red elegy // roommates vs all bark no bite, day 4

[rook]

izzy rodríguez

The dawn is as deep and haunting as dusk, with hues of pink that bleed into heavy lavender clouds, whilst jagged, ugly lines of green scar the horizon. The black sand shifts, almost breathing before the great, glitching waves of the sentient lake. Tendrils manifest not just physically, but mentally reaching across and probing our thoughts - even from this distance, it's there, faintly, whispering to us. Calling us.

I don't like it here.

Since our encounter with the lake, Akira's been acting stranger around me. Wading into those waters was a mistake. We both were shown visions of broken pasts and potential futures, and now I fear my partner can't tell the difference between what's real and what was fabricated.

As we pack up camp, I move to sand over the embers of our fire to mask any smoke from signalling our location, before confronting Akira.

"What did the lake show you?" I abruptly ask.

With a little luck, I'll snap him out of whatever standoffish slump he's fallen into and bring him back to the here and now. The lake's got in his head, and I don't want to start my day off with killing him before I've even woken up properly.

His response is not what I expected.

"It told me you'd betray me." Akira says plainly.

Oh, so now we're just believing everything that a dark mystical lake that looks like it's phasing in and out of reality, are we? Christ.

I pause for a long while, contemplating what to say to him. I could give him assurances, but Akira's gonna believe what he wants to believe - he barely knows me, and first time we met I tried to rob him. Yeah we've fought side by side, but that's as far as our interests have aligned. Only one of us is getting out of here.

If he wanted to cut his losses, I wouldn't blame him.

"If it helps, I'm not planning on it." I opt for assurance.

"You will in the end, Iz. It's inevitable." He replies immediately.

I gawk, a little taken aback by how nonchalantly he's accusing me of something I haven't even contemplated.

"When it comes down to it, you'll put yourself first. That's how things always go." He shrugs.

Akira is so fucking infuriating. The guy thinks the world is against him. Oh, woe is me, everyone in my life has let me down. Oh, misery, that's the way of things. Fuck off, dude. If he stopped moping and actually got his head out of his ass he'd see he's got someone right here who's actually willing to help him.

And he's trying to push me away. I don't want that. We have a good thing.

"Look, Akira, I I know we haven't really spoken about it and that you may not fully trust me, and I don't blame you for that. But in all likelihood we're going to run into other Tributes soon, and things will start to get darker very quickly..."

I fold my arms, legs spread shoulder width apart, a slight frown cementing my stare.

"I want to make a deal, that we'll have each-others backs."

It's only fair to make this concrete. It's gone unspoken until now, an alliance built on mutual interest, but having each-others word is what will take it further. It's what'll keep us both alive.

"Before I make any deals with you, there's a problem we need to solve." He stops me in my tracks.

I see where this is going. Everything comes at a price. Akira wants me to prove that I'm trustworthy, that I'm deserving of a place at his side. Oh, I should be so lucky. So, what's the task, what do we need to do?

"I'm getting really fucking hungry Izzy."

"Eh, I could eat."

"You know what I mean."

Yeah, I do. He's got fangs like Nosferatu and an insatiable taste for blood. It dawns on me that finding something for him to eat isn't just going to keep him alive - it's what's going to keep me from being eaten. I don't know why they chose Akira to turn into a vampire, but it's me who's stuck with him.

"Blood." I confirm, "You need blood."

And there's only one readily available source for it. In the warm bodies of sixteen other tributes still left on this side of the pale.

"Well, I guess we're going hunting, then."

Sword in hand, shield half-raised, we trek across the barren landscape set before us. The dark ceiling stretches in a dome above us, a terrible skybox programmed to look like storm clouds on some junior gamemakers personal computer months ago. It's all a simulation, baby, all ones and zeroes.

Only real thing in here is right in front of us, two other kids scared for their lives.

We approach, and stop some ten yards away from them.

One looks feral, almost like a beast, and the other pale like Akira.

Lightbulb, Izzy get it, this girl gets it. The injections, we all got made into monsters, I'm just the only one who used the serem at the cornucopia to return to normal. Well, I hope Akira likes the taste of

"My boy's gotta eat, and you're what's on the menu." I say, sword resting on my shoulder.

"I'd say sorry, but I'm really not."



[Izzy attacks Finnagan, Ceremonial Sword]

MifmbyILvjsword

[Block -- 0.0 damage]

[accuracy reroll]

sword

[Stabbed Through Heart -- 40 damage]

sword·sword

[kap]

What was this hunger for a kill and a thirst for blood that was bubbling up inside you? It terrified you. Sure, the desire for killing was one you expected to have in the arena. You wanted to win, after all. As for the blood? You hadn't eaten meat in the last ten years, and now your mind was telling you that you wanted blood? It didn't feel right, especially given the fact that you seemed to be craving human blood.

