Trigger Warning: Forced child labour, suicide and substance abuse. Also, some death scenes worthy of the Edge Chronicles.
On a less serious note, this is the only chapter with a song that is a straight-up cover. I picked 'Wild Horses' because it made for a pretty fitting chapter name for the mutt-slayer and I actually had the whole chapter planned out before I chose it. The original was by the Rolling Stones but I prefer the Flying Burrito Brothers version due to events in my life involving a guy who likes Arcade Fire, being stuck behind two slow walkers holding hands in a corridor, a trip to Chichester in the rain and a playlist containing a really long English folk song. I feel like it's something I just need to mention.
Manel Lobos, District 10
"I watched you suffer
A dull, aching pain
And now you've decided
To show me the same."
The Flying Burrito Brothers, Wild Horses
10 Mutts that Ruined Manel Lobos' Life
1. The Squirrel
Manel Lobos never knew his father.
Xavier Lobos was, by all accounts, a genius. He was going places, the top of his class in JAMB. Xavier had married his girlfriend, Maria, at the age of seventeen. Then she became pregnant with twins and they made the choice to keep one baby and let the other one be frozen to be born at a later date. Xavier's teachers were all willing for the embryo to be frozen, since raising two babies at once would've taken too much of a toll on his studies.
But the thing that took the greatest toll on Xavier's education was being reaped for the Second Quarter Quell.
Xavier was trapped in a paradise of poison. He used his knowledge of biology and chemistry and his loyal sponsors due to his wife and children to survive until the very end of the games, even using his skills with poisons to take out some of his opponents.
None of that saved him from a pack of golden squirrels.
Xavier Lobos, mutt-breeder in training, was torn to shreds by the very creatures he'd one day hoped to create.
Without Xavier, all the support for Maria Lobos dried up. The JAMB told her that she'd need to pay them on a monthly basis or her second child would be used for experiments. They told her that she'd need to pay for the operation that would allow him to be born. The money was something that Xavier could've easily paid up on a mutt-breeder's salary. But he was dead.
It took three years for Maria Lobos to scrape together enough money for her son to be born. Three years and countless loans she couldn't hope to pay off.
2. The Vampire
Maria Lobos was in debt. She needed to make money and make it quick. Since Julio was only four and Manel was still a baby, it was hard for her to find a job and look after her sons. There was nobody she could turn to. So she felt there was no choice but to bet on a tribute in the Fifty-Fourth Hunger Games.
Maria chose Nina Reyes, the girl from her district. Nina was fairly strong. Good enough to win but enough of a dark horse to earn Maria plenty of money. She'd worked at a slaughterhouse and she knew how to handle a knife.
Then the gamemakers released the vampire.
District 10 tributes had the worst luck with mutts. There was a science behind it. All the working with livestock gave the people of Ten a distinctive scent, one undetectable to the human nose but very, very delicious to mutts.
The scent of prey.
The vampire's first kill was the boy from Three. Then it zeroed in on the most delicious-smelling tribute, the girl from the slaughterhouse.
The girl who smelled like blood.
Maria Lobos' debt only grew worse and worse. In the end, there was only one thing she could do to avoid being sent to prison - or worse.
She sold one of her sons.
She wished that she'd let go of Manel at the first opportunity. Maybe she would've let those scientists use him for their experiments if he hadn't been one of the two pieces of Xavier that she had left. Now, as much as she resented her youngest son for ruining her life even more than it had already been ruined, she couldn't blame him. She'd made her choice for Manel to be born and she couldn't go back on it.
But now Maria had no choice but to give one of her sons away. So she chose to sell Julio to the McGuinn ranch. It wasn't personal. It was simply that Julio was older and made more money than Manel would.
It was easier than losing them both.
3. The Jaguar
Manel Lobos only knew he had a brother because he and Julio were identical twins. Apart from the age difference of three years.
Manel was put to work on the McGuinn ranch as soon as he was old enough to walk. That way, he could talk to Julio whenever the overseers gave him the chance. His mother worked there as well.
Manel kept asking her why Julio wasn't allowed to come home with him. She told him that it was the mutts' fault.
