Korrina Black knew she was going to be reaped eventually—with a rebellious father, surging up against the Capitol, and a mother who had multiple infractions with the harsh rules of District 5, it was only a matter of time. Now, the question was how she would play the game. Wasn't that what it was all about?
xxx
Boom!
The gong sounded, and Alecia dashed. That was her plan all along, to run. She wasn't a fighter, a thinker, or a maker, but she could run, climb, and hide. She snatched a miniscule pack from the edges of the Cornucopia and turned around, running towards the treacherous jungle. An arrow flew by her head, barely missing and she gasped, but kept running. She just had to get away from the damn Careers.
xxx
When Korrina was reaped, she smiled slightly and strode up to the stage, like she had been called for tea with the Mayor. She just had to play it cool, that way they would all know that she was a force to be reckoned with. She wasn't weak.
On the train ride, her poor druggie mentor was no use at all. She was used to being on her own though. That wasn't an issue. Her poor weakling of a district partner was actually the more frustrating of the two, because he was, to use a silly word, a cling-on. He desperately wanted-no, needed-Korrina's help, but she wasn't going to give it to him. She had better things to do. Like survive.
xxx
Alecia was hiding, like usual. As a street urchin in District 8, she was used to hiding-it was survival for her. The games weren't that different.
"Where is the brat? My arrow missed her, and there is no way-no WAY-that I am letting her go." A Career's voice.
Alecia curled up into her hiding spot a little bit more. Hiding meant survival.
xxx
Korrina was ready. For her, training was not a time to show off, like those foolish Careers thought it was. No, training was time to observe the other tributes, pay attention to them. It's not about learning what you can do; it's about learning what the other can do.
Of course, she didn't mind showing of just a bit. After her stunt at the knife-throwing station, the Careers sauntered over. "Join us or we'll kill you." Frank but effective.
"No, thank you. I like being alone."
"We'll hunt you down, Five," he spat, throwing her district, her great district out of his mouth like scum. Oh, she'd show them. She'd outlast them. She'd screw with their minds, fool with their senses. "I'm afraid I still don't want to join you," she replied, holding back a smirk.
"We'll get you yet."
"Sure. Great." They weren't the ones to worry about. 12 was. With the sponsors adoring her, she had supplies, weapons, anything at the click of a finger. But Korrina could hide and Korrina could seek, and that's all that really mattered.
xxx
Alecia was running. The Careers, tall and brute, had found her, and now her only hope was to run where they couldn't fit. She ducked under vines; slashing them away with the tiny knife she had found in that backpack, and kept going into the misty, wet rainforest. She tripped over a log, but rolled and kept going. Finally, she saw a suitable tree and scurried up it. Now she just had to pray that the Careers didn't have bows.
Right on cue, there came the male from 4, holding a huge longbow with a quiver on his back. Not a very usual weapon for someone from 4 to be skilled with, she thought. The boy-she thought his name was Quintin-spotted her, and slowly raised the bow, drawing and arrow from the quiver. The only thing Alecia could do was scurry higher; there were no branches or stumps to hide me from that arrow. And pulled back... and missed. By a hair. She could feel the arrow whooshing fast her face, and she let out a tiny scream, but thank god he had missed. He raised the bow again, and Alecia ran to the highest branch in the tree. Then, she noticed something. There was a branch close to the branch she was atop, close enough to jump. It's either die by the hands of another tribute, or die taking a risk. And I don't want to die uselessly.
She jumped.
And landed on the branch! Finger clutching the wood as she slid off, she hoisted her up and was alive! She kept going, dashing and leaping from branch to branch. Could this be how she would survive?
xxx
Little seven-year-old Rue sat in front of the television, watching the games. She turned around to face her mother. "Mommy, do you think I could do that? I'm a good tree-climber, you've seen me!"
Rue's mother sighed. "Yes, dear, but you don't want to be reaped for the games. That's not good."
"I could win." She was always a stubborn child. But she didn't know how wrong she was.
xxx
The interview was dull. She was slinky, evading every question neatly and Caesar obviously didn't know what to with her. She knew that sponsors weren't her strong point.
Then, the hulking, foolish boy from 12 took the stage. Surprisingly, he was charming—he certainly knew how to work the crowd. He was one to watch out for. And then he dropped it: he was "in love" with his district partner. All for the sponsors, obviously. His mentor probably thought of it; he was too foolish to think of anything like that.
The interviews wrapped up, and before she knew it, it was the day of the games.
