Task Description:

Tributes are paired together and are forced to fight to the death on attractions.

I’ve always been a book worm, anything that was fanciful and completely irrelevant to real life was probably on my bookshelf. When I read the books, I loved to pause every so often and imagine myself as the main character. Overcoming the odds and surviving through it all, and fighting for justice. In the safety of those pages I was confident that I was a hero.

Its really depressing to realize the truth.

Those thoughts plagued me as we walked through the dead carnival that night. The night air froze my lungs as the wind tugged at my hair, the star spangled sky hung above us like a billion eyes watching our every movement.

You heard me correctly; we. Callisto and Aitius had broken into the hut in which my friends and I bunked in waving guns and yelling. They had separated us, I remember the gun prodding the skin between my shoulder blades roughly as they prodded me toward my death.

Ironically they led me toward where it all began; the rollercoaster. Sayuri waited for us atop the platform her gun directed at a tall boy with black mussy hair, his features concealed by the shadows. I paused for a second, unsure of what I was supposed to do, only to be jostled roughly again. I stepped forward again, one foot in front of the other until I stood before the looming boy. I felt very short.

“Shake hands.” Sayuri chucked deeply, her voice crackling a little.

I locked eyes with the boy for a second before hesitantly inching my hand forward, expecting to hear an explosion of gunfire any second. Our fingers locked and we shook hands unethustastically.

“Morgan? It is Morgan right?” Aitius growled rather than asked, his face was still bruised from where Maxine had hit him with a shovel earlier.

I nodded slowly, unsure of what was coming, what the future held so dangerously over my head.

“You took something from me earlier. I want it back.” He said coldly, extending a pale hand toward me. I stared at it like a deer in headlights, my hand hovering over where my journal was tucked in the waistband of my pants. He was high if he thought I was handing him the essence of my soul in material form.

This was one of those times that I really wish I was one of those incredibly charming people who seem to have a comeback for everything, who could weave a convincing story at the drop of a hat, but no. I was merely a poet who was good at rhyming words, and I don’t think now would be a good time to start belting out lyrics.

I must have taken too long because he pulled out gun, his thumb cocking it with a click. “Your journal, now.” He hissed, his eyes as cold and hard as ice. I felt the familiar shock of fear stab my heart.

I grabbed the leather journal reluctantly, my fingers savoring the last I might possibly ever fear of it. A giant rock fell into my stomach as he pried the journal away from me. “Why do you want it?” I found the courage to croak. I resisted the urge to let my head fall at my own lack of bravery, in books the hero would hold his head up high and demand indignantly, or refuse to give the object in question away in the first place. I was not a hero.

Aitius stuck the book in his pocket and smirked at me like he was sharing his own little joke with himself, “Because you and Crack here are going to fight to the death and we can’t have either of you having an unfair advantage, now can we?” He said, his eyes lighting up like a child’s on Christmas.

“Its Zach.” The kid next to me said, his voice strained as I felt his eyes lock on me as he braced himself for the kill. I was really starting to wish that I hadn’t skipped gym in high school.

Callisto laughed, “Nobody cares. You’ll be dead soon anyway. Now to spice things up you guys have to fight it out on the rollercoaster tracks. You know, so we don’t get bored or anything.” He jostled the gun’s nozzle deeper into my back as I stepped over the guardrails hesitantly. I felt a growing weight of dread and fear sink in my heart, this was going to be my end. I was going to die. Zach was huge and looked like he must be an athlete and judging by the way he looked at me he was ready to do anything in order to survive. Perhaps he was the hero of this story, the fearless one who was willing to do anything to get back home.

Even kill.

I started backing up the second my feet hit the tracks my eyes focused on Zach, then flitted over to Callisto, Aitius and Sayuri. I hesitated a second before forcing the words from my throat, “Sayuri, did Callisto and Aitius tell you they’ve been eating the dead bodies?” I asked, trying to sound confident.

I watched in mild satisfaction as her head snapped over to look at them, her eyes wide with surprise. I looked up just in time to see Zach leap at me, I ducked under his left arm and sprinted up the steep embankment of the tracks, I glanced over my shoulder to see him gaining with ease. I pushed myself faster, my lungs burning as I reached the top of the slope.

I spun around just in time to see Zach’s fist barreling toward my chest, I tried to dodge it but I felt pain explode as my body jerk backward from the force. I fell. My body flipped, my heart jumped into my throat, my arms flailed as I tried to grab something. My fingers curled around the edge of the track. I looked down, fear tightening around my throat like a noose as I hung precariously over the hundred foot drop to the ground.

I forced myself to tear my gaze away from the horrifyingly hypnotic ground and looked up toward Zach who didn’t appear to know that I was still alive. He looked out over the carnival, a distressed look dancing across his features.

I took a deep breath, waves of fear pounding my mentality like the waves on a sea shore. I reached upward and yanked his ankle out from under him, I watched him fall off of the slim tracks, tumbling downward into the black abyss below us, and unlike me his hands couldn’t grab anything.

I slowly pulled myself back onto the tracks, guilt weighing down my soul like an anchor. My hands trembled. I stared downward, what had I done?

You were a hero, you were brave a little voice inside me answered. I shook my head, I had been wrong. I was no hero, I had no desire to be a hero. Or was my picture of a hero completely wong? What even was a hero? A selfish person who was out to save themselves? A monster in disguise. What was I? Who was I? I had thought I’d known, but now I wasn’t so sure….