Manel knew that Julio was very lonely. There weren't many kids living on the McGuinn ranch. There was the owner's daughter, Fleece, but she wasn't allowed to talk to the workers. Julio's only friend was a boy four years older than him named Rodrigo Sanchez.
Rodrigo - or Rod to his friends - seemed like the coolest boy on the planet. He was strong for his age and incredibly confident. Whenever one of the brothers was struggling with their work, Rod would always help them out.
When Rod got reaped for the Fifty-Ninth Hunger Games, Manel and Julio were both convinced that he'd win, despite only being thirteen years old.
They were convinced until a jaguar mutt pounced on the boy and tore him to shreds.
After Rod's death, Julio Lobos never was the same. He seemed tired, defeated. Slowly, the joy seemed to seep out of his life.
Manel was six years old. He couldn't understand. All he knew was that a mutt had killed his father, a mutt had taken his brother away and now a mutt had killed his brother's best friend.
4. The Dragon
Julio Lobos was never reaped. He volunteered.
He was fifteen. Manel was twelve. He knew his brother had taken the loss of his best friend in the Fifty-Ninth Games hard. He also knew that the overseers at the ranch were awful to him. But he didn't think that his brother hated his life so much that he'd throw it away.
The arena was a dense forest full of dragons. Giant, scaly, vicious dragons.
When one of them came for Julio, he didn't scream or run or struggle. He just stood there as the beast sank its claws into him.
The worst part was that Manel couldn't stop watching the Sixty-Fifth Hunger Games. He came home from a long day at work and turned the TV on eagerly, hoping to see that one handsome face with the sea-green eyes. He hated how, after watching his brother die, there was something eating away at the back of his mind.
I hope that gorgeous boy from Four wins.
Manel Lobos had a crush.
And he hated himself for it.
5. The Thunderhoof
Not all mutts were confined to an arena. There were these horrible things called thunderhooves, developed during the rebellion, that roamed the plains of District 10. They were like horses but they ate meat and they didn't care whether the meat was animal or human.
When Manel was fourteen, a thunderhoof started rampaging around the edges of the McGuinn ranch. It killed a good portion of the McGuinns' cattle. A few of the ranch workers were put into a group to hunt it down. Manel signed up at the first opportunity. At first the others laughed because he was so young but his eagerness won them over. It was Ronny Hyde, a boy two years older than Manel, who stuck up for him.
Manel liked Ronny Hyde, the same way he'd once liked Finnick Odair. Though, this time, he thought he had a chance. Ronny had this knowing look that sparkled in his blue eyes. He'd always been so kind to Manel.
The problem was that Manel didn't know how to ask.
Men didn't love other men in District 10. They didn't settle down and start families.
In the end, Manel didn't need to worry about telling people about his crush. When the hunting party found the thunderhoof it charged right at them. Manel froze up. Ronny jumped into the mutt's path to push him to safety.
When Manel Lobos saw the body of Ronny Hyde crushed underneath the beast's hooves, he fired one bullet. The beast dropped dead.
The other hunters were impressed. They clapped Manel on the back and called him a crack shot.
Manel just wondered if Ronny had liked him.
6. The Desert Wolf
When Fleece McGuinn was reaped for the Sixty-Ninth Hunger Games, Manel felt a twisted sense of happiness. Her family had made life awful for his brother. Now fate was paying them back.
Then the escort read his name.
In the Justice Building, Minos McGuinn barged into the room Manel was waiting in.
"You are going to do everything to protect my daughter," he told Manel. "If she dies, your mother will face the consequences."
Manel nodded, mutely.
Manel allied with Fleece. Her mentor, Maia, had connections with one of District 7's mentors so Carver Bayonet, the boy from District 7 joined the alliance as well. The three of them seemed to be in a good position on the first couple of days. They'd all managed to pick up weapons and supplies in the bloodbath.
Manel tried to ignore that the desert arena was so hot that Carver had taken off his shirt. He was from a cooler district than Ten, and he was going to get a nasty case of sunburn unless he put a shirt on or got sponsored some cream.
