Adair Brites (16) D5M

The Capitol had one of the nicest couches in the world. I couldn't know that for sure, because I wasn't sure about One's couches, or Two's, but I couldn't think of a way that a couch could possibly get better than the one the Capitol had. That made it hard for me to sit down to watch Games re-runs, because I knew there was a good chance I could fall asleep. The smartest people knew themselves, and I knew that that was an easy problem to run into. That couch was comfy.

The twenty-second Games. The twenty-first Games. The twentieth Games. I skipped past the last three years. I had watched those ones like a hawk, stopping often to stare the the screens in the District Center and actually watching the television at home that we were required to have. I needed to know what I had gotten out of, and what there was a chance I'd run into the next year. I had never thought it would come in handy, but it sure had. I got to save myself hours of tape time by skipping those three and heading straight to the nineteenth, the one that was awfully fuzzy for me.

Most of the deaths in the nineteenth Games came from things that could have been anticipated. I watched as tributes that ran into the Bloodbath were killed, just like any outer-District kid who ran in would expect. I watched while people who made terrible decisions, from stupidity and lack of common sense, died from hypothermia. I watched people get in fist-fights with the Careers and end up losing. I knew I couldn't anticipate everything that happened in the Games, and there would be a lot of things for me to keep track of, but a lot of things that killed people in the past could be avoided.

Watch that. I had to watch myself, my mentality. A little bit of pride was the death of a lot of people. Sebastian. Taking on two Careers at once. Gadeloth. Giving someone a weapon during a fight. I couldn't assume that everything in the Games was going to be common sense, and I couldn't assume that all of my enemies would lack it. A lot of people did, for sure. I knew that from experience. But not everyone would, so a lot of people would have an easy time avoiding my traps.

The tenth Games. That one was thirteen years ago. I was only three when it happened, but I had heard a lot about it. It was weird. It was an indoor Arena, monumentally annoying everyone who had spent all their time learning survival skills. I recognized that that could happen to me, but I had to doubt it. Survival skills were important. That was guaranteed. And there was only the slimmest of chances that knowing my way around plants wasn't going to come in handy.

Cecilia Q. (16) D5F

I walked into the Training Centre with my head held high, day after day. It was amazing to watch the other tributes back down just a little bit, surprised that a Five was so confident. It wasn't that weird for me to be confident. It made perfect sense. I was practiced in throwing knives. I knew the basic stance and basic throwing. I knew the right type of psychology to use to freak someone out, to get them to back off instead of attacking me. Most people did, sure. It was pretty common sense. But it was still a huge confidence booster for me to know that I was one of the people with common sense.

Throwing knives was where I mostly stuck, practicing with the target for hours on end. It was soothing, hitting the target, picking the knife up, hitting the target again. It was easy to get it on the target somewhere, though harder to get it anywhere specific. I didn't care about that, though. I just liked the rhythm, the ease with which I could keep going, constantly sticking the knife where it had to go, or within a twenty inch radius.

"Hey! I'm Rhiannon. Would you be interested in allying with me?" the girl from Six said, admittedly surprising me. It was lucky for her that she didn't get a knife in the chest. I looked over at her casually, holding the knife at hip height and glaring at her slightly. I needed her to know I wasn't someone to be messed with. My options were that or disappearing, and I definitely wasn't one to disappear.

"Frick off," I spat, totally disinterested. I didn't need a worthless Six trying to slow me down during the Games. I was my own person, and she would only hurt me. She glared at me for a second before backing off, and I almost expected her to spit. It would have been reasonable. I would have gouged one of her eyes out, sure, but it would still have been reasonable.

I noticed a lot of whispers about me after that. Apparently people didn't usually spit at people who asked them to ally with them, or glare at everyone who approached them, unless they were Careers. I didn't mind. People could whisper all they want. They could spit insults at me and try to get people not to sponsor me. It wouldn't matter. I didn't really want to kill anyone, but I was willing to. And I could kill them all if I had to.

