Tw for people with arachnophobia. Spider mutts in this chapter. Dm me if you would like a summary!

The Deep Abyss

Day One of the Arena

10:00 hours

The gong sounds above the twenty-six! Kalo's eyes narrow into the pit in front of them; their heart skips a beat. A muffled silence covers her ears as she leaps off of her podium and zooms straight for the pit with a murderous glint in her eyes.

Her legs seem to run on autopilot, taking her the entire distance to the edge of the pit, reaching a wooden ladder that descends a few feet down. She slides down it, and their eyes scan around the pit - determined to find their first victim.

At least half the tributes ran in the opposite direction, and the ones that dared it are mostly made up of the careers, with the brave outliers already retreating from the centre of the pit after grabbing a bag from the edge.

Kalo looks to their left - the actual cornucopia is made mostly of ripped, dirty rags, and the crates are hidden inside. Their eyes light up at the sight of the shining blade of a two-handed axe - sparkling from inside the tent.

However, just as her feet prepare to spring into action, the District Eight boy suddenly appears from around the left of the tent. He freezes, his eyes are as wide as Kalo's but they only widen deeper when a spear penetrates out through his chest from behind! Blood squirts out all over Kalo's face from the boy's chest! He limply drops to his knees, Amur is revealed from behind him with his spear hand still out, the calm career sends Kalo a reassuring nod before collecting another spear in his hands.

The boy from Eight falls down flat on his face, lifeless. That could have been Kalo's kill! It should have been!

Her eyes travel back to the axe in the cornucopia; they push their way into the tent, seizing the heavy axe in their hand! The blood in her heart is now pumping as loud as a drum, her veins are throbbing as she absorbs the chaos around her.

Nisa is standing over the girl from Six, the career has a spear lodged into the girl's stomach. But Nisa's eyes look different, they are not their usual excited self, they are staring with disbelief, and dread at what she's just done. How could that be? She's been training for this her entire life; how can she get cold feet now? - Kalo thinks.

CRASH

Kalo's thoughts are interrupted by a shoulder smashing into them. Her head bounces off the ground with a thud. The tall boy from Ten is standing above them, panting heavily. He attempts to swiftly dart over Kalo, but she latches onto his ankle, and he slips, tumbling to the ground just in front of her.

Kalo tightens her grip around the axe, and jumps up to her feet, almost cackling. But the boy plants his boot into their gut! She gasps in shock! The air is struck from their lungs!

As she is clasping her torso in pain, the boy returns to his feet, and his hands wrap around their neck! Kalo squirms as he begins spinning her around and around to disorient her.

"Just go your way, and I'll go mine!" She catches him saying.

But as the sentence leaves his mouth, Kalo takes a hard grip around their axe, and using the momentum of the spin, they bury the axe into the boy's chest!

He groans in surprise! The axe is lodged deep, blood erupts from his mouth, and onto Kalo's cotton, arena outfit.

It's at this moment that Kalo's heart truly stops. They release the axe, and their hand covers their mouth! What has she done? She was so lost in her rage, so determined to do harm to this boy. But why?

They want to say something to him, a last word of comfort maybe but by the time their mouth opens, he's already a lifeless corpse on the floor.

Why is she feeling this way? This is what she wanted.

"Not bad, Seven," a snarky voice calls from across the pit.

It's Reinhardt. He has a war hammer in his right hand with blood running from the sharp end, and the dead girl from District Fourteen at his feet.

He smirks. "Although, it looks like farm boy there gave you a bit of trouble."

All the feelings of guilt in Kalo's heart are replaced once again with murderous rage; this time directed at Reinhardt. She shoots him a middle finger, and he chuckles back.

The rest of the bloodshed plays out before Kalo's eyes like a video recording. Roland seems to have lit an arrow on fire, he releases it and it sails into the girl from District Ten. The girl stumbles around the now blood-filled pit, flailing her arms about as a ball of fire engulfs her. The girl's suffering is finally halted when Shimmer calmly steps in and slashes her neck.

At the end of the carnage, Kalo wipes the blood from her eyes and notices the little, freckled boy from Three climbing out of the pit with a bag around his back; it was the same small quivering boy who was next to them on the podium - the huddling boy from Three.

As he reaches the halfway point of the ladder, Reinhardt begins calmly pacing towards him, war hammer in hand.

