District 4
Melody Kramer
"Melody?" Reid asks timidly as we board our rowboat, "What if Ray comes after us?"
"He won't be able to find us," I assure him. I sit down on one of the seats and grab onto the oar handles. "There's a reason we're swimming so far away from his camp - even if he really is as mad as we think, he won't be able to reach us. It's not like he can swim - he's so huge, he'll sink as if he's made from rock."
"I guess that's true," Reid chuckles. "Do you need any help with the oars?"
"No, I've got it," I say. With that, I begin paddling the oars, pushing us away from land.
I'm lying to Reid - I'm sure Raymond will catch up to us eventually. Sure, he can't swim, but there's a reason the Gamemakers scattered the islands with boats. And while he hasn't spent years rowing boats as I have, his strength and determination will prevail. He's so determined to kill us and enact revenge, I wouldn't be surprised if he could launch himself from island to island.
But alas, we haven't seen him yet. Which is actually starting to make me nervous. The longer we go without seeing him, the more I expect him to pop out from behind a palm tree with his spear in hand. Every time we hear the slightest splash, I can't help but jump.
Raymond thinks he was being so kind and accepting after he let Reid and me into the alliance. He acted like he was our savior, and pretty much thought that we should have bowed down to him the rest of the Hunger Games. At first, we tolerated this. After all, this almost guaranteed our safety until the final eight. However, Ray was pretty much a jerk to us the entire time; besides his rude nature, we were always forced to take the longest guard shifts when everyone else was sleeping.
By Day 5, we'd had enough. When Reid was taking his extensive watch during the middle of the night, he woke me up. We packed up our supplies and got out of there.
I wasn't there to see Raymond's reaction, but I'm glad I didn't. His district partner died only a few hours after we left, and I have a feeling he killed her in a burst of anger. Raymond has always snapped when he gets angry.
"Um, Melody?" I snap out of my thoughts and turn to look at Reid, his face pale. He raises a shaky finger at the shore, which is only a few meters away. I follow its direction to where Raymond is standing with his spear, Verity at his side. My breath catches in my throat and I forget to breathe for a minute.
"Ray," I gasp.
"That's right," he smirks. He turns to face Verity. "Now."
With that command, Verity flicks two perfectly aimed knives at Reid and me. We both duck, and they sail past us, just barely missing us. Reid's lip begins to tremble and he begins to hide lower into the boat. I pick up my discarded bow and arrows from the bottom of the boat.
I don't aim when I send the first one, panicking, but it almost hit Ray anyway. He dodges it and a second later Verity throws another knife at me. It conveniently misses, giving me the opportunity to nock my arrow. I line it up with Verity and let it fly. She tries to dodge, but it sinks straight through her chest. She lets out a strangled gasp and crumples to the sand.
BOOM!
The cannon shocks me, marking my first kill of the Games. Ray roars in anger and launches his spear at our boat. Reid takes this moment to look up to see what's going on.
Somehow, despite the fact that Ray has awful aim, the spear lodges in Reid's head. The impact sends him toppling off the edge of the boat and into the water.
"Reid!" I scream and rush to the edge of the rowboat. All I can see is the turquoise water with a small cloud of red. "Reid!" I repeat, even though I know that there's no use.
BOOM!
The cannon immediately crushes my small hope that he could have survived. I spend a few minutes staring into the deep water, contemplating my friend's death, before I finally turn around to look at Ray.
He's weaponless. He must have been unsure whether to leave or to remain in hopes of beating me at hand-to-hand combat. He's smiling at me sickeningly, his black hair plastered to his soaking forehead.
One glance at his smile makes me throw out my short-lived vow of not killing again. I nock my arrow and send it flying at him. It hits his shoulder. Realizes the danger of his situation, he runs away and back into the rainforest. I shoot several more arrows in his direction, even though I can no longer see them and know it's no use.
When I've finally accepted his departure, I set my bow back down and stare up at the bright sky.
I'll win… for Reid.
Melody Kramer volunteered for the 160th Hunger Games when she was sixteen years old. Reaped alongside her was twelve-year-old Reid Cruz. They quickly formed a connection and joined the Career group, despite Reid's age.
Melody's arena was a made up of a collection of tiny islands, each containing a different threat. The arena was in favor of Reid and Melody, who both had experience with boats and the ocean. However, the elements were not their problem. They spent their Games being harassed by Raymond Darling of District 2 and were eventually hunted down by him.
Raymond managed to kill Reid, giving him a score of 5th Place.
After Reid's death, Melody went on surviving for three more days. In the final three, Melody managed to kill Raymond using her exceptional archery and swimming skills. In the finale with the boy from District 3, Melody easily killed him, crowning herself as the Victor.
Melody was a mentor for the first five years of her Victory. After that, she fell into the regular mentoring cycle with the rest of her District's mentors. She only had two successful mentorships for the rest of her life.
She married her long-time boyfriend only a year after her Victory, and they had two children together. She fell out of touch with her brother and parents not long after her marriage and only remained on formal terms with them for the rest of her life.
Melody died during the 235th Hunger Games. Throughout her life, she never forgot Reid and always felt guilty for her killing of the District 3 boy and Verity Sherwood of District 1. However, she never felt bad about killing Raymond, even when she saw his family during her Victory tour.
What did you think of this? I'm probably going to do much more of these, but I'm only going to update when I have spare time. This is just more of a side project to my SYOTs. For each of my Victors, I'm going to have a short POV and then a quick summary of the rest of their life.
I'm going in order of their Games, except I'm going to begin with Melody (the 160th) because I want to get to my living mentors really soon.
- Lilah