Training for this Quarter Quell was different. Typically training was where the careers used their multitude of impressive killing skills to intimidate other and weaker tributes.
This year was different.
Each of these tributes was victors. They all already knew what they were good at. They knew everyone's strengths and everyone's weaknesses. Which was a blessing and a curse in itself.
That morning Haymitch had pleaded with Katniss to make friends. To be likable, to be someone that others would want to ally with. She had grumbled out a response of some sort and shuffled to the training center.
Instead of the last time she had stepped in, where tributes hurried around in attempt to try every station, the victors were wandering around, talking, joking, casually visiting a station here or there.
The entire feeling of the room was completely off. Things shouldn't be so calm in a situation like this.
"Come on Katniss." Peeta began towards a station, determined to make people like both of them.
He couldn't help the way his eyes flittered around the room, subconsciously in search of the District Ten victor. She was nowhere to be found.
They began working at a fire station when a small body crouched beside them, shocking both of them.
"Hello, District Twelves. Working on some fire I see? I was never too proficient in starting them. Would you mind if I joined?" Her voice was too sweet. Unnerving.
Did she not realize what was happening to all of them?
Katniss grew silent, her jaw set in place and her eyes locked on Ramsey.
"Uhm, not at all! Go ahead." Peeta stumbled out, seeming to please her.
She plopped down, sitting cross legged on the floor. Katniss cocked an eyebrow. How could something so lethal come off as so innocent?
She found herself watching Ramsey, her small fingers delicately picking at the wood, her eyebrows scrunched together in concentration. This girl had rampaged through an arena murdering people. And now looked so peaceful? None of the other victors looked so calm, even when they were. They all still held a certain pain in their eyes, proof of regret from their killings. But not Ramsey Clyde. She seemed perfectly content in the fact that she was a murderer- her eyes held no remorse.
"Katniss, have you given up?" She giggled as she looked up at Katniss.
Katniss snapped from her trance, realizing she had been caught watching the victor. She averted her eyes, bringing them back to the wood in her hands and casually shaking her head.
Ramsey stared at her for a moment. She was expected to save this girl who wouldn't even speak to her? It was ridiculous. But she wanted the freedom just as much as anyone else. And she had been given the opportunity- this could become real.
Keep the mockingjay safe, you become free from the Capitol's power.
Simple enough.
She sighed loudly and dropped what she had been working on, standing up and turning on her heel to leave.
Peeta watched with unhappiness, his eyes snapping to Katniss.
"You couldn't just pretend? Come on Katniss, she's been sweet and you just keep offending her."
She stared back at him with dead eyes, "Sorry I don't want a pyscho as an ally in the arena."
They held eye contact for a moment more before silently returning to starting the fires.
"Is the girl on fire resisting your friendship?" Johanna smirked as Ramsey approached her. The smaller girl mock-rolled her eyes and released a small chuckle.
She shrugged, "I'm trying my hardest."
Johanna shook her head as the two got closer. She didn't care what all of the other victors thought of Ramsey. They all knew what she had done, hell, they had all watched her. They had all seen her slit the throats of the tributes they were mentoring. They all thought she was crazy.
Johanna knew she wasn't. She knew that you had to do what you had to do in order to survive in that place. She was honored that Ramsey had survived by mimicking her own strategy to survive. Ramsey hadn't waited for the numbers to die down, though, she made them die down herself. In all honesty, Johanna respected Ramsey.
The two had grown close after Ramsey's victory, Johanna being the only victor who wasn't weary of the young girl.
She was happy that when the revolution occurred, the two would make it out together.
"Maybe she's smarter than she looks. I'd be pretty resistant of your kindness too." Enobaria approached the two, her teeth flickering from the bright training lights.
Ramsey's jaw set, her anger already beginning to bubble.
"Why exactly is that?" She would try her best to hold herself together.
Enobaria smirked. "I don't think anyone would want your kindness, for fear you might lose it again and slit their throats. "
A group of victors had formed, Enobaria's raise in volume drawing an interest. Katniss and Peeta even found themselves standing along the outskirts of the crowd.
"Oh I suppose you're right, they'd much prefer to have someone rip their throat out with their teeth." Ramsey smiled to Enobaria, their eyes never leaving one another.
"You're disgusting."
"You're just as much of a killer as I am! Everyone here is."
The other victors began to murmur. Katniss looked around, not including herself nor Peeta in the idea that they were all killers. The two had only taken one step in the opposite direction of the swarm of victors when they were stopped dead in their tracks.
"And don't you act like you're any better than the rest of us, Twelve."
Ramsey's pointed glare sent chills down Peeta's spine, despite that he knew she was addressing Katniss. Katniss stared back, shocked that Ramsey had dared to bring her into this.
"We all saw your games too. The beehive on the District One and Four females. Or, how about my personal favorite, the arrow through District One's chest. What was his name? Marvel? Hey Gloss, his name was Marvel right? That was your tribute."
Those that weren't baffled by Ramsey's words moved their attention to Gloss' handsome figure.
He chuckled bitterly and shrugged, "It was Marvel. Kid could've been a champion."
