Disclaimer: I don't own the Hunger Games. I will never own it.
Sass says: Sorry this is later than I expected. It wasn't supposed to go this way at all, but Thatcher's story demanded to be told, haha. Thank you to The House of Figs for your review! It's what really got me to sit down and write this.
It hurts me to see Rosey cry. I spent most of my life knowing that I was supposed to protect her. I'm older. I knew from the moment that my mom brought her home that it would be my job to protect her like Etta looked out for me. So, when Rosey starts crying, I pull her next to me like I did when we were little. I love my older sister, but Etta normally made Rosey cry more than she ever made her feel better. I know it probably won't help, but I talk about everyone with her with the hopes that she'll feel just a little better.
But, she's wrong. Rolex and I were rebellious. We aren't the only ones in the District, just some of the more vocal. Rosey never noticed, mostly because my darling little sister always had her head up in the clouds, but I would always be late in coming home. She'd always be with Lola or with any of her other friends by the time I came home. Vocal Rolex and I might have been, but we weren't the only ones happy. Most people forget that Seeder isn't the oldest Victor in District Eleven. Sidney Lamar won the Eighth Hunger Games when he was fifteen. He's kept away from everyone, not really wanting to get involved. Every time we did something stupid and needed to hide, we'd take off running towards his house.
I'd never admit it to anyone, but it was our fault that the fence really started to be enforced. The thirty feet high fences had always been there and so had the razor wires, but they had never been turned on. It used to be that some people would dig underneath and get away; escape into the forests and open fields away from everyone else. When I was thirteen, Rolex and I had gotten our hands on some paint. I wasn't much of a writer, but Lex was better than I was. We'd been walking back home when we saw a family near the fence. The father was digging underneath. We heard the Peacekeepers behind us, so we took off running.
We didn't think about the family. We only thought about ourselves. We sprinted right past them. With a startle, the father pushed the boy underneath. His sister went next. Right as the mother tried to dig through, shots were fired. The mother collapsed in the hole, and the father reached down for her. When he did, the Peacekeepers shot him. I almost turned back. When they shot the children down, I turned to run towards them. If it hadn't been for Lex, I might have. He pulled me. They chased us everywhere, straight into Victor's Village. The Peacekeepers might have caught us if it hadn't been for Sidney. He hid us in his home and only let us leave when we were in the clear.
We went back after that night. Every time we did something worthy of getting lashes, or killed, we would run to his house. It was through him that we learned of rebellion. We learned to curse the Capitol - to blame them for everything wrong that happened. Not even just the little things anymore. It was everything. I hated them with every breath I took. Every Games that we had to watch - all the times Etta woke up screaming with nightmares or Rosey would curl up into my side when she was scared. I'd lay awake on the floor until I could be sure that they were both asleep.
I do that now, letting Rosey wrap her hand in mine. We've pulled the covers off of the beds and laid them on the floor. I close my eyes and pretend to be asleep. I can see her shifting around a little; I assume she's thinking. Eventually, she stops moving and curls up. It's not as effective as it once was, but I imagine it comforts her. I wait ten minutes after she's asleep to close my own eyes.
Like usual, I'm the one that wakes up first. I pause before waking her up, brushing some of her curly hair out of her face. In a couple of hours, my sister and I will be fighting: fighting to live, fighting to survive, fighting to outdo each other. I can't let her die. When I do finally wake her up, I send her to go take a shower. I head to my room to change. We also make sure to talk together, to not be separated until we have to be. When we do, I'm pushed onto a hovercraft. Wedge appears not much later, looking terrified of everything around her. I'm reminded of Rosey and Etta. I gesture to the spot next to me wordlessly with my head.
"I'm scared." She whispers, her voice fluxating.
"It's going to be alright. We'll take care of you."
A woman sticks a needle in my arm. I wince, but try to keep my face as neutral as possible so that this tiny little girl doesn't feel anymore scared. Only, this little girl is definitely not my sister. I'm not going to hold her hand and tell her that everything's going to be okay. When the hovercraft lands, I wave away the youngest member of District Twelve and let Chaff and Sevena pull me away. Chaff is, very unabashedly, flirting with her. I trail behind them, wondering what my family's doing. All of them.
