Bloodbath
A cold wind sweeps past the arena as the tributes rise to their end.
Tall fir trees stretch past as far as the eye can see. In the distance a mountain looms, like a menacing giant waiting for their prey. The green grass glitters in tune with the stars that litter the sky, which is slightly too light to be considered night. Birds are chirping and rabbits, deer, and everything in between could be heard from within the thick forest. In a different time and place, this would have been considered a serene setting, but for the tributes, it only increases their anxiety.
Some take the moment to take in the environment, while others focus on the golden cornucopia overflowing with weapons and supplies. Some are simply frozen in fear.
Casey narrows her eyes, her sight focused on the one bow inside the horn. Suri told her to simply stay away, but cowardice be damned. She knows that Remus will go for the weapon too, and that every sorry career will try to end her quickly. Doesn't matter. She will kill them all the same.
The careers all find each other in the ring. Alexi locks eyes with Emerald and gives her a thumbs-up packaged with a reluctant smile. Emerald does not see any reason to smile, and frankly, Alexi doesn't either. She gladly accepts it though, and smiles back.
Willow panics. She has Blush to her left, who she swears is glancing towards her every once in a while. She at times had been barely a few meters away from the careers during the training days, but it is a different level of dread that is coming from a person who is preparing to kill her. Where is Wilson? Winchester? Willow's eyes dart from plate to plate, but her head is spinning too fast for her to make out the faceless tributes.
Blush, however, feels serene. She searches inside for nervousness, fear, or any other emotions that she had expected herself to feel and needs to suppress. But there was something about the lawlessness, this place where the value of a life drastically fell, that made her feel free. With a smile, she glances at the girl beside her again. She has a games to win.
Ever take a deep breath. While most of his instincts tell him to run, the more strategically minded mind realizes that abandoning all supplies might actually be the worse choice. The deadlier poison, so to speak. Neither Ever nor Roark are particularly competent when it comes to surviving. Or well, that would have been a train of thought if Ever wasn't shaking like a twig in a storm just by the thought of entering the bloodbath.
Anthony hoped that he wouldn't have to fight Dania. Or the careers either; he was never trained like them after all. Just strong. Avoiding fighting the younglings was preferable too. Actually, he wishes he didn't have to fight at all. Too bad he doesn't have a choice.
Suri shakes her head when she sees Casey eyeing the bow in the middle. From the short time she had known the girl, it was like trying to tie a typhoon on a leash. So now Suri had to go into the bloodbath. She had a thousand plans, hundreds of ideas for how to make herself a martyr. However, now, faced with reality, all those genius ideas seem to wash away. All plans fail at first contact, she thinks and her lips form a small smile.
Keaton and Lana stand next to each other. Thomas was just a few plates away. Keaton was focusing on keeping himself standing when he heard Lana whispering his name.
"What?" His voice is barely loud enough for her to hear him. She points at something in front of him. As he follows her finger he sees a tent kit, which causes him to gasp in surprise. Something so valuable, so far out? Keaton's heart starts racing.
Lana herself had already scanned the entire area in front of her. Knew exactly what route to take to get the most supplies in the shortest time. Thomas might be stronger, and more capable, but Lana has her strengths too. It might just have been the stress unearthing her insecurities, but the thought of being dead weight once again angers her more than ever.
Thomas waves his arms, trying to get his sister's attention. Please, run away. He wants to scream his warnings, but his voice falters. This wasn't what they had planned. He has to stop himself from falling on his knees. Not like this.
Quintin tries to smile. Doesn't work, so he tries instead to relax his shoulders and slip into a cool posture. Much better. It is time. Time to show all the idiots in Seven why they should have been scared.
Mabel clenches her token so hard that she almost draws blood. It's almost like she tries to siphon strength from Jack, to give her the energy to survive. The energy to swim, out of the pond and up on dry land like those many years ago. But Jack wasn't here. She is drowning - fast.
Can Noelle kill? Obviously, she had done it before, but it was just some faceless goon, who never manifested as a person to Noelle. But at the same time, that boy probably had a life, with his friends and most likely long-gone parents. As the boy's personality forms itself, Noelle asks herself if she regrets taking his life. She does not.
