+ Whoa: Thank you to the huge flurry of reviews, Dancing-Souls, and your latest review, ArtemisCarolineSnow! Fast-paced chapter ahead on the heels of the last one's big word-splurge.

/ / / / /

A red light shined in the darkness.

Throbbing pain pulsed through my head. It made me double over as I came to, winced, and rubbed my eyes. At least I hadn't died – or if I'd had, I'd gone to the Dark Hell. Lightning still flashed in the sky, thunder still rumbled with its ursine roar, and the hazy clouds above still drifted overhead. Spores danced about in the air here and there, and ashes and bones littered the ground beneath me.

Bones? I rubbed my eyes harder, blinked, and got my bearings. Whatever had happened, I wasn't on the city streets anymore. High granite walls sloped inward and upward all around me. Up above the rim of this hole, a trio of red flares hissed, their smoke trails drifting off into the sky with a nightmarish glow. When I stood up, the spindly gray bones underfoot cracked and splintered. The sound echoed in the pit. Even my breathing sounded deafening down here, as if I'd wake some slumbering creature snoozing in the dark crevasse to my left.

A shot of fear sent waves of heat running down my arms. I was alone, I had none of my gear – shit! Ember – oh gods. I remembered the knife, his wide eyes and shocked expression running in front of my eyes again. Whatever had killed him must have dropped me in here, and I had a strange feeling it wasn't just leaving me to die from thirst over a few days.

I felt woozy as I stumbled towards the nearest wall. Nausea slammed me, but I forced myself to stand up straight. I'd hoped to find handholds in the wall, crooks, crevices, or something I could grip to climb out of this pit. I wasn't dead, after all: The Gamesmakers had to have a reason for letting me live when they'd killed off Ember. I couldn't imagine that some other tribute had dragged me down here to die. Why not just kill me?

If this was some sort of sick test, than I had to figure out how to beat it. I groped along the wall through the shadows, feeling along the course granite for a handhold. Panic ballooned in my gut as I stumbled along the perimeter of the pit. Nothing, nothing, nothing but sharp rock that pricked my fingers and taunted me as it sloped inwards towards the oculus above. The red lights laughed, jeering at me with the promise of a freedom outside my grasp.

I was missing something. I got down on all fours, crawling around the bottom of the pit. Bone splinters poked my palms with time-worn needles. The gods only knew whose remains I was straddling, whether they were some Gamesmaker invention or part of an actual mass grave that beckoned for me to join it.

A cold gust blew up from the crevasse as I reached the edge of the pit. Shadow faded into pitch black darkness in its bowels. Come, an imaginary voice whispering from somewhere deep in its inky depths. You've tried your hardest. You've fought. You've killed. There's no shame in failure.

It was a tempting thought, certainly preferable to wasting away down here if I couldn't figure out how to get up these cliffs all around me. Thoughts of Glenn drifted through my mind. There's nothing for you if you win, I imagined him saying. Do you want to spend year after year caring about kids, only to watch them die? Do you want to wade around a district that doesn't care about you for the rest of your life? Come on, Terra. Make it easy on yourself. You're already screwed.

I shuddered and turned away from the rift. Maybe Glenn was right – maybe there wasn't anything waiting for the kid who walked away from this place. Maybe I'd end up like Daud or Finch, watching kid after kid die in horrible ways every year, but I wanted to live. I didn't want to see what came next just yet, and if the Gamesmakers were testing my will to live, I'd give it my best shot.

I don't know how long passed – an hour, two hours, ten, it all felt the same. Every time I walked along the edge of the wall, feeling up every inch of it for a route out of here, nothing turned up. The bone-covered floor held no secret passage, and when I dipped my hand down into the crevasse, it met only icy gusts from the deep.

A chilling realization ran through my head as I stared up at the red flares above. This looked less and less like a test for me…and more and more like a test for the other tributes on the surface. If so, I wasn't just trapped here. I was bait.

I laid down on the carpet of bones and gripped my sides. Help. Please.

Eternity passed. Hunger gnawed at my guts, and my tongue dried into a thick, crispy log. My head still throbbed, and every now and then, dots of light would bob and weave in the darkness. I wasn't just seeing things; I was hearing them, too. Faint sounds reverberated down from somewhere above. I squeezed my eyes shut to block out the world and clutched my arms tighter to my chest.

The sounds grew louder.

"…doesn't look right. Why d'you wanna look so bad?"

I sat up in a flash. I hadn't imagined that, I was sure of it. Someone was up there, and unless they were talking to themselves, they weren't alone.

A higher voice, a girl, answered the first speaker: "I just want to look! Just hold on a sec."

Heat flushed across my face. I needed their help to get out of here, but the odds weren't in my favor. Whoever was up there, they had no reason to trust me, let alone help me – and all it would take would be one shot from an arrow or one well-thrown knife and I was finished. I scuttled back towards the lip of the crevasse, peering down into the darkness and weighing my options. It was dark enough down here that they might not see me, but if they did, that gorge was the only hiding spot I had. Could I climb into it without plunging to my death?

"Delfin, gimme the flashlight. It's dark."

