The Victor

A peaceful life.

Chiana soon realised that such a thing after her victory was a distant dream as she was but a thief on the streets of Six. A part of her probably always knew that to be true, but one cannot afford to face such revelations in the area, where childish dreams and foolish hopes are all one can cling to continue going forward. To let voices of the dead, be they slain by you directly or not, from consuming you.

The Victory tour was the first thing that fully made Chiana confront such a truth, bringing it to the forefront of her mind where it could longer just linger in the shadows. Where it was present and known, but perhaps always avoided as much as possible. Something that is in one's peripheral vision. With the first two districts - Twelve and Eleven - Chiana didn't even know their fallen tribute names until she read them out on the pre-prepared cards that had been provided by District Six's escort. Perhaps Chiana would have preferred it stayed that way, the tributes but people-shaped shadows in her mind, yet staring down the weeping families of the fallen tributes made such a task seem even more twisted and cold.

Yarrow Dolson and Periwinkle Amaryllis

Thane Zinfandel and Cherry Caraway

Erase them, they are no one. Erase them. Erase them. Erase them

District Ten came next. Chiana had killed and then looted his corpse and today she would learn his name

Brandon Wells. That was the name of life she had taken. The cost for her to be here staring out the spitting empty words to the family that she stole a son from. She saw the hate and malice that they had. But that did not bring a great amount more regret to her actions in the arena, she had done what she had to. If she didn't kill Brandon... No, if she hadn't killed the Ten boy, she would not be here. She would not be able to care for Nerri. Nerri would have been left alone in the world.

Yarrow Dolson, Periwinkle Amaryllis, Thane Zinfandel, Cherry Caraway, Brandon Wells, Brie Halas

Erase them, they are no one. Erase them. Erase them. Erase them

Nine.

Both of Nine's tributes had died in the bloodbath this year, a fate the District Six had suffered often. Once again she read off the script she had been provided, speaking the most blatant of lies to some of the most downtrodden of souls.

Yarrow Dolson, Periwinkle Amaryllis, Thane Zinfandel, Cherry Caraway, Brandon Wells, Brie Halas, Suara Arable, Pike McCoy.

Erase them, they are no one. Erase them. Erase them. Erase them

Eight.

Yarrow Dolson, Periwinkle Amaryllis, Thane Zinfandel, Cherry Caraway, Brandon Wells, Brie Halas, Suara Arable, Pike McCoy, Shay Thimble, Lacey Twine

Erase them, they are no one. Erase them. Erase them. Erase them

Seven.

Chiana recalled how she had taken the supplies that the boy had been scrambling for. She remembered how the girl had tried to avenge the boy's death. Foolishly. How she had called out the boy's name. A name that Chiana didn't wish to recall but would indeed be reminded of very soon. She should have just grabbed what she needed and then bolted, instead of trying to tangle with the Careers. The Seven's girl dug her own grave with her mistakes, but she couldn't say that to her grieving family.

Yarrow Dolson, Periwinkle Amaryllis, Thane Zinfandel, Cherry Caraway, Brandon Wells, Brie Halas, Suara Arable, Pike McCoy, Shay Thimble, Lacey Twine Luka Grove, Ivy Ackers

Erase them, they are no one. Erase them. Erase them. Erase them

Five.

A district that had suffered the same fate as Nine. Both Five's tributes had been and been Twelve this year. Chiana did not know whether that fact made losing both tributes in the first minutes of the Games stung deeper or not. Perhaps seeing such young souls being reaped that certain in the minds of Five citizens that's that early death almost inevitable, but could just make everything that bit more twisted and tragic

Yarrow Dolson, Periwinkle Amaryllis, Thane Zinfandel, Cherry Caraway, Brandon Wells, Brie Halas, Suara Arable, Pike McCoy, Shay Thimble, Lacey Twine Luka Grove, Ivy Ackers, Koiru Haruka, Lux Volt.

Erase them, they are no one. Erase them. Erase them. Erase them

Four.

