Prologue
The tributes that died in the Games. They don't really mean much to you, do they? Of course I'm not talking about your loved ones. You remember if your family or friend or lover went into the Arena and lost. Who wouldn't?
I mean the tributes that didn't play a role in your life: unrelated tributes, tributes from the other districts, tributes from so long ago they barely showed reruns of their Games on TV.
But why is that? Why aren't they remembered by their own country?
It's simple really. For one, there were just far too many children that went in year after year to keep up with every single one of them. Decades have gone by since the first nominated sacrifice went to play in a game where no one truly wins. 75 years of bloodshed, of gore, of senseless violence. As the years went on, they blurred into nameless, faceless boys and girls whose entire lives boil down to how they met their end, and that's if it was significant or gruesome enough to plant a memory in your brain.
Not what they used to be or what they could have been. Just what killed them. Most dead tributes didn't even get the right to be remembered why they're dead in the first place, simply background characters to the main protagonists and antagonists in every Games.
Some instances the Victor or the entire Games have been lost in history. Ask someone who Fallon Yelverton is or the runner-up to the 4th Hunger Games and see what responses you get.
Characters. That's all they were to you. The remembered and the forgotten, the winners and the losers. They lost their humanity the second their cannon blasted. It happened to your loved ones too. In time, your memory of them got altered. Situations turned into scenes, personalities turned into traits. Specifics became broader and broader. One day you forgot their smell, how their voice sounded, the way you had to stop yourself from laughing when they made that funny face whenever they were angry, how they'd sneak a bite of dessert before dinner and Nancy would complain and complain but you let her because she was your baby girl. And it scares me. I try to remember my daughter as she was, but I can't, I just can't. All I can think about is how she died, she died right in front of my eyes and I could do nothing at all to save her.
…..I'm sorry about that little tangent. Where was I?
Oh yes, I know now. Don't feel bad about forgetting. It's human nature. Your life is too busy, too hectic to waste time on memorizing every child of the Hunger Games. You have work that needs to be completed, not to mention your own children to look after. We have a country to rebuild and make new! Being an unfulfilled, miserable recluse like me isn't worth throwing your life away. It's too painful as well, to remember. Who wants to obsess over the death of 1,743 people?
You didn't realize that many had lost their lives to the Hunger Games did you?
I want to focus on one Hunger Games in particular, the 61st Hunger Games. That one doesn't get the attention it deserves, overshadowed by more popular, gorier ones. My daughter participated in those Games and lost. A boy from District Ten became the winner. Such a stupid, stupid idiot. Had the nerve to come here on his Victory Tour and speak to the crowd like we were proud to see him. Couldn't even look me in the eye and own up to what he did to my family. If you ask me he never had the brains, skill, or strength to win. And from District Ten at that. That filthy hellhole. After the war was over the first thing I did was find his grave and spit on it.
My opinion of him may be a little bit biased.
If you take just one thing from what I said and ignore the rest, know this:
Never forget the dead. Please. They deserve to be honored.
So I lied, but for the best! I'm giving you A Deck of 24 much earlier than expected. In fact, I'm just about done writing Valor's piece. His should be up in the next few days if things work out accordingly. Before you ask, I didn't have a specific female tribute in mind when I wrote this. You can make this anyone's father, it's all to your liking. I wanted to make this as open-ended as possible.