Luxen Linderman, District One male (15)
Titian wanted to find a loyal, moldable Tribute to do whatever the Capitol wanted. Well actually, Titian wanted to hurt people- the premise of the Games was unimportant to him and he signed on solely for that fringe benefit. So to survive this ersatz Games I had to please both factions. To please the Capitol I had to appear the fanatic and submissive patriot. To escape Titian I had to appear totally bland. I had to be so flat and nonreactive that he never thought I would be the most fun to torture.
The first round was ideal for me. There were multiple Careers in our group and in a Bloodbath they would follow their training and eliminate their biggest targets. As a scrawny non-Career I was just background noise. Margo was the first to find the gun and just like that she was the only Career left and the round was over.
The electric chair was almost laughable. It was obvious what to do. The criminal was going to die anyway. If I didn't flip the switch I'd just die with him. It wasn't at all a question of morality. It was only a question of whether one person or two would die. It didn't even bother me, killing the man, since it really wasn't me. I was aware of the weight of the phrase but in my case it was true: I was only following orders. The only one of us to die there was Lyte. Some people choose one or another standard of morality over life. Personally I thought it was stupid of them.
The third round almost killed me. I hadn't gone through the pain and physical testing the Careers and far outliers were used to. The table was what stayed with me for months after and filled my mind when I woke up screaming in the night. I understood then why the tiny minority of religious people in Panem insisted on spreading their beliefs when it got them nothing but persecution. They didn't want people to go to Hell and Hell must be something like that table. After it happened I buried it deep inside and never spoke of it again. I never even thought of it outside the nights when my mind betrayed me and I dreamed of it. I don't know how much longer I would have lasted if Severa hadn't broken. As it happened, the only thing I thought about was staying quiet and never catching Titian's eye.
Only three people remained with me: Beth, Margo and Troy. I smirked when Titian laid out the rules. Titian was smart but not in the same way I was, and his goal wasn't to outsmart anyone anyway. He just wanted to cause carnage. His ruse this round was paper-thin. The premise of this Games was to find a loyal stooge. Anyone who would betray a partner would betray the Capitol. There was nothing under those buttons except a light to show who had shown themselves untrustworthy. I sat in the room blandly picking at my fingernails until Titian called us out and, to my total lack of surprise, revealed that Kisarna and Margo had both pressed their buttons and been killed. Troy walked out of the other room and I learned, to my small inconvenience, that his altruism had outweighed his competitive streak. I might have won the Games right there but as it turned out I had one more person to beat. It would all come down, then, to whether the next challenge was physical or mental.
When I heard the word "devotion" and saw the gun I knew I'd won. I even knew who was going to be behind the door. Glosses looked up with a flat expression as I entered. He didn't even say a word. I raised the gun and shot.