The Demigod Games

10

LEO

This has been the weirdest day ever. First, Percy disappeared into a drain. Then, two of my best friends killed one of my other best friends. Afterward, my other friend was attacked by piranhas.

Okay, maybe the day wasn't so weird as much as completely terrifying.

Now, Annabeth and Jason are having some emotional moment, and seem to have forgotten about me.

I've just been doggy-paddling around the arena uselessly, waiting for a school of fish to eat me or some Tribute to murder me.

I now bob up and down, up and down. I take a breath each time I float up to the surface. I hold it each time I go underwater. Nothing else to do...

Well, I suppose I could kill someone. But I don't like killing anyone or thing without a good reason.

Now that I think about it, I guess I do have a reason: Survival. The Hunger Games are all about survival. Killing a person helps my chances of survival.

Then again, I have Jason and Annabeth to think about. They're all I have left. Hazel drowned, Percy disappeared, Frank got a knife to the head, Piper got eaten.

Even if they did directly murder Frank, while indirectly murdering Piper, they're still my friends. And after being alone all those years, I need my friends.

I swim back to Annabeth and Jason, and they turn to me. "Hey, guys," I say.

"Hey..." Jason replies. "What's up?"

"Look...I need you guys."

"What do you mean?" Annabeth responds.

I take a deep breath. "You guys are all I have. The rest are gone. And I don't want to be alone anymore. I need you. And that may sound like the cheesiest thing ever, but it's true. It's--it's true." I look at both of them, and their expressions.

They don't answer for a minute or two. "Leo, we need you too," Jason exclaims. "And I know Annabeth and I have been ignoring you. And we're sorry. We're also sorry we...killed Frank."

"Jason, I forgive you. I forgave you a long time ago. For everything. For being the attractive one, for being the son of Jupiter, for getting all the attention, for pushing me away unintentionally--and for killing Frank. It's okay now," I tell him.

Suddenly, Jason gives me a hug. It's not even a man-hug. Or a cool Wassup? hug. Just a nice, friendly hug.

Annabeth joins in on the hug, and it becomes a really emotional moment.

The three of us remain hugging for nearly two minutes, then we get back to business.

Because we'd prefer not to drown. Going out hugging isn't how I want to go.
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ANNABETH

"We have to do something. It's only down the 6 of us in this arena, and three of those people aren't our friends," I say, meeting Jason's and Leo's eyes.

Jason puts his thinking face on, and speaks up a minute later. "Well...I guess we have to kill them before they kill us."

And that's when it happens.

Suddenly, Jason collapses, and starts sinking. I dunk my head underwater to see what happened, and find that there's an arrow embedded in Jason's left temple.

Before I can do anything, a school of piranhas crowd him, and then there's nothing left. Not even bones.

I quickly resurface, and Leo turns toward me. "Was the cannon for Jason?"

I nod, and spot a girl a few yards ahead with a bow in her hand. I immediately take out my quiver of arrows and bow, and shoot her in the heart.

BOOM!

That's when her two allies come up on either side of Leo and I. They each possess a blowdart gun, and aim at both of us.

I go underwater, grab my knife, and slash my pursuers legs at the knees. I watch as the bottom half of his legs sink to the bottom of the arena, and blood fills the water.

I come up, and pull Leo away from the attackers as the piranhas rocket over to the blood, and finish the other two Tributes.

BOOM! BOOM!

That fight couldn't have taken more than a mere minute, and within that minute, more than half of the remaining Tributes died.

Now it's down to Leo and I. And I don't think either one of us is going to die by choice. We're not going to kill each other. Therefore, it's the Gamemakers who must make the final kill.