Zoe Modjeska
Red. Crimson red. Flowing from the stab wound from my thigh. I rip a bandage strip from the sterile white roll and wrap it tightly around my thigh. The white quickly becomes stained with red.
Bang. A scream. I need to get out of here immediately. I see a young, dark-haired girl peer menacingly through the branches. She hasn't seen me yet, because those dark eyes slide right over me. The soft, orange glow of the setting sun shine across the girl's red highlights.
I wrinkle my nose. Red highlights? She can't be serious. Muggles these days and their ridiculous fashions. But it isn't a time to be discussing the latest Muggle trends. My leg is still bleeding thick and fast. I try to apply more pressure onto it, but the flow only slows a bit.
I turn my attention away from my leg and stare through the long, flowing tresses of this willow tree I have hid in. It's only a few hundred metres from the huge, metal structure, I think I heard one of the Hunger Games competitors call it 'the Cornucopia'. But at least it's better than out in the open.
After I deem my leg wound hopeless, I rip off more bandages and wrap my thigh as tightly as I dare before gathering my few supplies and scaling down the tree. I land a bit too roughly – I haven't climbed a tree in ages.
I scramble up as fast as I can but my spinning head slows my senses. This isn't good, I need my wits about me if I'm to survive. I stagger through the valley gorge that is the arena, trying to keep my footsteps light and quiet and avoid putting pressure on my left leg where the stab wound is.
Beads of perspiration have appeared at my forehead and I brush them away, trying not to focus on the growing pain at my thigh. I can't go on for much longer and decide to rest for a bit in a tree. As soon as I heave myself onto a low-hanging branch, it's clear my leg can't take it.
I can't hide on ground, there isn't enough shelter, so I stay there on my branch. I rummage through my makeshift bag, which is actually my jacket roughly wrapped around my supplies. The screams of the long dead are traumatising so I just organise my supplies I took back at the Cornucopia.
The roll of bandages. A flashlight. A small flask of water. And a packet of dried fruit. I take a sip of water and examine the dried fruit. It can't last for long, a packet that small. If only I had my wand, I could multiply it and have infinite packets of dried fruit. But I don't have my wand.
I stuff everything back into my jacket and wrap it tightly around my arm. I close my eyes, trying to rest a bit before continue to trek on. The screams only intensify and vivid images that happened back at the Cornucopia appear out of the darkness behind my eyelids. And suddenly, I'm reliving the whole experience over and over.
The gong sounds. I launch myself off the metal plate. Spotting my wand lying a few metres away, I try to dive for it. Bang! A gunshot. A scream. I leap over a dead body. I need to get my wand. A knife comes hurtling towards my forehead. Duck! Just in time. I need to get my wand.
Just as I'm about to snatch it off the ground, a knife comes flying towards my torso. I dived sideways and I think I'm going to avoid the knife, it lodges into my thigh. Pain. It spreads like wildfire. I yank the knife out of my flesh and throw it in the direction where it came from. An older girl with blonde hair catches it by the hilt and aims it at me again. I lunge forward for my wand to protect myself but a flash of silver blocks my view. A vicious slash. Another scream. The blonde girl falls to the ground, her neck slit open. Blood.
I can't see my wand. I need to get to it. Where is it? Screams are everywhere. I blindly lunge and snatch a roll of bandages and a flask of water. I quickly rip a bandage off and wrap it tightly around my leg. I need to get out of here. Where is my wand? I take off my jacket in one quick motion and roughly stuff the rest of the bandages and flask into it.
I stand up, trying to ignore the pain in leg. Pull yourself together, Zoe. We need to get out of here first. WHERE IS MY WAND? I can't see it. Dead bodies lie everywhere. A girl my age with dirty blonde hair and tan skin. Another girl, her dark brown eyes staring upwards but never seeing. I need to get out of here.
More gunshots. A clash of metal against metal. More screams. A dagger comes flying past me, barely missing my ear. Snatching a packet of dried fruit, I launch myself forward into a run. The pain is unbearable. I need to find shelter. The pain. More screams. I need to find shelter. Where is my wand? I need shelter. Pain. Wand. Shelter. Pain.
I'm jerked back to the present. Why is everything so blurry? The whole world is swooping around me. I topple out of the tree, landing on the leaf-scattered floor. I can't breathe. The fall has winded me. I need to get back up that tree. Before I manage to do anything but struggle to regain my breath, I fall into the darkness.
A flash of silver. I blink. The world comes back into focus. A girl my age sits on a rock near me, her black hair tied back into a ponytail. Her forearm is bleeding. She notices I'm awake. She pushes her glasses further up her nose.
"Glad to see you're up and about now," she says. "Zoe, is it?"
I struggle to stand up, ignoring her. The pain in my leg starts up again. I've seen her at Hogwarts before and in the Ravenclaw common room too.
"Sit down, you're just going to exert yourself," the girl says. "My name's Scarlet, in case you didn't know."
"Why would I care?" I snarl. If I'm going to win this twisted game, I need to take down as many opponents as possible, including her. The problem is, I'm unarmed.
"Looking for this?" Scarlet flashes me an evil smirk as she holds up my wand. My wand! "I got it for you back at that weird horn. Thought you'd, of all people, would be sure to get it before running off. Too scared to stay and fight?"
A fresh surge of fury comes crashing. Was she calling me a coward? "I wasn't running off!" I retorted. "I was injured and needed to get out of there as fast as possible. I tried to get my wand but I couldn't find it!"
The excuses were feeble and I could tell Scarlet knew that too. She rolled those dark brown eyes and tossed me my wand. "Here you go," she says. "I've already got my own."
I narrow my eyes at her. Something's off. Does she want to be allies? Fat chance. In a quick motion, I shoot a curse at her.
"Protego!" Scarlet grins at me. "Nice curse. Jelly-Legs was it?" I tersely nod, my eyes fixed on that face of hers in a glare. I need to get away from here. Sooner or later, I will kill her or she will kill me. "Hoping to run away?" Can she read my mind? Scarlet laughs as if this is all some big joke. "I'd like to see you try with that leg."
I swear softly. She knows I know that. I need to gather my resources and at least attempt to escape. Maybe a full Body-Bind curse? But – no, Scarlet has my bandages, flask and dried fruit.
"Darling, you owe me," she says with a sweet smile. "When you fainted, that Mortal Instruments kid, Lucy I think her name was, found you and was about to send an arrow through you. I saved your life."
"I don't believe you."
Scarlet doesn't say anything but pulls out a dead hedgehog with a single arrow speared in it. I raise my eyebrows. What does a dead hedgehog have to do with this?
"I Transfigured her into a hedgehog and impaled her with her own arrow," Scarlet explains, putting the hedgehog down. "Good meat, but apparently cannibalism isn't tolerated."
I wrinkle my nose in disgust at the dead hedgehog. "Please tell me you weren't serious about actually eating it."
Scarlet shook her head, yanked out the arrow and tossed the hedgehog away carelessly. "I'll fix your leg and then we have to move out for them to retrieve the body."
"I can fix my leg myself, now that I have my wand," I hiss, saying a charm to stop the bleeding. Some dittany would heal it completely but there aren't any in this damn arena.
