Games of the Fallen 75

by Panem's Stories

Based on the Panem Encyclopedia, this series explore the lives of each Victor and document them for the future of Panem. Published by the Victor Jake Cambric, Much information were recovered after the Second Rebellion. These are their stories. Editor's Note: The author will not cover the 10th and 74th Hunger Games as they been covered extensively by other media.

8. 29th Games: Spoiled Huntress

The Spoiled Huntress

Lovejoy Blake was known amongst his fellow District citizens for being impossibly wealthy and used to getting his way. His games are largely uncontested, although some doubts continue to linger over the number of sponsor gifts he was able to obtain while in the Games. His lavish gifts made him a target by his fellow career pack, who betrayed him and left him to die. He did not die, although the attack left him with a permanent disfigurement that became a source of embarrassment for the rest of his life. In the end, he evolved from assured career victor to underdog as he fought for his life. This is his story.

"When I want something, I fight like hell for it. And I always manage to get it."

Life Before the Games

Lovejoy Blake was born into great wealth in District 1, his family having as much money as the citizens of Districts 3, 6, 9, 10 and 12 put together. Lovejoy was known to get anything and everything he wanted, even from an early age. Later interviews after the Games revealed he would do anything to get his way, screaming, clawing, even hurting himself. As a teenager he was known to be sexually demanding of anyone he came across that he desired, and "no" was not an option for him. His family would buy his way into the academy in District 1, although the head of the academy, previous victor Luster Buckner, admitted that Lovejoy's natural District 1 beauty was part of it as well. All throughout the academy, he paid either his fellow contestants to throw their matches, or paid others to rig the game in his favor. At 16, he would end up winning the debate to become District 1's male tribute of the 29th Hunger Games.

Parade

He and his District partner Magniscent Suffers were whisked away to the Capitol at the conclusion of the ceremonial Reaping. On the train, words were not minced and true intentions lied bare for all to see as it was reported at the time that Blake personally insulted Suffers and her family, and insinuated that he was chosen by the Capitol personally to be the victor because "I already bought it. I couldn't imagine a less beautiful face to stain people's televisions with." Their relationship was merely out of District loyalty and survival in the career pack. Lovejoy had previously paid for the most sought after designer and hairstylist to makeover his outfit for the Parade. His sandy blonde hair coiffed neatly up into one large curl, studded with diamonds and his face painted to look like a dark but colorful absurdist painting, with matching ornate shapes and colors for the rest of his outfit. He was surprised, however, that the applause when District 1 first strode out was not as thunderous as he imagined it would be. Capitol viewers felt, at the time, that the idea of his costume did not quite come across and left them in bewilderment. Best costume went to a different district and with that, Lovejoy had already suffered his first defeat.

Training

Even though Blake had personally requested the mentorship of previous District 1 victor, Platinum West, Blake had gone against his direct advice when he felt like it didn't suit him. West had advised him to diversify his survival techniques with classes on food gathering, poisonous plants, and camouflage. Blake retorted that he had the careers for all that and that his weapons skills and attitude are enough to win the Games on his own. He also insinuated that he would murder the rest of the career pack at his most opportune moment, but he was overheard by his district mate Suffers, who promptly informed the other careers. Now that they knew of his plans, they would be more wary of him. For almost the entirety of the three days of training, Lovejoy focused exclusively on crossbow training and hand to hand combat, save for a single lesson on food gathering he caught after he admitted he would need it as a backup. On Scoring Day, he would be utterly humiliated. Generally, the events that lead to a tribute's score for the Games are closely held secrets. But rumors from that time circulated among gamemakers and the story went as such: Blake entered the training area and announced his name and his choice of weapon. But he then monologued at length about how rich he could make each gamemaker to give him a score of 11 without having done anything to earn it. The gamemakers apparently just stared blankly and looked upon each other for guidance. Lovejoy, equally bewildered, assumed he had to perform a stunt of some sort and attempted to lethalize a not-too-distant mannequin with his crossbow. He would miss the first two shots and the third only winding up in the mannequin's arm. Satisfied, he left the room without a word. He would be devastated that night to find he has one of the lowest scores a career has ever received, a three. Compared to Suffers' score of 11, and the other careers' 10 and 11, he had the lowest score of the whole games. In a millisecond, his chances dropped from 25-1 to 200-1. To the other careers, he had sealed his fate. Blake's heart had sunk into the lowest regions of his stomach, he truly did not understand what he had done wrong to earn the ire of the gamemakers. He descended even further into depression until he had convinced himself that the interviews would be the final straw and that's where he would shine and everyone would see him for what he was.

