District Six's Adrienne Quintus's POV

Willow Jacksmith. The girl who was two plates away from me when we rose up to the arena, killed herself as soon as I seemed to set eyes on her. I only got a glimpse of her before she burst into red and bone.

Why had she killed herself? Was it really too much for her?

She was a shy girl who seemed to be scared of just about everything. She was scared to even talk during the interview, so having that blond haired bastard beat up Vida and her partner before seeing that one mentor die before getting send into the arena must of thrown her off the edge.

She was a fragile girl. Judging from the way she looked back at the reapings with her clean dress and shiny hair, I guessed that she was from the rich area of her district, or at the very least she was well off. Probably sheltered from violence and had an indoor job that made sure she didn't get physically injured too much or see the horror of daily Panem.

I felt for her, she was almost like a little kid that needed to be defended. But I also saw that she was kind of brave when she volunteered for her district. Either that or she was like me and cared. Either way, my heart goes out to her.

I'm surprised that Wren Hayes didn't kill herself, since she shared some traits with Willow. But I could be wrong, since there was the bloodbath and she could of gotten scared and got killed by a career or anyone else that ran to the cornucopia in order to get supplies.

Though, one of the career allies didn't get a chance to even try to do that. Trim from District Nine, got blown up by his own ally. The look in his eyes before he blew apart was one of shock, seeing that he was being betrayed.

I felt for him a little as well, because I was a little like him now. He wanted to win to save his family's honor because of his brother's loss. For me, I was going to win to show that I wasn't like my mother and to get some respect, so I understood where he was coming from. The big thing about Trim though was that he was a jerk to anyone that didn't accept him.

In the training center, he asked Willow if she liked him, and through her scared muttering, told him no, in which then he slapped her and asked her why she didn't like him. He kept on shaking her around and demanded for her to answer him until she started crying. That was when he then pushed her to the ground before walking away from her with a huff.

He was a jerk, but I could connect with him because of his reason on wanting to win.

But his chance was gone before it even began because of Victory's ingenious, plan of throwing her boot in his area. The girl beside her, Alexa, managed to deflect Victory's boot with her jacket.

It made me think about the rest of the people around me, plotting some way to kill me after seeing the District Two girl get rid of her ally and attempt to kill another the same way. But as I looked around, nobody else had anything that they seemed to want to throw away. After all, they only had their clothes, and everyone seemed to be underdressed in one way or another. At the very least they weren't wearing shoes.

Then the gong sounded, and while my body told me to go and get some supplies that were in front of me my heart told me to turn around and run.

Torn between what I felt like doing, I hesitated. I wanted to get supplies that could aid me, but at the same time, I didn't know if I should endanger myself. I wasn't scared of getting hurt, but I was scared of dying.

It was then that I saw my district partner, Colton, get his head explode by Victory's district partner. I saw Colton's head turn into red paste before I decided to run away from the cornucopia and into one of the red light halls.

When I ran into the halls, my fears didn't go down, in fact, it only added to my fears. There were dark patches in the hallway thanks to the weak emergency lights.

I continued to run, and run, and run, but everywhere I went there was always a dark spot somewhere, and it scared me. Someone could be hiding in it, getting ready to attack anyone that came close, and I knew that there were people willing to kill. I just hoped that I didn't run into them.

I didn't like the badly lit up halls, they made me edgy and made me think of the District Two tributes who both killed someone. I kept on thinking that they were going to jump out of the darkness and kill me in some horrific way. I felt my chest start to hurt as I felt myself breathing in deeper and faster then normal.

I then started to feel dizzy before I felt my body fall onto something hard.

What did I just hit? Whatever it was it smelt of dust and decay. And it was cold, and dirty. My mind raced with possibilities from falling into a trap to someone had just attacked.

Okay Adrienne, calm down. There's nothing to be afraid of. You ran away from the bloodbath field, nobody's coming for you, your safe. Just calm down. If someone was after you you'd of heard them. And if you were being attacked, they would of attacked you some more.

I breathed in. Then breathed out. Breathed in. Breathed out. In. Out. In. Out.

I then felt my heart rate go down as my breathing slowed. The little clouds of dust in front of me became smaller and less frequent.

I felt calmer now. My head more level and my chest didn't hurt so much. Though my chest and stomach felt cold and dirty. And while I was still scared of my dark environment, I was no calm enough to look around without seeing murderers everywhere.

Looking around, with the red lights glowing, I saw some couches, chairs, a couple tables with some random items, such as cups and pieces of paper, on it. It was also complete with a desk and a potted plant. Everything looked as aged as the cornucopia and the area around it with dust covering everything.