Scarlet just smiles at me patronisingly, leans over and makes the pain go away with a Painkilling Charm. I glare at her before standing up, limping a bit but otherwise okay. The fact that I'm stuck with her now, at least until I've regained my full health, only dampens my mood.
Once we've moved to a safe distance away, Scarlet fills me in on what happened when I was unconscious.
"After I found you, the head organiser came on the intercom saying that a sort of noxious chemical entered the arena and the only cure is at that weird metal horn –"
"The Cornucopia. I heard one of the Hunger Games competitors call it that."
"Okay fine, the Cornucopia then. And the cure is guarded by these shapeshifting demons."
I can't believe what I'm hearing. Demons?
"What are the symptoms?" I ask.
"Nausea, vomiting, blackouts, dizziness, hallucinations, slurred talking and loss of motor functions. Plus in the end, you die if you don't get to the cure in time."
I squeeze my eyes shut. This is going to be way more difficult than I thought. "So what are we going to do?"
"Either get the cure or die," Scarlet says bluntly, sitting down with her back propped to a tree. She's carrying a black rucksack that she must have got at the Cornucopia. She pulls out a packet of crackers and nibbles on one.
"We need a plan to get the cure in time," I say. "Did the organiser at the intercom say any more details about the demon who's guarding it?"
Scarlet shakes her head. "I think they just said that the demon can shift into any other form. It could be pretending to be anybody."
It could be pretending to be anybody. I feel something is off here. It could be pretending to be anybody. My eyes dart around our surroundings. I knew becoming her ally was a bad idea. I glance sideways at Scarlet, trying to act inconspicuous.
She keeps nibbling at her crackers. That's when I notice something. Her black ponytail seemed to fall right through her right shoulder as if her shoulder was transparent.
All of a sudden, Scarlet, if she was really Scarlet, spins around and slashes through the air with her hand. A jet of pure white light erupts from her hand. I stumble back, avoiding the curse just in time. I watch, horrified, as her fingers reduce to stubs of flesh and huge, razor-sharp claws grow out of the stubs.
The demon smiles, its face still like Scarlet's. My hand's sweating so much, my wand nearly slips from my grip. I walk slowly backwards, tripping a bit, until I feel the cold surface of a boulder. I glance over my shoulder for a second. A huge wall of boulders surrounds me and the only exit is blocked by the demon.
I gnaw on my lip. How am I supposed to get out of here? I'm indefinitely trapped unless I figure out a way. The demon's previously dark brown eyes suddenly flash pure white. I'm forced to look away in case I'm blinded. It can read my mind. I should have noticed sooner.
I'm both mentally and physically trapped. If I do figure out an escape route, the demon will just read my thoughts and prevent that. Even worse, I feel bile rising up in my throat. I turn away and retch what little I had eaten in the past day. If there's one thing I know, it's that the symptoms are becoming more severe.
The demon seems to know that as well because it flashes me an evil smirk before advancing closer and closer. I need to get out of here fast. Is it my imagination or am I surrounded my lava now? White-hot lava. The demon slashes the air with its huge clawed hand. Lava erupts out of the air and towards me.
In a moment of completely foolish panic, I turn and leap at the wall of boulders. Instead of slamming into the cold, rough surface of rock, I merely pass through it as if it was nothing but a cloud. It seems that the hallucinations have begun.
I sprint as fast as I can without tripping and falling headfirst onto the valley floor. A jet of white lava. Turn right. Left. Left. Right. I need to get to the cure and figure out a way to defeat the demon. I can't think straight. Right. My leg starts to hurt. I'm slowing down. I don't know where I'm going. Help. The demon is closing in. Lava. Dodge. Pain.
In my state of confusion and terror, I hurtle straight into somebody else. The demon shoots another jet of lava at me and I scramble back on all fours like some bizarre crab.
"Protego Maximus!"
That's when I realise that the person I crashed into has her wand out. The demon is trapped outside the Shield Charm, crashing against the invisible barrier and snarling. The girl's only slightly younger than I was and she has black curls that are tangled like a wild forest around her head.
She brushes a loose curl away from those bright brown eyes and smiles at me briefly. "Call me Jenna. And you are..?"
"Zoe," I answer curtly, trying to put less pressure on my bad leg. The Painkilling Charm has worn off by now and all the exertion has made it bleed more – the bandage is now stained with red patches. The ground is starting to swoop around me now.
Jenna must have noticed me looking faint so she helps me lie down before turning her attention to the demon. As soon as we move out of the Shield Charm range, the demon will be able to attack us.
"Use the Vanquishing Curse." My voice comes out all hoarse.
Jenna shakes her head. "I don't know how to do it." She starts pacing around the forest floor, scratching the back of her neck.
But I know how to do the spell. I sit myself up before forcing myself into a standing position. I need a good position to aim from. Jenna's eyes widen and tries to help me lie back down but I resist.
"Are we near the Cornucopia, that metal horn?" I ask, leaning against a nearby tree. Jenna nods. "Okay, good. You go to grab the cure and I'll cover you and try to Vanquish the demon."
Jenna pauses hesitantly. "Okay." She takes deep breaths, holding her wand steady before running off in, what I think is, the direction of the Cornucopia. As soon as Jenna is out of the range, the Shield Charm breaks. The demon charges at me.
"Aim at the spot between the target's eyes," my mentor's voice says, in my head. "Point your wand directly at it and say 'vincere malum' loud and clear."
The demon lunges forward, its clawed hand groping for my chest. "Vincere malum!" I scream as I aim my wand at the direct spot between the demon's blazing white eyes, waiting for the demon's claws to pierce my heart. But it never comes.
The demon's mouth is open in a silent scream as my curse hits it and the demon erupts into a whirlwind of white ash. I slump to the floor.
Footsteps. Is it one of the other competitors coming to finish me? Hands grip me by the arm, gently propping me against a tree trunk. Fingers pinch my nose, forcing my mouth to open and tilting a small vial of liquid so it runs down my throat. Is it poison that is entering my body like frozen ice? I'm too weak to resist.
"Come on, Zoe, fight the poisonous gas a little longer." My eyes roll back into my skull, the ice liquid spreading through my body. Every nerve that exists is alive. Screaming. Wildfire.
I open my eyes and see Jenna crouching next to me. As soon as she sees I'm conscious again, her arms wrap around me tightly. Red. Crimson red. The sun is rising. It's dawn and I'm still alive. Red. Crimson red.
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Scarlet Waterstone
I looked up from where I was sitting as I noticed a whitish glow. There was a hologram that projected the names and pictures of all the fallen. My jaws dropped as I saw each of the names flash by.. Melissa from my fandom have been killed. I counted the number of people dead and found out that only eleven survived.
I can't believe it. I survived the immediate danger. But that was purely luck. I won't be lucky next time. I must be prepared.
I stood up and walked. I say walked but what I actually did was sway here and there, move a few inches and fall on the ground. Hmm... that's weird. Why do I feel dizzy? I tried to think why but my brain refused to cooperate. I was completely fine a moment ago. I didn't eat or drink anything. Then what...? Oh wait I think I remember reading a scenario similar to this in a book. If that's what happening here then...
