Author's Note
I do not own the Hunger Games.
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Thorin Marcoussis, 17
Just like Vivaldi.
Zephyr had vanished just like Vivaldi.
"Where'd he go?" Marcellina asked dumbly.
Luminita shrieked and thrashed under Thorin's weight as he held her down, and if the contaminent could affect him, he'd be so fucking infected right now as black liquid splattered his face and hands.
But Thorin's mind was spinning - spinning - spinning.
None of this was meant to happen.
Not just his love for Vivaldi, but the disappearing. That wasn't how player deaths worked. No one had killed him, the arrow never struck.
But there were other ways to remove someone from a Game.
For example, having their pod disconnected.
That would cause a player to vanish from the perspective of those on the inside as they woke on the outside.
But Thorin couldn't say that. The Captain would almost certainly hear him, and then he'd be endangering the younger boy. And possibly Vivaldi, if that was what happened.
Or…
Had Vivaldi been chosen?
Was it really such a coincidence that of the remaining players, it was Vivaldi that had been pulled out?
But either way…
If Vivaldi's pod had simply been turned off, whether by accident or because the Captain had decided to use him against Thorin, then he was probably alive on the other side.
And if he was alive and free, he could set other players free.
More of them could live.
His entire life, Enki had believed Capitalites believed to die. They killed his father; they were the reason his life had been so miserable for so long.
And Vivaldi was the reason happiness had come back to his life.
"I'll stay with her," he said suddenly.
Emeria looked surprised. "What?"
"She can't infect me. So I'll stay with her. You two find somewhere safe. We'll ride this out."
Ares Gilmore, 15
Andreas Amandiel had to go.
Ares didn't care whether he lived or died – he'd actually prefer lived, he didn't want any more blood on his hands – but he needed to go. Whatever the end goal of the nonsense he was spewing was, he was clearly affecting Iridescence. She had suggested wanting to die before, but not taking the rest of the alliance down with her.
Something inside her had changed at hearing Andreas Amandiel's argument that they were holding society back. If that was the argument. Ares had always preferred sports to school subjects.
Ares tied off the end of his snare, fixing it into place, and glanced over at Luminescence. He was a little way from Iridescence and several trees away from Andreas, who had gone back to speaking with Etheria. They'd have to ask her what all that was about.
Ares edged closer to Luminescence and crouched at his side to begin work on another snare trap. "Andreas has to go."
Luminescence nodded. "I know."
"Why'd you bring him back for?" Ares muttered.
Luminescence shrugged. "He did kinda help save my life. And if seemed a bit rude to just abandon him."
Ares huffed. "Rude? Sterling, rude is us when we insult each other in the street. Rude is not him trying to convince us all that the others will turn on and violently murder us."
Luminescence groaned and rubbed his jaw. "Yeah, yeah, I know. But I just… the other players… they're actually dying, Gilmore. I… actually killed someone."
Ares flinched. He'd been trying to keep those thoughts aside, something he could deal with… later. But he'd still dreamed of that boy from the bloodbath night after night.
"Yeah. Me too."
Luminescence glanced at Andreas. "And maybe… maybe I just don't want to kill anyone else."
Ares hated to admit it, but he could sympathise with that.
Marcellina Arnoult, 16
"I don't know," she said in response to Thorin's suggestion.
Calpurnia was dead.
Sorcha was dead.
If they killed Luminita, that would make Marcellina the last one standing of their alliance.
"Look," Thorin said, yanking Luminita back again as she tried to lunge towards Marcellina. Black blood splattered the ground between them. "We can't stay like this, obviously. You two just… go ahead. I'll… figure out what to do with this one."
Marcellina hesitated. "Are you going to kill her?"
Thorin sighed. "I don't know."
"He wouldn't kill me. He needs me," said Luminita.
"Luminita, you're just… not well," Marcellina said.
Emeria caught her wrist. "He's right. We should go."
"I don't like leaving her."
"We don't have a choice." Emeria met her gaze, sharp and stubborn. "She will kill us."