I picked myself up and wiped my hands on my bare torso area, only to feel large clumps of dust. It helped get rid of some of the coolness, and it also reminded me that I was in the arena half naked with only my underwear and pajama bottoms. Luckily, the area wasn't cold, just the floor. And it didn't help that I wasn't wearing socks either.

I decided to get my feet off the floor and get on the nearest couch.

I went over to the old and dusted couch and fell onto it back first, sending a thick cloud of dust up into the air. All the dust made my nose and throat itch before I started to cough. Some dust must of gotten into my eyes as I felt them start to slightly burn before I started to feel them tear up.

I grunted softly before I raised my arm up and started to wipe away the tiny grey flakes from inside my eyes.

That was when I started to laugh. The hard, dusty couch that itched my back was making me laugh. My misfortune was making me laugh. This had to be the most bizarre Hunger Game yet. I was topless, but at least I wasn't as bad off as Jenriko, who had no clothes. But knowing her, she'd get some clothes from the huge supply of scattered backpacks and other items around the golden horn.

I had no supplies, but there had to be other kids who didn't have anything. Other kids could of ran, and if they did try to get to the supplies, like Colton, they were most likely dead. I didn't take a chance, like I normally do, but I was alive.

Stupid, cocky Colton took a chance, and now he was dead. His brains splattered across the bloodbath floor.

I was a coward at the cornucopia, but I was alive, ready to fight if someone dared to try and take my life. Even if I didn't have anything to defend myself with, I'd fight until until I couldn't fight no more.

"What are you laughing about?" A voice asked.

I heard myself shriek as I jumped off the couch in fright before I felt the hard, cold floor again.

Someone was here! This is what I feared. Someone was hiding in the shadows and was going to take my life!

I then heard him laughing. Laughing at me? At my misery? My fear? Was he laughing because he was going to play with me before killing me?

Whatever he was laughing at, I wasn't going to let him laugh for very long. This was no laughing matter, and I'd show him that.

"Shut the fuck up!" I told him before quickly getting to my feet and turned to the source of the laughter. In the dull lighting, I saw Zeal, the stupid kid from District Twelve. He was standing there, with that stupid smile on his face, giggling at me, looking at me like some of the most vile men that I've ever known had looked at me. In fact, he had the same expression that they had before they-

I pushed the raising thought away from me before I shouted angrily at him. "Like what you see?" Because no man could resist looking at a girl with her top off, especially a teenage girl with curves. "Like what you fucking see?"

"Well, yeah." Zeal said, still with that stupid smile on his face. Which made me explode with anger. I didn't like guys, but his type was the one that I despised the most. They thought of one thing and one thing only. And to them, I was nothing more then-

"You sick bastard!" I shouted before reached my hand over to the table and grabbed one of the scattered cups and threw it at the grinning idiot.

His smile instantly disappeared as the hard material shattered on his jacket.

"Ow." I heard him say as I reached down for another cup. "What was that-"

I threw another cup, and it shattered on his left shoulder. "Ahh." He said confused. "Why are you-"

I picked up another cup before throwing it at him, before it got destroyed on his chest. "Ow. Stop thro-" He said, before one of the cups hit his face, cutting into skin instead of material. Why oh why did the retard have to have all his clothes? He had a shirt. He had pants. He had shoes and a jacket as well, while just about everyone else was missing at least one of those items.

I went to grab another cup, only to find that there were no more cups to throw at him. Damn it. The only things left on the table were pieces of aged paper. With blood splattered on them? I looked at it closely for the first time, to see that the table also had blood on it. What the hell?

The kid like noise of Zeal made me forget about the blood on the table and got me to focus on the bigger task at hand. "OWWWWEEEE!" Zeal shouted as he covered his face with both his hands as I saw little trails of blood on him. Good, I injured him, I hope I got some sharp pieces of that cup in his eyes! "OWWWWWEEEEEE!" Zeal continued to shout.

Owee. It sounded strange, coming from an eighteen year old as big and broad as he was. It was something that a six year old would use.

He's not a little kid Adrienne, I told myself, he's practically an adult, and don't forget what he wants to do to you.

Remembering that, I looked around for anything that I could use against him.

The table was too heavy to use as a weapon. The couch cushions were too soft. The pieces of paper were useless. What could I use against someone like him?

I then saw the plant on one side of the room, and seeing the big, heavy pot, I instantly got an idea.

Ignoring Zeal's cries, I ran to the pot, pulled out the long dead plant, threw it away, and picked up the pot with both hands before lifting it over my head. "Please don't hurt me anymore." Zeal pleaded as I turned around, seeing that Zeal was now only rubbing his eyes with his right hand.

