The Capitol
Victoria Brade
The train rumbles as it speeds along the Panemian countryside. Based on the rolling green fields I see as we fly past, I'd suspect we're somewhere in District 10. I'm guessing it will take awhile before we reach District 4 - this is one of the slower trains. The faster ones are reserved for passengers, whereas I'm stuck on one the trains carrying goods.
The morning after moving Malakai, I got a bad feeling. I was walking directly through the streets with a boy who was wanted by President Divine. There would likely be some way for him to discover I was the one hiding Malakai. So I jumped aboard one of the trains leaving for District 4 to pick up a new supply of seafood. I don't know whether or not Alexandros figured out it was me hiding the rebels, but he will soon enough. It's best to be long gone before he does.
I heard that Satin Davison has been sheltering in District 4. There's no evidence to back up that rumor, but it's all I can go on. Malakai admitted to me that Satin had visited him at one point or another, so I'm guessing that District 4 is my best bet. If nothing else, District 4's security is so lax I'll likely be able to find a safe hiding spot there.
My stomach aches, but I'll have to ignore it. There's no food anywhere in sight, and it will be awhile before the hunger pains kill me. Before that happens, I'll be in District Four.
Leaning back against an empty sack (I've been using it as a cushion, since there's barely anything else in this train car) I begin playing with the locket around my neck. It's a nervous habit I've gained. The locket hangs just low enough to brush the top of the tattoo inked into my skin. I remember the day I received it vividly - I should, since it was my wedding day.
I feel tears begin to well up in my eyes. Damn it, I think as I brush them away. I try not to think about Quirinus too much. It always ends up with me crying, which is seriously not what I need.
20 Years Earlier
"Come on, Vicky!" Quirinus shouts as he pulls me toward the tattoo parlor.
"Are you sure?" I ask, "It looks a bit sketchy." It does, with its graffitied walls and dark windows.
"Yeah, I'm sure. The owner's a friend," he assures me. He grins a crooked smile down at me as well walk into the shop and without thinking, I brush away the lock of silky black hair covering his eyes. There's only two workers in the shop; one of them is taking a nap on a ratty couch in the corner and the other is tattooing a man whose skin is about 90% inked.
"Do you think this is his first tattoo?" I ask sarcastically, cocking my head toward the tattooed man. Quirinus laughs.
"Do you like your flowers?" he asks gently, running his fingers along the pink petals. "I specifically chose them because you said peonies were your favorite."
"When did I say that?" I ask. It's the truth, but I didn't realize Quirinus knew that.
"On our third date. When I showed you my mural. Remember?"
I nod, touched that he remembered such a small detail. When I mentioned my favorite flower in passing, I didn't realize he would note it and later use the information for our wedding - well, the word "wedding" might be a touch extravagant for what really happened. I just put on a white dress and we went to one of the offices in charge of Capitol records. Admittedly, it was a bit spontaneous, but I doubt I'll ever regret it.
"All right, you're all done," the tattoo artist states and the man gets up, barely noticing us. He immediately leaves, leaving us the only ones in the shop. The tattoo artist wheels his stool over to us, a cigarette clamped in his jaw. "So - newly-weds?"
"Yup," Quirinus says proudly.
"Congrats, Q. What do you want?"
"I already sketched it. It's of two lovers from a book I read," Quirinus smiles.
"How romantic," the man grunts, sounding completely indifferent. "Andrea, wake up!" he shouts and the girl on the couch jerks awake.
"Huh?" she asks, rubbing sleep from her eyes.
"Come ink this girl," he orders, and Andrea reluctantly walks over. She beckons me to her, and I sit down on the chair. Andrea begins prepping the needles, and I wince in anticipation. I glance up at Quirinus for assurance.
"It won't hurt too much," he promises me.
"Of course not. I'm with you."
The Capitol
Leda Dashlon
20 Years Earlier
Victoria stumbles into the penthouse at about 4 in the morning, dressed in a muddy, white dress and bouquet of peonies in hand.
"Where were you?" I demand, flicking off the television. "Mom and Dad are pissed. They think it's my fault you stayed out all night." Victoria ignores me, dancing into the kitchen as if there's a song playing that only she can here. "Are you drunk?" I demand.
"Only on love," she sighs, and I can't help but cringe at the cheesiness.
"Serious, are you drunk?" I ask. "Mom and Dad are seriously going to be pissed if you're drunk." Victoria ignores me, still humming along to some song I don't recognize. I walk over to her and grab her wrist. "Victoria, pay attention to me. I got yelled out for about two hours by Mom because I couldn't tell her where you were. Were you out with that criminal again?"
"Quirinus is not a criminal," she states, her expression hardening.