Interview

He looked to the interviews as a last ditch effort to win over the people of Panem, thus winning him the Games. He pushed his stylists to the point of abuse, complaining that his hair wasn't high enough, his outfit not colorful enough, or too colorful, too simple or too complex. They in turn promptly left him on his own to finish his own damn hair and makeup. He shouted slurs at them as they left, and promised he could make their lives miserable if they refused him. Antonius Godspell was the presenter for this Hunger Games and when called upon, was noticeably absent from the stage, still trying to perfect his look. In his stead, Magniscent took the stage and was delighting Godspell with her personality. Suddenly he was ready with his "look" and fled out on stage in the middle of Magniscent's interview. Godspell looked up at Lovejoy who stood awkwardly to the side, but obscured the camera's view of Magniscent. (It should be noted that the stage and production manager of the interview portion of the Games, in charge of ordering the tributes, was later found dead). Blake had decided on heavy makeup for the interview, with a dark brown contour to contrast his bright, white skin. His hair slicked all the way back, with a two piece white jacket and black black turtleneck shirt underneath it all. Antonius attempted to accommodate Lovejoy by having a stagehand bring a chair onto the stage. Blake, for a minute, positioned the chair in such a way that he was the focus of the cameras rather than Magniscent. When he got comfortable, he talked over Antonius, who was beginning to ask a question, and professed his love for the Capitol and his home of District 1 and boasted about the district's beautiful people and his own vast wealth. "I hope people from all districts look to me as a role model for what you can achieve in life if you just put your mind to it!" Antonius glared at him for a second to be sure it was over, and when he was sure it was he posed a question to Magniscent over her training score and even directed a camera to move away from Blake and focus in on her. Blake decided to lean in and answer for her, discussing the advantages of District 1 and so on, before Godspell abruptly ended the interview right there, "And that's all the time we have, thank you so much!" Suffers tried to salvage what little airtime she had left by extending an arm in friendship but Lovejoy promptly interrupted again asking why Antonius couldn't grant him more time. He shook Suffers' hand, and forcibly turned Blake around extending an arm across his shoulders to personally escort him off stage. This was the only time in Godspell's recorded interviews that he became visibly frustrated with a tribute, and rumors from backstage had it that Godspell raised his voice to Lovejoy and nearly physically hurt him. Magniscent assuredly did the same, promising that when Blake stopped being useful in the Games, she would kill him herself. Platinum told Lovejoy that any chance he had had to win the Games was now gone, nobody would be willing to sponsor or bet on him. Blake came back with blaming Platinum for not being a good enough mentor, "and you weren't even the one I wanted, you were the backup!" Blake threw a temper tantrum that involved insults and smashing the surrounding ceramics, he even went as far to almost strike an avox for cleaning it up before West stopped him. Before leaving, West said "You can't just buy your way to survival here, you have to put the work in". Lovejoy shot back, "I can do whatever I damn well please, if I want it, I get it! That's it! That's the rule! And if you can't help me get it, if you're not a tool I can use, then get out of my way!" West left, and Lovejoy sobbed on the floor all night until it was time.

