I watched my TV with great sorrow as I watched my favorite tribute become covered in poison dart frogs and suffer a slow agonizing death. I suddenly realized that the only remaining tribute that I liked was Queen B. I thought a long time about my favorite tributes dying one by one, Juniper Stowe and my older sister Jasmine Benton. I was so happy when I received the Silver Parachute from her; it is the most precious thing to me now since she is gone. I suddenly got the idea of sending Queen B a Silver Parachute filled with food and anti-venom, which would give her the same joy I got. It would help her with the frogs and make her able to stay out of sight by hunting or scavenging. I paced eagerly over to my kitchen and raided my cabinets and found an assortment of dried goods. I packed them into a rusty bucket and headed out from my house and down to the tattered fence.

Once I was near the fence I crept under a small hole that Jasmine dug and ran off into the thick forest of ancient trees. I kept going until I reached a small clearing with a small hut of wood concealed by tall trees. I went inside the hut to find many dried herbs and old journals on weak wooden shelves. All my sisters work, right here in this cabin. This is what she was good for, so I will continue her work. I opened up an old book with a torn cover and skimmed through dirty pages until I came to a page with anti-venom formulas on it. “Perfect.” I mumbled to myself.

After an hour in the hut I came out with a small canister of a foul smelling gelatinous liquid. I scurried into town and went to the city hall. I knocked on the weak wooden door and the mayor came out and asked me in a scratchy cigarette stained voice what I wanted. I explained my plan to him and he took my parachute inside and sent it to the Capital on the next train. Later I was on the dirty wooden floor of my house and saw Queen B receive my package. She was brimming with happiness and I saw her take out a good and eat one salted piece of meat. “Thank you Rose Benton,” She said. “Bless you and your sister.” Back at home I was sobbing just thinking about Jasmine, and I raised my hand and swore that I would do something to continue her.

I sat in my monitoring room observing all the chaos I created. Last time the person who decides when I make a new obstacle, catastrophe or predator told me to make something I decided on a tsunami. Now a day had passed and the arena had not fully returned to its normal state. The once lush trees on the beaches were now crushed and lifeless, there was debris scattered everywhere and the ground was visibly soaked. I decided to turn up the heat to ninety eight degrees and move all the grey storm clouds from blocking the sun. Then my event instructor came in and said that it was time to release a new predator hybrid into the games to kill off more tributes. I stared at my computer and searched through my files until I got to a folder labeled tropical predators. My computer screen popped up a file filled with names of exotic beasts. I read through countless pages of animals and was not finding the animal that I was looking for.

Eyelash Vipers are too destructive, Bushmasters are too vicious, Coral Snakes are too obvious, Spectacled Caiman are not effective enough, Ocelots would rival the leopards. I read through countless pages of these until I finally found something perfect to release. Poison Dart Frogs popped up onto my screen and I knew that this was what I was going to use. They were the best thing, not too noticeable, very deadly, very effective and perfect to cause drawn out dramatic deaths. I hit a number of buttons on my computer and set a whole group of frogs to terrorize the tributes. I see one hop onto a large green leaf near a sleeping tributes head. The colorful frog hops onto the tributes face, and they wake screaming murder. I watch happily as I watched their shrieks ebb away to silent cries. The tribute collapses and starts emptying the contents of her stomach until she dies surrounded by her own vomit. I see her companion stirring next to her and screaming in sorrow. She started sobbing in agony as she hunched over the body of her poor slain friend. For the first time in this game I felt a pang of sadness. Watching this tribute cry of loss made me feel an overwhelming guilt weighing my heart down, making my stomach fill with butterflies. I started wondering if this really was right, but then my common sense smacked me with logic. “It is either them, or me.” I whispered to myself, half trying to convince myself that it was ok to kill and half trying to stay alive.

I watched in disappointment as my favorite tribute, Jasmine Benton, died in the arms of her best friend Juniper Stowe. I noted that Jasmine handed Juniper a golden rose pin before she died, probably her tribute token for Juniper to remember her. I zoomed the camera in on this, hoping that the audience would find this as touching as I did. This was my first time being a Gamemaker, and it was much harder than I expected. I had decided earlier to release a breed of venomous beetles into the arena, but my favorite tribute was bitten by one and died shortly after. Slowly I began to drift off into a temporary daze, but quickly snapped back to reality when a thought popped into my brain. I could make a tsunami to mix the games up. This would be perfect, my favorite remaining tribute Juniper Stowe was in a tree so it would not hurt her but it would hurt most of the others since they were on the ground.

