The Manipulation Games

by Spectrobes Princess

"She seemed like such a sniveling, cowardly fool that no one bothered about her until there were only a handful of contestants left. It turned out she could kill viciously." The story of how one girl fooled all of Panem. Rated T for violence, character death, and Johanna being... well, Johanna. Older story, read at your own risk.

4. See You Soon

5/10/14

Hi again! I'd like to thank pathways for following my story, and Dawn101907 for beta reading my story so far (sorry that I forgot to mention it earlier Sis).

Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games or anything else I may mention.

…..

Chapter 4: See You Soon (Johanna's POV)

"Oh Johanna, what have you gotten yourself into this time," Mom sobs into my shoulder.

"I'll be fine Mom, you'll see. If I keep this up, everyone will underestimate me, and they won't go after me in the bloodbath. Then, Blight can get me an axe or I'll pick one up, and the Games might as well be over," I tell her.

"You don't understand. Those Careers are vicious!"

"It's like I said, if I can make it past the bloodbath, I'm sure I'll win."

"Mrs. Mason, your time is up," a Peacekeeper says.

"No! No, please, just one more minute!" Mom panics, her eyes wide. I can tell she's thinking about the last time she was in this room, saying goodbye to her sister. Blight says that Aunt Johanna's death changed her, and honestly I believe him. It explains why she's always been so overprotective of me, as if I'm going to break at any moment. I try to be strong for her, I really do, but there's only so much I'm capable of.

"No! NO, let go of me!" Mom shouts as she's pulled away from me. "I love you Johanna!"

"I love you too!" I call as the door is closed between us. Then, I can't help it- I start to cry. I don't think you can blame me, since I've possibly seen my mother for the last time. The door opens again and Maple walks in.

"You have 5 minutes," the Peacekeeper says, closing the door.

She plops down next to me, making sure to seem as stable as possible. If she's been crying, I can't tell.

"Oh, get it together Mason," Maple says, "You know you'll win, stop whining."

I sit up straight and wipe the tears from my eyes. I focus on the framed picture of Ivy hanging on the wall. One of Amber is on the other side of the room.

"I think, if I can act weaker then I really am, the Careers won't label me as a threat," I sniffle.

"Yeah, or they'll target you to get you out of the way," Maple snorts, rolling her eyes. Why didn't I think of that earlier!

"I-It's too late to change my strategy though."

"Well, I have to say it is pretty clever. But have you seen the Victors recently?"

"Um… Fishboy, Birthday Girl, and "The Half". Your point?"

Maple and I always come up with nicknames for the Victors. Finnick Odair is Fishboy because he's from 4, Paris is Birthday Girl because she had a birthday in the arena (which isn't too uncommon, to be honest with you), and "The Half" refers to Crimson and Scarlett, a pair of twins that were in the 63rd Hunger Games, but only one of them could win- the Capitol never makes exceptions, even when they made it to the final 2.

"Didn't you notice that all of them seemed like weaklings?" Maple says, crossing her arms. "The last time we had a Victor that was a reasonable "Victor Age" was like half a decade ago."

"No, The Wimp was 16 when he won," I argue, thinking of Kai Urchin. We call him The Wimp because he got caught in his own trap. He would have died if the girl from 6 hadn't accidently poisoned herself. Idiots.

"So? Look, the point is, the Careers are going to be suspicious of the weaklings."

"The Careers are smart, but not that smart," I scoff.

"I don't know, have you seen District 4? They're usually the brains of the Careers. District 1's a lot smarter than they seem too," Maple reminds me.

"Maybe. I guess I'll just have to work extra hard to convince them," I shrug.

"Miss Woods, your time is up," the Peacekeeper says.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye," I say as Maple walks towards the door. She turns around and smiles at me.

"No, just see you soon," She says.

And with that, she's gone.

…..

So, in case you were wondering, the reason I seem to be constantly introducing new Victors is because me and my sister were bored one day and decided to name all the Victors. We figured that all of our hard work shouldn't be put to waste, so we now have like, 60 Hunger Games OC's.

Quote of the day!

"Ah, there's nothing like the soothing sounds of a caliapede," –SpongeBob Squarepants

Iku Ze, and may titan clan light your path,

Jeena the Spectrobes Princess