The Games

West found Blake the next morning, simpering on the floor. "Get up you waif," he said. Blake stirred slightly, but West was not having it on the day of the Games and picked him up himself and told him to get dressed. West led Lovejoy and Magniscent to the point where they would part to go to their own platforms. Blake extended a hand in forgiveness and friendship. She slapped his hand away and said "Just don't fuck up," and left. West had an avox escort Lovejoy to his platform, because he couldn;t bear to be around him any longer. Faced with the prospect of his sudden departure from this earthly realm, he asked the avox if she would pray for him (he, at the time, had apparently forgotten that avoxes are mute). She stifled a laugh and turned to walk away, but his hand appeared on her shoulder, "I just need some help, okay? Don't ignore me." She put her hand on his, swiftly turned around and dislocated his arm from the socket. He screamed less at the pain, and more that she was willing to do that. She then forcibly shoved him into his tube and locked it behind her with a vengeful smile on her face. He hadn't noticed before, but she was the avox he nearly hit the night before. Tears and wails started streaming out of Blake's face. He was not prepared. The roof opened up and he shut his mouth not wanting the others to hear his pleas to go home. The platform raised up to reveal a sunburnt sky, an intense heat hit him in the face and hurt his eyes. The arena was a picturesque hell on earth. He looked around and saw his fellow tributes in a circular formation around the cornucopia. The terrain was made up of black, jagged rocks, like a bizarre form of asphalt he thought. The countdown began from 60. Tears welled up in his eyes, the combination of the sorrow he was feeling for himself and the maddening heat made it almost impossible for him to see. 40 seconds. He looked down and realized the whole field must be booby trapped with mines. He wondered if he might be better off stepping on a mine than risk losing his honor and disgracing District 1 in the Games. 20 seconds. Looking up and seeing the mighty volcano in the distance, he remembered who he was and what he would do to win, to get what he wanted. Anything. And nothing will stop him now. 5 seconds. He reared his foot back and wiped the tears away. 1 second. He is going to get what he wants. The countdown hit zero and he raced with everybody else to the cornucopia. Magniscent got there first, and he had to dodge some inferior tributes there but he managed to obtain a spear with a twisted blade. He swung it to the left, impaling the boy from 11. The girl from 6 knocked him down while screaming, but was knifed by Magniscent in the back, saving him. They nodded to each other and started to head out when he, in turn, saved the boy from 2 by impaling the girl from 5. On the way into the volcanic mountains, Magniscent was able to cut down the boy from 12 in the back of the head with a throwing knife. That night, they camped in an oddly cool cave and took stock of their arena. A volcanic, mountainous hellscape on an island. Peppered with some caves for shelter, the largest mountain is also an active volcano drooling lava into the ocean, occasionally exploding debris from the guts of the earth. Lovejoy was scared out of his mind, but knew how his fellow careers thought of him so he opted to keep his mouth shut. That night, the screen in the sky lit up with pictures of the dead including the boy from 3, the girl from 5, the girl from 7, the pair from 6, the pair from 11,and the boy from 12 for a total of 8. Before the Games he wondered if he might have a guilty conscience over killing, but come to find out his conscience is absent. They stood in the way of what he wanted, so they had to be eliminated. The boy from two, Commodus, commented on how hot it was, even with it nearing midnight. "It's probably gonna be 200 degrees tomorrow in the sunlight." Lovejoy seized on this, "Then we should get to hunting." He was tired and thirsty already, but to his credit he had figured out in part the plan of the gamemakers. He told the careers that this could be the plan, to make them hunt at night and hide during the day. It took them a while to be convinced, but once Magniscent was on board the pair from 2 were too. They set out looking for tributes to kill. Also to his credit, Lovejoy managed to pin the girl from 8 to a boulder by plunging his spear through her arm. The girl from 2 finished her off with a simple pocket knife. The girl from 4 saw them at one point and slowly approached, dropping her weapon on the ground and raising her arms. She told them she was willing to work with them in exchange for not killing her, not now anyway. The girl from 2 kept her crossbow trained on her, which Lovejoy looked at with disdain since bows were his favorite. The pair