❤️💜31k oof💜❤️

"Dream, you don't have to do this..."

"Don't have to do this? Are you mad?"

"Dream, you're clearly not feeling yourself right now... Just, calm down, and let Cross go." He swallowed harshly, his damaged crossbow pointing at his brother.

"Not feeling myself? Oh y-you don't say, whatever gave you that impression?" He spat, his golden eyes staring at him with a malice he'd never seen before. His whole body was trembling and twitching, his hands barely able to hold the sharp knife to Cross' neck.

"You're clearly unstable." He took a small step closer. "Let Cross go, and I won't shoot you."

"Bullshit!" He hissed, gritting his teeth together. "I'm the last opponent I need to kill to get your happy ending, brother. You'll shoot me at the first damn chance you get, don't bother lying to me."

"But, if you do try to shoot me right now, I'll drag down your pathetic little partner with me and we'll both be ripped to shreds by whatever those demons are. And I know you don't want that."

"And besides," His eyes narrowed, posture straightening slightly. "You didn't spare Killer, why should I spare Cross?"

Nightmare winced, glancing from his brother to Cross as inside his skull, he was having a mental breakdown. God, what was he supposed to do? "Dream, Cross and I are close, you and Killer were jus--"

"Just what? You don't know what we were!" He yelled, shaking even more and gulping. "Y-You have no idea! Don't, for a second think you know how I'm feeling brother. Not for a second."

Cross struggled in Dream's grip, his one free hand gripping onto the wrist that held the sharp knife to his neck. He locked eyes with Nightmare and shuddered, trying to push the knife away to no avail.

"Brother, shoot me." Dream growled, staring at him. "Get it over with, kill me and I'll take him down with me. You'll win, brother. Make District One win, instead of those filthy scum down in Twelve."

"This isn't about Districts, Dream." He said. "It's so much more than that and you know it."

"I-I don't care anymore, Brother. You've ripped everything from me, my pride, my chances, Killer, and now my win. We both know that I'd have easily won if you didn't come here and ruin everything!"

"I--"

"I didn't want it to come down to this, Nightmare. The two of us at each o-other's throats. This whole time I'd been desperately hoping we wouldn't have to collide. I-I'd prayed that you'd be killed off by someone else, dead before I'd have to face you. But every night, wh-when your face never came up in the sky for the fallen Tributes, I came to realise. But you were probably thinking the same thing too, weren't you? Hoping I'd died a long time ago."

"In fact, those gamekeepers probably planned this. DIDN'T YOU?!" He stared up at the sky accusingly, panting and twitching.

Nightmare and Cross locked eyes, the taller of the two staring as his partner lightly tapped his finger down onto Dream's hand. He mouthed something silently, looking like the word "shoot".

The teen nodded slowly, a pit forming in his non-existent stomach as he aimed the crossbow at his own brother. For a moment, he hesitated, all the memories of what him and Dream had done over the years flooding into his mind. When they'd been kids, and fought over the same toys or stupid things like who got stuck sitting in the uncomfortable middle seat in the car when Dream's friends came round. Or when they were both twelve and got in that big fight over something he couldn't even remember and ended up with similar deep scars on their arms from when they threw each other off their bedroom balcony and into their mothers blackberry bush below. God she'd been so mad.

When they'd been training in the academy, yes they'd been rivals, but they'd still helped each other out in all situations. They'd fought practically everywhere, not just in the training rooms. Their parents would even scream and yell at them sometimes, scaling both of them for being so irresponsible when they got into a fight. Of course the blame was pinned on Nightmare most the time, with his brother's excuse being that he was born around three minutes before him, so therefore he was a bad influence and older sibling.

Did he really want to cast all those memories aside and kill him? His very own brother? He stared at the two in front of him helplessly, his soul hammering in his chest and his 'ears' ringing loudly. His brother. If he couldn't kill him last time, what made him think he could do it now?

But this time was different. He had Cross. If he didn't shoot now, Dream might get tired of waiting and just end it all now. Kill Cross and take one last stance against Nightmare.

He let out a cool blow of air, the voices in his head going silent as he stared directly at his brother's hand. This would end now.

The arrow sailed forwards through the air, all three of them having their eyes fixated on the tip as it sunk deeply into Dream's hand.

The teen let out a cry of surprise, which was only amplified as Cross punched him in the gut with his elbow. He tried to grab onto the oreo, but a tentacle wrapped round his wrist and dragged him out of range.

Dream teetered on the edge for a moment, his eyes locking with Nightmare's before he went tumbling to the ground, yelling.

Almost instantly the dogs were onto him, snarling and barking as they clamped their teeth down on his bones and tugged, scraping, scratching, chomping and ripping at his blood soaked body.

His screams were tortured, cracking and elevating. They combined with the horrible snaps and crunches of his bones being torn to shreds, the dogs being in a frenzy.

Nightmare stared down as his brother was torn to pieces, every scream sending an invisible knife deeper and deeper into his soul. He could hear Dream begging, his gargled voice pleading for it to all be over. To end the suffering.

Beside him, Cross slowly rested a hand on Nightmare's shoulder and pulled an arrow from the boy's quiver, fixing it to his crossbow. "Do it..."

He felt a tear run down his cheek slowly and he let it, firing the arrow that silenced Dream for good.

