I just wanted to start by saying that I don't know how long this story will be, because I'm still not positive where I want to go with it yet. And I was going to put this as a crossover between Hunger Games and Twilight, but I didn't because the only thing in common this has with Twilight is the characteristics of vampires. I'm having the vampires in this story be described just like the ones from Twilight (i.e. their speed, strength, beauty, etc.). This story takes place while Mockingjay's going on, which explains all the talk about the rebellion. And I KNOW Brutus died in the 75th Games, but let's just pretend that didn't happen. Just pretend The Hunger Games OR Catching Fire happens. Please review!
Enjoy! ;) Jasmine
Chapter One: Rebellion
I dropped the human I'd been drinking from and with a flick of my tongue, licked the remaining droplets of their blood from my lips. I glanced at the slowly oranging sky. It would be daylight soon; they'll be expecting me back.
I jumped onto one of the roofs bordering the alley I was in and ran across rooftops until I was at the roof of my own house in the Victor's Village. I slipped quietly through the back door and entered the spacious kitchen. Brutus was already there, sitting at the kitchen table examining what looked like a map.
"Brutus," I said, greeting him.
"Cutting it kind of close, aren't we, Enobaria?" he murmured, not looking up from his map. "You don't have your cover on. The humans could've seen you."
I'll just be blunt and not waste time. Some of Panem's districts, particularly Seven and Two, where I lived, didn't just house humans. They were also home to vampires. When I was in my Games, I won by ripping people's throats out. The citizens of Panem were both entranced and puzzled by this strategy. The story was that I just had extremely sharp teeth. This was technically true. Since I was a vampire, my teeth were automatically sharper, even though they didn't look it. After the Games, a surgeon had given me the idea to have my teeth genetically altered to have them each end in a point, like a vampire's fang, and inlaid with gold. I figured what the hell; it would only make my life of feeding off humans easier. So I went with it, enjoying the irony that came along with it.
Obviously, being a victor meant that I would have to be out and about all the time, making appearances and mentoring future tributes. And I couldn't do that exposed, because the sun made my skin sparkle like diamonds, and I wasn't planning on walking around layered in clothes for the rest of my life. So what I did was I went to my prep team, who knew about my vampire-ness, and they concocted a sort of cream that protected my skin from the sun and didn't come off until I rubbed a certain solvent on it.
I had changed Brutus myself after his Games, in the fact that I knew of no other vampires in our village of District Two. Sure, the bigger villages were crawling with them, but ours, being one of the smallest, only had a few, besides Brutus and myself. We had changed a couple of victors, but only a couple, because our village wasn't big enough to feed a big number of us. Sometimes, when the number of human casualties got higher than normal, we had to drink from animals for a while. Although the thirst was quenched, there was always a hollow feeling in me that was asking for more.
"I'm here now, aren't I?" I asked, settling down at the table across from him. "What are you looking at?"
Brutus slid his reading material over to me. Sure enough, it was a map of Panem.
"What's this?" I asked.
Brutus sighed. "Enobaria, there's no denying that the idea of a rebellion is starting in the minds of some of the districts. A lot of people are starting to question some of President Snow's actions."
"So? People have been doing that since he came into power," I said.
"Yes, but now they're really starting to question them. Before it was just a bunch of grumblings from one person to another, but now it's much more involved."
"How so?"
"People are actually taking some of Snow's ideas and twisting them, deconstructing them in their own minds to try to find the origin of them, if that makes sense."
"No."
"What I mean is that they're actually doing research and finding out that their president is even worse than they thought."
I leaned back in my chair. "Okay, let's say you're right and people are really starting to hate Snow even more than they already did. What do we have to do with anything?"
"I don't think you understand, Enobaria. This rebellion could affect the whole country. District Two even worse, perhaps, because of the Capitol's preference for us."
"Of course I understand," I countered. "And when I said we, I didn't mean District Two; I meant you, me, Guinevere, and Jackson. Who the hell cares about the rest of the nation, or even District Two? If something bad happens, we either run away and feed on animals, even thought the very thought disgusts me, or we rip and burn ourselves. Simple."
