The Hunger Games: Multi-Verse

Day 7

"What better do we have to do? We have some food, and there's the stream nearby. We've got a target, and there's enough of us to defend from anything that comes near." Hawkeye announced. Gale was silent. I shrugged.

"Sounds good to me."

So we waited.

*****

The sun fell beneath the horizon, putting us into darkness. I kept a close eye on the cornucopia in case that thing emerged from it. We'd spent the day talking about why a canon had boomed last night, but no faces were shown during the anthem.

Right as it grew nearly too dark to see, I saw movement by the base of the cornucopia.

"Hawkeye!" I whispered excitedly. He immediately whipped to his feet and had an arrow ready to fly.

"There's nothing there." Hawkeye said after several moments of tense and eager silence between the three of us.

"I swear, I saw something move. Right at the mouth of the cornucopia." I defended myself.

"I believe you. There just isn't now. The little thing probably went back in. I'm not too worried about her, though." Hawkeye said, settling back to his seat against the base of the large tree.

I wasn't as calm as him, though. The Capitol had hand-selected all of these tributes for a reason. Each one of us had our own skills and were lethal in our own ways. I kept my eyes peeled, wary for the creature.

Ten minutes passed by and I continued to be anxiously alert, listening for all sounds around me. And then I heard the slightest cracking sound above us, something I wouldn't have heard without accelerated hearing. My head jerked up and I saw it.

"Look out!" I exclaimed, flying backwards from the tree that Hawkeye was leaning against. He looked up just in time to see the orange creature falling down from the tree, flying-squirrel style -- all limbs extended. It had a real violent look on its wide face. It fell directly on top of Hawkeye.

"You killed my boyfriend, you fool!" She shouted in a matronly, female voice that was really surprising. I recoiled when I got a good look at the thing. She was all wrinkly and orange, like a naked mole rat with a huge head and even bigger eyes magnified by her spectacles which perfectly fit around them. She began violently elbowing and punching Clint. I was nearly too shocked to act.

But Gale wasn't. He immediately grabbed the creature's big head and snapped her neck with ease. A cannon sounded.

I was frozen in place. Gale dropped her limb body to the ground with a dull thud. Clint was still cowering from the unexpected attack. He unshielded his head from his crouched position and looked up to Gale.

"Thanks." He said lamely. Gale extended a hand.

"No problem," He answered, "Let's move."

I was still incredibly taken aback by the rapid turn of events. I guess what surprised me most was the fact that the big hairy thing and the orange old lady were dating.

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Lupin's POV

My eyes opened to the shadowed forest around me. I could tell it was midday. I was cradled in a ball on the forest floor, my back and ankles positively screaming with the soreness that accompanies the aftermath of a wolf episode.

I jumped to my feet when I remembered where I was and who I had been with when I lost consciousness and turned wolf.

Tonks, I thought anxiously, and tore off into the woods where the light paw prints could be tracked.

I didn't remember anything from the wolf episode. Tonks and I had either split up — or — or —

No, Remus, I thought to myself scornfully, Do not let that possibility enter your head. You did not kill her.

I continued my travels until I reached a bloodstained spot on the ground and a ripped piece of the jacket she had been wearing. I immediately knelt down and grab ahold of the jacket. But her body was nowhere to be found.

I had to have attacked her, but she must've gotten away. I continued following my tracks, growing more scared that another tribute would find her before I did. She obviously wasn't dead because her body couldn't be found, but I had attacked her and weakened her. I could not let her become someone else's prey. I wouldn't.

I took a risk. "Nymphadora!" I shouted into the quiet forest around me. I turned in all directions, focused intensely on listening to my surroundings. But I heard no reply. I didn't yell her name again. If she was nearby somehow, I couldn't attract other tributes near her.

The day passed by agonizingly slow as I scoured the forest while remaining close to my tracks. If she were still okay then she would make her way back to the mess I had made in my wolf state. It was common sense, to meet back up at an identifiable area of the forest.

A cannon boomed around midday and I was jolted with shock. All I could do was pray that it wasn't Tonks.

Another cannon boomed after the sun had set. My hopes grew dimmer that my wife still remained in this Game. I had to be realistic with myself. There were few of us left, so the chances that one of the cannons had been assigned to my wife's death were high. I felt deflated inside. I would only know at tonight's national anthem playing if she survived.

And then the thick trees swayed slightly to the side as they usually did -- I was sure that the Gamemakers had them do so, so that each night the tributes could watch the national anthem. The anthem played agonizingly slow, each second of its wretched music taking eternity to pass. And then the fallen tributes began showing. Two from the Star Wars clan.

And then a mechanic voice sounded. "And now, a special, one-of-a-kind playing over of one tribute's defeat, sponsored by the Capitol."

A scene flashed into the sky that I dimly recognized, and then I immediately knew what had happened. An icy feeling that started at my shoulders and ran through my chest fell over me. My mind was blank with so many things -- terror, defeat, emptiness. I could only feel. I couldn't think. I fell to my knees, unable to look away from the screen in the sky.

I was looking at Tonks pressed against a tree, looking to the sky in straight fear, and a werewolf creeping up behind her, as silent as could be. Then wolf-me reached a long claw out and lashed around the tree. Tonks scurried away, but I pounced on her. Then the scene cut out and her face flashed into the sky.

I fell to the ground, void of life. I couldn't cry, and I couldn't move. I had killed her. She was dead because of me. Who would have thought that my Games could've gone this terribly.

Then I realized, in the back of my dead, defeated mind . . . The Capitol would have thought that my Games should go bad. They determined what my weakness was -- my wolf-ness -- and they used it to entertain. They used me to create drama. They wanted me to kill my own wife. They had directed my mental undoing. The moon being full, our proximity to each other, and now they made sure I knew exactly what happened by airing her death one night later.

I knew that my Games was over. The Capitol did not intend on me winning -- why would they have a victor who had tragically killed his own wife? My purpose in these Games were to kill the one thing I loved more than anything, and then to die myself. I was the tragic love story in these Games. I was the audience's engineered heartbreaker.

I lay on the forest floor, now having lost my two best friends, one of them being the love of my life. And I readied myself to die.

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