Trigger Warning: One mention of substance abuse. It's not a very angsty mention but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Honeydew "Honey" Wrack, 17, District 4 Female POV

The moment I wake up, I call out for him.

"Gloss?"

"I'm here, Honey," His voice replies, calm and soothing, like always.

Gloss is always kind. We made friends pretty much the instant we began training. When I fell sick, he helped me through so many nightmares. I spent what felt like an eternity drowning in fever, trying not to let the hallucinations overwhelm me, but Gloss was always there to offer me water and wipe the sweat from my brow. He told me that he'd help me get to the final two.

But in my last nightmare, we made it to the final two.

We had to fight. We'd known from the very beginning that it was easier to die during an honourable duel with a friend than to one of the gamemakers' hazards. But I was still sick. Even if I hadn't been, there was no way I could've killed Gloss.

Gloss has a sister waiting for him. She believes that he'll come back, just like I once believed that Eidolon would come back. After watching another girl tear my brother's throat out with nothing but her teeth, I can't bring myself to put another girl through that kind of pain.

So, in my nightmare, I fought hard enough to fool Gloss into thinking it was a fair fight. Then I let him stab me in the heart. He held my hand as I died, trying to comfort me.

It's strange how, even in my nightmares, Gloss is so nice. That's what makes them so real.

"What happened?" I croak. It looks like I'm in hospital but I can't be. I'm still in the arena. I must be hallucinating again.

"You died," Gloss says, his voice strained, like he's on the brink of tears. "We were in the final two. I had to kill you. Do you remember?"

"I thought... it was a nightmare," I say, weakly.

"It was real," Gloss says. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay. At least you're alive," I sit up in the hospital bed. Gloss is sitting nearby. He looks a lot older than he was yesterday.

That's because it wasn't yesterday, Honey. You died.

I'm strangely not freaked out by it all. Maybe it's because I died so peacefully, in the arms of my best friend. It was certainly a lot better than what Eidolon went through.

Maybe I can move on from my own death, to put it behind me so quickly, because I spent a year trying to move on from my brother's death. I'm still not over it.

"How long has it been?" I ask.

"Twelve years," Gloss says. "They brought you back for the Quell."

I smile. At least that lends some explanation to why I'm back. I'm surprised to find that I'm not too scared at the thought of going into another games. My first games was a bit of a blur. I feel like I never really got the chance to prove myself before my chances were ruined by a stupid disease. Maybe I'll have a chance of winning now that I'm not going into the arena with such a close friend.

But first, I want to catch up with my close friend.

"How's Cashmere?" I ask.

"Not that great, actually," Gloss grimaces. "She's finding mentoring hard."

"You both won! That's brilliant! I'm so happy for you."

Gloss smiles, ruefully. "Maybe I'll be happy too, when you win this Quell."

"Wait," I say, realising something terrible. "Who exactly am I up against?"

Gloss takes a deep breath. I know the bad news that he's about to deliver.

"Eidolon's not... also in the Quell, right?" I say. I hate the sound of my voice, so thin and pleading. Tell me it's a nightmare, Gloss. Tell me it's not real.

"I'm so sorry," he whispers.

My worst nightmare - that I'd be in the games with my brother - is coming true.

Eros Buonafonte, 18, District 2 Male POV

The final day of the Sixty-Fourth Hunger Games...

Brutus is an idiot.

Every day, I ask him to sponsor me something I desperately need but he won't send me anything. I'm sure that I have plenty of sponsors. Brutus certainly has enough money to spare for a hairbrush or a portable shower or something. Anything to turn my precious hair from this mud-stained, matted mess to the glorious lion's mane it once was.

Maybe Brutus just doesn't understand what it's like to actually have hair. He's been bald since forever. Just like my stepdad, who is also an idiot.

At least, when I win, I'm guaranteed to have some of the Capitol's finest hairdressers working for me. All I need to do is figure out how many opponents I have left.

The gamemakers really screwed my alliance over by releasing that cloud of hallucination gas. I dabbled in a bit of morphling back at the academy and, as fun as it is being high, there'll come a point when you wake up and you realise that you smell like vomit and your hair is a mess. I might not be the smartest but I know that drugs are cool... until they aren't.

Kind of like being in the Hunger Games, really. I loved the parade and the interviews and all that but being in the arena is a total drag. I'm all muddy and tired and hungry. I really, really, really need a shower.

Finally, I see a figure on the horizon. I trudge over to them, only to realise that it's a girl. Fantastic!

The closer I get, the easier it is to recognise her. That girl isn't just a girl. She's Cashmere Goré. The victor's sister. Even covered with greyish-white mud, she's gorgeous. Maybe I should try to kill her but maybe I should also flirt with her. She might be the last girl left in the arena. We were allies before the fog hit but now I don't know where we stand.

"Hey, babe," I say.

"If you're going to act like that, you might as well kill me now, Eros," Cashmere spits. "I take it you've got no weapons."

"Yeah," I say, sheepishly. I lost all my arrows while I was high on the gamemakers' fog.

"Same here," Cashmere says.

"Unless you count your sexy body," I say.

Cashmere rolls her eyes and squelches closer to me. "Want to know a secret, Eros," she whispers in my ear. "Your hair is stupid."

I lose it. Nobody calls my hair stupid.

I reach for Cashmere's neck and wrap my hands around it. Then something tugs at my hair. I yelp and bat at them, letting go of Cashmere, but whatever has my hair won't let go. Suddenly, there's a foot slamming into my back. I pitch forward, landing face-first in the mud.

My first thought is Yay! Mud wrestling with a pretty blonde!

My second thought is that I can't breathe.

I try to get up but Cashmere is pressing her entire weight into my back. I had no idea how she got so heavy. I thought that hot chicks were supposed to be really careful about their weight. Her thighs wrap around me, pinning my arms to my sides. I wonder if I can lift my head out of the mud so I can breathe but Cashmere has a hand caught in my hair and she's forcing my face further and further below the surface.

"Your hair is really stupid," Cashmere gloats as I thrash around, trying to get free. "Want to know why? Because it's easy to grab. I've been beating Gloss at wrestling since I was old enough to walk. You will not believe the amount of times he tried to pull that trick on me."

The panic begins to fade as my heartbeat slows and my lungs fill with the ooze. I realise that I'm going to die.

What's more embarrassing, Eros? Getting killed while you're all muddy or getting killed by a girl?

I never figure it out. The world goes black before I can think much more.

Here we have our first two tributes! Honey and Eros are both District 1 tributes in this games, because they're being mentored by the twins, but they weren't originally District 1 tributes. I'm going to include the original district for each tribute in these intro chapters and then switch to the district they're representing later on. There'll be a few flashbacks, since there's a whole variety of tributes. Some of them are more represented by scenes during or before their games than their resurrection scene.

I feel the need to mention that I didn't originally intend to resurrect a total idiot but Eros kind of turned into one. I think it's just because I hate Eros, the mythological figure. He wasn't very nice to Nico di Angelo in The House of Hades.

Next chapter, it's District 2's turn. See if you can guess who the tributes will be.