Author's Note: The first Quarter Quell and the main antagonist for the rest of the story (alongside Snow of course). So, this is someone you will read about over and over again. Thank you for reading this far! Let me know what you think.
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The Twenty-Fifth Annual Hunger Games, The First Quarter Quell: Abraham Stone Clarke, District Ten
The Quarter Quell had very little effect on Districts One and Two, they spread the word about their chosen volunteers, so everyone voted them in. Four argued over whether to choose the usual volunteer boy or a local bully, but Mags won that argument by reminding them they would not want that bully to return, empowered by victory. Three and Five chose people responsible for industrial accidents. Districts Six to Nine chose local criminals and Twelve picked people they thought had a chance at winning and put on a better performance than usual. Eleven organised and picked an Anjou girl and a Drury boy, children of the richest landowners.
Ten followed the same path as Eleven and picked Abraham Stone Clarke and a girl from an equally rich landowning family who were ripping off the farmers. Unlike the Anjou and Drury families, these two families did not even try to treat their workers well, so both children were voted into the Quell by huge majorities. Their families had never lost anyone to the Games and the farmers wanted them to know what it feels like.
Unfortunately for most of District Ten, Abraham came back and returned emboldened by victory and his new home in Victor's Village. In the arena, he sought out tributes from the most rebellious districts, even if it meant killing his counterparts from Eleven. He stalked around the grand castle arena at night, hunting down lone tributes, duelled the boy from Two on the banquet table in what was a battle of egos as well as skill, and threw the girl from One over the top of the highest turret in the final battle. It did not take long for Maria to wish she had simply withheld the sponsor money she had got for him and given it to Twelve instead. She was secretly cheering on Gem's girl in those last moments but instead Abraham proclaimed himself the king of the castle and she was never going to live it down.
Within six months of his return, he had paid children of family friends and some of the poorest boys to spy on Maria who had to call Pluto to ask him where he got the alarms for Cleo and Tiber to detract her new neighbour from loitering outside her home and trying to break in. She regularly stayed with friends, keeping away from the village but never wanted to stay away for too long, lest he proclaim himself king there too.
Much to his chagrin, none of the other victors liked Abraham. With the way he insulted the other outlying districts and their mentors, it was no surprise. He had been trying to charm the career victors but when they heard how he spoke about Maria, they too shunned him. Abraham did not understand why someone like her was respected and he was not. The career victors were also appalled at how he refused to mentor tributes unless they were like him, leaving Maria with all the work whilst he publicly insulted them and actively thwarted Maria's sponsorship attempts.
After Maria pulled Diego out of the arena alive, Abraham had another target. He spent his time unnerving Diego, breaking into his home, and planting listening devices since a very loud alarm, installed by Maria, curtesy of Pluto, woke half of Ten's centre, thwarting his attempts to spy inside her home.
Back in the Capitol, he continued going to the Mentor's Centre without even pretending to mentor because he was a victor, and he was allowed. He would continue to bully Diego in front of the others, for which he would receive a slap around the face from Seeder and he later became familiar with Chaff's right hook.
The real reason for his continued attendance in the Capitol during the Games was to meet his contacts. The Chief of the Capitol Guard would ask him to follow certain victors or known associates each year, and he would have meetings with the once Head Gamemaker, then Minister of Interior Affairs, and eventually President, Coriolanus Snow.
Abraham became a real problem for the rebel victors. Before starting their book club meetings, Maria had to be searched in case listening devices had been placed on her person. She dared not leave any of her belongings in her Training Centre room in case Abraham interfered with them, so she always travelled light to the Capitol, knowing she would always have to carry everything with her. But Pluto was a lot smarter than Abraham, so Ten's victor was never able to plant devices or get to the location on time but his presence in the Mentor's Centre was a constant concern.
After he revealed just how awful he could be in the Fifty-First Games, devastating Diego, Maria and Eleven's victors, those in the Mentor's Centre who merely disliked him, now hated him. However, he was in favour with President Snow and had managed to secure immunity from the reapings for his family.