Dania misses her dad. Most tributes probably miss their parents at this moment and she should probably think of more important strategies, but right now she just misses home. It's embarrassing. Maybe if she runs far enough, she will eventually reach District 9.
Olivia tries to think who she will be fighting. Casey, like the others, had instructed her to focus, and probably Quintin too. The girl from 6 maybe - she had gotten a high score. She wonders if she can beat them. Never in her life had she expected herself to be grateful for the careers. The fact that she has the arena's strongest allies dampens her anxiety a little. Just a little.
Roark knew that the best strategy was running. But, just like his ally, he starts getting second thoughts. The supplies in front of him suddenly seem so tempting. Ever doesn't have to enter the bloodbath, or rather will never enter; he is too smart for that. So if Roark can just get something, something to start with, it would take them far.
Forren still hasn't chosen who he wants to die to. Like finishing the assignment the night before the deadline his thoughts are still storming inside his head. Will he die to Blush? To Remus? To Casey? All seem like terrible choices, but at the same time the best ones available. Finally, he decides to run up to the first career he finds. Soon he will be free.
There must be more money. If Paul kills twenty-three tributes, he will gain the money he wants. The money he needs. And to kill tributes, he needs weapons. Weapons exist in the cornucopia. His eyes remain on the golden horn. There must be more money.
Winchester thinks back on how she had felt "lucky" because she already had a connection to another tribute at the start of the games. Now any "luck" feels so pathetic compared to the misfortune of being reaped. Even then, she feels herself wishing more than anything that Wilson will survive.
Wilson can barely spare any thoughts for himself. All he was full of were worries for both Winchester and Willow. The fact that he had attached himself to them so easily was surprising to even Wilson. Maybe it was because it felt like meeting them was meant to be. A family found in the games. So he has to make sure they will all survive. He is closest to Willow, who looks like she is about to cry. He clenches his fist.
Remus erratically scratches his neck. He sees the bow, and he sees Casey next to him. It will be an early confrontation, one that will most likely decide what the rest of the games will look like. Remus is more than confident that his skills are better than the avox, but something is bubbling under him. Something that turns the stars in the sky dark and his fear into anxiety. Remus erratically scratches his neck. He sees the bow, and he sees Casey next to him. It will be an-
Klaus laughs. Everyone looks so stupid, quivering on their plates. Almost as stupid as him.
Kris takes one last breath. This is just another heist: sneaking into the place undetected, luring the threat away with a distraction, and then finally running away with the loot. As the timer ticks down to its last seconds all of the doubts disappear and he finally arrives at the conclusion he already thought he knew: that he will be the victor. Kris Sparrow will not die tonight.
A cannon fires and Panem moves.
Wilson's eyes meet Winchester's as they dash onto the field. They both nod to each other, a sort of acknowledgment that it is now or never. His adrenaline is pumping to full effect, and the rest of the tributes barely seem to exist as he closes in on a backpack.
A scream interrupts him. He whips his head around to witness Willow being thrown on the ground by Blush. The little girl curls up, tears streaming down her face.
"No!" Wilson reaches towards them, but it is pointless. With one well-placed kick Blush crushes Willow's throat. Willow takes one last desperate breath, her face draining of color, before falling over lifeless.
He wants to kill her. Kill the career girl, who doesn't even spare a glance to the girl she just killed. Instead, she is already scanning the field, probably looking for her next victim. Wilson starts to take a few steps forward when he feels someone grab his arm. He immediately throws whoever was touching him off and is prepared to fight, but relaxes when he sees Winchester.
"Don't," she whispers, her face distorting in panic. Wilson sighs. They already lost valuable time. He can grieve later.
Out of the twenty-four souls, three of them ran the moment the cannon fired.
Dania was one of them. Or at least, she tries. Only a few meters away from her plate she trips, falling face-first into the dirt. She whimpers in pain, before trying to drag herself back up. I need to get I need to get away I need to get away-
A pain strikes her in the back of her head. She falls again, back into the dirt. The back of her head starts feeling warm as blood seeps down from the wound. Oh no.
