A/N

1K GUYS?! THAT'S AWESOME! THANKS FOR READING!

~~~

His legs were snug into the sand near the shore. Joel placed his hand on the markings he had made into the fine, smooth stone. He had found a large rock in the bottom of the ocean where he and his ally were camped, and sanded it enough so that he could write a few words on it. "Remembering Chancey Sprout."

It had attacked them in their sleep.

Even if Chancey had could cry out, even that wouldn't have woken Joel. He was a tight sleeper, and he had to actually be touched to be woken up, especially since he had been sleep deprived since the games started. And she had been very frightened that night, too frightened to move even the slightest bit. It's what she did when she was scared, and Joel knew that. Even then, he wished he could have saved her.

Joel wanted to go back to District Twelve and live with Angel, but then what? Having to be constantly reminded of his lost friend that died before he could even say goodbye? Loosing the token that Angel had given her going into the Hunger Games? What was it even worth?

It was haunting to him, and he didn't even see her body. He saw the blood on the grass, and he knew. Chancey would never leave him. Never abandon him. Even if she had, in a way.

And he felt like destroying something. He looked around the trees, and found one that interested him, then dug his hand in the hole to pull out a tiny speck of a camera. 

"You monsters," He whispered, pulling the last word. "If you think this doesn't affect any of us, then you are wrong." His voice trembled, his eyes bringing tears. His hands were shaking, and most definitely the camera video of him was as well. "She was my one light of home. And you put out that light. And now, it's only darkness." He wasn't just talking to himself. He continued, and stretched the next word that it sounded like a whisper. 

"Darkness." 

He placed his face into the camera, making sure they had a clear view of his tragic face, and then let more tears fall down his face before he took the little camera and smashed it between his hands, making sure there was no full piece of glass left. It stung, the wires and plastic-like glass cutting his hands, but he didn't care. The more it stung, the more he felt like it was affective. He knew there were more little, hidden cameras scattered at every turn around the arena, but there was no way he could destroy every one of them. One was enough. More was just savage.

***

"Are you okay?" Amethyst asked, cautiously. "That scorpion stung you pretty bad."

"Don't worry about me," Kelvin answered. "I'll be fine." He was sitting in a flowerbed, petals falling onto his legs. His right eye was so purple you could barely tell if it was open or closed, and his arm had almost gone numb. 

"Dude, that scorpion almost killed you," said Zane. Amethyst stood to the side, pouring liquid into a small leaf she had cleaned with water. They had been able to get back to their original spot where all their supplies was, because they knew that even if someone did know where they were, they couldn't leave that place. It was a sanctuary place for them, and plus, Kelvin couldn't go far. He needed rest.

"I'm seriously fine. We can't just stay here for a long time."

"Why not?" asked Zane. "We have everything we need right here; Amethyst has medicine, we have the arrows and poisonous flower, and even water. We're good!"

"Kelvin's right," said Amethyst. "we can't just stay camped here doing nothing, waiting for everyone else to come and find us. Plus, you forgot about one thing; food."

At the mention of it, Kelvin's stomach growled with hunger. "Now I know why it's called the Hunger Games. I'm starving." Even back in District 5 he had more food than there, at least two or three meals a day.

"Well, you can't move until you heal," said Amethyst. "Or you'll get killed out there." She walked over to the boy from 5 and placed the leaf in his hand. 

"You don't have to be my older sister, Amethyst," Kelvin said as he took the leaf. "I don't have one and don't need one." He didn't want to admit it, but he was glad that his friends were taking care of him. Even if only one could prevail, they still wanted him to make it. He drank the liquid, and Amethyst motioned to her eye, so he added it on his swelling eye as well. "But seriously, I am hungry."

"We can just go ahead and get some food while you stay here," said Zane. He was leaning against the tree, his arm clutching the branch on top of him.

"But what if he gets attacked while we are gone?" Amethyst asked.

"But what if we get attacked?" Zane replied. "Same danger any way we do it."

Amethyst didn't reply.

"Then it's settled. I'll stay here while you guys go and get food," said Kelvin.

"Well then," said Zane. He joined Amethyst and Kelvin. He playfully hit Kelvin on the leg. "try not to get into too much trouble while we're gone."

Kelvin laughed a little. "Okay. Try not to eat all the food before you get back here."

"Okay," Zane answered. Amethyst grabbed all their weapons, including an arrow. She handed it to Kelvin.

"To protect yourself." She smiled at him, and he smiled back.