from two mocked her tone, while Magniscent went up to her and mockingly looked at her hair and her face, pointing out her worst features. She then said "Hm, fine. But don't think I won't personally separate that ugly little head from the rest of your body if I even think you'll do something." The girl nodded and resheathed her knife on her hip.. Suffers then said, ":Blake, are you okay?", mockingly, "You haven't shut up since I met you and now I haven't heard a peep out of you in hours." Blake muttered out, "I just… know my place now." She came near him and wiped her blooded blade on his shirt, "There's a good boy", she lightly tapped his face. They started to walk away when he said "For what it's worth, I'm… sorry. About the interview." She stopped and looked him up and down, "Hm, don't worry about it kid." A mocking smile on her face. Near dawn, they headed back to the cave. The rising temperature was palpable in the air. "I need some water, I can't even sweat anymore" Blake said offhandedly. They no sooner got back to the cave did a sponsor gift find its way in with a large 1 on it. This pattern would continue for several hours as Blake would comment on how hungry, thirsty, or hot he was and sponsor gifts would pour in- cooling blankets, water bottles, crackers, beef jerky, almost none of which he shared with his fellow careers. This irked them. They were frustrated further when Blake refused to take watch and opted instead to sleep, while they took turns. The ones who were awake discussed amongst themselves the usefulness of keeping Blake around. Not only did he have the worst score by a career tribute ever, he was completely self absorbed and wanted only to rely on everyone else in the group to do his work for him. They agreed with each other that he was more of a detriment than an asset and decided to take him out. After dusk fell, the sky lit up once again with those passed on, including the girl from from 8 whom they had killed last evening, the girl from 3, the boy from 4, the boy from 5 and the boy from 10. What they didn't know, but could have guessed was that most were from heatstroke. That night their plan would be put into action. They decided to give the audience a real show of his death since Blake was most likely voted least favorite at this point. Together they lured him over to a volcanic hot spring and then pounced on him. Lovejoy put up a decent enough fight, getting in some claw marks on the boy from 2's face, but three of them held him down while Suffers did the job. She called him a petty, spoiled brat who could never make it in the Games and was better off going out like this. "Oh and I almost forgot, I don't forgive you for the interview, pig". She sliced his throat open ear to ear while she dangled his face over the hot spring. After opening up his throat, she dunked his head into the spring severely burning his face and keeping it there. When she let him back up making it look like his skin was melting off like wax from a candle. They heard the cannon boom and satisfied with the job, they left to hunt other tributes. However, despite the cannon signifying his death, Lovejoy was not dead. The shock to his system from the intense heat of the volcanic spring was so great, that his heart had briefly stopped. His pulse returned just a couple minutes later, much to the chagrin of the gamemakers (who had to turn the body-retrieval drone back around) and surprise to Capitol viewers. The careers also didn't know that the heat of the spring had more or less cauterized his neck wound and stopped the bleeding letting him survive his attack for now. He lay unconscious on the ground for several hours until he woke up as dawn was approaching. His mind was completely scrambled by the severity of the pain but managed to squeak out the word "medicine". Subsequently, a gift dropped down with burn medicine, pain pills, water and crackers, (costing his parents a pretty penny in the process). He globbed on the medicine all over his scalded face, and for the most part it worked. The pain was reduced and the bleeding stopped, but the burning from the spring gave him fourth-degree burns on his lower jaw, which melted away the layers of skin and muscle and even caused parts of his jawbone to show. The sun only worsened his condition; Lovejoy had lost the use of his jaw muscles, and his mouth hung open against his will making it difficult to drink water and chew food. For the hours the sun was up, he hid behind a black boulder, desperately trying to stay out of its reach. He sat in a fetal position, hunkered between his knees until it looked like the sun was beginning to go down and he could feel the temperature tempering off. He tried to run to find a nearby cave, but his dangling jaw made the pain return ten-fold. He stayed close to the mountain until he found a suitable habitat, but he would