"Have you ever been high?"

"Excuse me?"

"I think I'm high."

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

"My dick hurts, my head hurts, I'm seeing colors, I haven't slept with anyone in hours, and I think I broke my pinkie fighting those damned rats." Pavement groaned, running his hands through his luscious hair. He didn't feel good. That was an understatement. Everything hurt and throbbed with unidentifiable pain. "But fuck, if I'm high it may be worth it."

"You're not high."

"Why not?"

Samuel, who looked worse by the hour, sighed. Layers of clothes didn't look good on hot guys. In the Capitol, everyone looked good no matter what. They weren't from the Capitol. "Can you shut your trap for five consecutive minutes?"

Thinking about that, Pavement bit his lip. What the hell does consecutive mean? Is that a measure of time? Does it make a minute longer? Whoa, my head sounds weird. Sounds. Feels. Feels. I'm feeling. Not hearing. Wait, I can hear. I'm not deaf. Am I? What am I talking about? "I'm not talking," he moaned. Then he did moan, resisting the urge to punch something hard. "I'm only a thought inside of a thought inside of a meaningless mind. Until I reside in criminal mind I'll forever be losing and gaining my tide."

Samuel had no response to that. Head cocked, the boy listened to his larger companion speak as though he'd lost his mind. Behind him the sun had struck the clouds, smirking them until they gave way to orange and pink and red. The red mixed with blue and green. It tingled and shook as it grew in vibrations and became a living being. A mass of flesh that lifted its orange hands to shake against the tender gray clouds and the soft blue horizon leaning towards mountains and trees and a shore that didn't hold any true reason. The sky was angry.

Mustard yellow angry.

Why is the clouds angry? Is? Are? God. "Whoa, Sam."

"Yes?"

"Sam."

He sighed again. It was a trait he did well at. If there were a separate games all for signing he would go home with the silver, bronze, and the gold. No problems included. "Dammit, Paul, will you shut up? At this fucking rate the damn rodents will be back again and if I have to smell that scent one more time, I'm going to rip your throat out." Whhhooooaaaaa.

Sky's not mad. Sam's mad. Mad mad mad mad--holy shit, when did he get handcuffs? Pavement blinked heavy as snow collapsed over his eyelashes and weighed them down. A yawn stretched out of his throat. Anger was a strange sensation. It grew and grew and crept up as slowly as possible, looking deceivingly handsome before wrapping its claws around his neck and jerking him awake.

"Did you fucking threaten me?"

Pavement blinked and he was tied up. He blinked again and as the world became light and colorful instead of the darkness he saw the red of sadness dripping down, coating the arena. It seeped into his skin, itching down through every scratch he'd received and boring into his bones. Like thread pulling through the eye of a needle it went, stitching up parts of him he never knew existed.

There was pain all over his body. The rodents that had attacked earlier, the ones that left all the candle wax everywhere like little bitches, had also left him a nice little crappy package of cuts that throbbed with each pulse of his heart. "Sam, you need to calm down," he whispered. Why am I whispering? "Come on! Let's...let's go find something to eat. I'm fucking starving. I wonder if they've got meat here. I could kill for some meat." For some reason, those cuts began to bleed. The blood flowed out and didn't stop flowing but Pavement couldn't feel the pain. He was beyond pain. It was just there, happening, undeniably freaky but still there nonetheless.

"I could kill you."

"Sam, I'm fucking tired of your shit."

Sam nodded. Standing, he shook his head and sighed in a desperate manner. Yellows warred upon his skin and it dripped into his body like rain pouring down a gutter. In that angry fist once yelling at the sky it was now the single color, yelling at the world. Yellow. Hatred. Ugly, hot, pure hatred that grew and multiplied and attached itself to the once happy boy. With every passing second it grew thicker and thicker. Sam coughed and it swallowed him whole, entering his mouth. In horror, the boy threw back his head, chocking and crying and fighting against it. In vain he fought for soon it had taken him over. Sam was no more. Yellow was Sam, Sam was anger, and anger was everything.

"I guess there's just one thing we have to do then," he said. There wasn't the hatred in his voice, no, not yet. Instead he was calm. The type of calm that meant two hours later, when Dad came home, six people would have lost their jobs and one would never be seen again. The type of calm that meant Mom had slept with Dad's friend again and Pavement would have to stay the night at a friends or join in her beating. The type of calm that he was used to. Pavement knew what to do, he just didn't want to do it.

Sighing too, for there wasn't much to be done in anger other than sigh or kill, Pavement stood and looked straight at him. "What's that?" Behind the yellow was a gray, light and torn, and he breathed it in. Insecurity, but it was much more than that. Gray was death. Gray was giving in. Gray was the fear that hid behind him and forced him to say the things he did. Behind everything, Pavement was scared. Scared of not being liked. Not being loved. Not being good enough to survive, just as people suspected. He wasn't smart. He didn't have that ability, the one to be likable or kind or to do the things people considered good and wholesome.

"End our alliance."

"Before I even get a kiss?" Just a scared little boy looking for something. I can't lose him, dammit! Don't leave me, Sam! Don't leave me! Hear me! Hear me and don't go.

