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Chara bit his lip so tightly that it started to bleed, his fingers having dug so deep into the aged fabric of the sofa that he even tore it a bit. 

Beside him, his mum Jakei was sat up straight and nibbling her nails nervously while staring at the screen. Her hair was messy and falling over her eyes which had large dark bags under them. She hadn't really slept much since Cross volunteered for his younger brother to participate in the Hunger Games. She'd just gone a bit blank, not really sure of what to do any more.

Stood up behind the sofa, Epic watched the TV screen with a scowl and his arms crossed over his chest. "I think he's disgusting."

Chara glanced back at him momentarily before staring back at the screen and shivering at the image on the screen in front of them.

It was the pretender. The one who'd said they were from District Twelve like Cross when really they were one of the infamous Joku Brothers from District One. The cameras had mainly focused on him ever since his big reveal at the very start. It was now nearing the end of day two. The footage had occasionally gone to Dream -Nightmare's brother- The creeps from district two, and occasionally the other District tributes. But the majority had been Nightmare so far.

At the moment it showed him as he slowly painted a small smiley face on the floor with his victim's blood, a wide grin stretching across his skull. Seeing that admittedly made Chara's stomach churn a bit, but he forced back any urge to throw up. He used to find the sight of blood funny, always fascinated by the metallic red liquid that ran down from any small cut or wound he got. But seeing it like this, he was put off it for life.

Epic walked away from the TV screen as Nightmare stamped out his fire and walked off into the forest with his rucksack, clearly not wanting to see any more of the dark skeleton.

Chara couldn't even attempt to look away from the TV. That's how it'd been every day. He was so terrified that even if he let to go to the toilet, he'd miss any quick shots of Cross. Or worse, he'd come back into the room just in time to see Cross being mauled to death by some trained psycho murderer. He felt like it was his duty to watch over Cross and make sure nothing happened to him. If he didn't then Cross would probably die and he'd blame it all on himself. Obviously that wouldn't be the reason at all, but he would still let the guilt rip him apart.

"Yo Chara you hungry?" Epic called from the kitchen.

He didn't respond, frowning at the screen.

"Kid?" He poked his head through the door and looked at him.

"Shh!" Chara hissed suddenly, leaning forwards on his elbows as the TV footage suddenly changed.

"Rude." Epic muttered, walking back into the kitchen.

"IT'S CROSS!"

The teen practically flung himself out of the kitchen, his eyes wide as he ran over to the sofa in disbelief.

Right there on the screen, an image of Cross looking up at a tree and taking a long drink of water from the full bottle in his hands cane up on screen.

All three of them let out a relieved sigh immediately, relaxing. Last time they'd seen Cross on the TV, he'd been in a worrying situation with no water. But it looked like he'd sorted that out now.

Epic literally shoved Chara to the side of the sofa and wedged himself between him and the smaller's mum, not thinking of their well-being that much.

"Hey! Watch it!" Chara yelped, roughly pushing him in his side in response. "He's my brother, not just your stupid crush."

"Shh." Jakei hissed, silencing the two of them as she watched Cross store his water bottle away and start to scale the tree.

"He's smart going up there to sleep." Epic muttered, squeezing his hands together tightly. "No one can stumble across him and ambush him up there."

"They can ambush his crippled dead body after he falls out in his sleep." Chara said, biting his lip anxiously.

"Sounds like you don't have much faith in your brother." Epic glanced at him, expression cold.

"Oh shut up I gave all the faith in him possible. I'm just scared shitless for what might happen when he does stumble into someone; which he eventually will..."

Jakei shook her head softly, sighing as the screen flicked back to the footage of the skeleton with dark black tear streaks running down his cheeks. He was currently in the middle of a fight with another tribute. "We can only hope..."

——————

The gamekeeper headquarters were huge. A large cylindrical room full to the brim with over complicated tech, sheet and blueprints. Screens were plastered over every wall, showing different images of each individual tribute. Each tribute has their own little drone that follows them around. They might not know or notice it, but it's always there filming incase the gamekeepers decided something they were seeing was interesting, and therefore put it on national TV.

Observation decks ringed round the inside structure, where interns or officials would circle and stare down at the workers like hawks about to demolish their next meal.

The centrepiece of the room was a large circular map that showed an exact 3D holographical map of the arena, with little red markers showing off where each tribute was. Around that map control panels were attached with gamekeepers sat at each one, monitoring the game vigilantly.

Currently the majority of them were staring at one tracker in particular, muttering to themselves across the circular control centre.

The tracker they were on about was District Twelve's. And no, not the pretender from District One, the actual District Twelve contestant. Cross.

"He's two kilometres away from the nearest tribute." One said, staring at the screen as it showed the smol oreo settling down in a tree for the night.

"And he's almost at the outer wall." Another one said, indicating at how the red marker was indeed very close to the arena's edge.

"So what do we do?"

"Simple." A voice said. "We flush him out."

Their attention all turned to the lead gamekeeper as he walked into the room and across the observation deck, his expression neutral.

"Create an event that will push him away from his current location, and back towards the nearest tributes."

The workers nodded quickly, biting their lips as they thought of a possible event that could push flush him out.

He felt a little smirk twitch onto his face as he leant over the observation deck railing. "Might I suggest something?"

——————

Cross groaned softly, a frown forming as he felt beads of sweat roll down his skull. His body felt hot and clammy for some reason, and he couldn't ignore the feeling that something was burning into his non-existent flesh.

His eyes opened groggily and he glanced around in confusion only to freeze right after. All around him, cracks and snaps rang out, heat glaring up from all angles. It was everywhere, clinging to every tree and streaking across the dry leaves below him.

Fire.

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Ahahahahahhahahahahahahah :3

uwu short chapter cuz uh I c a n

Omlllll this book could potentially nearly reach 40 chapters, fingers crossed

Hope you enjoyed this one, um yea

Bye

-Jess-