Author's Note
With exams finally over, I might actually start updating Midnight Shines consistently.
I hope the hiatus hasn't been too long. After all, if you've been waiting eagerly to read the bloody deaths of children, you're a sadist. And if you've been waiting specifically to hear more from the mind of Midnight, you are certainly a masochist.
Chapter 18
Having moved everything into the cornucopia for safe-keeping, we sit on various crates to discuss our next move.
I share a crate with Rob, with my head resting on his shoulder. Only his warmth can distract me from the death of Rubis.
"You know what we all need right now?" says Rob.
Greg pounds his fist into his palm.
He says, "I wanna get out there and kill some people!"
Sugar says, "I'm with muscle-brain over here. Let's start the hunt."
"Yeah!" says Salto.
Rob holds up his hands placatingly.
"Dudes! Chill! We've had a tough day of fighting already, and as Mama Seasley always says, you can't haul up whoppers all day without cooking up a few!"
The other three exchange perplexed looks.
"You're very wise, Rob." I say.
Sugar says sarcastically, "Yes, too wise for us normal people to understand. Explain."
Rob sighs, "Well, it just means that you can't work all day without taking some time to chill out, man. We all need to just relax and destress, y'know?"
"In the Hunger Games arena. Sure." Snaps Sugar.
Rob says, "Midnight, dude. I think it's time for you to reveal the uber-radical token you brought with you."
I perk up. This is my way to finally make them like me!
More. I mean, make them like me more.
I hastily grab my PS6 and hold it proudly aloft.
"Ta-da!"
I watch them expectantly.
"Is that it?" Says Sugar.
"No." I say, "Wanna know what else I brought?"
"Oh golly, do tell."
"I'm glad you're excited! Because I also have…" I hold up the monitor and the two controllers, "Controllers and a working monitor!"
"Righteous!" Rob exclaims.
I fumble and drop everything.
"A quarter of a monitor." Salto amends.
My scream gets jammed in my throat.
Three quarters of the screen are cracked and warped, leaving only a small smooth patch in the corner.
Tears fill my eyes. My face scrunches in frustration.
I bury my face in Rob's chest, noticing that he has his tracksuit jacket partly unzipped. I inhale deeply.
Rob pats me awkwardly on the back and says, "There, there, my dude. We'll find you another monitor. Accidents happen."
"I'm not clumsy…" I hiccup, "It was because you made me jump with your reaction. But I suppose I can forgive you."
"Aw, I'm sorry, man. Let me make it up to you. We'll go look for a plug socket right now, ok?"
Greg says, "You two can go. I wanna hunt some kids."
"Me too." Says Sugar, "I'm bored already. And I way prefer bloodshed in real life to on a PS5."
Rage fills me and I fly at her.
I scream, "It's a PS6! Get it right!"
In the blink of an eye, Sugar stands and trips me. Before my face even hits the concrete she has one knee between my shoulder blades and a knife against my jugular.
She wasn't even holding a knife a second ago.
"You come for me again, you die. Painfully." She says, "That goes for the rest of you as well."
"Ooh, scary." Says Greg, "What are you gonna do, Pinky? Scratch us with your kitty-claws?"
The word 'claws' is punctuated by a clang of metal, as Sugar's knife embeds itself in the back wall of the cornucopia.
"Ow!" Greg shouts.
He touches the fresh slit in his ear. His fingers come away bloody.
Sugar says, "I'm keeping you alive because you are useful. But when the time comes, I will discard you. If you try to prevent it, I'll kill you slowly."
"Why, you…"
Greg stands over Sugar and prepares to strike.
Rob scoots between them.
He says, "Come on, guys! Wasn't I right? What we need to cool off is a chill game of Mario Kart or something. Let's all head to that big building and set up Midnight's PS6."
After a moment, Sugar says, "Fine. But only because I'm hoping we find someone to stab in there."
Greg says, "Alright. We need to work together until the other threats are dealt with. And I will thrash you all in Mario."
"You're on." Says Salto, grinning.
With that, we cross the courtyard to the tall, U-shaped building.