Kalo catches themself muttering something between their breaths. "Come on. Come on. You can do it. You're almost at the top, buddy."

(Why does she care about the boy from Three? Or anyone here? She doesn't, does she?)

Either way, it is wasted breath. Reinhardt yanks the much smaller boy down from the back of his collar. The brute of a career slams him down to the bottom of the pit like a ragdoll. "Going somewhere?" Reinhardt taunts.

Then, the huge career flips his war hammer over so that the blunt side is facing the boy and proceeds to bludgeon him to death with three swift strikes - the boy's small skull never stood a chance.

(The boy from Three didn't deserve it… none of these people did - that includes the boy from Ten. Kalo knows it deep down, and it's slowly starting to eat them up inside, even if she tries to fight what she knows to be true - they're no different from her.)

Reinhardt is still smirking proudly, staring down at his latest victim. Suddenly, Kalo grits her teeth again and finds that all their anger is directed at him. He deserves it. She glimpses over to Roland and Shimmer snogging at the edge of the pit - they deserve it. Then Kalo turns to Nisa and Amur; Amur is chatting to Frost while Nisa is standing silently to the side. Do they deserve it? Does Nisa?

But someone's missing from their group - Reinhardt's district partner.

A bloodcurdling cry of pain echoes from above the pit. Reinhardt leaps up onto the ladder, and then above to the surface in two swift moves. Kalo trails him, followed by the rest of the pack.

When Kalo hauls themself over the top, they find the girl from Two on the ground with multiple stab wounds leaking from her body onto her grey, cotton hoody. The perpetrators - the outer alliance are dispersing away in different directions just as Reinhardt reaches his fallen district partner.

"Damn it!" Reinhardt exclaims, feeling the still pulse of his district partner. "They sure as hell know what they're doing."

The District Two girl is now lying in a pool of her own blood.

Kalo glances past them to a shadowy, hooded figure… Jorah Levigi. He spares one last savoury look back, gripping a blood-stained dagger in his hand. Then, he disappears into the darkness.

"We need to watch our backs," Amur says as he arrives.

"No shit," Reinhardt responds.

The pack spends the next ten minutes collecting any supplies, food, and weapons from the bottom of the pit; none of them felt that keen hanging around in what was basically now a bath of blood - not even Reinhardt.

It's dark in every direction, save for the twinkling, orange candle lights in the distance; Kalo sits on a crate and faces the lights so as to not be staring into a void.

It is deathly silent all around as well, except for the faint sounds of water drops pattering lightly against the rocks somewhere in the distance.

A voice breaks the silence. "How yer holding up?"

It's Nisa. Her eyes are the only bright light in this dark place. But Kalo looks away instantly.

Nisa sighs and plonks herself down next to the Seven girl. "I saw your eyes after you killed that boy from Ten," Nisa begins, and a spike of anxiety strikes Kalo's heart as the flood of memories comes back.

"It's exactly how I felt after I… stabbed the Six girl," Nisa finishes.

Kalo turns their head. "Havin' regrets?"

Nisa shrugs. "I dunno… I-I guess yeah, and I thought you might want to talk about it."

"You don't want to get to know me, Nisa."

"I don't… I just wanna talk to you, is that so hard?" Nisa smiles.

Kalo's eyes drop down, and she sighs. "It's just…you remind me of someone…"

"I do?… are they back home, in Seven?"

Kalo shakes their head solemnly.

"I'm sorry."

There is a brief pause, returning Kalo to the void of silence.

Nisa breathes in. "Is that why you're so… you?"

Kalo smirks. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Then the two of them burst out laughing. "I dunno, sometimes I just say things," Nisa shrugs.

But Kalo takes a deep breath and returns to her frown. "Yeah… ok, for the last year since she died, I've been dreaming about getting back at the world, and when I got reaped it suddenly hit me that I could take my anger out on someone… even if it's not their fault."

Kalo hasn't opened up to anyone like this since Maika, and they're not really sure why they are telling all this to the girl from Four but it's out in the open now.

"You see, that was your mistake, I think," Nisa begins, replacing her goofy smile with a serious expression. "I've always thought that revenge is not in our hands."

Kalo glances at her. It's the poetry in her words again, it would make Kalo listen to the girl from Four even if she was speaking nonsense.

"Alright everyone, playtime's over. Time to work for a living," Reinhardt calls out, interrupting their serenity.

