❤️💜7k yey that makes me hap💜❤️

"You ready?"

"No."

Horror sighed, resting a hand on Cross' shoulder gently. "Cross, you'll be fine."

"Fine?" He let out a dry laugh, looking around the mainly empty room. "In less than five minutes I'll be forced into a death match in which I'll be ripped apart immediately!"

"That will not happen." He shook his head softly, rubbing his shoulder with his thumb. "Look Cross, you got that eleven for a reason, show everyone that reason."

"I-I don't think I can." He stuttered, his whole body shaking already.

"You can. I know it." He gave him a serious look, staring into his eyes. "Just relax and stop panicking."

He inhaled shakily,l and closed his eyes. "O-Okay, I can try..."

"Good." He nodded. "Now listen. In the centre of the arena will be some sort of structure with all sorts of supplies littered about it. Take my advice now, don't go for them. That place has the highest death toll in the first five minutes. You don't want to risk it, especially being such a high target. From what I've heard there will be a forest, run for it, you understand me?"

"Ignore the stuff, run for the forest. Got it." He swallowed, nodding.

"Good. Now get in." He pointed at the cylindrical glass pod in the corner of the room, a pained expression on his face.

"Can't I-I just stay here? Let it go up empty?" He pleaded, shaking his head.

"They'll only kill you Cross. Up there, you have a chance. And at least your family have a chance to be proud of you instead of knowing you simply hid like a coward. We all have problems Cross, we can't run away from all of them."

The smaller flinched but nodded, forcing his feet to walk over to the pod. "I-Its okay, I'll be fine..."

No sooner than he'd stepped in, the door slid shut and trapped him inside.

Cross immediately panicked, pressing himself and looking at Horror through the glass in fear. He saw the taller mouth something, but he couldn't hear it through the glass. And then the platform jolted, starting to move.

As the cylindrical platform rose up it took everything Cross had to not break down suddenly and start screaming.

He felt trapped, stuck in his current position now. There was no turning back from this. Once this platform reached the top, it was over. He was going to die. There's no way in hell he'd ever be able to win this, let alone even kill someone. Or even hurt them.

He'd only ever killed animals, and that was because his family needed the food. It was for a good cause. This would just be killing in cold blood.

Remembering what Horror had said, he tried to relax as much as possible. As soon as the timer hit zero, he'd just run. There was no point in trying to grab anything like a weapon or provisions. He'd just run. Otherwise he'd be slaughtered on the spot.

Maybe he then ran the risk of starving to death or something horrible like that, but he'd have a better chance of survival out there compared to in the centre blood bath.

That's where all the people that trained came to shine. Bloody killing was their specialty. His was not that at all. His was staying quiet and keeping out of people's ways, respecting their boundaries. Ah yes, because that would definitely help him win this.

A glint of sunlight shined over his head and he looked up in surprise, his eyes widening in fear as he caught sight of blue sky above him.

They'd reached the arena.

Legs shaking, the smol looked around to see that the others had also all risen to their spots, their eyes fixated on the large structure in the middle.

It was shaped like a cornucopia, and bags, weapons and supplies were littered out across the grass around it. He could see knives, spears, swords, bows and even what looked like a net bag full of hand grenades. There was also loads of food strewn over packs: bags of apples, bread, vegetables etc.

Surrounding the circular centre of the arena, a large forest stretched out, the tips of fern trees stretching up to the sky and as far as he could see. That would be where he'd run to. Maybe he could hide up a tree or something, that could work. But then again it would be easy for people to sneak up on him then. Unless he was as quiet as possible, and as aware of his surroundings as he could be. He'd practically have to be invisible. He normally felt like he was anyway to be honest.

Glancing around all the podiums, he spotted Nic-- Nightmare about seven people away from him. His hood was up, but he could tell that he was staring at all the supplies. He wouldn't be a coward and run like Cross.

Next to him, Reaper was grinning that same sickly grin, his cold dead eyes fixated on the large scythe-looking weapon at the top of the pile. God help them if he got a hold of that.

On his other side, Dream stood tense and ready. Cross had seen him in the training room, and knew he'd make a beeline right for the bow. He could shoot just about anything with one of those.

And then a loud beep rang out, startling the hell out of everyone before the sound of a countdown rang out.

"FIVE."

Cross inhaled sharply.

"FOUR."

He was going to die.

"THREE."

His brother and mum would have to watch him be ripped apart on screen.

"TWO."

And there was nothing he could do about it.

"ONE."

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

"GO!"

A horn blared and instantly everyone lunged off of their podiums, scrambling as fast as they could towards the supplies.

For a moment Cross was frozen, his feet seeming to be glued to the podium. But then he snapped out of it, wrenching himself away and running as fast as he could in the direction of the forest that surrounded the centre of the arena.

Behind him screams and cries rang out, a few cannon shots calling to signify people already dying.

He desperately tried to ignore them, scrambling over to the cover of the trees where he hoped to disappear. A few feet away from him, another kid had obviously had the same idea as him. They were running quickly for the trees, their face showing nothing but terror.

But then something sailed through the air, sinking into the back of their neck deeply. The kid collapsed, a cannon shot sounding instantly.

Cross tripped in surprise, falling to the ground with a terrified cry. He rolled to the side just as another arrow slammed into the ground a few mere centimetres away from his skull. He looked behind him in a panic, his eyes focusing on the figure of Dream stood all the way on top of the cornucopia.

His expression was cold as he loaded another arrow and aimed it at Cross.

The smol squeaked, trying to scramble to his feet again only to have an arrow stab right through the fabric of his shirt on his shoulder and pin him to the ground. He jolted, immediately trying to tug the arrow out, but it was stuck deep in the soil.

Dream grinned widely, letting out a low chuckle as he reloaded his bow one more and pointed it at his skull. "As soon as I saw you I knew you weren't fit for this battle field!"

Cross whimpered, squeezing his eyes shut and looking away. "Please be quick, please be quick..." He whispered to himself, terrified at the thought of being left with an arrow in the neck that killed him slowly by bleeding out. He just wanted a quick death, and nothing too gorey so family wouldn't have to watch.

He could hear Dream release the arrow. He could literally sense it coming flying towards him. He could hear it sink into something and stick. But that thing wasn't his skull.

Confused, he looked up in surprise to see a shadow looming over him. "Nightmare?!"

The taller was stood over him, a backpack held in front of his chest with an arrow embedded deeply into it. "Fucking retard get up and run!" He yelled, shoving the pack with the arrow into his chest and tugging the one trapping him out. "Go!"

Cross yelped, immediately scrambling to his feet as he watched the two brothers stare at each other.

Dream was still, his eyes narrowed as he stared at Nightmare. "Saving your boyfriend? How cute."

Nightmare cackled, rising to his feet. "Oh Dreamy, who knew a few minuets in the arena would change you so much."

Cross could practically feel the tension of everybody watching on their TV's at home. He watched as Nightmare raised a hand, gripping onto his hood before pulling it down for everyone to see.

Dream almost fell off the cornucopia in shock. "Brother?!"

Nightmare grinned, looking around him where he knew the cameras were watching. "That's right, Dream. I'm here. You tried to take my spot, but now I've got it back." A dangerous glint formed in his eye. "And I'm not going to stop until every last person in this arena is dead at my bloodstained feet."

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Ahahahaha they're finally out in the arena, yayayayay!

Now we can get onto the actual hunger games stuff! And only after 16 chapters XD

JDHXJDJDHXHSJJSJXHX oh well I hope you're looking forwards to some blood and gore

Oh and some ships being absolutely ripped apart of course :3333

Enjoy

-Jess-