The Deep Abyss

Day Three of the arena

06:00 hours

Kalo wakes with a gasp, breathing heavily. Everyone else still seems to be asleep in the church - so it must be early. That is, unless everyone else is as confused as Kalo.

They rub her heavy eyes, and her vision around her fades into view, not that there's much to see- just the dull, grey, cobwebbed walls of the church.

"Bad night?" A voice chirps from across from them.

Nisa is sitting on a pile of their food bags adorning a faint smile.

"The days aren't much better," Kalo replies sarcastically, rummaging around in their bag to divert her attention somewhere else.

Nisa brushes her dark curly hair out of her face, moving to perch next to Kalo.

"You know you talk in your sleep, right," Nisa says, raising an eyebrow.

"What is it with you? You barely talk during the day but when we're alone, you won't shut up."

Nisa shrugs. "You know what they say, two is company," she responds.

Kalo sighs. "Alright, what did you hear?"

"You mentioned your mum a lot is she-"

"She's dead, next," Kalo interrupts, calmly.

Nisa's eyes fall down. "I'm sorry."

"And your father too."

Kalo chuckles ironically. "What father?"

Nisa takes a deep breath. "Look, whoever he is, whatever he's done, don't let yourself be what he made you. Otherwise… he's won," she says. "He doesn't define who you are."

Kalo is about to scoff and dismiss her words again, but this time the words seem to sink in and stay. Kalo simply glances at the Four girl, speechless.

"Man, fuck this place," Amur's voice suddenly cuts in.

He takes a swig of water from his water bottle. "It's really starting to give me the creeps."

Kalo nods. "Agreed."

With that, she stands up, slinging her bag over her back. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm ready for some payback today."

Reinhardt and Frost are now awake too, rubbing their eyes, and disorientated. Reinhardt immediately heads for his weapon. "Amur, you still got your magic orb thingy, right?"

Amur nods, but then places his hand under his chin. "Although, since they now have one too, they'll be able to ambush us again - even better than they did last time."

"Seriously? You're afraid of those outliers?" Reinhardt retorts, rolling his eyes.

"The leader, Jorah, he seems to know what he's doing," Kalo chimes in. "We can't underestimate him again."

"Right," Amur agrees, beginning to pace in the middle.

Nisa suddenly snaps her fingers. "I got it."

Everybody shifts their attention to her, and she turns to her district partner. "Amur, remember when we used to surf, we'd wait for the largest, fiercest wave?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, why not use their own tactic against them? They'll be cocky now, they took out three careers. Why not wait for them to come to us? And ambush them like they did to us."

Everyone is suddenly nodding in agreement, even Reinhardt - although reluctantly, and Kalo smiles to themself inside as they see the confidence grow in Nisa.

The Four girl turns to Frost, who has been leaning against the wall, sharpening his knife.

"May I?" She asks, extending out her hand.

The Five boy is caught off guard; he glances up from his daydream with his dark hazel eyes. He brushes his long, black hair out of his face then hands her his knife.

Nisa flips the knife, kneels, and begins scraping some lines on the concrete floor, and Kalo cringes inside at the sound.

"Let's say we ambush them in some kind of house, two teams can wait on either side. Then, as they enter, we'll crush them," she explains, pointing to her drawing of the strategy on the floor.

"Sounds like a plan," Amur agrees, tilting his head.

"Looks like you're the brains of the team," Kalo chuckles.

Nisa stands up, flips the knife back over gracefully, and hands it back to Frost. "Thanks," she says.

"Anytime," he murmurs, his voice is deep and slightly gruff.

Amur furrows his eyebrows. "Wait a minute… you can talk?"

Reinhardt moves forward towards Nisa, holding his war hammer up in his hands. Unexpectedly, Kalo steps closer to intercept him- as a protective instinct but they manage to stop themself.

"Fine, we'll do it your way. But as soon as the first one of those little brats shows their face, I'm takin' their head off, and whoever tries to get in my way." Reinhardt says.

