Day 8:


Avonlea Headden, 18
District 4 Female


Olympia hasn't said much to me in a while. I don't blame her.

The thing is, I don't regret what I did. At all. With Cora, I felt absolutely horrible. I know I snuffed an innocent life then, even if it meant securing me a spot closer to the victory I've trained my entire life for, but that didn't make the guilt any easier to bear. It's an understatement, I regret it. I regret killing them.

But with Prism, I…don't.

I feel justified; to me it had made perfect sense at the time. I knew how Prism felt about me; they never tried to hide the fact they thought Cy and I were useless. That they saw me as nothing but cannon fodder. If it ever had come down to me or Prism, I'd choose myself in a heartbeat.

Should I really be feeling this way?

I wonder if Cy is somewhere in the heavens and he knows I avenged his unfair death. Would he see it that way? Is there ever anything as a justified kill? Certainly Prism's friends and family wouldn't think of it as such. What will the cameras say? Am I really the hero? I thought I was doing the right thing.

But a kill is still a kill.

The pod stops moving and I feel thankful for the distraction from my thoughts. The doors open up to reveal a black and red hallway surrounded by neon lights. It feels unnerving. Like there's no way walking down there will spell anything but certain doom.

I start walking down the hallway without another word. The sounds of another pair of echoing footsteps tells me that Olympia is not far behind. I swallow my surprise; I was wondering if she wouldn't want anything to do with me.

It's out of necessity, nothing more and nothing less. We're only sticking together because there's safety in numbers and we're the only Careers left. I have no doubt she'd kill me once we're useless to each other.

Not if I get to her first.

I banish the thought and continue walking.

We reach a room that reminds me of the spaceship we were previously in, but everything is dark this time. It's larger, the ceilings are higher, and there are no windows. Two hallways splinter off from the main chamber but it's hard to make out where they go. As I enter the main chamber, hidden intercoms suddenly blast to life and make me jump.

"Welcome tributes!" I hear the Head Gamemaker's voice again. "You have now arrived on the Ophiuchus Space Shuttle! I applaud you for making it this far, but the adventure's not over yet."

Suddenly, I catch sight of something dark green slithering down one of the hallways and my blood runs cold. It can't be…

"There are two mutts in the shuttle: a lovely pair of snakes named Calliope and Caliborn. I've put them in here to guard the area and they do not take kindly to intruders. So stay alert, and may the odds be ever in your favour."

The intercoms shut off and I curse to myself because this is just perfect. Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes? I hate snakes!

The mutt, whichever one it is, finally slithers off and Olympia and I are alone. I turn to her and point left. "That one has no snakes. Wanna head there?"

"Sure," Olympia mutters, so quiet I can barely pick up her voice. I start walking off again, down the left hall which is pretty empty. Olympia follows behind. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see she's left a substantial amount of space between us. I stop and let her close the gap, just in case she gets any funny ideas and decides to try spearing me through the back or something. Never hurts to be a bit on guard.

It feels strange to be in this position, where I'm the one leading the charge instead of lingering at the back because I don't fit in. It's almost thrilling. Before, I barely had a say. Now, I'm on equal footing with Olympia. I have authority. I used to get dismissed as weak. I'm not weak anymore. I have two kills under my belt, one of them being a fucking Career.

I will claw my way out of this arena or die trying. That's all I know.


Reggie Baxter, 18
District 12 Male


I had an absolutely terrifying dream last night. In it, I was being buried alive in the District 12 graveyard and all the people I've wronged were taking turns shovelling the dirt on top of me. Kerkylas. Carota Simmers and her family. Lyle. My parents. My sister.

The final face I saw was a snarling Garnet before everything went pitch black. At that point, I woke up and bit my tongue so I didn't scream.

God, Reggie. Some doctor you are. That makes two people who've died under your care. Who will be next?

I squeeze my eyes shut and open them back up. Fuck that. I didn't ask for the door to jam. For Garnet to sacrifice himself for me. Really, I shouldn't be the one blamed here. It was the Gamemakers' fault. I won't say it out loud, because I have more than enough people mad at me as it is, but I know it was technically on them.

Speaking of those bastards…

Hearing the Gamemaker talk about the mutts as if they're his kids, which they honestly might be given that Athos Leigh-Snow is notorious for being a bit of a social recluse who probably hasn't even held a hand in his life, doesn't do my anxiety any favours. Honestly, it seems like my time in the Games just keeps getting worse and worse.

Yep. I'm trapped in an unfamiliar place with an ally who hates my guts, my other ally is dead, the last sponsor gift we got was an extremely useless chocolate cupcake, and the place is deeming with evil snakes. Could I get even more unlucky?

That was rhetorical, by the way. I do not feel like testing that theory.

Kerkylas's loud and overly dramatic stomping movements would honestly be hilarious if it weren't for the fact that he's extremely pissed off. Honestly, I feel pretty upset too. But those were circumstances out of my control and not my choice to make.

Garnet was too good for both of us anyways.

I don't contest that thought. It's right.

We continue down the hallway. Kerkylas suddenly stops, but I just brush right past him and keep walking, too lost in my own thoughts to care. I make about a foot away from him before Kerkylas grabs my arm and yanks me backwards. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Is he messing with me? Is now really the time for this!? I glare at Kerkylas but he looks genuinely terrified.

"I think a mutt is coming," Kerkylas says in a hoarse whisper. His grip on me loosens as his hands begin to shake.
"Are you sure?"
"Well, do you wanna stick around long enough to find out?"

"No…" I say quietly.

Then I hear it. A gentle hissing noise that could almost be mistaken for a vent or an air duct if it weren't for the way it increases in volume and sends shivers down my spine. The hissing begins to echo down the large hallway and in the darkness, I think I see it.

