The Beasts of Us [A Hunger Games Fanfic]

ARENA VI. Kei.

Are you watching, Kei?

"Yes," he grumbled under his breath.

Are you sure?

"Yes!"

I don't think you're watching enough. You're going to die, Kei Damiyen.

It wouldn't leave him alone now. He was hearing it with every footstep, almost, and when it wasn't there he was waiting for it to come along. It was trying his temper, making him snappy at Dannie, at Tesla, even at Dana. His daemon couldn't hear it but she could tell when he did, and that was making her worried and because she was worried he worried more, and because he was worrying he was getting angrier, and-

Well. He was glad he didn't have a weapon. Things could have got messy.

That made him laugh aloud. As if they weren't messy enough already! The bloodbath had been one big sticky mess that lingered in his memory as a series of still images: the timer ticking to zero; Feyre recoiling in horror as the boy from Two brought his mace thing down on her daemon; an arrow just missing his shoulder; Dannie shouting to someone as she pulled him up into the trees. They were the more pleasant ones. There were others, images with a lot more red, screams of humans and daemons alike. If he tried, he could almost piece them together into a story of what had happened.

Almost. Some memories were missing; already he didn't know where he'd been watching Feyre die, or how he'd got across the water. If he'd been in serious danger, or if he'd killed someone, he didn't remember it. That was something to be glad of, at least.

"What's funny?" Dannie asked.

For a moment he stared at her, confused, before it occurred to him that he'd actually laughed. "Nothing," he grunted.

That got him a long, even look. He'd seen it before. It seemed to be one of Dannie's stock expressions, and it made her look less of a girl and more of a fully grown adult. Whatever she was looking for, she obviously found it - or didn't - because she turned and trudged onwards again.

"She's worried about us," Dana hissed in his ear.

"Good."

No, worried isn't good. Scared is good. I thought you were going to win this thing?

"I am."

Not like this you're not. Like this you're a dead man.

"It's got chatty," Dana remarked, as casually as a snake could. "What is it this time?"

He glanced ahead, to see if either of the pair from Three had noticed. They hadn't. "Nothing it hasn't said before," he admitted in a whisper. "I thought you hadn't noticed." He'd been trying not to twitch or give any sign that the voice had spoken up again.

"I always notice. But we're being watched."

She's right.

"Are we?" he asked them both, wondering why she hadn't mentioned this before and whether he should tell Dannie and Tesla or just let things take their course.

Dana tightened her scales around his upper arm. Around his waist she was too bulky for walking around, so she'd tied herself in a knot from shoulder to shoulder, letting her mutter in his ear. "The cameras!" she reminded him. "The last thing we want is for them to think you're hearing things. Or talking to yourself. We're going to need sponsors."

Sure. The cameras. That's what you have to worry about right now.

This time he ignored it. He'd tried that already and it hadn't worked, but it was worth another attempt. Stroking Dana's scales the way she liked, he dodged past a tree and caught up to the pair from Three. They were talking about home, but carefully, as if they didn't want to reveal too much. Dannie had sisters, Tesla a brother. Her daemon had stopped changing soon after she had turned fifteen - he was sweeping from branch to branch gracefully, paying no attention to the conversation. Tesla couldn't remember when his daemon had stopped changing properly. He'd just woken up one day and realised she'd been a lemur for a while, and he'd asked her to change and she hadn't.