Quintin smiles as he towers over Dania. He has been damn lucky to have the girl placed just beside him trip like an idiot. Even luckier when he was able to nail her with a stone. Now he aims with a bigger stone towards her head, to kickstart his journey to greatness.
A loud crack is heard. Dania feels an explosion of pain in her head, on a level she had never experienced before. It is horrible - it feels like she can genuinely feel her brain losing functions by the second. She tries to scream, but it comes out more like a guttural growl.
Quintin recoils. His smile is gone as he watches the girl writhe beneath him. He slams the rock into her head again, even harder this time just to make sure she stops screaming. Finally, the horrible noise goes quiet as the grass around Dania begins being painted red. Quintin swallows. This isn't the time to get cold feet. He needs to get back to the cornucopia, fast.
Casey is the first one to make it to the cornucopia. She grabs the bow and quiver in one swift motion before jumping up on top of the golden horn. Wasting no time she fires almost a point black shot towards Alexi, who dives into the cornucopia at the last second. Her next target is Remus, who is still running. He raises the small backpack he's holding, which manages to block the arrow.
When Alexi crashes into the equipment inside the horn he swears loudly. Casey managing to reach such a good position in a short time complicates things. He picks up the closest weapon, a knife, and begins contemplating how he will reach Casey when a boy jumps out between the boxes.
"What the fuck-" Alexi exclaims at the sight of the wild youngling. Paul is holding an axe, clearly too heavy for him, and his face is red with fury.
"Die!" He immediately swings his weapon, almost falling over, which Alexi easily dodges. Before he can think things through his instincts act and the knife is already in Paul's head. Blood spurts onto Alexi's jacket, causing him to flinch, and Paul falls to the side.
Alexi takes a deep breath. He had been almost more in danger of dying of a heart attack than the child's attack, but it still felt too close. Any weapon swung at him would feel too close.
Back on the field, Noelle reconvenes with Anthony after fighting Mabel off two packages of biscuits. Although, it hadn't been much of a fight: Mabel had dropped the food the moment Noelle appeared. To her surprise Anthony isn't carrying any supplies but rather a large stick.
"Why-"
"I'm going in." Anthony has his eyes locked on the cornucopia, his grip around the stick tightening. "We need the weapons."
"Fuck no we don't, you idiot-" But at that point Anthony is already running. Noelle sighs, throwing him a last glare before ironing in on a backpack a bit far away.
Most of the tributes scrambling after necessities could consider themselves lucky, considering the arena's strongest tributes were fighting in the middle to eliminate their strongest competition. Suri adjusts the katana in her hand as she faces the girl from District 4. She is in quite a complicated situation. At absolutely no point can she kill another child: that will ruin the entire point of her sacrifice. But she is sure that the career in front of her has no such qualms, reaped or not.
Emerald makes the first move, going in for a strike. Suri quickly counters it and attacks back, although intentionally missing. The blade lightly grazes Emerald and she instantly jumps backwards into the cornucopia. Thankfully she doesn't seem particularly comfortable with the sword, Suri thinks. Maybe she can get away with being a pacifist after all.
Or at least, that is before Alexi appears next to his district partner and throws her a trident. Suri's face is instantly drained of all color.
Emerald is breathing heavily, clenching the trident in her hand. Thank god the gamemakers put her preferred weapon in the arena. She knew that Suri was strong; the girl had earned a ten after all. But none of it made any sense. How the hell did she train this well in District 6?
Meanwhile, Mabel is finally find something to take with her. A bottle of iodine. It is not a lot, but for Mabel, it is enough. All of the other supplies she had tried to take had been stolen by other tributes, tributes she was too scared to fight. But now she can retreat without feeling helpless. Then, a sharp pain bolts through her. and her vision turns to black
Blush cleans her knife as the girl's body becomes lifeless. She did not remember either the girl's name or district: she had forgotten her face already. After all, it doesn't matter; the girl is eliminated now. Efficiency is what matters in Blush's line of work. And right now she will do well with being a bit more efficient, she thinks as she eyes two boys fighting over a backpack.