"Give me your jacket!" I demanded, taking advantage of the situation. Zeal may look tough, but I guess that's all he had. Looks.

I then saw Zeal quickly take off his jacket before throwing it over to me, letting it land a foot in front of me. "Now give me your shirt!" I told him, walking slowly closer to him.

Zeal didn't resist, he pulled off his shirt and threw it at me. His shirt hit me in the chest before it fell to the dirty floor. "Give me your shoes and socks." I demanded. He obeyed by taking those clothing items off and throwing them to me. "Now give me your pants." I told him.

"Why would you want my pants?" He half asked half cried in confusion.

"Give it too me or die!" I shouted, turning my face up towards the pot for a second before looking back to him. Zeal then proceeded to take off his pants.

He was halfway done when I charged at him. And Zeal, taken by surprise, was unable to react as I smashed the heavy pot over his head, shattering the ordainment into a hundred pieces as Zeal cried out in pain, but unfortunately, didn't get knocked out, or die. Or even fall down.

I wouldn't give Zeal time to recover, because I'm within range of his attacks, and while he might be stupid, and not willing to fight, he was a lot stronger then I was, or at least looked stronger then I was, and I didn't know if he was going to actually attack me or not.

I grabbed a long, pointed, sharp looking piece of the broken vase, raised my arm, holding the pointed piece of material to his back, and felt something hit me under the chin. It hit hard enough that I felt my teeth rattle before I fell to the ground. Painfully hitting the back of my skull.

"You bully!" I heard him shout. "You no good bully! Why do you have to attack me for no reason?" I heard him start to pull his pants up as I tried to stand back up, to stop him from getting away, only for the world to swirl around my hurting head. "Stay away from me!" I heard him tell me before I heard him running away. "I hate you!"

Zeal. Even though he was a guy who laughed at me and looked at me like I was nothing but a slut, I couldn't help but think of him as a child. It was funny, in a way. I wanted to hurt him, kill him even, but I couldn't help but think of him as helpless.

District Ten's Tanner Hart's POV

"You didn't really mean mean it did you?" Adrian asked as he continued to sharpen the edge of a metal fan blade with a brick.

"Mean what?" I asked, wondering what he was talking about.

"Victory owing you." He answered, not taking his eyes off his weapon. "Owing you forever, which caused her to spit into your face, before you attacked her, and you ended up on the ground."

Oh yeah, that.

"What about it?" I asked. "I helped her gather the equipment scattered around here, and therefore, she owes me." Though, I doubt that she'd take it seriously. After all, nobody really did. But there was good reason for that.

"What about the rest of us that did it for free?" Adrian asked as he blew some red dust off his weapon before he returned to sharpening it again. "Should she owe us as well?"

"We helped, she owes," I told him. "Easy as that." Even though she was an ungrateful jerk about it. She took all the best things, leaving us to fight for the scraps. In fact, she had the only real weapon that was provided, which was the cleaver.

"I guess that means you owe the career pack for taking you in then." Adrian told me. "Because your talking about exchanges. If I'm hearing it correctly, it's a you help, you owe kind of deal. Well the careers are helping you, so that means you owe them until either they all die, or you die."

Well that made sense. They did let me into the gang and are giving me protection and just about all the supplies. Joining them allowed me to become allies with the strongest alliance with some of the strongest tributes in the arena. Because of that, I had a better chance of getting out of here alive, and because of them, I could at least survive the bloodbath, which I did. So for them helping me, I should be entitled to help them.

"I don't owe them shit." I told him. "They never asked to be owed, so it's their loss." Though, I really do owe them.

"And here I thought it was an unspoken rule." I heard him say lowly.

"Unspoken rules are stupid," I told him, thinking back to what Tarbh told me about those rules that didn't need to be spoken but everyone knew about them. "How are you supposed to know what they are if they aren't told to you?" Though truth be told, some of them I did know. Somehow, I had learned them. I can't remember how I learned them, but I did, and applied them to my living.

"You must of been a really good friend." Adrian told me with heavy sarcasm. I couldn't help but feel hurt by that. I helped them. I hung out with them. They didn't mind my company. I cared for them. I was a good friend wasn't I?

"You must of been a good friend." I told him with equal sarcasm.

"I like to believe I was, and still am, a good friend." Adrian replied, not affected in the slightest by my tone. And why should he be? I guessed that he was a good friend. He was accepting and nice. I mean, he did accept me, when other people back in the district didn't.

"Well you suck ass at being a good friend." I told him. "Your probably the worst god damn friend out there."

"At least I've got friends." He told me, hurting me inside even more.

I could tell that he didn't mean it, he was just saying it. But still, just the fact that he said it made me sad.