Luminita. While Calpurnia had bonded with Sorcha, Marcellina… had admired Luminita. She'd only been here because, in her words, she 'wanted to watch Sorcha fail.'
Marcellina wondered if her parents were watching on the outside, watching them talk about executing their daughter.
"Come on," Emeria said.
Marcellina cast Luminita one last aching look before turning and following Emeria to flee through the graveyard.
"Don't get yourselves killed!" Thorin shouted from somewhere behind them. "Just hang on! All we have to do is hang on!"
Marcellina, absurdly, thought of that poster in her dad's office with a cat hanging over the edge of a cliff.
Just hang on.
"What does that mean?" she asked.
Emeria shrugged. "Does it matter? Now we're free of them both."
Marcella flinched. "Oh, couldn't you have put it a bit nicer?"
Emeria shook her head. "Am I wrong?"
"Well… no, but… It just seems a little mean. That's all."
Thorin might be from the Districts, but he'd also left his alliance so he could help them. In Marcellina's mind, that had to mean something.
"And what do you want?" Emeria asked.
Marcellina frowned. "What?"
"Do you want to live? Have a chance at it? Or would you prefer to catch whatever it is Luminita has?"
"What? No, of course I don't want– I just think…" Marcella sighed and bowed her head. "I don't know. I don't want anyone else to die."
And Thorin had said they just needed to hold on.
Hold on.
Marcellina just wasn't sure what they were meant to be holding on to or for.
Etheria Arquette, 17
The five of them spent much of the morning building traps. Most were easy enough, simple snares and smaller spikes, but some were more elaborate and took longer, deep pits, some filled with pointy sticks, heavy branches hung by ropes from the mausoleums, firepits rigged to ignite with a tripwire.
None of it would gain them anything, but it was fun.
Etheria had never imagined she might go down like this. She'd thought about accidents, such as what took Eulicles from her. She'd thought about some mysterious crime or murder, which was what she thought might have happened to Erewhon. Why else, she had always thought, would her older brother just never contact the family again? Unless he hated her. He'd be right to; she was a very hateable person.
Luminescence was never far from Iridescence and Ares, and it only made Etheria's heart hurt all the more. The three of them worked so well together and there was no place for her.
"You know, if you don't want to split by yourself, I'd be happy to make an alliance," said Andreas.
"I'm not splitting," Etheria said. Even if Luminescence did hate her, he'd been with her since the start of The Game. They might as well see it out together.
"That's not what that look on your face says."
"I was just…" Etheria shook her head. She didn't need to justify herself to him. Instead, she stabbed another shard of wood into the bottom of the pit she'd dug.
"You're thinking of splitting."
Etheria shook her head. "I'll– stay with them."
Andreas raised his eyebrows. "Even when they're suggesting suicide?"
She wet her lips. "I'm sure we'll talk through what we do–"
There was a snap, a crunch, and a shriek. Etheria froze, reaching for her warhammer as she looked to where her other three allies were. Surely one of them had just..?
But no.
Which meant–
Luminescence stood, his spear in hand, and made an indication ahead of Etheria and to the right. Etheria nodded, grasping her hammer. Andreas stepped behind her.
"Ugh!" said a girl's voice, sharp and disgusted. "What is this?"
Etheria froze in place. The District girls. It had to be.
"Hang on, hold still," said another girl.
Luminescence crept forward, waving for Ares to follow. Etheria hesitated a long moment before creeping after them.
If she went down, at least she'd go down swinging,
Luminita Summerfield, 17
Leaving.
Marcellina was leaving her.
That bitch.
After everything she and Sorcha had done for her.
Luminita snarled, spitting up more black drool, but the not-prey wouldn't let her chase.
"Just hang on," he said.
"Hang on?" She barely recognised the sound of her own voice. "We're all going to die!"
The not-prey sighed and shook his head. "Not if we hold out long enough." He raised his head to the sky. "That's all we have to do now. Hold out."
Hold out.
And then Luminita could take her revenge against those that had betrayed her.