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SEVEN

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𝐏𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐀 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐍𝐈𝐊𝐎 𝐆𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐃 𝐀𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 as Keres determined the best way to head into the city. She couldn't expect them to just walk right in, they needed a way to sneak in through the immediate alleys and into one of the buildings. She just wasn't sure which one would be best. Would the closest one be too obvious? Or would one deeper in the city leave them trapped?

"We should avoid the fountain and the lake," muttered Niko. "If the city is north and the lake is west, then let's head to the east. We can make a big circle, see where the arena ends."

"We need shelter," said Keres, shaking her head. "We can't spend the entire night getting frostbite."

There was no better plan. They needed to head straight into the city. Keres fixed her backpack across her chest, hooking the straps together to keep it from moving too much if they needed to run. It was hard to keep her head up as the rain came down, she wanted to shield her face and eyes but if she kept looking at the ground she wouldn't be able to see any danger around her. This would be the perfect time to attack and she feared that the most as they neared the city border. Maybe they should've waited a little longer, maybe until it had gone completely dark, but they couldn't risk it, could they? No, Keres thought to herself, they couldn't wait much longer at all.

The change from the woods to the city was drastic. No longer were they protected by trees and leaves. The stone buildings opened them up to the sky and breathable air no longer held down by thick leaves, mist, and humidity. There was nothing poetic about this place other than its inexplicable need to hold death in its hands and call forth those trying to run from it.

"Which building should we try?" asked Niko, glancing up one of the taller ones with their windows blown out and the brick slightly crumbling for an aesthetic effect. This wasn't the first time the Gamemakers had made a ruined city, but it was the first to have one still intact for the most part. "Getting caught up too high could be an easy trap."

"But getting caught too low will ensure someone can find us too easily," said Lia as Keres gnawed on the inside of her cheek.

They were both right. Neither option was good but they needed something, somewhere that was dry to huddle up inside even for an hour or two. Keres kept them moving, keeping the area the fountain was located in always in the corner of her eye. She wished the weapons the Peacekeepers used were allowed here. A gun would've made Keres's life a lot easier, but only Peacekeepers and those manufacturing them in District 2 ever used them. It made her wonder if any of the Career's used them.

She felt tense in the city but she understood this was the only option. But there should've been more noise. Just like the birds earlier, there was no sound except for the rush of rain.

"We need to just go in one now," said Niko, shivering. "It's getting worse out here, Kere, we gotta go inside."

She'd stopped walking and hadn't realized it.

"Keres, we're cold and tired, we gotta go."

Something was wrong. Unnatural. Lia had been talking but Keres was tuning her out with Niko as she looked around. Her hand tightened on her knife and she searched the buildings above her head for any watchful eyes. She located a camera from the Gamemakers against the corner of the building closest to them, tracking and blinking red.

They had an audience.

Keres held her arm out to stop Niko from walking forward and he bounced back against her. His brows furrowed and he turned his head to look off where the trees still guarded them from the forest. He took two quick steps forward and shoved Lia out of the way and into the wall of the building as something soared through the air.

How had he seen it and not her?

Blood splattered across Lia's face and Keres felt it spray across her own neck as the ax brought Niko to his knees as he gurgled. It was warm against her skin as it dripped and mixed with the rain, like the running water of a shower in the Capitol. She felt it slip under her shirt, running languidly against her skin. Blood against skin, blood always against flesh.

When her eyes finally found the mess, her stomach turned hot and hard. His right eye was gone, lodged deeply underneath the weight of the blade in his skull. The blood looked nearly black as it ran down from his face, black running through the white crack oozing and pouring out from a shattered skull.

Bone fragments could be seen through the crushed skull, all white and sharp as his eye continued to ooze and bubble. Eyes were never supposed to be exposed like this, like a cracked egg, a peeled shell and gushy inside. There was no longer anything capable of sight within his ruined eyes.