"He got arrested, therefore making him a criminal."
"It was just for vandalism, he wasn't hurting anyone," she says passively, and I groan.
"Just vandalism?"
"He's a painter, that's what he does."
"He destroys people's property," I remind her, and she rolls her eyes as if I'm being unreasonable. "Why is your dress like that? Did you go in his part of town again?"
"Yes," she says, a bit defensively. "But don't say it like that."
"Like what?"
"Like his part of town is worse than ours."
"Well… it is. Statistically, it has much higher crime rates, houses poorer people, and it also gets your white dress all muddy. Do you know how much Mom spent on that?"
"It doesn't matter, it's just a dress," she tells me, walking toward her room. I follow her into her bedroom, where she strips off the dress. I don't bother averting my eyes.
"Just a dress. It cost a lot of money…" my voice trails off when I see her skin. The entire left side of her chest in covered by some illustration of a woman with a crown atop her head. "Victoria… what is that on your chest?"
"Oh, it's a tattoo! Quirinus picked it - it's of a Queen in a really old book he read. Her King is on his chest. I think her name is Elinor or something. Anyway, they ruled a kingdom in his book and according to him, it's one of the greatest love stories ever told. He thought it was appropriate for us."
"You… you got a tattoo?" I repeat through clenched teeth, trying to restrain myself from screaming.
"Yeah. In honor of our wedding."
I almost don't register her statement. "Huh?" I ask, rather dumbly.
"We got married."
"You… you got married? To a criminal?"
"He's not a criminal."
I ignore her. "Are you serious, Victoria? You got legally married?"
"Yes. I expect you to refer to me as Victoria Brade from now on," she laughs, not seeming to understand my shock.
"My little sister got married," I repeat to myself, trying to understand.
"Correct," she says, rolling her eyes. "I guess Quirinus is technically your brother-in-law now. You're siblings with a 'criminal'."
District 2
Marlor Frank
Malakai screams and presses the heels of his hands against his eyes. I don't know exactly what he's seeing, but it's something along the lines of his family being tortured. It's our new method of torture. Psychological methods have been proved more effective than physical when it comes to drawing out information.
I gesture for Bracket to stop the visions, which he does with a slightly green face. Bracket doesn't really have the stomach for the Interrogation Squad, but he's the only one who knows how to work the virtual reality visions. Malakai calms down a bit and stops screaming, but tears continue to pour down his face.
"Now tell me," I say, walking over to him. I kneel down in front of him, but his eyes are closed so he can't see me. "Where is Satin Davison?"
"I don't know!" he cries.
"Again," I order Bracket, and Malakai begins screaming again.
We found Malakai Mavericks late last night at some cafe. The owner was quite adamant that Malakai wasn't there, but we found him the moment we began searching the shop. We haven't killed the owner yet - Alexandros wants a public execution tomorrow morning. I'm very excited for it. I like when people's heads get chopped out. I'm glad Alexandros brought back the guillotine.
Malakai continues to scream and scream, so loud, I barely hear the door opening.
"Marlor?" Alexandros asks, and I spin around.
"Alexandros!" I say, eagerly running over to him. "You know how we've been psychologically torturing people using virtual reality? Well, Bracket is in the middle of constructing a quiz that will tell us their worst fear. It's going to be amaz-"
"Shut up, Marlor," Alexandros says firmly. My mouth closes, but I can feel blood rushing to my cheeks. I don't like when people tell me to shut up. If it were anyone else, I'd probably punch them. But I can't punch the President. "What's Malakai Mavericks doing down here?"
"We're interrogating him," Bracket says from the corner.
"Why?" Alexandros asks.
"...For information?" I answer, becoming unsure of myself. Alexandros wanders over to Malakai and yanks the virtual reality plug out of his head.
"What could this kid possibly know?" Alexandros demands as Malakai curls up, hugging his knees.
"Uh…"
"Look, I know you're not very smart, Marlor, so let me explain," Alexandros says, walking over to me. "Imagine you're leading a rebellion."
"I wouldn't, sir," I say, and Alexandros rolls his eyes.
"Imagine. Imagine that you're leading a rebellion. Would you recruit this bumbling, clumsy, idiotic, eighteen-year-old boy?"
"Uh…" I say, unsure of what Alexandros is talking about.
"No, sir," Bracket speaks up.
"Suck-up," I hiss at him. When I look back at Alexandros, he's glare at me.
"Grow up," he tells me. "Anyway, you wouldn't. Even if you did, you'd surely place him at a lower rank. He's not going to be a confidante."
"Okay," I begin. "So… what do we do with him?"
Alexandros walks over to Malakai and yanks him to his feet.