Rob and I share the load of my token. I am grateful of the chance to show that I am just as strong as him, as I keep pace under the weight of not one, but both controllers.
Rob carries the PS6 under the same arm as his surfboard, which he tells us is his token.
Really, shouldn't he have brought something more practical?
The left side of the building is mostly rubble, burying what stands of the first floor on that side. We enter on the right. Greg pries open the automatic doors with his bare hands.
Sugar tries a door on the ground floor.
"Locked." She says.
"This one too." Says Rob, on the other side of the stairwell.
Greg says, "Let's scour each floor for anyone hiding away. We'll stick together so-"
"Screw that." Says Sugar, "I want a kill to myself."
She's already up the first flight of stairs.
"Ugh, these are both locked too!" she says.
With Greg grumbling behind us, we follow Sugar to the third and final floor.
"Finally." She says.
Sugar slinks through the left door, which doesn't seem to shut properly. We follow her through it to the East wing of the top floor.
We file into the blue-carpeted corridor, with five bedroom-doors, a communal kitchen and common room.
"This would be a good place to camp out." Says Greg, "We can move all our stuff from the cornucopia up here, then no-one can sneak up on us."
"Whatever." Says Sugar, "I'm disappointed there's no-one here already."
Salto says, "There might be someone hiding in the rooms. Let's check!"
He pulls Sugar excitedly by the hand to the nearest door. It doesn't open.
"Needs a key card." He says, disappointedly.
The kitchen and common room need no keys, though, so Rob and I take my PS6 into the common room, while the other three check for potential victims in the kitchen.
I virtually skip into the room when I see a monitor mounted on the opposite wall.
"Look, Rob! They were thinking of me when they chose this post-apocalyptic arena!"
"They were thinking you'd break your own monitor and need a new one." Sugar calls from across the corridor.
As I'm not a lowly mechanic, I don't know how to set up the PS6 from scratch. I perch on a brown leather sofa while Rob works his magic.
"This is a terrible sofa." I huff, "Are the cushions made of wood?"
Rob mumbles, "Hmm… If I just plug this in to the left articulatory port, and connect the controller to the quantum… Ok, my dude, I have no idea what I'm doing."
Before I can teach him, the other three careers enter the common room.
"We're looking somewhere else." Says Greg.
"But Mario!" I protest.
Sugar suddenly rushes over to the window, which has been reduced to a gaping hole by whatever demolished the rest of the building.
"Did you see something?" asks Greg.
"I don't think we need to check another building." Sugar says, slyly.
We crowd behind her to see a white-haired girl dashing across the courtyard to the cornucopia.
"That's Anita!" I say
Greg hushes me.
"That's our prey." He whispers, "We'll watch to see which way she goes to hide, then we'll sneak-"
Sugar hops onto the window ledge and leans out over the 3-storey drop.
Before Greg can pull her back, she yells, "Eleven!! Let's make this fun. Don't waste your head-start!"
"What the hell was that?" Greg demands, when she steps back into the room.
Sugar's smile is actually perceptible when she says, "Let's hunt."
We rush down the stairs into the courtyard, to see Anita fleeing up one of the paths. We give chase.
We reach a sort of orchard, to see Anita disappear into a dense clump of trees.
A pigeon flies in after her.
Knowing she has nowhere to run, we enter the woods from different directions.
"Come out, Eleven!" Sugar sings, "You know you can't last against me!"
A timid voice calls back, "I know… But I won't let you hurt Cujo!"
There wasn't a tribute named Cujo. I briefly wonder if Anita is schizophrenic.
"Good start, giving your position away." Says Greg.
This is my chance to get the first proper kill. Everyone knows bloodbath kills don't count – that's just luck. I will get the first real kill of the Hunger Games.
With the stealth of a panther, I crash through bracken and tree-roots, sword drawn.
I pass a bucket-hat snagged on a tree-branch and I know that I'm close.
There's a flash of white and a rustle up ahead.
I give chase, knowing she can't outrun me.
