A/N: I usually don't like to put A/N's at the beginning of chapters (I prefer to put them at the end), but here this is: Victors in the COS universe aren't exactly meant to be introduced in COS. COS is more supposed to just be there in order to 1.) Have a full chronicle of each Game, and 2.) To (eventually) be able to choose any Victor from my universe, go back, and see how their Games went down. In other words, past/future Victors are usually meant to be introduced in stories like this. COS is just meant to be more of a background. Just a friendly announcement. PSA over.


Time is one of the cruelest tormentors. It causes prolonged suffering in an endless amount of various ways, for various reasons, to various extents. Such as a tribute bleeding out over the course of an hour, someone eagerly awaiting a loved one to come home, or perhaps, a Mentor loosing tribute after tribute for over thirty years. I do not wish to blame time itself for my troubles, but more just acknowledge the fact that without it, my troubles never could have existed.

-Iris Sanford, on the thirty-four year gap in between her and Haymitch Abernathy's Victories.


It's the year of the 12th Annual Hunger Games when I'm truly scared of the Reaping for the first time. As the escort, 21-year-old Thumbelina McIntosh, fumbles around with the slips in the Reaping bowl, I mentally beg her as hard as I can not to shout, Iris Sanford! I get lucky, however, and she doesn't.

Instead, she Reaps a random 14-year-old girl from the Seam. I've seen her around in school, though never interacted with her much, as she is two grades ahead of me, a grade below my older sister, Lyllia, and far from my 7-year-old brother, Luis. Thumbelina also Reaps ex-Mayor Northview's fourth child, a 15-year-old boy named Nolen. The story of (ex-) Mayor Northview is that he was quite rebellious during the Rebellion, so the Capitol decided to rig the Reapings, and send his 13-year-old son, Den, right into the 3rd Hunger Games. They've been rigging the Reapings every few years since, sending another one of the five Northview kids to the arena. 15-year-old Mara went the year of the 6th Games. 16-year-old Bryley went four years later. And now, it's Nolen's turn. The only remaining child is 13-year-old Jamie Northview. I hate to say it, but he won't be remaining for long.

About a week later, we watch on TV as the Games begin. The arena is a very rocky landscape with many cliffs, tunnels, and caves. Nine tributes die in the opening Bloodbath, one of them being that girl from the Seam. Nolen makes it out, though. He even gets a pack.

Just as the district was starting to get hopeful, the Careers hunt him down on the Sixth Day, and the boy from District 4 nearly cuts Nolen's head clean off. Once again, Twelve's out of the running.

A beautiful 18-year-old girl with flowing blonde hair and light brown eyes named Patricia Damon wins the Games, becoming District 13's first Victor. Many are surprised that it took the district that long to bring a Victor home, as 13's quite the force to be reckoned with. They've had many a strong tribute, even a second place finish, but not a Victor. Well, not until Patricia, that is.

Somewhere in the arena, four days before the Games had ended, Patricia Damon had found the number 13 engraved into a rock. She pondered if it was supposed to represent her district number, of if perhaps it's part of some sort of countdown? But what countdown? At the time, nobody knew.


Before we know it, just as we had sighed our sighs of relief that we were safe for another year, the Reaping for the 13th Annual Hunger Games is here. I once again silently beg that Thumbelina won't draw my name, nor that of 16-year-old Lyllia. Once again, it works. Nolen Northview isn't Reaped, either. Instead, she Reaps two more random kids from the Seam, both looking like dirty bags of bones compared to our Capitol escort. When Thumbelina raises one of each of their arms and shouts their names once more, the rest of the district claps politely. We're saying goodbye to them the only way we can.

The arena for the 13th Games is an eternally dark forest, one plagued with abundant Monkey Mutts that lay in wait for potential victims in the trees. Neither of District 12's tributes had to worry about those monkeys, however, as they accounted for two of this year's ten Bloodbath casualties. The boy's death was quick and relatively painless. The girl, who died a mere minute after her District Partner, wasn't so lucky. The girl from District 2, Alicia, made quite a showing of cutting our female tribute up, torturing her, and eventually taking her life. Like the poor girl deserved that. Not many people actually do deserve that.

The Victor that year is a classically One-ish girl from District 1 named Jasmine Litemark. She's what has become a typical Career, and the Capitol eats it up. District 1 earned it's third Victor after the tribute count dropped to six, leaving only the members of the Career alliance in the arena. Oddly enough, this is the first time that this has happened, but definitely won't be the last. Except for two kills made by the Monkey Mutts (the boy from 13, and later the girl from 11), every single kill in the Games was made by a tribute from 1, 2, or 4, which has also never happened before. It might not ever happen again, but it may. It certainly won't be anytime soon, however. In the end, it's Jasmine who ends up on top, after cleanly decapitating the girl from District 2 during the fight, and jabbing her sword right through her own District Partner at the end. And as they had that famous final fight, what number was somehow in the grass but 12.

Jasmine Litemark waits for the Hovercraft holding her bloody katana, and smiling at the sky. District 12 honestly couldn't care much less. Neither of our tributes even made it past the goddamn Bloodbath.


