The 200th Annual Hunger Games - The Ultimate Games

Game 2, Day 3 (Morning)

Ali Richardson POV

I ripped open a muesli bar wrapper and sat down on the attic floor, leaning against the boxes behind me and munching on the food. The tornado last night hadn’t affected the house I had been staying in, and so I was back in the attic. I heard chattering below and stuffed the rest of the muesli bar in my mouth, then crept over to the grates in the floor and peered down into the hallway. I saw Toby and Dianna wandering down the area, talking quietly about something. I sighed softly.

So their alliance had returned to the house too. Not surprising. They had left all their supplies here. I should know, I had been stealing their food for the past few hours now. I was slowly getting a large enough supply to last a few more days, if I could manage to swipe a bit more I could get out of here with enough food to last me for at least two days. It was day three now, surely the games would finish soon. The previous round hadn’t even made it past day four.

I tucked my hair behind my ears, huffing in annoyance as it continued to flop back over my face. My hair length really sucked. It was long enough to be annoying and to cause a distraction, but it was too short to put up into a ponytail. Every time I tried half of my hair came out of the tie. Eventually I’d just given up. It wasn’t like it was important anyway.

“I swear to god, there’s someone up there!”

I frowned as Dianna’s voice lilted up from one of the rooms, irritation in her tone. I heard her growl in annoyance and stomp out of the room, into the hallway. I looked back down the grates again, only to see Dianna standing alone in the hallway.

Looking directly at me.

I froze for a few moments, too shocked and horrified to do anything but stare. Surely she couldn’t identity me through the grates on the trapdoor, right? Surely she couldn’t have seen my face, right?

Right?

Dianna stared up at me. I stared back at her. For a few moments, neither of us moved an inch. I watched as Dianna’s grip on the dagger tightened, and I gulped. Next thing I knew, Dianna was charging down the hallway, shouting with panic in her voice.

“THERE’S SOMEONE IN THE ATTIC, I TOLD YOU, THERE’S SOMEONE UP THERE!”

Fuck.

I leapt up from the trapdoor and sprinted for my bag, quickly swinging it onto my back. I heard the panicked shouts of the rest of Dianna’s alliance and the pounding of footsteps, and I ran towards the trapdoor, sweat beading on my forehead.

The trapdoor opened.

I screamed and staggered backwards, wielding my dagger and slashing it wildly in front of me. Dianna leapt up from the trapdoor and glanced around the room for a few seconds. Her eyes landed on me and she immediately charged towards me, holding her knife out. I cried out as she swung the blade in an arc towards me, nearly slicing off my head. Fiery hot pain burst in my stomach, and it was only when I looked down that I realized Dianna had sliced a crescent moon shaped cut on my torso.