Title: Jessica vs Elizabeth

Summary:

“Oh, Lizzie, isn’t it romantic?” Jessica squealed.

Elizabeth gaped at her twin. “They’re expecting us to kill each other.”

“Yes, but we get new clothes and we’re paired with a boy!”

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.

Notes: I am going to post this, unbeta’d as it gets written for NaNoWriMo2017. I will post a clean, edited (hopefully coherent) version when it is finished, but if you want to see the raw, error-laden process of my word-vomit, here it is.

Chapters: 1 & 2, 3 & 4, 5 , 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 & 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19.

Nineteen

Elizabeth was furious when she went to sleep, and she was furious when she woke up. She had never realised how much fun it was to feel emotions, rather than supress them.

How dare the gamemakers mess up her plans? She was enjoying killing people, and it was just plain cruel of them to kill people with earthquakes and tsunamis when Elizabeth was planning on killing them. She was lost, she only had one sword now, and the vicious torrent of water had managed to take out Brooke Dennis, Bruce Patman and Janet Howell – the thought it unlikely anyone but herself had been so dedicated to killing.

In the opening round, nobody but her had been so aggressive – except for Jim Sturbridge, but he didn’t last long. While it was true that her twin had it in her to ruthlessly murder people, she assumed that Bruce Patman’s wealth and “cuteness” would keep him alive, and Jessica would never murder the president of the Unicorns, she was too much of a social climber. So she might have killed Brooke Dennis.

Most of the day had been wasted searching for food, water and victims – in any particular order – and she had only managed to kill Winston. Lila Fowler, of all people, had pushed her off a cliff! And then her day was wasted with an earthquake, then a tsunami, and by that point, the day was a write-off.

Still, the sun was up now, and she was rested. During the night, a sponsor had sent her a gift – a pizza and some water – so at least she had a full stomach when she went to sleep, and could start the day by eating the leftovers. Her sponsor hadn’t left a note, but since it was useful, it was clearly not from Ro$ey.

After eating, she got up and swung her sword a few times before setting off.

She kept an ear out for anyone moving through the trees. After about fifteen minutes, she heard the inelegant crash of someone moving without any real awareness that there was a killer in the arena with them.

She made her way through the woods, careful to keep her footfalls as quiet as possible. After some slow progress, she came around the person and peeked.

It was Todd Wilkins.

She sighed. It would have been easier to kill him in the initial bloodbath. He was her sort-of boyfriend – although she thought that was probably on hold since she threatened to kill him. Even if he was willing to overlook that, it probably wasn’t good that he was terrified of her. Even worse that she was going to have to kill him anyway.

Elizabeth crept out of the trees behind Todd and swung her blade.

Todd didn’t even have time to make a sound before his head fell to the ground. Seconds later, his body collapsed, spurting blood, as the cannon sounded above.

Lila found herself heading back to the cornucopia. It wasn’t a great idea, but there were only six people left in the arena besides herself after the cannon sound this morning. Lila thought it was a fair guess that it wasn’t for Lois or Elizabeth.

Lila was bored and tired and sick of the Hunger Games. Also, the last present from Melissa was bothering her. Nightlock berries, just like in the movie. Melissa had some advice, just like always.

It wasn’t like Lila to feel altruistic, but there were only two people she wanted to win: herself and Lois. And if she was honest, maybe Lois deserved it more. After all, it was Lila’s own stupid idea to have a Hunger Games. And it wasn’t like she could imagine killing Lois just to win.

Only one of them was getting out. And Melissa had chosen.

Thinking about it, she should have given Jessica a berry when she asked last night, but she’d been so shocked to see suicide berries as a gift from Melissa – her trusted friend – that she’d just needed Jessica to leave.

She arrived back at the cornucopia. The ground was damp and squishy, but the water had receded entirely. The cornucopia was still standing, and a few weapons were still in the back of it, but the large cache that had been there in the start of the games was gone.

Lila helped herself to a knife and stowed the Unicorn headband in her bag. The knife was much easier to grip, so maybe she could take a few surviving tributes down.

Although she still wasn’t ready to admit it, her plan was to clear the arena for Lois, and then take the berries.

Maybe.

A voice boomed out overhead, echoing all around the arena. “Come to the cornucopia. There is food and gifts for everyone.”

Lila froze. It was her father’s voice.

She climbed up to the roof of the cornucopia and waited, trying desperately not to think about how her father was gleefully setting the remaining tributes on her for TV ratings.

In one hand she held her knife.

In the other was a handful of berries.

Elizabeth found Rick Hunter in the woods, lying on the ground, groaning. His leg was a tangled mess of blood and protruding bone. Apparently the tsunami had bashed him against every hard surface between here and the beach.

She ended his life with a vicious thrust of her sword.

She turned and headed towards the cornucopia with a serial killer smile on her face.

Belinda heard the second cannon of the day boom overhead. She did a quick count – that meant there were five other people in the arena.

She had outlived eighteen people, she still had hold of Raven, the Angry Koosh, as Ellen called it. She had lost Ellen, which meant she was no longer looking after someone. Although she hadn’t killed anyone, she was stronger than most.

The odds were in her favour now.

She headed towards the cornucopia.

“Oooh, I love gifts!” Ellen squealed before skipping away. “It’s a party at the Unicornucopia!”

“Darned right, there should be gifts!” Jessica muttered. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t had a single sponsor. Wasn’t she the best, most terrific Wakefield there was? Why hadn’t Steven sent her a gift? She was sure he liked her best. He was always sniffing her dirty clothes when he thought she wasn’t looking.

Well, she was going to show them. She was going to win the games without a single gift, it would be the perfect underdog story of a beautiful privileged white girl having to do without her privileges for a few days, and still managing to kill everyone else.

With a grim smile on her face, she headed towards the cornucopia.

“Lila!” Lois cried, and set off running towards the cornucopia.