venus₁ [treech]

x v

The next morning, since we aren't provided breakfast, Festus arrives at the Academy early with sandwiches for the remaining mentors. I thank him with a hug and an affectionate kiss on the cheek. Maybe marrying him isn't such a bad idea. That thought is thrown away as soon as I see Persephone smiling in adoration at him.

As the sun rises at the arena, the clouds disappear, leaving the space bathed in a misty glow. Dead snakes litter the arena, concentrated where Lucy Gray had been. She and Teslee are nowhere to be found. The three boys are sitting in the same places, damp and shivering from the cool morning. Mizzen is still asleep on the beam.

Clemensia and I send breakfast to our tributes. Oddly, Reaper ignores his, walking around the arena to collect Coral and Circ's bodies. Treech eyes the boy warily. Something is off about the District 11 tribute, but I can't tell what.

Treech sits at the edge of the scoreboard, swinging his feet back and forth. I can't tell if he's happy to have survived the snakes, anxious about the day to come, or just cold. He's shed his jacket, leaving him in just his white shirt and pants. It's probably a good idea, the wet fabric will just make him colder.

When Mizzen finally wakes up and mimes eating, Persephone happily sends him some breakfast.

Teslee appears from a tunnel, clutching one of the broken drones in her hands. But this drone has been fixed and slightly modified. She stands directly below Mizzen, flipping a switch on her machine, and tossing it into the air. The drone is attached to her wrist by a cable, so it only makes it halfway up, spinning in a circle.

Mizzen stares down at her, clearly perplexed. He then focuses his attention on a drone, arriving with some bread. The drone drops the food, which he catches. It starts to leave, but circles back to the thirteen-year-old. The machine's claws open, as if to deliver a gift.

"What's wrong with that drone?" asks Persephone.

More drones bearing gifts arrive, but they don't leave. They get in the way of each other, colliding with each other and their target.

"Is there any way for me to contact the Gamemakers? I mean, I sent three more!" says Persephone, nervously watching as more drones arrive at the scene.

"There's nothing they can do," says Urban, not trying to hide his glee. "She found a way to hack them. She's blocked their homing direction, so his face is their only destination."

Mizzen gets up and tries to escape down one of the posts, but the drones continue to swarm him. His injured knee buckles and he loses his balance, tumbling down the the ground. His neck snaps on impact, killing him instantly.

"Oh!" cries Persephone. "Oh, she killed him!"

Teslee smiles and grabs her modified drone, hugging the machine.

Persephone looks quite upset at the loss of her tribute. She stays composed until she takes a seat in the student section next to Festus.

"I feel like it's my fault," she tells Festus, her voice shaky. "I sent the drones that killed him."

"It's not your fault, Seph. That girl just outsmarted him," he says, wrapping his arms around her.

I turn my attention back to the screen and the three remaining mentors around me.

"She's smarter than she looks," observes Clemensia, watching Teslee.

"Do not judge a book by its cover," says Urban, sending some gifts to his tribute.

Teslee doesn't live to see her reward. While the cameras had been focusing on the malfunctioning drones, Treech had hopped down from the scoreboard, sneaking up on the girl from District 3. The audience gasps as he appears out of nowhere, swinging his axe at Teslee. She barely has time to turn around before the blade sinks into her skull.