Niko made an unintelligible sound as shouting and whoops cleared out from the trees. Keres spun her knife into position against her palm until she had Niko by the back of the head in a soft and gentle embrace. She wanted to whisper to him that she was here, that she would make it better, but they both knew it would never get any better from this.

Maybe death truly was the only escape for them here.

He was blubbering and seething against a wound that he would succumb to in a few painful and agonizing minutes if not for her, as his words became fragments and then nothing at all. What's going on? What's going–What–Wh–

She met the frantic gaze of his one good eye as blood ran into his pupil and through his trembling lips. He was completely unseeing but Keres thought, for a second, he was seeing her. He gave her a nod through his agony, as if he could recognize her from touch, and she gave him mercy.

Sweet, beautiful, goddess of mercy, reign your calm over our old bones.

Niko was dead in seconds and she was tearing the ax free from his skull as the canon sounded once her blade pierced through neck, bone, and brain. It all happened so quickly. Niko stepping forward and saving Lia's life, pushing her out of the way, dropping to his knees, his death, and now the girls hands gripping each other and running for shelter as Titus whooped and cheered.

We gotta go, he'd said before he'd sensed what she had. That they had been followed, trapped against the buildings and the forest where they lurked. Keres no longer felt cold as she pumped her arms and dragged Lia beside her. Darting into an open and semi-collapsing hole in the side of one of the buildings further into the ruined city, Keres pressed Lia against the wall beside the opening and just out of sight.

She kept the ax tightly in her hands, ready to slash it outwards if someone dared to enter but she watched them run past her, still cheering and laughing. Giddy from the kill, even though Keres had taken the final blade to Niko's soul.

She made note of how she didn't see her brother or hear his voice mixed with the chilling laughter of Vita. It was a high pitched giggle, something that would surely haunt Keres in her dreams. When she was sure they were gone, she sagged forward and wrapped her arms around her knees to catch her breath.

The blood on her face was dry by then.

Outside, through her breathing and rapid heart rate, she heard the Capitol hovercraft arrive for the body. Keres could only imagine Niko with his arms outstretched like a form of Christ rising from death. Swaying with the crane, with the craft as it began to move, as it took him away for repairs and then later a burial once the games ended.

Beside her, Phelia was shaking but still standing. Keres couldn't understand how her legs could work after all of that. Niko had sacrificed himself for her and she was standing. Maybe Keres could see it all more clearly than her, maybe she'd grown accustomed to death, but the vacant look in the other girl's eyes told her that maybe she should be more kind here.

"Lia," she whispered, holding her hand up, "sit down, please."

The girl couldn't even meet her eyes.

"Lia," Keres was hissing now. "Sit. Down."

When she didn't respond, Keres took hold of her wrist and yanked her down to her knees. Lia was shaking, a thin layer of sweat building up against her face as Keres took both hands against her cheeks.

"Look at me," said Keres, squeezing until Lia's unseeing eyes finally found hers. "We need to move, we aren't safe here."

"Where–where do we go?" Her voice was weak as she spoke. "They're...they're everywhere."

"We go up," said Keres, pointing. "We climb a few stories, keep away from the windows, and hunker down for the night."

"The storm..."

Keres nodded, running her hands down to the girl's shoulders and then arms, soothing her. "We get through the night, we can leave and find somewhere else."

Lia nodded, slowly, still with the dazed look on her face.

"Can you walk? Can you climb?"

Lia nodded again. It was the most she was truly capable of.

Keres stood slowly and eased Lia back into a standing position, still pressed tightly against the wall. The opening there would prove to be dangerous but it wasn't in direct line of sight to the broken staircase across the room. The entire unstable first floor they were on now was littered with rocks and bricks, fallen from the ruined wall.

She pulled Lia along with her to the stairs and made her way onto the first wooden step. It didn't creak but it bent slightly with her weight. She made sure they both went up one at a time until they reached the first floor, wooden like the stairs but more sturdy.

