Hi! This is my first fanfic. It's about a girl called Iona that won the hunger games a few years ago, after the tribute she mentored that year wins, she has a series of flashbacks about her games. Let's say that each paragraph that' s obviously in the past, is a different flashback, all of them together form the whole memory of her games. I would say that the time between the facts of one flashback and the next one (I mean the ones of the arena) happen between two or three days, except for the ones that are clearly of the first day. And sorry if I have many grammar mistakes, English isn't my birth language.
Disclaimer: The hunger games trilogy and the characters you can recognize belong to Suzanne Collins. This story was based on a roleplay post I made, that then I decided to turn into a small fanfic. So..Kaikala and Hazle belong to two other girls from the roleplay. Iona, Kyle, Ilara and those characters are mine as well as the plot of the fanfic.
Keep your eyes open
I focus on the screen as the last fight is going on. Hazle against Kaikala. The fight is almost over, I can feel it, both have injuries and it's about time someone gives the death blow to the other. I see Hazle dodged the hit the girl delivered her with her sword. I see her load an arrow and shooting. I hold my breath as the arrow flies, right at Kaikala's heart. I hope Hazle don't miss. I suddenly see her blazing arrow flying directly at Kaikala's heart, a few moments later, the girl in the ground choking to death. After a few moments, I hear a cannon and literally jump from my chair "YES!" I yell "Hazle Patrova, district 3's victor of the 100th hunger games" I keep saying in joy. After five years of mentoring, this is the first time a tribute from my district wins, I'm so proud of her. A huge smile creeps on my face and if look at Hazle's expression, she looks happy, maybe she's thinking on seeing her family again. "She doesn't know what will come next" I think a bit sad, of her having to deal with the haunting memories and nightmares, well, but at least she's alive.
I'm still nearly jumping of happiness when I get out from the mentor room. I grab a cup of coffee and drink it slowly, this night I will sleep. I haven't been sleeping very much lately, since I have been busy watching Hazle's and Rydell's performance in the games. I'm so happy now. I don't really know when we will have to leave for district 3; I will have to ask to the escort, dammit, I remember, she was the same escort that pulled out my name in the reaping 5 years ago. I curse, the memories are back...
I remember exactly what happened that day, the day when the hell begun…
" "Iona Blare!" the escort of district 3 yells in joy. I can still remember the heat of the midday's sun over my head, burning it. How I was wishing all this was over so I could go home with my family, but the odds weren't in my favor that day, I got reaped, I was going to die. Everyone is staring at me, a skinny girl who's standing in the middle of the fifteen year old section, shaking. I take a deep breath and start walking to the stage, the crowd opens to let me make my way to the stage, my vision turns blurred and I have to hold from someone else a few times to not fall. I can't believe I was reaped; I never applied for tesserae, I-I'm not ready to die. I try to hold my head up and hold back my tears, which are struggling to get out. I have to be strong; I reach the stage and climb up next to the escort firmly, trying to show the potential sponsors my confidence. She smiles at me and grabs my hand "Congratulations, Iona! This is an honor!" she says. She smiles once more and turns to the boy's urn, she pulls out the name of Kyle Nerus. The boy was sixteen, but he had the same height as me and looked pale and weak, his eyes were light blue, different from my black ones, but we both had black hair. He looked scared, maybe not that fear that twelve year olds have when they get reaped, just a different kind of fear, he was scared, but he looks like he got over the fact he was going to most likely die. The escort asks us to shake hands, we do that and I look at my feet, then at the crowd. Two peacekeepers then escort us to the interior of the justice building..."