Nixon Hankook (13) D6M

Most tributes went to the Training Center every day they could. They spent every moment of their days that was allowed trying to get any little fraction of a skill they could manage, and for almost everyone, it was worthless. Nothing they did was going to matter. They were going to go to the Games, and for all I knew, they would play eenie-meenie-miney-moe to see who won. Then we'd all go home, and our training would never come in handy again. It was as simple as that. And that was why I had no intention of spending time at the Center, except maybe going there once or twice to keep up appearances. Some of the Capitol food was really nice, and I wouldn't mind getting sent some in the Games.

I wanted to climb to the roof of the Games building. It wasn't very hard. The Games building had an elevator that went all the way to the top floor. For some reason there was a staircase to the roof, but I didn't care. I would have climbed a hundred flights of stairs to get to the top. I had to see what the Capitol was. I had to prove my theories, once and for all. I had to know that the Capitol really was fake, just like I had expected. I knew the Capitolites were. No one would act like that unless they were robots. I knew President's mansion was real. I just didn't know about anything else.

Like I expected, the roof of the building was beautiful. Lights totally dazzled me, shining from all sides, and the quiet hum of a forcefield could be heard from around me. I knew what would happen if I tried to jump. Tributes had done it in the past, and they just bounced back up to the roof, delicately landing where they belonged. I almost wanted to try anyways, though. There were hundreds of buildings around me, maybe thousands. They were huge, shining like stars in front of me. Worst of all, they were real.

Was it all just a coping mechanism? Did you know it was real? My whole world was crumbling before my eyes. The Capitol was real. That couldn't be right. I had always assumed that the videos were faked, that the Capitol didn't exist. Nobody could hoard that much wealth. That much wealth just didn't exist. Nobody could condone the Games, think they were a good idea. No one could do anything the Capitol did. So I thought it was fake. That was the most sensible route I could take. But it wasn't. The Capitol was real, and all of the buildings were in front of me, as if to prove it.

So I jumped. I knew I wouldn't die, and that was the reason I was willing to. I just needed to get out my energy, to release some of the insanity that was going on mentally by changing it to be physical. Sure enough, the forcefield bounced me back. It didn't hurt. It hardly felt like anything at all. So I did it again and again, loving every moment of weightlessness, no matter how short it was. I ignored my tears. I ignored my terror. I ignored the heart-wrenching idea that maybe the Games were real. I focused on the little bit of happiness I could force myself to feel.

Rhiannon Raimers (16) D6F

Tributes weren't supposed to leave the Training Center. It wasn't allowed, and there was supposed to be no way to get out of it. But legends were told about people who managed to get out somehow, people who couldn't hope to escape into the Capitol but still knew what the Capitol was like. Sure, there was also Rodney, who got to both see the Capitol inside the Games and outside, but he was an outlier. I was probably going to die, but I wasn't going to do that without trying to see the best view I could think of.

I had already seen one person get away with it. I watched Lumara sneak out, and naturally, I didn't rat her out. Snitches get stitches. I would have told on Cecilia if she had tried, though. Jerks get what they deserve. But because of Lumara, I knew what I could do. I didn't know if it would work twice in the same year, so I wasn't going to try it, but I had ideas. Bits and pieces decided to work for me, like looking less District-like, but I wasn't going to just hope my wardrobe would get me into any situation I wanted.

"Hey!" I yelled out, running up to a Capitolite group and waving brightly. "What are you guys up to?" I didn't care about their answer at all, and it was hard to pay attention to everything they said, but I listened politely, smiling and nodding at the appropriate times.

"We were hoping to meet a tribute! Here you are. What do you think of the Capitol?" one of the brightly colored men asked me, and I took my cue.

"I think the Capitol has been absolutely beautiful! I just wish I could see more of it. After all, I'm stuck in this building," I said, twirling my hair. I hated it. I wanted to recoil from myself. But I figured that was what would get me the best reaction.

"Oh! That would be neat. But it is against the rules. Maybe once you're Victor!" the man continued, and I forced a pout to come onto my lips.

"But it would be so nice to get out now, and... And I would never forget it! I'm sure there'd be a way to repay you," I said, really meaning that I would give him a thumbs-up during the Games.

