Anthony Morgan, District Four male (18)
Nailah and I looked at each other dumbfounded. It was like an awkward high school blind date, both of us trying to figure out how to even react and who should go first.
"Well that takes a load off my mind," Nailah finally ventured. It was so unusually casual of her that I cracked up, and then she cracked up after me.
"You think it's a trick?" she went on. "That they'll get us to the final two and then say 'ha ha just kidding'?"
"That would be so horrible," I said.
"It would make for good TV though," Nailah said.
"Oh no, that's true," I said. Goodness knew there was nothing the Capitol valued over entertainment.
"We just... don't have to kill each other now," Nailah said wonderingly. She looked at her belt while she said it, thinking about all the horrible poisons we both knew she'd intended to use on me eventually. I looked at my trident with similar bewilderment.
"If we get Dionysus out of the way it's almost in the bag," I said. "Not really in the bag, though- I don't want to jinx it. About as close as it can be, though."
"Then it would just be..." Nailah counted on her fingers. "Soleil, Martin, Porsche, and someone else."
I thought through all the faces. "Gigi?"
"That sounds right. Wow, I really didn't think Porsche would still be here."
"I kept forgetting she wasn't dead so I never suggested looking for her," I said. Wait. Two Victors. The thought washed over me again. I still couldn't believe it. Nothing like this had ever happened before. I hadn't even thought to consider if it was possible. Was it going to be like this from now on? Would the Capitol slowly increase the number of Victors until they just... called the Games off entirely? Were we witnessing history.
"Oh, no," Nailah said.
"What?" I asked.
"You don't think... you know how much the Capitol loves romance," Nailah started.
"Oh, no," I said. "We're from rival Career Districts. Maybe we can use that as an excuse."
"I dunno," Nailah said. I noticed she was blushing. "You like girls, right?"
"Yeah, I like girls," I admitted.
"And I've been known to associate with boys," Nailah said, stuttering a little.
"What, you starting businesses with them or something?" I teased.
"No! Romance stuff!" Nailah said.
I teased, but it was a serious situation. If we got through this there was a real chance the Capitol might force a romance. At best they might expect a fake relationship that could fade with time or at worst they might expect a wedding and a lifetime "happy ending". My mind went straight to waking up next to Nailah every day. Eating breakfast with Nailah every day. Holding hands with someone I barely knew. Kissing when Capitolites urged us on. Babies...
"Why couldn't you have a girlfriend back home?" Nailah said with annoyance.
"Why couldn't you have someone at home?" I asked.
"Because I'm a socially awkward loser. That's why I joined the Games," Nailah said.
"Well I'm a handsome playboy and wasn't ready to settle down yet," I said.
"You better get ready," Nailah said.
"We're probably making mountains out of molehills," I said. "Chances are one of us will die before the Games even end. And if we do both make it home, they'll probably forget about us in a year. There are always new Career Victors."
"Maybe we can start acting like we see each other as brother and sister," Nailah said, pondering the possibility.
"I guess it depends on whether all this got aired," I said, looking vaguely in the direction of the invisible cameras that were somewhere nearby.
"They probably aired the first part, right when we were taking in the news, and then switched to other Tributes taking it in," Nailah said.
"We're the only alliance left, right?" I asked.
"No, there's still Porsche and Martin, if they're still together," Nailah said.
"Well I'm not counting them out, but they're not highest on my list of concerns," I said. "Oh..."
"What?" Nailah said.
"No one is expecting those two to win. That means if this two-Victor thing has anything to do with any of us, it's us two," I said. "Maybe they are expecting a romance."
"We didn't give them any reason to think that!" Nailah said indignantly. "If anyone it would have been Allure and... anyone pretty."
"Well-" I hastily covered my mouth, looking up with paranoia, "Capitolites sometimes aren't the brightest."
Porsche Romeo, District Six female (17)
What kind of funny business is this?
Capitolites weren't nice. If they were doing this it was because they benefited from it. That meant there was probably something to do with us Tributes that somehow they Capitol benefited from.
"Drat," I said. "Nailah and Anthony are still together."
"How do you know?" he asked. He'd been talking about the news very energetically and I was glad he was too distracted by my statement to be mad I hadn't been paying attention.
"The only reason the Capitol would want two Victors is if the people there were super invested in a story and wanted a happy ending. The only happy ending they can think of is two super cute plucky Tributes falling in love and getting married. I know they don't think it's us and that just leaves the Careers." Preji had mentioned seeing Dionysus abandon the pack so that left Nailah and Anthony.
"Nailah and Anthony?" I almost laughed at how Martin managed to look like he'd just spit out a drink. "But she was always so shy the Capitol! I never even heard her talk. And Anthony was so... he just had a big presence."
"It doesn't mean they're actually in love. It just means the Capitolites think they are," I said. "And goodness knows they're not..." I made a tiny face to communicate my real meaning before adding "wrong, of course."
Martin's face morphed between unease at the bizarre pairing to pale realization. "We don't have a chance, then. They'll stay together until the end and we can't beat two Careers. They'll just hunt us until they find us and then kill us."
"Yeah, probably," I said. Martin looked at me with horror and I added, "I'm still gonna try. It's just that definitely is the most likely outcome. Us dying, I mean."