In the morning, while you were trying to ignore the invasive, vampiric thoughts, you did your best to distract yourself. When you first woke up, you tried to shake the thoughts out of your mind, placed your flower crown atop your head, and reminded yourself that later, this would be a real crown— a victor's crown. You just had to get through whatever this was, first.

You tried to just think about the one face that appeared in the sky the night before: Fenrir Forrester. District Seven. They weren't someone you knew, but it was one last tribute to deal with later. You hadn't slept all night, merely pretending to do so whenever you thought Finn was looking over at you. You wondered if he noticed you were awake all that time. Had he slept?

Still, it wasn't enough of a distraction. As you and Finn walked, you decided that you needed to say something, just to have the chance to talk about it. You look at him.

"Finn?" you started. "I feel different. It's uncomfortable. I don't like it."

You paused for a moment.

"It's been since these fangs came in, and it's been getting worse and worse. I'm going to be honest with you. I think I want blood. Not just to hurt people but like, I want the blood itself." you explained.

Finn acknowledged your words with a hum.

"I think I'm different too… I want to hunt? People? Things?... I'm unsure fully." As he explained this, you realized this made sense. It had to be something to do with the claws and excess hair he had going on. It was like he was some sort of wolf man… or werewolf? You weren't quite sure.

Regardless, you'd started to make a connection. This probably had to do with the weird serum they injected into you before the bloodbath. Did this mean that that other serum-looking thing you picked up in the bloodbath could reverse it? Or would it just make it worse?

You'd both made it back to the cornucopia, and you considered taking it out of your bag to find out, when the two of you were interrupted. You heard footsteps approaching, and turned around quickly.

"Finn, incoming tributes. Be ready!" you warned him, pointing in the direction of the other tributes. They were the only others that you two had encountered since the cornucopia, and you had a strong feeling that this wasn't going to end well.

The other tributes stop several yards away from you and your ally, and one of them speaks. You can't recall her name, nor the name of her companion, but you've decided that that doesn't matter right now. You have to be ready to fight, and thinking too much about that is a distraction.

"My boy's gotta eat, and you're what's on the menu." She says this, looking at the pair of you with her sword resting on her shoulder. You see her eyes focusing on Finn, and you realize in that moment that you aren't quick enough.

"I'd say sorry, but I'm really not." she said, and before you could even take more than half a step, she'd moved toward Finn and plunged her sword right into his chest. From what you knew of basic anatomy, you knew it had pierced his heart. There was no way he was surviving that.

You started to panic.

"Shit!" you exclaimed. "You just… oh fuck!"

Then, it started to register in your mind what the girl had said. Something about the boy needing to eat. You take a few steps back and look at the boy. He's got pale features, and you're almost certain that behind his lip are a set of fangs, because from what you can tell, he doesn't have any claws. Granted, the girl doesn't seem to have either of those features. Had she gotten rid of it?

"I get the hunger, I really do… but you're not actually going to… eat him, are you? Ripred, that's just messed up." you expressed, voice shaking all the while.

You're hesitant, unsure if you should just leave Finn there, dying and run away from it all, or if you should confront these two further. You were outnumbered. Was it really the best idea?

You're angry, though. Furious. So you stand there just a moment longer.

"My son had to see that." You look at the girl, your voice aggressive and your eyes full of both anger and fear.

"My two year old son had to see that!" You were practically yelling now, holding back tears of rage.

"And he'll watch you die next if you don't get out of my way," the boy told you all too calmly.

You hear a strained voice come from Finn.

"Go… I- I'll kill them on my own…"

He's trying to be brave, but you know he's dying. You're sure he knows it, too.

You curse under your breath before speaking to Finn.

"I'm so sorry, Finn. I wasn't fast enough."

"Run." you hear the girl say. You can feel your heart pounding now, and you're sure they'll attack at any moment, so with one last glance at Finn, you turn on your heel and book it the hell out of there.

Had you seen a dead body before, he'd asked the other day, and the answer'd been yes.

Well, now you'd seen two.

lyrics: "Nightmares Never End" by JT Music

[Anika flees]

[gamemaker kelsier]

tw: body horror / gore

As the night deepens, my hunger does too. I start to lose track of time in it, every second drags on longer than it should and I just sit there in this strange eternity, my gaze fixed on the lake as I try to live around it.

But it's as if a void has opened inside me, teeth gnashing against the lining of skin as if it can find the stitches that bind me together and tear them open. There's a monster lurking below the surface.