"No Cujo! Not towards the noise!" Anita pleads.
I skid to a halt as she nearly runs right into me, catching the pigeon in her hands just before it flies past me.
She falls on her front, right at my feet.
I point my sword at her tear-streaked face.
"Please…" she whimpers, "don't-"
I say menacingly, "There's no point in begging. I don't care that your district-partner was my boyfriend; you're my kill."
"Oh, phew." Says Anita, "I was going to say you can kill me if you let Cujo go-"
She stands up and hugs Cujo the pigeon to her.
"-but seeing as it's you, Midnight, I'll just…"
Before I can impale her like an olive on a skewer, Anita dashes past me and out of the woods.
"You idiot!"
Sugar bursts out of the trees in front of me.
"You couldn't hold her for one moment while the grown-ups showed up?!"
"I'm three years older than you!" I point out.
"You're the youngest mentally." Says Salto, appearing behind her.
Sugar huffs before giving chase to Anita.
Rob and Greg catch up with us on the path back to the courtyard.
"This way!" Shouts Salto.
We chase Anita's fleeing form out of a metal gate and along a stretching road. The tarmac is cracked and potholed, matching the rest of this warzone.
"She's fast." Huffs Rob.
I start to lag behind.
We struggle across the uneven tarmac, with chunks of concrete, as large as a stack of five Xboxes, littering the road.
Anita's pigeon flies towards us from about hundred yards up the road.
Cujo flaps in my face. I spit out feathers and try to swat at her.
Anita yells over her shoulder, "Cujo! Attack someone who's not using a plastic weapon!"
Cujo flies at Rob and starts pecking at his protruding ears.
"Oi!" he says.
He can't swat at the sky-rat with a trident and a surfboard in his hands.
With a surge of momentum I propel myself towards Rob, to save him from the vicious attack.
I leap at the bird and Rob and I hit the pavement in a sprawling heap.
My face hovers above his.
Rob rolls me off of him.
"Aw, man; We'll never catch up now." He says.
"Well if you weren't so gangly, I wouldn't have tripped." I say, "But since there's nothing we can do, do you fancy reassuming our previous position?"
The words have barely left my mouth when Rob speeds off towards Greg, Sugar, Salto and Anita.
Greg is gaining ground. Another few seconds and he'll have Anita flattened.
Cujo has turned on Sugar, who grabs the pigeon with one hand and launches it at Greg. He trips forwards and catches himself on his forearms.
"You aren't beating me to this kill!" Sugar hisses as she passes him.
Cujo goes flying up the road towards Anita, clearly injured by being used as a projectile. She lands on the tarmac.
Sugar hurls a knife from the lining of her jacket at Anita's back. It hits her squarely between the shoulder blades.
Anita cries out and stumbles.
She turns back to pick up her pet from the ground.
Sugar propels another knife.
It skewers Cujo right our of Anita's hands, pinning the bird to her thigh.
She looks down at her dying bird, impaled onto her own leg.
Sugar is fast approaching, with another knife at the ready.
Anita runs on, sobbing loud enough for me to hear as I try to catch up.
Cujo emits a tortured squawk with every pounding step Anita takes.
When I finally reach the others, we form a semi-circle around Sugar and Anita.
Anita is a human pin-cushion.
Covered in blood, sweat and tears, she has transformed from the angel persona that Edna helped her create, to a sociopath's torn-up plaything.
"This one was mine." Growls Greg.
Sugar draws a knife across the side of Anita's neck, severing the tendons so her head lolls to look at Greg.
"Ok, you can have a turn now." Says Sugar.
The light dies from Anita's eyes.
Then we hear the cannon blast.
"You bitch." Says Greg.
He storms back down the road.
"Dude. Harsh." Says Rob, "That wasn't very sportsman-like of you."
"Oh shut up. He would have messed it up anyway."
Salto nods in agreement.
"I'm going to check on him." Rob says.
"Me too." I follow Rob.
"Well we're going to make ourselves useful and search the body." Says Sugar.
The two snigger as Rob and I retreat back down the road after Greg.