A/N: Big hefty trigger warning on this one.

Chapter 67:

Nerissa Sinclair, District Four, Age 18

Victor of the 142nd Hunger Games

The lift up in the tube is as nerve-wracking as all of the victors warned her it would be, but the sunshine coming through at least made her hopeful it would be a favorable arena for her. There's just so much pressure on her and Evren to get the victory for Four this year. Rumors starting to spread that their District wasn't as good anymore after one of them got taken out by Pigmy by surprise. But not this year.

This year it's District Four's year.

And when she is pushed out into the arena and hears the sound of water falling before her eyes adjust, she starts grinning widely. And it only grows and grows when she looks around and finds herself and the other tributes all on small islands in the middle of a big lake being fed by a waterfall. This is the perfect arena for her and Evren, it is going to be their year!

She scans the surrounding areas, finding Evren a ways from her but the thumbs up he gives her has her returning it, before preparing herself to dive in once the countdown finishes. She takes deep breaths to slow her racing heart and to try and block out the sounds of some tributes crying – surely the ones who can't swim. She can do this, she will win. Even One and Two don't stand a chance if the arena is filled with lakes and waterfalls like this.

And she has gotten real tired of the damn cockiness from them in the days leading up to the arena. Talking like they're hot shit. Well maybe it's time for Nerissa to teach them a lesson.

When the gong sounds, Nerissa is diving in right away, staying under the water as long as she can before emerging. She swims so effortlessly, already halfway to the cornucopia as others are still just contemplating what to do and how deep the water is. And when she reaches the land, she pulls herself up and rolls into a crouch, grabbing the closest knife and getting into a defensive pose for a moment. But once there's no threat, she jogs over to get herself a set of throwing knives as she hears someone else getting out of the water, and she has a knife poised and ready to throw as Evren rounds the corner with a whistle they came up with.

"Behind me," Evren says before ducking down and Nerissa throws the knife without a second thought as soon as she sees the person. And as they drop to the ground, she has a brief moment of panic that she just killed one of their allies, all because Evren told her to! "Oops," he says casually as he grabs a sword, testing it for a moment before switching to a different one. "Didn't see him."

"I just killed our ally," Nerissa hisses at him as she puts on a belt of knives and grabs a backpack, preparing for the shit storm that's about to happen when the rest of the careers get there. "Evren."

"Just follow me lead babe," Evren tells her and gives her a wink and a cocky grin before he steps out and swings his sword at a tribute, dropping them to the ground.

Nerissa is left there for a moment with an uneasy feeling in her stomach – both in alarm at her breaking the unspoken rule of the career pack, and disgust at Evren's sudden change in behavior. She…doesn't really trust him now if he so willingly did that, but she knows she doesn't have any other choices. So she follows after him, knives in hands, and starts sending a couple towards a few of the tributes brave enough to try swimming over.

But a shrill scream of anger has her whipping around, finding Yuliana standing over her dead District partner. "You're fucking dead, Four!" she screams at Nerissa before running towards her, spear in hand.

Nerissa just stands there, frozen in surprise and shock for a moment because she wasn't prepared for this happening at the cornucopia! None of the mentors had any plans for this! But before Yuliana can reach her, Evren swings at her leg, bringing her down with a painful scream before putting his sword in his chest. "You owe me twice now," he chuckles at Nerissa and she manages a small smile, but she has growing unease towards him. Thankfully he turns to face the pair from Two, holding out both arms in a challenge. "You want to go, Two? This is our turf."

The girl looks ready to fight, but the boy – always the calm and collected one in training, which made her worried – puts out a hand to stop her from charging Evren. "You've made your claim known," he says calmly, but his eyes are alert as he scans them and the area, no doubt noticing the tributes managing to sneak in for supplies while the careers are distracted. Well, some of them succeed, Nerissa does throw a knife into the back of one who dared to get a little too close. "We'll take some supplies and go, then I'm sure we'll meet again."

"Let's just kill them now!" the girl snarls at them and Evren points his sword at her, silencing her. "Fine! But you're dead when we see you next."

"Be glad I'm letting you live now," Evren warns her, keeping his sword pointed at them. "But I'm sure our Gamemakers would be disappointed if we took away a future fight from them. Go, before I change my mind."

