Chapter 12

Slowly I came to my senses and found myself in a hospital, my arm and chest were bandaged up. "Good afternoon Doc," I turned to see that Dad was there at my bedside, "you've been out for a day now. I was beginning to think you would never wake up but then who would they name champion? So how do you feel?"

"Fine, a little sore; where am I though?" I asked; the last thing I remembered was getting into the hover craft.

"You're in the hospital in the training building; you fainted right after you won; it's not that unheard of for the victors to do that, and a chest wound like that doesn't help. Once you passed out they brought you here to rest for a few days before the closing ceremonies." He reached into his pocket and fished out the dog tags that I now realized I wasn't wearing. "I was thinking that you should wear these during the ceremony, Razzion said he can make it work."

I put them on then gripped them tight, "So I won then," Dad responded with a nod "Then Narci is really dead?" he put a hand on my shoulder but didn't say anything. I felt closer to him now then I had in years, we had both lost her and like always there was nothing we could do about it.

"You should get some rest son; tomorrow if you're feeling okay we can begin prep." With that he turned out the lights and left the room. I fell asleep shortly after, but bad dreams woke me up; dreams about Narci dying in the dark, Habara freezing to death and a new one about Clover saving me from Cutter and Delv dying at my hands. I saw him fighting to stay alive no matter what I threw at him, and no matter how hard I tried I was unable to stop myself from killing him. I tried to go back to sleep but I still kept waking up to a dark hospital room.

Eventually Dad walked in and sat down to talk "so are feeling okay son, still sore?"

"A little," I said "but I'm fine now"

"Good, so can we get out of here? I really hate hospitals." I got up and got dressed then we were out. We had nowhere in particular to be, we just walked around in silence until I had to break it.

"Dad I'm sorry that I couldn't bring Narci home." I said "It's my fault; I should never have gone in that cave, I should have at least been prepared for what happened. Now thanks to me…"

"Doc you have nothing to apologize for," Dad cut in, "In fact I should thank you. You did more than I had any right to ask for when you volunteered and saved your brother. You then went on to try to help your sister when you might have done better on your own. That alone is enough to make me proud, but you went even further and won; because of you I get to keep my son. So thank you Doc for making sure that I didn't lose all of my children. As far as your sister goes, well I'll miss her too but if I miss her then that means I will always remember her." We would remember her, but would anyone else? That made me think about Delv when he told me not to forget. I had promised to remember him, Clover, Narci, Cutter, and all the tributes. I promised Delv I would remember and if it killed me I would keep this promise. But I still wondered if that would be enough, then an idea hit me.

I went down to see Razzion to make a special request; he was ecstatic until he heard exactly what I wanted. "That's right, a series of twenty three tattoos that are in the shape of dog tags. Each one will be marked with the name of a tribute and the district that they're from. Can you do it Razzion?"

"Yes of course," he said confused, "But why would you want something like that decorating your back?"

I knew that giving my real reason would be seen as an act of defiance to the capitol, so I hid behind the arrogant image that I was still trying to play. "They are meant to be like hunting trophies; I am wearing the names of the tributes that have lost to me." Razzion looked less confused now; in fact he even looked like he agreed. The reason I told him would sound like cruelty to anyone who was not from the Capitol, but here people were happy to see a victor that enjoyed the violence. So without another word Razzion started on the tattoos.

My idea inspired Razzion even further because when the closing ceremonies came I wore a suit with twenty three patches sewn to the back. Wonderful, I thought, now thanks to Razzion I have to make my lie publicly. But I wore the suit without any further complaints, I could always keep up the arrogant image if I was asked about it.

Caesar had changed color since his last interview, he was now clad in blue; it still looked unnatural to me. When called, I walked out in the same victor stride that I had learned for my first interview. "Please welcome our victor, Doctore Jolts." The crowd erupted in applause as I took my seat. "So Doctore how does it feel being the winner of the seventy third Hunger Games?"

I felt like a mix between a rabid animal and a murderous psycho. "It feels good to be on top Caesar, but hey did you expect anything less?"

He gave a slight chuckle, still enjoying the arrogance "Well when I asked what your strategy was, you told me that I would find out, it was not quite what I expected though. Were you always planning to save your sister?"

"Yes, but when she died I decided that I wanted to win. So now here I am to be your victor." I said trying to rile the crowd up.

"Yes here you are, and for someone who didn't plan to win you certainly played the game well; speaking of which it's time for the highlights of the 73rd Hunger Games."

The highlights of the games started with the moment that I found Narci in the arena then proceeded to show us traveling and talking, things seemed happy but then came a sour turn. Now the video was back in the cave showing the dim image of me fighting Veeris and the boy from District Twelve followed by the image of me holding Narci's corpse in my arms crying. From here the highlights turned into a revenge story as it showed clips of me fighting the kid from District Seven, killing Cutter and finally Delv. It didn't surprise me that his fight with me was the only time he was seen in the whole video; there were no traces of him talking to me or helping me. Clover wasn't show either, it must have seemed inappropriate to the makers of this video to show the viewers that I needed help. My mind took me back to all of the times in the arena that they had saved me or helped me; I wouldn't be here without Delv or Clover, I owed them my life.

"What a show, it's just a shame about your sister, I'm so sorry for your loss," The man was lying through his teeth; he didn't care about her any more than any other tribute. "But at least you took revenge on the ones who killed her." I couldn't agree with him; sure the pack played a role in her death, but there were still the Game Makers. They would still be getting away with this again. "It really is quite a feat, taking on a career pack alone." There was that 'alone' idea again, still cutting out Clover and Delv. "Or how about when you killed Racca at the beginning, that was a heavy blow to the pack before they got going. There were so many more exciting moments this year, but they will have to wait because it's now time to crown our champion."

We all rose then as President Snow came onto the stage with the victor's crown which he placed on my head. As he walked away I couldn't help but feel unclean. The same man who enforced these games that had taken my brother, my sister, and so many other children was now awarding me for being a killer. These thoughts stayed with me as the cameras were cut and people began to leave.

The next day was the final interview with Caesar; I tried to make small talk and joke a little with some help from him but then came a difficult question. "So Doctore what will you do now that the games are done."

I had given some thought to this question when Narci asked me in the cave but now that it was a reality the question became harder but I had to answer. "Well first I'll be going home and then I'll just have to see from there."

"I eagerly wait to see what you decide on and once again congratulations on becoming the seventy third champion of the Hunger Games."

With that the interview ended and I tried to go back to my room to prepare for the train ride home but I was stopped by my dad. "Son before we leave tomorrow there are a few people I want you to meet, these are some of the other mentors." I was only introduced to two; first I met a large dark man, Chaff. I reached out to shake his hand but then I realized that his arm ended in a stump; I guess I wasn't the only victor to let an old wound show. Next I met a tall slender man named Haymitch; he was drunk judging by the smell of liquor. "I just wanted my son to meet a few of the other mentors he'll be seeing next year." That was something I hadn't thought of, as the most recent champion of District Five I would be expected to be the mentor next year.

I went back to our room alone; Dad went with the two mentors. He had a policy for when to drink; during the games he was sober, once they were done he started drinking. Up in our room I felt alone, but I knew I was still under surveillance. So I just walked around until I found myself in Narci's room. In the same chair I sat in the night before the games I thought about her and how she would never come home. I had told Galmis and Sly to take care of her when she came home, but now they couldn't. For the rest of the night, all I could think about was how I would have to face them and tell them that I failed.