Fleece couldn't stop staring at Carver but Manel was determined to be more focused on survival than his ally's abs.
There was no way he'd end up like Régine Maurin last year.
Then a pack of wolves attacked them.
Manel and Carver acted immediately. Carver, the close-range fighter, covered Manel with his axe as he ran for a boulder to climb onto. Once he was on top of the rock, Manel was able to use the crossbow he'd grabbed in the bloodbath.
Then he remembered Fleece...
She was struggling into the jaws of a wolf. Manel shot it dead but another one took its place. There was nothing he could do.
The cannon fired.
The wolves ran away. Manel jumped down from his rock. He took in the several dead wolves and the one dead girl and set about retrieving as many arrows as he could.
He hoped that his mother would be alright.
He knew that she wouldn't be.
When Manel Lobos returned home, he discovered that his mother had been avoxed.
7. The Scorpion
Sometimes, Manel wondered if he had a crush on his ally. He came to the conclusion that he didn't.
Carver was handsome and funny but Manel was so determined not to fall for one of his opponents that he also realised how impractical and clumsy Carver was. He was good when it came to human opponents, which was why their raid on the Careers' camp was so successful, but, when it came to surviving in a desert full of mutts, Manel had to walk him through everything at least twice.
Still, he liked Carver a lot. It was nice having someone to talk to.
One morning, Carver put on his shoes and immediately cried out in pain. His body seized up and foam began to bubble at his lips. Manel caught him and noticed something black and spiky crawling up his leg.
A scorpion.
Carver Bayonet was the brother of a rebel. He'd been rigged into the games in the hope that his brother would stop. Now that rebellion continued in Seven the gamemakers had no choice but to kill Carver.
But Manel didn't know that. All he knew was that, yet again, a mutt had killed someone he'd been hoping would live longer. He swore revenge against all the unnatural things in the world, all things made in a lab, all things made to kill.
Manel Lobos set off on a killing spree. By the time the last other tribute had died of thirst, he'd killed a grand total of seventy-four mutts.
One for every District 10 tribute who'd died to something made in a lab.
8. The Snake
The snake that tried to strangle Manel Lobos while he rested in the midday sun did not succeed.
Manel struggled against the snake, his muscles straining, until he finally managed to smash its brains out with a rock. He stood over its body, triumphant. He'd won the battle.
But the Capitol watched.
"He's prettier than his brother," they'd been whispering, ever since Manel was reaped. It was true. Manel had Julio's smouldering dark eyes and tumbling curls but he was older, healthier, better-fed.
Less scarred.
When he'd killed that snake, dripping with sweat, with his muscles on full display, Manel Lobos became a sex symbol overnight. It had been so long since the Capitol had had a pretty new victor to play with. Now they had a worthy successor to Finnick Odair.
Nobody warned Manel about victor prostitution. Maia Nuñez, the only victor from Ten who was affected, chose not to tell him. She'd assumed that he'd be safe because he'd lost his family.
But not every member of Manel's family was dead.
President Snow had Manel's mother brought to him with a gun to her head. Manel was so shocked, he agreed to everything Snow asked of him. He begged Snow to let his mother go but Snow said there was nothing he could do.
She'd be an avox forever. And he'd be a scared kid who missed his mother forever.
Manel Lobos was sold to his first client that night. He'd never felt more afraid in his life.
Over the next two years, he quietly gave up on ever finding someone else to love him. He only realised how lonely and empty he'd become when he was sold to a young, handsome man, the kind that would've once made him feel everything - excitement and nerves and desire. He felt nothing.
The next morning, he'd forgotten that man's name.
Manel's heart had withered away in his chest. He'd built this wall up between himself in the rest of the world. Because, with everyone he'd lost, he'd lost a bit of hope. With every stranger who took him to bed, he felt like he lost a piece of himself.
As if he'd ever had a self in the first place. Manel couldn't remember the time before he'd started working at that ranch.
Manel could understand completely why Julio had wanted to kill himself. The only thing that stopped Manel from trying was the thought of his mother. She'd sacrificed so much to bring him to life, he didn't think he could throw his life away.
