Henry Ashby, 55
President of Panem
Henry Ashby was not a man to have sentimental value. He looked at things objectively and had a keen ability to compartmentalize things to suit his needs at the moment. Why handle something at that moment that would make your head foggy?
No, Henry Ashby did not like to have sentimental emotions, and for thirty-seven years, he accomplished that. That was, until Moriah Jackson. She was beautiful, cunning, and had a darkness inside of her that intrigued him.
It was looked like Henry had found his happily ever after, and for seventeen years, everything seemed to be pointing in the direction that he was finally going to settle down. Find a wife, and with the technology that his future bride to be created, live forever together.
But recently, Moriah became distant, and Henry wanted to understand why. It seemed like the more he tried to talk to her about it, the further, and further, she pulled away, and as he ran his hand along her back, he felt the familiarity of Moriah. He knew that physically she was right in front of her, but emotionally? Moriah was desolate.
"Did you get a chance to look over the scores?" she asked as she slipped out of bed. "Tomorrow, they announce them live on television, and I want to make sure you were okay with them."
She reached down into her bag and pulled out a list. "You changed your handwriting around," said Henry as he looked the list up and down. "You never write in cursive."
"I figured it was time for a change. It gives me something to do when I need to decompress," she said.
"I can think of a way to decompress," Henry said as he leaned in to kiss her on her neck. She turned and pushed him away and grabbed the list from Henry's hand. She places it in front of his face and smushes it down playfully.
"Read the list, Henry. I ranked them originally into the female and male lists, but the tributes complained, and I got a lecture from Cerise on sexism. So I made it all one giant list." Henry looked at the list and began scanning the names that were on them.
1. Kitana Striker
2. Napoleon Walter
3. Cortana Ramslee
4. Jupiter Aeneas
5. Sagar Dewpont
6. Darcy Hanning
7. Caio Sagres
8. Janet Berenski
9. Synthize Greene
10. Estefania "Cupid" Sanchez
11. Vritra Galloway
12. Rudi Carlson
13. Hadrian Cato
14. Ruben Ashven
15. Ajax Volt
16. Elizabeth Adews
17. Lily Simmons
18. Cerise Ramirez
19. Axton Simmons
20. Valerian Mercury
21. Delaine Ford
22. Carter Lasher
23. Arturo Ambrosio
24. Rana Celeste
"It looks okay to me, Moriah," said Henry as he shook his head in approval. "Everything looks about how I expected it to turn out."
"Good, because there's one more surprise I had left for these games," she pulled out a computer and began to typing furiously. "For project rebirth to happen truly, there's one more piece of the puzzle that needs to fall into place."
"What are you doing?" asked Henry.
"Placing the last piece of the puzzle into the games," she said as she clicked enter on the computer.
Ajax Volt, 18
McKenna's #1 Male Pick
Ajax had a bad feeling as he sat around the television with his siblings. It was their last real hoorah before the games, and everything went to shit, but Ajax couldn't shake the feeling that something ominous was coming this was.
"Does anyone hear that?" asked Darcy as she began to look around the room.
"What is that ringing?" asked Napoleon.
Suddenly a loud and high pitch screech erupted in Ajax ears. He let out a scream and fell to the floor. When he was able to open his eyes, he noticed his siblings feeling the same way. McKenna stormed into the room and began to check on her children. Shrieks of pure pain filled the house, and then just as suddenly as it began, it stopped.
"James. Fucking. Brayley." said Darcy as she popped up off the ground.
"I remember," said Kitana. "I remember everything."
Ajax recalled what felt like a faded memory. He remembered Welton; he remembered the career girl that he was going to kill in the arena. He remembered that he had been in the Hunger Games before. He even remembered volunteering.
But most importantly:
Ajax remembered that he already died.
This is a short little chapter, but I wanted it to be as abrupt as it was going to seem for the tributes. You guys have no idea how excited I've been to reveal this part of the story, and I hope that you guys appreciate it. I will be posting a chapter where I give a brief overview of the story from their OG days. Think like their name, then three or four sentences, each describing what they remembered and what they recall from their past lives.
Let me know what you're thinking of the big reveal!
Keep it classy,
Caleb