Chapter 10: The Afterlife

The first person Duke met after being released from the arena was Proteus. He practically knocked over the guy with a huge hug, and didn't mind when the old Capitol escort sobbed into his shoulder with joy. At last, District 12 had produced a victor.

The next few days were a whirl: interviews with Ceasar, along with an entire recap of his Games. Interestingly, the discovery of the bombs and also his rigging of it to Jefferson were cut….. The President of Panem placed the Victory Crown on Duke's head. And just like that, Duke Vedaldi, Hunger Games Victor, was being escorted home to District 12. Julie, his mother, was the first one to meet him at the train station. All she could do was hug him close and cry.

"Duke, I'm sorry….. I'm so sorry…."

Duke moved into his new home in the Victor's Village. His parents both lived with him. For the first few weeks after his victory, all was peaceful. Then –

The Peacekeepers burst into his house without warning. Seizing all three Vedaldis, they dragged them out into the sweltering. Restrained, Duke watched in horror as his mother was raped by the Peacekeepers, then slaughtered before his very eyes. His father tried to fight back, but the guards beat him within an inch of his life, leaving him for dead. They didn't bother with Duke, and Duke knew why: he was a Victor. They could not kill him, but they could punish him for his little bomb stunt in the Games.

Duke had helped his father inside and nursed him back to health. Even then, though, something had shattered inside the man who had raised him. He would sit in his chair, his breathing the only thing telling Duke he wasn't lifeless. The man never spoke, leaving Duke to fend for himself.

Proteus had the decency to return to console Duke early, still before the Victory Tour.

"They think I cheated with the pedestals' bombs, Proteus! I was just trying to keep myself alive! I thought you said there were no rules."

"That's the thing, Duke: there are no rules. Which means there are no rules against making up rules, either," Proteus confessed sadly. "You may have thought that the Games can be won in any method you choose, and to a certain degree, they can. But that doesn't mean the Capitol approves of all the methods. You didn't play the Game their way, Duke. So they had to punish you – to set an example."

Touring the Districts and seeing the families of the dead tributes was punishment enough. Duke could barely get through the service at District 2 before being wracked with guilt, seeing Bella's family glowering at him for what he did to her.

It was also punishment enough when he began his first year as a mentor. He did his best, passing down what Proteus had taught him, but in the end, it didn't matter. Both of his tributes died in the Bloodbath.

The one comfort was in the painkillers and pills Duke was able to purchase in the Capitol, and also order from home. He would drug himself to escape the awful memories of the arena, though a part of him hated himself for it.

Another relief was an old friend from his childhood: Reneé Cyrus. He had been playmates with her as a child, and had even had a secret crush on her, but never acted on it. Still, it was nice to know that she cared, when she brought him soup from her home or just sat and talked with him. The only time he wasn't drugged out was in the weeks leading up to the Games, when he would clue in enough to not get high and remain sober for mentoring.

Year after year passed this way. And year after year, Duke mentored kids only to see most of them get slaughtered the first day. A few noteworthy ones at least tried to make a go of it, and some even got to the Final 8, but nobody even came close to winning.

It made Duke wonder whether he was doomed to do this job until the day he died: alone, and without any other Hunger Games victories to his district's name.

But he was wrong, it would turn out. So very wrong.