Trigger warnings- Several minor character deaths. 

Finley took the rope out.

"No, Castel, don't give it to her," Kaiden begged, trying hard to push Adrielle off of him.

"You think I'm going to trust you to not try and kill me again?" Adri snapped. "No way, Castel, the rope."

Finley wasn't sure what to do. Part of him trusted Adri by now and wanted to give the rope to her. Another part was scared of not taking Kaiden's side. He knew that Kaiden wouldn't forgive him if he took her side.

"C-can't you just let it go?" Finley stammered.

"Fine," Adri replied, raising the knife. "I'll just kill him instead."

"No!" Finley shouted. "Ok, here. Take it." He handed her the rope.

Using her knife, Adri hacked off a small piece of the rope, and with a lot of struggling from Kaiden, she tied his hands together.

Kaiden, unsurprisingly, began throwing a herd of insults at the two of them. Again, Finley couldn't help but be reminded of home.

"If you don't shut up, I'll find something to cover that big mouth of yours as well," Adri scolded.

Kaiden, wisely, went silent.

—-----

They moved on quickly after this incident. Kaiden refused to speak to either of them. He hated them. He knew now that it was stupid to try and kill Adri while she was sleeping, but had he succeeded, his plan would've worked.

What he wanted to do was kill Adri, then steal Finley's bag and leave with Adri's knife. Finley would end up dying soon after and he'd be able to go and win this thing by himself. Now, he was stuck. If it wasn't for the rope tied around his wrists, he would've continued by himself anyway, weapon or not.

Finley clearly agreed with what Adri had done. As a result, Kaiden hated him even more. Before now, he hadn't thought that was possible.

Suddenly, they heard footsteps on their left. Adrielle turned towards their opponents.

"Castel, take the rope off of Lynch, will you?" Adri whispered.

Finley did so. Kaiden felt better now that he could move his hands again. He didn't bother thanking him.

The three of them stood their ground, waiting for the attackers to arrive.

Then, out of nowhere, a boy who must've been about eighteen or nineteen jumped on top of Adrielle. Kaiden immediately tried to pull him off of her, but it was useless, the boy was much stronger than him.

Kaiden kept on pulling at the back of the boy's jumpsuit until he stood up. He pointed a knife at Kaiden's chest. His green eyes glinted threateningly. Kaiden was slightly afraid, though he didn't show it. With his green eyes, he might have looked like that to Adrielle or Finley. If so, no wonder they seemed scared of him.

The boy moved his finger to pull the trigger. Just as he was about to pull the trigger, Adrielle jumped on him out of nowhere. She quickly sliced her knife across his throat.

A foghorn was heard as he died. The foghorn signalled that a contestant had just died.

Then, Kaiden remembered that they'd heard two sets of footsteps. He turned to see if Finley was still alive. He was shocked to see Finley standing over a girl's body. She looked about fifteen. Finley was standing in shock, staring at her body.

"I-I killed her," he muttered. The foghorn sounded, confirming that he had indeed killed her.

"Nice one, Castel," Kaiden said. "I didn't think you'd have it in you to do that."

"Yeah, no offence, but neither did I," Adri added.

Finley just kept staring, looking shocked and almost horrified at what he'd done.

"We should move so that they can collect the bodies," Adri explained.

"Yeah, come on Castel," Kaiden ordered.

Finley didn't move.

Kaiden grabbed his wrist and pulled him away from the fallen contestants.

They heard more footsteps. This time it was someone running. They bumped into Kaiden and promptly pinned him to the ground. Their purple jumpsuit was wet for some reason.

"Corey, no!" Adri cried out.

"What?" Corey asked. "He was going to kill you!"

"No, he wasn't. We're in an alliance."

"You teamed up with the Kyrahians?"

"Well you didn't want to team up did you?"

"Yeah, well, I didn't expect you to ally with the born losers of the games."

"We are right here," Kaiden said from underneath him.

Corey stood up. "Are you sure you can trust them, Adri?"

"You can trust me," Finley said. "I'm not the one who tried to kill Adri last night."

"You did what!" Corey shouted, pulling Kaiden up and pinning him against a tree. He held his sword across his throat.

"Corey, he just saved me from one of the Laveans," Adri interjected.

"The Laveans attacked you?"