There were a few open windows but nothing too gaping. They would be protected against the far wall in the corner from any wind or chill, so Keres led them there. The staircase was broken leading to the third floor, smashed to pieces leading up into a dark room above them. They would have to take turns sleeping by the looks of the eerie room waiting above them.

"I've never seen that before," whispered Lia once Keres worked on their sleeping bag. It was all they had to sleep on.

Keres didn't speak.

"He was...he was fine and then...then he wasn't." Lia's eyes were wide when Keres looked up. "You acted like it was normal, you ran to him, and I–I couldn't even breathe."

She shook her head, throwing her bag down beside her. "I'm used to the blood, Lia, that's all. I'm still..." She sighed. "I'm still shook up too."

No emotion crossed Lia's face as she deadpanned, "I never thought he'd make it to the final five but he wasn't supposed to go like that. So–so violent."

Her confession rattled Keres only slightly. If not for Niko's limp, she too would've hoped he'd make it far but, well, we're not always that lucky. Keres waited for the girl to continue to speak.

"Why did they laugh like that? Like–like it was all some game to them?"

"Because it is," said Keres. "This means nothing to them. It's just a stepping stone to riches and a life they'd been promised since they were five. None of the lives they take here matter to them. It's all a means to an end."

"But why?" Lia sounded desperate. "Why does it have to be this way?"

"Ask the President," muttered Keres, finally resting her body against the floor and wall. She was tired but knew she would have to take the first watch. The Careers were surely still in the area. "Ask the Districts why we've just gone along with this. Ask the winners if they're so happy with what they've done here, but don't ask me."

Lia made a face, clearly not expecting that reaction but what else could Keres really say? She didn't know why this was still something they had to face as children. That there were some of them so righteous in their killings that nothing else mattered until they were wearing the golden crown. It made her sick with the thought.

"Niko didn't deserve this."

"None of the dead do."

Lia shifted on her feet until she was sitting down beside Keres against the opposite wall, their feet and legs grazing the others. "Did...did you know any of the past tributes?"

"Does it matter?"

"Of course, it does."

"You're just looking for a distraction," muttered Keres, shaking her head. "You don't really care."

Lia pressed her lips together. "Maybe, but maybe I want to know what the games have done to you now that I've seen what they've done to me."

Keres felt the wind shift outside, the building creaking and moaning, but there were no sounds of laughter. There hadn't been any sounds of footfalls or people since they'd run past earlier. They were safe here during the storm.

"They haven't done anything to you," muttered Keres. "Niko...it could've been much worse with him."

"But it still happened," cursed Lia, shaking her head. Her hands were bunched up and nearing her face, as if to bury her head in them. "He died. I knew him and he died." She was near tears again. "How many more do we have to live through?"

"Seventeen." Keres picked up a rock and thought against throwing it across the room. "If you live, you'll only have to see seventeen more people die."

Lia shook her head before resting it back against the wall. "He was a good guy, Niko was. He..."

"He saved your life."

"He was my friend."

He was a good light, Keres thought. He was kind and funny, and now he was dead. There wasn't much more left to say other than that. To shed a few tears, somehow push through, and come out on the other side. They just needed to make it to the next day and then the next.

"Your brother wasn't with them," muttered Lia, who seemed to find talking an effective deflection from dealing with her feelings. A good defense mechanism if Keres's wasn't the urge to drive her fists into the wall from being so stupid.

They should never have left the trees.

"I know," said Keres. "Neither were Adonis and Bryn."

"Where do you think they've gone?"

Keres shrugged. "Scouting to the other side of the arena? I don't know."

Lia shifted, rocking her head back and forth against the concrete wall. Everything was concrete and wood here, broken rubble, nothing but little pieces and ruins. "You're not worried?"

"I know who his loyalties lie with," muttered Keres, "and it's not with them."

Her brother would always be hers. He was no one else's but hers. Always hers.

