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KILL FOR YOUR LOVE.

act one.

(chapter nine, welcome to hell)

the arena, 72 ADD.

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WHEN JUNIPER OPENED HER eyes, it took a moment for her sight to adjust to the scenery before her. The silver, shining Cornucopia. The perfect circle of all the other twenty-three tributes. The swampy, thick moat that surrounded their pedestals, reaching all the way to the little island the horn was on.

Juniper gulped as she looked around. Shrubs and oak trees surrounded them, all tangling into an array of intricate designs, their dark, mysterious greens causing the girl from Ten to be in a trance. And water, swampy water, surrounded them. It was infested with algae and lily pads and Juniper heard the sounds of toads croaking. 

The arena was a swamp. 

But she wasn't worried about the swamp. She wouldn't be alive long enough to even have some sort of stressed feeling about it. The only thing that she was concerned about was Justice. Where was Justice?

Juniper's breaths started to become laboured as she squinted her eyes to find her twin. She glanced around the perfect circle, around the moat, in order to find him, but with every look, it was not Justice. Where was Justice? Juniper began to panic when suddenly, she looked to her right. 

And, yes, she was glad when she found those honey eyes looking directly back into hers, when she saw the brown hair done into a gentle bun, when she caught a glimpse of the freckled face that belonged to Cedar, District Seven. She was so glad that she momentarily forgot about Justice, that her entire attention was on the girl onto her right. But Cedar's honey eyes turned into those of fear when suddenly, she caught sight of someone on Juniper's left. 

So, Juniper found herself tearing her eyes away from Cedar's face to look at the other tribute beside her. And her breath was caught in her throat when she saw the boy from Two, Jagger, staring right back at her. His muscles were practically ripping away the fabric of his tank top and jacket and Juniper considered jumping off of the pedestal early, just to get blown up. There was no way she was letting Jagger kill her. it had been her wish since the whole thing. No Career was allowed to kill her. 

Looking back at Cedar, Juniper mouthed, "Where's Justice?"

But all Cedar could do was shrug. Ash was three tributes to Cedar's right and was already looking at the two girls. Justice had to be behind the Cornucopia, hiding behind the silver horn. But, yet again, Juniper's attention was brought back to Cedar as she began to mouth something. But Juniper had no clue what she was saying so the girl resorted to signs. 

She pointed to herself, Juniper, and Ash, and then jammed her finger into the direction of the Cornucopia. She then nodded her head at one of the multiple oak trees in the swamp. Cedar wanted her, Juniper, and Ash to go to the Cornucopia and then meet at the oak tree farthest away. Juniper immediately shook her head. She needed to find Justice.

"They will kill you!" Cedar mouthed and pointed to Jagger, who was rubbing his nose as he got into a stance. But then she pointed to three other tributes on Juniper's left. They were surrounded by Careers'. Satin. Rayon. Leona. And Jagger. And Juniper knew that the only way to find Justice and to avoid being dead to One and Two was to follow Cedar's plan. 

And so, Juniper focused on what was in the Cornucopia. There were multiple things spilling out of its mouth. Bags, weapons, food. But the island that they were sitting on looked damp and sludgy with the soil from the moat, which was lapping over the boots of all tributes. And then Juniper realised that, to get to the horn, they needed to trudge through the murky water. Juniper concluded she needed to get her hands dirty first before dying. 

Suddenly, there was a thudding sound that echoed around the arena. At the entrance of the silver Cornucopia, the ten-second countdown began to start. Every thud, a second was taken down. Ten thuds and then the disaster was to happen. 

Cedar and all the other tribute got into a running stance when there were five-seconds left, but Juniper took deep breaths before gingerly reaching her foot over the pedestal, dipping the thick boot into the moat gently. It was thick. It was sludgy. It would slow everyone down if they went head-first. And so, Juniper merely stood there. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. 

When the gong went off, multiple tributes tried to sprint through the moat, Cedar included, but the sliminess, thickness of the swamp water slowed them down immensely. And it was waist-high.

"What are you doing?" Cedar turned around to yell at Juniper. Ash was already making his way to the horn. "Hurry up!"

And so, with the girl yelling at her, the Hale girl quickly jumped into the moat and shivered. The water itself was warm, but when she submerged herself in it, she could feel tadpoles swim past her. She could feel her baggy pants weighing her down. She could feel her boots stepping on something slimy and slippery as she tried to wade through the liquid, pushing away lily pads.

