Kazuo Braun- District One mentor
I knew what Alsace was thinking. It shone from his eyes. Over and over I'd told him, but five days of mentorship couldn't outfight six years of loss.
"Don't do it," I said. "Win the Games. Live your life, not your dead cousin's."
"I'll do both," he said.
Blake Armani- District One mentor
Andromeda didn't think I understood her. That was rich. All Careers had the same story in the end. We thought we weren't enough unless we won. Even if we thought we were the greatest things on Earth, we still thought we had to win. We never had value, only our actions.
Pray Jager- District Two mentor
Medusa was cold, and andry, and focused, and relentless. It was years like this that made me fall in love with mentoring all over again. Looking at her about to go into the Arena brought me back three decades to my own last moments before the Games. If only they let me volunteer every year.
Ava Hanson- District two mentor
I couldn't imagine what it was like to be someone like Sagar. He was just... confident. He didn't pick himself apart or worry about a thousand little things he could do better at. He didn't feel like a failure any time someone said anything negative about him. The only one who had to like him was himself. I wished I could be like that.
Gidget Ford- District Three mentor
Andrea was doing that thing some people do when they're worried and they try to cheer everyone else up because if they focus on someone else they don't feel so scared. Ryx was doing the same thing, so until the tubes came down it was two kids assuring each other that they would do fine and hugging and holding hands and huddling as far away from the tubes as possible. Before they went up they told each other maybe they'd meet after the Bloodbath and say hi. So many best-laid plans of mice and men.
Shane Donegal- District Four mentor
Every time I saw the tubes it brought me back. Like Percy, I'd been somewhat trained but nowhere near prepared for what the Games really were. And if only one of us could have won, I'd have wanted it to be Percy. I volunteered wholeheartedly. I'd wanted to fight and kill and be the sole survivor. Percy did it so someone else could be safe. That was the only reason to fight a war.
Careen Ellis- District Four mentor
I had a feeling I'd see Cyrene again- face to face, that is. I'd didn't get that feeling often. Of course, I wasn't always right when I did. But this was the best chance we'd had in a long time. She stood with her back to me, facing the empty tube, her hands sedately clasped behind her back. I could see her reflection in the glass. It wasn't afraid, nor was it arrogant. It merely anticipated.
Meenah Turbine- District Five mentor
It was just more and more things with Raina. Changing everything she thought she was. Coming to the Capitol. And now facing the tube that would bring her to near certain death. Probably death in less than three days, to be honest. How was I supposed to prepare her for that? All I could tell her was that spiders were edible.
Erwin Jackson- District Five mentor
"It's okay," Aurelia said. "You don't have to worry about me." She said it in a quiet and very grown-up voice. She didn't want me to hear the thinness in it.
No, you shouldn't worry about me. I didn't hope for her to win. I didn't hope for her not to die. I knew all that. I hoped that when she died she wasn't scared.
Lancia Audren- District Six mentor
It's a chilling job to have to stand in front of two children every year and lie that you think they'll make it back. Sometimes I believed it, but I'd never been right yet. Tony might. He really might. He had an above-average chance and that's all anyone could ever hope for. It was chilling to know this was the last time I would see Siobhan. She might come home. She really might. But she had a below-average chance in a situation where the average chance was one in twenty-four. Counting on that was an exercise in futility.
Loki Saberhagen- District Seven mentor
"So, what's the plan?" Rigel asked me with a wry smile.
"Run for it," I said.
"Yeah, that's what I was thinking," he said. "Lucky me. I have my own personal assassin."
Katrina looked over with the kind of face you get when it's either laugh or cry. "I've never been so happy to be a girl," she said.
Tillo Peters- District Eight mentor
Fryderyk and Cerise shared years of stories and emotions in the moments they silently looked at each other.
"No regrets," Fryderyk said.
"I do," Cerise said. "This wasn't enough time for me. I never had to face death before."
"It gets easier," Fryderyksaid. He smiled. "I hope there are pens there for you."
She smiled back. "I know there's music."
Nassor Doyle- District Nine mentor
This time I couldn't do it. I waited outside the tube room, my back against the door as I slid to the ground. Sometimes it was just too much. There was an old man in there with the face of a child and a girl who wore the colors of the death that would soon wear her. I couldn't bear to watch.
Bambi Kirkland- District Ten mentor
"I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared." Angus wrung his hands as he paced from one side of the room to the other, quivering. He looked at me with wide child eyes like I was the only window in a burning building. When the tube came down, he made sounds I usually only heard in the Bloodbath.
Calvary Warsaw- District Ten mentor
Two Avoxes trundled Queenie into the tube and set her down. I waved goodbye as she rose out of view. It was my easiest year mentoring yet.
Hlenn Rambutan- District Eleven mentor
It stirred up so many memories to be in the tube room again. I was much more like Pik than I was like Rachel, but of the two, she was the more likely to win. That was ironic or something, I suppose, because I was a Victor. Pik was a bundle of potential energy, all his muscles already tensed to run. Rachel was making jokes none of us heard and laughing frenetically in were all nervous, all in our own ways.
Nubu Sanders- District Twelve mentor
Jay politely got into his tube when it arrived. He hadn't said a word since we arrived, which was unusual for him. He seemed dazed. I remembered that feeling. Harper wandered the room at first but was easily persuaded when I shooed her toward the tube. She was never argumentative with me. It just seemed like I didn't exist to her.