I got up again and with difficulty started wobbling forward. This time I heard a cool mechanical female voice announce (where the hell is that coming from?) that a noxious chemical has entered the arena. After explaining its side effects, (Now I know why I feel like shit) it said that to get the cure the players must go to the metal object at the center. The cure also happened to be guarded by demons whose true form can only be seen by the ones from the Mortal Instruments fandom.
I roughly calculated the distance between the place where I was and where the metal structure was. Well that's good. I guess I don't have to walk that much. I started walking towards the direction of the metal structure. What can I do to defeat demons? Should I throw a cross at them or something? I frowned. That won't work. But aren't demons usually defeated by stuff like holy water and holy magic? Holy magic... Is there a thing like that? I shook my head. This is reality. I don't think they will be defeated by something like that.
I snorted. That's a load of bull coming from me, a wizard. I guess I will give it a try. I walked a bit further and noticed that the trees where thinning out a little bit. I gulped as I realized that I am getting closer. Well, at least I was getting used to this nausea and dizziness. Now I can move better.
I noticed the metal structure and I definitely noticed the horrifying demons that made me feel depressed all of a sudden gathered around it(I would rather not describe about them). My hands started shivering as I breathed slowly to calm myself down. I strained my eyes and found a little purplish glow near the metal structure. I guess that's the cure.
I jumped into the clearing, shouting 'Stupefy' at one of the demons or at least I meant to. Instead a bunch of gibberish came out of my mouth and for some odd reason, the demon grew in size. I cursed at myself and used the non-verbal spell of 'Reducto' effectively reducing its size. From there on, I decided it would be wise for me to use non-verbal spells.
"Lumos Maximum" I said in my mind. Immediately, my wand's tip started glowing brightly. The demons turned towards me and stood there dazed. Huh, it didn't work. Figures. At least it will blind them for sometime. I slowly inched towards the metal structure, looking at the demons cautiously. Seeing that they were starting to regain their movement, I did the most random thing that came to my mind.
"Wingardium Leviosa." I said in mind and lifted a few particularly large rocks that I spotted out of the corner of my eyes. I made them hover over the demons and then proceeded to drop them.
I was really surprised when the demons on which the rocks fell disintegrated. I can't believe that actually worked. I inched closed the metal structure and I was about to cast another spell when suddenly a really ugly looking demon bellowed some fire on to me. Screaming, I used the agumenti spell to put out the fire on my clothes, which was now burned slightly. Some parts of my body had slight burns and rashes. I hissed under my breath and threw the sectumsempra spell at the demon, which teared it apart. I watching in satisfaction as it disintegrated.
I didn't have much time to be happy about that since more demons surrounded me. Is it just me or are they increasing? I casted the blasting curse on several of them, which made them burst into nothingness. I casted the full body bind curse, stunning spell, sectumsempra and many more. I kept on killing them, and moving closer to the metal structure while I was at it. But the demons kept coming at me.
I looked around helplessly. How can I get out of this alive? I started loosing hope as the demons came nearer. I started firing random spells at them and barely managed to keep them at bay. What can I do? My eyes widened. Why am I feeling like this? Its not like I have any serious injury or anything(save for a few broken ribs). I have read about dementors causing a feeling of hopeless when they come near us. Is this the same effect? Then will the patronus charm work?
I tried casting it, but failed to do so. I thought about my dorm, Hogwarts, my family, and forced myself to try again, this time successfully producing a patronus. A silver light burst out of the tip of my want, taking the shape of a dolphin. It charged towards the demons. To my utter astonishment, it seemed to work. I didn't wait to see what happened next though. I moved closer to the metal structure, and finally caught ahold of the cure which was inside a vial. I looked at it. Should I drink it? Ignoring my hesitance, I removed the cork of the vial and emptied it.
I knew I had done the right thing because it made me feel better. I didn't feel like my head is about to blast or I was standing on air anymore. I turned around meaning to go back into the forest. My patronus was still going around destroying demons. I ran towards the forest(or did what I can with my sprained leg), when a demon jumped in front of me. Reflexively, I blasted it away with the confringo spell. I froze another one that blocked me. I moved forward, and finally I reached the safety of the forest away from the wretched crowd of demons. I couldn't see the light of my patronus anymore. It must have disappeared after it fulfilled its purpose. I suddenly remembered about my backpack(which I hid with a disillusion charm). 'Point me' I muttered, thinking about my backpack. My wand spun a little on my palm and it pointed me slightly towards northeast. I walked into that direction. Finally, I saw the mark which I made. I climbed the tree on which it was kept(thank the lords that I learned how to climb), and lifted the disillusion charm. I grabbed my backpack and sat there. I let out a shaky breath, wincing as I remembered about my broken ribs.
"Melius Ossa" I muttered, pointing my wand at my ribs and flinched as I felt them mending. After sometime, I released a sigh of relief as I my ribs mended completely.
"Ferula" I muttered again, this time pointing my wand at my sprained leg. Immediately, my sprained ankle was bandaged and splinted. I then proceeded to cast a lot of protective charms around me. Letting out a sigh, I slipped into sleep, still thinking about the demons.
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Jenna Samson
(did not hand in)
Helena Woods
About an hour passes, and still I work my way up the side of the mountain, keeping to the trees. Someone back down at the Cornucopia might see me if I stay in the open.
I keep walking, and my breath starts coming out in short gasps. I can feel the sweat running down my back and making my shirt sticky. I haven't been going that long, have I? I shouldn't be getting tired.
My ponytail is slipping, so I take it off and redo it. Suddenly, my stomach decides it's time to empty, and I stumble to the base of a tree and puke.
I look up as a voice booms over the arena once more. "A noxious poison has entered the arena. You must get to the Cornucopia — the metal horn at the centre of the arena — to obtain the antidote. You have three hours before the sun sets and the poison finishes its job." The arena grows silent again.
Poison. Now that I know what I'm up against, I consider what the voice said. Either risk getting killed by tributes as we all try to get to the antidote, or die at the hands of the venom. I don't like the idea of going back down there; I just came all the way up. But at the same time, I don't want to die. Reluctantly, I turn around and, fighting dizziness, start my descent.
Obviously, going down is easier than going up, so it takes me about forty-five minutes to get to the pine I had climbed before. I notice Andromeda's corpse is no longer under the pine, taken by the hovercrafts. Just two more hours until I end up like her.
As I look up, I notice there's already someone there. I stifle a gasp as I recognise the vivid red hair I'd always envied. "Olivia!" I whisper-yell.
She looks at me and smiles, placing a finger on her lips and pointing in the direction of the Cornucopia.
I climb up the tree and sit down next to her. "What are you doing here?" I ask her. "I thought you'd—" As reality hits me with a new wave of dizziness, Olivia disappears, and I clutch at a branch to keep from falling. I close my eyes and wait for it to pass and chide myself. It's the poison, Lena. Olivia died in the Hunger Games two years ago. Don't trust anything you see.
I open my eyes and focus on what's happening at the Cornucopia. A small table has been set up beside the horn; on it are thirteen glass vials filled with colourful liquids. Thirteen. Did they do that on purpose, or have two tributes gotten their antidotes already? Seems possible, since I took almost an hour to get here. Others might have stayed close by. I decide to wait for at least one tribute to come — it can't be this easy to get the antidote, and I'm not in the mood for dying.