"We'll never be able to kill him, you know," she whispered, Lia's voice like silk. "Titus...he'll win this entire thing."

Keres frowned, pulling her stupid jacket sleeves over her cold fingers. The ax lying by her side was itching for her to rasp but she kept it beside her leg, just out of reach of her tingling fingers. "What about us?"

"What about us?"

"You don't think we can?"

Lia scoffed, seeming to almost return to her normal self but Keres knew her dreams would be where the nightmare's would come back. That was their home now, inside their brains. "Titus and Vita will be the last two standing."

"Not us?"

"I don't want to pretend anymore, Keres."

"You can with me."

She shook her head. "I could with–with Niko, but not with you. You see right through me."

I see right through everyone, thought Keres, I see through every little lie we tell ourselves. It won't get better. We won't survive.

"I'll tell you what I think is going to happen," said Keres, finally allowing herself to curl her fingers around the handle of the ax, sleek and entirely metal. Handle, blade, it was cold and hard. "The top five is going to be you, my brother, Titus, Vita, and me. That's who's going to be facing off with the other."

"You?"

Keres nodded, dragging the tip of the blade across the ground. It barely made a sound. "Titus won't survive the games."

"How can you be so sure?"

Keres dug the blade in deeper, watching a long scratch appear on the floor. "Because I'll make you a promise. Titus will die, whether he'll be the last or the first out of us five. He'll die."

She watched Lia's brows furrow out of the corner of her eyes. She would never believe her, until she saw the proof in the palm of her hand. Keres didn't want to kill anyone, not really, but it wasn't like she had a choice. She'd made a promise, not only to herself but to Elma. She would make it out of here, or Helios, and either one would take her vendetta to its end. The blade would always find its way home.

"Keres Lykaios," whispered Lia, eyelashes fluttering, "who the hell are you?"

Keres smiled. "Whoever the hell you want me to be."

That night, as Lia slept, fidgeting and fighting against her dreams, Keres kept her eyes on the window and the darkness from outside. It poured still, rain coming down in sheets of thick cold, perhaps even sleet and ice. Keres couldn't sit still, so she kept herself just out of sight from the window but where she could still see out into the world she was hiding herself from. There was a blinking camera in the room behind her, near the opening to the floor they wouldn't be able to reach unless they climbed and jumped high enough.

The camera would always be blinking but she thought of how nice it would be to drive a knife through its electronic core, watch the red die, and wonder if hundreds of people in the Capitol saw her face when it did.

She scratched dried blood from her chin, seeing it caked under her fingernails from where she'd grabbed Niko to take his life. No one should have to suffer for long, unless they deserved it. From what Keres could tell, Niko didn't deserve it at all. Neither did Magnus, Alder, Sage, or Zinnia. All too young, all too hopeful for a better end.

Keres wasn't as hopeful. She knew when she died, it would be bloody. It would be covered in gore and agony. No part of her would ever rest again from the pain of the blade that would surely take her life. She hoped she could see through the end of this, but not all things were meant to be hopeful over. Not everything deserved it.

Somewhere, deeper in the city, she knew her brother was there waiting his turn out. Helios, all too forgiving, was hunkered down for the storm with two little careers by his side. Helios, with all his brains, plotting away against the boy with the golden hair made pretty for a golden crown. Somewhere, Keres knew, her brother waited to get away.

When she finally laid her head down to rest, she saw images of blood and brains. She saw wolves with bloody maws and sunken eyes, she saw fangs and claws, and little liars.

She saw death walking, she saw herself in a mirror, she saw herself. She saw herself.

Niko called out to her, blood spilling down his chin as golden light erupted from his eyes and chest, straight through his throat and the opening in his skull. Where his brain should've been, there was light and soft pink things. He was God, an angel, her last guide.

Don't hold back, he said through choirs. Don't let them take this from you. Don't let them steal.