have to climb up to reach it. He tried to protect his exposed mouth as he scaled the mountain side until he finally made it up and into the cool dampness of the cavern. He looked where a camera might be and begged, as well as he could, not for more medicine, food or water, but for a mirror so he could survey the damage to his face. Blake was obliged, but unfortunately, it would be his last gift, as gamemakers put an indefinite moratorium on gifts for the rest of the Games. He sobbed at seeing his face, his jaw open and exposed only holding on by its hinges and a couple strands of stray muscle and skin. He had lost feeling and control of his tongue as well, hanging limp with his jaw. The rest of his face, neck and upper torso were permanently scarred, but not in pain at least. Three days went by as he stirred in and out of consciousness with no more food or water. He begged and pleaded to the cameras as best he could for a reprieve, but the ban on gifts remained in effect. Tributes had died over this period, three to be exact, including the boy from 2. But Lovejoy hadn't paid attention as he mourned his many losses so far, as well as his own inevitable departure. He spent his time awake brooding over his disfigurement, letting out monstrous cries of shorn vanity as he stared into the mirror. As he gazed in horror at the once again at the conclusion of the third day, he heard voices in the distance. Someone had found his cave. He had retreated deep inside to escape the heat, and he didn't think anyone could know he was there. He listened closely, and could discern a single voice from the group whom he recognized: Magniscent. The career pack had found refuge in his cave. Rage and sorrow overtook his mind. He started limping towards them and tried to speak Magniscent's name. The careers held their breaths and drew their weapons. On their end, they heard some kind of unholy voice and assumed it was a mutt. Magniscent went further in to investigate and began to see Lovejoy's outline in the dark, but didn't recognize him. She saw the figure fall and heard something break like glass. She came up on him, his face to the ground where she couldn't see it. The other careers asked her what it was, she replied it looked like a fellow tribute that looked half dead. Still cautious, she decided to stick the unknown tribute with her sword to make sure they were dead. She pointed her blade at the back of the figure's head before she hesitated, noticing something. The hair looked familiar. Lovejoy took advantage of her moment of familiarity and jabbed her through the stomach with a shard of mirror. She let out a death defying scream and dropped her sword. The other careers heard her and jumped up to see what was happening. The girl from 4 was the closest inward from the cave and saw Magniscent lying on the ground groaning and trying to stop the bleeding from her abdomen. No sooner did she bend down to ask Magniscent if she was okay did the same mirror shard bayonet her eye out. She dropped to the ground screaming her head off in pain. The last of the pack, the girl from two stood motionless, pointing her bow aimlessly in the dark while her comrades groaned and grunted in pain. In the dark he materialized out of nowhere, and drew closer, wanting to confront them all on their betrayal. Lovejoy truly couldn't understand what he had done to turn them against him. He had so much he wanted to say, but without the use of his jaw, it was useless. The girl from two was aghast at the horror her eyes beheld. She determined in her own mind that he must have been some sort of mutt, made to look like Lovejoy. She steeled her nerves and shot an arrow, hitting him in the shoulder, just under his collarbone. He did not flinch. He started towards her. Frightened, she reloaded and fired another arrow, this time missing his body completely. His eyes full of rage drew closer and she attempted to reload her arrow again but he knocked her to the ground and took the bow from her hands. He reloaded her shot and she immediately threw up her hands begging for him not to kill her. He fired the shot anyway, piercing her skull. He removed the arrow from her head and the one jutting out from his shoulder. At this point, pain was inconsequential compared to what they have done to him. He approached the girl from 4 still moaning on the ground trying to feel her way around, and shot her in the back of the head, execution style. Magniscent was on her feet, wobbling back and forth trying to keep her balance amidst all her blood loss. Lovejoy looked up at her, retrieving his previously fired arrow from its target. She muttered, "No… spoiled brat….will kill me." She bent down to reach for her sword when he fired an arrow into her leg, sending her back down howling. Then, a deus-ex-machina. The gamemakers were watching the careers fall apart with great