I don't have to wait long. I catch a glimpse of blonde hair to my right, and Kayleyn comes out of the trees. She looks around, and seemingly satisfied, walks hurriedly towards the table. Suddenly, she trips and doesn't get up.
At the same time, a boy and a girl appear from behind the Cornucopia, and I wonder if I'm hallucinating again. The boy isn't Oliver, and the girl isn't any other tribute I remember either. I shake my head to clear it, but when I look up, the pair are still there. They walk up to Kayleyn, and the girl pounces on her, grinning wickedly. The guy jumps in a second later.
I stare, mortified, as they tear her skin with their bear teeth. It's just a hallucination. Just a hallucination. Just a— Then the cannon booms. I gulp and close my eyes, tears already pooling in them. Stop it, Helena; if you want to get out of this alive, you can't be sentimental.
I open my eyes again just in time to see the hovercraft leaving with Kayleyn's mutilated body. The boy and girl have disappeared.
A twig cracking snaps my gaze to my left. Sapphire Killer is approaching the table slowly, a weird stick in her left hand. Her right arm hangs limply at her side.
All of a sudden, a new wave of dizziness hits me, and I just manage to scoot myself over to a wide branch before everything goes black.
"Oh, Lena, come on! Please wake up..."
I open my eyes and groan.
"Yes! Oh, you don't know how scared I was! You're lucky I found you before any other tributes."
"Elizabeth?" I sit up hesitantly, wondering if I'm still hallucinating.
"Yep. And I brought you something." She holds up a glass vial filled with bright green liquid and covered with a cork and waves it in front of me.
My face brightens up and I snatch it from her. But before I drink all of it, I decide to leave a little bit, just in case this happens again. I drink about half, and immediately, I start to feel better. All hints of grogginess are gone, and my head feels clearer than before.
"But how did you get this? How did you find me?" I ask, placing what's left of the antidote in my bag.
"Long story. But you've been out for about five minutes with me. I don't know how long before that. Anyway, we have to get out of here before anyone finds us or those demons come back," she says, looking over her shoulder.
"Demons?"
"I'll tell you later, but come on!" Lizzie lowers her left foot to the branch below her, then to the one underneath.
I do the same and jump to the floor beside her. "Let's stick together from now on."
She nods and gives me a half-hearted smile. We both know we're thinking the same thing.
As we start the long way up the mountain once again, neither of us mentions that that might not be very long.
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Elizabeth Stone
Darkness surrounded me from all sides, enclosing me in a box of night. Something was telling me to wake up - there was something I needed to do, I needed to wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up - !
My eyes shot open and I flinched immediately. My hand came up, blocking out the light. I groaned, rolling -
My eyes shot open as the ground beneath me seemed to disappear. My hands shot out in front of me and I screamed, the ground closing in my vision.
"Ughgd." I groaned, hitting the sand floor with a thud. My eyes fluttered open, no trace of sleep left.
Wait - sand?
My hands grasped the small particles of sand, drifting silently through my fingers. My head shot up. "No, no no no no no no no!" I said, getting up quickly and dusting off my clothes. It was full of it, in my hair, in my shirt, on my pants, and especially in my shoes.
Panic welled up inside of me as I stared at my surroundings. It couldn't be possible, they couldn't be so cruel as to let me die -
I let out a frustrated groan, fisting my hair in my hands. "Of course they would do this!" I yelled. "Ruin my life more, will you?" I screamed, turning around to stare at a camera. But there was nowhere for a camera to hide, which served to confuse me and anger me even more. The tree I had been sleeping in was gone.
Everywhere I looked, there was sand. Sand beneath me and sand stretching miles into the distance.
As soon as I had woken up, the forest had disappeared.
I was in a desert.
-
"The arena changes at night..."
I wanted to kick myself for not listening to the head gamemaker's advice not to fall asleep, or at least to be on the alert. I rubbed my eyes, which were starting to sting from the heat, glaring at the sand. He's probably laughing at me right now.
My mind went back to the bloodbath at the Cornucopia. A part of me was glad that Helena, my only ally, was alive. The other dreaded the encounter - only one person could survive this.
Not that I had a big chance of surviving in a huge desert.
It's small. A voice said at the back of my head. This is an arena, not the actual Sahara.
There had to be an end to this ecological landscape. There had to be an end to all this sand.
I counted everyone that was left inside my head. Eleven of us. There were eleven of us left.
Blisters started to form on my feet, and my throat felt like sandpaper. I stopped, wiping the sweat off my brow, trying to keep my mind off all the pain, but I started up again a few minutes later - the sun didn't even let you rest.
"Ladies and gentlemen."
I stumbled one of the uneven sand dunes, my hands coming out to break my fall, for the second time that day. "Agh," I said, frustrated. What the heck?
I looked around me, but the voice was gone. Then...
"All of you have just been affected by a fatal posion that is transmitted in the air you breath..."
A sudden bout of dizziness overtook me, bile rising in my throat. I cried out, my back hitting the sand. My chest heaved - was I breathing?
"You have two choices, tributes. You may lay still and wish for a premature death, or you can try and make your way to the Cornucopia for an antidote. Watch out for a few surprises."
I placed a hand on my chest and felt the quick rise and fall of it. Tears prickled at my eyes. I glanced up, the sun bearing down on me, but it was hazy, like a veil of smoke had fallen over my vision. My vision went black, then returned.
"No..." I whispered. I couldn't die, not after everything I had been through to get here. They wouldn't get rid of me so easily.
But as I said it, the nausea seemed to get worse, the black spots bigger, the dizziness stronger...
"And, my dear, dear friends. May the odds be ever in your favor."
I'm not dying. I thought slowly. I'm not -
My hand slipped on the sand as soon as pressure was put on it. I collapsed back on the ground, my breath shallow. I can't die. I can't...
No matter what I told myself, I knew it was inevitable.
I slipped into a shallow darkness, loosing my grasp on reality.
----
I gasped, my back arching into the sky. The pain in my chest faded after a few seconds, my heart continuing to beat erratically. The sun still beat down on my exposed skin, but it seemed to be in a different position than before. Lower in the sky, and not so bright.
The dizziness had faded. The nausea remained.
I stood up slowly, holding my arm to my chest. My bow and arrow lay a few feet away, almost completely covered in sand. I grasped the quiver and slung it over my back, then grabbed the bow. My hands felt weak, but they were still working.
Despite the scream worthy pain, I trudged on, ignoring the nausea. I had to get to that antidote. I needed to survive.
After crossing a sand dune, my spirits lifted - there in the distance, the sand slowly gave away to forest. Green, beautiful forest.
I knew it was the gamemakers doing, they wanted another bloodbath, another show down, more deaths - and that meant getting the tributes to their destination. See how they handled themselves even in a state of fragility.
I frowned, thinking of all the things that could go wrong. What if there was a limited amount of antidote and it was all gone, and I was risking my life for nothing?
Slowly, the dizziness faded to a dull shake in my vision, something that I could work with somewhat. The nausea didn't feel as bad as before - it must have been the determination. Poison ran in my veins, but so did adrenaline and the will to live. Hopefully it would keep me stable long enough to drink the antidote.
