Author stuff: Long time no post!
I'm really not feeling too motivated to post more than I've written, which is the entirety of this fic, at least. So, I'm just going to post the rest of these chapters. I hope to someday finish this entire thing, but it probably won't be this year.
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Chapter 4: In Which The Games Begin
"Avoiding people was his new goal in life." James Dashner, The Maze Runner
The Tributes scrambled about.
The smart ones fled the scene while a few stuck around and battled it out for the control of the Cornucopia. It was mostly the Careers and those that thought they stood a chance.
Annabeth had to look away when one kid's head was bashed in by a brick. A sickening red stain of blood and viscera pooled on the ground where he had fallen. Bile rose to the back of her throat.
She wasn't sure whether or not it was a plus that the Tribute had been a Career.
People were stabbed, beaten, or had their throats slit. In the end, three Careers remained in a circle of eleven bodies.
Eleven canons, one for each of them, sounded out from the speakers.
The Bloodbath had only lasted twenty minutes at the most, but Annabeth couldn't recall that many people dying in that short amount of time before. She still wasn't sure whether or not Magnus had made it. Some of the bodies were too hard to recognize from the brief glimpses they were given of each of them.
But, mere minutes ago, they had been living breathing people. They had been someone's child, friend, or loved one. They had meant something to at least one other person out there.
And now, they were dead.
Annabeth bowed her head and lightly tapped her right toe on the ground. It was something everyone in District 8 did when they learned of or saw someone's death, especially if that person had been their kin.
Helena reached across Bobby and tapped her knee, her eyes pleading with Annabeth to not do anything more.
Annabeth looked away for a moment then back up to the screen.
The Careers were making plans on how to set up a shelter near the Cornucopia. Already, in the span of two minutes, they were disagreeing with one another. Annabeth wondered how long their tentative alliance would last.
She would give them two days, at the most.
Still, they worked as a pack to kill three more Tributes before the evening was up. And, still, the anthem didn't start to play and faces were shown across the sky.
Eight and a half hours after the games started and it was still too bright in the arena for the evening's announcements of the total deaths for the day.
The Gamemakers liked to string along their audience, Capitol and district alike, before they relieve the tension of releasing the knowledge of who lived or died.
A horrible roiling sensation twisted her stomach into knots.
Magnus still had yet to be shown. It was impossible for people to just disappear from the Gamemakers cameras. They built the arena from the ground up. They knew every centimeter of it. They were purposefully not showing him.
They also hadn't shown the boy from District 4. She wondered if he'd been the one to have his head bashed in by a brick.
Finally, the anthem rang out and the seal of the Capitol illuminated the darkness of the arena. The anthem fades, sending everything into black for just a moment. And then images of the Tributes who'd died, alongside videos of how they exactly died fill up the screen. Information on the exact time of death, how long they'd lasted in the arena, who killed them, their name, their age, their district, etc. was billed to the left side of the screen.
Fourteen dead on day 1.
And Magnus was not one of them.
She let out a shaky breath, closing her eyes and drank in the warm night air. Her shoulders were sore from the tension of them being squared the entire time. She allowed herself to sink into the back of the chair for the first time since the games started.
Magnus had kept his promise.
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Like they had for Audrey and Emma, they set up a sleep schedule so that at least one of them would always be there to watch the games as they were shown live. And, like they had before, they slept outside of the Justice Building with the whole of District 8 — and the Capitol, occasionally — watching them.
No one in the families of the Tributes had any privacy during the duration of the games. It didn't exist when one of their own was in the games.
The only break from the public was only when they had to relieve themselves.
This was how Annabeth managed to sneak away to hide in her glen for a short time. She just needed a moment to breathe, to refocus… everything.
She needed a moment to cry.
She allowed herself the opportunity to curl into a ball at the base of her tree and wrack her body with heaving sobs. And, when she thought of the one person who would come out here with her and joke about the whole thing, she let out a whine and felt her stomach start to retch. Nothing more than acid came up, burning her throat and leaving a taste in her mouth.
Lani and Caspian met her near the fence just on the inside of District 8's boundaries. Capsian handed her a skin full of water. Neither of them said anything as she swished it around in her mouth and gargled it, spitting it out when she was done.
Together, they all walked back silently.
Just before they turned the corner to make their way back to the main roads leading to the Justice Building, Annabeth swore she felt the press of eyes on her back. And they weren't coming from the awaiting crowd of District 8.
She hurried away from the view of the forest.
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Day 2 wasn't filled with too much excitement, something she was relieved of. And Day 3 wasn't much better.
But she was able to get away during dinner to go back to the glen. She really just wanted to toss her knife for something to do, something to release the pent up energy buzzing around inside her.
Magnus had rarely been featured by the cameras. He was alive, she knew that much, because he was surprisingly good at hiding in plain sight. Literally, there had been a fifteen minute stretch where he'd stood still next to a tree, with nowhere to properly seek cover, and watched as the other Tribute just walked on past.
Either that or the other Tribute just ignored him, hoping someone else or nature would kill the twelve year old.
She wanted to strangle him for being so obvious, but it was clear the tactic had worked. For once.
She let out a relieved laugh a moment before tossing her dagger into the wood of the tree. It stuck there, much to her surprise. She took three steps toward it and then it fell down.
As she bent down to pick it up, the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end and she felt the press of eyes on her.
Slowly, she turned around, ready to defend herself against the Peacekeepers with the dagger in hand.
She needn't worry, though, because the face that greeted her was a friendly one. It was a face she hadn't seen in years. The face of the person who'd given her the dagger in the first place and taught her how to use it.
"Luke?" His name passed through her lips before she could even think properly.
When she blinked, he was gone. In his place was a girl with dark hair and blue eyes more electrifying than anything she had ever seen before.
Annabeth took a step back, her grip on the dagger tightening.
"You need to get back to the district," the girl said.
"Who —"
"Peacekeepers are coming. If they see you here, you won't be returning home ever again. Trust me on that, Annabeth Chase. You don't want that."
"How do you know my name?" Annabeth said slowly.
The girl just gave her a crooked smile and nodded.
"I've heard all about you from Luke." She turned her head, eyes glancing about. "You better hurry. They'll be closing in on the area soon enough."
"Luke?"
"I'll explain at another time. Right now, Peacekeepers. Go!"
Annabeth started back towards District 8, she faltered in her steps to look back at the girl but she was already gone.
How did she know Luke?