CW for a little bit of talk suggesting suicidal thoughts
District 10 male – Janusz Kurczak, 18
I slept surprisingly well given it was the first night of the Hunger Games. It probably came down to me being the first on guard, so I could sleep uninterrupted once I was done.
Phoenix woke me up at seven on the first morning, telling me we intended to hunt some of the weaker tributes down to get rid of them.
"Oh, and also, guys, the girl from eleven is gone. I think she drowned in a flood," Phoenix added.
I felt my heart drop. "What? A flood? Someone drowned?"
"Yes, what is your problem?" Mark snapped at me.
"Is the flood still there? Where was it?" my palms felt sweaty. Not a flood... anything but a flood, please. I couldn't die like that. Anything but that.
"Hey, Janusz..." said Phoenix, placing her hands on my shoulders, then pointing towards the spring section. "It's alright. Look, the flood has dried up."
"Man up, pussy," Mark snapped at me. "It's just some water."
"Hey!" said Phoenix. "Mark, don't talk to him like that."
"Oh, what, is this fucking Povo cattle hoarder your boyfriend or something?" Mark said, laughing.
I suppressed my panic and laughed. "Povo? Excuse me, but I'll have you know I lived in luxuryback in District 10. I'm richer than half the people living in your districts!"
Honestly, if I won this thing maybe I could use my prize money to become an actor. Lying was a coping mechanism for me.
"Yeah, right," Mark scoffed, "you're just-"
"Everyone, shut up," Dania snapped. "We are not here to argue with each other, we are here to fight. To kill. So, come on, we are going to kill today. Mark, you stay here to guard our stuff."
"Why should I stay!?" Mark exclaimed. "I'm the best fighter!"
"And... that's exactly why you need to stay. You can kill anyone who dares to try and take our stuff," said Dania.
"Oh, yes!" Mark exclaimed, grabbing his spear. "You're right. I'll see you guys later, and all our supplies will remain safe with me!"
"Perfect, let's go," said Dania, grabbing a few weapons and tying her hair into a bun.
We went straight into the autumn section and intended to check the summer section afterwards because the assumption was that if there was anyone in the spring section they would have died in the flood, and the winter section looked so cold that going in there at all was just suicide.
I still couldn't stop thinking about that flood, though. Of course, I wouldn't tell my allies about my fear of water, because they could easily use that against me, but after my reaction to hearing about the flood, I worried that they wondered if I did have a fear. So I decided I wouldn't bring it up, but as I did, Dania just had to bring it up.
"Janusz, why did you look so worried when the flood was mentioned?" she asked as we walked, looking me dead in the eye.
"Because," I said, preparing to lie without faltering. "I don't want to get wet. You do see this beautiful hair, right? I cannot let some floods get to it."
Dania and Phoenix exchanged a look, and I raised my eyebrow. They didn't say anything more to me, but I did notice the two of them walking slightly ahead of me and whispering to each other.
And I knew, in that moment. Dania didn't trust me.
District 2 female – Dania Khatib, 18
I didn't trust Janusz. He looked extremely concerned when Phoenix first mentioned the flood, and he was obviously now making up some excuse. He thought he was all good at lying and manipulating us, but I saw right through them.
"I don't know, Dania... I think he's reliable," Phoenix whispered back to me when I expressed my concerns to her as we walked through the autumn section, making an effort to keep a distance from Janusz.
"First of all, he's not even a trained Career," I said. "He was going on about the 'secret district 10 academy' – it's bullshit. He's obviously lying about that, so what makes you think he's telling the truth about why he was worried about the flood? He's obviously got another secret alliance who were in the Spring section and he's worried about them."
"But he's better than Mark, isn't he?" Phoenix said, looking back at Janusz who was walking behind us with his hands in his pockets.
"Don't look at him, that makes it so obvious," I hissed at her.
"What are you talking about?" Janusz asked, almost comically. He knew we didn't trust him. I knew he knew.