"You bastard! Take that back before I rip you fucking arm off, shove it so far up your god damn ass that you'll be tasting your own asshole!"

"Why should I take back the truth." He said with an obviously fake yawn.

He doesn't mean it. He doesn't mean it. He doesn't mean it. He doesn't mean it.

I reached for my weapon, a large nail that I'd been told was a railroad spike, pulled it out, and charged at Adrian while holding the railroad spike like a knife.

The tan skinned boy reacted as soon as I started to shout at him with a war like cry and charged at him.

Adrian turned towards me before he had a look of fear in his eyes before I stabbed my weapon at his face. Adrian dodged it my moving his head out of the way, causing my spike to miss him by a couple inches before I felt something hard and flat slam into the right side of my ribs.

That attack hurt, but it wasn't enough to stop me. It'd take more then that to take me down.

I slammed my right elbow into Adrian's face, causing him to stagger back before I kicked him in the chest. Adrian didn't fall to the floor, but he was close to. All he needed to do was take one wrong step before he'd land on the floor. And that one wrong step he did before he tripped over his own feet before he crashed to the floor. "Ah shit fuck." Adrian cried out, which made me burst into laughter.

"Shit fuck." I laughed. "Good one." Even when we were fighting he still had a sense of hum-

A sharp wave of pain suddenly exploded on the right side of my face. What the fuck was that? I was laughing, then suddenly this happens?

"Never take your eyes off you opponent." Adrian growled. His voice sounding like it was coming from the sky.

I turned my head, the entire right side of it, especially my teeth, hurt like hell, to see that Adrian was standing above me while holding a shovel.

"Think a shovel can stop me?" I asked him with far more confidence then I felt. I was on the ground, and he was above me. And while I had been in fights like this before, but for this fight, I didn't feel as confident that I'd end up walking away from this as healthy as before.

I threw my weapon at Adrian, only to feel something hard smash into my face, causing my vision to turn black with white flakes in it, and for a burning pain to erupt in my face.

I tried to get away from his attacks, but every time I moved, and every time I didn't move, I'd feel the heavy tool painfully hit my face, causing it to burn more and more. I could feel the blood running out of my nose and in parts of my head as I tasted liquid iron. I attacked back, but it didn't seem to be doing any good as I kept on seeing Adrian hit me with the shovel before the world flashed black for a second, only to clear for a second as I saw Adrian swing at me again.

I didn't see any end in sight as Adrian attacked me like a wild man.

Adrian was going to kill me. He was going to kill me because he could. And really, I had attacked him first, so he had every right to do so. I was trying to kill him, he was only trying to defend himself.

But...I didn't want to die. I wanted to go back home to District Ten, no matter how fuck up and shitty it was. I wanted to go back to the Greenlaw farm and be with the animals that acted stupid, but were really smart. I wanted to be back with D'ardaigh and have him teach me his tricks on getting women, even if everyone says that he does a suck ass job. I wanted to be back with Ilia, even if she was a fucking nutjob who seems to want to ruin our fun because she thought that she was better then the rest of us because her mom was the owner of the farm we worked on and lived in. But most of all, I wanted to be back with Tarbh who's there for me no matter fucking what. I wanted her to teach me how to be like her, just like she did before I foolishly, but unregretfully, volunteered to be killed with a farming tool.

I wanted to be back with them. No matter how messed up everyone said they were, no matter what that bitch Merope Greenlaw said about, or did to, all of us, I wanted to be back with them. Because I liked being with them. They were my friends. Except for Merope.

"Any last words Tanner?" Adrian asked, barley visible through my hazy vision, as he raised the shovel, the pointed part facing my throat. Both his hands were gripped tightly on the handle, showing that he was going to stab me in the neck until it was severed from my body.

"I don't want to fucking die!" I shouted. The words escaping my mouth before I even thought of them. I normally didn't say things like that, but it was true. I didn't want it to end like this.

Adrian then slammed the shovel down hard.

I expected blinding pain. But instead, all I got was an ear full of noise. Was dying more noisy then painful? Was I not feeling anything because I was already in two pieces?

I opened my eyes, not even knowing that I had closed them, looked to my left, the direction the clang had came from, and saw the shovel's tip away from my face.

I let out my breath, that I didn't even know I was holding in, in relief. I wasn't dead.

"I don't want to either." Adrian told me as he let go of his weapon, causing it to crash to the floor. "I don't want to kill you, and I don't want to die either." I didn't blame him, dying is scary. I didn't die, but even the path to dying is scary. "So don't attack me again, or else you'll have to answer to again."

I felt myself being lifted up to my feet. Not roughly, but not gently either. It felt like one of my friends picking me up after one of my fights back home.

