Heart of Darkness: the Forty-Fourth Hunger Games

Chapter 19

I can't read the reviews and see who wants what allies, so I did the ones I knew wouldn't get allies.

Laicao Dust- D12

There was food in the other rooms, but there wasn't food in the big room. I'd eaten just a few minutes ago, but that wasn't important. Eating just meant getting energy to find the next food source. I stalked the room like a patrolling Peacekeeper, and the other children moved out of the way as I came by. I smelled something green in the air and followed the scent to a table.

The table was covered with bowls full of leaves. I snatched one and sat underneath the table as I gobbled the leaves. They were lighter and juicier than the leaves I got in the mine, since they'd seen more sunlight.

"Hey, there! What are you doing down there?" the man by the table asked. He bent over and craned his neck to look at me. I scooted back further under the table and kept eating.

"You should be careful. Some of these are poisonous," the man said. He reached under the table and his arm got near my bowl. I clutched it to my chest and growled at him.

"Don't be rude. I just want to help," the man said. He got on his hands and knees and came under the table toward me. I sprang toward him and growled louder. He made a noise and fell on his backside to get away from me.

"Security!" he yelled. Two more pairs of legs appeared beside the table and something yanked my shirt from behind. I squalled and twisted as someone picked me up and the other two men helped carry me out into the hall and to my room. The man carrying me dumped me on the floor and all three of them sprinted out of the room, slamming the door on me when I tried to follow. I pounded the door a few times in case they tried to come back, then settled back into the middle of the room.

A light flashed on the wall, startling me. It was coming from a button over a hole in the wall. I went over to it and looked at it, but I couldn't tell what it was. It started to blink, and I gave it an explorative tap. There was a ding and the bottom of the hole opened up. Another bottom rose up, carrying a plate with a piece of meat on it. I snatched the plate off and ate the meat.

The light was still on, and I touched it again. Another platform came up, this time carrying a bowl of soup. I took that too and drank it while I watched the hole in the wall. As long as the light stayed on, I never had to leave the room again.

Shinju Matshushita

No one was on the roof at night. Some of the others would have been scared of being so high. For others, it would have been too much of a temptation. I leaned over the edge and looked out at the moonlit night. The air was thin and clear and free from everything that filled the land beneath me. I wished I could feel myself grow smaller and fly away on leathery wings. The night wa where I belonged, and I wished it would last forever.

The Games would start soon, and I wouldn't have to hide anymore. Everyone else was the same as me. They said it was wrong to kill, but they watched us kill each other every year. They didn't try to stop it. They took bets. When that gong sounded, I could run at someone like I'd always wanted, and I would feel their warm blood on my teeth. Finally, I could be what I was meant to be.

Monster. That had been the title of the book I read so long ago, and that was what everyone called me. A monster was something to be afraid of, something that hid in the night. A monster hurt and killed. No one loved a monster, and she wanted no one's love.

Before I was old enough to understand my parents weren't coming back, I used to have dreams. I dreamed of grand adventures and making friends and what I would be when I grew up. I had fantasylands filled with mystical creatures and mysterious worlds. I could spend hours drawing them in the dirt or scratching them under my bed. Before I had nightmares, I had dreams. Before I knew I was alone, I wanted other people to be part of my dreams.

It was good to be a monster. What was feared had no fear. What hurt and killed others wasn't hurt and killed. People were afraid of vampires because they didn't die. If my parents had been like me, they'd still be with me. If I had someone to love me, I might have wanted love.

Monsters of the kind I was going to become weren't born. They were made when another evil attacked them in darkness and turned them into something they weren't before. I started changing years ago, and I wanted to be complete at last. As a vampire, I would be cold and dead. I would be free of the pain and petty emotions I'd been carrying around. I wouldn't have nightmares anymore. I would be someone else's nightmare.

There I go again making it harder to hate the villain. I can't seem to help it.