" The justice building has a special room where the tributes have to stay for about an hour so their families can come and visit them. My whole family enters first. My mum automatically hugs me and starts sobbing. I don't really know what to do. My sister comes and sits next to me, she looks so tiny, the thought that next year she will be entering the reaping makes me shiver, what if she gets chosen? "Mom" I say "I will try my best, I promise I will, but I can't guarantee you anything" I say . Then I notice my father standing silently in a corner of the room. I stand up and run up to hug him "Don't be upset, it was just bad luck, it could have been anyone" I say, trying to comfort also myself with those words, but they don't comfort me. I pull away from my father and look at my sister "Amie, you won't get chosen, mom and dad won't allow it, okay?" I say forcing a smile. She smiles a bit between sobs and nods. Mom hands her something and whisper something in Amie's ear. She nods and turns to me. She opens her hand to show me a beautiful silver necklace, it's not an ordinary necklace, it's mom's necklace. I raise my head as I take it between my hands and examine it: It's a silver oval with a sapphire in it. I know that by selling this would have helped us a lot, but it was special for mom. It was from her mother, whose sister was killed in the games, she made it after she died, in her memory. I turn it around over my palm, and I see that in tiny beautiful letters, there are the words "never give up". I smile a bit and hug all my family again. A peackeeper enters the room and escorts my family away; I stay there, sitting in the darkness, still holding the necklace. I put it around my neck. No one more comes to see me…"
" That night in the train, we sit there to watch a recap of the reaping with my mentors and stylist. My mentors are nice; they're Wiress and Beetee, a man and a woman who won at least 40 years ago. I sit in the comfortable capitol couch and sigh as an image of District 1 appears in the screen. A blonde tall girl volunteers immediately, as well as the boy, who isn't very big but looks strong. In district 2, there's a girl that looks deadly, as well as the boy, but they don't have a smart face. Then our reaping is shown, pretty normal. In district 4 there is a girl that looks like she was going to kill another girl that wanted to volunteer as well as her and a boy, who looks like a normal career. I lose interest for a while, but then the reaping from 7 comes. A thirteen year old boy that looks like he is going to break in half in any minute and a girl of my age or maybe a bit older that looks strong, but quite scared. When I take control of my mind again and stare again at the TV, I see the boy from 12, I know the reaping is from 12 because of the coal dust that is everywhere and the boy who looks like most of the tributes from 12, black hair and grey eyes, as well as the girl. Both look like starving kids…because I guess they are…"
"My prep team makes the last touches on me as my stylist, Klea, helps me to get on the chariot, next to Kyle. I can't help but laugh as how ridiculous I look. Im wearing a silver suit full with light bulbs and a strange helmet that hurts. The district 2 tributes are about to get out and we cheered for all the capitol people when my palms start to sweat. After a few minutes, the chariot starts to move and I look at the capitol audience, cheering us, screaming in joy and excitement. I slowly raise my hand and start waving shyly at the crowd. Im sure the screams of joy will leave me deaf. The chariot ride finally ends and we get off the chariot, feeling a bit dizzy…"
" "Hey" the girl from 7 appears from nowhere while I'm about to throw a knife and fail. She looks at the knife, which fell pathetically to the ground and then at me "Want to be allies?" she says with a smile. The girl looks strong, as I have seen in the reaping and hasher chocolate brown hair combed in a tall ponytail. She has piercing green eyes. I notice she's holding an axe. She positions herself and throws it against a dummy, decapitating it. "Sure, I'm in a kind of default alliance with the boy from my district. And..Wow" i say, looking amazed at the dummy's head in the ground. "Well, I'm from District 7, I have been using this things since the age of eight" she says taping the side of the axe that hasn't a blade "I suck at the rest of the weapons. "Um...C-can you teach me a bit how to use t-that?" I ask her. "Of course, you're my ally now" she says picking an axe and putting it in my hands "The thing goes like this..."..."