"That's so unfair..." Martin sat down and held his head in his hands. "We made it so far. We actually had a chance." He trailed off as he wiped at his eyes.
"Hey..." I sat down next to him and awkwardly hovered a hand by his back, trying to decide if it was better to pat him and weird him out by being so out-of-character or not pat him and deny him human contact. I ended up picking the worst of both worlds by commencing with the most awkward back-pat in history. "We could still live. Weirder things have happened."
"My family's going to be so sad," Martin said. "As much as I thought they didn't care about me, they're still gonna be sad I died."
"One of us could live pretty easily," I said. "When Nailah and Anthony come for us we might just get a few shots in and one of them could die of their wounds before we do."
"You're terrible at pep talks," Martin said, laughing the crackly laugh people do to cover up their crying.
"How's this to help you feel better?" I went on. "If we do die, people are going to remember us. They're going to remember the crippled girl who screamed at a jaguar and the kid who everyone thought was insane but actually wasn't but he turned out to be kinda cool after that."
"You think I'm cool?" Martin asked.
Honestly I think everyone is cool. I have really low standards. But I went for the nicer response and said "Sure. You saved my life that one time you threw a banana at me, remember? Pretty cool."
"You're not wrong," Martin said. "I guess it's stupid to get so wrapped up in other people anyone. Everyone gets forgotten after enough time goes by."
"Personally I'm here for a fun time, not a legacy. Once I'm dead I won't care anyway," I said. I didn't know how to say it in a non-sappy way, but I did care a lot if Martin died. He was cringe and often annoying and super immature, but he was a person. That's what people do. If he never grew out of that it was because the Capitol cut his life short before he even figured anything out. That was what people should care about, not his juvenile blunder years.
"If I do get out of here, I'm going to try just being boring for a while. I always wanted to be a dad. I could have a normal family and we'd be happy even if we weren't special," Martin said.
"Sounds like a plan. Not the family thing, though. I am not about that mom life," I said.
Dionysus Bacchus, District One male (18)
"Awesome!" I said, pumping my fist in the air at the news. "You hear that?" I asked, like Gigi possibly might not have heard the blaring loudspeaker. "Now I don't gotta kill you!"
"Pretty much exactly what I was thinking," Gigi said.
"I really didn't want to already," I said, a little mad at myself for being too chicken to say it before I found out it wasn't a problem. "I was hoping a tree would fall on you or something and I could weasel out of doing it."
"Wow, thanks," Gigi said.
"Okay, the truth is I was really hoping you wouldn't die. I wasn't hoping I would die, not gonna lie, but I was hoping magically somehow both those things would happen. And look, they did! You're welcome."
Gigi was looking past me oddly. Her eyes slowly widened and she started shaking all over. I recoiled when I saw a tear on her cheeks. Before I could react further she burst into sobs.
"They're not making another announcement," she said, her voice high and thin. "They really mean it. They really mean it." By the end of the sentence her voice had dissolved into nearly incoherent squealing.
"Y-you all r-" I started.
"I might not die." I barely made out the words as Gigi swayed on her feet and smiled through her tears. "I might not die." She fell to her knees. "Oh god, I might not die."
I looked down at her, transfixed with emotion. I'd never seen Gigi half as expressive as this, not since we first met and she thought I was going to kill her. I was seeing the opposite, I slowly realized, though it was obvious. And after the first few seconds of happiness for her, I felt the biggest surge of guilt I'd ever known in my life.
"You... spent all this time thinking you were going to die," I said softly. Gigi was too overcome with emotion to even notice I'd said anything, so I went on whispering to myself. "Every second of ever day, you were scared. You were wondering if you'd live another hour, much less another day. I was never scared like that. I took it for granted I'd get out of here. This was just a game for me. But for you it was constant torture." I'm so stupid. How could I not see it? How could I have gone eighteen years in life and never thought to think about this? That Gigi had been half-crazed with fear for nearly three weeks. And so had everyone else.
And so had Mazie.
I leaned against a tree as I started to fall. There was a person in front of me, sobbing and laughing and unable to deal with all the emotions running through her. Gigi had spent three weeks terrified and so had Mazie. She'd been terrified of the death she knew was near but had no idea when it would appear. It was me. I thought of someone killing Gigi and wanted to just punch the tree, it made me so mad. But I'd done it.
"Vida might not lose me," Gigi whispered in a tiny little hopeful voice, and my heart tugged again. Everyone had someone who lost them.
Just don't even think about it. Just think about something else. I knelt down next to Gigi. "That's right," I said. "We can get through this together now. We're gonna stay together no matter what, okay?" I just wished she'd stop crying, firstly because I didn't want her to be so sad and secondly because I was feeling more guilty every second.
"Let's just stay together, okay?" Gigi had barely heard me okay. "Maybe Nailah or Anthony-" she broke off as she started hyperventilating again.
"Of course. We're allies." Something switched in me and I reached out my hand to grasp hers. "We're friends?"
My heart warmed when Gigi squeezed my hand back. She leaned into me and I held her as I tried to think about how very, very long it would take for me to even start to figure out how I could change.
"We're gonna take care of each other," I said. "We're gonna get home."
Here's a breather chapter as we move into the endgame and I need to explore everyone's victor potential so there are no obvious next kills. And shoutout to Porsche for being so completely unromantic literally no one thought those two could possibly be the reason for the change.