Sam laughed. "I wouldn't kiss your fucking lips if you were the last person on this damn planet. You repel me, you disgusting piece of shit. It'll be fun to see you die. How do you want me to do it? Shall I tie you up, or perhaps-"

He never got to finish his sentence.

Maurus, whom neither had seen since day one, was running towards him. There was the color gray about him, the cloud hugging close to his body and kissing his eyes with tears. "Run," he shouted, a hitch in his voice, "run! It's coming, it's coming, and it'll never end!"

Cursing, Sam's face turned darker yellow. "I'm going to fucking kill you two if you say another damn word! First this idiot, now you're here too? Hell, at least you're handsome. The other one's just a fucking meathead."

Behind Maurus came another human, who didn't have a cloud about him but who was still alive. Still feeling. That was, until the yellow suddenly decided to fall upon everyone. Pavement couldn't think. His brain refused to make words or thoughts. All he could do was resist the urge to scream as tears rolled down his face and his chest got thick with the weight of despair. Red, in all it's glory, tore through his system as the yellow descended upon the rest. Sam's fists flew and just as they had on the first day they began to hit hard and fast. Nothing could stop them. There wasn't a cure as there had been before.

This time, Pavement was the first to get hit. Sam's body moved before he could even register it. No breath, no lungs, a jab to the neck and then a kick to the groin. Falling, falling, falling, he watched as the others too fell to the powerful man. I ache. Why do I ache? Why am I aching? My head. Head. Head. Arms. Throat. Dammit, Sam...my dick hurts again.

"All of you! Stay on you're fucking knees," Sam shouted. He had a weapon in his hands. Where it came from didn't matter. Nothing seemed to make sense, so why would there be a rational reason for that? "I want you to kill him." The weapon was pointed at Erza, who merely whimpered and held his hands high above his head. Blood rolled down the sides of his face in rivets. "If you don't beat his damn body to death, I'll torture you until you die."

In all his complaints, Pavement didn't notice the colors or clouds melting together. He didn't notice the beep-beep-beeping or the sneers or the laughter that came from Sam's deranged mouth. Despite everything, Pavement was actually almost happy about the colors and the pain and Sam's horrid speech.

He was aware.

"Who want's to go first, huh?"

He was alive.

"Anyone? Well, well, I guess it'll have to be torture, won't it?"

He was dreaming.

"You think I'm kidding?! You think I'm fucking kidding?!"

But most of all, Pavement was sad. Sad just as he'd been scared, and scared just as he'd been mad. The emotions winding through him as Erza once more whimpered on the ground.

Sam's knife cut into the boys skin. Once more he threatened, "If you don't kill him, I'll fucking kill each of you and peel off every layer of your skin. Hear me? Hear me?!" His face was red. His neck was red. Sam wasn't sad as the color was. No, he was angry, and Pavement saw the yellow of anger exploding across his face. Boiling, the bubbles popped as the knife slid in deeper.

Maurus was the first to break. Pavement was right behind him. Neither seemed to be aware of what they were doing but that didn't stop it from happening. "Stop," Maurus said, "stop messing around!"

Erza cried harder as the knife slipped in deeper to his throat. The blood stained the snow, melting it and sizzling the same way it had with the candle wax. Sam's hand was shaking as he held it there, his entire body saturated in the color. Rain fell down from the heavens, sticking to the colors as it did. "Kill him now," he threatened. Dammit, Sam, quit this. Just stop.

"No," Pavement said. He stood from his knees, shaking. "You can't just decide to change like this. I don't give a shit! I don't care!" Tears fell from his face. An active sign of weakness. Pavement was weak. He was worthless. He didn't care. "I won't let you just keep pulling this. Either we work together or we don't, I don't care, but you're going to put that damn knife down or I'll make you put it down. Hear me?"

The knife met bone. In one clean swoop, Sam decapitated Erza and his cries were no more. There wasn't a single thing left but a body that would be taken home in two pieces. The rain fell harder and thunder boomed in the sky, melting the snow even though it was freezing cold. Sleet mixed in and within moments it was just ice falling and hitting them hard. The colors fell and drained down with Erza's blood as the three boys all stood, staring at one another, and Sam collapsed against the ground. Knife forgotten, he sobbed as Maurus shook his head and sighed.

"There's a reason why I left you guys," he said, his voice soft. Turning, he began to leave them there. "When the time comes for just us left, I hope you're dead by then. It's nothing personal. I just don't want to be the one to do it."

It wasn't until after he left that the ice and sleet quit falling. The temperature was far below zero, just waiting and staying in hopes for worse to come soon. Pavement stood beside the boy, who only lay in the snow, and stared off into the distance. His thoughts didn't make sense. He didn't need them to.

As his eyes drifted closer and closer together, a small beeping could be heard. In slow, dizzy motions, it hit the icy and stayed there. A box of metal, waiting to be opened, containing good or bad or anything in-between. With a stoic mind, Pavement opened it up, feeling his numb fingers hit one another as he fumbled with it. They were growing blue with frost and soon he'd have to make another fire. Inside was a tiny thermos with no note attached. Without a thought, he opened the top and took a big gulp.

"Hot chocolate," he muttered. "Do you like hot chocolate, Sam?"