"Thank you," He said. Without any other words, Amethyst and Zane grabbed everything else they could and left Kelvin sitting in a flowerbed.

He was thinking to himself. Sure, he was extremely scared that one of them would get killed, or they both would. And yes, he also extremely scared that they would come back to a canon only to see his blood draped across the flowers he was laying in, himself no where to be found. He knew one of those was going to happen one time or the next, and maybe both, but that wasn't his greatest fear.

He was most frightened that they wouldn't come back, not because they were dead but because they didn't want to.

***

Her hands moved graciously across her cheeks, the dirt smudging her skin. A good luck charm, her father had told me. Along with her scarf, it was the perfect weapon as a warrior. Lee had been tracking Skya for the rest of the night, which was only an hour or so, but Skya was now at the cornucopia, packing things up quickly. What Lee found weird was that she was taking, not protecting.

Now or never, she thought. She dropped down from the top of the cornucopia, trying not to be seen by the girl from 3. While Skya's back was turned, Lee ran inside of the cornucopia and grabbed a knife. And when Skya turned back to face her, holding a backpack, she froze. Lee held her knife right in her face, and near her neck. She got closer as Skya dropped her backpack, still from fear.

"Why are you alone?" Lee asked, keeping her knife up. "Where are the rest of them? Are you the only one alive?"

At first, Skya didn't know what to say, so she kept silent. Lee didn't like it. "Are you the only career or not?!"

Skya didn't answer for a good minute. Right when Lee was getting impatient, Skya's eyes turned sour. "I left them. Jess and Cole are out there in the forest somewhere. No matter how much you torture me, I won't give you an answer. Because I don't know." Skya said it so confidently, so tough that she didn't know she ever could've. She guessed it was her District 3 genetics and training that came back to her at the moment, even if she could have been killed.

Lee brought the knife closer. "Listen, Skya, this isn't who I am. I don't torture people for fun. But just know that i have been wanting to destroy you careers the most during these games and I know that that's the only way I can win."

"I don't care for them, Lee," Skya answered confidently. She spat out every word onto Lee. "Trust me, if I knew where they were I would tell you. That's why I left them, because they wanted to kill me. And I told you one thing I know. I left only about one hour ago and they are probably still in the edge of the forest if they are still alive."

Lee looked at her, and lowered the knife. 

"Oh, and one more thing," Skya continued. "thanks for taking the liberty for tracking them down. Does me a big favor, two less tributes." Maybe she shouldn't have said that last part, but it kind of just came out. She felt like somebody else had taken control of her and made her say these things because it wasn't like her at all to pretend to be so brave when faced with something as fatal as a knife to her throat. 

Skya knew she shouldn't have said it right when it left her mouth, but Lee made that clear by punching her in the face and pushing her to the ground. It was a very hard punch, hard enough that Skya felt like she had been jabbed with a sword.

"I'll be back," said Lee. And she left Skya, who was trying to hold the blood into her nose to keep it from leaking.

***

He left the cave a long time ago, long ago in Hunger Games time, it is. Yet here he was, Alexsandr, still in one whole piece. 

Sure, he wished that he stayed in the cave to escape the scorpions, the horrible monsters, but he really was still alive. He hadn't encountered any other tributes since he killed Jacob and felt almost grateful. He didn't want to kill or even injure anyone else, but he also knew that he had to if he saw one.

He had been hallucinating a lot, as well. Not from something like the infamous tracker jacker but from just pure fear and hunger. He hadn't had a drop of water since the games started, as well, which wasn't helping the hallucinations either. Sometimes he would look to the side and see his friends from District Eight, and forget that they couldn't be there and run to hug them. Other times he would look up at the sky and see President Snow, someone he was supposed to like but didn't at all. He would fix his eyes to make sure he was seeing correctly, even if he wasn't, and if that didn't work he would take a rock and throw it up into the sky. Of course, it didn't go far and before it started to come down the hallucinations would stop and he would run out of the way from the falling rock.

The right before the scorpions attacked, he saw his mother. She would come close to him while he started to sleep and start to sing to him. He would fall for it completely and would to bed almost instantly. Deep down he knew it wasn't real, but on the outside he believed every bit of it.

Then there was Cassandra. He saw her the most of all, and it was also the most painful. Sometimes he would throw something at the sight or other times he would just fall because his body couldn't support his weight any more.

No matter what his brain conquered up, he wanted it to end, even seeing his mother. He sat on a log, and prayed. He whispered.

"Woof? Are you there?" He didn't know if he was or just watching Lee, the obvious star from District 8, but still continued. "Please. Help me."