If there's one thing that the team agrees on, it's that they wanted to get the hell out of that place as soon as possible. So, they begin scouring the arena for a good place to set up their ambush. Once again, they follow the twinkling orange lights until they are wandering the streets of this desolate, underground city. It ascends up in layers with the dome houses bunched on top of each other, and multiple stone bridges hanging across the city as it goes up and up.

Kalo is left strolling at the back of the group, while Nisa and Amur are chatting away just in front. Reinhardt is in the lead, marching with purpose, and Frost is behind him - silent as usual.

The shady, dark, ragged figures carrying the bright yellow lanterns close in around them, wandering between the houses. To Kalo, they seem to be more like background objects - probably designed by the game makers and with no will of their own. But, each time one of them turns; Kalo swears they see Maika's face, and each time, her heart stings.

So she shakes her head and runs to catch up to Nisa and Amur. If only Nisa didn't have Maika's eyes.

"So… you two surf… back in Four?"

The pair from Four look back with a slight grin.

"Well… we tried to," Amur chuckles.

Nisa gives him a friendly thump on the shoulder. "Hey! Don't downplay yourself!" She then leans towards Kalo with her hand by her mouth. "He's been the district champion for five years running."

"Wait, really?" Kalo chuckles.

Their conversation is abruptly paused when they reach the top of the escalating stairs and winding narrow bridges. At the very top, lies a house; a wooden house - in contrast to all the stone domes.

"That'll work," Amur says. "We'll trap them inside then slaughter them in one quick move."

Although, Kalo is doubtful. There's something about Jorah, he's always one step ahead like he knows something they don't. It just doesn't seem like it'll be that easy to take him down -she thinks.

Either way, she follows behind the rest of the team, and they proceed with Nisa's plan - reaching the abandoned wooden house at the top of the town.

It's only when they push the doors open they are struck with the pure contrast of how it looked on the outside. The inside is clean and sparse and lit with warm lights. Corridors seem to go off in different directions - up flights of stairs and underground into basements.

"What the hell are the game makers playin' at? There's no way it was this big when we were outside," Reinhardt mutters.

Amur shrugs. "Then it'll be all the more easy to trap them."

"Or all the more easy to get trapped," Kalo murmurs.

(The illusion of comfort is something Kalo is no stranger to - trapped in their own home in the den of the monster they called their father.)

The team splits in half with Amur, Kalo, and Frost going to the first room on the left, and Reinhardt and Nisa to the one on the right. Kalo wasn't too keen on leaving Nisa with Reinhardt; she wouldn't trust that boy with his own grandma.

Silence creeps over the three allies as they huddle together behind the entrance to the room. But, as the seconds tick on, an increasing feeling of doubt builds in Kalo's gut - like they are not alone in here. Also, there is a tapping sound of hooves on the wooden planks that Kalo can no longer ignore. It started off subtle at first and Kalo just put it to a figment of her imagination but it's growing louder and louder. So much so that she can no longer pretend it's not there.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

Amur is in front of them, waiting by the door with the spider orb glued to his eye.

"Amur!" she whispers, tugging at his shirt.

He holds up his hand to shush them. "I've got movement," he whispers back. "Looks like they're in the basement."

Frost leans in from behind, expressionless as ever.

"Probably a loner," Amur continues. "I'll go get them - you two wait here for the outer alliance."

With that, he stands up confidently with his spear in hand.

"Wait, Amur!" Kalo snaps.

He turns back to her, wide-eyed at her change in tone.

"I-I- it just feels like there's something else here… not a tribute."

Amur twirls his spear and gives them a wink. "Don't you worry about me," he smiles.

But as he begins heading down the corridor, Kalo lets out a sigh and pushes herself up to follow.

(She's been here before - the day Hazin turned his back and fled out the door from their father. They never heard from their eldest sibling again, but he was like Amur - a mellow presence who was always there to calm her heart between their father's outbursts.)