I hit a number of buttons on the computer that controlled the effects of water and zoomed in a camera on the giant wave of water that I just created. Immediately I noticed tributes on the beaches start to panic and begin scrambling up the loose sand into the thick forest. I was amused to see those silly tributes try to escape my tsunami, really it was a lost cause. I started to type furiously on the buttons in front of me and sent a large predator over to the beach and almost instantly a leopard ran onto the beach and started chasing tributes down to the stormy water. One tribute started to escape and had veered off to the side, it was Annabeth Chase. I decided that I was going to kill her off, to make an example of what happens when you don’t obey the fate set out for you. I decided to send a strike of lightning down on the white sand before her feet, but instead I struck her body. It was a near fatal blow, her flesh was burned and the putrid smell of it was rising up in the tropical forest scene. Her skin turned black and began to bleed; the once white sand surrounding the poor girl was now red and black. Annabeth fell over and was squirming and screaming on the ground, furiously trying to use her crispy arms to claw her way up the sand to safety but it was too late. The wave mercilessly crashed down on top of her, her small bones crushed on contact and her flails ceased with the water. The water rushed over her and the other tormented tributes on the beach. I laughed maniacally at the scene that unfolded before my eyes, and sounded the cannon three times. This was going to be an extra bloody Hunger Games.

I was just up in my tree, keeping watch when I heard a noise. It was a Silver Parachute gently falling down to me,  so I reached out and grabbed it. As soon as I opened it I almost fell out of the tree in excitement, it was a camera that I would use to record a video and send it to my little sister Rose.  Rose is the most important person to me, she is so kind and was the only reason I didn’t kill the children who bullied me. Now, I can tell Rose how proud I am to be her sister and that she is the best friend I could ask for

I was terrified. I ran through the forest as fast as I could until I found a suitable tree. I hooked my sickle on a branch above my head and pulled myself up onto the rough bark. I reached over to a nearby branch and started to climb up, I got to a spot shielded from the outside horrors by thick, glossy green leaves. Screams in the distance caused me to jolt up and hit my head on a thin, leathery vine. I knew this vine, it was a deadly poison when prepared properly. I ripped a length off the tree and studied it, and decided the best way to turn it into toxin. Just as my thoughts start to form a plan, I see a young girl walk into the clearing below. She takes out a knife and starts scaling the tree I was hiding in. I become as still and silent as death. She pauses on a branch a few levels down from me. “Maybe I can become allies with this girl,” I thought. I wrapped the vine around my forearm and calmed my nerves.

“Hey, hey you,” I whisper.  She looks up at me, startled. I moved to a branch on the tree next to us and got at her level. Suddenly, she took her knife out and slashed it at me. I quickly shuffle back and quietly say, “Wait, I don’t want to hurt you. I want to offer an alliance. It would be you and me, what do you say?” she half nodded and I sighed in relief. I slowly moved onto the branch I was on originally and unwrapped the vine from my pale arm. “Come up here, it is a barrier of leaves. No one can see us…I’m sorry I never caught your name.”  “Juniper… Juniper Stowe,” she mumbled. “Cool, nice to meet you Juniper. I am Jasmine Benton, district 12.” She warily moves up and sits across the branch from me. I explain to her my plan of turning the vine into poison. She agreed by nodding her head. We work carefully on my plan for the rest of the night. I turn the vine into liquid poison, and Juniper made me a thin splinter of wood using her knife skills. I dip the wood into the poison, just enough so that only the tip was coated in silvery sap.

“Now, we wait.” I say with a sadistic grin, and she returns my bloodlust feeling by quietly saying, “I feel bad for the sorry tribute who crosses our path. We are unstoppable.” Slowly Juniper fell asleep and I was left to keep watch. Sometime during the endless night a girl walked by, I think her name was Luan. I aimed a perfect shot, and threw the splinter of wood at her and it landed in her arm. Almost instantly she collapsed, she started twitching and shaking uncontrollably. After about thirty seconds she started frothing  at the mouth and bleeding out from her nose, mouth, the small cut on her arm and her ears. Within one minute she was dead, and I felt so happy to kill someone. Juniper stirred beside me and stared down into the clearing. We grinned sadistically at each other and let out a soft, eerie, evil laugh.