Roark had hoped he wouldn't have to fight. He does not get his wish. Keaton is surprisingly strong, although he isn't sure if it's because his legs are shaking so much. They trade punches a bit before Roark manages to get a good hit in on the other boy's face. Keaton cries out, and Roark regrets punching the boy instantly.
"Sorry," he mutters as he takes the tent kit. At the start of the bloodbath, Roark swears he saw Ever run into the forest in the corner of his eye. And he prays to whatever god that listens that he remembers the direction his ally ran in.
At the cornucopia Suri takes another step backward, making space from the careers.
"Casey, we need to run. Now," she shouts. Casey is still taking shots at Remus, who's trying his best to not get skewered. Three arrows are stuck in the backpack, but she has managed to hit his leg at least. She looks down at Suri and gives her a quick nod.
Suri responds with her own nod, and then immediately starts running in the other direction.
"After her!" shouts Alexi and takes a step forward, but is dragged back by Emerald. He's about to cuss her out when she points upwards.
"You want to be filled with arrows?" she hisses. As on cue, Casey jumps down, clearly dismayed that they didn't take the bait. After scooping up a backpack she dashes in Suri's direction.
"Fuck!" Alexi kicks one of the weapons so it flies out of the horn. "We had her! Both of them. We fucking-"
"Calm down," Emerald says. "That's not important. Right now we-" She swallows hard. "We need to clean up as many tributes as possible."
They are both quiet for a second. Alexi nods and picks a belt of throwing knives off the ground. "Sure. But where the hell is everyone else then?"
The chaos at the cornucopia is just not about Casey and Survi fighting the District 4 tributes. Multiple other confrontations took place around the golden horn. Both Olivia and Quintin had noticed the nice line of axes leaning up towards the back of the cornucopia. So now they are both facing each other, armed with the tool they had spent their entire lives using.
Quintin smiles, even if it is a bit more forced than usual. "Do you think the careers will let me in if I present your head as a gift?"
Olivia does not answer and instead starts immediately hacking away. While her emotionless face might make it seem like she's focusing hard, she can barely contain her panic. Her relentless attacks are not from focus or fury, but from pure fear for what will happen if she stops swinging.
While it is easy for Quintin to avoid Olivia's aimless flailings, he realizes that this will not be as easy as he thought. Even if Olivia's technique is lacking, she's strong. He just needs to watch the swings to understand if one of those hits him, that's it - even if he tries to block the attack. Maybe it is better to withdraw for now.
His train of thought surprises Quintin. Never has he turned down a fight before, because he always knew he would win. Obviously he will win this fight too. But he just can't stop replaying the image of the girl's crushed head and her distorted screams…
No. That can't be the reason for him backing down. It is too pathetic.
He would rather just avoid fighting all the careers at once when they come to her reinforcements. That makes more sense.
He flips her off as he darts away from the horn and Olivia breathes out of relief.
Remus flinches as he pulls the arrow from his knee. It hurts, a lot in fact, but not more than he is used to. However, the leg starts pulsing in pain when he starts jogging to the cornucopia. Fuck. It is shameful. All of this. How the games started for him. Alas, he needs to keep moving. So things won't get even worse.
He stops right in his tracks when he sees a child sitting in front of the cornucopia. Forren is staring at the wall, legs crossed, having surprised even himself that he has lived so long. The plan was to throw himself at the nearest career he would meet, but most of them seemed too busy to kill him. The two boys lock eyes.
"You," Forren says. "Kill me."
Remus doesn't question him and shoves the still-bloody arrow into the boy's throat. As the pain is replaced with dullness Forren questions what he expected when it finally ends. Maybe satisfaction, maybe freedom. He feels nothing of those.
Just nothingness.
Anthony's heart is racing as he reaches the horn. Weapons. He's looking for weapons. Weapons to kill careers. Maybe what he's doing is stupid, but Anthony has never been one to doubt his own decisions. As he scans the cornucopia he notices the little tribute standing on top of the horn. Kris is holding a small backpack, packed to the brim, and a knife at his belt. They both are stun locked for a few seconds, processing what to do. Should Anthony kill him? Does he need to kill the tribute? Can he kill him?