Brutus smiled and waved his finger at me. "Ah, and that's where you're wrong. I don't think you know this, but President Snow very quite aware of our, ah, condition.
"What? When did he find that out?" I gasped.
Brutus gave another small smile. "President Snow is a very, very, clever man, Enobaria. He knew once he laid eyes on you while you were in the Capitol before your first Games. Even with your cover on," he added, seeing my mouth start to open to counter. "He could tell in the grace with which you moved; the way you hungrily looked at him when you saw him cough his blood into his handkerchief. He's able to pick out these differences between us and the humans because his own Capitol is overrun with them, and he's had more than one encounter with them."
At this, I drew a collective gasp.
"After my Games, he took me aside and explained to me the nature of vampires, telling me how he very well suspected you would change me when I was back home. I don't know how he guessed; it must've been the fierce way to made sure I stayed alive in the arena; apparently you had much more will to help me then your previous tributes. And he blackmailed me."
Another gasp escaped from my mouth. "What do you mean? What the hell for?"
"Let me finish. He told me that he could also sense your bitter disrespect for him in the way you acted towards and about him. He knew some people were staring to hate him even then, and knew that it was only a matter of time before they started acting out their thoughts. He knew the damage one of us can do, and he wanted to make sure we weren't against him. So he blackmailed me. If we went against him, he would expose us to the whole population of Panem."
"Who's exposing us to the whole population of Panem?" Guinevere and Jackson, the other two vampires in our coven, entered the room. They were relatively young; we had changed them only a few short years ago.
"I was just explaining to Enobaria our predicament with Snow and the rebellion."
"Ahhh," Guinevere said, sitting down at the table. She turned to me. "You're just now hearing about this?"
"What do you mean? How long have you know about this?" I asked her.
"Oh, Brutus told us a while ago. A couple months, maybe?" She answered, flipping her blond hair over her shoulder and leaning her elbows on the table.
I glared at Jackson, the more serious and levelheaded of the two. "You've known about this for months and you didn't say anything to me?"
Jackson's face remained as stolid as ever when he replied, "Brutus thought the idea may be…a bit dangerous in your head."
"What?"
"Enobaria, we all know how active your mind is," said Brutus. "We didn't know what would happen if you knew about this too early. We didn't want you to take action sooner than we wanted."
"Well, that's what they thought," Guinevere said, leaning even more forward on her elbows. "I however, was all for it."
"Well thank you. At least someone here believes in me," I said, with mock sadness. I brightened up pretty quickly. "So what side are we on?"
"Well that's what I wanted to talk about with all three of you. Obviously whatever happens in the war won't affect us four personally; my thoughts were that we could remain neutral. But you could each do whatever you want; I'm not stopping you. We could actually do whatever we want, because the deal I made with Snow was that he wouldn't expose us as long as we're not against him. He didn't necessarily say we had to be with him. Any thoughts?"
"Well I, for one, can't stand President Snow, so I definitely won't be on his side," I said. "And us being neutral won't help him be impeached."
"Alright, alright, good statements, from all of you," Brutus said, nodding. "I actually agree with you, Enobaria, even though I'm not a fan of Snow, I thought being neutral would keep us safe, but now that I think about it, we're vampires; we could kill him in an instant if we wanted or needed to. Now, I wanted to talk to you about my map."
Brutus spread the map out so it was at its full size across the whole table. On it was a map of Panem, with each district labeled and marked in black ink.
"Here we are, in District Two," said Brutus, stabbing the map with the tip of his finger. "I think we should take a trip up to District Thirteen and see what's there. I have a feeling there's still some people there, and I would bet that they're all for the rebellion."
"I bet you're right, Brutus," Jackson said, nodding. "When were you planning on going up there?"
"As soon as possible, I think," said Brutus. "The sooner we know, the better."
Alright, everybody, here's the first chapter of my new story. I don't know how good it will be, and if you have any ideas for me PLEASE PM me or write them in a review, and I promise you will be credited, even if I don't end up using your idea.
Love ya! Jasmine
