Velvet Tek
I was hoping I'd see Yasmine again this year, but when I saw she didn't get picked, I was happy for her. She wasn't ever going to win. She was just too young. I was sad I missed my only chance to see her again, but it was for the best. I hoped she was somewhere nice.
Bambi wanted to mentor me, but he was Ten's only male Victor. He had three boys he had to take care of. He kept saying he was sorry, and he sent me flowers every day. I wasn't sure why he felt so guilty. It probably had something to do with what happened on the tape I wasn't supposed to watch. Whatever it was, I didn't care. The Games did things to the best people. He was sorry about it and it obviously tore him apart. It didn't reflect who he really was and it wasn't important.
Without the Games, none of us would ever get to see the Capitol. We also wouldn't have any chance at the life the Victors had. It was awful what they did to us, but I always saw the Games as a sort of lottery. If life got too hard, you could put it all on the line for a shot at everything. I understood why people volunteered. I'd flirted with the idea a few times, even if I never intended to go through with it. I thought that if I died, at least it would be national news. I wouldn't just fall under a train or get tuberculosis and fade away. I ended up dying of smoke inhalation, but the fire was pretty dramatic. Maybe this time I'd get what I expected. I didn't care about drama anymore. I just wanted to stay alive.
Gabriel Farad
I had a lot to think about as I prayed. I was supposed to be thinking about holy things, but Allah knew I rarely kept my mind completely focused. And I was thinking about stuff related to him.
There was nothing about reincarnation in the book. We were supposed to wait in the grave until judgment. Some of us thought differently, though. The Sufi thought we could be reborn based on our acts, either as humans or something else. They also thought it was possible to break out of the grave as a ghost. They called such things "i'friti". They were very evil. I didn't feel evil, and surely evil things didn't pray. Dad said those were old superstitions. But maybe I was reincarnated. It seemed silly to reincarnate me exactly the same. And if I was still stuck in the Hunger Games, I must have done something really bad. I didn't do anything bad last time. I didn't kill anyone. I barely stayed alive long enough to do anything.
Maybe I was never really counted as "dead". Of course Allah would know this was coming, so maybe he let my soul just kind of hang there, since I was going to need it again. Essentially it was just a pause in my spiritual journey, since I was the same person. As long as I could keep praying it meant I wasn't totally lost. The rest would come when it came.
Dominique Rindelle
I was already good at running. Getting cloned didn't change that. I didn't need to practice on the track, but I kept going anyway. I wanted to run and run and never stop, not in a million years. The Games couldn't start if I never stopped running. I could solve all my problems by just outrunning them.
That wasn't true, of course, but this time, being fast might be all I needed. Something was going to have to kill a lot of Tributes. I didn't think we'd be fast enough for them. They probably had mutts lined up and ready to go. If I could outrun them, I might be able to keep running all the way to Victory.
It was good to have Wyatt still. He told me how he tried to get into Haber's alliance. It was no surprise Things were rarely serious to Wyatt. When he stopped laughing in the Arena, I knew our time was up. But we got a lot done, and we had another chance to do more. We'd make the most of every second we had. If I had to live an entire life in two weeks, I could do it. I was nothing if not fast.
Delilah Clementine
It was odd that a singer ended up with a deaf boy. But Gabriel could still appreciate music. He could feel it and move along with it. He liked to dance. He even taught me.
I made it a long way last time. If it hadn't been so cold, I might possibly have won. Some people might have felt cheated coming in fourth. Others might have bragged. I wished I'd done worse. I got to the end because of a lot of things, but I knew luck was among them. The others might think I was a bigger threat than I was. If people were actively hunting me, I wouldn't last nearly as long this time. And I felt so much pressure to improve. It was silly and it didn't matter, but I didn't want to do worse this time. And if I did do worse, they might not want me back.
It was hard to stay optimistic in the face of such terrible odds. It was like we were about to go to a second Reaping, but it was the opposite this time. We'd all gather around as someone picked a single name. Whoever was on that slip would live, and the rest of us would die again. The odds were so low to get Reaped. This time they were even lower that we'd live.
It was hard to be Gabriel's ally. Not because he was a burden, but because I knew I'd almost certainly lose him again. He wasn't a burden, but his chances were even lower than mine. It wasn't fair to make him compete with the others. He was more than my ally. I knew how I felt about him. I didn't want to get closer. I knew it would only hurt me. But he was worth it, and he deserved it. He brought so much good to the world. It wasn't fair he had to die again.
I'friti are actually a type of Djinn, but Gabriel isn't a Sufi Muslim so he isn't familiar with their legends.
Wow I went over my list and I only have fifteen Tributes left to write. I must have miscounted since no way did I write over 50 POVs since the Reapings.