Hey everyone! I know it's been forever and it's totally unacceptable, but I did promise to finish the story, so I'm back again!

The 9th Day in the Arena

Adira Lépou D2F POV

I can't stand thinking about it. Just yesterday I was innocent, no blood, pure. Within that time I killed my own injured cousin and a twelve year old. Go me.

I sit and wait here for the finale, for the end of it all. It has to be coming. There's no way that they could drag this out much longer. In my head I count out everyone that is left, me, that girl from 9, the girl from 5, the boy from 7, and someone else. Someone who I don't remember.

I know that whoever it is, they're not a career. The careers failed horribly this year. Maybe that's what the gamemakers want. They don't want the audience to get bored by making it too predictable.

I sit in the cool shade of the cornucopia, doing nothing. Maybe that's a recipe for disaster, but I think everyone must be satisfied with me for now, afterall, it's been a very eventful twenty four hours.

Do Mother and Father question me and my motives? Are they proud of me? Will Uncle Dexter and Jonah ever forgive me? I think that their resentment might live forever, however deep down it may be. I'll always see it in their eyes, in their manners, and hear it in their words. Hade will always haunt me. He'll never really go away.

A bit unsettled, I jump up. I need to move around a bit, maybe think of something else. I grab my bow and walk toward the water. It's less calm than it was in the beginning, having taken on a different, more frightening persona. It looks as tumultuous as I feel inside. Maybe that's why I'm drawn to it.

I begin to walk where the sand meets the water. One foot in front of the other, closer and closer to the water. A searing pain rips my ankle, "Ow!" I exclaim, falling onto the sand. The sand is hot too. What's going on? Why is everything so hot? Is it just the water?

I race up the beach, dashing for the cornucopia. When I reach it, I hesitate. I'm scared of what I might feel if I touch it. Slowly I reach out my fingers to the shiny metal. As my fingers touch, I feel the same pain and immediatley recoil.

It's everything. It's all hot. What's going on?

I run to the other side of the cornucopia and see two equally frightening things. I see the boy from district 7 lying alone in a pool of blood, and behind him, I see a black, puffing volcanoe.

I don't know which to react to first. I stand stock still, muttering sensless things. I don't even know what I'm saying. I don't think that there is anything I can do or anywhere I can go to escape the volcanoe, so I decide to deal with the immediate issue. The boy.

After a few tentative steps I reach him. His entire body is red and incredibly hot from all of the sun exposure. I feel for a heartbeat and find one ever so faint and slow. I try to hold back tears. This boy didn't deserve this. I remember that he was very good to the little girl from his district, the one I just killed.

The medicine! It was probably for him. Because of that love for one another, she forfeited her life for his. Poor little girl, and she couldn't even save him. I don't see that there is anything to be done now. Even if he could live it wouldn't be living. He's so past the point of help that I know what I have to do.

I can't give him a quick and painless death, but I can give him mercy and end his suffering. I lean down, bunch up my shirt and cover his mouth with it. It takes a few moments but his cannon does go off.

Boom

Another life lost. Another life I took. Another out of my way.

Olive Brody D12F POV

The end is near. I can feel it. I know what I'm supposed to do.

I've begun to make my way to the cornucopia, where I know the final battle will be fought and won. There's a sense of relief in me, knowing that no matter what, soon I'll know. I'll know if I will survive. There will be no more waiting with my life in the balance. This day will settle things one and for all.

Even if I am to die, I'd rather it be today than tomorrow. I'm just so tired. The games have taken their toll. I watched my brother die, I abandoned my allies, probably to death, but I didn't kill, not once.

If I'm to be the victor, I know that I'll have to do it. It has to be done.

I already heard a cannon today. There's no telling who's it could have been. I secretly hope that it was Scotch's. Is that bad? I'd rather not have to face the boy that was there with me and comforted me when Copper died.

