Alyssa of Nine (Reimagining the Hunger Games)

Chapter Nineteen: Marina's Death

By the near end of the first of the two weeks of our Hunger Games--or at least that's how long it feels like we've all been imprisoned in this hellhole-- the days just seem to be getting longer, hotter, and the nights lonelier and shorter. There have been days where we would trek around this arena in search of water, food, any food we can find in such a place, since starving is by no means a great way to go. Neither is dehydration.

At one point, things began to look so bleak that it was all we could do to push ourselves forward to stay alive. I don't know where Adonis is hiding or what he's planning now, but I know he knows that Taffeta and Emerald are dead. It's only a matter of time when he finds out that Matthew killed Taffeta and I killed Emerald. We have to be prepared, and we have to stay alive.

The Games are moving slower now that there's so few of us left, and still another week to go before it is all supposed to officially end. There haven't been any more deaths--yet. But Matthew, Marina, and I know it's just a matter of time.

Just like it's only a matter of time before the Gamemakers put a series of other potentially deadly obstacles in our way to liven the show up for the Capitol audiences. Or they'll sick mutts on us, or worse still, put us through some twisted form of psychological torture, perhaps hoping that it may push at least one of us so far past the brink of insanity that this particular tribute might even go on a killing frenzy and murder their own allies. Yes, the Gamemakers are all certainly about the fun in the Games. I despise them as much as our dear President.

Now, as though that wasn't bad enough, Jayden's murder now haunts me even when I sleep in dreams. I have just woken up not too long ago from another gory nightmare of children getting killed and me not being able to do a thing about it.

I think Noah must be watching me still, and he sees how I am unable to get much sleep lately, because just then I see another package from my sponsors drift slowly down toward me. Sure enough, it has a 9 on it and I open it to find a small bottle of liquid sleeping serum from the Capitol, and a short letter besides, which was written by Noah, and I turn on my flashlight to read it, making sure to get into my sleeping bag to hide as much of the light as I can.

Alyssa, take this medicine. It is specially formulated so that you will be able to sleep without any nightmares. You need to get some rest and be more alert than ever and on a constant lookout for any threats. Be the threats from other tributes or death traps designed by the Gamemakers. And there will be plenty of those threats ahead.

Just keep on hanging on in there and stay alive. I'll see you in a few days.

-Noah

***

Several days after Noah's letter, Matthew, Marina, and I return to the Pyramid since we have heard an announcement urging us to return there. The Pyramid now held an enormous maze, and at its very center was a prize that Seneca Crane says will mean eternal glory for one of us (obviously). So we decide to head back, hoping that we don't come across Adonis or any of the other remaining tributes along the way.

Once we are near the entrance of the Pyramid, we see something being etched into the stone.

Enter tributes right this way,
There's another dangerous game you have to play
Inside this Pyramid now waits a maze.
To claim your prize, the heart of the maze is the only way to go.
But be wary, this is no ordinary maze,
There are twelve trials that lie in wait
They can change you, and even bring about your demise
So venture carefully, these challenges are your final tests,
But know in the end, only the worthiest tribute can be the winner, only one may be permitted to survive.

The Twelve Trials of Torment

♡-Trials by Daylight (Eastern Areas)
♥-Trials by Darkness (Western Areas)

Trial One: Quicksand (noon)♡
Trial Two: Crumbling Floors ♡
Trial Three: Sandstorm ♡
Trial Four: Crocodile Mutts ♡
Trial Five: Deadly Sun Beams of Ra ♡
Trial Six: Blood Payment ♡
Trial Seven: Pharoah's Fury ♥
Trial Eight: Poison or Passage ♥
Trial Nine: Voices of Torment ♥
Trial Ten: Mummy Mutts ♥
Trial Eleven: Blazing Fires ♥
Trial Twelve: Final Battle (midnight)♥

After we finished reading all of that, the messages disappear and the entrance we used to enter the Pyramid sealed itself with a loud rumble. So Matthew says this, "Well that's that. We know that there's no way of going back, and that the first six challenges we must face from noon until six, and the rest of them are all set for nightfall, and the final battle, presumably between the last tributes standing will begin at midnight. So we should move out now and get the first challenge over with."

Just as Matthew says this, I hear Marina scream, "Matthew, Alyssa, help!" And we both turn to see that the ground around us is turning into quicksand, and Marina has ended up stuck in it. She has sunken in now just below her knees.

"Alyssa!" Marina screams again. There's nothing else for it. Ignoring Matthew's shouts to "Just leave her!" I pull out a long rope and I throw the other end toward Marina to grab onto. "Matthew! I need your help to get her out! Come on!" But no matter how hard we try to pull Marina out, she just seems to be sinking faster and further down. She is up to her waist in quicksand now, and it's getting harder to pull her out. No, no, no. I know when I look at Marina that even the remotest possibility of saving her has slipped through my fingers, and she knows it too.

"Alyssa." There are tears now rolling down her face. "It's no use. I'm sorry. I d-don't want to die. B-but you have to leave me. Go with Matthew. He will still help you." And as much as I don't want to leave, I know there's no other way. "Please win. For me and Jayden. For everyone in the districts." Are her last words before she is swallowed completely into the sand. The cannon that symbolizes the end of Marina's short-lived life sounds out over the arena at some point as I am running as far away from what had just happened as I can possibly get. And Matthew is yelling from somewhere behind me.

"Alyssa, hold up!" And I finally stop as he catches completely up to me in a chamber part of the Pyramid. I suddenly am posessed by a terrible fit of anger. I scream as I grab whatever breakable Ancient Egyptian artifacts I can find and I keep throwing them, breaking them, and screaming swear words. After who knows how long I spend doing this in my fit, five minutes? Fifteen? Half an hour? I finally sink to the stone of the floor and Matthew does the same, right next to me.

"Alyssa," He tells me quietly after a while of staying silent, "There was nothing either of us could have done. The Gamemakers saw to it. As they always will, except for one. One victor, one icon, one survivor for every Games. And you and I, we have to keep going." Matthew was right of course. But still, some part of me feels like it was all my fault, I killed Emerald, and now Marina, even though I never wanted Marina to die. The longer these Games continued, the more I was turning into something to be feared, something I despised, something deadly. Or worse, that I would be frail, damaged, broken. Maybe Snow and his whole corrupted Capitol thought that I could be easily controlled and manipulated.

But as I already promised, I was going to show them all that I wasn't going to be broken so easily.