I'm definitely not hungry. It's weird seeing everything that they have set out for me to eat, but I don't understand how I'm supposed to when I'm about to be sent out to slaughter people my age or younger. I already have blood on my hands, so I guess it won't be too much to ask to get my hands a little dirtier than they were going into the Games. But, Rosey's were very much clean. My little sister cried if a bird fell from a tree - how was she supposed to kill someone? It wasn't until Chaff forcibly sat me down that I consented to eating an apple and drinking some water. I know that there probably won't be much water - or, the water might be dangerous. It can be used as a weapon - that was what Wiress did.
I clap arms with Chaff right before he leaves. "You protect her. I don't want anything except for Rosey to live." I see his face contort a little at the news, but I don't let him leave until he nods.
Afterwards, Sevena eyes me. "You don't want to come out of this alive?"
"I didn't say that." I tell her harshly. "I want my sister to come out. But, if something happens to Rosey...it won't be me. If we make it to the final two, I won't kill her. I could never." I swallow the lump in my throat and pull the brown jumpsuit away from her.
After getting dressed, I do a series of stretches. I know that my biggest competition will be the tributes from Districts One, Two, and Four. Adit might have been another problem if it hadn't been for Rosalie, so I silently thank my sister for giving me an ally. I do accept the water that Sevena hands me, and I try not to let her glances affect me too much. What right does this Capitol woman have to pass judgment on me when her family is safe?
I step on the metal plate calmly, turning around and looking down at my head prepper. "Thank you. For everything." I tell her because she is the last person that I'll get to see as Thatcher, the boy from District Eleven who got into too much trouble. From now on, there will only be Thatcher, the killer. Thatcher, the murderer. Thatcher, the older brother who would do anything, kill anyone, for his little sister.
She looks like she's about to say something in return, but then a glass separates us. She puts her hand on the glass like she's reaching out to me, but I can't let that change anything. I take a step back and not at her, thankful that she's not crying.
I train the fiercest look that I can onto my face. In a minute, the cameras might be trained on me; will at least pass over me while trying to gauge my reaction. I'm prepared. I'm going to be the 'tough, cool, collected' type. Claudius Templesmith says something - I'm not really sure. I'm not paying attention. All I know is that the countdown has started. We are mounted on platforms.
I see my competitors.
I see Rosey. I let my eyes train on her because I'm not entirely sure when the next time I'll get to see her is. Her curly hair is tamed into a braid, and I'm thankful for the opportunity to see all of her features. That doesn't mean that I can ignore the terrain, however. I'm very much aware of where we are and what problems this may cause.
I scan around and look at the rest of the people. Wedge and Rosey are directly across from us; Deniz is to my left and Adit to his, the girl from District Five is to my right and, I think but I'm not sure, the boy from District Nine is on her right. I'm not worried because I can see what's in front of me. I already knew that I was going to go to the Cornucopia. I can see a scythe, which, while I'm sure was put there for me, it's not what I'm interested in. Ever since I could work, I have had a sickle. It was always my "weapon" of choice. So, when I see it nonchalantly in a grey bag, I know what I'm aiming for. I don't bother to look behind me because I know that I have to run forward on the metal ramps.
For once, I have to thank the damned Peacekeepers in District Eleven for all the grief they've given us. All the times I've had to run away with Lex by my side - I may not be the quickest person, but I'm quick enough that I'm not too worried about what happens when the clock strikes one. I finally tear my eyes away from my prize to look at Rosey one more time. Luckily for me, she manages to meet my gaze. I nod with my head in the direction of Wedge and hope that she catches my meaning. She does. She almost raises her hand, and I think I can see her fingers twitching showing she understands.
The gong goes off, and my feet do too. I don't bother to look around me and see who else is running down the ramps. I don't fear anyone to my right, and I'm not thinking that the boy from District Four can outrun me. This isn't water. When my hands reach the bag, I don't think twice about grabbing the sickle and pulling the backpack around my arm and reaching out for the boy from Nine. He's the closest to me, and today is not his day. I run the inside curve of the blade across his throat quickly. He's a lot smaller than me, and it's not difficult. After doing so, I run towards Adit, weaving in and out of the smaller tributes. They're running away from me. They probably know the boy from Nine is dead. That I've killed him.
They don't sound the cannons until the bloodbath is over.
Half the Careers are on the other side, closer to Rosey. My clever little sister has grabbed Wedge and pulled her off the side of the volcano. I don't smile at her or even watch her for long. I can't afford to. I give my sister two seconds before focusing on what's around me. I already have a backpack and a sickle, but I have no idea what's in the backpack. My eyes scan the area around me quickly until they land on my ally. Adit has no weapon on him, but he's trying to get closer to the swords. I don't know where the other Careers are, but he's having a tough time getting through Deniz and Topaz.
