The rebellion was finally over and the Capitol had, of course, come out on top. Really, the districts were no match to the highly equipped Capitol army. District 13 had been destroyed, a mere warning to the districts, and the rest of the districts had surrendered. Punishments had been handed out, including the death of the Mayor from every district, along with each Mayor's family.
The President's first thought had been to kill all the major rebel citizens, but that would simply lower the population, something the war had already accomplished. No, the President needed something else, something that would not only hurt the rebels, but drive the districts apart, so there would never be another rebellion. The President needed something, something like The Hunger Games.
Marcello Flickerman was a rather young Capitol citizen, only being born 34 years before the first games. But still, the young man's mind was brilliant, evilly brilliant. Before the war, in which Marcello himself barely played a part in, he was a rather simple man. He had no family and lived on his own, residing on top the antique store he owned and ran by himself. Being a lonely man, he often found himself digging through the piles of antiques he had located behind the store.
His personal favorite antiques to come across were old movies and TV series. He watched old films for hours on end, anything he found, he would watch. He had a particular fondness for old war movies as well as reality TV shows. It was quite an odd pair, but Marcello loved them nonetheless. He often argued with himself about which one he liked more, but the more he contemplated it, the harder it was to decide between the two. During his whole adult life, he wished there was some way he could combine his two favourites and create his own mega reality show. He never could figure it out, at least not until the day the President announced that the Capitol was under attack. That day the gears in his mind started running a million thoughts a second, and it stayed that way until today. Today was exactly one week after the rebellion was officially called off and the Districts surrendered.
Today was a good day, in fact it was one of the best days in many years, because today was the day Marcello would present his idea to the President himself; today was the day the Flickerman name would become known nation-wide.
Marcello eagerly rushed out of his home, something he didn't do very often. Luckily for him, he lived in one of the poorest parts of the great city. Poor meant unimportant and so the rebels had left his part of town relatively alone, which meant that his neighbourhood was very much still intact and barely effected by the war. He quickly climbed into his car and drove off towards the richest part of town, which was home to the President's mansion, or rather what was left of it.
Since the President's mansion had been attacked and mostly destroyed, President DeLylo was taking residence in a neighbouring mansion, one that hadn't been as heavily attacked. After passing through multiple security checks, Marcello finally arrived at what was referred to as "The Dungeon".
"The Dungeon" was a sitting room of sorts where people waited for their meetings with the President. It was nicknamed "The Dungeon" because most people sat in Marcello's place shaking with fear at the possible punishment the President would bestow upon them. However, Marcello sat with pure excitement and anticipation. He couldn't wait for the President's reaction to his genius idea, but more importantly, he couldn't wait for his plan to finally come to life.
"Marcello Flickerman?" A brown-haired woman asked as she entered "The Dungeon".
"Here!" Marcello stood up as fast as he could, making him light-headed and almost causing him to fall over.
"Right this way sir." The rather plain-looking lady said as she beckoned for Marcello to follow her down the corridor.
"The President is very excited to see you!" The woman encouraged as the two walked along a narrow hall.
"I'm very excited to see him," Marcello replied giddily.
"He says you have some sort of plan to extinguish the rebels?"
"He is correct, ma'am." Marcello replied with a huge, crooked grin.
The rest of the walk went by in silence until they reached a huge metal door with a pass code lock on it. After quickly entering the code, the woman grabbed Marcello by the arm and dragged him through the door.
"Mr. President, I have Mr. Flickerman here to see you." The lady said. The middle-aged man who sat at the single wooden desk in the middle of the room, looked up from his work.
"Ah yes, Marcello. I've been waiting to meet you. Merchandise, will you be staying?" The President asked the brown-haired girl.
"I would love to, sir." Merchandise said as she took a seat in a chair across from the President.
"Are you going to sit, Marcello?"
"Yes, of course, Mr. President!" Marcello squealed as he quickly took his spot next to Merchandise.
"I'm a very busy man, I hope you're not here to waste my time." The President said monotonously, after a moment of silence.
"Oh! Yes! Let's get started!" Marcello exclaimed, flustered.
"Go on,"
"Well you see sir, I've developed a plan, a plan that will not only punish the districts but pit them against each other, so there will be no hope of them ever unifying again...
"What is it, Mr. Flickerman?" The President asked, a wicked gleam in his eyes.
"Well sir," Marcello replied, a wicked glint illuminated his own eyes. "The Hunger Games."
Hope you enjoy, and a big thank you to Kitty, and Bubbles for making this chapter readable!
I do not own The Hunger Games, for if I did, Finnick would still be alive.