"The Hunger Games are ending tomorrow. I want Malakai Mavericks kept here, in this building where we can keep an eye on him. We'll load him on the same train as the Victor, and he can go back to District 4."
"Thank you," Malakai mumbles, almost unintelligibly.
"We'll get him in the Capitol whenever we can. He'll be the mentor next year, and we might as well throw him in the Victory Tour. While I doubt he has any importance in the tiny rebellion, I don't want to give him the option to. Just keep an eye on him. Stop showing him visions of his family getting tortured. You're messed up, Marlor."
With that, Alexandros drags Malakai out of the room.
Next chapter is the finale and goddamnit I'm excited. I'm hoping I get inspired to write it soon instead of taking another month XD.
Anyway, now that I'm confirming the last two chapter's deaths, I can officially congratulate the Final Four: Cecelia Hart, Axel Woodleigh, Glorian Stafford, and Trajan Seth! Congratulations to their submitters, Team Shadow, Tyquavis, santiago. poncini20, and Tiger outsider.
Of course, the final poll of this story will be for the winner. I'm currently between two tributes (not going to say who for obvious reasons) and I want to see who everyone else wants to win. Go vote on it!
I've also forgotten to do questions for a while so I'm going to do a ton now.
EULOGIES:
6th: Vincent Elm (D7M): Blown up by Axel Woodleigh (D6M) - Aw, this guy was so much fun to play around with. I know he was never very well-liked, but I couldn't help but keep him around for a while. It was fun having him get annoyed by Glitter to the point of insanity, then healing him a bit when Tristana came along. But unfortunately, after Tristana died, he completely broke and became consumed with revenge. His lack of popularity never really allowed him to make it out of the arena alive, but I'm going to miss him. I think he was a bit of an underrated villain, honestly. I love driving tributes crazy ;). RIP Vincent, and thank you for the submission, TheNoobyBoy!
5th: Lennox Porter (D3F): Stabbed by Axel Woodleigh (D6M) - Yikes. A lot of people are going to hate me for this one. I know she was a favorite and a lot of people wanted her to make it home to Ada. I honestly considered it for the longest time, and at one point she was my Victor. But she died for two reasons; first of all, I didn't want too many people surviving. I thought that would make survival less special and it would be unrealistic. Second of all, I couldn't imagine her having much of an impact on the story post-Games. Like Mika, she would have just wanted peace and quiet after the Hunger Games, which was ultimately why they both died. I honestly loved Lennox and it pains me to have to write her eulogy, but it's just what's best for the story. RIP Lennox and thank you for the submission, Author-Hime!
QUESTIONS:
1. Who do you want to win? What do you want final placements to be?
2. Thoughts on Cecelia?
3. Thoughts on Trajan?
4. Thoughts on Glorian?
5. Thoughts on Axel?
6. Which of the Final Four is the most morally good?
7. Who most deserves to win/survive?
8. Who was your favorite villain? (Flames or Rapids)
9. If you could bring one tribute (from Flames or this story) back from the dead, who would it be?
10. What was the saddest death? (Flames or Rapids)
GEM CARRIERS:
Emerald - Axel Woodleigh (D6M)
Ruby - Nobody
Sapphire - Nobody
DAY 1:
24th: Zaira Quentin (D7F)
23rd: Nikola Allegra (D3M)
22nd: Savanna Davison (D9F)
21st: Kade Anderson (D11M)
20th: Macey Aderyn (D5F)
20th: Tracey Aderyn (D5F)
19th: Quinten Fredericus (D12M)
18th: Felix Camacho (D8M)
17th: Buck Hayford (D10M)
DAY 2:
None.
DAY 3:
16th: Linen Baird (D8F)
DAY 4:
15th: Lucretius Marlo (D4M)
14th: Glitter Monique (D5F)
DAY 5:
None.
DAY 6:
13th: Arabella Cantros (D10F)
DAY 7:
12th: Dennis Fielder (D5M)
DAY 8:
11th: Yael Harident (D11F)
10th: Rachel Ivy (D12F)
DAY 9:
None.
DAY 10:
9th: Noelani King (D4F)
DAY 11:
None.
DAY 12:
None.
DAY 13:
8th: Tristana Rockett (D6F)
7th: Hadley Moreau (D9M)
DAY 14:
None.
DAY 15:
6th: Vincent Elm (D7M)
5th: Lennox Porter (D3F)
SOLO:
Cecelia
Trajan
Glorian
Axel
KILL LIST/REMAINING TRIBUTES:
Cecelia Hart (D1F) - 1
Trajan Seth (D1M) - 3
Glorian Stafford (D2M) - 2
Axel Woodleigh (D6M) - 2
- Lilah