CHAPTER EIGHT
"BLOODSPORT"

ARDEN.

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ARDEN RETURNS TO THE TRAINING CENTER THE FOLLOWING DAY WITH A ONE-TRACK MIND. She plans to focus on herself completely, working closely on skills she knew she needed to improve on. She had no idea what was in store for the Quarter Quell Arena but she would prepare herself for any and all conditions. 

She recalls the layout of her very first Arena. Arden had no clue what she was getting herself into back then, either. But then the platform lifted her into the eroded badlands, with the hot sun beaming down on her face and piercing her vision, the cracked and rocky terrain running up to the red mountains. She will always remember the sigh of relief she'd let out when she reached that Arena. It was a climate that Arden was all too familiar with, being from District Five. It was hot and dry and it felt like home. She had known then that her chances of winning the Hunger Games had increased dramatically. It had motivated her to fight harder, and fight she would.

Returning to her surroundings in the Training Center, Arden takes in the newly renovated area, watching her fellow tributes test out the latest Capitol technology. They had replaced the majority of their physical target practice dummies with shimmering holographic that had the ability to mimic human movement. She glances over at Gloss, who is swinging his axe repeatedly through his pixelated victim, finishing it off with a clean slice to the crown of its head. 

She puts these new training features on the backburner and instead, Arden makes her way to the station put out for practicing survival skills. Building shelter, fires, finding food. All practices that most tributes neglect to think about while they're training, but always proved to be most vital in the Arena. Arden had personally lucked out, with her first Games only lasting four days. But with this pool of former tributes, the odds were unpredictable. These were not amateurs, and there was a chance that she could be stuck in this arena for a long time.

She can feel a pair of eyes on her, beading into her side profile. At first, she wants to ignore them and continue her hunt. But then all she can think about is the eyes, the beady eyes following her every move closely, trying to piece together her next move in their heads before Arden herself even knows. It made her skin crawl. Arden used to bask in the attention she was given when she had first gained victory, but as she has become more entwined with the Capitol and their desires for her, she's become resentful of it. She does not want to be adored or goggled at, she wants to be feared. The unsettlement of the eyes burning holes into her back cause Arden to lose her concentration. Groaning, she turns her head to face whomever it is that has decided to shadow her. Katniss Everdeen.

Katniss stands ahead of her, with the old woman from Four, Mags, by her side. Their eyes follow Arden's movements as she steps forward. Katniss' face is hard to read. She is clearly sizing Arden up, but as an enemy or as an ally? Arden doesn't know, and she doesn't care. She doesn't have time to try and pick apart the girl's motives.

"Can I help you?" Arden spits.

The girl on fire seems taken aback by Arden's tone and moves on, gesturing for Mags to follow her toward the shooting range. Arden watches them go, taking her stock of Katniss Everdeen now that her back is turned. Katniss towers over Mags in height. She is much taller, and much leaner than Arden. But Arden makes up for her height in strength, both physical and mental. Since her victory six years prior, Arden has maintained her form and muscle in more ways than one, almost as if she had known all along that she would be thrust back into the Arena someday. The other tributes, some of them have become veterans. It has been over a decade or in the case of Mags, several decades since they were forced to fight for their lives in the Games. For some of them, time has not been kind, and their age will betray them in the Quarter Quell. And perhaps that is for the best. As for Arden, the time she spent training would soon pay off. Katniss Everdeen was merely a girl, a weak one at that. She may be agile and skilled with her bow, but Arden has years of wisdom on her. If they managed to cross paths in the Arena, Arden would cut her down. This is what she tells herself as Katniss saunters away.

Arden returns to her hunt, but her prey is long gone and she has no choice but to start anew. She tries to take this interruption and put it to good use. In the arena, tributes are easily caught off guard and disoriented by the elements, by fellow tributes, or whatever the Gamemakers choose to throw at them. This is how they die. Arden turns herself back around and takes a slow step forward into the faux wooded area.

A rustle in the bush ahead of her. Arden wastes no time and tosses her kukri toward the sound. She listens to the knife whistle through the air and slice into its prey.

She reaches down into the bush to claim her weapon. A pixelated rabbit lies dead on the floor of the Training Center. Arden smiles to herself.

As she stands, Arden watches from the corner of her eye as a crowd begins to form around the shooting range. Several tributes linger around the boxed-in range and the orange holograms are bursting at such a speed that Arden can't help but stand on the tips of her toes to try and get a better look at the scene ahead of her. Spatters of applause and guffaws ring around the box, and as the group dissipates and starts back toward their training, Arden can see that the fuss had been for Katniss, who exits the shooting range with the bow slung over her shoulder. Arden shakes her head, sighing in frustration. She would not let this girl under her skin.

She watches the clique of Careers in their own circle, seemingly debriefing after the show that Katniss had just given them. Arden realizes then that perhaps she could benefit from the novelty of Katniss Everdeen. Her youth and rebellious stubbornness were being viewed as a threat by the other tributes. They wanted to take her out for reasons not unlike Arden's and because of this, they were distracted. She could use this to her advantage to catch the Careers off guard out in the Arena. So Katniss would prove to be an asset to Arden after all.

While the Careers are locked into their tight circle, Arden uses their negligence to put her theory into practice. Kukri in hand, Arden stalks the tributes. She glides toward the four of them, remaining low to the ground and using the equipment around the Training Center to shield herself when need be. She manages to skulk close enough that she can make out their hushed conversation, so close that she could reach out and pull Enobaria to the ground by her tight ponytail.

"...different this time, Snow's going to be diligent after last year. We need to be prepared--"

Arden clears her throat, interrupting Brutus. Enobaria spins around, her canines bared and ready to confront Arden. She growls lowly and the rest of the Careers join Enobaria with their stone-eyed stares.

"I'm sorry, I just wanted to know if you were finished with the axe?" Arden gestures to the weapon Cashmere had a tight grip on. "I wanted to try my hand at something a bit heavier."

Cashmere glances down at the axe, scoffing as she hands it over to Arden. "Do your worst."

The Careers muffle laughs as Arden walks away, and she must contain herself so as not to give herself away in the midst of her enemies. 

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AUTHOR'S NOTE!

wow! it's been a while! 

i struggled deeply with writing this chapter, so much so that it has taken me nearly two years to finish it, and i apologize for that! 

i've been having some weird nostalgia lately and logged back into Wattpad over the weekend as a result, and i am not going to make any promises about being officially back, it's too early to say and for rn i am just back and writing for my own enjoyment, because once upon a time writing used to be an outlet that genuinely made me so happy! 

anyways, thank you all for tuning in if you're still here :) I love you all.

also, i have some BEAUTIFUL sign off gifs of my parents that i can finally showcase now that this chapter has been published!! the gifts were made by the wonderfully talented sporadicstarsx !!!! thank you so much again and i apologize for the wait in using them, but i'm so excited about it and i hope you are too :) 

love always,

chloe