As the home interviews begin... tributes remember a time... when they stood together... who will look back fondly... and whose guilt will be their downfall... who's family will be next to face heartbreak? Ladies and gentlemen, this is the 28th Hunger Games' home interviews. Enjoy the show.
Main Characters: Brook Callins, Ashton Samuels, Sequin Allure, Isabella Rose, Somber Thrax, Trista Angel, Mylene Frostblight, Amelia Airhate.
District 9: Brook Callins - 90 hours
Her cuts were deep, like that of a blunt axe. A cheese and a tin. Our small victory, our small rebellion, as we all held hands in defiance. We, the tributes of the District 9, going down together. But that never happened. Little Tanya died. Kind Tristan died. And I was left behind.
And so, as I curled up on my branch, I felt as though the metal of Tanya's costume was biting into my own skin and my heart. And I deserved it more than her.
District 10: Ashton Samuels - 90 hours
She was an angel, smiling up at me. I didn't want her to die, I remembered. We stood together, watching the training room in envy and pity. She was from District 11, my nature goddess. And we talked and we talked, about things no tribute should say to another.
I knew that, in those simple moments, I decided something. I would die before she would. But that never happened. I didn't protect her, and my revenge did nothing. I didn't want her to die; but Annaliese Braeburn did, in my arms. And she, no one, deserved that fate.
District 1: Sequin Allure - 90 hours
I remembered him, trying to change my mind. Flirting with me and taunting me, pressing over the line. And for some reason, I liked it.
I liked the back and forth, the little game we were playing. The way I batted my eyelashes and he played with his hair. We were on par with each other, cut from the same gem. But he was weak; the bloodbath ruined him, and he died like a weakling from 12.
Perkele Fin at least deserved a career's death.
District 2: Isabella Rose - 90 hours
I remember teasing them as they kissed, making gagging motions behind their backs. They'd leer and sneer at us, and we'd all know it was a fake. They weren't in love, but they were children trying to survive. And that changed people.
But as we sat around a fire, just the six of us, people were smiling. We were laughing. We were teenagers getting on, and dealing with the cards we'd been given. We were... happy. And as I thought of that scene, I remembered the faces in the sky.
Three of those happy children had been killed. Two by their own friends, another by someone she never would have suspected. We, careers or not, deserved better.
District 7: Somber Thrax - 90 hours
I fitted into their group as easily as I would in District 7. But we were not in District seven, and those three girls were not from home. They were strangers, and yet we trained together, smiled together and cried together.
Four girls together until the end, we swore. We swore to look after each other, protect each other, never turn against each other. But now, there was only one of us left. And I wished as hard as I could that it wasn't me.
And yet, the calmest and most hesitant of us all survived. And it wasn't fair; I didn't deserve to.
District 2: Trista Angel - 90 hours
Lily and Isabella. My only thoughts.
My beautiful, dead daughter and my sweet, dying friend. The world was cruel; but I learnt that a long time ago. We would sit and laugh and tease, and it was... nice. I didn't know happiness until I entered the Games, and that was why irony hated me.
We were best friends; were. Now, we were enemies, but neither of us attacked. We danced around in small, pitiful circles, our weapons never once meeting. And neither of us believed that the other one deserved to die.
District 4: Mylene Frostblight - 90 hours
Love and death. Dance and sorrow. Simplicity and pride. Power and weaknesses. Withered cries and shouts of triumph. All these things I have seen. All these things I have known. All these things trapped in one arena.
All these things killed the 29; the 29 dead. The 29 murdered; the 29 escapees.
All these things saved the 7; the 7 alive. The 7 spared; the 7 trapped.
We were just children, every last one of the 36. But I suppose that didn't matter to those who grew up from childhood never worrying about the Games; enjoying them, in fact. We, the District children, never had the luxury.
Every last one of us had never escaped the chopping block. Every last one of us had suffered.
And every last one of us never deserved this fate.
The Capitol: Amelia Airhate - 92 hours
Marylin didn't notice a change. Mother didn't realise the difference. I was the only one who felt the coldness hovering around me and pumping through my blood, the throb of my beating heart as I watched others' stop. Storm carried on acting, playing his leading role in this one change; one thing to make one little difference.
