With a heaving sigh, Stark rose from the gory mess he made and stared at the fleeing Emery scuttling across the hill. A movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention and he jerked his head back to see the figure of Rye in pursuit of Emery.<span style="font-style: italic">Awww</span>... he thought with feigned sadness.<span style="font-style: italic">Now she won't think I killed him.</span>He looked back at where Rye came from and saw a body sprawled among the golden grass. Stark walked toward it and distinguished it as Coren's as he got closer. Leaning down to her, he turned her face toward him and gazed at that eternal smile carved into her cheek. Her fierce green eyes no longer held their former vitality. He felt nothing. He was actually a little startled by how indifferent he felt.<br/><br/>A wheezing breath escaped Coren's gushing throat and Stark blinked. She was alive, but just barely. She would surely be dead within a few minutes from blood loss.<span style="font-style: italic">It would be an honor</span>, he thought, recalling the conversation he had earlier with her. With that, he placed his knee on Coren's back and took off his twine necklace; the one that formerly held a mutt's fang collected by his father, but was used to explode Veen in the very beginning of the Games. Stark put the necklace around her neck, like he was leaving his token with her as a parting gift. But once it was around her neck, he pulled back and held it there, strangling the last breaths out of the girl. Once there were no more gasps, he let her head rest on the ground again and returned the bloodied necklace to his own neck. Turning around, Stark looked back at Galner's mutilated body and there stood his lost but now found prize.<br/><br/>Eden stared down at the mess of flesh, intestines, and bone that had once been Galner's face. He wondered if it really was him. All he could remember when he was watching the two fight before is how Stark was using his fangs and claws to rip his brother apart. He couldn't get this idea out of his head.<span style="font-style: italic">He would unrecognizable</span>, thought Eden with panic spreading through him.<span style="font-style: italic">They could've put him in there to be killed.</span>Inside, he knew it not to be true, for he saw Amshel buried in an orchard field; but all he could focus on now was what he saw. What he saw when he was standing in the trees, watching his brother being slaughtered and not doing anything.<br/><br/>"Amshel," murmured Eden with a face and voice vacant of emotion. "I could've saved you then, but I didn't. I could've saved you now..." His voice cracked and his eyes welled up. He couldn't finish the sentence, although he knew how it ended. Looking up, he gazed at Stark as he stared back at him. The blood on his skin glinted in the morning sun rays, resembling scales all over his arms and face. His eyes were shiny black stones shoved in his skull. When Eden's eyes trailed down, he saw the sway of a horny tail hanging behind Stark. Putting his hands over his mouth, Eden stared in horror at the demon that consumed Stark. It had been growing inside him all this time and now the beast was finally released.<br/><br/>"<span style="font-style: italic">Stark</span>!" cried Eden with tears spilling out of his eyes. "Look what you've become!" Stark frowned at that, wondering what he meant. Contradicting the frown with a smile, he shook his head and replied, "I have yet to become what I must. And you're needed for that." Widening his eyes, Eden turned around and ran toward the woods a ways back. Without hesitation, Stark bounded down the hill after him for the umpteenth time.<br/><br/>***<br/><br/>When her heart was racing and her breathing was hasting, Emery stopped running for a moment. She stared at the ground, not believe herself and her cowardice. There she was just a minute ago, ready to kill the bastard who killed Rye; and now she was running away from that bastard. Putting a hand over her eyes, she sighed, "I sicken myself." She considered going back, but she knew it would only be the death of her. Stark was a killing machine, built for the Hunger Games. She would be no match for him.<br/><br/>Emery looked back and widened her eyes when she saw Rye approaching her. She grinned and rushed toward him as well. "My God!" she cried, wearing the biggest smile she's had in weeks. "Rye, I thought you were dead! Didn't Stark kill you? I saw a body there and Stark was over it and I thought you were..." After catching her breath, Emery put her hands on Rye's face and planted her lips on his. When she broke the kiss, she could hardly believe she'd done it. She's always been too proud and stiff to allow herself to love another, but these Games had softened her in some incomprehensible way. Perhaps in a way that would have her value others more.