"Yeah, but don't worry, they're dead."

Corey let go of Kaiden. "Fuck!" He screamed loudly.

"What's the matter?" Adri asked.

"I was teamed up with the Laveans and you fucking killed them? Did you take their weapons and shit too?"

The trio looked at each other. None of them had thought of that at the time.

Corey laughed. "You're so stupid, Adri. Teaming up with the worst kingdom you could've picked and almost getting yourself killed twice?"

"Do you want to join us?" Adri enquired.

Corey laughed again. "No. Why the fuck would I want to join with these two losers. I'd just be setting myself up to be a failure."

Kaiden tried not to let these words affect him. He looked over to Finley and saw that these words had clearly hit a nerve with him too.

"Don't say that, Corey. They're both really smart, and brave. Kaiden helped save me from one of the Laveans, and Finley killed one of them all by himself."

"Not intentionally," Finley remarked.

"Not intentionally?" Corey questioned. "See Adri, they don't even want to kill anyone. They're fucking useless. Come on, let's just kill them and carry on by ourselves."

"No," Adri replied, bluntly. "You weren't interested in teaming up before, and now just because you're alone, I'm good enough for you now? Why would I want to team up with you now? I have two strong, brave and intelligent allies already. I don't need you to protect me."

"No, you don't need me to protect you. You've got the two losers from Kyrah doing that for you. Oh, and did you forget that one of them tried to kill you?"

"I did step in to protect her when one of the Laveans was about to kill her," Kaiden interrupted. "I could've ran off and left her, but I didn't."

"No one asked for your opinion, Kyrah. The adults are talking here." Corey snapped.

"Adults? You're talking to her like she's a child. At least Castel and I treat her with some form of respect and not an accessory."

"Oh, shut up. I could kill all three of you in a second."

"Go ahead," Kaiden replied. "I'd like to see you try."

They all waited, but Corey didn't move.

"Just face it, Astra, she doesn't want to team up with you," Kaiden said, "she's happy with the losers."

The three of them began to walk away.

"Fine," Corey snapped. "If you're not with me, then you're against me." He dashed forwards and shoved Adrielle to the floor, raising his sword so that he could stab her in the back.

Kaiden pulled Corey off of her with all his might. He snatched his sword away and lifted it before stabbing him in the stomach.

Finley turned away as Kaiden pulled out the sword and wiped it on some moss.

Within a few seconds, Corey was dead. The foghorn confirmed it. The trio had just made their third kill.

—-----

"Thanks for saving me earlier," Adri said after a while.

"You're welcome I guess," Kaiden replied. "To be honest, I don't know why I saved you. Castel and I could've easily killed Corey after he killed you."

"Careful, Kaiden, don't make me regret letting you live."

Finley laughed. He enjoyed seeing their small gripes at each other. It made him forget about the fact that he'd be dead soon.

"Shut up Castel," Kaiden snapped.

"So," Adri said while they were walking. "What should we talk about?"

"I could tell you about the time I stopped my brother from getting beaten up," Kaiden suggested.

"Castel, why don't you tell us something about yourself? Adrielle said, glancing up at Finley who, until now, had been walking along silently, listening to them talk.

"My life's not that interesting. Why don't you listen to Kaiden's story? You two seem to be getting on perfectly fine without me." Finley replied, bitterly.

"What's that supposed to mean, Castel?" Kaiden asked, stopping to glare at him.

"Well neither of you actually care that much about me do you? Kaiden only asked me for an alliance so he can stab me in the back whenever I'm not good enough for him anymore, and Adri only agreed to join us so she didn't get killed. Whenever I mention Raven, you get all defensive and yet you mention him whenever you like. So why don't you just go on by yourselves."

Finley took a deep breath and continued, "you don't even call me by my real name."

"Unlike you, I'm not as much of a loser as everyone thinks. I asked for an alliance so that I can win. You have no fucking chance of winning, Castel." Kaiden snapped.

"You think I don't know that! I've been called a failure since I was ten! Anyway, I'd have a better chance of surviving a little longer if I had allies who actually cared that I was here in the first place. Don't forget I killed that girl by myself."

"Yeah," Kaiden replied. "She was like half your size. Don't get too cocky."