Wait a minute…

A sudden white flash blinded me. I stumbled back, shielding my eyes with my arm and scooting as close to the edge of the crevasse as I could.

"What the…" said the speaker above me. "Wait. Wait, Delfin, get over here!"

I shuddered. I remembered that name. I knew who was up there, and I knew they were more than capable of killing me. My eyes adjusted to the light as a scowling, well-built boy sidled up alongside a lithe girl with orange hair above. He planted a spear into the dust with a thump and said, "What am I s'posed to be looking at?"

"Look! It's the girl from the chariot behind us back in the parade."

Tethys. She'd spoken to me like a colleague, not a competitor, back in the garage before the chariot parade. That felt like eternity ago, and I had no idea if the girl from District 4 felt so sympathetic towards me now. My breath froze in my chest and my leg trembled as I waited on them: It was their move now, whether they'd help me, kill me, or leave me.

Her district partner sure didn't. Delfin groaned and stamped his foot, saying, "Tethys, c'mon. Let's go. There isn't anything we can use down there."

"Delfin, look at her!" Tethys said, furrowing her brow and waving her finger in my direction. "That'd just be a dick move to leave her down there. How'd she get down there, anyway?"

"Tethys, leave it. This is stupid."

The girl pushed her partner aside and bent down at the lip of the pit. "Hey!" she called down to me. "You okay?"

I shook my head and tried to say something, but the words lumped in my throat. Delfin's glare made me want to shrivel into the gorge.

"Your name's Terra, right?" Tethys called down, and before I could answer, she turned back to her partner. "Gimme the rope."

Delfin sighed, held a fist to his forehead, and said, "Look…I know you didn't like that last girl getting it – "

"You shanked her. Obviously I didn't like it."

"Do you even get it? Someone else has to die if we're gonna keep going, Tethys! You don't even know this girl, and if she's dumb enough to get stuck in a hole – "

"Do you get it? You're turning into a murderer!"

"I'm doing what we need to do to stay alive!"

"Delfin, the girl from 6 was sleeping!"

"And what if she would have found us later, hm? She had a knife! Open your damn eyes! She could've – "

"Stop with the excuses!" Tethys snarled, her face inches from Delfin's. "I'm not going to let you kill everything left and right just so you can say it's good for me! I am not a monster, and I didn't think you were, either!"

Delfin backed up, uncurling his fist and doing his best to reason. "Look," he said. "You start taking on charity cases, then what happens if…whatever her face is here, Terra, runs and does something stupid? Is she even fourteen?"

"Well, at least I'm not stabbing people," Tethys said, every syllable oozing bitterness. "Maybe I can do a little good for someone else, even if you can't. If you really care about me, then give me the rope. Now."

He sighed and pulled off his backpack. "You can figure out how to get your lost cause outta there," he said, tossing it at her chest.

Tethys yanked a long, thick, woolen rope out of the bag and uncoiled it. "Still there?" she yelled to me as she flung the rope down into the pit. "Tie this around your waist and between your legs, like a harness. I'll pull you out."

I didn't have a choice…but as I took the rope in my hands, caution surged through my mind. "What happens when I get up there?" I asked, just loud enough so she could hear. I glanced up at Delfin, who stormed around the edge of the pit, spear in hand and out in front as if he were eager to stab the next thing that moved.

"Don't worry about him," Tethys said. "Just come up. I'm not gonna hurt you, and I won't let him, either."

Better than nothing. I pulled the rope around my hips and underneath one leg, tying it off as best as I could in front of me and grabbing on tight. Yank! I yelped as Tethys jerked the rope up. It dug at my thigh, but I winced and bore the pain.

"Tethys…" Delfin said, his voice suddenly lacking all of its bravado.

"What?"

"Hurry up. C'mon."

"Why? Are you in a hurry?"

Just then, I heard it too. It sounded like a chorus of sopranos all cheering at once, and it took me a second to figure out what was making the noise above: Rats. Hundreds of them. Oh no. The rope dug painfully against my thigh as Tethys swore, jerking me up with harder and faster pulls.

"Tethys!"

"I'm going!"

I gritted my teeth as the edge of the pit inched closer and closer. Falling from here would kill me – only darkness swirled beneath me as Tethys hoisted me higher. The sound of rats squirming and running was overwhelming. One of them tumbled into the pit, falling past my arm and flailing its little legs as it fell into the inky blackness below. Suddenly, everything went silent – just before a mighty, sorrowful roar deafened me.

I was high up enough now that I could see some of the ground above, where crumbling stone statues stuck out of the black desert sand. Atop the nearest dune, a massive black shadow rushed in fast, like a tidal wave made of billowing cloud. It roared and wailed as Delfin held his spear aloft.

"Tethys…" he said.

"Gotcha!" Tethys yelled, grabbing my arm and pulling me up onto the sand. "C'mon, run! Delfin!"

"You don't gotta tell me!" he shouted, pivoting and sprinting after us as the darkness rushed in.

My legs ached and sparks flitted in front of my eyes, but I kept running. Maybe those two didn't know what that shadow was capable of, but it had killed Ember – and I knew it could kill all three of us if we stayed here. If Tethys hadn't taken pity on me, it would have killed me, too.

I sucked in a deep breath and ran.