interest and decided to use a volcanic event as a callback to what happened to Lovejoy. Antonius Godspell came over the dome and announced that the gamemakers would be activating volcanic vents deep within the cave systems and that tributes that are using the cave as shelter should evacuate immediately. Blake and Magniscent felt the inner machinations of the earth beginning to shake and the sudden rush of steamy heat from inside the cave. Suffers looked to Lovejoy and extended her hand, "Come on, we have to go!" He stood there blankly as the shaking grew in intensity. She gave him a look of incredulity, "What are you waiting for? Help me up and let's go!" He gently turned his back to her and started out of the cave. "Where are you going? Come back here and help me!" He ignored her still, reaching the outside of the cave, while the heat turned up inside. A small, but growing red glow could be seen at the end of the tunnel. "For God's sake, please! Help me Blake, help me!" He started to descend the side of the mountain with his face still visible to Magniscent. She said "Please, I'm sorry.. Please Blake, help me." He smiled grotesquely in response. He scaled down the mountainside, ignoring her continued pleas for help. He could hear her as he tried to run and put as much distance between him and the cave as he could. He heard screaming that it was too hot, her voice going louder and higher in pitch until an explosion belched smoke from the cave and a wall of lava was released, flowing out of the cavern. The smoke boomed out from all parts of the island, raising the temperature considerably and making it impossible to see. Between the volcanic explosions, he couldn't tell but three more cannons sounded as other tributes perished in the pyroclastic flows. After what felt like a hellish eternity, the smoke began to dissipate and all was returned to normal save the still smoldering lava that flooded the island. Dawn was starting to break and Lovejoy, exhausted and dehydrated, decided to hunker down behind a rock under the cooling blanket he received as a gift and one that he stole back from the now-dead careers. In the 12 hours of 130 degree daylight he spent in the cool dark of the blanket, he did not sleep. He still lamented the degradation of his beauty, but mostly was overcome with absolute rage. He had thought that with the death of his betrayers he would feel a semblance of vengeance or peace, but that was not the case. What he wanted now, what he needed now, was to hurt others. Hurt them the way he has been hurt. And he always got what he wanted. That night, he emerged from the blanket a new man. A monster that showed that he was just as ugly and disfigured on the inside as he was on the outside. Lovejoy was greeted in his new transformation with pictures of the fallen careers in the sky, along with the boy from 7, and the pair from 9. He walked along the trodden paths, waiting and listening for signs of life to extinguish. What Lovejoy didn't know, not that he entirely cared, was that he had made it into the final four. His own survival was irrelevant to him at that present moment. For two hours he walked, exposed willing to fight anything that moved. He reached the other side of the island when, up in the distance, he thought he saw a figure move in the glow of the moonlight against the horizon. He practically ran, crossbow aimed anywhere he suspected a tribute might be. He got closer to the edge, looking around frantically for anything or anyone. He peered over the cliff, looking down at the sudden drop off the cliff face and to the rocks and crashing ocean waves down below. As he was peering down, a hand suddenly appeared from behind the mountain at the edge of the cliff and attempted to pull Lovejoy out off the ledge. He held on to the hand until he could reach the ledge of the cliff, trying to stabilize his footing on the shards of igneous rock jutting out from the side. The hand was revealed to belong to the boy from 8, the youngest in the Games at 12. The boy moved quickly and did everything he could to get Lovejoy to release his grip. He realized that this is possibly how he had survived this long and maybe even gotten some other tributes this way. Lovejoy sucker punched the kid right in the nose and pulled himself back up onto the island. The kid was dazed, lying on the ground but still alive. Lovejoy drug him by his shirt to the edge and made sure the boy got a good look at his face in the moonlight. The boy started screaming and tears formed at the corners of Blake's eyes. He thrust the kid back and let go, letting him drop and sounding off his cannon. He wandered off again, and his next encounter with a tribute would come in the form of the girl from 10. He heard her screaming from the center of the island, and up the side of the mountain. He hid behind a series of black rocks