I then felt started to feel something work it's way to my eyes. It was irritating at first, but then if started to liquefy before my vision blurred in white and blue while my chest started to hurt, even though I hadn't gotten hit there. "It's okay Tanner." I heard Adrian say. "It's okay to cry and let it all out."

I was...Crying?

"I'm not crying damn it." I told him. "I'm not a fucking baby. Only babies fucking cry. I'll stab you in the eye before I shed a single, fucking tear."

I could say that to him, but inside, I knew better. I was crying. There was no denying it. I knew about crying, I had done it with Tarbh back in the justice building. Before that, I hadn't cried since I was six years old, but I had cried twice within two weeks.

Tarbh. Adrian.

What was with them making me cry?

I didn't hear Adrian say anything while I let my tears flow and felt finger enter my mouth and move around in it. I didn't do anything. I let Adrian examine me.

"Good news Tanner," Adrian said, taking his hands out of my mouth. "You still have all your teeth despite your face looking like shit." That gave me a laugh, though it did hurt my jaws. "Bad news is Selene's missing."

District Two's Jeremiah Sentris's POV

Killing Colton wasn't very hard, all I needed to do was to jump up and down until his head burst like a watery fruit. A hard, watery fruit, but something that needed to be broken nether the less.

Back home, when I was in the training center, they explained that in order to train like a real warrior, we needed to fight like real warriors. That meant that we'd have to fight like we meant it, actually fight like we were trying to kill our opponent. I didn't really like it like that, because I didn't want to send my friends and classmates to the medical bay when I go too far. I also didn't like visiting it myself, but the trainers didn't see it that way. They said that if you weren't serious about fighting, then you shouldn't even be training for the games.

They drilled us harder and harder as we grew, telling us to push farther, push beyond our limits, fight harder, to be better then the you you are right now.

Still, they weren't as bad and serious as my father is. Dad was the training instructors times five. Dad would literally push me and my sister into the ground and tell us to get up while making us eat dirt. He'd punish us for the smallest mistakes, even if we did everything right, he'd punish us for not doing something right or good enough.

We were always too slow, to weak, too pitiful, too cowardly, too something. Never good enough for his standards.

Perston, even though he was my friend, liked seeing me and Abby being pushed around my our father and would even shout out things that made our situation worse. Perston had a great imagination, and it wasn't always in my favor. My friend was a violent person, and when he said things around my dad, I was worried that it would give my dad new ideas on ways that he could hurt either me or my sister.

And mom, always the energetic and optimistic, as well as sometimes clueless women she was, always encouraged us to keep on going, telling us that we were going to become great careers one day. That by the time we were eighteen we were going to be invincible.

I hated the seriousness that my father took upon us. He was so serious that it wasn't even funny. And mom supported him. If I wanted to skip training to hang out with Perston, dad would drag me back home and train me, and mom wouldn't stop him.

It was almost a train, train, and train some more routine. My friend sometimes wondered how I could still have a sense of humor after all though. But really, I'd like to ask the little psychopath the same thing. How he could be humorous without telling such dark jokes all the time I had no idea.

All I knew right now was that he'd be the perfect partner for Victory right now. She was so serious about winning this game. She got first pick on the equipment before letting us even touch a single thing. Not only that, but she had the only real weapon with her, not that we didn't have weapons of our own, they were just untraditional.

The clothes that we wore now were also odd, because normally, all the tributes would be dressed up by our stylists before we enter the arena, but we got sent in with our sleep wear, if you wore them. Now we had to steal the blood stained clothes that were on the dead bodies because the backpacks didn't contain clothes, just items that could be used, or made, into weapons. There were also survival supplies along with some food and water, but no clothes, and definitely no shoes.

It wasn't that bad. The floor was dirty and cold, but Victory had willingly thrown away her boots in order to try and kill two people. One succeeded. Now, she didn't even wear her left over boot, she just went along in her socks, just like me, while Jen and Dylan didn't even have socks.

Not that they seemed to mind though.

"Anybody see anything?" Jen asked as we walked down the red light hallway.

"Nothing useful." Dylan answered as we looked into all the rooms, looking for tributes to kill.

Six bloodbaths wasn't bad, but it could of gone better. One by suicide. Three by Victory. One by Dylan. And one by me.

People say that killing someone will affect you. Well, I didn't feel remorse when I killed that little guy. I didn't know him, he was important only because he was my enemy, and I had done worse then kill a stranger.

I hated thinking about those parts of my life.

"What about you two?" Jen asked, obviously towards Victory and I.