"Watch out for a few surprises."
That's what the feminine voice had said over the intercom. It made my blood boil, knowing they had made it near impossible for us to get there on time if there was the added obstacle of something in our path plus the poison.
"It can't be impossible." I said to myself, crossing another sand dune and scuffing my feet as I went down,grass started to thicken through the sand. The forest got closer. "They need one person alive, it can't be impossible..."
With these words I approached the divide between the desert and the forest, and plunged into its tangled depths.
----
After a few minutes, the forest began to thin, and I knew I was getting close to the Cornucopia. The sun had almost gone completely down, shrouding the green in darkness.
My steps crunched loudly against the fallen leaves and for a while it was the only sound I heard.
Then, there it was, the clearing with the cornucopia. But the cornucopia wasn't there, nothing was there, except a long, thin table in the middle of the clearing. Six bottles. They were spread out on the table with spaces in between each one. The names of each tribute were printed in bold white cards in front, even in the empty spaces. I smiled when I saw that Helena's was empty.
I was about to take the first step into the clearing, when I saw them.
Two men, shrouded in burning white robes paced the are of the table. Around, the other way, around, the different way, over and over again, like mindless soldiers.
So this was the surprise.
I knew for sure they weren't normal people. With the skills and power some of the tributes had, it would be too easy to take them down. These men had to have special powers too.
As I waited, a war cry sounded in the distance and a girl charged out from the other side of the clearing, only a few yards away where I was crouched. I watched in stunned silence as she brandished a long, thin knife in her left hand; her right seemed glued to her side.
In those two seconds, the men seemed to warp. Their shoulders got broader, they hands turned into long, thin talons. Their eyes shone red. It was only a few seconds before the vision was gone, and they were men again, fighting the tribute.
Instead of attacking like I thought she would, she zigzagged away from their claws, and the men, no, the demons stumbled into each other, crashing against the floor. But they were up again, and they looked bloodthirsty.
The girl didn't seem to care. She grabbed one of the six bottles and ran along the table as the men chased her. She jumped over it and the demons crashed into each other again. Once they were up, the bold tribute had already disappeared into the forest, antidote in hand.
I blinked. It was genius, of course! That Mortal Instruments girl had given me the exact advantage I needed. Two, in fact.
I watched as they seemed to forget the whole incident and go back to patrolling the length of the table.
Thank you, Mortal Instruments girl. I thought with a small smile. Now I can survive.
A plan started to form in my mind, and for once, I felt like the situation wasn't entirely hopeless.
They weren't just slow, but they were also stupid.
-----------
Another girl had passed and done the same exact thing to the demons. Every time she even got close to attacking them, she would veer off and zigzag through the grass, confusing and distracting them. They would also twist into their demon like forms for only a few seconds in the time of most anger (or so I guessed) and then turn back to the men in white clothes.
It was safe to say I was scared.
I moved my arm slowly, trying to make as little sound as possible. It had started going stiff half an hour ago, and I knew it wasn't because of the crouched position. The ache had began everywhere else as well. The nausea was coming back...slowly I was becoming weaker, the poison coursing through my veins.
There were four bottles left. One of them had my name in front.
I crept of the shadows quickly. It took the men five seconds to walk the length of one side of the table, parting different ways. That meant I had two point five seconds to grab the antidote and run like hell.
That wasn't the tricky part. The tricky part was to get close enough so my plan would work.
I ran the length of the forest bordering the clearing, threading in and out of the shadows. "Please don't let me meet up with someone else," I said into the night air. "Please."
The people in the Capitol were probably laughing at me right now, smirking through their hidden tree plant cameras or something. I didn't care - I needed comfort, and that comfort would come from God.
As I ran closer to the shorter right length of the table, I felt my bones growing weaker, like a string about to snap under pressure of the blade. I wiped at the tears on my cheeks, ignoring the burning in my chest.
My feet kicked up dirt as I crouched right in front of my destination. "Bingo." I whispered quietly. The men reached the end of their table at the same time, and I sprang, running the only two meters between me and the cure. I was running.
My body began to grow weary almost instantly, forcing me to shut down, but I held on.
The man - demon - right next to my bottle of antidote at the end of the table bared his abnormally long teeth, his fingers turning into talons.
But I was already there, grasping the bottle -
I launched myself off the ground and onto the table, weaving quickly through the bottles. The demon on the other side swiped at my legs but I was already jumping, I was soaring over his head...
I hit the floor a yard away with a thud, my head banging against the ground. I groaned, curling up into a fetus position, using my hands to hoist myself off without getting dizzy. The bottle was clutched tightly in my hand - a small cilinder with a small black cap on top.
A piercing pain shot through my scalp. I turned, my eyes meeting with those red ones I had so come to hate.
The demon smirked at me, one of his clawed hands buried deep in my hair. I thrashed wildly, but his grip was like iron. The other man stepped closer, behind his comrad, his gleaming canines glinting in the night.
Terror seized my heart. I wasn't going to survive this, how did I ever have hope I would?
"Fresh meat." The one behind him growled, in a deep gravelly voice that was barely distinguishable to the English words. "Master said we could have one or two."
The one holding my hair hoisted me off the ground in a quick yank. My hands scratched at his arm, trying to get him to let me go, but it was futile. I was done for.
"Should you dissect or should I?" Uttered the demon, his talons wrapping around my right arm.
I screamed as he twisted - the pain from before and the pain now combined was too much for me too handle. My legs thrashed as white light streaked across my vision.
Then - a groan. My foot had come in contact with his shin. His grip loosened but he still held on, his yellow, broken thin teeth baring in the moonlight.
It was enough for me. I twisted out of his grasp with a yell, toppling him over. "Meat!" The other one growled, throwing himself after my retreating form.
I fumbled for the arrows at my back and pointed one at his heart, the bow quivering in my arms. It was a clear shot. "Don't move," I said, aiming it at his heart. "Don't move or I'll shoot."
The man's smirk only wavered a bit. His friend groaned on the ground. "You think you'll survive, small one?" It taunted, growing taller and broader by the second until he was taller than one of the trees. I aimed higher. "Master told us you were weak."
My eyes narrowed. Elihias.
Of course he was behind this. He was behind this all.
I let the arrows loose, not even checking to see if the other one had gotten up as a shrill growl of pain and anger pierced the silence of the night as the arrow came in contact with flesh.
By the time the demon on the floor got up, I was already running like hell, grabbing the fallen bottle off the floor. The clearing disappeared behind me, but long after, I still kept on running.
Once I was undercover of the trees, far enough so I was put at ease that the monster wouldn't hunt me down for his friend's death as revenge, I drank the bottle. Seconds later, I was already feeling better. The fog in my vision cleared, the stiffness in my arms and legs disappeared...
But my body was still weary, there was a big red welt on my arm, and I knew, for sure, I would never forget what just happened. I was scarred.
Scarred more than before, at least. I'd been scarred since the very beginning.
--------------------------------------------------------
Oliver Saturn
(did not hand in)
Taara Kax
I wonder what happened to Andromeda Raine's body. I don't think they'll just leave her there, judging from the technology that they have. I don't know who "They" is exactly, but whoever they are, they're probably not from Erudite. I was probably wrong about my suspicions earlier. If they were from Erudite, then there's no doubt that it would be broadcasted everywhere, and even the factionless would've heard of it. They were like that, always shoving their inventions in someone's face, as if they didn't have anything better to do.