" I sigh as I walk on the training room, I'm clueless on what to do, I'm not good with weapons, except for what Ilara, the girl from 7 taught me in training…I wasn't too bad, maybe I can use some axes as part of my performance. I look nervously at the gamemakers and bite my lip until it bleeds a bit. I walk to the axe station and pick a light axe. I run up to a dummy and crash the axe against its head, decapitating it. I decapitate a few more and then I throw the axe at a dummy's chest, making it fall down. Then I show the gamemakers my speed by running in a track and some of my traps for humans, which are very efficient to catch them and kill them somehow. I call them "the traps for fools", I plan on using them with every tribute that gets on my way. Yesterday, I sworn to myself that I would try hard, even when thinking like a victor was hard, I had to do it, I didn't have to be afraid to kill if I didn't want to die. I stop at one point, when I already have shown the gamemakers all what I know, I realize my time is gone…"
" "Well" Wiress says "The scores will play in a minute" she smiles. I sit next to her and Kyle, Beetee in the other side. I watch as the boy from 1 appears in the screen followed by a 8, the girl has an 9, the boy from 2 a 10 and the girl another 9, then its Kyle's turn...a 5 "Not bad" I say, trying to encourage him. "I expected a lower score" . Then my face appears in the screen and I hold my breath, what I see there is a 7, not low, not too high, perfect. Beetee and Wiress congratulate us. My ally Ilara gets an 8 "She must have used axes all the session" I say smiling..."
" "Please, everyone! Welcome our girl tribute from district 3! Iona Blare!" I stand up nervously and walk to the stage. My flowing bright yellow and black dress floats with me to the stage. The crowd cheers me as I sit next to the interviewer; he's no longer Caesar Flickerman, who has been in charge of many interviews in many of the games that went before these ones. I stare at the crowd and smile brightly. He starts to ask me about my home back in district 3, what I like to do most, my family, strategies for the games or allies. Until he reaches a question that makes me hesitate "Who do you think that would be your biggest opponent in the arena?" I look at him, wondering what should I say "Umm…I can't judge any tribute for their scores and what they show in training, I think that intelligent can easily win over strength here in the games. And about my biggest opponent, I think that would be myself" I say. The interviewer opens his mouth to answer but then the buzzer sounds, announcing the end of my interview…"So Iona Blare from district 3 everyone!" he yells happily to the crowd…."
" The platform rises to the arena and my heart its pounding, I squeeze my token as the arena is finally revealed: I can see the golden horn a few meters away and some supplies and small weapons spread around the cornucopia, the most big and deadly weapons are found in the interior of the horn. I take a quick look at the arena. I see a forest really near to the cornucopia and if I look over my shoulder, I see a large plain area. Forest it is, I say to myself. "Ladies and gentlemen let the 94th annual hunger games begin!" A voice says in the loudspeaker. My heart is pounding as I stand there for one minute, then the gong sounds. I jump off my platform and sprint towards the cornucopia, all seems to happen in slow motion, I grab a light backpack and keep on running and searching for my allies, towards the forest, hoping to escape without a scratch. I grab a small hatchet that luckily appears in my way and start running away, still heading to the forest I don't want to be killed in the bloodbath. As I start to approach towards the forest area that is a few meters far, I look over my shoulder, a real bloodbath. I see the boy from 2 decapitating without mercy a boy that looks like he's 16, but its skinny and a bit short, Kyle. I suddenly feel guilty because of not helping him, but my survival instinct wins this time, he's already dead, I couldn't do anything..."
" Thirteen cannons, one of them is from my district partner, I have seen his death with my eyes. It's starting to get dark and i haven't found Ilara yet, I hope she's still alive, anyways, I know she is, I know that she managed to get out alive somehow. I open my backpack only to find some rope, a water bottle, iodine and jerky. After a few minutes, the anthem plays and shows the deaths. The first face is Kyle, then the girl from 5, both from 6, the boy from 7, that means Ilara is alive somewhere, the girl from 8, both from 9, the boy from 10, the girl from 11 and both from 12. Thirteen dead, 11 left, 6 of them are careers..."
