"I've sunshine enough to spread
It's just like the fella said
Tell me quick
Ain't love a kick in the head?"
FYI: I write these chapters with the songs in the title on repeat so if you ever want to, you can read this with that music in the background. You most likely get a clue to the Arena from that.
The radio played soft tunes into the crisp night air. I sat with my back against the wall to the small windowless room and allowed my head to sway slightly to its calm melody.
The sweat on my skin and within my wet clothes cooled as I welcomed the icy feeling against my sunburned and warm skin. At any moment I could die. Anything or anyone could follow the sound of my radio and kill me in the blink of an eye. Or maybe the flame of my candle would alert a passing Tribute. I didn't care.
All I wanted to do was relax and allow to the music to take me away. Far away from the Hunger Games and to the place they sung about so beautifully.
Two weeks earlier...
Atlas Geo, Victor of the 24th Hunger Games
In the 51 years I had partaken in my annual visit to the Capitol it didn't change much. Sure, bars and restaurants changed hand, furnishings, buildings and fashion changed yearly depending on the latest trend. Yet it remained just as shallow and otherworldly as the first time I had stepped foot there as a boy.
"Your drink, sir," a pink haired woman said with a bow before rushing off to serve another table. It was odd to think that fifty years ago someone like her would have treated me no better than the shit on her shoes. But now it was different. Not only was I a victor but I was the oldest victor left alive.
I had watched everyone before me pass and some that came after me. I was a memory of a different era of the Hunger Games. One where mutts were new, the arenas basic, and the Careers rather pathetic in comparison to the modern day ones. Yet I was lucky. Unlike most of the Victor's before me, I only mentored for ten years. I only had to watch nineteen Tributes die. I never had to mentor again if I didn't wish to and it wasn't a desire I ever had. I was content spending my days relaxing in the Capitol, living in luxury and pretending the Games had never existed. That everyone was entitled to a life within the Capitol.
It was harder this year. The reality show based around the Tributes had aired for ten years. I was never an avid watcher, having little interest in the lives of children but I tuned I'm from time to time to check how they were progressing. Even that was enough to get attached.
It wasn't just me. Earlier that day when by the poolside, a group of girls chatted eagerly amongst themselves. They talked about the Tributes, who they believed liked each other, who they wanted to pair up, one even pulled up a collection of photos she had gathered compering the Tributes when they were chosen to now.
Between the coos and teenage sequels it was clear to see they idolized their Tributes. They had witnessed every fight, breakdown, and kiss between the Tributes. Some of them maybe saw themselves in them. It was a wonder how the Capitol would ever pull killing them without a riot. It wasn't something I gave much thought to as it gave me hope that they might all live. It would never happened. Like cattle, these Tributes had been raised to die and that was their fate no matter how much Capitol tweens protested.
To the right of me, a small TV played behind the bar, a middle aged man with golden hair watching as he sipped on his drink. The footage showed the Tributes by a fire pit, laughing and joking as they drank milkshakes. They reminded me of the Capitol tweens I had seen earlier. As an outsider I wouldn't have guessed they were District born. Then again, they had spent longer in the Capitol by now...you had to wonder if they even classed the Districts as their home.
"What's that behind your ear-whoop!" Onyx gasped as he pulled a silver coin from behind Glaicia's ear. The girl pulled a face and left the pit behind and Onyx deflated.
"You have a fascinating way with girls, Onyx," Vermeil laughed.
"Can't keep them off me," Onyx winked, flipping his coin into the air and catching it again.
"I'll believe that when I see it," Friesian laughed as he jumped into the seat next to Vermeil, in awe of the Mango milkshake she held.
For a moment as I watched the girl hold out the milkshake for Friesian to take a sip, I saw Lavinia beneath the mass of golden blonde curls. Then the resemblance was gone. Instead a beautiful girl with striking purple like eyes smiled sweetly as Friesian debated between a mango or strawberry milkshake and Onyx pushed for him to get a beer.
I turned my attention away from the TV as I pulled out a battered golden locket and opened it up. The real Lavinia looked back at me as well as Zeus. The girl I had loved for a few weeks fifty years ago and the brother I lost to the games before that. The whole reason I had volunteered. I couldn't remember how they looked in real life. The most my mind could muster up were the static faces locked away within that locket. I wasn't even sure how much of their memory was romanticized. My brother had his faults but I had all but forgotten them. Lavinia was always the perfect image of a woman. A face I would think about upon an argument with my wife wondering if things would have been easier with her. But the truth of the matter was that I didn't need a photo to remember my wife.
I closed the locket and looked over to the empty seat to my left. She always liked to be on my left so she was closer to my heart. As Victors, our hunger games were spent in the Capitol bars enjoying the time away from our children and later our grandchildren. It was my third year without her but when I looked to my left, part of me always expected to see her there, laughing breathlessly as she downed another cocktail.
"You missing her Pap?" My grandson Mason said as he took the seat to my right.
"Of course," I sighed as I placed my locket back in my suit jacket. "I'll always miss your Granny." I looked at the boy who was a spitting image of me at his age. The same age I was upon entering the Games. As I looked at him now, he seemed so young. It was hard to imagine the things I had done when I was only a child. He sipped his lemonade as he watched the TV off in the distance, his blonde curls catching the light. I didn't need anyone with me, really but as a senior the Capitol had granted me one companion. Last year it was his sister, this year was Mason. I wanted them all to experience the Capitol and a few weeks of luxury in their lifetime.
"Do you think Granny is looking out for the District 2 Tributes this year?" Mason asked, glancing over at me.
I gave a nod but I knew she wasn't. If I knew my wife, she was drunk in the bar in the sky with all of her friends and some of mine to. Far away from the Hunger Games, Panem, and her Games. One day soon I'd join her. Once all my grandchildren had experienced the Capitol, then I'd share a drink with my sweet heart, Lavinia, and Zeus once more.
Thought I'd try something diffrent with Atlas. As he is in his 70s, I thought it fitting for him to not be a mentor. Instead he will give a POV into how the Capitol public is reacting to the Tributes and the Games.Next up is Lux Hymnoor and then we can finally meet the Tributes.I still only have 5 tributes so if you are thinking about submitting, please do! I'd love to add them to my story.Until next time!