Toads leaped between them, flies and mosquitoes flew past them like darts, and egrets soared overhead. And whilst the scenery, with the exception of the sludge and extreme heat, would have been beautiful, the terror had already started. 

Tributes screamed left and right as some of the others had already managed to wade up to the Cornucopia, taking ahold of different weapons, stabbing those they saw. But what surprised Juniper was, when she looked over her shoulder, the Careers' were all having a hard time running through the liquid. The two girls kept falling into the moat whilst the boys's feet kept getting stuck in whatever slime was on the ground. 

"Cedar!" Ash shouted out and the two girls immediately looked to their right. He was already climbing up on the mud that was the Cornucopia island, not even a few metres away, and was waving them over. He had algae and dirt all over his clothes, his trousers heavy with swamp water. 

"Come on, Juniper." Cedar grunted as she began to pick up the pace, rushing to the Cornucopia island and the girl from Ten followed. 

Juniper was panting as she followed her because when she looked up, centimetres away from the mud, she saw the sight that was before her. Tributes already laid dead on the dirt, blood pouring out of their clothes as it mixed with the sludge. Their eyes looked soullessly into the sky as their murderers thrashed around with weapons, hunting the rest as they scavenged for supplies. But as Juniper reached up, her hand clinging onto the slimy, thick mud, it distracted her. 

It was difficult getting up to the Cornucopia, but after following Cedar's lead, Juniper was standing on both her feet, taking deep breath as she felt the swamp water drip off of her, sweat beading on her forehead, and the mud caking into her palms as she attempted to rub it off onto her trousers, staining them. 

"Get a bag! Or anything you can grab, really!" Cedar ordered as she joined Ash, rubbing her forehead and leaving a mark of dirt. Her counterpart was already rushing to the supplies, grabbing two bags and slinging one to his partner. Cedar caught it with one hand. "Come on, Juniper!"

"I need to find Justice!" 

"Find him after you grab a bag!"

Juniper groaned loudly as she looked around, but reluctantly followed the girl. She ran to the mouth of the horn, hearing the squelch of the mud underneath the soles of her boots. Hearing the screams. Hearing the cries. But not hearing Justice. 

When Juniper scavenged around, trying to find a bag and also trying to hold back a sob at the sudden realisation that Justice could already be dead, she saw a scrawny, mud-covered boy round the side of the Cornucopia. 

"Just!"

Justice immediately looked relieved when he saw Juniper, his eyes brightening up even more when he took a glance of Cedar and Ash. And, despite the severity of the situation with kids dropping dead everywhere, the Hale girl couldn't help but laugh at the mud that was smeared all over her brother's face.

"I slipped," Justice told her as he jogged up to the three, tumbling nearly, but Juniper immediately held her hands out to grab him. "Are we getting supplies?"

"Yeah, grab a bag." Ash turned to him, a pack on his back as he began to stalk to the weapons section at the end of the Cornucopia, their silver blades glistening in the darkness of the area. "Your sister is rubbish at doing that."

Juniper rolled her eyes as she bent down, grabbing a dark red bag and slipping it onto her back, Justice doing the same. And now, this was it. They had made it this far. Nearly six-seven-minutes. But now, as Justice and Juniper stood before each other, wide grins on their faces, it was time for them to die. And it would be okay. 

Until it wasn't. Until Juniper caught a glimpse of a blonde girl, a girl who looked awfully a lot like Satin, speeding towards Justice, knives in her hands as she flipped them, getting ready to throw. 

"Just! Watch out!" Juniper immediately yelled as she pushed him to the side, causing the pair to go stumbling down into the mud as Satin's blade went whizzing past their heads. When Juniper looked over her shoulder, still lying on the wet dirt, she saw Rayon come charging through with a spear. 

"Get up!" Cedar came over and grabbed Juniper by the shoulders, tugging her up as Ash helped Justice. They were all covered in mud, but the girl from Ten managed to see the axe that resided in Cedar's grasp, the sword that Ash was clinging to. 

"Come on!" Ash groaned as he adjusted the bag on his back, sidestepping a tribute and pushing them into the moat. "We have to leave here. We're in the middle of the bloodbath."

Juniper and Justice scrambled up onto their feet, nearly slipping on the mud, and had no choice but to race after Ash and Cedar, who rounded the other side of the Cornucopia and began to wade back into the moat. 