He frequently followed Mags between meetings and Haymitch and Chaff were arrested following a bar brawl after finding themselves with Ten's victor on their tails. A very unimpressed Seeder had to bail them out of the holding cells used for high-profile arrests, in the middle of the night. Maria refused to do the same for Abraham who was also taken into custody.
The Abraham situation culminated in near disaster during the Sixty-Nineth Games. Abraham had been working with District Eleven's stylist to catch out their victors and together. They had fitted listening devices into Chaff's shoes and the lining of Maria's handbag, given to the victor by Ten's oblivious stylist who had been offered the piece by her 'friend' working for Eleven. Except for Abraham, Ten's and Eleven's victors were attending a meeting in a restaurant with some sympathisers from the agricultural industry to exchange information and Abraham was listening to every word.
Haymitch, who had plenty of spare time following the early demise of his tributes, took to following Abraham and heard him listening to the conversation whilst meeting with one of his senior Capitol contacts. Concerned for his friends, Haymitch hurried back to the Mentor's Centre where he found Beetee and pulled him away from the District Three desk towards Three's floor.
Gem watched the exchange with interest and as soon as she heard the words 'Maria' and 'compromise' uttered as they passed her, she followed them. She approached the two men, but they did not want her to accompany them, but Gem insisted, reminding them that Maria was her friend and that if it were Abraham who was going to get her into trouble, she wanted to help.
Using Haymitch's information they found the location of both meetings. Luckily, Beetee had designed the alarm and security system both buildings operated on and was about to activate the alarms when Gem told him to wait and asked if it was safe to make a call.
Beetee assured her it was, having disabled the bugs in the room and he and Haymitch sat bemused as she called in a favour with two men she had previously worked with. How Gem knew people to act as hit men they did not know and nor did they want to. But within ten minutes, two men wearing balaclavas had entered the hotel where Abraham was meeting his contact and hauled them both downstairs and into the back of a van. As they were doing so, Gem gave Beetee the cue to activate the alert system where Ten's and Eleven's victors were meeting so the building had to be evacuated.
They needed to stop the details of the meeting from being disseminated and to trace the listening devices planted on the victors. Gem thought it was time to put Abraham under pressure, he had been in favour in political circles in the Capitol for too long now. Thankfully, Maria had told her plenty, so on her way to meet the van holding the two men, she went to see Leah (in the Capitol to publish her final official writings) to get her publishing contacts to add some news items to the 'Hunger Games Rolling News' which played constantly for the duration of Games season. It was about time people found out what had really been happening in Ten and who was responsible. Leah did not ask any questions, getting back at Abraham was enough. With the victor hopefully discredited, Gem would have to figure out what to do with the contact before meeting him.
As Gem left Three's floor, Halley returned with the news that her tribute had finally passed. She figured something was wrong and saw Beetee and Haymitch observing the footage again.
"It has to be their clothes. Maria would never have even hinted where they were going," Beetee wondered aloud.
"I know the person to ask," Halley interjected.
"Find her, meet them as they arrive back and make sure they change their clothes entirely, bring everything to her floor. Halley, I will book the two of us in for dinner at the same restaurant to be sure that's clear too. We also need to find who they were meeting, get them to lie low for a while. You must be downstairs in five minutes."
With that, Halley scrambled to find Cecelia. They made it downstairs in time and told Maria and Seeder what to do. Maria glanced down at the handbag she had been given and threw it at Cecelia, immediately suspicious of it. Cecelia promised she would start on it straight away.
Relieved Woof was sleeping, and that Cotton had stayed back in Eight, Cecelia got straight to work. She examined the handbag and unpicked the lining where, sure enough, fitted into one of the corners was a device. One that she had not seen before, but she was confident enough that she knew what it was.