The boy has to grab his partners arm to pull her out of there, and as they're swimming away, the cannons start to fire. Nerissa just stares at the bodies of the two from One in disbelief that Evren would do that, and also that he would get her to be his accomplice. He lets out a whoop when the cannons stop and turns to her, excited grin on his face that just has her weary and disgusted with him. "Babe, wasn't that amazing?!"

"Stop that," Nerissa says quietly, tensing up when he starts coming towards her. Where is this side of him coming from?! This isn't the boy she knew from training. "What are you doing?"

"What am I doing?" Evren asks as he comes right up to her, grabbing her face before she steps back in shock, making a dark look pass over his eyes. "I'm setting us up for victory. Come on babe, I thought you'd be excited!"

"Stop calling me that," Nerissa says, taking a couple steps back from him wearily and putting a hand on one of her knives on her belt. "I don't know what you mean, us."

"You don't?" Evren asks, clearly confused by that as Nerissa shakes her head, wondering what she could have possibly said or done to make him think that way. And when he takes a step towards her, she takes two back, until her foot slips a little at the edge of the island. And Evren notices that little slip too, and the look on his face fills her with a primal fear. "Don't play me."

"I'm not," Nerissa says, pausing for a moment before making a split second decision to jump into the water to try and get away from him. But Evren caught her plan and lunges after her, grabbing her ankle tight and dragging her back up on the land no matter how much she flails and kicks. "Let me go!"

"You dumb bitch, stop that!" Evren grunts as he drags her back and throws his body on top of her to pin her down, which just sends her into an even more desperate attempt to get free. She doesn't know what he will do to her, and she's starting to fear he'll do much worse than just kill her.

"Let me go!" Nerissa screams at him as she kicks and tries to roll, but he's so much bigger than her and gets her arms and legs pinned down. She lets out a sob when subdued, fearing for her life and more. "Just kill me, please."

"Kill you? Why would I do that?" Evren asks with a laugh that sends a chill down her spine. She was right, he will do far, far worse and make her wish she was dead instead. "Babe I've seen those looks you give me, quit playing. You'll have to die eventually before I win, but why can't we have a little fun first? You and me, running this whole arena. No one can stop me, you know that?"

"Fuck you!" Nerissa screams at him and starts flailing again, trying every method they taught her to get a larger opponent off of her. But of course he just counters them all, having also been taught those same moves. And from the growl he lets off before he puts an arm around her throat, she knows she fucked up by pissing him off. Maybe if she keeps it up he'll get frustrated enough to just kill her first. Surely the Gamemakers would stop him before he defiled her body.

"You couldn't just play nice for once," Evren says and Nerissa bites down on his arm hard until she tastes blood, and doesn't let go as he screams until he punches the side of her head. "Fuck you! You're nothing, you hear me? Nothing! I don't need you to win this and-"

He's cut off with a gurgle and as Nerissa is gasping for air, she's splattered with the warmth of blood. When the full weight of Evren presses on her, she can't help but let out the cry of fear at that weight before she hears footsteps running towards them.

And when the pair from Two gets there, Axel kicks Evren off of her and drives his sword into his chest, pure anger on his face as he does it again and again. Lara tries to pull Nerissa up from the ground and she throws her off of her, quickly backing away with a cry as she takes in everything happening, still afraid to trust anyone.

"Fucker," Axel mutters as he stabs Evren one last time, even though the cannon has already fired. When he turns to where Nerissa is cowering in fear, his expression softens. "We saw what was happening from shore. That…"

"He was going to rape you," Lara says, not afraid to state the obvious and Nerissa just nods her head as the tears start. "Fuck that. Chop off his dick, he deserves it."

"I…" Nerissa starts before just shaking her head as Axel comes over to offer her a hand. She stares at it hesitantly, but he did come back to save her when he had no reason to do so… So she takes it, letting him help her to her feet.

"Let's move so they can clear the bodies before Lara cuts off his dick," Axel says and Lara gets a devilish grin at that, only encouraged when a snort slips out of Nerissa. "You can come with us still, or you can go off on your own. We'll let you live, I swear it."

Nerissa looks at the two of them, so full of distrust over anyone now. How can she trust strangers when the person she trained with for years just tried to assault her?! But…these two strangers proved to be way better people than Evren ever was…

"I'll stay with you."

Weeknight Memoirs update because we gotta wrap this story up along with Renegades by May 15th. And also I forgot to include in my tally the bonus epilogue oops. So set the countdown back to 9 chapters left.

Next up, ah yes, a bitch boy from Two.