Random District Viewer's POV

The games had ended last night when the victor had killed his last opponent. But officially, the games wouldn't be over for another few days as the Capital did the final interview before the Capital officials paraded around the district of the victor like they owned it while filming the victor, their family, their friends, and their lives. I knew the routine, I had seen it before in my district before.

I remembered seeing all those Capital people in their ridiculous clothes and hair and other surgical so called improvements of theirs. They looked almost horrific. Strange, but almost horrific in my opinion. They went around our district like they own the whole thing with even more power then the mayor and head peacekeeper combined. Nobody could really stop them from doing what they wanted to do.

The victor was out of the arena, it should have been over. But no, the Capital had to show the victor the best parts of the game he had participated in. And when I say best parts, I mean the most entertaining parts. And when I say entertaining parts, I mean the deaths, the misery, the achievements, the losses, the sacrifices, the heroics, all that and more. The parts that gained the most attention.

This year there was hardly anything but murders to entertain the Capital folks, a common method they used to tell the story of the games that were either hard to tell or else they had no idea what kind of story to tell, but one that was a fitting one for what they were showing nether the less.

It was the perfect fit for this year if I could say so myself. This year, a fifteen year old boy from District Two had earned the reputation of a heartless monster, just like the majority of District Two tributes entering the arena got. In fact, District Two got labeled monsters before they even entered the arena because of previous games.

But being from District Two wasn't enough to make him famous. Well, more famous then he'd already be for winning the annual Hunger Games. He was famous for his kill count of thirteen tributes, a little more then half the tributes that entered. I don't think there was a kill count that high in the history of the games, and if there was one out there, I can't remember it.

But the kill count niter the less gave him the nickname 'the monster from Two'. A fitting name really, considering that he also slaughtered his own allies. But for a reason though, they tried to kill his district partner before their pack was the only ones left alive. I don't know if that was the turning point of Steel Redstone's insanity, but it was one of the factors I think.

The screen in front of me showed one of Steel Redstone's kills, and as always, the kills were as brutal as ever. But then again, all kills were brutal to begin with.

We continued to watch the screen hanging over the town center to see the re-cap of the five day game in a mere three hour show. They had to show the fights and kills, so that took up about maybe an hour altogether. Another part of the re-cap was the beginning of Steel's adventure.

The reapings were normal for a career like Steel. He volunteered, even though he was fifteen years old. He fought his way through his upper class men and won. He declared his victory like it was the greatest achievement he ever got. He was all smiles and overjoyed to go into the games. Just like any other career.

Since Steel was the victor, they hardly showed any of the other tributes, even though they had lives of their own. They had their own story as well, but they were only focused on the victor, so Steel got plenty of screen time.

Then came his chariot ride. He was spray painted with stone grey paint that was strategically painted to represent stone. Steel and his district partner, Shiva Alder, looked like stone statues to represent either their strength and fame, or their stone quarry trade. Either way it fitted. It didn't get the same response as District One and their jewel encrusted costumes, but they still did better then a lot of the lower districts.

Steel played around in the chariot with Shiva. Both of them kept on flexing their muscles and seemed to have a jolly old time making each other laugh at the poses they did. It was like they were having a compition between each other. Wither it was to make each other laugh or what, I don't know. All I knew was that they both had fun with each other. And the Capital seemed to get a laugh out of it. Hell, it reminded me that they were just kids. Just kids that were forced to play these bloody games.

The Capital loved them for their acts. Just like they loved the rest of the careers for their various reasons.

Then came some of the training. Steel was skilled with his trademark weapon, the sword. He could do things with that sword that I could never do. But not coming from a career district, I could safely say that I could never ever do the things that he, or the other careers, could do. I was never a fighter, but they were. They trained for this. They made careers out of it. That's why their called careers.

Steel was also skilled with machetes and combat knives, not surprising really considering the sword.