Keeping watch gives me something to focus on and I need to, focus that is, because some time after the lake gave my goblet back to me its surface began to grow restless again. I didn't notices the little ripples at first, I thought it was just the water meeting the shore, but then as the clouds opened up and more moonlight fell I could see that it was concentrated to one spot.

I watch the water creep up slowly beside me, moving in such deliberate small increments that it could be mistaken for a rising tide but I'm pretty sure lakes don't do that. "Hey," I utter, a note of warning in my tone as it suddenly swells faster, reaching towards Izzy's backpack. "Don't do that."

The lake almost immediately falls back again and I shake my head, the corner of my mouth quirking up despite everything. This is it's second time trying to mess with me and it's actually been good to have the distraction from the hunger.

I didn't really expect this though, this playfulness from a creature that had tried to kill us only hours ago. It'd almost be endearing if it hadn't just about succeeded.

Another hour or so passes and I try not to think anymore. The void deepens, it feels like an iron spike is being slowly nailed into my stomach. I start to think about letting Izzy just kill me, if that's even possible. We don't know yet after all, if I can actually die.

Wouldn't that be kind of funny though if I couldn't? Just be eternally sixteen for the rest of my nightmarish existence, that'd almost be worse than death. It's not like the Capitol hasn't pulled shit like this before. Maybe none of us die, they just turn us all into the walking dead and release us into Panem to wreak havoc, doomed to walk the earth for forever.

I rest my forehead on my knee with a soft thunk.

Fuck if I want that.

I hear a strange sound, like water falling in on itself and look up just in time to be sprayed in the face with a face full of silty lake water. I sit there, water running off my hair and down my face to soak into my shirt as the lake almost... dances in front of me?

"Bet you thought that was fucking hilarious," I say, tone flat, and then I ask, "What are you, twelve?" I shake my head but this time I can't stop a smile from spreading across my face. I don't give the lake the benefit of seeing it though, turning my head instead to look up towards the setting moon. "So fucking dumb," I mutter.

Grey streaks across the sky, clawed fingers bringing a cover of cloud over the lake as the sun rises. I don't know yet, if the sun will hurt me. I don't think it's something that I even want to learn. I stay like that, watching as pink and lavender mix in with the grey.

Behind me, the sand shifts. I glance down at the ground but it's not the lake this time, just Izzy getting ready for the day. I try to remember what that's like, shutting your eyes and letting yourself fall into nothingness like that. It's only been a few nights but I think i might have already forgotten.

I rise too and pass her the goblet that the lake gave back last night. I already boiled it in the fire for her and after one sip I knew that it would do about as much for me as the wine did. All it did was wet my throat but the thirst is still there, trying to claw up and out of my throat.

"What did the lake show you?" she asks.

No good morning or how was your night, Akira? Just asking me to bare my soul as if it's easy. I look at her for a long moment. There's sand in her hair and she's pale still from sleep. I've now spent more time with her in the arena than I ever did on my own.

But I can't tell her the truth because I know how crazy it sounds, I don't even know how to begin explaining the upturned hands. "It told me that you'd betray me," I tell her instead. It's no revelation, I already figured that she would. You'd have to be a fool to trust anyone in here.

That makes her go quiet for some time. I finish packing my bag, and sling it across my back in the meantime. The lake's less still this morning and I look towards it meaningfully before reaching down to pluck my torch, still lit, from the sand. I don't even know if fire's what did it in in the first place but it's the only threat I have.

We talk a little more, back and forth, but to be honest I'm only half listening. As she moved this morning, one of the cuts hidden beneath her bandages opened. Just barely, but it's like I can't hear anything anymore. My mouth moves on autopilot as the scent of her blood permeate the air around us. I feel a claw run down the lining of my stomach, eager, demanding.

I think about unravelling the bandage and digging my teeth into her thigh and quenching my thirst that way. I think of her blood filling my mouth until I'm choking on it, until I've had my fill and I can't even consider more. I stare at the bandage and I feel my mouth move, an automated response falling out.

And I think about turning her neck until it won't turn anymore.

"...there's a problem we need to solve," I say, looking up from the bandage to look her in the eye. She's gazing back at me, guarded on every level. It's almost laughable that she asks me to trust her with eyes like those. I've known people like her before and after the first knife in my back, I realized that I didn't want to anymore.

"I'm getting really fucking hungry Izzy."

Part of me hopes that she'll take the hint, turn tail and run but she only stares back at me and makes a stupid joke. I grin, too wide, let's pretend it's funny, let's show off these teeth. Let's remind her that every second that goes by I feel more animal than boy.