waiting for her and heard her pursuers: some new kind of mutt with gravely types of barks and streaks of what looked like glowing lava in their manes. He timed out her descent down, and jumped at the perfect moment, knocking her down. She frantically tried to pull her knife out, but Lovejoy knocked it away. He put a finger over his mouth to mean "quiet" while the dogs' barking grew closer. He pulled out a knife of his own and she struggled even harder. He ran the knife around her torso and she cried harder, the dogs closing out the distance. He started cutting away at her shirt and when he felt he had enough fabric, stood up, placing his foot down on her chest while he wrapped and secured his jaw in place. A modicum of relief to soothe his rage. He held a knife to her throat and let her stand back up. He turned her around and watched the dogs, just yards away foam at the mouth when they saw her. He picked his chance as she struggled to get away, even with the knife pressed against her throat. She started to scream out to just kill her and internally he thought to himself "I am." He let her go, but kicked her forward to meet the dogs' jaws while he escaped. She howled as she was ripped apart by the dogs until her cannon blew. Dawn was beginning to approach and Lovejoy did not want to stop. He was having too much fun. A final showdown was triggered by the gamemakers, with parts of the island falling away into the ocean. The volcanic vents started collapsing into the water, releasing explosions of steam, obscuring Lovejoy's vision. He tried to get as far into the center of the island as he could when the main volcanic mountain collapsed down with seismic shocks rippling across what remained of the island. He looked up and in the smoke found the last tribute. He immediately went on the attack, sprinting towards her and tackling her to the ground. The final tribute was the girl from 12, called Ragence. She didn't fully know what was happening but fought back as hard as she could. He punched her in the nose and getting her hand out from under his grip, she hit him in the cheek, dislocating half of his jaw and causing the fabric to release. His jaw fell open, dripping saliva onto her face and she screamed in disgust. He tried to strangle her and throw her head against the jagged rock but she reared her head back and headbutted him, followed by a knee to the crotch. He finally rolled over off her, doubled over in pain. The headbutt left her just as dizzy as him as she searched for her weapon on the ground. She picked it up, only for him to appear next to her like ghost and knock it out of her hands. He knocked her head against the jagged rock that contained a volcanic spring and he pulled her by her hair over to it. He held her with his arm across her arms and his other arm gripping her practically by the scalp. She said "Please. No." But she knew it was useless. He thought to himself that he actually respected her as a fighter, but he has something he wants to do. She screamed as her head went under, and her body writhed in agony trying desperately to get out from his grip. He kept her there with a depraved smile forming on what remained of his face. After a minute, her body stopped thrashing and her cannon sounded. He pulled her back out, her flesh had been so burned that it melted onto the rock like candle wax, exposing parts of her skull. With that, Lovejoy Blake was named victor of the 29th Hunger Games.

Aftermath

Capitol doctors did what they could to save his jaw and his hand, but they could not fix the prominent disfigurements the volcanic heat had caused to his face. He declined at first to give a post-Games interview, but after being pressed on it, made the difficult decision to appear under a veil. It would be for naught as his jaw was still recovering and he had a difficult time trying to respond to Antonius' questions. From there on, he was never seen without a veil covering his face. Rumors at that time had it that previous victor and leader of Lovejoy's academy, Luster Buckner told Lovejoy that District 1 would have been better off had he died in the Games than to return and "shame us all with your abhorrent ugliness". He developed severe alcoholism as a result, and two years later committed suicide against the rules of the Capitol.

*End of File*

Editor's Note: Later documents revealed, after the fall of the Capitol, that because Blake committed suicide, which was directly against Capitol rules for victors, his family was subsequently stripped of their wealth and deported to District 12 as punishment. The family was later found murdered in their shack-house, and the murderers were never sought. One particular rumor from this time said that the people of 12, angry over the fact people from 1 had invaded their district and over the way Lovejoy killed Ragence, formed a mob and killed them.