"Girl stuff," Phoenix responded.
"Oh, yeah, you can talk to me about it, I understand," he responded, smiling. "I actually had a period once."
What the fuck?
"No you haven't, we're not that dumb," I said through gritted teeth, and Janusz just shrugged.
"Alright, well how about we focus on the task at hand?" Phoenix cut in. "Hunting down the weaker tributes?"
I glared at Janusz then nodded, looking ahead. I was going to kill him in his sleep before he could do it to me. That night. When I was on guard. I'd slit his damn throat.
"Sh," said Phoenix, suddenly, pointing at a bush. I looked at where she was pointing and noticed the movement. Someone was there. I lifted up my knife and walked slowly toward the bush. The movement stopped. Whoever it was could sense my presence. So, before they could make a run for it, I threw my knife right in their direction and heard a squeal. Got them. I reached into the bush to grab my knife, then gasped when I felt fur. I peeked over the bush to see what I'd stabbed.
It wasn't a tribute – it was a red fox. I scooped up the creature, lifting it up to show the others. It was a meal, I guess. It had slipped my mind for a second that there'd be animals in here with us. I'd been too focused on eliminating my opponents to think of it.
"Oh, yum!" Janusz cried, placing his hands on the fox's back, right by where I'd stabbed it. I yanked my knife out of its back before he could grab it, and the fox let out a sad yelp. "I've had fox before, plenty of times! My mother makes the best fox stew..."
"Janusz," I snapped, bending down and grabbing a rock, hitting the fox on the head to take it out of its misery.
"Yeah?"
"Shut the fuck up. And didn't your mummy try to kill you? Why would she be making you fucking stew?"
Janusz shrugged. "You told me to shut up, I will not talk from... now!"
Bloody lunatic.
District 9 male – Calvus Logg, 15
I was a mess. My tracker had taken me all around the arena, into every single section, and, after following it for twenty-four hours straight, since the moment I arrived in the arena, I broke.
I fell to my knees, sobbing. I wasn't much of a crier, but in that moment I couldn't stop. I was in the winter section, there were icicles in my hair and in my snot, and I couldn't find Maize. Was he dead already?
"Just kill me already!" I screamed out, looking toward the sky. "Fucking hell, Maize, where are y-you..."
My voice broke between every word. My tears became icy as they fell down my face. I lay down, placing my hands over my face. I just wanted to find him. I loved him.
"MAIZE!" I screamed, at the top of my lungs. I prayed no other tributes were close enough to me to hear me.
But then, "Cal?"
I sat up in an instant. "Maize!?"
"Cal!"
I clambered off the floor and began running. "MAIZE!"
"Cal, Cal, help me!"
And then I saw him. In all his glory, his perfect long hair, tied back in a loose bun. Stuck inside a cage, his wrists tied together. Maize. He looked terrified, and he had slashes all over his arms. He was in a singlet – he must have been freezing.
"Maize..." I said softly, gripping my hands onto the cage. "Maize, oh my god, what happened... how... how did they get you, I..."
"After I said goodbye to you, they... they took me. I fought them and they punished me," he said, gesturing to the wounds on his arms. "But, Cal, you survived the first day, I'm so proud of you Cal..."
I looked around the outside of the cage, looking for where it locked, but I couldn't even find a door of any sort.
"Where's... the... door," I said, my voice coming out slurred.
"It unlocks from the top, Cal," said Maize, and I lifted my shivering hands up to the top of the cage, fumbling with it.
"Y-you... must be freezing, M-Maize," I said through chattering teeth.
"No, Cal, I'm warm in here," he said. His voice was so soothing.
"Ah... right..." I stuttered. I couldn't stop shivering, and my body began to ache, my muscles feeling as if they were being torn apart by two sharp claws, ripping me.
