Chapter 12: The 76th Annual Hunger Games

Peeta is overtaken by a flashback before the countdown has even concluded.

Good thing I've been standing, whereas he was in one of the chairs: when he suddenly lunges for me, I'm only just out of reach. It takes the combined strength of Haymitch, Enobaria and Johanna to hold him down; left largely immobile except for short stretches of time helped by his cybernetic legs, Beetee can only help by keeping me behind him, shielding me with both his wheelchair and his own body. I must say, I am grateful to the man.

Peeta is snarling and spitting, pinned to the floor under three people. Johanna is practically straddling him, and were I not aware that she's been making eyes at my former hunting partner, her gaze practically undressing him, I think I would be jealous.

"LET ME LOOSE, YOU FOOLS!" Peeta screeches. "SHE'S A MUTT!"

Enobaria can hardly be bothered to perform an eye roll. "Get it together, Lover Boy."

Haymitch has Peeta's face pressed into the linoleum. The drunk is lying nearly parallel to him, face close as he talks seriously to him.

"Peeta, we're not going to let you up until you're calm. Sweetheart is not going to hurt you, and she isn't a threat. You have to stop this and chill out. Once you do and you say you're ready to be let up, we'll let you up. And don't try to fake it; we'll know if you do, and we'll just tackle you again. Do you promise?"

Peeta is shaking violently, his form blurring all the more under the thick film of tears leaking from my orbs, streaming down my cheeks. He finally releases all the tension in his body and seems to deflate under the pile-on.

By the time Peeta has agreed to behave and he's let up, the gong sounds.

Johanna lets out a country whoop and dives for her screens. I resist the urge to glare at her for how she's enjoying this so. I turn back to my video feed, heart in my mouth. In the jump seat next to me, Peeta doesn't even turn his head to look my way, and I feel something shatter in my heart.

None of the 24 tributes try to run, though they have plenty of room to, despite being literally walled in. The stands are bare, just as they were during Lucy Gray's Games. All two dozen Capitol teenagers lunge for the supplies. Despite a shortage in training, most of them have at least watched enough Hunger Games to sort of know what they are doing.

Io Bronzebloom, my boy representing Team 12, gets his hands on a rapier and sets to chilling work. The first kill he makes is actually poor little Zeus, and I want to seethe. They're technically not district partners, but they were mentored together. Yet apparently that kind of bond, however, tenuous, means nothing to Io. He brings down a couple more tributes who desperately try to rush him, as the bloodbath at the Cornucopia (a horn was custom built and delivered expressly by crane into the Capitol Arena, which has never before had one) devolves into an out-of-control brawl.

We're five minutes in before tributes begin reaching what they need and making a break to get away and hide in the tunnels – most of them running, and at least one of them crawling, blood gushing from his leg. Studying my scanners, I can see that both of my girls – Ariadne and Sperantia – have successful made the run and taken shelter in the catacombs. 24 went into the melee, only eleven run back out, with Io the twelfth and taking control of the horn single-handed.

I sink back in my chair with a sigh. Half gone. I chance a glance at Peeta. I hope for his sake that the remaining half will go down quickly and end this soon. Though, with the presence of the tunnels, I doubt it. Still, I pray for a quick resolution, on the added potential of it pissing Johann and Enobaria off. My fellow Victor girls are already drinking themselves sick, laughing over the pathetic deaths. Even Haymitch – a guy who could drink either of them under the table – looks appalled by their behavior. Further down the row of consoles, Beetee is on the phone, speaking soothingly with someone again.

"It won't do you any good to watch this…. not good for your health…" He's probably talking to Annie and reminding her that just because these Games are still technically mandatory viewing, I think we can make an exception with her. She shouldn't be viewing this; it's not good for the baby!

"… see you at home…" Beetee is rumbling.

I don't have time to wonder just who the hell Beetee really is talking to when the screens divert my attention. Down in the tunnels, Ariadne has come across the crawling boy bleeding from his legs; his stats label him as District 5. One of Haymitch's boys.

Ariadne looks repulsed by the gore of it. Still, armed only with a knife, she doesn't hesitate.

Kneeling down almost kindly by the boy, she holds the blade to his throat. He doesn't fight her on it, doesn't squirm to get away, and she turns her face askance as she makes the critical cut.

The boy seems to go relatively painlessly. The cannon fires. Johanna starts to boo, apparently upset that Ariadne didn't look into the eyes of the person she killed.

I hang my chin on my chest, palm to my eyes, rubbing the bridge of my nose tiredly.

This is going to be a long Games, isn't it?

We're exactly three weeks in, and already there are still four tributes left.

I suppose I should feel proud that three of them are mine: Io, still guarding the Cornucopia and making it his personal playground. He hasn't really needed to go anywhere to hunt (though I can't help but wonder if he's just afraid to brave the tunnels), just waited until others die, and those remaining have the stores in their sponsor parachutes dry up. Tributes desperate enough have circled back around to the horn without the need for Templesmith to call for a Feast. Io got into a furious fight with the remnants of Enobaria's proto-Career pack five days ago, leaving only the girl from Team 1 to limp away from the fight.

