Elliot "Elle" Hanson, Victor of the 149th Hunger Games
Running. Past the house collapsing in in itself, past the dilapidated bakery where the scorpion mutts lived, hearing the pounding of Ajax's boots against the cobblestone through my own footsteps. I hated this year's arena. No open space to run.
I pulled out my knife. Swerved to the right. Only two left, me and Ajax. I was so close to going back home to Ten, I could practically smell the horses and cows and grass.
My foot caught on an uneven cobblestone, and I tripped. Ajax was on me in seconds. His grin was unmistakable as he pulled his sword out of the sheath.
"Give up, Ten," he snarled, resting his blade on my cheek. I whimpered softly, and he sliced my face. "I'm going back to One alive. You're leaving this arena in a box." Another slice, this time my arm.
I glanced to my left. My knife lay just out of reach. My mind raced for options. Could I shove Ajax off me? No, he was too strong, an eighteen year old from One, and I was a fourteen year old from Ten. What about getting his anger going? He'd kill me even faster. Tears welled in my eyes. What was I going to do?
"Don't worry," Ajax taunted, noticing my tears. "I'll try to make it as quick as possible."
Yeah right, I thought, then looked back at the knife. My only option. Slowly, I began to reach for it. Lucky for me, Ajax was still making his death speech.
"Do you have anybody back home? I do. Little sister, Twinkle. She's counting on me. And so is Ivory. She wasn't my girlfriend, but he was from home, you know?" My fingertips brush the handle. "I can't believe I let her go with Aquarius. He was dangerous. He killed my district partner, then I killed his before I killed him." My fingernail hooks on a piece of the grip that I had peeled up, and I pulled the knife into my grasp.
"You'll see Ivory and Aquarius and Oceania and all those people you killed soon," I said, and Ajax laughed. I ignored it. "Tell Mitch I say hello." With that, I slammed my knife into his heart.
He rolled off me, and whispered, "You'll regret this." His cannon sounded.
I bolted up, sweating and breathing hard. That nightmare had been plaguing me for months now, my last night in the arena. Ajax was right: I did regret killing him. I wasn't a killer. Before the reaping, I wouldn't have even touched a knife for fear of hurting somebody. Now, I was fifteen and a murderer.
Next to me, my little sister Eve stirred, then woke up. She had her own room, of course, but it scared her being alone. She was only five, after all, and gone through more than any five year old should. She watched her only sister almost die.
"Hey, Evie," I whispered, ruffling her black hair. She giggled at my nickname for her, then snuggled close. I glanced at my clock, and it was only four in the morning.
"Go back to sleep, okay?" I whispered to Eve. Eve nodded, and closed her eyes. I wished I could go back to sleep that quickly. I laid awake for about ten minutes, before deciding to work on my project. In that awful week in the Hunger Games, twenty three voices were forever silenced, eyes forever closed, hearts forever still. This project will help me remember each one of those tributes lost in my Games, and every other one until I died.
From under my bed, I pulled out a tablet—which I barely used, but you don't refuse gifts from the Capitol—and open a search bar. I typed in 'Hunger Games'. An array of numbers and images flooded the screen. The 149th Games was first on the list. The image behind the number was of Ajax breaking the neck of the little girl from Eight in the bloodbath.
I tapped on that one, then scrolled to the 'Tributes' tab and clicked on that. One by one, district by district, faces, names, ages, family, anything you wanted to know about these tributes popped up. The white glare of the screen woke Eve.
"What are you doing?" she asked, and I took out my notebook. I opened it to my last entry and began on the next tribute: Abeline the sadistic girl from Five.
"Conserving their memories," I whispered to Eve.
"What does conserving mean?" Eve asked, her squeaky voice breaking into me and staying there. Everybody was this young before. All twelve of the tributes I'll be responsible for this year were this young at one point.
"It means that even though they're dead, I'm going to remember them," I said. "All of them."
Eve thought about this for a moment, then said, "I want to help." I smiled, and gave Eve the tablet open to Abeline's profile. I scrawled out facts one my paper:
Name: Abeline Gray
Age: 18
District: Five
Family: mother, father, older brother, younger brother
Fate: dead
Placement: 9th
Cause of Death: poisoned by scorpion mutts, then stabbed by Aquarius
"Are the Hunger Games scary?" Eve asked me after as read the cause of death to me.
"Yes, Evie, they are," I told her. "But don't worry. If you ever get picked, I'll protect you."
"I love you, Elle."
"I love you too, Eve
Meet last year's Victor, Elliot Hanson of District Ten. We'll see more of Elle as this story progresses. How'd you like the insight into last year's Games? How did you like Elle and her project to conserve the memories of all the dead tributes in the Games?
You can still submit tributes. I had thirteen or fourteen last I checked, and three reserved spots. I made a decision that if you reserve, you have to send them in a week after you reserve. Seven days to get your tributes in to me, or your reservation is taken off (DjEkat if you can sen in your's ASAP that would be great.)