Hey guys! This is my first Hunger Games oneshot. It's pretty much a stand-alone piece, but it'll have more meaning if you've read my drabble about the District 10 boy with the crippled foot. And to the readers of my Katniss fic: I'm sorry the chapters are late! I've been having a bit of a block with the Haymitch one, but hopefully it'll be up tomorrow. This oneshot has the potential to become a twoshot, if you guys think it would be good. Anyway, I hope you like it!
Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games.
The sun gleamed off a steel dagger as it lodged itself in the back of a tall, muscle-bound teenaged boy. With a horrific scream, he crumpled to the ground, his body rocked with spasms.
A long-legged, lanky girl with black hair ran from the cover of the trees, pulling the bloody dagger from his back. She rolled him over with her foot, ignoring the gasped pleas for mercy, and stabbed him in the chest. Yanking it out, she straightened and waited. A cannon fired, and she smiled.
The trumpets blared, and over them, the voice of Claudius Templesmith proclaimed, "Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to present the victor of the Seventy-Sixth Hunger Games, Candace Greene. I give you-the girl tribute of District 10!"
This is the routine ending to the Hunger Games. What happened next, however, was not routine.
Candace, blood-splattered and filthy from her weeks in the arena, stepped lightly onto the broken body of her adversary. She bowed at the waist, left, right, straight ahead, seemingly basking in the screams of the crowd being blasted into the arena over loudspeakers.
All but screaming to be heard over their cheers, she began to speak. "I thank you, people of the Capitol, for accepting me as your victor!"
A joyous shout went out at that, then broke off as she raised her hand. It looked like she was giving a speech, which was unusual. Usually by this point, the tributes were half-dead, but it was permissible by the rules.
"As we all know, there must be a winner, and I am honored that it is me. I hope that during my tenure as most recent victor, I represent my district and the Gamemakers honorably and well."
Another roar of approval.
"I also hope that, with all due respect, that the Gamemakers and every last man, woman, and child in the Capitol rot in hell for what they've done to the people of the Districts! I die knowing that the father of my son and every other person you've murdered in these Games is avenged! To the rebellion!"
Before anyone knew what to do or say, before the Gamemakers had even had a chance to respond, she snapped off a crisp salute to the cameras, and raised the knife to her throat. With a quick jerk of her wrist, she slit her own throat, and fell to the ground. After a few brief, violent twitches, she was dead. The congealing blood of the boy she had killed mingled with the fresh blood from her own body.
Everything in the arena was silent, and still.
Death alone can be the victor in the Hunger Games.