A pair of glowing red eyes. A set of fanged teeth. A large forked tongue.

"Run?" I ask.
"Run." Kerkylas says.

So naturally, that's what we both do. We turn around and run like hell.

As expected, the snake catches our movement and immediately gives chase. Its hissing gets even louder until it's practically the only thing I can hear and it makes my stomach drop into my feet. How can something that crawls around on its belly with no legs move around so fast!?

Perfect. Just perfect. Now things really can't get any worse.

"Keep up!" Kerkylas yells over his shoulder at me.
"I'm trying my hardest!"
"Well, your hardest sucks and it's gonna get you killed!"

"Fuck you!" I snarl. I'd flip him off too if I wasn't occupied. Kerkylas just laughs. "Oh yeah, Reggie. Real mature of you."

My legs start to burn and ache. But I know I can't give up. This will mean the difference between life and death and I've already spent one day running from destruction. I'll do it again. That snake won't ever get to even touch me with its stupid forked tongue.

Suddenly, Kerkylas and I crash into someone.


Walker Jeong, 13
District 6 Male


"What is this place?" I ask, even though I know Linh won't have a proper answer. She doesn't know either. But it feels so spooky and eerie. I can't even believe that I'm saying this, but I miss the observatory. It was cramped and full of stuff we had absolutely no idea how to use, but at least it was a hideout that nobody ever found us in.

But now that we have new supplies and are in a new place, this could be the chance for do-over. Mainly, that I can do this. I can find a way to keep us safe. I can lead us to glory. I refuse to let anymore alliance members die.

Maybe one of us can even…win?

I glance at the two hallways. "So, Linh? What do you think? Left or right?"
"I don't care," Linh sniffs.

I sigh. "Come on. You can pick. I may be the leader, but a good leader treasures everyone's opinions equally."

"Fine." Linh dejectedly points down one of the hallways. "Right. Is that better?"
"Yeah. That's perfect. Cause we're both right-handed, huh?"

Linh eyes me suspiciously. "Yeah. Sure."

I take off walking and motion for Linh to come with me. Who knows where this leads to, but I hope it won't be too bad. Sure there's some mutts out there, but there's also eight other tributes they could go after instead of two defenseless little kids. So maybe we'll get lucky? AT least until we can find a new shelter. I hope that's not too much to ask the Gamemakers. We seem pretty popular with the amount of sponsor gifts we've received so maybe people will like us and want to be on our side?

I hope so.

As we continue down the hall, we suddenly hear footsteps. Linh freezes up and ducks behind me. I pull out our dagger and brandish it in the direction of the noise. I do my best to keep it steady in my shaking hands. Someone is coming and I refuse to let them get the better of us. We've already lost Cameron and Tati. We already lost Vick. I'm not gonna lose this time.

The footsteps get louder. Linh whimpers. I feel my heart pound and I desperately want to run away screaming but I hold my ground. We have an advantage; whoever is approaching doesn't know we're here. It's too dark to see who the shadows climbing onto the hallway walls belong to, but I pray it isn't Vivian and Arietis. Anybody but them.

Before I can make sight of anyone, I'm shoved to the ground.

The dagger goes skittering out of my hands and across the floor. Kerkylas is lying on top of me. Before I can push him away, he grabs my backpack and begins to pull it off me.

"Hey!" I yell, kicking at him. "Get off me! Let me go!"

Kerkylas pulls the backpack and straps completely rip off. I feel an ache in my shoulder. Linh yelps as Reggie grabs her bag and they both take off running. I grab Kerkylas's ankle, but he shakes me off and kicks me in the chest. Hard. Pain explodes in my body.

"Walker!" Linh is at my side, helping me get to my feet. "Oh my God, are you okay!?"
I wince. "I don't know."
"They just took all our supplies!"

"Yeah…" I groan, trailing off when I suddenly hear a loud hissing noise. Oh no. This can't be good. Don't tell me…

I turn around just in time to see a large snake with beady red eyes slithering towards me. Its jaw unhinges as its hissing becomes almost a deafening roar. Linh slings my arm around her and we start to hobble away, but the snake begins to close the distance on us.

Hot tears prick my eyes. This isn't how I wanted things to go. I was supposed to drive my alliance to victory, not watch us all die. And I don't want to get eaten by a giant snake. Not like this, please not like this.

I want my mom. I want my dad. I want Rhonda. I want my friends.

I look up just in time to see the snake's jaw hanging right over my head before it bites down. Linh screams. Everything goes dark.


10th place: Walker Jeong, District 6. Eaten by Caliborn.

I loved Walker. He was such a bright-eyed and determined little kid who had big plans and even bigger dreams. Unfortunately, as idealistic as he was, he was often naive to his surroundings and had a tendency to be pretty arrogant and self-absorbed. He tried his best, but was often thwarted by circumstance outside his control. He may have been a little kid, but his presence loomed large. RIP, little Libra.

9th place: Linh Nguyen, District 10. Eaten by Caliborn.

What a sweetheart and honestly, I totally shipped her with Vick lmao. Come on, don't you think they made and adorkable little couple? She was such a nice girl, always looking for her allies such as being there for Tati and listening to Vick when Walker sure as hell wouldn't. I feel bad giving her a pretty tough past few days in the Games, forcing her to lose her closest ally and die a pretty nasty death. But Willuna, thank you so much for this songbird!

Blog has been updated with the current statuses and now we come into our Final 8. So here's the question: do you want to see Final 8 interviews? Let me know if you're interested in reading them in which case if most of the readers say yes, I'll write them. Otherwise we'll go straight to Day 9.

See you all next chapter,

-Vr