The Bloodbath

The arena took many of the tributes off guard, not because of how brutal it was, but because of how beautiful it appeared to be.

The golden cornucopia sat in the middle of a rock field, surrounded by mountains of rocks that would be impossible to climb.

The only other noteworthy thing in the area was the giant waterfall that cascaded down several yards from the nearest tribute.

As many of the tributes hypothesised, the waterfall was the only way out.

The timer began, and several of the tributes shook in fear, but those who were ready for this moment, those like the careers, noticed something was wrong.

The clock went down, but there was no signature click, no sound to remind the tributes of the decreasing time, and no welcome to The Games, that had become a tradition.

But those who noticed had little time to dwell, because before they could really think about it, the clock hit zero and the tributes were off, barely anyone noticing the lack of gong.

24th – Lozen Harrow

Lozen was supposed to stick to the plan; Lucerne would gather the supplies, and he would stay out of the way, but when Lozen saw the District Four boy getting too close for comfort, he darted towards him, with nothing but his tiny hands as a weapon. Dalton's spear was through his chest before Lucerne had even noticed he had moved.

23rd – Lucerne Alderney

When Lucerne did notice her allies' lifeless body, she reacted with rage, charging the boy who had killed such an innocent kid. Laelle wanted nothing more than to see Dalton die, but she wasn't quite ready to lose her flirting partner, so she quickly ran her blade across the stupid girl's neck, silencing her for good.

22nd – Zander Vermont

Zander wanted to be in the career alliance more than anything, which is exactly why he had agreed to ally with Taela and Ainsely. He just needed to prove himself to them, and to do that he had to kill one of his allies. Putting his plan into action, Zander got the attention of the obvious career leader, and began running to where he knew Ainsely was hiding, but Zander miscalculated how fast Anora and her long legs were. The career girl caught up to him in no time, throwing him to the ground, and brutally stomping on his head, against the rocks until his face was unrecognizable.

21st – Avery Reising

Avery had found the District Eight boy downright creepy, and it had made him more than a little uncomfortable when the boy had tried hitting on him, either way, Avery knew who his first target would be, and it seemed all to coincidental that e had stumbled upon the boy, facing away from him going through a backpack. Avery tightened his grip on the rock he had been using, and approached the boy. What he didn't count on was the boy's ally screaming his name across the field, and alerting him to Avery's presence. With a fair fight, and Cinthio's sword against Avery's rock, well it didn't take Cinthio too long to gut him like a fish. But even across the field Surah could see the slight grin on Cinthio's face, and it was enough to make his stomach drop.

20th – Ainsely Embers

By now, most of the tributes were either dead, or gone, but Ainsely was still patiently waiting for Zander or Taela to make an appearance, until eventually she got up, and attempted to make a break for it. Unfortunately for her, Anora still had her eye out for tributes, and managed to fling rocks at her until she received one in the back of her head, sending her flying to the ground. Anora traced lines along the Ainsely's back with her sword, as Ainsely passed in and out of consciousness, but the girls last thought was cursing the two tributes she had trusted enough to ally with.

19th – Lucas Rittori

Ari had known there was an alliance that was supposed to target the careers in the bloodbath, but something must have gone wrong, because there was no one else left at the cornucopia, except for her, and all five of the other careers. Not that she needed any help, but still, she was disgusted that they hadn't even managed to take out one of them. Ari could see she had two options, Lucas, or Arion. Both were close enough for her to shoot, but one of them happened to be her District Partner. Before the arrow had even hit it's mark, Ari had disappeared behind the wall of water, that had mysteriously not been making any noise, and as Lucas fell, and the other careers panicked, Anora knew who had done it, and she was getting quite sick of the bitch.

18th – Judah Tunneson

Judah and his allies were supposed to target the careers, but Judah had been stabbed in the stomach pretty early on, and the alliance had to abandon their plan and ditch the bloodbath, with very little supplies. Khalla did her best to stich him up, but the others knew he wouldn't make it very long. He was still holding on when everyone fell asleep that night, but when they woke up, he was gone, presumably he had fallen to his injuries some point in the night, and the lack of cannons in this arena hadn't alerted the others to his death. But what they didn't know was that Judah still had a few days of fight left in him, had it not been for his own alliance member that had slipped the poison in the drink he was given.

Day Two

17th – Amoret Vassiere

Amoret had lost her one and only alliance member in the bloodbath, and was not doing so well on her own. She had no food, no weapons, and no supplies. So when the careers found her, she didn't put up much of a fight instead begging the District Four girl to take her away from this place, and Laelle had little qualms about doing so.