We both played out parts well, until then. We laughed and taunted and mocked the screen, our smiles never leaving our plastic faces. Maybe it was the memories, for Storm. Maybe it was the guilt and realisation, for me. Maybe we had both just had enough.
But as the anthem of Panem played on the screen, I knew. I knew that I could not continue. I knew that I could not live on knowing that families out there were hoping and grieving and trying as they might to move on. And I knew that they never did; I had seen it with my very own eyes.
On screen, people hurried into place and the cameras in the Justice Building of the Capitol began to roll. They focused in on a smiling Caesar, a lime green suit reflecting the lighting, and his orange contacts glistening in the dark room. I had never before realised just how stupid he looked.
"And, action!" A voice called, and the murmurs and movements stopped.
"Welcome, Panem, to the very first home interview of the 28th Hunger Games! We're here with the family of the breath taking Sequin Allure!" He clapped to the group of two people sitting next to him, who smiled and waved to the camera. I looked at one of them strangely, and was pretty sure that they were not from any District.
"This is Sequin's stylist, Claratrix, and her trainer, Phoebe!" Caesar announced, and two very different people were finally focused on by the camera. Claratrix was a rainbow; literately. Her dress was a shimmering variety of colours in bands, and her hair matched her outfit perfectly. Her makeup was precise and professionally put on.
Phoebe, on the other hand, was simply dressed with black trousers and a white button top. Her mouth was a hard line but her natural blue eyes were twinkling.
"Phoebe, what's Sequin been like, growing up? It seems as though you were there for most of it."
"She's always been a fighter, Caesar; it's just who she is. Some people have tried to connect with a softer side of Sequin, but none have succeeded, and I don't think they ever will," her trainer replied heartily, a big smile lighting her face.
"And what about you, Claratrix?" Caesar asked her, obviously content with the gushing replies towards Sequin so far. I had a feeling that he had always liked her, from the very beginning. Nobody could deny that she was... entertaining.
"Sequin is fabulous!" She screeched, exaggerating every word. She clapped her hands with glee and continued. "She is so stylish, fashionable and charming! I've never met someone so... perfect!" She babbled on for a few more moments than necessary, just before Caesar stopped her.
"Phoebe, just before we leave you and go on to our next tribute's family members, I have one question. Do you think Sequin has it to win?" The host asked this cautiously, leaning forward in his seat to catch every emotion in the trainer's voice.
"Yes. There has never been any doubt in my mind Caesar, and I doubt that that will change."
XxX
"We're joined now by Trista Angel's family!" The host called joyfully, and the camera focused on a large, rugged group of children.
"And, what are your names?" Caesar asked, looking around at the youth. He pressed the earpiece hidden inside, and whispered a few hurried words into it. He smiled at the family members, and leaned forward slightly.
The oldest boy, sitting in the middle of the kids, smiled ruefully, and replied,
"I'm Jarren. The girls are Tanya, Sarah, Bud and Shanna, and the two trouble makers are Thought and Maxwell. We're the foster kids, from the home, and we're not ashamed of it." I liked Jarren, I decided, as my eyes glanced at the poorly dressed children aged about 17 to 4.
"How well do you think Trista is coping, especially with everything lately?" Caesar asked Jarren again, handing the youngest, Maxwell, a small something that I couldn't see clearly.
"The poison incident scared us all in some way, I think. It was hard seeing her like that again, vulnerable and grieving," he answered quickly, not looking at his foster siblings who were all staring at their bare feet.
"What about you, Thought? How is Trista doing?" Caesar was so good with kids; it felt like a shame to have his talent and personality wasted like this.
"Twista's gowing to win. See's my Twista," the little boy replied, smiling gleefully. He was old enough to understand that she was in a competition; he just didn't know what it involved, exactly. He didn't know that she might die; for nothing.
I kind of hoped that Twista would win, for her foster siblings. For the family I never had.
XxX
"Now, ladies and gentlemen, we have the family of Isabella Rose!" Caesar called delightedly, smiling and clapping his hands eagerly.
"Hello, Caesar," Kendra said icily, narrowing her hard grey eyes slightly at the Capitol man. He just grinned back, undisturbed by Isabella's mother's fierce glare.