He doesn't get to a conclusion, because Kris takes a fistful of sand from his pocket and throws it at Anthony.
Anthony swears loudly as the sand hits his eyes. Focus. He squints his eyes as panic starts bellowing up from below. If he is unlucky and a career is close, he's dead. To die from something such as pocket sand. Just the thought makes Anthony want to laugh and causes his heart to race even faster.
He charges forward and smashes into a boy when he turns the corner.
Almost instantly Anthony recognises Alexi, the boy who had argued with him at the parades. And now that same boy was lying on the ground a few meters away, gasping for air. He picks up a sickle while not letting his eyes drop from Alexi. Isn't this what he wants? Hunt careers, hunt those who kill for fun. Alexi was reaped, but he is trained and intentionally joined the careers. In Anthony's eyes, that makes him just as bad as the others.
"Alexi?"
The career girl rounding the corner gives Anthony the excuse he needs. Barely avoiding the trident thrown at him, he sweeps a machete off the ground and retreats. He isn't safe yet, but he managed to survive the worst part.
I have weapons at least. He smiles. Noelle would look stupid when they regrouped.
Alexi groans as he sees a hand reach out towards him. "Are you okay?"
From the corner of the horn, Remus observes how Emerald helps Alexi up. They start arguing, which Remus brain filters out. He isn't sure what happened, but both of them at least are alive. When Casey ran off with the bow, he was afraid that he would have lost one of his main weapons. Thankfully he found a crossbow deeper into the cornucopia. However, the big problem was arrows. Casey had taken the only quiver in the arena, so he only had the arrows she shot at him available. Four arrows. He grimaces. Not ideal.
"Where's Blush?" he mutters, a bit more loudly than he wanted to.
The District 4 pair both look stunned by surprise when he speaks before Emerald quickly says: "Running around in the outskirts having fun. Certainly didn't seem particularly keen on helping us, that bitch."
Good. She's alive. It would be inconvenient if he was alone with only the reaped careers.
But the bloodbath wasn't over yet. As he stands up he notices that his hands are shaking. Weird. Remus feels calm, and focused, just like he had practiced. Despite that, his entire body is twitching. He doesn't have the time to calm himself down. Instead, he just hopes that he can still hit a good enough shot.
By this point, only a few tributes were still fighting. Thomas is one of them, and he is not happy about it. The moment he stepped off the plate he lasered onto Lana, knowing she was about to do something stupid. Unfortunately, he ran headfirst into Noelle, who assumed he picked a fight. He could only fight half-focused and frankly got his shit kicked in, and by that point, he had lost track of where his sister was.
Lana Lana Lana- Her name was the only thing racing in his mind. If he had to fight a career to save her, then so be it. Then, he sees her. She's frozen in place, holding a bottle of water and a small backpack, watching Blush slice Keaton's throat. Thomas knows that he should be shocked and horrified by his ally's death, but at that moment, nothing else but Lana matters.
"Lana!" He shouts. "Run!"
Like exiting a trance, Lana comes to life. She meets his eyes as he wildly points towards the forest, which she responds to with a quick nod.
Then, her eyes widen.
An arrow is pierced right through her chest, the head poking out. She looks down at it surprised and tries to pull it out, like she isn't even aware of what is happening. Then she coughs one final bit of blood before falling down.
Thomas' face instantly contorts in pain. "No!" No. He wants to scream even louder, but his voice fails him. The arrow doesn't feel real. It's from a nightmare, one that he has after an especially hard day. The blood isn't real. It cannot be. If only he had taken a different, faster route to his sister. If only he had fought the Eight girl with a bit more vigor. If only he had seen his sister earlier.
He runs past supplies, valuable food, and shelter, straight towards his sister. When Thomas arrives he almost throws himself at her, hugging her as hard as he can. The arrowhead is poking at his chest drawing blood, that cursed arrowhead, the arrow that ruined everything. He does not dare to look at her face, afraid of what he might see, so he simply picks up the body and starts running towards the forest. All exhaustion from his body is gone. It has been replaced with adrenaline, filling his entire body with the one goal to run away from the slaughter. Even if Keaton wasn't dead Thomas won't wait for him. He just wants some time with Lana. Alone.
