aphrodite₂ [treech]

x i v

The rising sun rouses me from sleep. The rain has stopped, but a thin haze of sparkling mist remains in the arena. Under other circumstances, it would have been beautiful. Instead, it's just eerie and unsettling.

Overnight, the snakes died, probably from the drastic change in weather. Lucy Gray is gone from her perch, leaving a large pile of dead serpents behind.

It's chilly this morning, the air still damp. I remove my jacket and leave it next to me to dry. My shirt underneath is wet, clinging uncomfortably to my too-thin body. I shiver from the cold, but the sun is warming the arena quickly. It's going to be a hot day today.

Bless her heart, Venus sends me a large breakfast of bread, fruit, and dried meat. As I eat, I watch the other tributes. Teslee has also disappeared, leaving me alone in the arena with Mizzen and Reaper. The younger boy is sleeping peacefully atop the beam that had once held Marcus. Reaper, despite having been sent food from his mentor, isn't eating. Instead, he's taken to tending to last night's casualties. I notice that he's moved all of the bodies of the deceased tributes and placed them carefully together, like some sort of morgue. To keep them shielded, either from the elements, or from Capitol eyes, Reaper has covered the dead with swaths of fabric from the flag of Panem that hangs from the wall. Reaper collects the bodies of Coral and Circ, bringing them to the others.

I sit on the edge of the scoreboard, my legs dangling off the side. I swing them back and forth to get my blood pumping. Also, I think if I stay too still, I'll go insane.

As I watch and wait, Mizzen eventually wakes up. He spots one of the cameras along the perimeter of the arena and mimes eating at it. So Persephone, his mentor, knows he's hungry.

Teslee takes this moment to appear. She's holding something in her arms. It looks like the drones that send gifts to the tributes. How did she get it? Teslee stops below Mizzen. She does something to her drone and throws it. From my vantage point, I can see a thin cable attaching the machine to her wrist. The drone stops ascending once the cord pulls taught. Since it has nowhere else to go, it flies around in a small circle.

One of the drones bearing Mizzen's breakfast arrives. It drops a parcel to the tribute and flies off, as normal. But quite unusually, it returns, as if bringing more gifts. Below it, Teslee's drone continues to spin, beeping and whirring.

Two more drones arrive. They stay with the first one, bumping into each other and slamming into Mizzen. The drones have always been unreliable, but this is a new level of inconsistency. They seem to be targeting Mizzen, as if they still have their parcels. I wonder if Teslee's drone has something to do with the chaos. Could she have re-engineered the programming? The girl's from District 3, so it's entirely possible.

Teslee can't stay around if she's capable of something like this. I hate to do it, but I can't risk getting outsmarted. At least against tributes like Mizzen or Reaper, my athleticism gives me a chance.

I climb down the scoreboard, carefully descending the steps to get closer to the structure. The entire time, I keep a close eye on the other tributes. Reaper is acting strange as ever, but he doesn't seem to be looking for a fight. Lucy Gray is still nowhere to be found. Mizzen and Teslee are preoccupied with the other.

Mizzen gets up and moves towards the closest pole. Before he can get there, the knee that Lamina injured buckles under his weight. Mizzen loses his balance, falling to the ground just like Lamina did the other day. He lands on his side, his head slamming against the ground as his neck breaks.

I grimace. Poor Mizzen. He'd been too young to go through these hardships. At least his death seemed painless. Teslee reels in her drone, switching it off and hugging it. Now is my chance.