Kalo stands up, rolling her eyes. "Hey, what's wrong with a little downtime?" she protests.

This is met with groans of agreement from around the group. Eight cannons went off - most of them killed by the careers, so most of the group figured that they'd earned a rest bite, except for Reinhardt, apparently.

The tall boy looks around at his allies. "Are you serious? You wanna spend the entire time just sitting around?" He retorts.

"I saw a good chunk of tributes run off towards that church-lookin' building over there," Reinhardt says, slinging his, still blood-stained, war hammer over his shoulder.

Kalo stands up to face him. "What about those lights over there?" They suggest, pointing off towards the glowing orange lights to their left. "We may find some extra supplies there."

Kalo isn't really sure why they are contradicting Reinhardt on every point, maybe it's because she's relishing at the sight of his irritated glare, as he clearly wants to take her head off with his war hammer, and his cheeks flush red like an angry tomato.

"It could be a trap," Shimmer interjects calmly, still wiping the blade of her knife clean of blood.

"Alright, let's put it to a vote, then," Amur says. "All in favour of heading towards those fairy lights over there, raise your hand."

Kalo shoots their hand up instantly then Nisa, Amur, and Frost also raise their hands in that order.

Amur steps in front of Reinhardt, eyeing him up with a smug smile on his face. "Looks like you're overruled," he says.

Kalo pulls their hood over their head; an icy-cold feeling runs down their spine as they trail behind their allies. She wants to rub her arms to get rid of the sensation but she knows that it's not the air; there is no air in this place.

The career pack is deep in conversation, except for Frost, who is simply strolling along on the side with his hand in his pocket. Kalo doesn't remember him ever actually saying a word since they've known him.

.

Nisa spares the occasional glance back to make sure Kalo hasn't been dragged away into the blackness by one of the game maker's abominations. Nisa's eyes aren't as bright and full of life as they were when she had first spoken to Kalo back in the training room - they seem to be slowly dimming, a candle burning out. It's been happening ever since the bloodbath.

"Halt!" Reinhardt sticks his hand out to stop the careers.

In front of him is a narrow, stone bridge above what looks to be a bottomless chasm of darkness. It would be so easy - Kalo thinks, as Reinhardt prods the bridge with his foot, right by the edge of the chasm.

"I'll go first," Amur suggests.

Nisa yanks him back by the arm with a nervous gasp. "Amur, no!"

"What… someone's gotta go first," he shrugs with a smile. "It'll be fine."

"Better you than me," Reinhardt mutters under his breath.

Following the lead of the boy from Four, the group steadily makes their way across the narrow bridge. On the other side, they find themselves in a compact street. The candlelights expand above them, revealing an expansive city in this underground network. The lights belong to various houses, or domes which protrude from the faces of the rock. The rock twists into all sorts of twisted arches and bridges, stacking higher and higher up.

The group's jaws are left gaping wide at the sheer magnitude of this underground city.

"So nice of them to put so much thought into aesthetics of where we'll be murdering each other," Kalo says out loud, unironically.

"What's that?" Roland is pointing off towards some faint figures crossing the bridge in single file. Reinhardt readies his war hammer but soon lowers it when it becomes clear that they are not staring at tributes. "Told y'all this was a bad idea," he grimaces.

The figures are ghostly, dark rags, moving across the bridges at exactly the same pace - like robots. They are each holding a glowing yellow lantern in their hands.

"Best just keep our distance," Nisa whispers.

"What kind of fuckery is this arena?" Shimmer groans in her usual sour tone.

"The Head Gamemaker for the last few years has a particularly sick mind," Kalo responds.

Their mind is briefly cast back to the horrors of Maika's arena on her TV screen, and what that girl went through. She quickly shakes the images out of her head.

(They'd rather go through this arena ten times over than have to watch Maika's games again.)

In the dim, grey street that they are now wandering down, there are various shops, restaurants, and doors on either side - plenty of options for resupplying. They bank a left up one of the staircases, pausing outside an arched, wooden door.

Reinhardt turns back to the rest of the group and raises an eyebrow. "Should we knock?"

Kalo rolls her eyes, pushing past him and into the house. The door creaks open to reveal a dark, compacted interior. It seems dead silent at first, but soon, Kalo picks up a repeated tapping sound directly in front.