16th – Tate Hartigan

Terron, Skylie, Khalla, Ella, and Lanora were all pretty upset but Judah's early death, and a lot of tension had built up over the past day, so much so that Lanora and Ela had decided to leave when it was supposed to be them on guard. Luckily, another alliance member had been awake to see them leave, but instead of keeping watch over the others, he stabbed Tate in his sleep, keeping his hand over the young boy's mouth so he wouldn't make any sound, and watching as the hovercraft silently took him into the night.

Day Three

15th- Caleb Foster

Ari had stumbled upon the pair from Twelve, as the two were making no efforts to be quiet, arguing fairly loudly with each other. Ari knew she could take the District out of the running this year right now if she wanted to, but she also knew how strong the career pack was, and had little hope of taking it on herself. She presented herself to the pair, and gave them an ultimatum; she would either kill them both, or one of them would have to kill the other, and then they could join her. Caleb readied his knife, expecting to take on the girl with Reyna by his side, but before he could blink Reyna was running her knife through his neck, no hesitation and no regret in the girl's eyes.

14th – Terron Halier

Terron had only one more ally to kill before it would just be him and Skylie, and he would be that much closer to winning. He felt bad for what he had done, but Terron wanted nothing more than to win this thing, and go home. What he hadn't counted on, was Skylie's suspicions of him. So when Terron went to strangle Khalla, Skylie put her knife through the back of Terrron's head, tears spilling from her eyes as she realized she had been betrayed once again.

Day Four

13th – Ella Fairclough

Cinthio and Surah had stumbled upon the pair of girls, and had startled them enough to cause Lanora to flee, leaving Ella by herself to take on the two boys. Cinthio quickly disarmed the small girl, and instructed Surah to finish the job. He tried, he really did, but ultimately he was not strong enough, causing Cinthio to have to step in and do it himself, stabbing her through the chest with his sword.

12th – Surah Nissen

Cinthio saw potential in Surah, but had only failed him. He wanted desperately for Surah to be his ride or die, after all the boy was interesting enough, and hot as hell in the eyes of Cinthio, but he just wasn't strong enough. So as Cinthio approached a weeping Surah, Surah could see the look in his eyes, and he knew what Cinthio was going to do. But Surah wasn't a fighter, and he had nothing to live for. So as the blade burned through his skin, Surah's crying stopped, instead replaced by a small smile as his head fell to the ground, on the hard, rocky ground.

Day Five

11th – Lanora Farryn

The following day, Cinthio had already found another partner, in the form of his District Partner. Taela had seemed weak, and dumb, but she had managed to survive this long on her own, and Cinthio respected that, and saw the potential. And he was right to do so, because when the pair stumbled above Lanora, Taela didn't hesitate to sink her balde into the young, smiling girl's neck.

Day Six

10th – Laelle Delma

Laelle and Dalton had gone off on their own, away from the pair from District One. They were sitting on the edge of a cliff they had managed to climb up, as their tongues interlocked, and their hands explore each other's body. This wasn't love, this was merely a hook up to both of them, something to pass the time when they weren't hunting, but for Dalton, it was something even less. He interlocked his hand with hers, and he suddenly jerked on the girls hand as fast as he could, sending her flying off the edge of the cliff, her fingers lipping through his, and her screams echoing several moments after she disappears from his sight. Laelle was hot, and Dalton was more than tired of her annoying personality.

9th – Arion Chenier

When Dalton returned without Laelle, Arion was shocked, but Anora just smiled knowingly. Arion kept his cool, despite wanting to rip Dalton's head off, and perhaps he should of, because that night when the three were sitting around a small fire, without warning Dalton flung his spear across the fire and into Arion's chest, killing him almost instantly. Without another word, Anora smiled and wished him goodnight, before climbing into her sleeping bag and falling asleep.

Day Seven

The finale eight came down to four pairs; Skylie & Khalla, Reyna & Ari, Dalton & Anora, and Cinthio and Taela, perhaps one of the strongest final eight in The Games history.

8th – Khalla Henshawe & 7th – Skylie Farrow

The first battle came down to Skylie and Khalla versus Ari and Reyna. It was almost hard to watch how unfair the match was. Skylie and Khalla tried to fight, but Ari's arrow quickly silenced Khalla, and Skylie was soon taken care of, courtesy of Reyna's spear.

Day Eight

6th – Cinthio L'Anse

The next battle wasn't nearly as quick, as Taela and Cinthio met Ari and Reyna. Ari shot at Cinthio, but missed, causing her to go against him with her knife, Cinthio armed with his sword. Taela surprisingly held her own against Reyna, even inflicting a few injuries on the girl. But when Ari managed to disarm Cinthio, Taela panicked, punching Reyna in the face before fleeing. Ari quickly ended the District Eight boys fight, before her and Reyna took off after Taela.

