Here's a small preview! We still have loads of spots open for this SYOT, so do submit! Two tributes per person! :)

Glitter Bauble, District One. Victor of the 69th Hunger Games

I was taught winning the Hunger Games would bring my district glory. I was told my family would be proud of me. I was told that I'd love the victory and that afterwards everything would be perfect. Except none of those happened. Why do we choose to believe in what we believe?

I wasn't held as gloriously as previous victors from my district. No, instead I was told that my win was embarrassing and that the other tribute, a boy from 8, should have won instead. My family said that my younger sister would have made the whole games entertaining and that I should have spared them the embarrassment of volunteering and winning how I did. I don't feel like everything is perfect and I've been taught to believe that I wasn't worthy of my win, not worthy of my life. Every night my mind goes back to the arena, the scorching desert, and I think of how desperate I was to live.

The Games have been going on for close to two weeks now and there's only three of us left and have been for the past three days. There's the boy from 8, the girl from 7 and myself. I think their names are Velvet and Magnolia respectively. I'm not too sure, but I can't say I care too much. What they're called isn't high on my priority list. Maybe I should have paid more attention to them earlier on because now they've proven themselves to be vicious killers.

The girl from 7 had killed her district partner in the Bloodbath without a second thought and a few days later had stolen the water of an alliance of three, letting them become weakened from thirst before killing them off. The boy from 8 had only killed one tribute, the boy from 2, Arrulus, but the way he had done it was so violent it's hard to forget. I remember it now. He severed both of the Arrulus' hands in the night when he was out scouting for us Careers before dragging him away and beating him to death. I don't know what happened but when I received a sponsor my mentor's caption was 'Watch out for 8. He's ghastly.' I can only think about what he did. I hope I never find out.

The Careers crumbled after that. There was only three of us left after Arrulus died; myself, the girl from 4, Damper, and my district partner, Burgundy. Damper left Burgundy and I alone to forge our own alliance but that was short lived. A night or so following the disbandment of our alliance Damper had returned and killed Burgundy in his sleep. The only reason I lived and killed her was because Burgundy's screams were so loud that they forced me to act. If I had been a second slower with throwing that knife, I wouldn't be here today.

There's barely any water. There has to be a winner soon. And I'm determined that it'll be me. I've got two canteens of water left, but I refuse to drunk them. Instead I've been eating the moist food that's been coming through via sponsors. As long as they're there, I won't need to drink my precious water. I might go to the Cornucopia and hide in the shade there. It might be too hot seeing as it's made of metal, but the shade offered is so tempting I might just need to try it.

BOOM

I'm not even halfway to the centre of the arena when I hear the cannon that follows a scream. I can tell it's the girl from 7; the boy from 8 grunts and sounds as if he's an animal. I doubt he'd make such a high pitched noise. Sure enough, I look up and see her face in the sky. You can tell in the picture that she had something that she was fighting for. It's too bad the brute got to her. She might've won.

As I get closer to the Cornucopia I catch sight of her body being lifted into the air. Her white shirt is stained crimson by her blood and I think I can see a few of her guts threatening to fall out. She's missing her right arm and there's a chunk out of her neck. I look down and see the back of the boy from 8. There's a lone piece of wall that remains and I hide behind it, looking through a small brick-sized gap. He turns to face east, dangerously close to where I'm hiding. There's blood around his mouth and suddenly it all clicks together. He ate her and probably ate Arrulus too. He's a brute that'll do anything to survive. I don't want to stay around him. I could kill him now; throw a knife and it'll all be over. But what if I miss? Then I could have the same fate. I keep watching him, seeing what he's doing. With a breath, I raise my arm, gripping the knife so hard that my knuckles go white and I get ready to throw. Except I can't. Why? Because he can see me. He's staring at me and grinning. It's quite menacing, something I'm sure that will haunt me for years to come if I win. Raising his sword, he begins to advance towards me.

In panic, I throw the knife and it hits his arm. Any other tribute would stop long enough for me to throw another knife and kill them, but he doesn't. Instead, he pulls it out as if it's nothing and continues to the chase, swapping what hand he holds his sword in and holding the wound. For a few seconds I freeze in fear, unable to move and I know in those few seconds I've shattered my Career image. I'm not the callous Career who killed the smallest tribute I saw in the Bloodbath anymore. No, now I'm the Career who's given the perfect shot at a tribute and I can't. And then I run. I run and I don't stop running, not until I can get to high ground. I can hear his taunts behind me but I don't look back. I can't. If I stop for a second I could die. I thought cannibalism was forbidden in the Games. I guess not.

The shouts die down and when I do look behind me he's not there. I'm near the border; I can hear it's faint buzzing. I don't have much to my name now; two knives, one canteen full of water, a small amount of food, and a shattered reputation. When I'm up the branches of an acacia tree I bring my knees to my chest and bawl. I wonder if it's a first - seeing a Career cry during the Games. Whatever. I've already ruined my image, what's a few tears gonna do? I cry because it's hard. I cry because, for the first time, I'm scared. I'm the only one left in the arena with a savage. A savage who'll quite gladly kill me and eat me.

I can't sleep at night. For one, he might find me and kill me but two, his face haunts me. Pale and sunken with blood around his mouth, red staining his teeth, the evil glint in his eyes. It's all too much. I tried to once but I awoke with a scream. The scream has let him know where I am, I'm certain of it.

The arena becomes light again, being pitch black before, and I'm right. He's running towards my position in the distance. Fear rushes through my body. I scramble to the higher branches until I'm as high as I can go. As I ascend I try to break off as much of the lower branch as I can, anything to hinder him getting to me. Within what feels to be a few seconds he's there at the bottom of my tree, grinning up at me. He says something about being hungry and I can't hide my fear. I'm frozen again. I can't do anything. I can only watch as he begins his own ascension up the tree. It's only when he's two branches beneath me that I raise my knife. It takes me everything to do just that. I know I have only a few seconds to determine the victor. Do nothing and he wins or just follow your training, remember you're the girl who killed that small girl from 3 in the Bloodbath, feel no remorse and let go.

I close my eyes and throw. I hear a thump, the scuffling of the sand, and then nothing.

BOOM

I open my eyes and there he lies at the bottom of my tree. Dead. The announcer declares me the Victor of the 69th Hunger Games and I'm soon transported in a Hovercraft to begin the festivities.

I'm a shell of what I was. I'm not the bloodthirsty Career I entered the Games as. No. Now I'm a vulnerable seventeen year old who came face to face with death, who'll have nightmares for the rest of her life.

That's why nothing's perfect. I wake up every night after nightmares of my final days in the arena. I wake up every time I see his face. I can remember I nearly broke down when I visited District 8 and saw his picture. His family looked distraught for me and I can remember that his mother, before I boarded the train for the next district, hugged me and told me she was sorry.

My district is ashamed of me because I broke down in the Games. My family wishes that Damper had killed me or the boy from 8 had caught me. The only victory I have scares me.

The Hunger Games - where you can win and have a fifty fifty chance of spending the rest of your life in misery, or glory.

I didn't expect it to be this long, I just loved writing Glitter so much. Do you think she should be the mentor for the District 1 tributes? Let me know!

The form for tributes is on my profile and we still have a large number open so do submit!

Reviews make me happy!

- Oli