let me bleed until the blackened afternoon [Day 5; J vs R]

Everything glitters like gold, but blackens like coal.

The crown that's lopsided on his head sits there like a cover of comfort, even if it wasn't what anyone expected from him. A king of fools who wore a crown to hide everything that was bottled up on the inside. Elettra Eckhart breaks his heart when they had first seen her. Iris, Elvania, Amerika, Lucy, and Jequirity. The family had lost too much for them to learn the truth behind everything. Riordan Einfallen was a monster, falling deeper and deeper into his own insanity, but people kept him afloat. People like Elettra Eckhart that still had been wandering the arena, with pain in her eyes. Sadness sticks to her skin like it does to Riordan's clothes. Everything glitters like gold until it turns as black as coal.

Riordan had been happy long go, just like Elettra had been. A place that he considered home to be busy and bustling with people, until the gold turned to coal with death and memories of the unfortunate souls. All he could do was live for as long as possible. Surviving became second nature to him. The pain fused into strength, until he felt weak enough to get himself sent to a hospital, where they evaluated him, poking needles into his skin. The incidents of harm that he had gotten himself into. The fights that he walked home to, bloodied and broken. His mother had taken him to a hospital to help him heal. The only instance that his mother had truly been there for him.

The words of doctors that his mother had hired to make sure he was okay rang in his ears.

"He's a fighter ma'am. Most would have given up."

There's been so many hospital visits from the incidents that he's had happen to him. Locked away in a palace of acting and tears, until the Eckharts picked him up. Elettra speaks to him from his last words that he had spoken. Heart flutters as he dreams of taking Elettra away from the awful place that continued to break them piece by piece. Everything glitters like gold in this place, but blackens like coal, just like Riordan's heart. Once, a good man who used to be told to hold doors open for women, or speak to people in a polite tone. Now, he was breaking, trying to kill a living person.

"Have I become the monster? I doubt that's something that was ever questioned Rio."

Had she given into the blackening of the heart.

"Rio, please don't hate me,"

The urgency of her voice fills him up with watery eyes and broken promises. The small hand of Iris seems to grab his own. The deep red rose upon his hand feeling smothered for a second, but it was only a trick of the mind. Elettra Eckhart was someone that he could never hate, even if she would end up being the one end his miserable life. The crown upon his head feels even more weighted with every word that comes out of Elettra's mouth. If anything else seemed to break him, it was the urgent words of Elettra Eckhart.

"Do you trust yourself to get home, Rio? You belong back in your palace of a theater."

A palace of a theater. Get himself home. Elettra's words sends a feeling of terror through him, as it sounds like she knows that she is going to perish within the walls of their dream world that truly didn't make any sense. All he wasn't to do is cry at her words, but tears were for someone like Atlas Lumiere who had fallen too soon. Or for Ronnie Cheyne who had given it his all and still fell. Or Zanita Luzell who had loved and lost. Riordan wasn't for tears in the middle of a fight. All he could do was speak back to Elettra, with an urgency in his own tone.

"I won't hate you. I don't trust myself to get home. I don't belong there. You do, Elettra."

Elettra struck then at the kid, cutting his neck slightly. Blood still came out and Riordan felt himself panic for a moment, until he picked himself up. Elettra was giving it her all. He had to also. Or else, he would perish sooner or later. Weak or strong, he still had to fight with everything that he could. Elettra stands tall, like a warrior in his mind. If anyone could fight hard, it was her. Iris and Elvania, her weapons in the arena. A family to go back to that would love her, unlike himself. Then, the Cassie speaks over them while he stares in awe at Elettra for a moment. Castor then makes herself known to them.

Castor Karmichael was a mysterious woman, eyepatch and all. There's a certain mystery to Castor that adds to the terrifying look of her. If he could remember right, she had come with her brother, who was dead now. A weight that she carries upon her own shoulder, like Elettra and Riordan do. Carrying weights of every death that they knew. Castor was more serious in her looks, but he can still try to see past the hard exterior to a girl that was probably breaking like them all. Her words carry a certain weight that sends him into a defensive position for a moment. Words that fall from her lips sends shivers down his spine.

"Your friend volunteered for this,"

They all volunteered for this. Elettra. Elvania. Iris. Castor. Eszter. Riordan. Kid. Cassie. They all volunteered to join the onslaught of murder. Riordan regretted it so much, but at the same time, there's nothing he wouldn't do to learn that he truly could move past Jequirity and try to live for himself. A surviving spirit inside of him that glows bright. There could only be one survivor in the entire arena. He would give everything to make it Elettra, but even the gods didn't know who would survive.