As soon as the cannon shot rang out, the dogs backed away, leaving Dream's mangled and bloody remains splayed out on the floor and abandoned. His blood was all over the floor, seeping into the soil and being absorbed.

Nightmare gagged and keeled over, pressing a hand firmly over his mouth and forcing himself to look away. That mess. That had been his brother.

"Nightmare I'm so sorry..." Cross muttered, rubbing his back softly. "But it's over now, we don't have to kill any more. We've won."

The teen looked up at him weakly, realisation hitting him. Two tributes could win this. And they were the only two left. They'd won...

He let out a dry wheeze of a laugh, gripping onto Cross' hand tightly as the two of them slid off the cornucopia and stumbled to the ground. They fell to their knees and laughed, gripping onto each other tightly and hugging. They'd done it.

"G-God that near drove me insane." Nightmare said, his breathing shaky and out of order. "Never a-again."

"Never again." Cross agreed, digging his face into his chest and exhaling shakily. "I-I can't believe we did it..."

"Neither can I..." He looked down at the smaller, feeling him up and down to check he was actually still there, not a hallucination. "Is this even r-real."

"It is Nightmare, it is..." He mumbled, hugging him tighter and shivering.

"Ow- careful of my hip." He winced, a hand hovering over the hilt of the knife.

"D-Don't touch it, you'll make it worse if you pull it out." Cross said, shaking his head and gently curling his own finger's around Nightmare's.

"Gosh, what would I do without you?" He snickered softly, leaning down to press their mouths together in a quick and soft kiss.

Both their faces flushed slightly, tinted with gentle magenta and cyan. In that moment they relaxed, the realisation that they were in the Hunger Games leaving them as they relaxed against each other.

"Attention, attention. This is a gamekeeper announcement."

Cross and Nightmare perked up, looking around as the sound of the loudspeakers echoed throughout the arena.

"There's been a slight... change decided. The previous rule stating that two Tributes from the same District had been... Renounced. Only one may win. May the odds be ever in your favour."

The voice cut short after that, and the two of them were thrown into crushing silence. Only one could win...

Instantly they both scrambled to their feet, Cross pointing his knife - which he'd picked up from earlier - at Nightmare while his partner pointed all four of his sharpened tentacles at him.

They stared at each other closely, frozen. Neither of them wanted to make the first move.

And then Cross looked down at his knife, a lump forming in his throat and hands trembling. "No!" He cast the knife aside, throwing it as far as he could behind him before turning back to face Nightmare. "I-I don't want to...!"

Nightmare faltered in surprise, his own tentacles dropping down limply by his sides. "Cross, they're not going to change their minds..."

"I-I don't care! I'm not going to fight you!" He bit his 'lip' and stood up taller, his fingers digging into the fabric of his top covering his chest. "J-Just kill me and save yourself the trouble..."

"Kill you?" His eye widened and he shook his head quickly. "Cross, I'm not going to kill you. I just sacrificed my own brother for your life for Christ's sake."

"B-But I-I'm not going to kill you!" He protested. "Out of the two of this, you deserve this more! Y-You've killed far more people than me!"

"That means nothing Cross." He shot, staring at him. "It just means that I've become more of a monster. You deserve to live. You've got family that care about at home. Mine are probably disappointed that Dream didn't win."

"N-Nightmare I..."

"They'd prefer if you won. Make a change for District One winning all the time." He grunted, looking down at the knife in his hip and gripping onto the handle.

"Wait Nightmare don't!" He watched in horror as he ripped the blade from his side, dropping the bloodied weapon to the floor right after and falling to his knees. Blood poured from the wound, no longer having the knife to plug it in.

Rushing to his side, he swatted his hands out of the way and pressed his own against the wound, panicking. "Y-You idiot!"

He chuckled weakly, pressing his forehead against Cross'. "You didn't give me a choice..."

"N-No you idiot! There's always a choice!" He yelled before an idea suddenly struck him.

The berries.

"Don't die- I have an idea." He pulled off the bag he'd been carrying from his shoulders, searching frantically through it for the small pouch he knew contained the nightlock berries.

He let out a triumphant cry as he found it, ripping the pouch open and spilling the berries into his hands. "Here!"

Nightmare looked hazily down at the berries, his vision unfocused from blood loss. "Hm?"

"Take these, I-I have a plan." He pushed a few berries into his partner's dark hands before holding his up to the sky. He knew the gamekeepers would be watching them closely, he just didn't know if they'd take the bait.

"Right, we've got to pretend to eat these, okay?" He whispered to Nightmare, pressing their foreheads together again. "Don't actually eat them, or you'll die for real."

Nightmare grimaced and nodded staring deeply into Cross' eyes as they both held the berries up to their mouths.

"wAIT-- STOP!"

A frantic voice rang out and they both paused, the berries mere centimetres away from their 'lips'.

"Ahaa-- Ladies and gentlemen, Please may I introduce the winners of the 74th Hunger Games!"

Cross and Nightmare looked at each other, wide grins spreading across their faces.

They'd done it.

They'd won.

————————————————————————

2,094 words uwuwuwuwuwu

Ahahahahah I didn't actually cri or anything at Dream's death but I still felt bad ;D

The poor bean am I right mdndjsjdhxjshxhd

Anyways, barely any chapters left, sad times I know. But I've really enjoyed writing this book and I hope you've equally enjoyed reading it :3333333

Stuff happens next chapter 😱

-Jess-