So, she can't help but stumble after Amur through the passageway.

"Kalo! Wait up!" Frost whispers from behind.

The tapping of the hooves gets closer and closer.

CREAK

Kalo is all of a sudden flung through the air! The entire house shifts left, and she is hurled through, what was once a door but is now a hole in the floor. She tumbles down until they land on a wall!

Objects crash onto them as they are rubbing their now bruised head in pain, disoriented. "What the fuck!"

Voices bounce between the wooden walls. Shouts from their alliance! "They're here!"

Kalo begins scrambling up what was once the floor towards the gap in the roof, which was once the door.

A cannon fires! Could it be Amur?

With a cry, she hauls herself through the door. For some reason, their mind is fixed on Amur.

Amur, where is Amur?

However, just as she's slipped out of the hole in the floor, somebody slams into her! They are thrown back down by the short but bulky girl from Twelve!

Kalo lands a kick in the girl's stomach causing her to hiss in pain. But the girl has fury in her eyes. The enraged girl readies a mace in her hand and swings down into Kalo's leg!

CRACK

Kalo yelps in agony as they feel the bones in their leg splinter to pieces.

The girl from Twelve pauses, eyeing up her mace. "Ya know, Jorah wanted you alive but I've just thought, what use will you be with a broken leg?"

But as the young woman from Twelve steps forward to attack, the house rotates once more - tossing Kalo to the left once again! She screams in pain when her leg impacts what used to be the ceiling.

Kalo can only try to ignore the throbbing in their leg and crawl across the ceiling. She glances back to find the girl from Twelve shaking her head and looking around for Kalo.

Then, the hooves return - tapping against the wooden planks, but this time getting closer and closer.

The girl narrows her eyes and grips her mace in her hand, lunging at Kalo. But as the girl is mid-air, a screech shatters the room, and a shadow follows from a door to the left of the corridor! The girl hollers in terror; the shadow zooms past and snatches her up!

Her screams quickly die down, followed by a cannon.

BOOM

The only details of the shadow that Kalo caught sight of were two pairs of spiral horns on its head.

Kalo's heart is racing now. They attempt to crawl away across the wooden ceiling. Their thoughts turn to one person. Maika, Maika, Maika - they can almost see her face.

The sound of the hooves picks up in pace and with it - Kalo's crawling. Eventually, she finds herself tumbling up a flight of stairs, and hitting her head on another ceiling.

Feeling more and more helpless, they roll over and curl into a ball against one of the walls. Tears begin building in the back of her throat, but she battles the urge to let them spill out.

(Why doesn't she just let that monster take her? She's got nothing to go back to in Seven. Why does she fight on? She thought she'd come in here with nothing but bloodlust - as a way to enjoy watching others suffer instead of herself for once but she wasn't even able to find satisfaction in that. So why does she fight on?)

The hooves continue to clamp against the floorboards around Kalo, but it's fast becoming background noise. Their eyes are blinking open and closed, seemingly endlessly, and each time they blink, they seem to close their eyes for longer.

Although, their eyes are kept open all of a sudden by a ragged figure cloaked in black at the end of the corridor. The figure pulls its black veil off to reveal Maika's face. Kalo should be gasping in shock. She would be, but this is not the first time they've seen Maika's face. There's no way of knowing if this is a trick of the arena or of Kalo's mind or even if Maika's ghost is truly here.

"What are you doing here?"

"I thought you'd be pleased to see me?" Maika responds, her voice as tranquil as ever.

Kalo's lips shake into a half smile. "I-it's good to hear your voice." They chuckle. "Would you believe I just managed to fall up the stairs?"

"That sounds like you," Maika laughs back.

Maika's pale eyes move down to Kalo's pocket. "Have you still got my lavender?" She asks.

Kalo reaches into their pocket and produces it in their hand; it looks brighter now than it did on the train. "I kept it safe, just for you."

