YouTube Hunger Games

20: Home

Mark's POV

Suddenly, I went from being covered in blood and on slick grass to in a similar position, resting on my hands in knees, in a dark room. The walls were covered with tiny blue lights, and several pipes and computer monitors were set up all around. I saw the door open to the side, and I recognized where I was a few short moments after being teleported.

I was in the hotel.

I sprinted through the door, bursting out into the hallway and gasping, panting. The injuries I had were gone, my hair was washed and my body didn't feel nearly as clean as it looked. My clothes weren't tattered and torn, and my muscles were as strong as ever. I watched as a pair of doors burst open next to me from a room titled 'viewing room' and out came the one person that I wanted to see the most. Jack. His blue eyes whipped around the room, looking for me as he knew the games had ended, and once they landed on me, he sprinted over, sliding to a halt next to me. I'd never hugged someone faster or harder in my life, and I squeezed him breathless against my person. I could feel his arms holding me just as tight, and he buried his head into my shoulder as we simply stood there in the solace of the other's embrace. I forgot how to breathe for a few seconds, and the tears simply flooded from my eyes. It was so relieving to know that he was okay, and I felt like a huge weight had been lifted from my chest. He was warm next to me, uninjured and heart racing so quickly that I could feel it through his shirt. My own heart was pounding, and I wanted to laugh and cry all at the same time. He wasn't dead, he wasn't injured, he looked healthy and clean, and he also looked happy and excited to see me, crying a little bit himself from the experience, and I could only laugh. He laughed too, wiping his eyes and trying to compose himself a bit more.

Then, I opened my eyes and saw Wade and Bob standing behind him, watching sheepishly as I hugged the Irishman. As much as I needed to hug Jack, to know that he was alright, I ripped myself from his arms and threw myself at the pair, hugging them both and crying even harder. They embraced me, congratulating me on winning a game that I didn't bother to care about. Yami appeared shortly after, and I hugged him tightly too. He hugged back, and I was wiping both my runny nose and my eyes as I tried to keep myself together. I saw Yami and Jack high five, back on good terms, and the other YouTubers flooded from the same room, surrounding me and congratulating me overall.

Everyone who had died or been injured looked alive and well again. There were smiling faces all around, and I saw the members of Smosh who I quickly apologized to. They brushed it off, hugging me as I started sobbing again, and the crowd began talking to one another, high fiving and simply being happy that everyone was alive and well again. I saw Seananners, or Adam who was talking to the Chilled guy, and Chilled was smacking him several times over with his Mario hat, scolding him as Adam tried to explain himself while laughing. The bright spirits were high among us as we stood around, just revelling in the existence of one another, enjoying the company outside of a place of fear and death. It felt good to be clean, although I still wanted a shower just to make sure that I wasn't still covered in grime and blood, and Jack even double checked me as he had been the one to die while next to me.

It seemed as though once the pressure of the arena was off, everyone was happy. We were a giant group taking up a large amount of space as we discussed our arrival upon home, who would collab with who, and how much time they wanted to spend with one another before leaving, seeing as how most people watched their friends' lives ripped away right in front of them. There was a lot of smack talk about games going around, and everyone was joking and the laughter that filled the air was musical, beautiful. It was a noise that had since been forgotten from my ears, and it was more than pleasant to hear once more.

As we talked, I noticed a familiar man making his way towards us, arms outstretched and a smile on his face. Sam looked rather excited to see us, and several of his maidens joined him as he walked over to the group. The YouTubers seemed to fall silent as he approached, and he clapped his hands with a large smile on his face.