Steel scored a nine in his training, and I suspected that much. Most careers scored in the eight to ten range. Though the ones that scored lower always did that on purpose for whatever reason they wanted to. Those were interesting years considering that those careers either ended up alone or with some non-careers.

The next thing to show was his interview. He talked about his relationship back home. He talked about a girl named Holly Dramamine, who was his girlfriend, and a girl named Sophie, who ended up being his daughter. The Capital audience went wild when he told them about his relationship with the caring and beautiful girl that meant the world to him. The Capital eats up romantic shit like that. Though it might have left a sour taste to some who thought of the second rebellion. Katniss Everdeen, the girl who defied the Capital with love.

The Capital went even wilder when they found out about Sophie, and it turned out that Steel volunteered for the both of them. He wanted to get the victor's winnings to support his family. And not just his girlfriend and bastard child, but his entire family too. The Capital really ate that up.

Even though everyone considered District Two a psychopathic district, I could see that Steel Redstone really cared about the people he talked about. The look in his eyes were those of a man that cared. That loved. That was human.

The bloodbath came soon after, and ever so slowly, Steel Redstone began to change. He started to change when he made his first kill. Something changed those kids, even careers, when they killed. Little or big changes they still changed. Noticeable or not.

Steel killed five during the bloodbath, the other careers hardly getting one. It still puzzled me how Steel got so many kills while the rest of the careers got hardly any during that moment. But I didn't think too much on it.

But as the games went on, Steel began to change even more. Steel became increasingly violent as non-careers attacked and tried to kill him. Steel killed them without an ounce of mercy.

Districts One and Four saw him as a threat and decided that they were going to kill both tributes from Two. They tried just that.

I guess that's when Steel finally snapped. His allies sneak attacked his district partner and friend and killed her. Steel, in blind rage, killed his four remaining allies before moving on to slaughter the remaining tributes. And in truth, there wasn't many more after his allied slaughter.

Steel by that time was in no other words but insane. His eyes were that of a cold blooded murderer. He killed anyone in his way. He didn't spare anyone.

Then came his final opponent, Douglas Valstar, a giant District Seven boy who's ability to murder was almost that of a career. Like Steel, his eyes were that of a cold blooded murderer. And like Steel before the games, he was just like anyone of the other tributes, someone that was once normal, just like myself and the next person. But the games changed them both. They were both unstable killers now.

When they finally met each other, they didn't even hesitate to run towards each other and try to murder the one in front of them.

The fight was short and brutal. With Steel ending up with several ax wounds to the chest and back. And Douglas with his head decapitated from his body.

The thing about Steel was, when he won, he didn't really do anything except stare at Douglas's body. He stared at it like he was hypnotized by it. But that only lasted until the last cannon fired. When Douglas's cannon fired, Steel came out of his trance and looked up at the sky as the game announcer called out Steel's name and claimed him the winner of the onehundred and thirty eighth Hunger Games.

And while Steel was smiling to the cameras, I could see that his eyes didn't reflect what he seemed to be feeling. Steel never had the kindest eyes in the world, just like the rest of the careers. But Steel's eyes had hardened through out the games. They were the eyes of a monster. And he more then kind of acted like one.

The re-capping of the games ended with Steel looking up to the sky. The Capital audience cheered for him as the T.V screen faded to darkness. They were happy, Steel was a Capital favorite among the many tributes. Everyone knew that after he had killed his career allies and the Capital sent him an expensive first aid kit that healed him within two days.

Now here was this fifteen year old monster being crowned by President Frost herself. Steel looked happy, he should be happy though, he survived after all.

But thinking about our district victors, I didn't feel too happy for Steel Redstone. Our victors may have physically came home in one piece if they didn't refuse artificial limbs, but they hardly came back in one piece mentally. Some handled it better then others, however their methods were.

The thing was, you enter the games, you never really leave them, even after you came home.

The games change you permanently wither it's noticeable or not.

In short, the games never end for those who participate. Never.