As I slowly rise up to the arena I feel my heart pounding out of my chest, I am worried that it will be a desert theme and my skills will be rendered useless. Once my eyes make contact with the arena I smirk, it is a tropical theme. My knowledge of plants give me the ability to make people hurt, to make them suffer and writhe in agony. I see the other tributes terrified of the course and some start balling, however I am still undaunted and know I can kill these weaklings. The scene of plants gives me a rush of pure power, and I feel invincible. I locate a shiny, metal sickle on the far edge of the cornucopia, and ready myself to dash out and my weapon. I can use my sickle as a murder weapon, a climbing tool, a plant harvesting device and a shield.

As the clock ticked down I prepared myself, and I launched myself like a bullet on the mark of zero, my blood rushed as I dashed to grab my sickle. One, two, three seconds and I reach my sickle and dash off into the forest. I see people screaming and pulsing out fresh blood behind me, this is going to be a fun game.

I sat alone at my table during lunch. It was the third day of training, the day we have private meetings with the Gamemakers. One by one people left the lunchroom, and eventually leaving only me. I was quietly sitting in the empty void inside myself, with the fear gushing out through a wound that kept bleeding. Eventually I was called and I started slowly advancing towards the door to meet with them. I was guided by a nice lady who led me through a metal door and shut my hope for escape with a bang. I breathed in and said to myself as I walked casually over towards the weapons, I can do this, I can do this. I picked up a sickle and got ready to display what I could do.

The game makers looked at me and scoffed, they thought of me as weak and useless. I smirked to myself and got into a leaping position, I knew I wasn’t weak and was able to do the unthinkable. I sliced through the mannequins delicate heads, stabbed them repeatedly and sent sharp stabs through their chests. I had dreamed about killing my enemies ever since I was little, so taking out the mannequins felt so right, like using nightshade to slowly poison somebody. The Gamemakers stared at me with amazement, and I put my sickle down. Quietly I said,

“I also have a way with plants.”
“Go on,” The head Gamemaker said with peaked interest.

A small table with many plants was brought before me and a deer was dragged in as a test subject. I took an assortment of foul smelling, bitter plants, crushed them into a paste and flung them onto the deer. The deer started twitching and writhing in agony, trying eagerly to rub the affected area with its antlers. The deer collapsed and started to froth at the mouth. Within minutes it was dead, and the Gamemakers were amazed as I walked out, they were very impressed. I felt like a new, powerful person, and a deadly adversary. I could kill anyone I wanted with ease. I got my confidence back, now I feel as if I didn’t waste my life on useless plants. I have a shot at living.

As I slowly joined the nervous crowd, I could feel an uneasy tension between everyone. No one was talking; everyone’s eyes were locked on the stage like it affected life or death, because it did. Happily Harper Hayes, the lady who announced the tributes came on stage. She just cheerfully gave the longest, most boring speech that everyone knew. During this time I could feel my stomach in knots, I felt sick, I closed my eyes and let the pounding headache sink in, and started to feel my consciousness fading.

Just before I almost fell, the boy next to me quickly grabbed onto my pale arm and held me up. I thanked him with my remaining strength, and straightened up. Finally Harper stopped chattering, and the wave of panic crashed down upon me again.

Harper announced that she was selecting a boy first, and I felt slightly relieved. Harper reached her slender arm down the clear, glass bowl filled with names, and pulled up a small piece of white paper.

A boy named Richard was called. I saw him nervously walk up to the stage and shake hands with Harper. I felt a wave of short lived joy that the boy next to me was not called, even though we were strangers, he showed kindness to me like no one else had before. It was an unspoken friendship forming, and I was happy for the first time. But my happiness was short lived.

The girls were all shifting nervously and tensing their muscles as they waited anxiously to see who would be called.  I was sweating like a dog in June and the boy next to me shifted nervously, he was also afraid that I’d be called. Harper spoke in a crisp, clear voice as she announced the girl,

“Jasmine Benton”

My heart sank, tears welded up into my eyes, and the boy next to me let out a quiet “No.” I walked slowly up to the stage like I was at a funeral, my funeral. Harper smiled creepily happy as I walked to the stage.

I saw my vision blurring with tears and my knees trembled, Harper looked at me and asked if I was ok. She held up a mirror to me and I saw how ghostly white I was. I nodded and shook hands with Richard, and saw how nervous he was too.

Harper cheerfully ended the ceremony and walked away with us, I could hear my heart pounding out of my chest as I walked away and feared what was going to happen next.