Author Games: Panemdemic

Entries of Release

District 8 Male: Zen Palladius

NO ENTRY RECEIVED.

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District 8 Female: Rhea Charon

Rhea was drowning in a sea of darkness.

The moment she stepped out of the door and into the Training Center, she was engulfed in a tide of pitch black shadows, her eyes struggling to adjust to the dim area. The door had slammed shut, leaving Rhea no choice but to move forward against the rough tide. The dark ocean seemed to stretch on for miles and miles, leading her towards the unknown as she made her way through the heavy gloom surrounding her. She felt her heart rest heavy at the bottom of her chest, the suspense of the endless room like an anvil weighing her down.

Before she had entered this peculiar landscape of ebony shade raining down on her, she had been expecting a simple, cut-and-dry private session. She had imagined a row of Gamemakers sitting in front of her, their expressions hardened as they waited for her to execute her skills she had spent several days relentlessly working on. She had imagined herself performing everything without flaw, just as she had in those hours of practice.

But, now everything had been changed. It was just her, amidst the the blackness with her beating heart pulsing tension throughout her veins. A drizzle of apprehension showered upon her as she exhaled breathily, trying to relieve the stress from her body. She didn't know what to expect once she reached the end—if there is one. But, despite these conditions, Rhea still nodded with an air of confidence. She knew that whatever was lurking beneath the shadows wouldn't pull her underneath without a fight.

As Rhea continued her way down the murkiness, she noticed a strange light shining from the end of the room, a gentle glow leading her into its gaze. The dim light was alluring in the strangest way, and Rhea found herself following it deeper into the cavern of mysteries. She felt a burst of hopefulness swell up inside her chest with each step, the anticipation of what awaited her at the end filling her in a small dash of optimism. It was almost excitement that wrapped around her heart as she found her way closer and closer to the source of the illumination, eager to unravel the mysterious darkness. The once dim light slowly grew brighter with every stride, until finally, Rhea saw exactly what had led her all this way.

There was a machine emitting an artificial luminescence, sort of like the one you would find at the hospital. It was fancier than anything other mechanism Rhea had ever seen, a strange device that left her feeling puzzled. Why was there an infirmary machine buried beneath curtains of the matte black dusk? Rhea cocked her head to the left, examining it carefully. There was a steady pulsing of a line rocketing up and down on the monitor, showing Rhea what seemed to be a heartbeat. A number flashed on the screen, glimmers of light lighting up within the dark atmosphere.

But there was something else beside the machine—a person.

There was the distinct shape of someone lying on a hospital cot, their body cloaked underneath a mass of blankets. They writhed within their dreary condition, letting out a cough that Rhea couldn't help but wince upon hearing it. At another glance at the monitor, the person's vitals displayed brightly on the screen as it was praising them in some kind of sick, twisted way, she could tell that they were suffering underneath layers of illness. Rhea didn't notice them before, but now they were all she could look at. Her pupils were glued to the person of sickness, whoever was tumbling through a hurricane of distress. Each raspy breath took away another second from the person's life, their body slowly draining itself of its own energy. Rhea quickly realized that for this person, death was inevitable. The end of their life was flashing right before their eyes.