But as the pair from Ten did, chasing after Cedar and Ash, Juniper felt heavy in the heart. Yes, she wasn't supposed to be killed by a Career, someone from One at that, but she had to die. And so did Justice. They needed to go back to the Cornucopia, stand there, and wait for someone to get a lucky kill. If they were fortunate enough, it would be quick. But no, they were being dragged through the moat by the pair from Seven. This was not how it was supposed to go and all that confidence Juniper had about being sure of dying, it was slowly slipping. 

When they exited the moat, the four of them huddled on a small patch of land where the oak tree they had decided to meet was on. Cedar and Ash gripped their weapons as screams and yells of revenge could be heard. Juniper felt sick as she clung onto the straps of the bag. 

"Well, what do we do now?" Justice asked. 

"We get away from here." Ash nodded, looking over his shoulder. "I don't know about you three, but I'm getting the idea that this entire arena is just swamp lands and sludgy water."

And Ash was right, for when Juniper walked past the three of them, everything, as the eye could see, was very little land, multiple trees, and massive winding rivers and lakes of the swamp water. And frogs, flies, and mosquitoes littered the space. Juniper had a bad feeling. 

"Yeah," Cedar agreed. "I'm with Ash. We get as far away from here as possible. We find shelter. Check our bags. And live it out and hope we have sponsors."

Justice and Ash nodded whilst Juniper stayed silent. Her plan of death was a failure. She knew, deep down, Cedar would not kill her. She didn't think of her to kill anyone. And so, Juniper was thinking in her head of ways to die. She couldn't let this alliance live on because in the end, they were going to die. Justice and Juniper were going to die. But there was something about Cedar and the girl from Ten didn't know what it was. She just didn't want her blood to be on Cedar's hands either. She didn't want to traumatise her. 

"Come on, June."

Juniper hadn't even realised it, but Cedar and Ash were already sprinting through the swamp land, not caring a bit about treading through water. And Juniper followed them with Justice, darting through the foliage and shrubs, passing the toads and birds that infested the arena. They needed to get away from the Careers' and the boy from Eight. 

But as they did, leaping from land piece to land piece, wading through slimy lakes and rivers, Juniper thought back to the bloodbath. The Careers' would surely still be alive along with Dallas from Eight. She figured that Twelve and Eleven would be dead, as they always were at that point. And as she did a mental checklist of all the tributes, she stumbled across Wing and Hermes's names and Juniper concluded that they should still be alive. And maybe their way of dying. They certainly seemed nonchalant enough to kill and Juniper didn't mind dying at their hand.

And as Juniper thought about this, being at the back of the group as they continued to run through the swamp, she remembered her father. He would be watching, either at home or at the Milking Station. He would be surrounded by his peers, all supporting him as he watched his mud-covered children race away from death, still remembering about the promise he had forced Juniper to make. 

"Find a way, June. In a few weeks time, I expect both of you to be right here in Ten."

But the man was thinking of a fantasy by saying that. Old Orion Hale was going through denial because his children would be dying. They were going to be dead in a few hours, a few days. The man must surely know that. But as Juniper felt every second pass, every thought about her father pass, she felt her heart break. She wanted to be back at Ten with him and Justice, in his strong embrace as he said all the things a father should. But no, Orion Hale was back home, drowning in his sorrow whilst Juniper and Justice were drowning in a swamp in the Capitol. In the Hunger Games. 

The four tributes had been bolting through the mud and sludge for what seemed like forever when suddenly, the sound of a cannon echoed around the arena. The bloodbath had stopped and so, the Gamemakers would fire a cannon to represent every person that had died. And so, in silence, the four of them waited to see how many kids had been killed. 

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. 

"That's fifteen tributes including ourselves," Cedar murmured as the cannons stopped, the chattering of the animals and the buzzing of flies resuming. 

"Not including ourselves?" Justice asked. 

"Eleven... eleven left not including ourselves."

Juniper groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. Somehow, her and Justice had managed to outlive nine other tributes when it had been her intention to die straight away. And now, there were eleven other tributes, not including their alliance, wandering around. And four of them were Careers'. One of them had to be Dallas. And then two of them had to be Wing and Hermes. That brought some joy to Juniper. 

"That's not much for a bloodbath," Justice spoke up as everyone caught their breaths. They had to be a good distance away from the Cornucopia. But tributes could be anywhere. Juniper, however, was jumping at the idea. "Only nine."

"It's first day, nine are dead," Ash said. "By tomorrow, say three, that's twelve including us, eight not. Third day, say none. Fourth, say two, that's ten including us, six not. They'll do a Feast. Kill a good majority, I say five. Five left, one not including us... if all of us are still even alive by then."