"Now, Tamara, how is your relationship with your younger sister? Are you close?"
"You could say that. We're competitive and sometimes things can get a little out of hand, but I love her. The same could be said for a particularly feisty bluebird though, so she shouldn't let it get to her head," Tamara laughed lightly and a few polite chuckles erupted from the background.
"What about you, Kendra? How is your little girl coping?"
"She's not my little girl Caesar, she isn't five. Isabella is doing perfectly well, although I'm disappointed on her kill toll so far – hopefully that will improve with time." She sounded like a strict school teacher correcting a pupil.
"Of course, Ms Rose. And you, Carney?"
"My daughter's always been a fighter. I can assure you and the rest of Panem that she will fight harder than she ever has before, and win because of it."
XxX
"Now, for the first time on the screens of Panem, let me introduce the Frostblight family!" Caesar announced, and he swivelled his chair around to face a group of three people. They were all almost identical, with the same light brown hair and crystal blue eyes.
"Trent, what's it been like without Mylene?" The host asked carefully, smiling his warming smile as the little boy fidgeted in his seat.
"She's my role model. I don't know what to do when she isn't here, and I already got a question wrong in my homework yesterday because she couldn't help me," Trent replied somberly, ducking his head. Big boys don't cry.
The crowd awwed and some members of the Capitol wiped fake tears from their brightly coloured eyes.
"Korra, are you proud of your little girl? Will she make it as far as your nephew?" Caesar smiled kindly, crossing his hands over his lap.
"Of course I'm proud; she's my Mylene, and I'll always be proud of her. If she'll make it as far as Storm... we'll just have to wait and hope," Korra, Mylene's mother, replied sadly, ducking her head to possibly hide her tears. Her husband wrapped his arms around her, and shushed her sobs.
"Mylene will come home. She's not a career, but she has a fighting spirit. We won't let her let that go," Jordan, her father, told the cameras, and they faded again.
XxX
"Panem, I give you... the family of Somber Thrax!" Caesar declared, turning around to meet the two people sitting, tears streaking their faces and their fingers intertwined.
"Now, Zinith and Jeyy, you've known Somber for as long as you can remember. Do you think she's changed in the arena?" The host asked the two children, who had to be about Somber's age, seventeen. They looked at each other grimly before the boy, Jeyy, answered Caesar.
"Really, she's tried to stay out of the spotlight, I think. I don't know what will happen next, because she's always been unpredictable at the best of times... either way, I hope she doesn't change. I hope." His voice wavered as he said this, and his girlfriend patted his arm comfortingly.
"I want my best friend back. Somber may not be the perfect girl, but to me, I love her even more because of it. She's the girl I've known as long as I can remember, and I'm not letting any of those tributes take that away."
Caesar nodded solemnly, and turned to the other, older people on the teenagers' right.
"As her parents, Bevel and Evica, how do you feel? How has Somber being in the Games affected your home life, and your view on the world?"
"Well," Evica started, and stopped. She seemed to ponder her answer before beginning again. "Well, it's made me regret not being there for her as much as I could. I've been working hard, especially over the past couple of years, and... and Somber didn't deserve to have the weight of her siblings on her young shoulders. I should've been there to help my children. I should've been there." Evica shook with hidden sobs, hiding her face slightly.
"We both worked hard to provide for our children. Maybe... maybe we should've worked things out as a proper family instead," Bevel said solemnly, hugging his wife close as she cried gentle tears into his shoulder.
Caesar nodded his head, and smiled dutifully at the cameras once more. He said goodbye to the four family members, and turned towards another two, weeping people.
XxX
"And we are now here with Calden and Griffin, the two brothers of Brook Callins!" Caesar looked at two boys, one quite young, and probably not yet eligible for the Reapings, and another just old enough to be safe from his District's escort.
The older one, Calden, had short black and hair and piercing dark eyes. The one thing that drew my attention was the scar running mainly down the left side of his entire body. His mouth seemed to constantly be a straight, thin line and his eyes were always narrowed in malice of... the world; the Capital? I couldn't tell.