Something creeps over Kalo's feet! She falls still, it feels like… legs… multiple legs.

Reinhardt lets out a panicked gasp behind them! "Spiders!" He yelps.

Kalo's eyes move to the floor, and lo and behold, multiple crawling arachnids, about the size of a cat, scuttle across the floor in the same direction; all of them heading to the room opposite.

Kalo turns to see Reinhardt's face bright red with fear and embarrassment.

"You alright there, big guy?" Amur teases.

"I don't like spiders, alright!"

"Don't worry," Kalo begins. "I think I have a change of pants in my bag for you."

The huge career glares at Kalo, and mouths the words "Fuck you," with venom.

"Arachnophobia or not, I don't trust game maker spiders," Nisa says.

"She has a point," Roland mutters. "Maybe we should-"

Before he can finish his sentence, the door slams shut behind them. "Nevermind."

Then a voice echoes from the room ahead. "Follow the spiders, there will be a reward waiting for a lucky tribute but only at a price," the voice is hoarse and raspy but high-pitched and monotone.

Kalo gulps but strides on ahead, not even looking back at her allies. Her adventurous spirit takes over once more, eager to find out what's on the other side of the door ahead.

"Kalo, wait," Nisa mutters from behind.

However, the plucky girl from Seven is already ahead. They hesitantly nudge the door open, and before them sits a huge figure at an equally large desk, multiple legs protruding from its body, and all busy independently weaving silk at the desk.

"Come in, don't be shy, lucky tribute," it beckons.

It turns to Kalo with its eight, red, beady eyes.

Kalo swallows back, not quite believing she's about to engage in conversation with a mutt. "So… what price are you talking about, exactly?"

The creature doesn't respond to their question and continues working away at its silk production. "Lucky tribute," it says. "Offer me half of your food, and you will have access to the spider's web. When a tribute touches one of the lines, you will be directed to them."

Except for Reinhardt, Kalo's allies are now huddled behind her in the tight room.

"Half our food? No way," Roland protests.

"We'll find more," Amur shoots back. The slim boy from Four shifts his eyes between the rest of the pack. "Do it."

Roland and Shimmer continue to protest, but eventually, everyone offers up half their food for the spider mutt, who greedily snatches it from them with its eight limbs.

Shimmer rolls her eyes. "Whatever, all of you are meant to starve to death, anyway." Then she turns to her red-haired lover. "Final two, ain't that right, babe?"

"That's right," Roland says, planting a kiss on his girlfriend's lips.

Kalo, not wanting to throw up in her mouth, turns back to the hideous mutation. "So, our prize?"

It reaches into its decaying-coat pocket with one of its limbs and produces two red, glowing orbs, which it promptly drops onto Kalo's palm.

"Hold it over your eye, and the web will be revealed."

Just then, the smaller spiders begin gathering around the walls, and on the floor, circling around the pack.

"Now leave, before I change my mind," the large creature warns them.

Promptly, the group spills out onto the street outside where Reinhardt is pacing impatiently, war hammer in hand. Kalo notices he's still red from his fright from the spiders.

"So… having fun with your new best friends, Kalo? Or can we actually do what we signed up to do now?" He groans.

Kalo seethes inside. "Hey, hot-head, patience is a virtue," they reply. She then places her red orb in front of her eye. Amur does the same with his.

The world before their eyes is transformed into a gigantic, shadowy web with lines jutting off in all directions across the underground city. Their allies around them are transformed into nothing more than heat signatures.

"That way! The web moved!" Amur exclaims.

Kalo lowers her orb to find him pointing off toward the dark-church-like building, far in the distance.

"We have our heading!" Nisa chirps.

Reinhardt lets out a deep, impatient groan. "It's just like I said from the beginning, but no you didn't want to listen to me, did you? You'd rather follow this fuckin'… outsider," he says gesturing to Kalo. "And now we've lost half our food."

Kalo clenches their fists. "Shut your mouth!" She bellows.

The towering career steps towards her. "Why don't you make me?" He snarls.

Amur steps in between them, pushing them apart.

"Shame, I wanted to see that," Shimmer smirks, twirling her blade around as usual.

Reinhardt finally backs down, and now Kalo can see it. She is a wolf amongst other wolves, it's just where they belong.

(What she was feeling back when she slew that boy from Ten, it was nothing.)