The Capital Games (a writer games)

Spítha Fotiá

Here we go again. I think to myself, standing with the other three finalists. I still am shocked about that half-time show. I hope Xaveren is in a better place and has no limp now. And I could still smell the blood from Zonia's gruesome death. It made the pain in my cheek-it still felt as if Joanna was holding the eagle brand there-seem frivolous.

Before the cornucopia sat four pieces of paper. They were folded into diamonds and had a name calligraphicly written on them.

We were standing in a large-not huge- white room. Completely blank, just white. I had the sudden urge to scuff and mar those walls, break my knuckles.on them and smear a rebellious message in my own blood across them. Writing ridicule with my crimson essence.. STOP TURNING INTO YOUR MOTHER! I screamed at myself, interrupting my treasonous monologue. I couldn't let myself turn down slight insanity like my mother. It was my most personal secret, that she had started being insane before my fathers incident, and that the boat accident was truthfully caused by his drinking problems. He took up alcoholism to deal with my mothers obsessive angry bursts of madness. My brother was what had shoved her to teetering on the brink. It was scary growing up in that house hold. One minute mother was singing and baking cookies, the next i was clobbered with the rolling pin. She and my father had nightly arguments, but still were a couple.

Then, the peacemakers tried to lock her up. It was a mess from there. I ended up an avox, she... I don't know where.... Insanity ruined my life. I could feel it inside me, yearning to take over and run me, hatred driven I could destroy the Capitol if I rode the wave of it, fight until I was unable to move, then scream in rage til I died.

But that would be unacceptable. Very unacceptable. I had to live. The games had set me on edge, knocked apart my barriers. I was fighting it and winning for now

Suddenly, everyone moves, propelled by the collective motion, I surge forward, snatch the paper labeled as mine , and a dagger, and speed to a corner where I stand with my back wedged in, I glance at the others. Torao was watching me, well more accurately my knife and the light glinting off it's highly polished bronze blade. I too became fascinated in the gleam, but what I was was the reflection in his eyes, the light of another battling madness.

He was another one who, had circumstances been different, might have been a friend. There were so many who I could have gotten along with.. My mind flickered to Callor. I was disappointed in myself, I had nearly forgotten him, no, I could never forget him, but he slipped to a lower level of thinking, part of the background rumble rather then the foremost blares.

Torao's paper was held open in his hand, it appeared to be a letter. I couldn't tell what it said, but it had obviously affected him emotionally.

By now, the look in his eyes was creepy. Like a ten out of five creepy. He stepped towards me and I smashed myself against the unforgiving wall. He has a knife, I have a knife. There is only one way this can end.

He lunges, but I sidestep, and the knife scrapes the paint revealing more white. I'll have to change that... I let a little madness leak out, tinting the edges of my vision faint red. I spin the knife in my hand, gripping it and stabbing it into his shoulder. He yowls in pain and rakes his blade down my thigh, I see a line of blood but feel no pain.....yet. I pull free my blade and we circle each other, teeth bared slightly, animal instincts taking over.

He leaps agiley at me and opened a gash in my arm. Rage surged violently in my and I slashed across his chest. Blood splattered the walls and a surge of satisfaction flowed through me at the mess I contributed to. He growled at me and swung his knife again. I ducked sideways and swung around behind him.

is momentum kept him going, his back was left unexposed. I stared at it, hesitating, my head clear for a short moment when I questioned my motives for murder. But then I remembered the Capitol he represented. My mind lapsed and the knife pierced his flesh.

His corpse hit the ground with a thud and my gaze once again returned to the white walls, now splattered with scarlet. What a lovely speckled-WHAT ARE YOU THINKING! YOU JUST KILLED TIGER BOY, THE LEAST YOU COULD DO WAS STOP LOOKING AT THE WALLS.

I moved back to my corner and fumbled with my paper. It was a collage of images and texts. A picture of Callor and I on the chariot, a picture of my family before my brother went into the games. Me holding a mermaid doll. I almost.forgot about Molla. She had been my favorite toy as a child. I would sing songs about her. Then my father's obituary. An article about my insane mother and her crimes. These all pulled my heart this way and that way. But they all drove one feeling further.into my heart.

I had nothing to lose and nothing to prove paired with so much to fight for. I could win this. I could avenge so many I had lost. Finally put at peace my.mind.

Snap! Rarity snatched my paper from my grasp and held it arrogantly. Her eyes flicked over it and she snorted.

"Pictures? Are you illiterate as well as mute?" She scorned, flinging the paper back at me, raising her blades. My eyes twisted to a glare, fire burning behind them. That paper had meant something. It had been moments that shaped who I was. The angry avox with a fire in her name and nature.

This, not brutal madness was what told my hand to slash out at the most formidable opponent in here. My knife opened a wound on her belly and arm, but they were shallow and seemed to hinder her not. She bared her pearly whites and swung at my head. I dodged, but crimson still started dripping near my eye. I gasped in pain. I turned my knife and drove it up into her ribcage.

She gasped but besides that didn't react. I pulled it out and waited for the pain I knew was to come. She grabbed my throat and pressed me against the wall, her knife raised and her hand squeezing my neck, My vision turned to white and I felt myself fade when THUD! Kasia's knife appeared in her shoulder. It wasn't fatal, but it made her drop her arm from my neck and allowed me to scurry away, weaponless.

"don't think this is over." Kasia spat. She looked conflicted, but desperate because of how near the end was. She could probably taste the air of her home smell the plants she was used to, hear familiar birdsong.

I faced her, I didn't entirely want to kill her. She was a formidable force, but I still couldn't get over that she was twelve.

She pulled out another knife and pointed it at me. I walked backwards, away from her and tripped over Torao's outstretched arm. My knee jarred when it hit the ground, and my hands left bloody prints on the floor.

She moved closer, I wiped the hair from my eyes, and startled myself when my hand smeared viscous ooze across instead. I had nearly forgotten the wound Rarity had given me. I was in bad shape, this seemed to be the end.

Kasia tilted my head up, pressing the blade against my throat.

"I..I'm sorry." She stammered, regret filing her eyes when with a lurch Rarity stood. She took a few steps, her clothes covered in blood from the wound I have her. She staggered and fell with a loud thump. We stared I.. surprise at her. She wasn't breathing!

A look of intense relief flooded Kasia. She flung aside the knife and offered a hand to help me up.

"it's over! It's over we don't have to kill anymore!" She exclaimed. I let her help me to my feet, I smiled and nodded, but my guts were knotted.

I was glad Kasia had been the one holding the knife to my throat in the end. Either of the others would have finished the job rather than release me. But it was over!