Trigger Warning: Abusive parents.
Blight Greener, District 7
"I was thinking 'bout my dad,
Thinking 'bout the gnashing
Of all the bitter things that he'd said."
The Decemberists, We All Die Young
Blight had bruises all over his arms before the games even began. They were all over him during the reaping recap. He won't tell me how he got them.
He won't tell me anything.
I'm glad that Blight's my ally, though. The arena's a polluted forest. He's from Seven, so he knows a heck of a lot about forests. I'm from Eight so I know a heck of a lot about pollution.
We're a dream team.
It's still clear that Blight's going to do a lot better than I will. He's got the axe skills of a man twice his size and the senses of a cat. The way he reacts to the slightest noise makes me wonder if he's been playing the Hunger Games his entire life. I'm willing to bet my life that he's worked at a lumber yard at some point.
As for me, I'm loud. I used my embroidery skills to make some face masks to try to protect us from the pollution. That's about it.
Yeah, that's right. District 7 teaches you how to swing an axe. District 8 teaches you fricking embroidery. No wonder we haven't had a victor in my lifetime,
I don't think Blight has realised how good he is. He sliced someone's head clean off in the bloodbath but he still calls himself a pathetic weakling. I think, if he knew the truth, he'd have killed me long ago. I can't leave him because I'm worried that it'll tip him off.
It's a good thing that there are still three Careers left. If I stick with Blight, he definitely won't turn on me until all the Careers are dead.
A cannon fires. Blight tenses.
"We're in the top five," he says, gruffly. "I can't believe I made it."
I wonder who the cannon was. It was either the boy from Five or a Career, which means that it was probably the boy from Five.
"Let's keep moving," I say. Neither of us feel comfortable staying in place for too long in this arena.
The forest is dark and hazy. It's hard for me to see where I'm going.
I don't see the snare until it's too late.
I scream as I'm yanked upwards by one of my feet. Blight panics.
"Nyla!" He cries.
"I'm okay!" I blurt out, hurriedly. My leg hurts and my heart is pounding as the blood rushes to my head but I don't think the trap did that much damage. Maybe it was just there to render an opponent helpless.
"I'll get you down." Blight says. I struggle to turn my head to see Blight trying to climb a tree, axe strapped to his back. He perches on a branch and takes a swing at the rope holding me. I brace myself for the fall, trying to protect my head with my arms. I'm not that far above the ground and it's soft and leafy.
Suddenly, I'm falling and something is tearing through my torso. A spear hits me before I hit the ground.
"Nyla!" Blight cries again, over the cheers of the Career pack. My landing on the ground only drives the spear further into me. I'm going to die.
I'm going to die.
I hope that Blight lives.
It doesn't happen straight away. I'm lying on the forest floor, face down and slowly bleeding out. I can't move. I can't see anything but the ground in front of my face. It takes a monumental effort to turn my head so I can see Blight.
He's dropped down from the tree and he's fighting off two Careers at once. A cannon fires, showing how Blight must've killed the third. It's not enough. One of the Careers pins him to the trunk with a spear.
"That's for killing my district partner, Seven!" One of the Careers punches Blight right in the face.
"I've... been worse..." Blight manages to choke out.
"I'll bet you have," the other Career sneers. "I bet nobody liked you back in Seven. How bad would you have had to be to be named after a disease? Your parents must've realised that you'd grow up ugly and die splattered all over a tree."
"Don't mention my parents," Blight says, his voice low and dangerous. "And don't make fun of my name."
"What are you going to do?" The Careers jeer.
"This."
A cannon fires as Blight pulls the spear out of his body and rams it through a Career's neck. There's a second cannon as Blight picks up his axe and decapitates the other.
It's just us left.
Blight staggers over to me, a red stain spreading across his chest. I know he's going to live longer than me. The spear went straight through his body in one clean line and it doesn't look like it's hit any internal organs. My wounds, on the other hand...
All I can think about is Blight saying "Don't mention my parents." Suddenly it all makes sense. The bruises. The jumpiness. The low self-esteem. The secrecy.
Blight's parents must've really hurt him.
How bad would you have had to be to name your son after a disease?
"Nyla..." Blight turns me over, onto my back, as gently as he can. My body spasms and I cough, wetly.
"You won, Blight," I whisper. "You're a victor."
"I can't be a victor. I'm not good enough."
"You are," I say, as firmly as I can manage. Blood is soaking into my mask. "Your parents are wrong."
"How do you know?" Blight asks.
"You tried to save me even though I'm your opponent. You just killed three Careers with no help! You're amazing, Blight!"
I can't see how he reacts. My vision is blurry and fading. I can't tell what he's thinking.
"Promise me this," I say. "Don't let your parents move into Victor's Village with you. They hurt you, don't they."
"They... they do," Blight whispers. "They hurt me."
"Don't let them do it again," I say.
Blight says something else but I can't recognise the words. They're drowned out by a chorus of dead District 8 children.
I lived to sixteen and we never managed a victor in my lifetime. Every other district got at least one. Even Twelve got one.
Why couldn't we?
Blight's parents are contenders for the worst parents of a victor in Panem's history. The only reason why they don't just take the crown is because of Palomino's parents. Those two victors have got a lot in common but Blight's a lot less affected by his parents than Palomino was. It's most likely because Blight spent less time with his parents because he got a full-time job at a lumber yard.
Luckily, Blight will definitely be able to move on from the abuse he suffered. In terms of endurance, he's one of the toughest victors of all time. He managed to kill two Careers after being seriously wounded by a spear. Blight's a lot stronger than he gives himself credit for and he's just beginning to realise it.
Up next is another canon victor. Apart from Obsidian and Becky, we've been doing canon victors non-stop since Chaff. After the Fifty-Fourth games, there'll only be two more canon victors this decade (but the sixties will have loads). Canon victors actually make up over a third of victors in total. There are the twenty-four from the Quell, and three that weren't in the Quell (Haymitch, Lyme and Annie).
