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#17
District 8 Female
Name: Cotty Tune
Age: 17
Score: 8
Odds of Victory: 10-1
Fact: Despite her district's industry, she had no fashion sense. Crocks and socks? Yeesh…
Cotty had heard screams echoing through the caves. Later, too long later for her liking, the screams stopped and a cannon fired.
Knowing that there was no way of seeing the anthem if she were to remain underground, and wanting to see who had died, Cotty began to make the familiar journey to the entrance of the salt mines, as she had done for each anthem on a day where a cannon went off.
It wouldn't do to have no idea of who her opponents were.
Not long before she made it there a second cannon had gone off. Whether it was in the salt mines or somewhere out on the island, she couldn't say for sure.
Being down to the final eight made her pick up the pace all the more.
"If I'm lucky, two of the careers bit it," Cotty muttered. "But I was reaped, so I ain't, so it won't have happened."
Soon enough Cotty arrived at the entrance of the salt mines. The downpour outside was getting worse all the time; much worse since it had been when it was the face of the boy from 10 in the sky several days ago.
Cotty had figured out that the more tributes died, the worse the rain got. If she had to guess, it was probably a means of forcing them down into the salt mines for the finale. From afar she could see some supplies still within the cornucopia. The careers likely hadn't entered the mines just yet.
Or at least not all of them.
Hopefully they never would. Strange coloured clouds were moving in, and they meant trouble if the colours were anything to go by.
Tempting as the supplies were, Cotty wasn't going to risk burns from acid rain, or worse.
She wasn't kept waiting for long. The anthem played, showing the faces of the boys from 2 and 11 before fading into silence.
Cotty frowned over the fate of the younger tribute, but couldn't bring herself to feel a thing for the death of the boy from 2.
"Aren't you so glad you volunteered?" Cotty snarked, turning to head back into the depths of the salt mines.
Before she could do so a parachute fell from above. The rain made it a struggle for the parachute to land properly, sending it off towards the sea.
Cotty rushed forth, barely managing to take hold of the parachute before it hit the water. By the time she dashed back to the caves she was already half-soaked.
It was worth the sponsor, or so she thought until she saw it was just a sheet of paper. One with a cave and a sponsor parachute, the latter with an X over it.
It didn't take long for Cotty to work out what it meant.
"No sponsors down the caves, and with those strange clouds…" Cotty grimaced, knowing she'd be on her own soon enough.
What else was there to do but loot the cornucopia of anything useful while she still had the chance? Thankfully someone had been here already and had cleared a path within the horn. Clearly the thief had stolen several things, but there was still plenty for Cotty to claim for herself.
Water was the priority. Filling foods like bread and butter sticks were next. Cotty briefly held up a pair of padded earmuffs, discarding them in favour of a camouflage blanket.
Cotty would've looted the whole horn if she could, or destroyed what she couldn't use, but that was when thunder boomed. That was when the strange clouds moved in right overhead.
Cotty wasted no time in sprinting back to the mines. No sooner had she gotten inside the rain started to change colour.
That was when a trio of shouts and screams rang out from very nearby. The careers were coming; the boy from 1 and the girls from 2 and 4.
As much pain as the rain caused them, they changed their tune when they saw Cotty in the entrance of the mines. The boy from 1 and girl from 2 both grinned widely. The girl from 4 went silent, adopting a blank look of focus.
Cotty didn't stick around, she turned tail and hurried away. The careers were quick to follow her. She heard the girl from 2 swearing when the career noticed how much emptier the cornucopia appeared to be.
Cotty snorted. Hadn't these idiots thought to leave a guard? Idiots or not, they were strong and knew how to make things hurt. She couldn't let them catch her!
Cotty, by now, knew the caves a lot better than these three had ever gotten a chance to. So long as she didn't stop running, she knew that she would lose them eventually. She just had to keep on the move and not run into anything.
Rubble collapsed behind her when she was halfway down a tunnel. She skidded to a halt, peering back. There was surely no way the careers were getting through that, not anytime soon.
From the other side she heard the swearing of the girl from 2. She heard the ranting of the boy from 1 and how he just wanted to make his first kill already. She barely heard the soft spoken girl from 4 telling them to zip it and find another way.
Then there was only silence as the careers headed away. Silence aside the distant squeaking of rats here and there.
"Cheers Head Gamemaker Whoever," Cotty snarked between pants of air.
It made sense to Cotty. Eight tributes were left, and that hadn't been the case for very long. Surely they wanted to at least finish the interviews before letting the deaths resume.
"...Just saying, I could've outran them," Cotty said, whistling as she headed on her way.
Cotty, knowing the careers would be heading to the higher tunnels to take a separate path, figured her best chance was to head for the lowest depths. She'd been low already; it would be easy to head lower still.
After spending the night huddled in an alcove under a camouflage blanket Cotty was on her way again. She walked and walked, and then walked some more.
While heading down to the depths she froze. Up ahead in one of the downward inclined tunnels was the girl from 9. She walked slowly, visibly twitching and audibly sniffling. She had no idea Cotty was a few dozen feet behind her.
Cotty silently took her mace out of its holder and began to walk after the girl from 9, bracing herself.
"Nice and quick. It'd be a kindness," Cotty muttered. "She's half mad as is."
Before Cotty could come anywhere close to the girl from 9, more rubble fell from above, sealing the tunnel. Cotty grunted, hitting her mace against the rubble to vent her frustration.
The gamemakers clearly wanted all of the family interviews to be finished. Murder wasn't in the cards, not for a few hours yet.
The quickest path she knew of to the lowest depths was blocked. It was the long way around for her. What could she do but turn around and try another route?