My bitter thoughts about Erudite don't know when to go away, do they?
"Eleven of you are left." The same voice rings in the air again, cutting off my thoughts.
From nineteen to eleven. Which means that eight people have died so far. That's not a lot.
It's starting to get dark, and I've already spotted a pair of eyes in the deeper part of the forest. I shouldn't stay in this forest any longer. I've been sitting on a branch of this large tree for about thirty minutes, and there doesn't seem to be any danger. I should be safe to go. I managed to find a piece of cloth inside the backpack, and I used it to wrap it around my ankle. It's safe from being infected, so the issue's fixed as well.
I should head back to the starting place, and see if there are more weapons. From where I am, there doesn't seem to be anyone else there. But then again, they might be hiding somewhere, waiting for the moment for me to walk in.
This forest stretches from the lake near Andromeda's body to the hills all the way across the arena on the right side from where I'm looking. The trees are particularly tall here, which explains why it looks darker from where I'm sitting. As the forest gets closer to the hills, the grass seems to get dryer and dryer, and so does the land near it. But it gets greener again at the tip of the hills, from what I see.
I should probably move closer to the hills, but I'll still stay in the forest and try to another tall tree, that's also near the metal structure. I pick the one closest to the one in my plan.
Assuming that no one else has the same plan as me, and assuming that I can kill anyone who crosses my path, I should be able to make it there.
I jump down from the branch, making sure to not land on my heels, and I start running through the forest, but I stay close to the outside.
Suddenly, my head feels light, as if something possessed me. I blink, trying to clear my head.
My head starts to spin, and my vision fades for a second before it returns again.
I must have been poisoned. But where?
"Stage Two has begun." Stage Two? What is that? Are they going to explain? Wait, I'm not ready! Stop! STOP!
The poison is making me lose my head. I have to calm down, and think of an alternative plan, and listen to the voice. This isn't the best condition to be in. I can't panic. I can't lose my mind.
I climb up the nearest tree and blink a few times, trying to make my head stop spinning. Black spots dance in my eyes, and I feel sick.
I can't die like this.
"A chemical has entered the arena, successfully poisoning all the remaining competitors. The medication is in the center of the arena, the same place where you started. You must get to this medication before the chemical eventually kills you." The voice says, and a hologram appears in the sky, showing where the medication is. "However, this place is now guarded by demons, and no one except Lucy Fairchild, who is the only one left of the two original competitors from where she's from, can see its true form."
"We have been informed that this isn't fair for all the competitors, and to fix that, we have decided that Lucy Fairchild will lose the ability to move her right arm for this stage. Good luck."
The hologram fades.
So it turns out I have to go to the center anyways. I should head there now. There's no doubt that the other competitors are alread-
"Taara."
I freeze. That voice. It's my sister. But that can't be possible. She's dead. But-
"Taara!"
I turn around. And scream.
Oh god. She's there, and there's a knife in her neck and her arms are gone and her feet is a mess and she's hanging from the tree right behind me and she's drowning in blood and I'M DROWNING IN BLOOD AND THE TREES ARE COLLAPSING AND I CAN'T BREATH AND-
I'm...okay.
I blink once, and she's gone. And I'm not on the floor, and there's no blood. I'm okay. And I'm not dead. I let out a breath of relief, and I climb down the tree, and slowly walk towards where the center should be. A part of me is thinking that this is wrong. I'm not thinking, I don't have any plan, I'm holding my weapon but I'm not positioning the gun correctly, and there's so many things that are wrong. But the chemical has taken over me, and I can't think under all the spinning and the black spots and the hallucination from just a moment before.
I'm okay. I'm calm. I'm fine. Hallucinations are probably just one of the side effects. I'm still Taara Kax, I can still think.
I should check my gun to make sure that there's enough bullets in there.
I lift my right hand.
And all I see is a stump with a hole, and bugs pouring out from where the rest of my hand should be attached to.
I bend over, and throw up. Tears start to fall, but I can't even tell that they're tears because it's red and worms are pouring out of my eyes. My head starts spinning again and I can't function. I stay in that position for about three minutes, I think. I don't even know.
After I'm done, I sit down, and blink and shake my head until I'm sure that it'll fall off. After a moment, my hand is back and its holding my gun again. And my eyes aren't bleeding. But the vomit is still there, and my legs can't stop shaking.
I'm vulnerable. I'm a mess. I don't know how I'm not dead yet.
Of course you're not dead yet, idiot. It's literally only been five minutes.
Still. Someone could be shooting me right now, and I won't even notice because I'm losing my head.
Whatever. I need to go to the center. Right now. I can't sit here forever. I have to go, and I will.
I stand up, slowly, and charge towards the center. I can see the structure now, and in place of the backpacks and weapons there's a metal podium and on top of it is a transparent bottle with pills in it. That must be the medication.
And surrounding it, there are eight wolves who all emit a reddish glow from their eyes. And they're growling.
And looking at me.
I don't wait for them. I whip out my gun and shoot one of them in the eye, and I run backwards. But the wolf I shot doesn't die, instead it turns into a black, cloud like fog. It's not their true form.
Now all the wolves have disappeared and all I could see are black clouds floating around. This isn't good.
I don't know what the demons actually are. I can't tell, and I need someone to help me.
"Taara...Kax! That's your name. Taara!" A girl's voice calls to me from my right, and I turn my head to see a girl with blonde hair and bright green eyes. She's Lucy Fairchild.
She can see the demons.
"Listen! I know you don't trust me but there are enough pills in there for everyone from what I can see! We can work together and get the medication, since I don't have a weapon with me and I can't use my right hand but you can! Please, help!"
I'm at my last two options. Either charge forward and blindly attack the clouds, or work together and get the pills for everyone. Or simply, to die or to survive a little longer.
I choose Option B.
I nod, and she sighs in relief. "Thank you! Okay, from what I see, the demons are large, bear like animals with horns, and at the center of their chest there's a red cross. I'm guessing that's their weak spot, and it's probably close to the center of whatever you're seeing. so please, hurry up!"
I nod again, and I shoot at the center of the cloud. The cloud disappears, and Lucy jumps in glee and grins at me. I return a small smile. I'm getting ready to shoot the second cloud, and-
My vision goes black.
No. Not now. Blackouts are the worst thing that can happen right now, I can't-
My vision returns and the cloud is inches away from my face. I lift my hand up and shoot its center. It disappears.
From the corner of my eye, another person comes. She uses a knife and jabs it into the cloud. I shoot the three clouds coming towards me. I turn my head to see that the girl had already taken care of the remaining two.
I don't waste time and lunge forward to grab the medication. I open it, grab a pill, and gives it to the two of them. I swallow it, and instantly feel better. My head stops spinning and my vision is clear again.
The girl...She's Noelle Van Houton. I give her a smile, thanking her. For the help.
"Thank you to both of you! I wasn't much help at all though..." Lucy says. looking apologetic.
"No! Jesus, you were the ones who told us the weak spot! We would've been dead if it weren't for you." Noelle says, laughing.