A silence lays itself upon the field. The birds chirp like nothing has happened. Multiple bodies are spread across the grass, with the five children surrounding the golden horn being the only living beings.
Kris runs into the forest. He did it! He survived the bloodbath! Not only that, but he got more supplies than he could dream of. While his gambit to attempt to steal from the cornucopia had been risky, it had been more than worth his time. He can't stop himself from smiling. Those careers sure are smug, but this little rascal just stole a good amount of their resources just under their noses. Sure, it was a bit risky when he ran into the boy from Nine, but quick thinking had saved the situation.
Suddenly, the dream of winning the games didn't seem as far from reality as he once thought.
Now, what it is important to know about Kris Sparrow is that his senses are trained. Trained in that way a thief needs them. His ears are trained to pick up small noises the brain otherwise filters out. His eyes are trained to pick out details no one else sees. He was quick too. All of those skills are what have taken him this far.
Therefore, he managed to see the girl before the arrow.
Kris is quick. But not quick enough this time.
The birds continue to chirp, curiously looking down on the body of a child with wide-open eyes and an arrow planted right between them.
"Why did you kill her?" Suri growls. Casey looks at her like she's crazy.
"We weren't in the bloodbath. She was just a twelve-year-old girl. It wasn't necessary."
Casey looks up in the sky and starts gesturing at, well, everything. Suri sighs. Her head is spinning. This would be a problem, a rather big problem, one that she thought she had fixed, but for now she was too tired to argue. Both of the girls wander into the forest, leaving the bloodbath's last victim behind.
24th: Willow Cranbury, District 11 Female, neck crushed by Blush.
23rd: Dania Whicker, District 9 Female, head smashed in by Quintin.
22nd: Paul Stallone, District 10 Male, stabbed with a knife by Alexi.
21st: Mabel Colton, District 10 Female, throat sliced by Blush.
20th: Forren Mitch, District 12 Male, stabbed with an arrow by Remus.
19th: Keaton Booker, District 6 Male, throat sliced by Blush.
18th: Lana Slater, District 3 Female, shot by an arrow from Remus.
17th: Kris Sparrow, District 12 "Female", shot by an arrow from Casey.
Remaining tributes:
Somewhat functional careers: Blush(D1F), Remus(D1M), Emerald(D4F), Alexi(D4M), Olivia(D7F)
We're back where we started: Winchester(D5F), Wilson(D11M)
Some revolution xd: Casey(D2F), Suri(D6F)
Has weapons: Noelle(D8F), Anthony(D9M)
The Last Younglings: Roark(D2M), Ever(D8M)
F in the chat: Thomas(D3M)
…he survived?: Klaus(D5M)
Welcome to the real world: Quintin(D7M)
Hello everyone.
So there has been, uh, a while. Five years in fact. I have no clue if there are any submitters, or even readers, left. Things happened and I lost interest in the SYOTs. However, as you might see, I am back! Hurray! More things happened and now I am once again active in the scene. When I first started Beginnings I always knew that I was going to finish it before starting another story, no matter what. So this is me fulfilling that promise.
Now for anyone that is left(xd) I do have some good news.
Beginnings is finished.
As like, I written it all. I have a big document where in the last page I have written the final epilogue to this story. Twenty three of these characters have died(eight in this chapter) and I have crowned a victor. When I returned I wanted to truly return, not simply update with the bloodbath and then disappear again. So I challenged myself to finish the story before posting it. I have lost the forms though(never saved them outside of PMs xd) so I will apologize for any weird charactarisation.
I must admit that the story is slightly compressed, but I don't think it is noticeable. Overall, I am very satisfied with how this story ended up. It feels weird killing all these characters I wrote so many years ago and even weirder to finish this story.
From now on, there will be daily updates at 20:00 CET(14:00 EST) until the story has finished.
And don't worry, I have not forgotten about the eulogies. They will all be compiled at the last chapter together with my final thoughts on this story. I will now let the story speak for itself, so see you again in the final chapter!