Nothing.
The walking was tiring work, even with Cotty's decent supplies of food and water. The chilliness of the mines sapped her energy moment by moment.
Settling down in another alcove behind her camouflage blanket, Cotty tried to get some more rest. At first her thoughts went to those who still lived beside her and that the careers might get caught in a cave-in somewhere far from her own half-comfy spot.
Her thoughts soon drifted back to her home. District 8 may not have been fancy, or homely or even close to hospitable, but damn if it didn't have people she cared about.
Everyone back at the care home, she missed them dearly. Who said family just had to be those who you were related to be blood? Those without parents, stuck in the care home, they formed their only family.
Cotty hadn't lied at the interview when she said she had over two dozen siblings. As far as she was concerned, all of the orphans were her siblings. They were her brothers, her sisters and her people-that-knew-better.
She would win these Games. She would get every last one of them into the victors' village. Woof, as unnerving as he could be, had at least been useful in reciting the laws and rules of who got to live with a victor.
Simply put, as many people as the victor wanted.
There would be space for thirty three orphans.
Killing the girl from 5 and abandoning the boy from 6… it was scummy. But such scumminess was worth the end result once she left the arena.
For a time Cotty curled up against the wall, picturing her loved ones. Wooly, Stitcher, Hattie, Aglet, Mitten…
Footsteps sharply pulled her back to reality. Someone was coming. Just one person? Cotty could deal with just one. At least, career or not, it wasn't the trio from earlier.
Cotty didn't dare to breathe as the tribute passed by, muttering and cursing with each step they took. Their voice, what little of it Cotty could overhear, was prissy and uppity. The girl from 1? It was hard to recall it for sure.
"Where are they?" the tribute muttered. "Why can't I find anyone? Why can't I kill anyone?"
Cotty dared to take the tiniest of peaks out the side of the blanket. A second was all she allowed herself. The girl from 1, heading away into the darkness, didn't look back at her.
Cotty snickered once the girl from 1 had headed to the left of the split in the tunnels.
"Wait, neither of the Ones got any kills?" Cotty asked, snickering despite everything. "Yeah, they're their district's finest alright."
With a smirk to the cameras she was sure were watching her, Cotty put away her blanket and headed onwards, making sure to take the right path.
Deeper Cotty went and ever darker things got. The glowing gems on the walls were scant and only helped so much. Cotty's flashlight helped more, but she knew the battery life was limited and precious.
Deeper she went, hearing no signs of life.
Deeper she went, hearing the anthem playing around the arena.
Deeper she went, heading down a cave with seawater almost to her knees.
Deepest of all she went, exiting the cave and emerging in a sea cove of mild fog.
"This must be it. The deepest depths," Cotty remarked after hours of walking, keeping a tight hold of her mace just in case as she stepped forth to explore.
The cove was rocky, like the salt mines above, but was nowhere quite as lifeless. Nor was it anywhere as dark. Far from being grey, gloomy and dismal, it was - of all colours - a subdued pink, the colour reflected all the stronger by the water.
Colourful shells laid upon the ground beneath the water and in a pile near the wall off to the left. The biggest shells, however, were straight ahead. Large sofa sized clams reflecting light of pink and cyan.
Cotty stepped back as three figures rose up from behind the claims, slumping over them to stare at her. They had the upper half of human women, if a bit ghoulish and rather spindly.
Their lower halves were just like those of fish.
The trio of mutts stared at Cotty with wide, piercing eyes. Cotty held up her mace, still stepping backwards from them.
The mutts opened their mouths and began to sing. The sounds weren't ghastly nor terrifying. They weren't even off key.
The singing was heavenly. It was divine.
It filled Cotty's head and took away her senses, her feelings, her thoughts.
It took away any sense of danger or urgency to leave.
Cotty, swaying slightly, began to make her way towards the mutts step by step. Her face was serene, her eyes were blissful and her posture was relaxed.
Her hands were loose. Her mace fell from her hand before she was halfway to the mutts.
Her head didn't clear when she was ten feet away.
Her head didn't clear when she was five feet away.
Her head didn't clear the moment she was lured to the mutts.
Her head only cleared when one of the mutts took its first bite.
Weaponless and dogpiled beneath the weight of three mutts, there was little Cotty could do as she was bitten, slashed and mauled, her screams echoing across the walls of the cove.
Little aside grabbing a sharp rock and slamming it into the eye of one of the mutts. It fell back with a screech of purest agony. The other two mutts tried to go for Cotty's throat, but she swung the rock in an arc, hitting both mutts across their faces.
Bleeding and beaten, Cotty staggered away from the clams and the mutts, weakly taking hold of her mace and limping to where she had entered the tunnel.
She wasn't even halfway before the singing began once again. The blissful tune overpowered the pain and filled her head.
She stood in a trance as the mutts swam forth to dogpile her once again. As Cotty's screams peaked and finally faded away, her corpse splattered against the left wall, one last thought passed through her mind before the cannon went off.
If only she had taken the earmuffs.
The cavern was, again, silent, though only for a time.
Indeed, it wasn't much later that another tribute ventured into the den of the siren mutts.
This tribute, like Cotty, moved forth through the salty water.
This tribute, like Cotty, provoked the mutts and made them sing.
...But unlike Cotty, this tribute was deaf and unable to hear a thing.
One look at Cotty's remains and the girl from District 9 fled the cove, screaming all the way with the siren mutts left far behind.
Tribute Deceased
Ranking: 8th
Cause of Death: Mauled by Siren Mutts
Time Lasted: 8 days, 4 hours, 59 minutes and 2 seconds
The odds weren't in her favour
District 8 Eliminated