"It's the morning; I hear a noise, footsteps. I jump slightly over the tree and look around. I grip the hatchet and wait. I see a figure approaching and I lean closer to see who it is. It can't be a career, they always travel in packs. It's only a girl. She is gripping an axe tightly. Wait! an axe! "Pssst, Ilara" I whisper. She raises her head and looks at me "Iona" she smiles. She climbs the tree with me and smiles "So you survived the bloodbath" she says with an enigmatic smile. "Yeah, but my district partner wasn't so lucky" I say, still feeling some guilt. She nods "My district partner is dead too" she whispers. Now I know she understands what I feel, I didn't even know Kyle before the reaping, but..i guess, that we had..Some kind of brotherhood in these games because of being from the same district, just that…"
" The careers are near, I can feel them. I suddenly have an idea. I whisper my plan to Ilara and she nods. She has two great axes, I wonder how did she grabbed them and managed to get out alive. She jumps to the next three and waits. I see the girl from 1, holding her sword tightly. The girl from 2 comes next, holding a mace that looks scary, a set of knives in her belt. Then comes the boy from 1 and the boy from 2, both have at least two spears. The tributes from 4 have both a deadly trident, they all look deadly. But I'm not scared; I know my plan will work. Luckily, I had a sponsor; they sponsored me more rope, a lot of rope, one of the bundles is transparent. I placed the transparent thick rope. Ilara is the decoy, she will jump to the ground and everyone will try to get her. I have set some traps to hang the opponents from their foot in at least three trees, apart from this one. Ilara leaves the axes with me and appears without any weapon in the scene. The boy from 4 smiles and throw the trident at her, Ilara, the sly one, dodges the attack swiftly and the idiot from 1, who has a spear curses, he starts running towards Ilara...and into the trap. The boy collides with the elastic transparent rope and is thrown to the ground "That happens when you run very fast" I muter under my breath, I pick one of the axes Ilara gave me and throw it at the boy's chest, just how she taught me, the cannon fires. The boy falls to the ground dead. The careers look at each other in disbelief and the girl from 4 explodes in rage. She start running, trying to avoid the trap, but as she tries to run to the other side and pass from behind the tree, she falls into the trap that leaves her hanging from her feet, I tied it right in the branch where I'm sitting, the girl is like 6 or 7 meters above the ground. I cut the rope and the girl falls after a few moments, boom, another cannon; she must have hit her head or spine against the ground. I look at Ilara, who must be in trouble right now, but she isn't there anymore, as well as the careers…"
"I smile a bit as I see the boy from 4 approaching alone into the forest. We have set a trap, this time it's a hole, we really spent hours digging it with our useless axes, then we covered it with some leaves and know we're hidden, both over a tree. We have been waiting for someone for ours, until we realized we should make some noises. We yell something and then hide, but we left my backpack there, next to the hole. The boy walks up to the hole and smirks as he holds the bag. He grips his trident and starts looking for tributes to kill. The fool starts walking through the clearing and suddenly we hear him yelling and then the noise, he well into the hole. Ilara hops off the tree with the ability that only a girl from 7 can have and kneels down next to the hole. The boy sees her and gets mad, he tries to stab her with the trident, but she's the sly one, and dodges the attack. She then nails one of her axes in the boy's head without mercy "I see that you're the brain and I'm the executioner" she says jokingly.."
" Final 5. We got rid of the girl from 1 yesterday, more traps. We used a similar trap to that one we used against the girl from 4, but this time we stabbed her to death while she was hanging from the tree, since she was alone. The boy from 5 was killed by someone; the thing is that he was killed. Ilara looks at my worriedly "I think we should split up, it's the final 5 and..I don't want us to be at the final 2 at the end" she says. I agree "Thank you for being such a great ally all this time" I say sadly, waving her goodbye and good luck. She starts walking away, at that time I didn't know that was the last time I was going to see her alive…"
" I hear a loud laugh, a boy is laughing really hard and then I hear low gasps of terror. I hop into a tree, whatever is happening its happening near here. I hop from tree to tree with some effort, but silently, until I can see what the whole country is seeing: The boy from district 2 has Ilara in between his arms, pressing a knife against her gut. What an arrogant boy, he wants to show the world he can kill someone with a small pocket knife. His district partner is standing there, laughing also, like the boy, holding Ilara's axes. Anger starts to grow on me and I grip the small hatchet tight. "Bye, bye, weak little girl" says the boy as he digs the knife in Ilara's throat. I wonder how they caught her. -Later, in the whole games recaps, I saw that they threw a spear at her leg while she was running, a simple thing, but useful- I stay there as my eyes fill with tears, my friend is dead. The cannon go off. Final 4. The girl from 10 and me are the career's next target, I won't allow it. I look at my token "Never give up" those wise words let me think that I will win, that I will win for my family, for my district and most importantly, for Ilara, I'm determined to make her death count..."