I'm a little scared of that girl from 2. She's a career with training. I'm not sure that I would be able to take her on and win. Rya from district 9 is a bit of a question mark as well. The only one I'm not afraid of is that girl from 5. I'm honestly surprised she's made it as long as she has. She didn't really stand out at any time. I'm nearing the place where the jungle meets the beach. This seems as good a place as any to hide.

Settling myself down in some of the greenery, I peer out towards the cornucopia. I see that someone is already there, the girl from 2. I should have known she would still be alive.

I hear a slight movement and turn around, as I do a girl jumps on top of me. I grunt when she hits and knocks the wind out of me. I'm supposed to be able to see these attacks coming, a bow and arrow doesn't do much good in a close fight.

The girl straddles my stomach, knife in hand. I bring me knee up to knock her off and when I succeed, I roll from her grasp. I grab my bow which had fallen away in the struggle and I try to put the arrow in the quiver, but she's right back on me and brings the knife to my arm, all too close to her target, my heart.

I gasp as the pain errupts in my arm. She pulls the knife out, but that gives me just enough time to grab for her throat. I push with all of my might and watch as her face turns red. Before I can do anything about it, she draws her arm back and plunges it into my stomach once, twice and then moves upward for the real target, the one that she missed the first time.

Boom

Rya Jonet D9F POV

My eyes flutter open. Fainting or dying, it looks like I got the better alternative. My vision is a bit foggy and my head is throbbing. As it clears up, I see flaming hot lava speeding quickly towards me. Trees are left on fire in its path.

I grab my scythe and muster all the strength I can to make a run for it. I have no way of knowing what's ahead of me, how many tributes are left, where they are, what to expect. But I guess I never really knew what to expect. I left Zaine all alone in a cave, I left him there to die.

Of course I didn't know, I didn't know what to expect.

Behind me I hear a tree crashing to the ground in an explosion of flames. I can't turn around to look, but instead move more quickly forward. I have to get away from here as quickly as possible.

My eyes start to get water from all of the smoke, but I just wipe them as I press on. There are ashes raining down all around me, almost like snow. My heart races along with my feet and I fall into a rapid but steady rythm when all of a sudden... whoosh! A ball of fire comes tumbling down from the sky. It lands right in front of me. The heat is so intense that it singes all of my hair.

I can't help but scream. With all of my momentum going, it's hard to alter my path around the stones, stumps, and newly browned plants. Somehow, I avoid that wall of fire, but there's no way of knowing when I'll encounter another.

All of a sudden, I'm through the darkness of the jungle and in the light, the bright scorching light shining down on the beach sand. I'm momentarily blinded by it. That's when the arrow plants itself in my leg.

"Ahh!" I scream and fall on the hot sand.

I look in the direction of the arrow and I see the girl from two move back around the corner of the cornucopia. She's in the shade and protected inside the mouth.

I know that the only thing I can do is pull the arrow out of my leg and, no matter how painful it may be, get up. I know that my opponent is at the cornucopia and as little as I may like it, I must get there, some way, some how.

Lilliana Bure D5F POV

I lay flat against the cornucopia, the heat hard to take but worth the risk. After the death of the girl from twelve, I snuck around the back of the cornucopia and climbed. From all the way up top I can get an eagle's eye view and also stay hidden. I see the District 9 girl get up and tumble into the forrest.

The only thing that I could think she would be doing is trying to surprise the district 2 girl from behind without her suspecting that she is coming, otherwise I don't think anyone would go back into the jungle, from what I can see up here, it's mostly all in flames.

Sure enough, I soon see the district 9 girl come around the back of cornucopia and slowly inch her way along. The girl from district 2 must be completely unaware.

Adira Lépou D2F POV

Now I have to wait. I know it won't be long, because people are generally impatient and I can imagine the audience can't wait much longer for some action. Why not now? Why not give them what they want? I can't hide forever. Besides, in here I have no idea what's going on outside.

