Chapter 36:

Stefan Tsuga, District Seven, Age 14

Victor of the 111th Hunger Games

What a joke of a situation he got thrown into. Fourteen years old and fighting for his life. Not only that, but District Seven has become a joke of a District with not a single victor yet since the Second Rebellion. District Eleven has even had at least one victor! Even if he wasn't stupidly tiny and their assigned mentor from the Capitol wasn't a complete idiot, Stefan doubts anyone would even want to sponsor a tribute from District Seven. Not with their current record of victories – or rather, their current record of losses. He sure as hell wouldn't want to.

Whatever. He was going to try his best to prove them wrong, even though he knows his odds of winning against trained tributes is extremely low. But it would give him a sense of satisfaction to prove them all wrong and become District Seven's first victor. Yeah, he's going to keep trying, just to spite them all. He can just picture the shock of the Capitol now and their reaction. 'The fourteen-year-old from Seven of all places became the victor!'

Stefan chuckles to himself at this thought, not even caring that the people watching probably think he's crazy for laughing to himself in the arena. But, that won't matter soon.

He hears the snap of a twig and whips his head up in the direction of the sound, locking eyes immediately with the much older and larger girl from District Ten. And boy does she look pissed off and ready to kill. "Ah crap," he mutters before jumping up, having just enough sense to grab his axe before he takes off running away from her. "Crap, crap, crap," he mumbles to himself and he keeps running, occasionally glancing back to see that his initial burst of speed didn't put enough distance between them, and she's steadily closing the distance.

I am not dying like this. Not on the run.

It's certainly a stupid thought for him to not try to keep running. Call it spite or whatever, but if he's going down, he wants to make sure Seven doesn't keep getting a worse reputation. And at least he knows how to use an axe. That's probably more than the girl chasing him knows.

As she gets closer to him, almost within reaching distance, Stefan grips his axe tightly before turning around, swinging his axe without much reason and just hoping that he even hits her. The girl's face shows a brief flash of surprise at his movement before his axe strikes. And it struck right, more right than he ever could have hoped for.

A gush of blood sprays him on the face before the girl falls to the ground, his axe still sticking into her neck.

Boom.

Stefan stares down at the girl's body for a moment, surprised by how well he had done when he wasn't even aiming. If he did that, what can he accomplish when he actually tries?

Well, he might just be able to achieve a victory.

Stefan leans down to grab his axe, the weapon getting stuck on the girl's bones and making it a struggle to pull it out. He puts a foot on her chest to hold her down and grabs with both hands before finally releasing his axe with another gush of blood. Stefan grips his axe tightly, no longer feeling like he's dead meat and that it would be just a matter of time before the one of the remaining fourteen tributes got to him. Well, thirteen now. It sure as hell won't be easy to win, but he likes a good challenge.

With new determination, he starts back in the direction of his supplies before realizing he has no idea where he ran from. "Crap," he mumbles to himself as he spins around, searching for any detail about where he had come from. "Now would be a nice time for the sponsors to finally pay attention to District Seven."

Instead of a silver parachute – which he really didn't expect to get at all – a strong wind blows against him from the direction he's facing. Too strong compared to the light breezes that have been blowing. That and his recent request makes Stefan have no doubt that the wind was created by the Gamemakers to lead him towards supplies. Because with the strong wind came a smell that he would recognize anywhere from late nights in the summer and from just being from a District known for having trees.

Stefan starts in the direction of the campfire, small smile forming on his face as he grips his axe tightly. He doesn't need to get his own supplies when he can just steal some from a dead tribute. And then, he'll slowly reach his victory.

Hopefully the Gamemakers aren't sending him towards the careers or a different trap.

It is Wednesday my dudes and you know what that means! Time for another Victor Memoirs lol. So there we have Stefan Tsuga, victor of the 111th Hunger Games and first District Seven victor post Second Rebellion! I do love my spiteful victors and he's probably the one of the most spiteful XD But can you blame him when he was basically told he had no chance of winning? Nah XD Thankfully for him it won't take as long for Seven to get another victor as it did before he won, but still will be a few years...

What else is there to say? Idk, if you're not reading Renegades, you should do that because I've been chugging along on it (although I'm pretty sure there's a lot of overlap in readers for this and that lol). Haven't actually written any of this in a hot minute but that's the beauty of stockpiles XD

Well, next week is a crowd favorite victor, the victor mom! I will see you then!