"Cal, pull the bolt at the top of the cage," said Maize, and I did as he said, watching the bars of the cage fall down. It was like it was too easy. He turned around so I could undo the handcuffs, and just as I did, I felt myself fall to the ground. It was so cold that I felt hot. I started to pull off my shirt but Maize stopped me, kneeling down beside me.
"Maize it's hot..." I groaned. I felt dizzy.
"No, Cal, keep warm as you can." He looked towards the sky. There was an airship there. I'd set him free, and now they were going to take him away. That's what he told me. I think.
"Mm... I'm hungry," I murmured, feeling my vision going dark. Maize wrapped his arms around me.
"Cal, please..." he whispered into my ear. "Stay with me, Cal. Please, Cal. They're going to take me away from here in a minute, I need you to stay strong for me, Cal."
Everything was foggy, and I felt like I was falling asleep. I heard one more thing from Maize before everything was gone – my vision, my hearing... my life.
"I love you, Cal..."
District 5 female – Carmilla Wilkes, 16
Cindy, George and I had been all around everywhere. We were having a blast. However, the arena seemed to be somewhat empty. We hadn't seen any tributes since the bloodbath, although Cindy had bumped into the girls from Districts 4 and 11 shortly after the bloodbath, and we'd found her passed out in the spring section after we fought flowers.
We slept in the summer section of the arena, and now during the second day, we were exploring all of the sections, apart from the winter section. We stepped foot in there for about two minutes before deciding it was too cold and basically suicide.
Around halfway through the second day, we heard another cannon, and while Cindy and George were happy, it pissed me off. That was a person who had been killed by someone other than me. I wanted to have the highest kill count in these games.
"Where are the stupid careers," said George, aggressively.
"They'd be by the cornucopia, wouldn't they?" Cindy asked. "That's where they go every year."
George immediately turned around and marched towards the middle of the arena. I let out a loud laugh. This would be great. I believed there were four of them there, and we would take them all out easily.
Oh, I could just imagine the sounds of their screams. The blood, seeping from their necks. It made me laugh out loud. But when we arrived at the cornucopia, there was only one of them there. The short boy from District 1, with the weird purple hair.
"Where are the rest of them?" George hissed.
"I dunno, let's kill," I said, and we all ran towards him. The boy stood, holding his spear and charged towards us so we were running at each other. George was the fastest runner, so he zipped around the boy and took his spear out of his hand then stabbed him straight in the back with it. I cackled out loud and dropped to my knees as the boy fell. He was squirming around with the spear in his back, and as Cindy held him down, I lifted his face up to face me, grinning, then slit his throat slowly, watching as each drop of blood came out gradually until it was boring down the side of his neck.
I let out a loud cheer when I heard the cannon, giggling with his blood on my hands. Another kill for me.
We walked away from him to try and find the rest of the Careers, wherever they were. We made our way into the autumn section, and I did a joy run through the fallen orange leaves. It was the happiest I'd felt for a while, a feeling of joy so strong it urged me to run faster than I'd ever run.
But then I saw something strange out of the corner of my eye. It was a person, inside a cage. But that person, a teenage girl, in there wasn't a tribute. She wasn't wearing the outfit the rest of us were in, and she hadn't been at any of the interviews or training days.
"What the hell..." I walked over to the cage. "Who are you?"
"My sister... my sisters in here... is she alive? Please, tell me..." the girl begged, and I raised an eyebrow.
"Cindy! George!" I called out. "Get over here!"
It took them a few minutes to catch up to me, and I gestured to the girl when they got there.
"What do we do with this one?" I chuckled. "Kill her?"
"No, please... I'm not a tribute..." the girl begged.
"She'd be one of the people the trackers are trying to find," said Cindy. "Which means a tribute will be looking for her."
George grinned. "So... we can be here when that tribute finds her!"
"And kill them," said Cindy, and I laughed out loud. Another kill.
13thplace – Calvus Logg (D9M) Died of hypothermia during day 2
12thplace – Mark Simeon (D1M) Killed by the psychotics during day 2