The first of the three Career districts. The first of three districts that viewed the Games as something glorious. Chiana had thought, had hoped that the district would be full of heartless bastards that saw means to bring their district their so-called glory. But facing that the district that soon became between the citizens of Four to the citizens of the outer districts. She always had known but could not accept such until she was forced two. She recalled the showdown that had happened between the Four boy and the Two girl in the finale. How they called each by their name and still be prepared to kill each other. Whilst the citizens of Four may be no different to the Outers, their tributes certainly were. A lie. But one that Chiana had hoped to convince herself of.

Yarrow Dolson, Periwinkle Amaryllis, Thane Zinfandel, Cherry Caraway, Brandon Wells, Brie Halas, Suara Arable, Pike McCoy, Shay Thimble, Lacey Twine Luka Grove, Ivy Ackers, Koiru Haruka, Lux Volt, Pieces Trench, Marina Scale

Erase them, they are no one. Erase them. Erase them. Erase them

Three.

Yarrow Dolson, Periwinkle Amaryllis, Thane Zinfandel, Cherry Caraway, Brandon Wells, Brie Halas, Suara Arable, Pike McCoy, Shay Thimble, Lacey Twine Luka Grove, Ivy Ackers, Koiru Haruka, Lux Volt, Pieces Trench, Marina Scale, Wyatt Cypher, Lani Coil.

Erase them, they are no one. Erase them. Erase them. Erase them

Two.

The next Career district. Chiana stabbed the girl through the back of the throat. No doubt that Two would see that as undeserving death and Chiana hoped that would mean that they would direct some of their malice towards their fallen tribute for dying pitifully.

Yarrow Dolson, Periwinkle Amaryllis, Thane Zinfandel, Cherry Caraway, Brandon Wells, Brie Halas, Suara Arable, Pike McCoy, Shay Thimble, Lacey Twine Luka Grove, Ivy Ackers, Koiru Haruka, Lux Volt, Pieces Trench, Marina Scale, Wyatt Cypher, Lani Coil, Tiberius Serranos, Charybdis Stark.

Erase them, they are no one. Erase them. Erase them. Erase them

One.

Yarrow Dolson, Periwinkle Amaryllis, Thane Zinfandel, Cherry Caraway, Brandon Wells, Brie Halas, Suara Arable, Pike McCoy, Shay Thimble, Lacey Twine Luka Grove, Ivy Ackers, Koiru Haruka, Lux Volt, Pieces Trench, Marina Scale, Wyatt Cypher, Lani Coil, Tiberius Serranos, Charybdis Stark, Emerald Voss, Bianca Aurum

Erase them, they are no one. Erase them. Erase them. Erase them

Finally Six.

Chiana's home district. She had known that her district partner only slightly more than any of the other tributes. They had taken the train to the Capitol together and stood side by side during the parade, but hadn't dealt with each other beyond that. She and her district partner had been content to train by themselves and face the games alone in hopes of making the inevitable loss of the other cut less deep upon the distant chance of one of them returning home.

Yarrow Dolson, Periwinkle Amaryllis, Thane Zinfandel, Cherry Caraway, Brandon Wells, Brie Halas, Suara Arable, Pike McCoy, Shay Thimble, Lacey Twine Luka Grove, Ivy Ackers, Koiru Haruka, Lux Volt, Pieces Trench, Marina Scale, Wyatt Cypher, Lani Coil, Tiberius Serranos, Charybdis Stark, Emerald Voss, Bianca Aurum and Esser Royce

Erase them, they are no one. Erase them. Erase them. Erase them

Erase them. She had been repeating those same two words in response to the ever-growing list of names that had been growing larger with each district on the tour. Yet it was futile. The names of fallen tributes would leave Chiana's mind.

They were consuming her.

The best that she could hope was to become but a shadow. That, however, was not something could achieve any time soon; she knew that the Capitol would drag out next year to act as a mentor for the next two doomed tributes. Hopefully, she would be able to bring home another unfortunate soul and the Capitol would turn to force them into mentoring instead. Until then she just repeated the same words had been saying for the whole victory tour.

Erase them.