" I look at the perfect trap I just set in a perfect tree. This one took me a lot of time, and a sponsor. Someone must have seen my skill with these things and sponsored me a net. I used the transparent rope to tie the net to the tree; the net is now in the ground, if someone steps on it, it encloses that someone. This one failed once, an animal stepped on it. But I made it again, I know this is an area where careers don't come much, but if there is a decoy..I chop some wood with the hatchet, it's harder, because its small, the careers took Ilara'a axes. I prepare a big fire in the ground and leave there the rabbit i caught a few hours ago, to cook. I leave the district one boy's spear and backpack there, maybe the careers will want to wait for someone there, someone that will never come, I climb a tree. They finally appear, attracted by the smoke of the fire. They stay there, holding their weapons, waiting for the tribute. I grip the rock I collected a few minutes later and throw it behind the tree in which I am. They hear the noise and the boy, who's holding a mace, smiles. He runs in the direction of the noise and...I hear the impact of the trap going off. I look from between the leaves and see him trapped in the net, cursing like a madman. I see the girl trying to help him, but soon I see she's useless at climbing and the net it's too high for her to reach. She gives up and leaves her ally there to die. When I'm sure she's gone, I cut the rope that hold the net and he falls to the ground. I hop off the tree and smile. "That was for my ally" I say burying my hatchet in his head. The cannon go off and I cut the net to grab his mace..."
" I'm staring directly at the eyes of my last opponent, the girl from district 2. The girl from 10 was killed by her yesterday and she came here to find me. "So..." she says with an evil grin "We finally meet" I stare at her, she's tall and strong, I'm short and skinny. "Yes. Let me introduce myself as the killer of your whole alliance of fools. I will tell you something, never put strength over intelligence" I say. She nods, like she understood. "Well, let's finish with this, I'm looking forward to my victor interview" she says. She grips one of Ilara'a axes and throws it at me. I try to dodge it but it lands in my shoulder, the first injury I received in the whole games. I have been hiding and setting traps all the games, now is fight or…fight. "We'll see" I say. I grip the hatchet and run up to her, but before I can reach her, she tackles me to the ground and attempts to chop off my head, I kick her in the stomach while I spit at her in the face. I nail my axe in her stomach. She punches me in the face and my nose starts to bleed. I manage to push her away from me, to the ground and nail my axe in her knee. Then she throws a knife at my chest, it lands there, but luckily not in my heart. The cut isn't too deep, but it hurts like hell, since I'm not used to this kind of pain. I then grab the axe she threw at me and throw it at her neck, it misses. I curse and charge at her, nailing the hatchet in her shoulder. She screams in pain and grabs my black hair. She presses a knife against my gut. She starts to cut and I feel that I'm lost, that I'm going to die, but then I feel the cold metal of my token and everything change, I made a promise, and I'm going to keep it. In an adrenalin rush, somehow, I manage to nail my elbow in her stomach and the girl frees me a bit, then I bite her hand until it bleeds and she frees me completely. I stand up and spit away the girl's blood, I spin around with the hatchet, leaving her a nice wound in her neck. She will bleed to death in a few minutes, but she can still kill me in the meantime. I look at her and behind the mask of blood and dirt from her face, I can see her eyes glow in rage. She digs brutally a knife in my knee and I fall to the ground, nailing the hatchet in her own knee, making her fall too. The ground is a strange mixture of both bloods, mixing while we both fight to the death. She fights for fame and fortune, I fight to return home. She stabs me with the axe in my thigh and I feel the blood running through my leg. As I try to move, I feel the pain of her axe in my shoulder, she's trying to get to me. I try to stand up, but my legs are too hurt to do it. I crawl up to her, she throws her last axe to me