Ramsey smirked, the edges of her lips reaching up so high they seemed unhuman.
"Enobaria, you had a tribute die at the hands of Katniss too, did you not?"
Enobaria stood silent.
"Cato! That was his name. I do believe that in a group effort, Katniss and Peeta flung him to his death by muttations. Katniss then shot an arrow through his head."
"I had to! He was going to kill Peeta!"
Katniss' outburst came as a surprise to everyone, even herself.
Ramsey smiled.
"We all have to do things, then. Even the purest of them all agrees."
And with that she was gone. Her small figure weaved through the crowd and to the elevator, leaving every victor in the training center astounded.
A sick feeling formed in the pit of Peeta's stomach.
They were dead.
He knew they were dead.
She would hunt them down and murder them and they would never even hear it coming.
"She's not normally like that." Finnick made his way over to them, his eyebrows high.
Katniss squinted at him quizzically. How could he possibly be defending her? She was a lunatic, they had all seen plenty of examples.
Finnick shrugged and grinned, wandering back towards the spearing station.
That night as Effie shuffled about the apartment Katniss and Peeta found themselves planted on the couch. Though neither had yet said it, they both know what they wanted. What felt like hours went by before Katniss sighed and gave in.
"Haymitch?" She called out, seeing his half-drunken figure in the doorway.
He hobbled towards them, cocking an eyebrow. "We want to watch Ramsey Clyde's games."
He chuckled at her and turned towards the television, "Whys that? You want to see how your imminent death will occur? I heard about the- hm- 'altercation' today at the training center. Not a smart move on your part, sweetheart."
Katniss' blood boiled.
"What?! I wasn't even a part of that! It was her and Enobaria and she brought me into it out of nowhere!"
Haymitch chuckled, keying in for Ramsey's games.
A recap of her reaping appeared on the large screen.
District Ten was almost always sunny. It was livestock, and the people were all tanned golden from working in the fields with them.
Even at the Town Center the cameras were able to catch a field of cattle in the background.
Her name was announced and from the crowd came a small body, her shoulders dropped in defeat. It was easy to believe that she was no threat, she was too little and she seemed to lack spirit.
Katniss and Peeta watched with careful eyes.
Her district partner was a lanky boy with dead eyes. The two hardly acknowledged one another.
Flashing to the tribute parade, Ramsey stood out in no way whatsoever. She was so easy to look over.
In her interview she wore a minty green gown and she giggled in a hushed voice. She batted her eyelashes a lot and spoke with such grace and sorrow. Nothing special.
She scored a 5 in training.
She had the whole country fooled.
The games began. Her arena was a swampy rainforest. The film showed her racing from her pedestal to the forest, her low sagging ponytail just a flash of blonde among the greenery. She slinked through the rainforest with such finesse and agility that one would think she had trained for this her whole life. She was fast and the cameras had difficulty even keeping up with her.
The brought herself to the very edge of the arena, nestling herself underground beneath the cover of an overgrown root. She watched the sky that night to see the fallen with wide and terrified eyes.
She was good.
Before dawn she woke, crossing the entire arena in an hour and closing in on the career camp. Their weapons lay in a pile beside a small hut. With almost no sound she crept by and swiped a sharpened dagger. She was gone without a sound.
The remainder of the day she laid low, allowing the others to pick one another off.
It was that night that all hell broke loose.
Almost immediately after nightfall she tied her hair into a much higher ponytail and set off towards the career camp. Her eyes locked onto the body of the District One female, Pearl, whom had referred to Ramsey an "easy kill" during training.
Her feet were silent as she seemed to slither towards the brunette in the night. She knelt down to rest on her heels and stared down at Pearl with absolute hatred. Her fist rose to the sky and crashed down in the center of Pearl's throat, the sound of the bone snapping rattling through the previously silent arena. Pearl's eyes shot open in horror though no sound could escape her and before she could even register what was happening, the dagger had strategically punctured the edge of her throat and was tearing back- the blood bursting out and spraying Ramsey with red.
She was gone in a flash.
Pearl was left bleeding out on the swampy earth, unable to even call for help.
Katniss and Peeta could hardly watch.
Ramsey's murder streak continued on for the rest of the night, wiping out seven other tributes in the exact same way.
It was horrifying.
Tributes began turning on one another, no one even remembering her being in the games. They began dividing, making her job even easier.
One thing stuck out above all others.
She wore a beautiful smile after every kill.
Her sponsors started flooding in, everyone suddenly realizing that she could very well win these games.
Day four came along and only two tributes remained: both from District Ten.
He hadn't slept in days, only firing up Ramsey's adrenaline. Her district partner didn't even hear her coming before she sliced open his jugular.
The games were over just like that.
She smiled up as the hovercraft came for her, smiling to the Capitol and earning their adoration.
The following day as she was interviewing with Caesar she wore that same smile, her lips curving up in a horrifyingly sweet manner. He asked her what happened, what brought out this side of her in the arena.
Ramsey had simply shrugged, "I guess I had it in me all along." She giggled then, tossing her head back in laughter.
Katniss yanked the remote from the table, clicking the off bottom and flinging it to the floor in disgust.
No one spoke after that.