She was interrupted by a hesitant knock on the door and found Charo standing nervously with a bag full of clothes. She told the younger victor not to speak and pulled her into the bathroom, started the shower and turned all the taps on full to mask any devices that may be listening in. She had quickly discovered that nothing was private in the Capitol when you were a victor.
The victors started checking the clothes. They had all being wearing their more formal clothes brought from home, some of them Cecelia and Woof's own designs and thankfully they turned out clear. Halley and Seeder arrived shortly after Charo and on their arrival, the younger victor broke down, afraid at what could happen. Cecelia slipped Halley the device she had found, and Three's victor hurried back down to Beetee.
Cecelia tried to comfort Charo whilst helping Seeder, who was quietly furious that this had happened. Haymitch had taken Chaff onto the penthouse roof so Chaff could vent his anger. Once the older victor had gone through what she needed to, she took Charo aside to calm her. She reassured her, whispering that whilst the situation was hardly ideal, Beetee was handling things and that there was not one single victor who did not want to hit back at Abraham after years of putting up with him.
Cecelia meanwhile was going through all the clothes, promising to re-sew where she had to unpick, but she could not find anything more. Finally, she looked down at the row of shoes still sat untouched on the floor and Seeder pointed at Chaff's pair, remarking quietly that their escort had provided them. Sure enough, hidden inside the sole was a device of the sort which Cecelia recognised. She checked the other shoes which came back clear, by which point Halley had returned again and Cecelia duly passed on the device.
Later Gem returned with the footage which was quickly wiped. The devices had been destroyed and Beetee and Halley had cleared the restaurant where the victors met. Abraham had been discredited, and his contacts were beginning to distance themselves from him.
From that point on, he could no longer show his face in the Mentor's Centre. Maria and Seeder were some of the most respected victors across the districts and Charo, Adan and Chaff were likeable and had many close friends who rallied around them. They had to put up with him after the Fifty-First, but that was no longer the case anymore. For those victors who were not part of any rebel groups this was a brilliant excuse to be rid of his presence and whilst unaware of the exact circumstances which led to his removal, they were disgusted at the reports detailing his actions against his own people in Ten.
Every so often, Gem would drip feed a story about Abraham's activities to the press or one of her own contacts and she would blackmail him with the knowledge of how he got his family immunity from the reaping back in the Fifty-First. He had been thoroughly discredited and could not resume his normal habits. Even President Snow had thought it unwise to be seen to have connections to him now.
The final years until Maria took the ultimate revenge saw a steady drip feed of stories about Abraham being spread amongst the victors and disseminated across the Capitol. Gem frightened him. But the panic he managed to cause amongst the other victors emboldened him to try to catch them out, but now working alone since trust in him had declined, his attempts were much less successful.
He tried to figure out what Finnick Odair was really doing but every time he thought he was getting somewhere; his efforts were frustrated. Mags had returned to the Capitol, deeming herself sufficiently recovered from her stroke and it was as if she had put a protective wall around her beloved victor. He tried to get information about Cecelia's children but nobody would talk and Haymitch had figured him out years ago so he could never try anything there.
He refocussed his efforts on undermining his fellow victors in Ten. He had them scrambling around nervously at home and he would still try to have fun in the Capitol. But he still never understood why they commanded respect and he did not, or why people would sponsor their tributes. On his last trip to the Capitol, he was making fun of Adan's attempts to gain sponsorship for his boy when he found himself face to face with Johanna Mason who threatened to throw an axe in his face if he did not stop. He thought it was pathetic how a victor like her had a soft spot for the boy he always thought of as Ten's weakling, but by now he had given up on trying to get the other victors to like him.
When Maria was finally able to act out her revenge, it was with the full support of the other victors. Nobody was going to miss, or cry over Abraham and nobody was going to betray Maria. It was a closely guarded, but open secret amongst most of the victors what had really happened to the most hated of them all. Their only regret would come to be that it was not him in the Quarter Quell.