Maika's face fades away and is suddenly replaced with the pale, gaunt face of Jorah. He's snapping his fingers in front of Kalo's eyes to bring her to her senses.

Kalo lets out a gasp, throwing themself back, and yanking out their sword at the same time.

"You again!" She growls. "What do you want from me!"

She swings her katana rapidly at Jorah's neck, almost severing his jugular then and there. However, with her leg the way it is, she is confined to lying on the floor.

Jorah's finger moves up to his lips, then his eyes turn to something behind Kalo. She shifts around.

There it is. The mutt is very large, taking up the entire corridor. It's covered head to hoof in an aurora of swirling shadow with only two red glowing eyes, and a pair of horns underneath its hood.

Kalo shudders before attempting to sit up again however Jorah places his hand on their shoulder to stop them.

"The planks," he whispers, pointing down at the planks. "Some of them are darker. If you apply pressure to those ones, then the entire building rotates."

Kalo glimpses down to see what he is talking about. He's right. Some of the wooden planks are a shade darker than the rest, they are spread out but still common enough to be stepped on.

Jorah steadily stands up. "Follow me."

Kalo groans in pain, lowering her eyes to her leg. "Even if I wanted to, I couldn't."

Jorah rolls his eyes as he notices Kalo's destroyed leg. "You've gotta be kidding me."

"You can thank your friend for that."

She gasps in pain again, alerting the mutt to their whereabouts.

Jorah looks at the mutt, then at one of the dark planks just by his feet. There is a long corridor directly to their left - so long that it descends into shadow. It finally clicks in Kalo's mind what he's thinking.

"Don't you fucking dare," they snarl.

But the hooves are only inches from them now. So Jorah slams his foot on the plank! Kalo yells as she is tossed down the corridor. Darkness envelops them as they tumble down and down in the depths…

Kalo's vision begins to clear from a blurry mesh to a dark room. Excruciating pain shoots up their entire leg, and they almost cry out - until they remember where they are.

She's lying in a pile of clutter from around the house at the bottom of the corridor which now extends vertically up from where she is.

Footsteps creak against the wooden floorboards. Not hooves, this time. That's a step up.

A hooded, pale figure enters the room… Jorah. Kalo flails about under the pile of clutter for her katana, but it's nowhere to be seen. Plus, she wouldn't stand a chance in this state.

Jorah moves in front of them, removing his hood. "Relax. If I wanted you dead then you would be already," he says.

He begins moving around the room, extinguishing candles between his fingers - making the entire room even darker.

Finally, he stands up on one of the tables and presses a candle against what appears to be a lens of a camera in the corner of the room until it has melted.

The next words that come out of Jorah's mouth are very strange to Kalo, like some kind of evil chant.

"Cio venas kun prezo. Sango estas pagata per sango. Cio, kio estas donita, estas forprenita."

Kalo was right - this kid is as unhinged as he looks.

He spins around back to her from the candles. "That is Esperanto - the language of the Inner-Table. It means: 'That comes with a price. Blood is paid with blood. Whatever is given is taken away'." He swallows. "It's what my father used to say to me every morning before he stuck several needles into me."

He starts pacing up and down, nervously. "What I'm about to tell you, is a secret known only to a handful in Panem, and if anyone finds out, they'd make me beg for death." He takes a deep breath. "My father is one of the most wicked men in Panem but also the most powerful. The entire country, including The Capitol, is under his heel… the inner table calls him 'The Elder' but his closest few know him by his real name: Renaskigo. I was supposed to be his greatest assassin in the order but when I rebelled, he sent me here as a final test." Jorah clears his throat. "He said to me 'If you win, then you'll finally be worthy'."

The boy's eyes suddenly look teary. Kalo knows she should just disregard him as insane but… something about his eyes speaks truth to them.

(She's seen a liar's eyes, her father had a liar's eyes every time he tried to manipulate the family. Jorah doesn't have a liar's eyes.)