Until someone made the wall crumble.
Until someone broke Manel's heart.
9. The Tentacle Mutt
Manel's third tribute was a fifteen-year-old JAMB student named Juan Valdez.
Manel didn't get too attached to him.
There was another boy that year, the boy from Three. Manel wasn't sure what it was about this boy that'd caught his attention, whether it was the easy, confident grace that carried him up to the stage or the spark in his dark eyes or his brilliant smile, but something about this boy stayed stuck in his head.
When the boy from Three appeared at the parade, wreathed in lightning like a legendary victor from a long-ago games, Manel tried not to stare. The moment he was alone, something made him search through tribute stats for some sign of the boy.
His name was Fawkes Chau. He'd been reaped less than a week before his nineteenth birthday. He was only two months younger than Manel.
The bookies thought that he'd die in eighth place.
When Fawkes Chau stepped onstage for his interview, there was a sick, nervous feeling in Manel's stomach. He didn't know that he was capable of feeling things like that anymore.
Then Fawkes casually mentioned that he was bisexual. And single...
Manel cursed his bad luck. He'd waited years just to feel something and, now he did feel something, it turned out to be a crush on a tribute he'd probably never get the chance to meet.
That night, Manel felt like he was suffocating. He couldn't sit still, he couldn't settle. So he staggered out to the elevator, hoping to get up to the roof and clear his head.
But Fawkes Chau was right there, in the elevator.
He looked like he'd been crying.
"Are you okay, Fawkes?" Manel asked, stepping into the elevator.
Fawkes' eyes lit up behind his glasses. "You..." he stammered. "You know my name! Why do you know my name?" His eyes suddenly filled with fear. "Is Juan targeting me?"
"No, no, no," Manel said, hurriedly. "I think everyone knows your name after that interview. It was the best this year."
"Aww, thanks," Fawkes smiled, sweetly. Manel could've sworn that his heart skipped a beat. It occurred to him that he was trapped in an elevator with the boy he'd been trying to forget about. A boy who, with one smile, could bring all those dead, dangerous feelings in Manel's heart back to life.
"This isn't how I expected meeting you," Fawkes said, adjusting his glasses. "I thought it'd be on my victory tour. I know you must've heard this a lot but I'm a really big fan. I'm... I'm just... You're..."
"It's okay," Manel said. "It's overwhelming, being a tribute. I've been there."
"It's not that. I'm just... a little lonely," Fawkes said, quietly.
Manel caught the look in Fawkes' eyes. He looked conflicted. There was this amazement, this awe, this wonder in his eyes. But there was also fear.
Maybe he had a crush on Manel. Maybe he was scared of it. But Manel knew that Fawkes Chau must've made peace with his feelings for other boys a long time ago. There was something else troubling him.
Perhaps the fact that he could die tomorrow.
The elevator opened its doors. Manel chose to open his heart.
"I can fix that," he said, stepping onto the roof and offering Fawkes his hand. "C'mon."
"But the games..." Fawkes whispered.
"Forget about the games," Manel said. "Forget that I'm a victor and you're a tribute. Forget about what might happen tomorrow. Don't you wish you could escape it all, just for one night?"
"I do," Fawkes said, taking Manel's hand. Manel felt his heart race as they both walked towards the edge of the roof. The Capitol lay out before them, millions of glittering lights hiding the truth about the city, the evil that slept between silk sheets and sipped champagne from crystal glasses.
"It looks like home but... brighter," Fawkes murmured, eyes wide. "I could live here forever."
Manel suddenly thought of what the Capitol would do to Fawkes. Handsome Fawkes with his shining eyes and his innocent smile.
They'd destroy him.
If the games didn't destroy him first.
"I hate it," Manel said. "All those city lights mean that you can't see the stars anymore."
"Well, nothing's changed for me," Fawkes said, sadly. "There are no stars in District 3. Maybe there'll be some in my arena."
"They won't be real, though," Manel said. "How about you win the games? Then you can come to District 10 on your victory tour and I'll take you stargazing."
"You'd want me to win... more than you'd want a tribute from your own district to win?" Fawkes asked.