5th – Reyna Calhoun

Unfortunately it wasn't Taela the girls found, it was Dalton and Anora. Reyna was more than ready to take on the pair, but Ari had lost her crossbow in the previous fight, and with that she had also lost a lot of her confidence. Ari bailed, and Anora sent Dalton after her, leaving Anora and Reyna to fight it out. Reyna was a fighter, but Anora was trained, and Anora wanted this more, so ultimately, with the quick flick of her wrist, Anora disarmed and killed Reyna, without even breaking a sweat.

4th – Taela Morrisette

Dalton found Ari, and the two were in the middle of fighting it out when Taela reappeared, sneaking up on the pair, with the intention of taking at least one of them out. Unfortunately, Ari was once again willing to throw anyone under the bus to save her own ass, and warned Dalton of Taela's approach, before once again running in the opposite direction. Taela was tired of fighting, and was ready to end this one way or another, so she charged Dalton blindly, making it easy for Dalton to simply stick out his spear, and for the girl to impale herself.

The Final Three – Anora, Ari, and Dalton.

3rd – Anora Colliare

When Dalton turned around, he didn't see what he expected. He thought Ari had ran the other way, but instead he saw her charging right for him. Readying his spear, he anticipated a fight, but instead Ari flew past him, throwing a handful of small pebbles in his face, almost to mock him, but he didn't have time to chase her, because he finally saw what she was running from. It wasn't a mutt, or any sort of natural disaster, no it was much worse. Anora, sword in hand, was charging right for him.

"I suppose this means our alliance is off," Dalton joked, but Anora just snarled, charging at him once again. The fight that come afterwards was a long and tiring one, but neither competitor ever gained any sort of leverage, and it was almost too even. Many people back in the Capitol started to get bored, thinking the fight would never end.

But then it happened, then she happened. Dalton took a step back as Anora suddenly went rigid, blood pouring from her mouth. He almost laughed as Anora fell to her knees, mouthing the words bitch one last time, before Ari appeared over her shoulder, crossbow in hand.

"So that's why you wouldn't stop fucking running? Princess needs her toy," Dalton smirked, but Ari didn't even grin, nor did she bite back. She was done, her fight was gone, and all she wanted was this to be over.

"I'm sorry Dalton," she whispered, loading her crossbow, with an arrow that Dalton hadn't seen.

"No you're not," he yelled, attempting to buy himself some time as the panic began to set in.

"I am, I never wanted this bullshit," Ari whispered, the smallest hint of her old self starting to reappear.

"STOP FUCKING LYING!" Dalton screamed, the tears beginning to stream down his face as Ari raised her crossbow, realizing there's no outcome that includes him surviving.

Dalton didn't see it, but a single teared slid down her face as he went to throw his spear, and she pulled the trigger that ended her last opponent's life.

Ari had one, and she waited for the joy, the relief, the anything other than the feeling that had overcome her since the Games had really started, but it never came.

The feeling stayed, even as Ari was officially declared as the Victor.

So she screamed, and she didn't stop until she was unconscious, and who knows when that was.

Ari won, but she was no happier coming out then she was coming in, in fact she was worse.

Ari had one, but there was no way she would continue living.

A/N: Words cannot describe how sad I am that I couldn't finish this story, because these Tributes were all freaking amazing, and I wish I could have developed them more, but honestly I couldn't. As many of you may know, I left fanfiction for a bit and cut off all ties with everyone on here, unless your name was Olive or Ace, but yeah even they don't know the full of it. I had a rough couple months, mental health problems, blah blah everyone has problems so I wont bore you, but yeah I'm back possibly? Who knows, I might stay, I might leave again, but I wanted to get this out because I wanted to. Anyways, Hi, Bye, yeah this is awkward I feel like Olive writing this!

CONGRATS TO ARI CHEVAL AND HER CREATOR SOPHIA YAS BAE

I think it's important I talk about why I made this decision, and some other possibilities I considered. Shockingly enough, for the first several months, and literally for the longest time Terron (D9) was the victor, because I loved him and the plot I had set out for him, BUT then I realized his plot ended about halfway through the story and I couldn't think of what else to do with him. Dalton was also a possibility because omg I LOVE him, but ultimately I decided Ari was more the victor type I was looking for, and the ending was going to be a lot more emotional so yeah.

Also I didn't edit this at all, its very hot off the press and it's the first thing ive written in months.

Bye Sound of Silence, you were real af, but bad timing.