Jorah winces in pain, and tugs at his collar, revealing a selection of scars underneath his shirt on his neck and chest.

Kalo groans, shifting her leg. "Even if for one second, I was to believe your little story… what the hell has it got to do with me?"

Jorah steps closer to her, and kneels. "I broke into the archive on the free day… and read your file…"

Kalo shoots daggers at him, turning him slightly sheepish.

"I read everyone's file," he tilts his head. "Nothing personal, I needed to know my competition…"

"Make your point," Kalo snaps.

"I'm sorry about your father… I thought you of all the tributes would understand. Whatcha say… we make a deal right here? We ensure that we're the final two and then the winner… continues the fight against my father." He offers out his hand.

Kalo chuckles ironically. "What makes you think I give a shit about any of that."

Jorah shrugs. "I saw the fury in you… I just thought I could get you to direct it to the right people." He begins examining Kalo's injured leg. "Either way, you'll be no use to me like this. "Your leg… it's dislocated." He places his hands against her leg then suddenly presses it hard - snapping it back into place.

Kalo's lungs let out a cry of anguish! If she could, she'd tear his eyes out there and then.

Jorah pushes himself up and throws his hood back on. He's about to do his disappearing act but this time he turns back momentarily. "Remember, final two, you and me. The rebels are doomed to fail… my father has something planned… something terrible."

Then, he is gone. Kalo is left lying there against the wall, nursing their aching joint. Until multiple footsteps echo between the corridors.

Their head shifts around to find Amur, Nisa, Frost, and Reinhardt crashing in. Nisa and Amur are already wrestling the objects off of Kalo. "My… leg," Kalo murmurs.

Reinhardt is smirking down at their predicament. "C'mon Amur, we ain't doing Kalo no favours by leaving her in this condition… we could put her out of her misery now, make it nice and quick."

Nisa grits her teeth, and is about to lunge at Reinhardt; however, Amur places his hand against her shoulder to stop her.

"Not a chance," Amur responds, glancing back at Reinhardt.

Then, he and Nisa place one of Kalo's arms on either side of their shoulders.

Reinhardt casually wipes his nose. "Better curb your district partner or I'll do it for you," he mutters to Amur, turning away.

"I'll curb you… just you wait," Kalo mumbles under their breath, wincing slightly.

As they are stumbling along the twisted house, Amur begins questioning Kalo about what happened while they were parted.

"The Twelve girl is dead," they mention.

"So is the Five girl," Amur confirms.

Frost turns his eyes back to them at the mention of his district partner. Now we have that in common - Kalo thinks.

"What about Jorah… any sign of him?"

Kalo inhales. "No…"

(She's not quite sure why she said that but it came out of their mouth nonetheless.)

Amur peers in their eyes momentarily, and furrows his eyebrows slightly. "He always finds a way to slip away," he says, turning back to face forward.

After several hours of traipsing through that maze of a house, and constantly listening out for the sound of hooves, the pack makes it back out into the main town.

Amur lays Kalo down against one of the house walls while the others are sitting by themselves; either trying to sleep or in Nisa's case - scribbling something down in a notepad.

"So…" Kalo mumbles, turning to the boy from Four, "Did she win any surfer of the year competitions?" She asks, staring off towards Nisa.

Amur chuckles, shaking his head. "She mainly did it because it helped her free her mind from her home life, ya know?"

"Uh-huh…" Kalo mumbles.

Kalo rubs their face with their hands. Why is this happening? Why is she feeling connections with some of these people? Before the games, she wanted nothing more than to split heads open. She doesn't want to care about Nisa, or Amur… or Jorah. But how can they not? They're all people just like her - with histories and lives. Nisa and Amur with their surfing hobbies, Jorah with whatever the hell's going on with him, and there's definitely something behind Frost's stoic exterior; if only he spoke more.

This is truly a cursed world.