I turned to Victory, to see that she was glaring at Jen angrily before she opened her mouth to show that she didn't have a tongue anymore. She was cut so deep into her mouth that only the only way you could tell she had a tongue was because of the large, fresh, burn mark in mouth.

It was because of Arcane Avalanche that we couldn't speak and that we had this intense pain in our mouth. He woke us up an hour before the rest so that he could cut our tongues out, cauterize them, and give us time to heal before heading into the arena. "Oh, right," Jen said with a smirk on her face. "Sorry. I forgot."

Victory's ice cold stare didn't faze Jen at all, Jen kept on looking at our unofficial leader without fear.

The two girls store at each other for a few seconds before my district partner broke the staring contest and waved her hand forward, demanding that we continue our search for tributes to kill.

I followed Victory, as everyone in our search party did, but I gave a smile to Jen, who returned it back to me.

I'm glad that Jen was with us, otherwise it wouldn't be as good as it was now. Dylan was alright, but he was closer to being Victory then Jen. He can be funny, but mostly only if someone else starts it. That's why I wanted to be with Adrian and Tanner back at the cornucopia. They were fun to hang out with. They weren't as serious about everything as Victory was. They were looser with everything.

That's not saying that I wasn't serious, but there's a limit to everything before it feels miserable. Just like how serious dad and the trainers were back home. Especially those times when-

Don't think about it Jeremiah.

I looked back to my district partner and thought of how if I took everything as serious as everyone wanted me to, then I'd end up just like her. Everything would go from fun, to something like a chore that needed to be done. Soon, you'd live your life like that. Live like it was the only thing you knew how to do. Fight and be a warrior. Be an asshole like Victory and love the people who took away your brother.

I looked at Dylan and thought of how Victory must be hating him so much now. His sister, Creek, killed her brother, so it wasn't much of a stretch to think that she was thinking of killing him in a form of revenge.

Killing someone close to you? Killing friends? Allies? People that you sort of know? Would you be able to do any of those?

I thought of that as we entered a large room that seemed to be about the same size as the gym back in the training center, which was brightened only by the glowing red emergency lights that gave us some sight, but still left nearly half the room in darkness. Guess the only good lighting in this arena was the cornucopia field.

As we walked into the room, I noticed that it had several large, T shaped tables with glass vials, clipboards with aged paper clipped on them. Large box like objects with see through glass containing vials, microscopes, and more. It looked like a medical facility of sorts without the medicine. A medical research place?

From the thick blanket of dust and the stench of rot and mildew, from all the equipment scattered around like they had been thrown every which way, cracks in the desks and broken scattered items, I'd say that this was an abandoned medical research place.

Is that what the arena was? A research facility?

And was that blood I saw splattered on some of the desks and walls? I couldn't tell because of the shadows that were cast due to the weak lighting.

"Man," Jen said as I looked around the debris scattered room. "I'm not cleaning that up."

"Like anyone's constrainting you." Dylan dryly told her as I looked at glass jars and other holders filled with green and grey and black mold.

"What do you think's insi- whoops." Jen calmly said before I heard the sound of shattering glass.

I turned towards the sound to see that Jen had dropped a jar of...Something. Something black and half solid half liquid.

I then saw Victory come over to her before giving her a slap across the back of the head. "Ow." Jen said before she looked at Victory innocently. "What did I do?" All Victory needed to do was point down to the fallen...Whatever that thing was, before pointing to everything in general before she shook her head side to side. "No?" Jen asked. "No what? No dropping anything?"

Victory shook her head. No. "No reaching for things?" The little blond asked. Again, Victory shook her head no. "No looking? No pointing? No what?"

Even though Victory was getting irritated with Jen, Jen still wouldn't let up. She was either fearless or stupid, or both.

Victory then drew out her cleaver before Jen did a couple of back flips, getting out of Victory's immediate swinging range, though not out of her throwing range, before raising her hands up in mock surrender. "All right all right, no touching, I get it." Her smile told us that she still wasn't scared of our unofficial leader.

Victory gave a short, but strong, exhale of air through her nose before she holstered her cleaver and turned away from Jen. And as soon as she turned her back, Jen grabbed another glass jar of some grey material and looked at it, tilting the jar this way and that way.

I gave a silent laugh before I continued to search the room for anyone that might be hiding.

Jen kept on asking Dylan what his opinions were on what the jars might be filled up with, in which Dylan then answered that it could be filled with anything from rotten food to bacteria, so he advise Jen to try and not break anything as it could kill everyone. That didn't seem to stop Jen from picking up anything that attracted her attention.

Nobody tried to stop her. Dylan and I didn't care while Jen kept her act out of sight of Victory.