So, I take a step and then another, bow drawn. I'm immersed in the light and am startled when I see the girl that I just shot, standing with her scythe raised. We're at a standstill neither of us knowing who will make the first move.

She looks terrible, out of her mind even. Her hair is burned up to various lengths and her eyebrows are completely gone. Blood surrounds and encrusts the fresh wound from my arrow.

"Did you kill him?" she asks.

"Who?"

"Did you kill HIM?" she steps forward.

My mind flashes to the very first night here. When Marlin, Hade, and I were all still together, we hunted them both down. We only succeeded in killing one, they boy. Now that I recall it, they were rather close.

"No I didn't kill him. I promise!"

"But you were there. You hunted us down, and because of that, I won't have a qualm about killing you!"

She lunges forward with her scythe drawn before I can react. But she falls before she can ever make it, a knife lodged in her back.

Boom

Lilliana Bure D5F

The girl falls face first in the dirt. The other girl looks around, startled and then looks up. I move before she can see that I'm up here.

"I know you're here. You're somewhere, don't be a coward, come out so we can get this over with, make it a fair fight."

"It won't be a fair fight with your experience and training," I think. There's no way I'm coming out. Hiding has been my strategy all along, it hasn't failed me yet.

The ground below begins to shake sending tremors through the cornucopia. I hear a loud explosion in the distance, probably in the area of the volcanoe. The ground begins to shake more violently. the next tremor catches me off guard and I begin to slide off the cornucopia. There's nothing to grab onto and it becomes a free fall to the ground.

I hit the cracked earth in a heap, fortunately on the opposite side of my opponent. My body aches and I think I broke my wrist while holding it out to brace my fall. But the adrenaline takes over. This is the final two, all I have to do is catch that other girl, kill her, and get out of here.

I creep around the cornucopia to where I killed the district 9 girl just moments ago. Sure enough, the girl still stands there, now under the cornucopia with her bow drawn. I take a deep breath, 1, 2, 3. I bolt around the corner and I throw my knife, it falls harmlessly at her feet. It's almost impossible to throw accurately with my wrist.

The girl sees me and lets an arrow fly which narrowly misses me. There's only one thing I can do now, run. I run back to where I just came from. I have to get a closer position to her and surprise her if I want any shot of hitting her.

When I make it around the corner I gasp, the river has turned into a bubling, hot lava. Then I feel the sharp pain that shoots up through my leg the minute the arrow penetrates my skin. I'm caught off balance and I try to save my self from the scalding death, but it's too late. My last sight is the girl from two, standing with her bow lowered a tear running down her cheek.

Adira Lépou D2F POV

"Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present the winner of the 51st Annual Hunger Games!"

The hovercraft appears out of the sky and sparks fly as the wind picks up. A ladder is put down and I grab onto it. The ladder pulls me up and away, it pulls me away from the hell I endured. I wanted to prove I was the best, and I did. Why then do I feel so inadequate?

By the time I am pulled into the hovercraft I've lost it. The adrenaline has come to a screeching halt and now I am bruised and broken. People surround me but my wails only grow louder. They are the only thing that make me alive, the emotion, it's so human. And in the end that's all we really are, only human.

5th Scotch Pine D7M/ killed by Adira Lépou

4th Olive Brody/ killed by Lilliana Bure

3rd Rya Jonet/ killed by Lilliana Bure

2nd Lilliana Bure/ killed by Adira Lépou

Adira Lépou Victor of the 51st Annual Hunger Games!

Thanks to everyone who made this story possible! To all of the creators, I appreciate it so much! I loved reading everyone's reviews for the duration of the story! I would love you even more if you posted on for this las chapter!

Special love to Kaden B, kindnessandbravery, MonDevou who have been so much fun to talk to while I wrote this story 3.

I apologize once again for the long and very suspenseful wait for the finale *cough*cough*. Thanks for sticking around, and I did keep my promise of finishing this to you guys even if you may have doubted me:).