"I guess that would be cool," the guy said, and all of his friends nodded. They surrounded me like a gaggle of geese and snuck me out of the Games Building, leaving me on my own once they had flaunted me to some friends. I could have ran. I could have tried to disappear forever, but I had to settle on a realistic goal. There was probably already a tracker on me. I couldn't really get away anymore. I was just going to watch the sunset.

Raven Keats VI (14) D7M

I met a random Capitolite stranger. I didn't know what was up with him, or why he was so okay with being around me, but I was happy to talk to him. He didn't seem to care that I have tuberculosis, which I figured was neat. It was probably because Capitolites had some medication that they just chose not to give to outer-District kids. I didn't really mind the reason, though. I needed human interaction. I needed a chance to talk to someone who I wouldn't kill or chase away just by being myself, and this Lumen guy seemed just as weird as I was.

"So you really believe in multiple universes, huh? And timelines? What would you do if you got murdered or something? Like, would you be mad in your next life, or would you just roll with it?" Lumen asked me, using his body to shield me from the guards. We were exiting the Games building, which was awesome, and surprisingly easy to do. Apparently Lumen never got questioned for anything. He said something along the lines of being the Capitol's pet, mentioning that they'd never want to make a scene about him. I didn't really care. I just thought it would be neat to go to his place and play the piano he said he had. Maybe I'd even meet the President. He said he lived near her.

"I don't know. I don't know if I'll remember this life in the next one. I mean, I don't remember anything about my previous life, but maybe I'm not a reincarnation. Maybe I'm just the first in a line, and I'll be able to remember this next time. Or maybe I'll get revived and have no idea who murdered me. I guess I'll find out pretty soon, though," I said, trying to keep up with Lumen's questions. He sure had a lot of them. He talked about life and death and the afterlife, asking me if I believed in ghosts amongst other things, and whether I'd haunt anyone if given the chance.

"Huh. That's pretty neat. Here, we have to turn here. Really, I mostly believe in one life. I think that after one life you're gone. Still, the idea of ghosts is a little funny. I had to kill someone once. Life-or-death decision. But I still worry that maybe she's haunting me. She was a murderer, though. So what could she do to guilt me?" Lumen said, leading me into an alley. It seemed awfully dark for a place near the President, but I trusted this Lumen guy. He was weird, but pretty neat.

I felt a sudden cold blow to my back, then another, then another. At first I assumed I was being punched, but then I felt something dripping down my back. A coughing fit took me over, and I found myself on my knees, gasping for breath that I knew wouldn't come.

"But it doesn't have to make sense. She's haunting me no matter what. I guess maybe you will, too. The problem is, she said she'll stop haunting me once I kill another person. But that's two for one ghost! So maybe I'll keep being haunted forever." Lumen's voice rang quietly in my ears, dulled by the oncoming terror of death. Could he do that? Could he just kill a tribute?

He was a tribute, the thought finally clicked. He doesn't exist.

24th Place: Alfred "Raven" Keats VI - Murdered by Lumen

All right peeps. I've been planning this for a long time. I want a subplot. And here we are. Sure, there isn't much of a secret (I needed a reason as to why the murderer was so cool with it, after all), but I think it's going to be neat. After all, for all official reasons, Lumen doesn't exist anymore - he died three years ago. To any newcomers, Lumen was a tribute in Running Man: The 20th Hunger Games. He killed two people, including one he wasn't technically allowed to kill, and has been a friend of Ginger ever since he was nice to her.

Alfred was totally cool. There was plenty to him, and I didn't kill him because he was undeserving of the crown or anything. He was a neat guy, and he probably could have lasted a while. However, AmericanPi was totally awesome and she sent him in for me for the express purpose of me doing a pre-Games kill. So thanks a hundred times over for that, because now we have this.

Please give me info on whether this was a good idea, whether it was well-executed, all that jazz. It's my first time doing much of a subplot, and it's all pretty interesting to try to learn. So if you have any (hopefully constructive) criticism, I could definitely use it!