"It’s not Eszter’s fault."

Castor's right and wrong about it being Eszter's fault. Eszter had taken Callixtus away from them. ALl he could do was remember how dead he looked in front of him. The first death that he had encountered in the entirety of the arena, on day two. It's only been three days since then, but it feels like a lifetime ago. Riordan's hands clench around the bat as he grits his teeth slightly in anger. If only he had been stronger, smarter, and faster. He could have saved Callixtus. He could have saved Anarchy Brice. He could have saved them. A king of fools who couldn't protect his own allies, was nothing more than a failure.

All he wants to do is break Castor down a peg, but she's not wrong. They wanted to kill Eszter because they had to. It was either them or us. Death looms over their shoulders awaiting someone to fall to the ground, bleeding out until their body goes cold. Tears that would be shed to them creating wings that could send them up to the next life. All he could do was watch Castor for a moment, bat held defensively, until he spoke again.

"It's not her fault that she killed Cal. Bullshit. She's the one who decided to kill him. She's the one who took his life."

A breath sets through his throat.

Gold glitters until it turns black like coal.

"Wouldn't you want to avenge your brother? Kill the person who killed him?"

His brother's anger comes to his mind. The words I hate you echoing through his skull as he stares at Castor. Anger in his veins as he's the monster he was terrified of becoming. A monster who was giving in to the arena of killing others. The dead bodies of the mutts before coming to his mind for a second as he speaks to her again. Voice serious, weapon held defensively.

"The truth is, only one of us will survive. I'll be damned if it's someone like Eszter."

Castor attacks the kid, as the attack is blocked by his armor. Heart hammers faster and faster, as Eszter had blocked his attack so easily. Blood boiled with rage, but he could feel himself falling deeper and deeper into the insanity. Kings were meant to fall. Queens were meant to die. Only the lucky survive the fight. Only the survivor gets to make it out of the arena. As he hears kid, Sage say his name, and misses Elettra, his heart feels calm again. There's only black coal in the arena. The glittering gold was gone now. There's nothing more than coal that lives in it's place. Hearts turning a pitch black, until they die. Blood soaked hands with the blood of someone else.

Eszter Summit didn't know who Cal was and it infuriated Riordan.

There's only one thing he can do. He readies himself and the bat in his hands. Rose pressed against the handle. They had done nothing to Eszter Summit. All she had done was lift up the weapon and block their blows. Almost as if she didn't even have to try against them. A sigh echoes from his throat as he readies himself. The bat swings. Heart hammers. And only one thought comes to his mind.

Eszter Summit was infuriating in every way possible.

There's no returning from the bottom of the pit.

He's fallen. Fallen from his pedestal above, like an angel whose wings went up in flames. The smell of burning flesh comes to his mind as he notices the barbed wire cuts into Eszter Summit's skin. Blood that he would expect comes out. Wings were burnt and he fell to the bottom of the pit, where monsters lurk and the evil rests. Lost to himself and giving in to the evil at the bottom of the pit. There's no going home. There's no returning back to the way things were. Only a deep pain that resonates through his heart. Elettra Eckhart is the first one he can hear. Her words sends a frown on to his face.

"I don't deserve anything Rio. I can't even keep little Iris alive, Elva. Jequirity would be ashamed, and don't you dare try convince me otherwise."

All he knows is that he wants to cry for Elettra. This wasn't the time or the place. Iris and Elva were dead. They'd become headstones and wooden coffins next to the other three. Only one Eckhart could make it. Only one Einfallen could make it. Only one of them would make it out alive. Elettra deserved so much more than she thought. Riordan wishes that he could tell her all that she deserves, but even the king of fools couldn't speak. All he could do was stare for a moment. A frown still upon his face. A deep breath of air to calm his nerves as he speaks out to Elettra, with what he knows.

"Stop Elettra. No one could have kept them alive. Not even myself. Jequirity wouldn't be ashamed of you. If anything, from what I remember of her, she'd be proud of you. I will try to convince you otherwise. Since, I'm the one she would be disappointed in. I couldn't even stand next to any of you. I don't deserve anything."