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…
xxx
It was down to the final eight. Alecia didn't even know how she had got that far, but she wasn't going to give up now—she had always been a survivor. It was only the boy from One, both from Four, the girl from Six, Alecia, the pair from Ten, and, surprisingly, the girl from Twelve.
Suddenly, a cannon fired. Okay, well now seven. She had been perfecting her technique of climbing and hopping through the jungle, and she had it down to and art. She scampered along the branch and hopped into the next tree, hardly making a sound. Her small size and light frame made it easier for her than most, but she was sure anyone could do it; if they were heavy they would stay on the lower branches; if they were lighter they could climb higher. It wasn't really that hard.
A twig cracked underneath her. Alecia froze, terrified. She peered down through the heavy canopy, trying to figure out who it was. From the shape, she could tell that it was a girl—that left out the deadlier Careers, luckily. It wasn't the girl from 10 either—she was extraordinarily tall, 6'2", perhaps—and this tribute wasn't too tall. So that narrowed it down to the last Career female and the two underdogs. Well, three, including Alecia.
The girl looked up, and from her olive skin and raven hair, she could tell it was 12. The girl smirked and unsheathed a sword, and surprisingly, leaped up onto the tree. She scaled it quickly, and Alecia shrieked, skittering onto the next branch. She swung from a vine—thank god it held her—and hopped onto the next tree. 12 hissed, and threw her sword at Alecia. It flipped through the air, so fast that Alecia couldn't even dodge it, and it impaled itself in her head. She gasped from the pain, and crumpled, falling out of the tree. 12 smirked and yanked the sword out of Alecia's head, after hopping to the ground.
Hiders brought seekers, and the seekers would always win eventually. That was the nature of the game.
xxx
"Damn the Girl on Fire. Damn the Careers. And damn those pointless tracker jackers," Korrina cursed under her breath. She walked along, groggy, waking up after a three-day coma. Of course she had to be right there, watching the Careers. She had just stolen some supplies from them and wanted to wait around. Good time to, too. Not.
Luckily, the backpack she took contained a medical kit and she used the soothing anti-infection cream to treat the stings. The nightmares… oh, the nightmares were terrifying. She wouldn't let her fear show. She was too strong for that sort of pathetic weakness. She wouldn't let her guard down.
She remembered the 60th Hunger Games vividly—even though she had been only thirteen, she had watched reruns over the years, mainly the few ones they had shown of Alecia Twine, the girl from 8. Korrina admired her strategy and decided with her mother that she would use an altered version—playing both sides of the game, as it were: hiding and seeking.
So far, it wasn't going as smoothly as planned.
But that didn't faze Korrina—she was ready to bounce back from this little tracker jacker incident. It would not stop her.
xxx
Rue was up in a tree, as usual. Watching over the Girl on Fire, waiting for her to wake up. Her strategy this far had mainly been a simple question of what would Alecia do, but for once this wasn't one of them. Alecia would've ran away, leaving Katniss there to die, but Rue wasn't Alecia.
Alecia was a coward.
Rue was not.
xxx
Korrina fingered the berries, the purple juice staining her fingertips. She couldn't remember if they were edible or not. This was weak. But she was so hungry… she shrugged. They couldn't be that bad—a stomachache wouldn't slow her down too much.
How wrong she was.
Although Alecia was a hider, not a seeker, and was weaker than Korrina, could she have been smarter?
First of all: happy birthday Paige! You're one of my best friends on this site and you are funny, helpful, kind, friendly, and amazing. I hope you enjoy this, and many, many apologies that this is so late.
If you've read my other Foxface fic, ace, you'll see that this differs from my original Foxface headcanon that's in ace. I needed to do that for the purpose of the story. This story is also inspired my the lovely song Hide and Seek by Imogen Heap. It's Paige's favorite song and has a HG vibe to me, so I wanted to use it in the story. Alecia's character came to me from the line "Hide and seek, trains and sewing machines,", which gave me a picture of District 8, of course, from "sewing machines". I also love the idea of the skills picked up from being a street urchin being used in the games, and I was partly inspired by the wonderful book Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card for that part of Alecia, where the main character, Bean, uses his skills and intelligence to survive in a harsh environment.
This all came together when I thought about the idea of hiding and seeking. In my opinion, the two best hiders in THG are Foxface and Rue, and I liked the idea of their games strategy and even Rue's tree-hopping coming from Alecia's games, even though she died.
I'm considering making this into a twoshot, the second chapter being Alecia's backstory of life on the streets. Should I, or are you happy as it is? Please leave an answer in the reviews for me!