They start mindlessly chattering back and forth. I watch them silently.
And I notice it.
This feeling of happiness, this feeling that I don't want to kill them.
That can't happen. This is a battle.
"Taara? Are you okay? The other competitors should be coming, I see them running towards us." Lucy says, looking at me.
"I...I'm sorry."
I turn around.
And run.
------------------------------------------------------
Jyriter Amir
I was floating. Floating, drifting slowly away. My head was only a balloon. I rather hoped it wouldn't pop.
I knew this wasn't good. I walked away from the bloodbath with blood on my shoes, still missing an eye. Some of the blood was mine, but most of it belonged to others. That's not what had sickened me, because I liked the blood a lot.
But I couldn't see the trees, they were swirling. I had felt this before, but not so deeply. I was close. Close to laying down and staying there.
Though, I didn't. Why? Because in a dog-eat-dog world, I enjoyed eating the rest of them. I guess quite literally. Human flesh, a light snack. Organs are a bit more filling and are definitely better cooked. I could go on. But no, I couldn't lay down.
I kept trekking, and a loud voice played out as I crashed into a tree. The bark was rough and thick. It was brown. And it was moving.
"Attention, tributes. You've all been poisoned with a deadly disease that won't just pass by. You need the cure. However, it's back at the cornucopia and surrounded by demons. Hurry, you don't have long."
Click. It turned off. The tree did not stop moving when I moved away. Everything swirled. Everything was black.
I was still awake, though, and it looked like everywhere there were... shatter marks. There was no logic in the gravity and build of this realm. I passed through everything, but I was not on solid ground nor was I floating. It wasn't near mystical.
It was damn terrifying.
Bloody handprints were everywhere, but that didn't bother me, really. However, they smelled weird. I decided not to approach them.
"JYRITER!" A female scream echoed around me, but it was not one that I recognized. I didn't turn around. My heart pounded in my chest even after the scream faded. Rising, and going faster faster faster until it couldn't speed anymore. I fell down in what felt like...
...like water? But very shallow, and the ground underneath it was hard and thick, cold, like metal or plastic to an extent.
The whole sky shattered, and glass shards hurled towards me. I couldn't get away. I just curled up in defeat.
There was one inches from my eye. I had not questioned this strange place. I was ready to be completely blind.
That's when I fell asleep.
•••
My eyes felt like not fluttering open. When I woke, I was still in the water, but not the land. Nobody was nearby, and I felt terrible.
If I'd been out long, I knew, I would have to get a move on. Otherwise I'd die. I felt damn close to it.
Now, the demons, perhaps they were inside me. But I'll guess that they're in disguise.
I slowly lifted my shaking hands, that barely even had the energy to shake like they did. I managed to stand, but moving so much set my whole body aquiver as my feet reluctantly shuffled and trudged in messy coordination to where I remembered the cornucopia to be.
A mellifluous chime began to ring in my ear, getting louder and louder but even more graceful and delicate. It was attracting me like a mere fly to a light. A very, very bright light.
Suddenly, I saw the metal. I saw no other tributes but I did feel a strange and sad feeling of hiraeth that I wished only to shake off. I shuddered, head down, chiming ears and moved toward the metal shelter.
Was everyone dead? Was I dreaming? Were they already healed?
I felt a sense of absolute oblivion pass through me. Then, my spirit took a dark turn.
It wasn't me anymore, because I was wishing secretly that they died. I heard no noise, so they could not be dead.
I heard a rustle from behind me. From there emerged a boy that walked with a hanging head towards me. He wasn't a very young boy, but still a mere teen. Younger than I was.
When he lifted his head, my blood ran so cold that I thought perhaps I was dead.
It was my brother, Tiff, who was long dead. He was standing in front of me anyways.
Perhaps this was the host of the nefarious spirit that wished to crush me, to watch me crumble like a leaf and watch me blow away in the wind until I'm so worn down that there are no remains. Perhaps this was the demon that wanted to kill me, so that I couldn't save myself from death. Perhaps this was the source of the chiming, which was ceasing slowly now.
I couldn't kill it, but it could kill me. Shakily, I met its eyes. They were void and dull.
Void and dull. Void, and dull. That wasn't my brother.
That's when it came, and I wasn't me anymore. I was on all fours and primal.
Baring my teeth, my teeth that were okay-sharp but not at all threatening, I circled the demon. It did not move. IT, not HE.
I lashed forward but instantly reeled back. I felt a pain, one I couldn't describe, and as I flew backwards I screeched.
After screeching, I looked forward and shook my head like a normal person, yelping when I heard the sizzling sound and the smoke coming from my brother's hand. He charged me but calmly and without emotion.
I lie down, and did nothing. An ephemeral peace washed over me. My vision was a light pink. I wasn't accustomed to liking pink, but it was peaceful at least.
As I lie down, my eyes closed, Non-Tess lurched backwards with a slight shock undertone. It was awfully faint but the aura showed.
The ground was lenient, and it began to sink as if I were in a very comfortable net, but going inside out while I was still on it and so I was falling, along with flowers and Non-Tess. I didn't get up. We both landed on star-shaped glowing objects, separate and apart. They began to spread slowly apart.
Miss Serendipity was in my favor today. I clung onto the star as it glided forward, water spraying behind it. With a glance, I looked backwards, and sparkling dust flew behind as well.
The demon crashed into me, so the star melted into blood. I sunk into the blood, succumbing so that I could fall again. But this time, I flew.
An ineffable feeling began to tear me to bits. I wasn't wearing wings but it felt like it. I stuck out my arms.
My arms were the wings, so to fall... I'd need to cut them off. Luckily, logic lacked here. My hair fell out and sawed my arms out. I tumbled down as Non-Tess chased me, and my hair bent into a sword.
With widened eyes, Non-Tess grabbed a death-scythe thing.
I didn't want to kill my dad brother, I realized, I wanted him back.
So I whispered something in its ear as it tried to grab and kill me.
"Can you reverse time?" It didn't answer. It swung the scythe and I pulled up my arms into a parachute stance for the air to catch me. The ground never would. Not until I killed this thing.
This thing, it was temporary and only existed for my demise. It would not fill me with happiness. I was left with saudade.
So that's when I killed him, and I knew I was killing my brother all over again.
I felt nothing.
And that's when I woke up, already cured.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Kristyn Han
The scraping of wood over steel and bronze was all I could hear as I sat on a tree branch high above the ground and scratched away at the dried blood on my blade with a stick, trying hard not to overexert my left arm as I still have not had the wound bandaged. Images of everything that happened at the bloodbath began to flash through my mind, and a tremor involuntarily shot through my spine, making me shiver violently against my will. It's been barely a few hours, and all I could register was the fact that so many people have died in the initial battle; how stupid was I to have thought that this would be something like Capture the Flag? It was much more brutal than that. And all the red that followed...was that all my life would ever revolve around?
The colour of the Ares flag back at Camp Half-Blood: red.
The colour of the blood that spilled at the initial battle of the Games: red.
The colour of my vision every time I get angry: red.
Crimson. Scarlet. Vermilion. Carmine. Red.
I guess in one way or another, the colour just seemed to stick with me.