She takes the hint, turning on her heel to lead me away from the lake, to go in search of food for me and for a moment I just stand there.

I guess I thought that would be enough to make her leave me.

Then my left foot is in a pool of water. I look down to see smoky tendrils wrapped around my ankle, seeping water into my sock as the sand around my foot collapses in on itself and I slowly start to sink. I wiggle my foot free pretty easily, the lake's grasp too loose, and take off after Izzy.

We reach a wider dirt path and something about it feels familiar, like we've been here before. I turn my head, nose catching the scent of iron on the air. "Cathedral's that way," I say, pointing down the path.

I wonder if Erwin's body is still there, rotting upon the altar.

We see the towers of the cathedral first, reaching up from the trees to the heavens. I've never understood that about churches, why all their towers end in iron points. I thought the devils were meant to be beneath the ground.

There's two people waiting for us and I step forwards with Izzy, who doesn't stop long enough to give either of them a chance.

"I'd say sorry, but I'm really not."

Then her sword goes right through the boy.

The heavy scent of iron blooms from him, like the moment when you peel an orange and it's skin cries beneath the cut of your nail, making the room smell of it.

I shut my eyes for a moment as the intoxicating smell washes over me. A shiver runs down my spine and thirst that's been clawing at my throat for three days digs deeper into my flesh, cutting ribbons through me until I'm numb with the pain of it. My mouth opens, and this low, unrecognizable sound comes out.

And maybe I'm not even myself anymore.

The girl who was with him stares at the both of us, horrified, talking about how her kid would have to watch this.

good. I want to say, for how little that matters to me. I'm a child too, I'm just a fucking kid too.

"And he'll watch you die next if you don't get out of my way," I tell her, the threat flowing from my lips so naturally, as if I've done this every single day of my life.

"Go… I- I'll kill them on my own…"

Somehow that kid's still talking but it doesn't matter now. I breathe in for the first time in days and when I do, I'm breathing him in, and my body is no longer mine.

"Run.

The girl turns and runs. My body moves in tandem, lurching forward as the boy falls backwards, blood running down his shirt from the hole in his chest. As he topples to the earth, I go with him, straddling his waist, I catch us on my elbow and gather him up in my arms almost tenderly before he can fully fall back.

I don't ask for permission, there's nothing he could say or do to stop me at this point. And I've been here before, outside myself as I let whatever happens, happen, again and again. Cold after, empty after, except this time I'm the one doing the emptying. I bend over him, cradling him close as my mouth goes to the wound in his chest and I sink my teeth into his flesh to pin myself to him there.

His blood fills my mouth, pooling under my tongue and I have never tasted anything so rich, there is nothing to compare it to. Every drink, every drug, nothing is like this. It flows down my throat, golden as if it wants to become part of me, spreading through my body, lighting up all the pieces of it that I thought were dead. I feel the exact moment blood starts moving through my system again, the exact moment that my heart begins to pump. I throw my head back, drawing in a deep breath.

Air flows through me, into my lungs, inflating them for the first time in days. Warmth moves beneath my skin, pooling in my palms, my lips, everywhere. My arms lock around his chest, keeping him there and I drink heavily, knowing by his taste that he was already dead before I started. Knowing that I'd be dead still without him.

My nails dig into his back, into the wound, as if I can make it bigger, make it give me more and I hear him groan in pain, my mouth vibrating against his chest with the sound. I look up, and it's difficult to focus on him. My eyes keep getting drawn back to the blood, that's now spattered on his neck, his cheek, he's looking at me, he's looking at me. It makes my heart flutter and I remember what beauty is.

The boy opens his mouth and I don't know how he has the will to speak. "Yo-You're pr-proving a p-p-point" he says, not dropping his gaze once, "N-Nine is full of m-monsters."

I grab his chin and pull him in closer, painting his face with his own blood and press my lips angrily against his, biting at his lower lip but not hard enough to draw blood. This is what I know better, a body under mine, lips against skin, being held and holding on so tightly, like I'll never let go.

But his blood pools warm between us, he's dying, and I will let go because that's what I've always done, how I've survived until now.

I pull back to look at him, at the mess I've made of this stranger. He's barely seeing anymore, barely holding on from the bloodloss. I cup his cheek, movement tender again, hand shaking against his skin and his heat and his life. "You don't have to tell me that," I tell him. I was raised by one in a house full of mirrors, I know a monster when I see one.

And I don't mean to let him but I think he sees the hurt there.

"G-Guess we're of the same breed then," he says.

I need him to shut up before he becomes a person to me.

I kiss him again, this time harder, this time biting clean through his lip. I ignore the way his body bucks below mine as I drink.