"Like you, you mean," Finley snapped back. He paused for a moment and thought about what he was about to say. Then, he continued, "why can't you be more like Raven? At least he tries to make people like him. No one even likes you back home. They only like you when you're winning sports games. You'll never be as good as Raven."

"Don't fucking say that, Castel!" Kaiden screamed.

"Ok, enough!" Adri shouted. "We need to work out another plan. This isn't working. We need to stop arguing and losing it with each other. If we keep fighting, we might find ourselves joining Corey and the Laveans."

"Fine," the two boys muttered.

The three of them sat down in a circle so that they could decide what to do.

"Ok so, Kaiden, what do you think we should do?" Adri asked.

"Well it's simple isn't it," he replied, "we kill Castel."

"What!" Finley exclaimed. "We're supposed to be allies!"

"Finley calm down," Adri said. "What do you think we should do?"

"I could head off by myself."

"Yeah, and end up getting killed in five minutes. Everyone knows that the other kingdoms like killing the Kyrahians as slowly and painfully as possible." Kaiden explained. "If we killed you, it'd be quick and pretty much pain free."

"I agree that going off by yourself probably isn't a great idea. There's still six other selected left, excluding us. You'll probably be killed rather quickly."

"Which other kingdoms are there then?" Finley asked. Having never left Kyrah, he was interested to know about the other kingdoms.

"There's Astra, Halei, Kyrah, Lavea, Phia and Ronera," Adri replied.

"Can we just get on with this so we can get moving?" Kaiden groaned.

"Alright," Adrielle snapped. "Finley, do you want to leave?"

"No," Finley replied, having reconsidered his rather rash decision.

"Ok. Kaiden, are you ok with that?"

"No," Kaiden replied. "If he's sticking around he can make himself useful."

"How?" Finley asked.

"Simple," Kaiden said, standing up. He removed his backpack and threw it on the ground. "You can do the easy job of carrying our stuff for us."

That's not fair Kaiden," Adri retorted. "He's not your slave."

"If he wants to live to see tomorrow, he'll do what I say." Kaiden replied, bluntly.

Adrielle opened her mouth to argue with him again, but Finley cut her off. "Leave it Adri," he muttered, as he picked up Kaiden's backpack and followed him.

—------

Several hours later, the three of them still hadn't spoken to each other. Not a single trial had occurred since the last one. It was starting to get dark again.

"Why does it get dark so fucking early?" Kaiden complained.

"It's November Kaiden," Finley replied, "it gets dark at like four."

"Shut up, Castel," Kaiden snapped in response.

"We should rest again," Adri suggested.

This time, Kaiden found them somewhere to sleep. A clearing covered with trees.

The temperature had dropped and all three of them were freezing cold. They were also very hungry.

My bag, Castel," Kaiden said, neglecting to say please.

Finley handed it to him. He didn't say anything else. He watched as Kaiden removed three crackers for Adri, three for himself and just one for Finley.

"You're used to being hungry," was his excuse for the discrepancy.

When they'd eaten and had some water, it was time for them to decide who would take the first watch.

"Castel can take the first watch," Kaiden said. "We'll switch in six hours."

"Six?" Finley questioned. "Last night we switched every two hours?"

"Adri and I need to rest considering we're the ones who have weapons. You're pretty useless in a fight."

Once again, Adrielle didn't argue. She looked at him with sympathy and mouthed out an apology. Then she and Kaiden went to sleep.

—-----

It was almost daylight when Finley opened his eyes. The last thing he remembered was Adri's look of sympathy before she and Kaiden went to sleep.

He looked at where Kaiden was. He was still fast asleep. He turned to look for Adri, but she was gone.

"Kaiden," he whispered, shaking him gently. "Kaiden!"

Kaiden woke up and looked at where Adrielle had been last night. Next to where Adri had been, there was a tree, with a message scratched into it.

Sorry. I couldn't take it anymore. Kaiden, I hope you die a painful death. Finley, I hope you win.

"That girl is dead when I get my hands on her," Kaiden said. He had a glint of anger in his eyes.

Although Finley didn't share the same level of anger as Kaiden. Adri had left him alone with Kaiden. A small part of him couldn't help but agree.

So, the alliance is gone! Do you think we'll see Adrielle again? Do you think Finley has a chance of winning? Will Kaiden die the painful death Adrielle is hoping for?