Keres nodded and took death's hand before thunder woke her from her slumber. Always woken, never seen or rested. Wolves were restless after dusk, anyhow.

She stalked out of her sleep, noticing Lia had fallen under sometime during her watch. She ignored how close they had gotten in their sleep, as if seeking out the last of the warmth. Stretching from side to side, touching her toes, working the tightness of her muscles free from the chambers of yesterday, Keres heard something peculiar from outside the window.

She crawled forward, ax gripped tightly in one hand as she approached the side to peer out. It was nearly morning, the sun cresting behind the trees. The sound echoed again, like a voice or a chirp. It was achingly familiar and Keres had to squint her eyes to see.

It wasn't a figure she recognized to be one of the tributes, but it was hunched over near the edge of the woods. It wasn't human, Keres could tell, but nearly animal-like. Was it a so-called mutt she'd heard whispers about? No...it wasn't dog-like. Not enough to be a hound of any sort.

"What are they?" asks Flickerman, looking to his companion across the table as the cameras flashed and the film rolled.

Claudius Templesmith, an announcer for the games, smiles. "I hear they're being called Mimics."

"Mimics?" Flickerman looks at the camera with a look of astonishment, one with a creeping grin. He knows, but won't allude to its mysteries here.

"I heard it's the up-and-coming Seneca Crane who's proposed the idea," says Templesmith. "Haven't you heard? He's in the running for Head Gamemaker. These creatures are just the beginning, these are only the prototype for the games to come."

"How splendid..."

"But these Mimics...well...you'll see."

Keres, unbeknownst to the conversation happening for millions to see, watched the creature tick and click, as if still getting used to its crooked and cruel body. It was a dangerous simulation, made of bloody parts and mechanics, no doubt. It had milky white skin and walked on all fours, like it couldn't quite figure out how to stand.

The thing moved about and let out a familiar sound, it was a screech now that Keres could hear it properly. Her brows furrowed. Not exactly a screech but someone yelling, someone shouting. It sounded...human.

Lia was sitting behind her and Keres held her arm out, hoping the girl understood to stay back when she fully woke. This thing didn't need to see or hear them, Keres had a feeling it would be deadly. When it turned its head and let out another desperate cry, one that made Keres's blood run cold, she saw rows of malicious and dripping teeth. All thin, all pointed and daggered.

The sound it was making, Keres had to swallow the fear.

"Is that...?" whispered Lia, fear lacing her words.

Keres could only nod.

"What is it?" Lie crept forward, peering past Keres's shoulder until she could see the beast too. "My god..."

"It sounds like him," whispered Keres, shaking her head. The creature, the awful thing mimicking Niko's cries, lurched forward and took off into the trees. "It has his voice."

"Which means," Lia swallowed thickly, "it has all of ours, too."

"They could be anywhere."

"Do you think...?"

Keres shook her head but the gap in the ceiling made her anxious. She wasn't sure but she said, anyway, "I don't think so."

Lia shook her head, taking a nervous step backwards. "We can't stay here." She was chewing on the side of her thumb. "But we can't leave."

"One of us could go scout, come back..."

"It's not safe."

Keres knew this but thought offering up the idea might soothe the other girl's mind, but no such luck. They were sitting ducks. It wouldn't be fair to let Lia sit here and wait, she wouldn't be able to fight off one of the monsters if it came slinking in here.

The beasts would be only another thing to fight, to kill. Keres could only pray Lia would be strong enough once it came down to the end. Except, sometimes, a blade wasn't enough to stop the wounds. Nothing could staunch the bleeding if it came from a broken heart.

AUTHOR'S NOTE━━yeah...no update in like 2 months and i come back w this garbage.....UGH, like i promise it'll get better ok i promise LOL

also....rip my baby niko but it was always meant to b like this </3 we love self-sacrifice in this fic tbh

pls pls vote/comment/interact somehow PLSSS it motivates me sm!!!!