And I let the monster win.

*permission received from tom to drink finn

[rook]

izzy rodríguez

All it takes is a strong right foot forward and an upward drive straight through the boy's chest for Panem to fall silent. The momentum slows as the blade cuts through his pectoral, and jams at the wall of tissue enclosing his organs, but with another firm push, the intercostal gives way, and the sharp metal cascades through his heart, lung, and straight out the other side.

The blood pours out of his back and trickles onto the floor, I close my eyes and hear the sound of rain on stone patio. My ear is next to the boy's mouth, I can hear his wordless, airless screaming as he begins to gag on his own blood. I hold for a second, cherishing this sick embrace, before eventually letting go, and watching as Finnagan falls backwards, sliding off my sword like tender meat.

He hits the ground with a grim thud, and twitches in a growing pool of red.

Akira is on him like a flash, fangs bared, eyes wild, drinking him up like an all-you-can-eat buffet. I watch on with a morbid curiosity as my companion's humanity slips away from him in a mad scramble for survival.

There will be uproar over this. In the lower districts people will protest, call it a sick ploy for more views, but I don't know about that. The games have always turned people into monsters.

"My two year old son had to see that!" The girl exclaims, her face struck with grief and panic.

A deep growl emerges from the depths of Akira's throat, a gruff, animalistic retort.

"And he'll watch you die next if you don't get out of my way."

She is stunned, but still frozen, for some reason ignoring the clear threat from the boy with blood all over his mouth and hands.

I step in, a bright red sword drips at my side. Looking the girl dead in the eyes I utter one final warning.

"Run."

And she does.

I'm left alone with Akira, who is done feasting on the barely warm corpse of Finnagan Davies. Colour has returned to his cheeks, he's less deathly and more rosy in his expression. His frown is gone, replaced with an expression of content.

A cannon cuts the thin air above us. I wipe the blade in the discoloured grass before I start looting the boy's body for anything of use. Medical supplies, some iodine tablets, beyond that not much else.

"So, feeling better?" I ask Akira, as I sit cross-legged next to the crimson mess of flesh, bone, and blood.

[gamemaker kelsier]

tw: body horror / gore

A drop of water falls from the sky, landing on the boy's cheek. I gaze down at the raindrop, edging to run down the side of his face to mix with the blood pooled beneath his body. Before it can go, I reach out and wipe it away with my thumb.

His skin is still warm beneath my touch.

And that's strange, to feel heat again, to feel a chill. It's cold here, colder than I knew it was before this moment. My hands, warm now too, rich now with the boy's blood, have gone pink at my fingertips from the cold.

"So feeling better?" Izzy asks me.

I forgot that she was here.

"Yes."

I look up, eyes falling first on the cathedral. Jagged shards of stained glass cling to the border of what once must have been something beautiful, but means nothing now. I shut my eyes for a moment, draw in a deep breath. For the first time in days I can think clearly without that terrible thirst underlying everything I did, making my choices for me.

I open my eyes, look down again, taking stock of everything as if I am only seeing it for the first time. I've made a mess of this boy, of his chest, his mouth, mutilating him past what Izzy did to him first. It looks as if an animal near bit the skin around his lips off. I grimace slightly, remembering the way his flesh gave beneath my teeth.

"D'you know what his name was?" I ask Izzy, turning my head to look at her.

She's beside me now, digging through his things. That other girl is gone, I hardly even remember what she looked like but I doubt she's forgotten me in the same way after that exchange.

I place my hands against the kid's chest to push myself off of him. The sound of his heartbeat is gone and it's strange, but not as strange as hearing my own again, beating rhythmically under my skin. It's been silent for three days, I thought I'd never hear it again. I thought that I'd go the rest of my life, never feeling a single thing again.

And the relief didn't outweigh the horror of that.

"It's a deal," I announce, standing now a little ways away from Izzy and the body. My gaze is pointed towards the treelike and the clouds that rest just on top of them, blocking out the daylight. "It was already before," I say with a shrug.

I still smell her, that's not gone away, and I know that this sudden clarity will fade back into thirst. I'll need more, sooner next time. Right now thought, I'm not thinking about killing her just for a mere taste of her blood.

"I mean, if you still want to work together after seeing that," I say and turn back to look at her, an easy smile formed carefully on my face, daring her to ditch me. "I wouldn't blame you if you feel a little different about it now."

But part of me knows that is a lie, she asked for this, literally hunted this boy laying dead between us down for me. If she doesn't like what came after, that's her problem.

"Don't worry, I'm not thirsty anymore," I say, smile growing.

But I will be again.