"It doesn't matter if a tribute from Ten lives or dies," Manel said. "There'll be another one next year. But you, Fawkes... there's only one you. If you win, you'll be safe forever. And if you die..."
"I won't die," Fawkes said. "I... I don't want to think about dying."
"Then think about something else," Manel said. "Think about me. Whenever you're lonely in the arena, remember that I'll be waiting for you. I know this is strange because we only really know each other from TV but I think you're the most beautiful boy I've ever seen. Maybe the reason why you've never seen the stars is because you're so bright and brilliant and they know they can never compete with you."
Fawkes gasped. "You really think that?"
"Does it bother you?" Manel asked, worried he'd said something wrong.
Fawkes shook his head. "I'm just a little starstruck. I guess this is my life now. I just have to get used to it..."
Manel realised how surreal the situation that he and Fawkes were trapped in was. Here he was, talking to a boy that he liked and he felt the gap between them widening. It was all so hard to process, the Hunger Games and the fame that followed.
Manel still couldn't process it.
"It's okay," Manel said. "It's just a little lonely, being famous."
"But everyone wants you," Fawkes said.
"Everyone wants me because I'm a victor," Manel said. "Nobody wants me."
Fawkes sighed. "I never thought about it that way. Maybe it's because you never really put yourself out there. Someone has to really look to find the real you."
"So, have you found it?" Manel asked.
"I know that you lost your father and your brother," Fawkes said. "You've been the man of the house since you were a little kid. You're a leader, a protector, a hero. You've been hurt... a lot. I can see it in your eyes. But if there's any way I can make it better, I-"
"Kiss me," Manel said.
Fawkes didn't hesitate.
Manel Lobos decided that this was the first kiss of his life. This was the first time he was kissing someone who he wanted to kiss, the first time that he felt actual pleasure from it.
It felt good.
Fawkes pulled away, the city lights reflecting off his eyes. His fingers traced along Manel's chin.
"I have to go," Fawkes said. "I don't want to face tomorrow on no sleep."
"Oh, that's fine," Manel said. He opened his mouth to say goodbye but Fawkes silenced him with another kiss and left.
Maybe he was scared of that word.
Alone on the rooftop, Manel thought about his future. He was in love with Fawkes. He knew that it was foolish of him to fall so hard for a tribute but he had hope that Fawkes would win. He had hope that, once Fawkes made it out of the arena, Manel could protect him from victor prostitution. Maybe, if they could convince the Capitol that they loved each other, they'd leave them both alone.
Over the course of the Seventy-Second Hunger Games, Manel learned that the bookies had been wrong about Fawkes Chau. He wasn't going to die in eighth place.
He was going to win.
Fawkes was smart and ruthless. A mastermind. He found a pair of easily-manipulated allies and a safe corner of his haunted house arena and he plotted. Fawkes was a master of psychological warfare. He seemed to know exactly how his opponents' minds worked, where their blind spots were, their weaknesses. He could predict them.
But he couldn't predict something that wasn't human.
Manel had assumed that there'd be no more mutts once Juan had been killed by a great slimy thing that had crawled out of the wall. But massive, dark green mutt wrapped one of its stringy tentacles around Fawkes' ankle just as he was about to kill his final opponent. It dragged him away and sunk its teeth into his leg as he screamed and struggled, helpless in its grip. He managed to find the strength to fight it off with a wooden plank but the damage was already done.
Fawkes Chau had been poisoned.
He spent the last few hours of his life curled up in the dark, sobbing with pain and fear. Manel watched, wishing there was some way he could help. But there wasn't.
When Fawkes' final opponent - his district partner - found him, he was barely clinging to life. She let him live a little longer, unable to find the courage to kill him, until tentacles started springing forth from his body.
Manel Lobos watched the love of his life transform into the thing he hated most in the world. Fawkes screamed with agony as the mutt's venom turned him into a copy of itself. He begged for death.
His district partner gave it to him.
Manel knew that this was his fault.
The Capitol must've put cameras on the roof. They must've seen Manel with Fawkes. They must've known that, with Fawkes by his side, Manel had a way of escaping their cruel demands.