We searched the room and all the desks, but all we saw were clip boards that could be broken or glass equipment that could also be broken, both things could be used as knives after breaking them. But we didn't bother to take those things, we already had better weapons then broken clipboards and broken jars.

When we reached the end of the room, we saw two pathways, both lit up by the same red emergency lights as everywhere in this arena. There was no way to know what was beyond the faint lighting.

I looked at the rusting metal walls and saw that the entrance had letters written on it. Letters that looked like they were made with blood. The letters read: DANGER. An arrow pointed to the right side hallway. "Owwwhhhhh," Jen said excitedly. "Danger in the right hallway. I wonder what's down it." Then before anyone could speak, she was walking down the hallway that told us that danger was down it. And not only that, but I think I hear her humming a tune.

That girl was fearless. Either that or she didn't think much about her life.

I looked at Dylan, and he looked at me. Dylan then shrugged before he ran after Jen. That just left me and Victory to go down the left hallway. And while I'd rather be with Jen, I do think that it's better that Dylan went with her due to that it might not be safe for him to be alone with Victory. Victory might try something on him if they're alone.

Victory went down the hallway first, all I did was follow. And even though this wasn't the dangerous corridor, I was still prepared to swing my paper chopper as a machete. And if I somehow lost that, I had a pair of spiked brass knuckles, which was basically a rectangular shaped piece of metal that I attached nails to.

If Victory tried anything, I could over power her with my strength alone. She might be strong, but I was stronger then her and just as skilled in hand to hand combat, if not better. She may be a career, but I was one as well.

Going down the halls, I couldn't tell if the metal walls were stained with rush, dirt, water stains, or blood. They all looked about the same. A different shade of darkness here and there, but mostly the same.

It wasn't until we got to the end of the corridor that we saw something different.

At the end of the hallway, there were four rooms. One was the main entrance, the other three were walk in rooms, still lit up by weak red lights that didn't light up the entire room.

I walked closer to the three sub-main rooms, and saw that the walls and floors were stained with large amounts of rust or blood. I couldn't tell which.

I walked towards the center room, and saw the same dirty, dark, and rotten smelling room that was the same as all the others.

I felt a tap on my back. I turned around to see Victory pointing towards the room to the left. She looked like she was excited mixed with curious. What did she find?

'What?' I mouthed to her.

'I don't know.' She mouthed back before she urged me to follow her.

I turned and followed her to the next room, stopping just before we entering.

Victory then pointed to the inside of the room. 'You see that?' She mouthed.

I looked inside, and saw nothing but darkness and a dirty room with aged walls and who knows what else.

'See what?' I asked.

'That.' She pointed. I looked again, only to see what she might of been talking about. Just for a flash, I thought I saw a person. A person hiding in the darkness. And as I looked closer and closer, I saw the white's of their eyes. Looking scared, like they were hiding from someone. Hiding from us.

'I see it.' I told her, pulling out my makeshift machete. 'Let's get it.'

I walked into the room, standing beside Victory, who had pulled out her cleaver, and made out way towards the hidden tribute. Whoever it was, it was going down. It could try and hide, but it couldn't hide forever. It's just a shame that we were provided flashlights, that would of made this job easier then just swinging in the dark. But, I knew the general area of where the tribute was hiding.

We slowly made our way to the scared tribute. Not making a sound so that they would have no chance of discovering our presents until it was too late.

But then I saw Victory throw one of her makeshift knives at the figure ahead of us, and miss. I knew she missed because the sound of metal hitting metal occurred as the homemade knife hit the wall ahead of us before it noisily clattered to the ground. It was the loudest sound in the world until I heard a low growl occur ahead of us.

The sound came from the figure we were going after, and I could see it's eyes looking right at us. It had spotted us and knew we were here. Damn.

Victory, as impatient as ever, then charged at the tribute with her cleaver, before it leaped out of the shadows and knocked her to the floor in a single attack.

Victory hit the floor as I got a good look at the thing that attacked her. Now that it was in the glow of the red lights, I could see that it was a person, but it wasn't any of the tributes we were looking for.

It was a teenager around our age, but his body was covered with open sores and wide, deep, open cuts that didn't bleed. His hair was in tatters and his scalp was bloody red where there was no hair, like he had ripped it our from his skin. And speaking of his skin, what wasn't covered in sores was a deathly pale colour.

The boy cried out like an animal before he looked at me. Our eyes meet, and I saw that his eyes were hollow and had a sick look in them. His irises were faded, like someone had tried to erase them and had only been partially successful.

I looked away from his eyes as he mindlessly charged towards me, staggering with every step.

I drew back my arms before I stepped to the side, moving out of his path, while at the same time, swinging my makeshift machete at his neck before I decapitated him.