and I dodge it by throwing my weigh to the left. I growl in pain as my wounded leg collides with the floor as I jump. I see that she has a hard time standing up also, so I stab her thigh with my hatchet. I jump over her and try to hold her with one of my thin arms, she tries to push me away, but I use all my strength to stay there, since she is way bigger and stronger than me. I free one hand, hoping she doesn't take advantage of me freeing one part of my body from her and quickly nail the hatchet in the middle of her head, watching as her eyes turn blank and the color vanishes from her face, now she has a large wound in her head, which is almost split in two, blood escaping from everywhere; but right at the same time as my axe goes close to her, she stabs my chest with her knife really badly, probably I will bleed to death if I wasn't going to win. My vision turns blurred and the last thing I hear it's a cannon, then the trumpets announcing my victory..."
" I'm standing right below the stage after being fully healed and dressed for the occasion, the crowd is cheering Wiress and Beetee. I start to rise to the stage and the cheers of the crowd turn ten times louder than before as they see me. I smile and hug Wiress and Beetee "Thank you" I whisper to each of them. The interviewer smiles at me with that creepy capitol smile "And here is Iona Blare! The tribute form district 3 and victor of the 94th annual hunger games!" The new name they gave me makes me want to puke, because I know I won by killing other people, maybe they were also willing to kill me, but they were nothing more than poor puppets, capitol puppets. He leads me to the seat in front of the screen, where I'm supposed to watch the recaps of the games. I sit in the victor's seat and stare at the screen. The video starts with a quick recap of the reaping, I would better be prepared, they won't let me forget this, this horror will replay now in a screen and for the rest of my life in my head, and why not, in the TV I will have in my new home…."
"After a long ride, the train finally stops and I literally hop off the bed of my compartment, I look at the necklace, which a few days later, was full of District 2's girl's blood. Now it's clean and exactly how my mom gave it to me. I look at it, really excited to see my family again. But then it hits me, with the help of my friend, I have killed like six people in these games. What will my family be thinking of me? They asked me to try and win, I did that…I was the only way. I start to get worried and then the escort walks into my room in a cheerful mood. "We arrived at district 3!" she says with a smile. I put the pendant under my shirt and nod smiling, No, my family will still love me, and they will know I made those horrible things just to be with them again. I follow the escort as she stands away from the train. Kind of the whole district is there, with smiles in their faces. I see two families, one of them is about to explode because of the joy, and the other is still sad, It's Kyle's family. As soon as I get out from the train, my sister is already hugging me tight and asking me to never go away again and then she tells me how she missed me "I missed you too" I say "And I promise I won't go away again" I say. Then I remember the victory tour and that I will also have to go almost each year to be a mentor, but I shut up right now. My mum hugs me, tears of joy in her eyes. "I knew you were going to make it" she says. "I made a promise" I tell her. "And here you are" she answers. Then we pull away and my dad hugs me tight. From the corner of my eye, I see Kyle's family and my heart drops, his little sister and his mom, his dad died I guess. I pull away from my dad and walk up to them. "Umm…I'm sorry" I whisper to them sadly, really meaning it. "It's not your fault" Kyle's mom says…."
I raise my head up and realized I dropped my coffee. I'm shaking slightly and gasping for air as i remember the last fight. I blink, deciding that once I have congratulated Hazle, I should get some sleep. Five years passed and I still remember almost each detail of that succession of horrendous things called the 94th hunger games. I wonder if they will stop replaying in my mind almost every night, every year, when I have to mentor a tribute.
Well, I need to know how it turned out, so please review :)