She would be proud of the Elettra the angel who tried to protect Elva and Iris, but not Rio. The man who left the Eckharts to ally with a district four. Left them with so many regrets, but he couldn't protect them like Elettra would have wanted. A palace of a theater waits at home for him, but even the biggest of theaters wouldn't have saved him from the guilt he feels for the Eckharts that he's let down throughout the games. He can hear Frances Eckhart in the back of his mind. He can hear them all speak like they were next to him, but they weren't.

Everything that glitters like gold could blacken like coal.

That's what his crown proved.

It's a representation of himself.

"But if you want to kill Eszter, you're going to have to try harder than that."

"I don't need to try."

All he wants to do is hug Elettra, but they were fighting like they were meant to. The gods were laughing in irony at them as blades clash into one another. Castor Karmichael is a mysterious woman, but emotions seep through the cracks along her walled in heart. Emotions of loss, he can see it. He's always been able to see the way people were feeling to loss of someone they loved, since he's lost so many over the years. Everyone that dies becomes the glittering gold that they deserved to become. Riordan would blacken like coal, while everyone else glitters like the gold.

"My brother was devoured by mutts,"

Anarchy Brice was killed by a shark. Jano's death must have been terrible. Worse than Anarchy Brice's death. All he knew about mutts had come from what he's seen. No one's been devoured completely by anything. A mutt was out there able to devour people whole, there's something out there that's even more terrifying than the shark that had killed Anarchy Brice. Hands clutch his bat as he can see the deep red rose that sits upon his palm. Iris would hate him. Elvania would have cursed him. Jequirity would have been ashamed of him. There's nothing more in the pit, but a hollow man known as Riordan Einfallen.

”There’s nothing left to do.”

The gears of his mind turn until he speaks out loud. There's something to do, but he wouldn't tell her it. Not fully, only a hint at something more. There's one thing that she could do. All he can do is try to hint it for Castor Karmichael. Eyepatch and all, she was different than he had expected. Her look made him think that she would be like Eszter Summit. An infuriating girl who could kill.

"There is something you could do. There's someone out there that could have killed him.
Someone you wouldn't think of. It's up to you to decide what you do."

A smile pulls at his face as he clutches the bat in his hands. Castor Karmichael could become something stronger than him. Someone who could end his life and send him to the hell that he deserves. A sigh follows from his breath as he can see Elettra strike at Sage. Then Cassie strikes at Eszter. Only a few words come out of his lips, directed towards Castor.

"You're an interesting one, Castor. Too bad that you had to run into a monster like me."

Sage's words ring in his ears.

"You don't deserve a victory over me! I have a reason to go home! Your fellow Eckharts are gone. What reason do you have?"

A chuckle escapes Riordan's lips. Family. There's always an Eckhart out there, even if five die, there were five more that seemed to come back as the next generation of Eckharts. They were like the cockroaches of District Six that the capitol wanted to get rid of, but couldn't. They were resilient from anything that came their way. Riordan wasn't like them. He wanted to join them, but there was no room or hope for him to be able to through Jequirity Eckhart. There was nothing there, but how he wished there had been.

Voice speaks to Sage.

"She's got more reason than I do, kid. There's a home waiting for her."

Eszter Summit must die.

She makes his blood boil with rage. Revenge wasn't something pretty. It made him break more and more. Piece by piece, his crown was becoming the one of tyrannical king. He didn't deserve to be gazed at like he was a king. He wasn't a king, only a failure to his family and loved ones. All he could be was a monster who wore a crown, thinking he was a king. Once an angel who turned into a monster like the shark that killed Anarchy Brice. Eszter's words ring in his ear. The words send him spiraling downwards for a moment. He's losing himself. He's losing himself to the world around him. Fantasy and reality mixing into one that seems to toss him deeper and deeper into the pit of darkness.

"I just think it's funny, because in order to make out of here you're going to have to become just like me, pretty boy,"

Pretty boy was something that he's heard too much. Lots of fun times and lots of sad times. No one called him pretty boy in such a casual way. Eszter Summit wouldn't get away with it. He's already become what he didn't want to become. A monster who was losing himself to the flames that burned the wings away. In the games, he was cracking from the original man that he had been. The man who ran an opera house and still was there for everyone else who needed him. He's blackened so much that he could be considered full of coal. All he can do is say one thing to her.

"I already have."

The bat swings with the anger that boils through his blood.

Everything glitters like gold, but he's blackened like coal.