RAINA RAY- Arthur Harrington
Another one of the small ones. We never won the Games. We were dying out one by one. Eventually I would be the last to go, if I got that far.
CAMILLE IGAWA- Cerise Dupin
What is there for her family to bury? She's digested. There is no body.
Meenah Turbine- District Five mentor
I didn't expect anything different. I pulled out all the tricks and sweet-talked so many Capitolites, but it took time to convince people. If Raina had made it through the night I could have sent her something before it got cold again. People are slower to make decisions when it's not their lives on the line.
District Five
Mrs. Ray had sensed for years the growing distance between her and her child. She never had the slightest idea what the reason had been all along. All the years of "man up", "I need my big strong son", "you're the man of the house" came back and echoed in her head, smashing her with each reverberation. She'd lost her child, and Raina's expression was nothing but a chance never seen until too late.
There was a train etched on Siobhan's grave. It never moved, just like what it guarded.
Cyrene Longuemare- District Four female
I disliked mud. I'd never been the kind of child who delighted in getting dirty and making mud pies. I didn't like it under my nails and I hated the dirty stickiness that remained until you washed it off. But mud was the practical choice here, and personal comfort was something I could enjoy after I'd won. So I stretched myself out in the mud at the edge of a loose platform of greenery and wallowed like a pig. I didn't rise until I'd smeared every inch of myself with mud, from my hairline to the folds of my ears.
Andromeda and Medusa had gone of in similar directions once the run rose and the water was bearable. Sagar lit off in the opposite direction, since he was dramatic. It had been one of the crowning achievements of my leadership of the Careers to convince Alsace to stay. We were an alliance. We would stay that way until the absolute end, no matter what it took. I would hold us together with nothing but duct tape and determination if I had to. We were a team and we pulled equal weight. Alsace had to stand guard just like the rest of us, vendetta or no vendetta. In the end, he'd agreed. He wasn't unreasonable, he just had blind spots like everyone else.
That goal, then, was taken care of. The next pressing thing was to constantly reiterate that I was loyal and devoted to the Capitol. If I wanted to ensure they didn't send a mutt to tie up my loose end, I needed to carry out their ends. I needed to be their agent in the Arena so they let me do their killing instead of them killing me.
I wasn't rebellious. I really wasn't. I had rebellious members in my family, but I didn't share their opinions. I was the barrel that got spoiled by the bad apple. I wasn't brave enough to be a rebel. Careers aren't brave. We all come into this thinking we'll win it. It wasn't brave to fight someone you're sure you can beat. With the Capitol, it wasn't a matter of being sure. I knew I couldn't beat them. I wanted money and power and influence like anyone else, but I wanted it from the system, not from overthrowing it.
That said, there was someone rebellious in the Arena. I'd heard about Cerise. She wasn't showy about it, but we all knew she didn't care for the system. She stuck out and that got you killed in Panem. Whether or not she was really going to do anything, the Capitol thought she was, and perception is reality. If I got rid of their problem Tribute for them, they would back off of me. I hardly knew anything about Cerise and certainly had nothing against her. But this wasn't about anything personal. It was just business.
Alsace Cartier- District One male
This sucks.
It wasn't even the 'not hunting Rigel' part. I'd find him eventually and didn't need to spend every waking minute stalking him like Inspector Javert. Careers just didn't do well sitting around guarding supplies. It was one of the things we all skipped over when daydreaming about our days in the Hunger Games.
Percy sat across the platform from me, lightly kicking his feet in the water. It was Cyrene's idea to have two people standing guard. It wasn't insulting, just pragmatic. Our glaring, crippling weakness was our dependence on outside supplies. If someone got our food, that was it. Game over. It was a one in a thousand chance that some outlier would be brave enough to try and strong or lucky enough to succeed, but Cyrene didn't take chances. The food and supplies we were guarding were more valuable than any of us.
"So why'd you choose the Career life?" I asked, not in a 'why would someone like you do it' but a 'what's your particular reason' way.
"I actually didn't, to be honest," Percy said. "My boyfriend got Reaped. He screamed at me to volunteer and save him."
"What? Sorry, but what a dick!" I said.
"It's what you do for someone you love," Percy said.
"Yeah, what you do for them. Not what you ask them to do for you!" I said.
"He wasn't trying to throw me under the bus or anything," Percy said. "He just thought I had a better chance. He was really insecure. He always thought I was going to leave him anytime I wanted to go hang out with friends or stuff."
"So what were the good parts about this guy?" I asked.
"He's really affectionate. He's always telling me how much he loves me and can't live without me. And he puts up with me when I lose my temper. No one else would do that."
"Did he tell you that?" I asked. Percy started to say no, then looked away.
"Whatever. Let's talk about something else," he said.
"Sure," I said. "We're stuck here all day anyway. You wanna play some twenty questions?"
"Sure."
"Okay, I got one."
"Is it alive?"
"Yeah."
"Is it bigger than a person?"
I actually do have some deaths planned. I just had these two POVs next in my list of Tributes who needed POVs. Since Alsace is usually out alone, if he was going to interact with Percy it had to happen now. But soon there will actually be deaths.