If Manel hadn't got involved, maybe Fawkes would've lived.
If he'd learned anything it was that his life was cold, empty and lonely, so lonely. Any attempt he could make to find someone bright and beautiful, someone who could make him happy, would only destroy them.
Manel Lobos wanted to die.
The problem was, he knew that they'd kill his mother if he killed himself. So he did the next best thing. He started drinking. He started taking morphling. He started chasing oblivion.
One day, the next year, Manel found himself drinking with Chaff and Haymitch.
"We could've been legendary!" He slurred. "They would've loved us. Manel and Fawkes - the star-crossed lovers."
He never realised what kind of ideas he was putting in Haymitch Abernathy's head.
10. The Beast
Manel Lobos celebrated when the Quell was announced. He was going in, that was for certain.
He knew he wouldn't be coming out alive.
The only thing that stopped him from jumping off his podium at the very start was the promising thought of taking as many mutts as he could with him. He disappeared into the jungle with a crossbow, hoping that he'd have time to kill as many as he could before the Careers found him and killed him.
When they did, he wouldn't put up a fight.
Manel heard the sound of Fawkes' screams in the early morning and discovered a flock of jabberjays. Perfect. Aside from their voices, Manel could tune them out. Then he wondered the jungle, slept a bit, ate a bit. He waited for another mutt.
In the late afternoon, Manel heard a rustle in the undergrowth. He looked around and found himself staring into a pair of dark brown eyes, luminous like orbs of smoked glass.
Manel recognised those eyes.
They'd been the one part of him that'd stayed human, right until the end.
"Fawkes," Manel croaked.
Something dark and dangerous flashed in those eyes. Then the beast attacked.
Manel wondered if it recognised its name. He wondered if there was a piece of Fawkes trapped inside that beast. As the tentacles reached out for him, Manel reached for an arrow. He shot straight through one of the tentacles.
When those brown eyes filled with pain, it hurt Manel enough for the crossbow to fall from his hands and to the forest floor.
Manel hated the thought of being killed by a mutt but the gamemakers seemed to have created the one beast that he couldn't kill. He closed his eyes as the tentacles wrapped around his limbs, searching for joints and sockets they could tear apart. He didn't scream or run or struggle.
Manel Lobos hoped that he'd see the stars again, in this world or the next.
Remember what Manel said last chapter about losing everything? He wasn't exaggerating. He's incredibly unlucky. Most of the trauma in Manel's life doesn't come from his games. Aside from Carver's death, he kind of breezed through them. His trauma comes from losing everyone he's ever had a relationship with and being prevented from starting a new relationship by victor prostitution.
Manel's family was exploited at every opportunity, even before he won his games. Using embryos for science without the parents' permission (that bit's the reallyunethical part, that they do it without permission) is something the Capitol would probably do. It would've been perfectly okay for Maria to give up on saving Manel but she chose not to. She tried to hold her family together, even though it became impossible.
As for Manel's relationship with Fawkes, it's a hard one for me to write because it has very different levels of importance for different characters. It was too important to Manel for me to leave out of The Bride and The Widow but it wasn't important enough to any of the POV characters to get much focus - even Fawkes. In Manel's mind, Fawkes was the most important person in his life because he simply had nobody else left. In Fawkes' mind, his relationship with Manel got overshadowed a bit by the big death competition he was being forced into. I do think that their relationship had some potential. Their personalities balance pretty well and, had Fawkes survived the games, he would've definitely needed someone protective like Manel in his life. Manel also had the good luck to stumble upon the one character crafty enough to pull off his star-crossed lovers plan. One thing's for sure, Fawkes was absolutely vital in giving Manel that big, dramatic death.
The sixties are at an end! It was probably my favourite decade to write because it was when most of my favourite characters were introduced. Next decade has only six victors and four of them are canon. It's also got the Hunger Games I covered in The Bride and The Widow. Up next is Annie Cresta. Hopefully you like how I portray her. It won't be as crazy as what I did with Seeder but it might be a bit of a surprise.
