The Writer Games | Once In A Lifetime & World Edition

Personal Heat: Males

Conner Stansfield – United States Of America

Wren, Perdu, Megan and I  sat together in silence. The Games were hard, that was a guarantee.  Already, I had fought in the Bloodbath, and killed a gigantic beaver. I  was in the top fifteen, since both from China, the boy from Canada, and  the boy from Greece all died today.

     I expected Jace and  Aleksandr to be up in the sky tonight as well. But apparently, you can  survive being eaten alive by a giant beaver. I wished I had told my  alliance that before I nearly sacrificed myself to Chuck.

     I wondered to  myself about how Chuck was doing. Hopefully he was up in Beaver Heaven,  chewing as much wood as he wanted. He was probably king of the beavers  up in Beaver Heaven. It was either that or he was rotting in Beaver Hell  for murdering four innocent children.

     I looked up at the  stars. They were much more plentiful than they had ever been before back  at home. I lived in a fairly large city, so you typically couldn't see  any stars until about midnight. Here though, as soon as the sun started  to set you could see the stars in the sky. The sunset wasn't nearly as  it was back at home.

    I thought of Les  Miserables. It was funny how even in a near-death situation, you think  of the strangest things. All that I could think of now that Les Mis had  entered my mind was Javert. Everyone said that he ruined the movie with  his voice. He was my favorite though.

    At that point, I fell into a dreamless sleep.

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     I glanced up at the  sky. It felt like I had just blinked and the entire night had passed me  by. I could have been killed in my sleep. I would have just blinked and  my life would have been over.

    It wasn't though and  that was what mattered. If the arena was a globe, I was either in South  America or Africa. The dry dirt around me was covered with cacti. It  reminded me ever-so-slightly of home.

    I saw some prickly  pear cacti. My grandma used to make prickly pear jelly out of the fruit.  My mouth water just thinking about it. So we wouldn't thirst to death.

     I saw a pond in the  distance. Yes, I wouldn't have to worry about getting water from the  cactus. I ran towards the pond. The clear water looked delicious. I had  never thought of water as tasting good or bad. My mother did, much  preferring Dasani water. But now I understand what she meant. Somehow,  this water looked absolutely delicious.

    I kept running, the  water slowly moving out of reach. It was like I was running on a  treadmill. I was moving, but what I was reaching for was moving even  faster. No matter how fast I ran, I couldn't catch up to the pond.

    Then it started to  move away from me. I tried to run faster. The pond kept moving farther  and farther away from me. Eventually, it fell below the horizon and it  was gone.

    I fell to my knees,  absolutely exhausted. I had used all of my energy trying to chase after  the pond. Trying to look for my allies, I turned around.

     They were gone.  Just like the pond, this unattainable goal I had, all of my friends were  out of reach. And for the first time in my life, I was completely  alone.

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     Tomorrow was my  birthday. I tried not to think about it, considering there was a very  small chance that I would make it to tomorrow. But now that my allies  were gone, it was the only thing I could hold on to. It was the only  thing that made me want to stay alive. Back home, I always viewed it  pessimistically. I thought it was a year closer to my death. Here in the  arena, it was an achievement though. It was another year I had lived.  And I doubted I would get another one.