His body took a few more steps forward before it fell to the ground, realizing that it no longer had a head to guide it. It fell to the floor a second before I heard it's head make a thump.

Too easy, I thought.

But then, I saw white circles appear out of the darkness, telling me that there was more then just this one kid. This room didn't have a scared tribute in it, this room was full of mutts. We had to get out of here.

I turned to where Victory had fallen to help her up, only to see that she wasn't there anymore.

What the? I thought, before I heard the sharp squeal of rusted metal scrapping against metal before I heard a loud click like sound. It was coming from behind me.

I quickly turned around, to see that the exit had been shut.

What the hell?

I ran to the door and tried to pull it open, but it wouldn't budge.

I looked through the small rectangle of glass a little below my eye level and banged on the door to hopefully get Victory's attention. Hopefully she hadn't run away. I hadn't even heard her run away, so he couldn't be that far. And how had this door closed? Did the gamemakers do this?

After I hit the door three times, I saw a head of curly black hair with blue eyes appear.

'Victory!' I mouthed. 'Open the door!'

I then saw Victory smile before I saw her wave a bye bye gesture. Suddenly, all thoughts of this being a gamemaker trap was shattered as I realized who's trap this really was.

Victory had set me up!

No! My mind shouted. No!

I turned around to see that the sore skinned and faded iris mutts were closing in on me. And there was a whole herd of them. Thirty by the looks of it.

I charged at them with my makeshift machete, because if I didn't kill all of them, they'd kill me for sure. And I wasn't going to get killed by some mindless things that couldn't even walk properly.

I looked at the incoming hostiles and prepared for the attacks that would surly come.

The first mutt attacked, a brown haired girl, who jumped straight at me before I stabbed her in the middle of the neck with my paper cutter.

Blood sprayed out of her wound as I felt the heavy bodies pounce on me before they all started to grab me with their dirty, rotten, and not five fingered and full palmed hands, grabbed every part of my body and started to dig their nails into my skin and pull.

I breathed heavily in pain, I would of shouted, but having no tongue made if difficult, as the mutts started to tear at my skin before I felt warm blood and pain start to pour from my legs, my arms, my chest, my face, from everywhere.

I tried to fight them off, but the sure weight of them kept me immobilized.

This couldn't be happening. I was stronger then they were. I guess I wasn't stronger then the thirty of them combined though.

I looked at Victory, pleading her to help me, but all she did was smile as my skin got scrapped from my body.

I was horrified by the way she reacted. Allies weren't supposed to kill each other. Friends weren't supposed to kill each other. She was a cold hearted bitch.

I then felt the mutts start to tug on my arms and legs, stretching my body so painfully that I thought all the bones in my body were going to break. But then I started to feel a burning pain stronger then everything else combined. I couldn't help but look at my stomach and see what was happening.

The skin was stretching like rubber! My skin was getting thinner and thinner, until it started to tear from each other and red started to run out of it. Because of the mutts strength, and because two of them were pulling at my arms and two were pulling my legs, they were going to literally tare me in half!

I continued to breathe heavily, trying to get out of the death trap as my belly continued to stretch and tear, letting more red liquid run from from my body, until I felt the four mutts give an almighty pull, before I felt my spine snap as my torso separated from my body, giving me immense pain as a large splash of red water and soggy pink noodles and wet organs fell to the floor with a wet splat.

The mutts not holding on to me dived for my organs in a mad frenzy before they started to chew on them.

They were eating my god damn organs!

I looked to Victory one last time, and she was still smiling. But she didn't seem affected at all.

The trainers would of been proud of her. She could kill anyone anytime, it didn't matter who, she'd kill them and not feel anything.

Unlike me, who had to kill one of my classmates at age six because of an arranged sword fight. Then again at age eleven. Then again and again as I got older. The trainers wanted me to get used to death, but I didn't want to kill my friends. They told me to let go of my feelings. But it was easy to say and hard to do, because I cared about them. And when I did kill them, I hated myself. I hated that I had killed someone I cared about before the trainers told me to not let their death affect me.

I hated that.

Looking at Victory, through my fading vision, I worried for the others I had grown closer to, and how someone could sever those ties so easily.

A/N: I bet you all expected it to end this way, because really, Jeremiah got a long piece of the chapter. So, you all had to know this was coming.

I am not satisfied on how I described Jeremiah getting torn in half. But, that's the best I could do with first person POV.

Anyway, how'd you all like this chapter?

On another not, I've finally found a beta reader! Horray! Their editing chapters 1-22 as we speak. So, this chapter is unbetaed. But with my slow writing and stuff, they'll be able to catch up soon enough, and when that happens, hopefully you people can enjoy some quality work.