Empty Shells {Zagreus DP}

My words to Alfie meant almost nothing. I struck him, but I didn’t kill. I would die as innocent as someone who’d made it this far in the Games possibly could be. I hadn’t killed anyone. I’d dealt damage but I didn’t end any lives. Now I was starting to feel like that was a good thing, no matter how much being here made me want to kill.

It was a strange feeling, death. As the ghastly creature lashed out at me with its claws as it had with Tobias, my body collapsed. For some reason, I barely felt the pain, but still let out a yelp. I would die like this. I knew it right then. Tobias and I would have the same killer, and maybe that was a good thing. It made me feel better, at least, to know how it felt for him when he died. It would feel the same way for me.

I tried my best not to imagine the terror those at home who cared about me we going through, watching me die. Clara. Jamie. Caitir. Jacob. Destrii. They were the people I cared about, too. It was weird, thinking about Destrii in that moment. I had barely thought about her the entire time that I was here in the Games, but now she crossed my mind. She didn’t visit me in the Justice Building, but I knew she still cared deeply for me. If anything, she was pretty much the only person related to me that I was exceptionally close with.

We did a lot of things together when we were younger, and even as we aged into our teenage years. We’ve always been quite similar in the way we act, too. Unfortunately, it would be her without me now. I was dying. I could feel it. I struggled to make words form, but eventually, they did.

“I’m sorry, Destrii.”

I thought of Clara. She was like a little sister to me. The young girl, barely of reaping age, if that (as I’d never asked how old she was), was a strange one, but a sweetheart. Ella reminded me of her. Perhaps that’s why we’d become allies. I missed Clara, and I was sure she’d start to miss me as she saw me dying on her television screen.

“I’m sorry, Clara.”

Jamie was the next to cross my mind. He was my best friend back home. My absolute best friend. He was an extremely kind soul that cared only about others and always put them before himself. We were very close with one another. We never fought, which was rare for even the closest of friends. I knew this was likely going to hit him harder than anyone else I knew.

“I’m sorry, Jamie.”

Caitir, Jamie’s cousin, was someone I was quite close with, too. Another kind soul, she was anxiety-ridden almost all of the time and panicked when I was reaped. I felt bad for her, wishing I could have comforted her and told her honestly that I could win. I wished I could have promised her I would come home.

“I’m sorry, Caitir.”

Jacob Brontz was the next and final person that crossed my mind. He’d lost Cecilia already. Now he was losing a friend, too. Sure, we weren’t extremely close, but I cared about him nonetheless, and I knew he cared about me. I was dying, yes, but if anything, I felt worse for him and the others than for myself, which was probably a horrible thing to think. I didn’t care as much that I was dying, as it meant I could escape my family.

Unfortunately, it meant I was losing my friends, and they were losing me.

“I’m sorry, Jacob.”

BOOM!