the carpet like a pancake, I see the leather boots beside it. The long cape, the pointed feathers, the sharp beak, the black slits for eyes. The Mockingjay. But I know from the pose, I know from the stance, the chainsaw in their hand, the overall presence of them that this is the real one. This is no joke anymore.

The blades of the chainsaw come to a screeching stop. I expect the Mockingjay to revive it again, but instead they do something which I wasn't expecting. They run out the door. They don't want to fight, they don't want to kill me. Instead they are escaping and I'm letting it happen. But I can't. I can't miss this great opportunity. I must unmask this fool.

I sprint out the door just as I see them dash around the corner. I follow them around the bend, down the stairs and see them run straight through the empty living room. I see Crazy and Destiny out the window in the thick snow, but I can't yell for help. I must follow before they get away. I run into the entrance hall where the main entrance is. The hallway is small, but to the left is the door to the basement, and this time it's open. It's the only place the Mockingjay could have went, so I head down into the darkness. I search for the light switch by running my hand along the wall, but I can't seem to find one. I've never been down here before, I've only known about it. I think Igneous and Obedience were the ones to check down here first. But that was certainly a time when things were going well for them.

I reach the final step and manage to make out the outlines of boxes with the light shining through the stained glass window. It's just like the closets in all the bedrooms, boxes, toys, board games, all sorts of useless junk. But there's something much more different ahead. An open door in the wall. It doesn't have a handle, not even a door frame. It's like someone cut open a doorway in a basic wall and that's it. I pull the ajar door open, step inside and look around for the Mockingjay. I can't seem to find them, but instead I find something else which is just as crazy. Weapons, all sorts of weapons. Stacks of them on the walls. Spears, arrows, bows, knives, daggers. Everything that you'd usually see in the Games any other year. They're all here. But on some of the weapons I see they have red tips. I'm not stupid, I know what that means. They're explosive. They introduced explosive red-tipped arrows four years ago to they Games I think.

Off to the right is a small wooden desk with a hologram of the entrance hall fit with the open basement door. It's almost like the angle is coming from the right corner above the main entrance. I've never noticed a camera there, not even seconds ago when I was running through. It wouldn't surprise me if the Gamemakers made it invisible. But that's when I see the Mockingjay run down into the basement on the hologram, then I follow just seconds later. The footage has about a thirty second delay. So where did the Mockingjay go? Obviously not into this room because I'm in here and there's no other exits... Oh crap. That makes sense. Of course they're not in here.

I spin around just as the Mockingjay slams the door shut, locking me in and concealing me into darkness.

They were outside and just behind the door all this time.

COMING SOON ON 'THE REBIRTH GAMES,'

"Help!" I yell as I slam on the door.

Secrets will be uncovered.

"I know you're the Mockingjay! Just admit it!" Celia yells.

Friendships will be tested.

"We save Danix, no matter the cost!" shouts Are over the loud, snowy blizzard.

And most dangerously...

A noise echoes down the hallway and Destiny turns around, looking for the source.

Blood will spill!

"Look out!" I scream, pointing behind Igneous as the Mockingjay enters the room.

Author's Note:

Cliffhanger! :oooo

Hello everybody and welcome to Chapter Thirteen of The Rebirth Games, Chainsaw! Chainsaw because of Solly's unfortunate end... Planning his death out, I just knew that I had to have his head fall into Danix's hands. Pretty horrific! xD

If you didn't notice already, the Games are going to be dark but a bit comedic.. Comedy coming from Solly and Obedience in the bed, Celia's lines, Livvy being over-dramatic, Solly suddenly 'being in love' with Danix! Lol. Even though Solly's dead, we're going to know a few more things about that whole situation. How did he get out of the bedroom at the start? How did he get the Mockingjay costume? What was with him loving Danix?! LOL! And no, there's not going to be any ghosts in this story so he won't be able to tell us himself. xD

Speaking about Solly, what did you think of him in this chapter? What did you think of his surprise in the Mockingjay suit? Did you think it would be him? Did you think we'd even GET the mask to be taken off? And most importantly, did you think he would die? Nah, THIS is most important: who will die next and who is the Mockingjay? ;)

We've finally been introduced to the concept and it's SOOOOO exciting to be official with you guys: we have the Mockingjay murdering everybody. The Games will either end with these two options:

A) The Mockingjay survives and becomes the victor alongside the surviving tribute that they haven't killed.

B) The tributes murder the Mockingjay and are able to escape.

Option B) means that any amount of tributes could live. Two, five, seven... Who knows, maybe there are NO more deaths after this chapter. Maybe Solly was the final one and all the rest of the tributes survive! The possibilities are endless! And that means that it's going to be GREAT for predictions! ;)

What option do you think I'll go with, and alongside that option, who do you think will survive?! :D

Wow, this was a long chapter. Maybe it's because I'm actually planning it out. xD By planning it out, I mean writing a paragraph or two of what will happen, how the characters will perform, etc. I know the plots for all of my stories and what I want to happen, I just don't really plan them chapter by chapter. With this story, it has a complex situation.. Lots of suspects and it's going to get SO confusing the more it goes on. By the end, I won't want you figuring out who the Mockingjay is so I'm going to throw in some clues to who it is AND some misleading clues. Who knows, maybe there was a clue in this chapter? ;) Key word: MAYBE!

Also, whenever I feel like it, I'll tag on that little sneak peak ending of what is to come. Note that all of the things in that sneak peak are not from one chapter. They consist of around five.

Thank you all so much for reading, byeeeee! :D