Just as I got the last bit of blood off my knife, a strange lightheaded feeling began to seep into my system. The cloud of air soon made me feel dizzy and I fell off the branch and hit the ground hard on my back, my eyesight suddenly blurred and out of focus as if I've just had drank a large chalice of poison. I couldn't even see straight anymore. What was supposed to be green leaves and a few birds high above soon turned into bright stars dancing all over my field of vision, and the tree branches were swaying so disproportionately that it took me what remained of my strength ebbing away to stop myself from going into a major panic attack. Even so, though, that didn't stop me from turning over onto my stomach and vomiting what little food I had eaten this morning before the Games began, the force very quickly adding on to the sudden vertigo that had taken over me.
"What the hell is going on with me?" I managed to croak out to myself as I pushed myself onto my knees and crawled over to another tree to stabilize myself. A red blob suddenly stood out to me amidst the swirling green around me and I squinted. I couldn't seem to make out the distinct shape at all. Was it...
"Attention tributes, attention. We apologize for the...slight malfunction we've had in our control room that is causing all of our wonderful competitors to fall quite ill. However, we do have a treatment for the sudden illness. There will be some medicine by the Cornucopia which would cure your sickness instantly. You may choose not to go, but doing so would only result in, shall we say, a very brutal fatality upon your life. For those who choose to go, be wary of the demon that awaits you. Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favour."
Sounds fair enough to me, I thought bitterly to myself as I slowly rose to my feet, swerving dangerously to the left as I picked up the red blob--probably my backpack which I got from the initial battle--and stumbled uncontrollably through the soft dirt path all the way out of the woods. At one point, my hair somehow got caught in a bush, and I panicked as I tried to yank it free, eventually tearing off my hair tie as I somersaulted into a clearing, staring at something large and metallic gleaming under the sun.
So that must be their so-called Cornucopia.
I quickly crawled my way through the grassy plain, oblivious to the fact that the corpses of the slain competitors have already been taken away by hovercraft though their blood still remained on the ground in tiny droplets, so slick and shiny. The colours continued to swirl in front of my eyes, and I couldn't help but close them, the steady black being all I could see and just wished to see as I breathed through my mouth, trying not to pass out.
"A hero should not close her eyes in the face of her enemy, Han."
A harsh and cold female voice immediately penetrated through my mind like a sharp frozen dagger, and I yelped as it drove deep into my head, the pain unlike anything I have ever imagined. It was so much worse than Felix trying to beat me into a pulp that last day at Camp Half-Blood with his bat.
"Han, are you listening to me?"
The chill from where the ice blade hit me made my eyes fly open, and I gasped at the sight of a tall yet vaguely humanoid black swirling cloud hovering literally a few inches away from me, her eyes a pale ice blue and her hair gleaming a deep raven black flowing behind her back in shiny luscious curly locks. One look at her told me that something was off about her, but I couldn't quite place my finger on it when she was messing with my mind.
"Don't expect me to listen to anyone," I growled--or at least tried to, as my tongue suddenly felt like it weighed around fifty drachmas. "Leave me alone."
The demon pursed her lips. "I don't think that's possible when you can't get up on your feet and fight like a woman, Han. Get up!"
"No," I refused, shaking my head as I felt the urge to puke rise from my stomach again.
"Get up and fight!" The demon eventually closed her fingers around my bicep where the arrow had hit me before and yanked me onto my feet, leaving me swaying unsteadily on the ground.
I couldn't help but wince at the new wave of pain that had blossomed all over my arm where she touched me. How could I have been such an idiot not to have it bandaged before this? Every single part of me felt so sore, and I felt all my strength betray me as I tried to raise my steel and bronze blade but instead recoiled with a small weak cry escaping my lips. I couldn't even move. I couldn't even save myself.
"Idiot!" she hissed in my mind. "Don't you want to prove yourself a hero, Han? Don't you want to show them how worthy you are?" She then held up her right palm, and my eyes soon landed on the many dark tattoos all over her arm. "You've got your chance. Now pick yourself up and fight!"
I wanted to protest to her so bad. My arm was probably bleeding profusely over my jacket, and my vision was swimming to the point where I could black out without warning. My mind was no longer alert, my limbs no longer responsive. I could give in right now. I could collapse on the spot and never move again, relieve myself of the pain that was now coursing through my entire system, so cold and hot, so fresh yet so dull.
But then another voice began to enter my mind--one so familiar and one that I only heard so scarcely.
"You heard the demon, Kristyn. This is your only chance to prove yourself a hero. Destroy her, and get the medicine. I refuse to see a child of mine lose a battle. Get your blade up and fight like the Perseus within you!"
Perseus? Something in my befuddled mind managed to put two and two together, and the myth of the hero Perseus beheading the gorgon Medusa came to mind. If he could get rid of a demon with the help of the gods, I must as well--even if it was just my dad.
With a sudden renewed burst of energy flooding through my limbs, I raised my sword up with a cry and slashed it through the dark tendrils that were slowly reaching towards me, my vision actually clearing for the first time since the malfunction was set across the arena. The blue eyes that had once held so much ice now contained a flicker of anger, so pure and true, as she swooped around me carrying with her a mix of light and darkness, the filaments of black and grey that radiated her entire being surrounding me almost like a cocoon.
This was nothing compared to the Hydra that infiltrated our camp. Darkness can be quenched with just the right amount of light, and only I can supply it to completely defeat her. Within seconds, I managed to slice through the darkness before running towards the metal Cornucopia, the sun in my eyes as my fingers closed around a silver drawstring bag which must have contained the medicine to the illness spreading around the arena. Barely had I done so, however, when the tip of a dagger pinned my right sleeve to the side of the metal Cornucopia, trapping me in the blink of an eye.
"Did you really think that would be easy?"
I didn't have to glance up to see her coming in my direction. From the inner folds of her dress I saw her withdraw a silver knife about the length of my index finger, which she then held up to my throat. For all of the wounds I've received, I have never had a knife pressed to my neck before, and I could feel the blood bead from the wound, rendering my vision blurry and unfocused once more.
"Ah yes. The villain still stands. Seems like that's another obstacle for you, isn't it, Han?"
"You can kindly shut your mouth right now," I growled as I raised my right leg up and kicked her gut, forcing her off of me as I raised my blade again, my other hand cupped to my neck in an attempt to staunch the rapid flow of blood. Before she could blink, I swung my blade upwards and sliced through what could only be her neck, closing my eyes as her body and her decapitated head hit the ground with a dull thud.
I didn't want to stay behind to glance at the damage. All I could feel was shame as I hefted the blue bag in my hand and ran out of the Cornucopia, almost slipping on the blood that peppered the ground before delving deep into the woods. The sound of my feet pounding on the ground was really all that kept me moving forward, and eventually I collapsed by another tree in yet another deserted area, pulling out what could only be a small pink tablet from the bag and swiftly swallowing it dry. Then I fumbled with my backpack until I found a roll of sterile bandages and wasted no time in wrapping my neck with it a few times round, then treating the wound on my arm with water and more bandages.
Black. Black. It was all I could think of, but all I didn't want to see.
It was all I wished I never would see again.
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Noelle Van Houton
(did not hand in)
Lucy Fairchild
(did not hand in)