Monique Zale, 18, First Female (District 4)

I watch as Mason steps back from Darryn's body. The cannon sounded already so we can be certain that he is dead, but there's something holding us back from leaving the area. And by us, I mean him. I would happily have walked away already, but he doesn't seem to want to move.

Eventually, I have to voice my concerns. "Mason?"

"Yeah?" he whispers back at me.

"What's wrong?" I ask, looking him in the eyes, trying desperately to show I'm still with him, that I'm still a friend who's on his side. We hold eye contact for a couple of seconds, but then he looks away.

"Do you know how many tributes are left?"

Confused as his question, I try to respond. "Not exactly, no, but I don't think that there are very many now. It's been so long, and there's been so many cannons. Most of them, they're dead already, Mason."

"Exactly. Who knows? That could be my last kill. I can't predict how the rest of my time in this arena will go, and what the gamemakers will throw at me to destroy me."

I step forward and grab his hand, squeezing it gently to reassure him. "I know. But Mason, you've got to move on. Darryn was just a boy. He was a tribute, a rival, sure. You had to kill him, but it doesn't change the fact that he was a child. The longer you stay here, the longer it will be before they take his body. Leave him. Don't make his family have to look at their son's dead body any longer. Please." I don't know why I say it. Maybe it's just because he's come so far, though I doubt I'd be saying the same thing if it were Petra lying there, dead.

No, that can't be it. His age perhaps? I mean, he was awfully young. Yet... no, that's not it. Not entirely, at least. I can't pinpoint it all, but I'd say that part of it at least is down to him being from my district. The chances of me seeing his family as a victor, they're pretty high. I want to be able to look them in the eyes and not feel massive guilt for what I allowed to happen to him.

I'm trying to justify it by making it out to be like I care about him, when actually, deep down, I know that I'm only trying to help myself as I go through life in that district.

Mason continues to stare at Darryn's body for a while, and I'm far too lost in my own thoughts to even realise he's doing so until he speaks. "Okay," he says. "We can go."

"You sure?" I ask. He pauses momentarily, then takes a deep breath before answering.

"Yeah. If that's my last kill then that's my last kill. Nothing I can do about it now," he says quietly, then lets go of my hand and starts to walk off. I follow, only briefly turning around to see Darryn's corpse being removed.

Rhoena Lyter, 18, First Female (District 6)

It's weird being alone. I mean, it had to be done - Tiara had to die. And I should be glad to have had company for so long. Surely, most other tributes will have been alone for a while now, and from an emotional perspective, having had normal human interaction so recently surely puts me at an advantage over them.

That being said, now that I'm on my own, I can feel myself getting driven mad by my solitude very quickly. It doesn't help that I'm still covered in droplets of her blood. Any time I try to convince myself that everything is normal, that I'm still the same old Rhoena from back home, I am instantly reminded of who I am now when I see the imprint of her death covering my body.

I always rather liked the colour red, but not anymore. The way the crimson fluid darkens to a flaky brown solid... well, it's unbearable. How am I supposed to feel sane when everything in the physical world would indicate otherwise?

I can't.

I'm meant to be strong now. I'm a killer, I'm fierce, I'm vicious - or at least, that's how I'm meant to be. If I manage to outwit the others who are still living, and I get to return home, what can I do? They'll see me as a monster, some cruel being whose existence is entirely based off of murder. And while that may partially be true, I don't see myself as a monster. I'm doing what I have to do to stay alive, and anyone who dares to even consider criticising me for that quite clearly has no way of understanding what it's like for me right now.

My life right now, it's hellish. It's a life or death situation - you kill or you be killed yourself. Even killing doesn't guarantee that I won't be killed myself too, since all the other tributes are in the same situation. The willing volunteers I have no pity for - I feel very little at all for them now, it's one of the reasons that I could kill Tiara. However, it does hurt me a little inside to think that I will have to kill others like me too. I have to kill other innocents who have been thrown into this situation, and I don't like it one bit. Back home I would be trying to help them live a free life, but here I'm doing the opposite. It just goes to further the feeling that I have become an imposter residing in the body of my normal self.

It reminds me that I'm no longer me.

Invictus Nero, 14, Third Male (District 2)

There's no way I'm surviving this. My skin is all discoloured and patchy, and I'm struggling to breathe. The amount of pain I'm in... well, I'm not sure I'd even want to survive at this point. Besides, my good looks have gone, and nobody would love me without them. I have no real reason to survive now.

I hate how my life is going to end like this. I didn't expect to die at all, but if I had to, I'd have liked for it to be in some spectacular manner. An epic battle with the eventual victor which I almost won, for example. Not because some scared outer district girl stabbed me and it led to an infection. That's just the lamest possible way to die in the Hunger Games - other than eating a poisonous berry perhaps. I've always been a lot of things, but boring has never been one of them. Now? That's exactly how I am.

The pain is unbearable and I cannot help but grab my wounds each time they worsen. I just want this whole ordeal to be over with now, to be honest. I know I'm not going to recover, and it just seems cruel that I'm still being made to suffer.

I wish I would just die. It's a chilling statement, I know, but it's true. If there was any mercy in this world, I'd have been out of my misery by now.

Alas, it appears that there is not.

I see a bug crawling on the ground beside me and my instinct is to move immediately, fearing that it may in fact be a mutt. Of course, it is not, but the sudden movement leaves me in agony and I scream.

Great, I think. If I wasn't dead before, I am now.

With a groan, I roll over once again. Right now, life isn't worth living, but I cannot change that. Sure, technically I could just end my own life, but that'd be the cowardly way out. I may not quite be the ultimate warrior I grew up believing I was, but I'm no coward either way, and that means I'm going to keep dealing with the agony until my intended final breath.

Thankfully, that moment seems to come sooner than I had anticipated.

As I feel myself losing my battle, and as my eyes close for the final time, one thought keeps playing on my mind. It's nothing complicated, and I'd have liked for my final thoughts to have been more empowering or more philosophocal, perhaps, but there's nothing that I can do about my true situation.

I depart the world with very few regrets, but I now know one thing that I really needed to learn a long time ago: that I probably should have learned how to pick my battles more wisely. Perhaps if I did, I might not have been battling through my dying moments at such a young age.

Author's note: That whole thing where I said it'd hopefully not be so long until the next update? Yeah. Clearly that didn't work out. Welcome to the first update of 2019, sorry it's so late into the year. I haven't given up on this story, I promise. Progress may seem slow but I'm getting there :) I have a few things pre-written so hopefully I might be able to get out a few more chapters in the not too distant future :) I know that this chapter is kind of short, I just didn't want to put it off any longer :/ sorry if it's not as good as you were hoping :'(

7- Invictus Nero, D2m3 - Delta Joule

KILL COUNT:

Mason: 5 (Vernon, Scoria, Eucalyptus, Scintillaea, Darryn)

Rhoena: 5 (Thomas, Brietta, Risetto, Ally, Tiara)

Petra: 4 (Charity, Pepper, Troye, Rowan)

Monique: 3 (Fiyero, Taylor, Kiora)

Invictus: 2 (Natalie, Glair)

Sebastian: 1 (Ellia)

Delta: 1 (Invictus)

Hopefully see y'all slightly sooner this time!

-Crystal

Edit: forgot to mention when I posted last night (I was very tired okay) but Invictus' death was attributed to Delta because he died of an infected wound, and she was the one who gave him said wound :)