The Reaping for the 14th Annual Hunger Games is the same thing that the first thirteen were. Boring, horrifying, depressing, that kind of stuff. The Reaping goes on as normal. Speeches, Rebellion Video, actual Reaping. There would be the reading of the names of the district's Victors in between the showing of the Rebellion Video and the actual Reaping, but nobody from Twelve has made it out yet. Though we don't feel, well, amazingly excessively bad about it, as Districts 3, 6, 8, and 11 are also Victorless.

I again pray that Thumbelina won't call my or Lyllia's name, and she does not once again. Almost exactly the same as last year. Two more bony kids from the Seam to be sent to their deaths. One of the only differences are that their ages are reversed. Last year, the girl was seventeen, while the boy was fifteen. This year, the girl is fifteen, while the boy is seventeen. Two more tributes for Thumbelina to scream the names of twice, and two more tributes to politely clap for.

And two more tributes to be killed in the opening minutes. Ten tributes bit the dust in this year's Bloodbath, just like last year. Also just like last year, both of District 12's tributes are among the dead. Another obvious similarity to last year is that the arena is a forest. Though the trademark of the arena is different. Last year, the arena was plagued by eternal nighttime, and abundant Mutts. This year, the arena's trademark is fog. Heavy fog. So heavy that the tributes can't even see any farther than twenty feet in front of them. So heavy that our male tribute never could've seen the boy from 1 before the boy ran and jumped on top of him, slashing the boy's chest open with a serrated dagger. So heavy that our female tribute never could've anticipated the hatchet that flew right into her skull, courtesy of the girl from 7.

That same girl from District 7, 18-year-old Aspen Serott, goes on to win the Games, becoming District 7's second Victor. Like 13, District 7 is a force to be reckoned with. They're big, muscled, strong, and mean. Aspen stands in the Cornucopia clearing, panting, totally surrounded by fog, with her axe still buried in the girl from 4's chest. As Aspen happens to glance over at the Cornucopia, it seems as if someone raked a knife down the side of the metal Horn, leaving the number 11 etched on the thing. It's clear that this is now some sort of countdown. But a countdown to what?

When the fog finally clears after sixteen days, the Hovercraft appears, and bloodied Aspen is eager to go home to the Lumber District.


The entirety of the district is once again brought together for the Reaping of the 15th Annual Hunger Games. It's Lyllia's last year of eligibility. After this year, she's out of the Reaping Ball for good. Unfortunately, I'm not so lucky. After this year, I've still got three more years to go. Thankfully, no one that I know (myself included) is Reaped this year. Just two more random-ass scraps from the Seam, neither of whom will likely make it very far.

The arena this year is an arid, grassy steppe, with spotty scruffy bushes, as well as a mountain range in the far, far distance. You can tell it's boiling hot there just based off of how the tributes are acting, and of course, by the arena itself. Eleven tributes die in the Bloodbath this year, the highest amount to date. Our boy dies in the Bloodbath, after getting his skull bashed in with the boy from District 2's sledgehammer. Our female tribute, Grase, makes it out, however, armed with a full pack, as well as her preferred weapon, throwing knives. The girl even made a kill, and offed the boy from 1 when he tried to spear her. Killing a Career is never, and I mean never, a good idea, though. You kill one, the other five will hunt you down.

I'm proven exactly right on the Seventh Day of the Games, when the four remaining Careers end up catching up with Grase. The girl from District 1 sure makes a show of killing her, cutting her over, and over, and over again in a variety of different places with one simple throwing knife. Finally, after almost an hour of torture, Grase's cannon fires. She places tenth, the highest placing for a District 12 tribute in who knows how many years. When her face shines in the sky along with the boy from District 9's that night, one of the remaining Outliers, the boy from District 13, does the three-finger-salute when her face is shown. That saves just a little of District 12's hope from being dashed.

17-year-old Vernon Granley of District 10 is this year's Victor, making himself the second Victor from the Livestock District. While 7 and 13 are definitely some Outliers to watch out for, Districts 9 and 10 can also be quite dangerous, with Vernon solidly proving that fact. After slicing up five tributes with his serrated daggers throughout the Games, he won it all on the Eleventh Day in the arena. The boy from District 5 is still on the ground, all cut up from his fight with Vernon, with the District 10 boy's serrated dagger ultimately lodged in his chest. And sure enough, six days earlier, Vernon had watched two clouds drift by that seemed to take on the form of the number 10.


It's a hot day in early July when all of District 12 is assembled once again for the Reaping of the 16th Annual Hunger Games. Thankfully, Lyllia is safe starting this year. Unfortunately, I'm still eligible, and Luis will be eligible starting next year. Once she plunges her hand into the girls' Reaping Ball, I mentally plead Thumbelina McIntosh not to say my name for literally the fifth time. I grit my teeth as she makes her way to the microphone, and unfolds the paper that she chose.

"Iris Sanford!"

Well, it didn't work this time.


A/N: So, this was another prologue-ish type chapter, really just setting the mood, and also exploring a few past Games, as well as establishing a few of my personal headcanons. Anyways, what did you guys think of this chapter? Anything that stood out to you? Do you think Iris' District Partner will be from the Seam, or a Merchant?

Next chapter, we'll get a full account of District 12's Reaping for the 16th Annual Hunger Games. Hope to see ya there!

Until next time.

-Bo