There hasn't been a new death in over forty-eight hours.

As for Ariadne Snow, she has remained in the tunnels, not encountering anyone since she found and granted a mercy kill to the boy from Team 5 barely an hour beyond the Bloodbath the first day. I've been diligent in sending her and my other kids things they need, with Haymitch occasionally helping me once his charges were out. He only had one live past the Bloodbath himself; Peeta got all four of his kids out, though the last of them went down over a week ago. Contrary to what I had been bracing myself for with him, Peeta didn't fly into a rage. Instead, he's been quiet and sullen. At the very least, he seems smug that all of Johanna's tributes are also dead, and that the Governor of Mason now seems just the tiniest bit concerned that President Snow's granddaughter – the one tribute she has wanted dead more than all the others – might still walk away with this thing.

For that to happen, she will have to beat Io, who has established himself as the clear favorite. And her own best friend, Sperantia Blackstone, who has done remarkably well for herself, all things considered. For the trust fund brat of a Cabinet Secretary, Sperantia is no wilting flower – she's made two kills thus far, to Ariadne's one. Io still has the highest count of those who remain.

Enobaria's girl, however, is severely dehydrated, wandering high up in the stands aimlessly, the last living Career desperately trying to send her water, but even the prices from this are too high.

At sunset, Claudius calls a Feast – the first of the Games – to which Johanna huffs, "Fucking finally!" The girl from Team 1 takes a bit to clue in as she gathers her bearings, somehow spots the actual Cornucopia without hallucinating and begins to stagger down the bleachers, looking almost as resigned as Enobaria does now, huddled in her chair with a cup of coffee.

Down in the maze of tunnels, Sperantia Blackstone also decides to chance it. But Ariadne hesitates. It might not be so bad to wait for the other three to fight – at worst, only two or even one will go down – and then the survivor(s) would hunt for her. At best, all three, including Io, will eliminate themselves and she could win.

As I observe her carefully, the granddaughter of the former President seems to strike a balance between the two. She makes her way back to the entrance of one tunnel that gives her a full view of the Cornucopia. The girl stays in the shadows of the tunnel's mouth, waiting and watching.

At sunset, a table rises up out of the ground, with three duffel bags on top of it. Io stands behind the booty, but doesn't reach for the duffel labeled with a 'Team 12.' Or the one labeled 'Team 11' and meant for Sperantia Blackstone. Perhaps he's hoping Ariadne will come and fight him for it – only one of them can claim the bag, after all.

Johanna cackles with glee as movement can suddenly be seen on the monitors – the girl from Team 1 is making a desperate sprint for the table.

It's a suicide run. Io grins and takes her down, causing Enobaria to swear. And with that, I know I will be the winning mentor, with three of mine in the Top Three. However, I'm not so sure I want Io Bronzebloom to become the final Victor ever.

Also hiding at the lip of another tunnel, much closer to the table then Ariadne is, Sperantia is smart to wait while Io is finishing off the girl from Team 1. She makes a break for her duffel bag as the hulking boy's back is turned. She gets a hand around the strap and is just casting it over her shoulder and turning to dash for her tunnel and freedom when –

Io suddenly appears, yanking the strap back and strangling Sperantia with it. Ariadne watches the whole thing, horrified as the cannon booms.

"NO!"

Io's gaze snaps up, locking onto his last target. Ariadne flees back into the tunnel and Io has no choice but to swallow his own fear and follow her. As the pair speed along, Johanna is yelling for Io to finish Snow's brat off.

Unfortunately, Ariadne seems to know something that Io doesn't. As the largest tribute forcibly enlisted into the Games by far, he has to crouch quite comically to make his way through the tunnels. He is bashing around carved out bits of soil on the walls, critical for keeping the tunnels upheld. Before long, we can see the walls of the tunnels start to shake.

A huge rumbling finally alerts Io to the fact that something is wrong. As the tunnel begins to cave in, he abandons pursuit of Ariadne and tries to circle back, fighting his way out into open air. But it's too late. The entire tunnel comes down on them both, and for a minute, I think we will well and truly get no Victor. I don't know what to feel about that prospect, seeing as how I voted for this.

BOOM. One, and only one, cannon fires.

It isn't for Io.

A hand, caked in dirt, appears, clawing blindly to the light and Ariadne Snow digs her way out, alive and the Victor of the 76th Hunger Games.

Johanna is screaming and throwing things. Haymitch is actually laughing. Peeta seems wary that a Snow can just walk away from the arena alive. What if she becomes like her grandfather?

But for me, I am content with the outcome, surprisingly enough. Whereas the others might want to cling to being bitter, I choose forgiveness.