"... you overthink things a lot." Justice smirked as Juniper raised a brow. Cedar was giggling to herself softly as she played with her axe. 

"I like to keep an open mind," Ash said. 

"Well, oh great Clairvoyant." Cedar laughed. "Lead the way."

And so, the four of them kept up their journey. Ash was at the front, sword raised, Cedar and Justice in the middle, and then Juniper at the back, clouded by her thoughts. There were eleven tributes left, not including them, and only two had the real power to kill her and Justice. Wing and Hermes. 

"Hey, what do you two know about Wing and Hermes?" Juniper called out as they waded through another lake of swamp water. 

"The pair from Six?" Cedar asked. "Not much... I know they have basically no feelings at all. I know the girl got an eight, the boy a nine."

"And Hermes is good with a sword, Wing with daggers." Ash looked over his shoulder to tell Juniper. "Watched them at training."

"Oh, well they aren't that good. I mean — I think he missed a few swings—"

Cedar and Ash began to mumble about the pair from Six, Juniper blocking them out as she began to think within her head again. Wing and Hermes were good with daggers and swords respectively. They both scored high in their training evaluations and they had no feelings. It wouldn't traumatise them. They would be the perfect killers. 

"Holy shit..."

Juniper froze immediately when she heard Justice curse under his breath, Cedar and Ash turning around with raised brows. The girl from Ten saw that her brother was pointing at something in the water and she followed his finger. He seemed to be pointing at a log. 

"A log?"

"That ain't no log, Juniper..." Cedar mumbled as she tightened the grasp on her axe. "It's a mutt..."

"Mutt? As in a muttation?" Juniper asked, eyes widening as she saw Ash sigh. "As in the animals created by the Capitol?"

"That would be the one." Cedar nodded as she gulped. "Alligator."

And Juniper blanched at the name and as she stared at what she thought was a log, she saw the two beady eyes glancing at them. She noticed the snout. She noticed the tail moving in the slimy water, causing a disturbance within the gentle waves. 

"I thought alligators had a fear of humans..." Juniper questioned. 

Ash took a deep breath as he responded, "This is a mutt... it's gonna be different... damn, we should have allied with the two from Four..."

"Thank you..." Justice mumbled. "... what do we do?"

Cedar began to lower her axe, signalling Ash to relax the grip on his sword as she said, "Back away slowly... don't cause a disturbance. If it is just an alligator, it'll swim away—"

"If it's a mutt?" Justice asked.

"A cannon will go off," Cedar whispered. "The Capitol don't spawn in mutts for no reason... look, they're so camouflaged, you can't even see them. You get too close, the mutt'll kill you."

So, following the girl's advice, all three of them slowly backed out of the water, crawling back onto a muddy piece of land where foliage and trees surrounded them. And whilst Ash suggested making camp there, Justice and Cedar both didn't want to sleep near the alligator so they had to silently move away from the mutt. The girl from Seven announced camp when they reached a dryish piece of land where they could camouflage in the shrubs and greenery. 

"I'll take the first watch," Cedar said as they all sat down on the piece of land. "Then Ash, Juniper, and Justice. We'll do it every two-hours."

And with everyone okay with that, they all started to settle down, Juniper having a war raging on in her mind when suddenly, the sky turned immediately dark, stars appearing everywhere as the Capitol Anthem began to echo around, the seal being projected high in the air. 

"Well, let's see who's dead..." Ash muttered. 

The first face to pop up was the District Four male, a skinny child whose face was round and nose flat. Juniper didn't even recollect seeing him at training and if she did, she wouldn't remember. And then it was the District Five female. Then the Eight girl, but it immediately jumped to the pair from Nine, meaning Dallas was still alive. And then lastly, it was the duo from Eleven and the two from Twelve. The trumpets finished and then they were immersed in darkness. 

"All the Careers' are still alive..." was the only thing Juniper had to say, also noting that Wing and Hermes had not died. 

"So it's the Careers'." Cedar nodded. "The two from Three. Girl from Four. Guy from Five. Wing and Hermes—"

"Us four," Ash interrupted. "Bloke from Eight... fifteen tributes, eleven not including us."

And as Ash and Justice fell asleep, Cedar on watch with her axe tight in her palm, Juniper couldn't help but feel down. She was supposed to be dead already. What were her and her brother doing alive? Wouldn't it be better to die earlier than later?

Juniper wished, as she leaned her head against Justice's shoulder, that Wing and Hermes could come traipsing through to where they were and quickly kill them. She wanted this hell to end already.