I don't hesitate and run in that direction. I can't fathom why, but they don't acknowledge me - too busy focused on Adit, I guess. It's been drilled into me never to harm a girl. When I was little, I would pinch Etta if she did something I didn't want her to do.
"Thatcher. You must never hit a girl." My father said to me.
"Why?" I pressed. "Etta hits me!"
"Rosetta is your sister. You have to protect girls, not hit them."
Somehow, I don't think he'd mind too much if I'm trying to keep my friends alive. I tackle Topaz from behind. I've caught her completely off guard. I trust Adit to keep others from attacking me. To her credit, the girl from District One tries to throw me off of her. She bucks and tries to scratch me. Luckily for me, my legs are pressed against her back. I consider using the sickle to slice her throat - something I'm sure would be quick and painless in comparison.
But, Careers always kill tributes from District Eleven, and I don't fancy being nice. Chaff's victory flashes briefly through my mind - his fight with the District One boy that resulted in losing his arm. For him, I'm vicious. I stick my hand in the mop that is her hair; my anger flaring at how soft and well-cared for it seems to be. I remember that her District is a rich one. They probably don't have people falling in the crops, off of trees in the orchards, in the factory where we package everything because they haven't had enough food to energize themselves from the amount of work that they've done. I hate them. I hate her.
It takes three times. I've smashed her head against the metal three times before she stops struggling - before she stops moving. I heard the crack on the second one, but I had to be sure. In those few short seconds, Adit has managed to get his hands on a sword and is going on on one with Deniz. The stupid, loud boy from District Four has somehow managed to get his hands on a trident. I look around me and take a menacing step towards the girl from Six who is just sitting there and crying. She's standing over the young girl from Three. That's at least three people dead - who knows how many others the Careers have taken care of. I go through the stuff that Topaz had on her. It's not much.
A small loaf of bread, some crackers, a water bottle that isn't filled. I stuff them in my own grey bag and move over towards the girl from Six. She looks up at me with tear stained eyes. I don't want to do this - if there is another District more pitiful than my own, it's Six. Still, I'm willing to be a murderer. I'm willing to kill everyone here so that Rosey is safe - so that Rosey doesn't have to have blood stained hands.
Literally, my hands are stained with Topaz's blood. If I'm being honest, there's probably some from the boy from District Nine there, too, but most of it is hers. I look down at her.
"What's your name?" I don't think she hears me - or, I think it's kind of hard to hear me what with people running around and screaming, but she does.
"D-Dia. Please, please don't! I have a family!" She stumbles back and tries to get away.
"Yeah? Me too." I reach for the sickle. It's not as fluid of a movement as I would have liked - it's not entirely clean, but the blood sprouts.
She tries to say something, but I leave her. There's no way she'll survive that. When I turn my attention back to Adit, I curse under my breath. He's losing. Darya has joined her partner. I run forward just in time to see an axe slice it's way through the boy's shoulder. Not Adit, but Deniz.
The boy from Seven pulls it back. His face looks shocked - like he can't believe he did that. Darya screams in upset, completely forgetting about her fight with Adit in favor of chasing after him. He sprints passed the ramps - passed me in order to get away. She doesn't spare me a second glance.
"Adit, grab that bag!" I gesture towards it before taking off down the ramp that he had come up from. With the death of two Careers, I can only imagine the other two - that District Two, really - will be coming after us.
AN: So, here's his part of the story. Let me know what you think! Someone messaged me asking who's all dead and alive, really...So, here's the list of kills.
Topaz: District 8 Girl
Garnet: District 3 Boy (Archie), District 5 Girl
Hadrian: District 5 Boy
Jiang: District 6 Boy, District 8 Boy, District 9 Girl
Dia: District 3 Girl (Pixel)
Julian: District 4 Boy (Deniz)
Rosalie: District 2 Girl (Hadrian)
Thatcher: District 1 Girl (Topaz), District 6 Girl (Dia) District 7 Girl (Ilara), District 9 Boy,
Adit: District 7 Girl (Ilara), District 10 Boy (Kyler)
^Not everyone who's killed is still alive, obviously, but you should be able to tell who still is. Keep in mind that even though Thatcher said, previously, who he thought was left, he could have been wrong and miscounted.