The younger one looked more carefree. He had tousled blonde hair and bright blue eyes that had the sense of mischief about them. He would be the type of person that, at first sight, you would never let near matches.
"Calden, your family was affected by a fire in your younger years. Everyone can see how that scarred your family; what's it like knowing that another family member could be heading for her death?" This was as brash and harsh as I had ever heard Caesar; maybe they had had a falling out backstage.
"What do you expect me to be feeling? I'm not exactly filled with rainbows and sunshine at the moment, knowing that my only sister could be dying right this second!" Calden shouted forcefully, almost getting to his feet before Griffin placed his hand on his brother's shoulder and forced him back down.
"Nothing's been the same with Brook gone. Nobody makes me blueberry pancakes anymore," Griffin said sadly, which seemed to be a cue for his stomach to rumble.
The crowd gave a rushed, light laugh as Calden's expression didn't change.
"We want her back. Our father wants her back. We won't let her be taken from us like Dew, and Mum. Brook Callins will come back home."
XxX
"And for our final interview this year, making their debut on Panem television, it's the Samuels family!" Caesar called happily, focusing on a big group of young people squashed together on a bench.
"Let's go to you first, Eva. Is your younger brother doing what you would expect, or has he changed in the Games?"
"Of course he hasn't; he's my little, idiot brother through and through. He's the same person we know and sometimes hate, but he's Ash. He'll always be Ash," Eva, a blonde haired teenager with the same piercing green eyes as the District 10 tribute, replied contentedly.
"And now we go to the twins; Aimee and Sable, how are you coping without your older brother? Is it hard or peaceful?" Caesar asked the brother and sister, who were identical twins. They both had dark brown hair and light, hazel eyes.
"Well, Caesar, us Samuels-" Aimee began, before turning to her brother.
"-always stick together, through everything," Sable finished without visible effort.
"It's been hard without him,-" the girl reassured the crowd, nodding slightly, and blinking away tears.
"- but it's been nice to have a bit of-"
"-peace and quiet."
The siblings finished with smiles on their faces. Ashton obviously wasn't the only joker in their tight-knit family.
"Finally, and before we go off air, what do you three believe, Diana, Griffin and Fauna?" Caesar asked the three remaining children.
"I miss my brother; that's all really," Diana replied first and quickly, crossing her legs and narrowing her darker, hazel eyes.
"My pranks always fail when I'm a one-man team," Griffin said sadly, before they both turned to his younger brother, and the youngest overall sibling. He fiddled with his dark brown hair slightly, and looked down at his scuffed trainers.
"Nobody wants to play hide-and-seek with me anymore. Did I do something bad?" Fauna asked innocently, turning to the rest of his family. Confusion glittered in his deep green eyes, and I realised that he was a younger version of Ashton himself.
Eva wrapped her arms around her brother, who had to be at least eight years younger than her, and said,
"You did nothing, Fauna. Ash is coming home very soon, and then he'll play hide-and-seek with you. I promise."
XxX
The home interviews were over, just like that. There were only seven this year, as a tribute was killed before they could process and collect their family.
I turned to Storm, and I felt tears prick slightly in my eyes. All I could see were images of Fauna, desperately wondering why nobody would play a game with him anymore. And why his older brother,his older friend, was gone.
"It. Isn't. Fair," I whispered gently, and my cruel best friend and my botoxed freak of a mother turned to me. I never realised just what we were like; the Capital. We were as bad as any dumb, terrifying mutt.
Storm looked my way, and I expected him to shake his head, give some indication for me to stop. He knew it would get us in big trouble. more than we were probably already in, but he said nothing. Only his rich eyes betrayed his thoughts.
His eyes said Run.
I'm so sorry that my updates have been delayed, but I've been cutting down on my laptop time and my writer's block felt like I had concussion.
With a bit of luck you loved this chapter, and remember, only a few more are left! Sorry for the lack of death and destruction, but hopefully there was enough drama for you too!
Please, please, please review and tell me what you thought. Thank you!
*~Joy~*
P.S Are you wondering why there's a lack of Amelia and Storm's story? If you want to know why, just leave a request in your review and I'll explain via PM. Somehow, I don't want this author's note to be any longer than it already is!