AUTHOR'S NOTES: This was actually one of the first chapters I wrote out of order, and for good reason. Back when they were first mentioned in one of my other fanfics, it was clear that whatever Kaede and Katsuo saw in their Hunger Games was so nefariously twisted and horrifying that it turned them into the unstable wrecks that they are today. As such, this is considered to be among the evilest game designs in the entire series, so don't let the shortness of the chapter throw you off.
Happy Reading!

The 81st Annual Hunger Games

The notion of fear and déjà vu was not exactly unheard of amongst the Capitol and in the Hunger Games. It had happened about 70 years before the current time, and was set to happen again soon. The idea behind the arena though, was downright malicious.

Even to this day, no one really knows what it was like apart from the nefarious Gamemakers who put it together. The only thing the viewers remembered was the darkness, the screams, and the utterly traumatized look on the poor victor's face when they dragged her out of there.

This was the grim story of Kaede Raiden's Pyrrhic Victory in the 81st Annual Hunger Games.

She began her story as an ordinary career tribute from District 2, clawing her way to the stage so that she could volunteer to represent District 2 in this year's games. Luckily for her, her brother Katsuo did not make it the same year she did, preventing the two siblings from having to fight each other. Still, she and her partner were brimming with confidence as they met the other tributes in the training center, forming alliances as the usual factions formed between Districts 1 and 2 and Districts 11 and 12. Only one girl from District 11 heeded the warning of the Gamemakers during her private session.

"you have 15 minutes to demonstrate your chosen skills. Stand up to the screams in the dark, and show us your best. You may begin."

But even she wasn't prepared for the arena. It was nearly pitch dark, almost like a moonless and starless sky that hovered above them. Small lights shone around the pedestals and the cornucopia almost seemed to glow as if to tell the tributes where things were. Adding to the fear factor was that one of the tributes stepped off the pedestal and was blown apart. At once, the remaining tributes knew that this was going to play on fears of all of them—even the ones that claimed they were not afraid of screams in the dark.

They were all absolutely correct. With little more than the glow of their weapons to locate where others were, the tributes practically groped their way around the arena. However, they were not the only things that glowed. There was an effect in the arena that made the eyes of the tributes shimmer almost like a cat's, which in turn potentially helped locate friend from foe.

No one took that chance. Anything that moved, they swung at, and that was the secret to Kaede's success for a while. However, after the 2nd "night" (more like the 2nd time the anthem played), the tributes realized that the glowing eyes did not belong to just tributes.

Mutts of some kind—some sort of horrifying red-eyed creatures, attacked. Some of them even used the glowing weapons, leading spectators to believe that these were fiercer, more grotesque prototypes of the "Night Witches" that the Capitol had occasionally brought down on the tributes. No one ever found out what these red-eyed weapon-wielding creatures were, but the tributes learned quickly that they were deadly.

There was no career pack during the Hunger Games' 81st year. The chaos from the darkness and the faint glows and the odd, sporadic screams, had prevented them from ever coming together in the first place. Kaede was one of the boldest tributes alongside that District 11 girl, and so it took much longer for the screams and the lights to start affecting her.

As if this arena could not get any more nefarious, a delusionary fog started to seep in by day 4. The Gamemakers had clearly pulled out all of the stops in this arena to make it the most sinister one in Hunger Games History—a title that it would share with only one other arena in Hunger Games history.

Water seemed oddly abundant, but none of the tributes thought much about eating. Most of them were more worried about being eaten by the red-eyed monsters that were swinging swords or axes at them. at least two of them used bows before tributes killed them. the girl from District 11, despite her best efforts, eventually was cut down by another tribute in his blind frenzy to try and stop the mutts.

By the 5th day, it was only Kaede and the boy who had killed the District 11 girl. There were monsters chasing her, presumably back to the cornucopia, where she was swinging her sword wildly and in a panicked frenzy. Her screams were drowned out by the shrieks and shrills of whatever monstrosities lurked in this nightmarish arena. When the cannon went off she jumped in terror. Noise in these games often meant death or bloodshed. This had been no exception.
Briefly, the boy's face lit up the sky, and then the Gamemakers' announcement was heard. Kaede had just killed the boy in a panicked frenzy, and in so doing, had just won the games. The nightmare was over for the time being. Kaede was the 14th victor from District 2, and the 81st victor of the games.

The post-game ceremonies and her subsequent victory tour were horrible and trying on the frightened victor. Whatever horrors had lurked in that arena had stripped her completely of any courage or boldness she might have had, reducing her to a terrified little shell of her former self who would barely speak, and who showed a dangerous aversion to bright lights, noises of any kind, or pitch darkness. Kaede Raiden had been destroyed by the games, and had thus sparked a sense of unrest and unease in District 2 that had begun with Clove Kazera's victory a few years previous. Luckily for Kaede, Clove elected to remain a mentor, not subjecting what was left of Kaede to such a horrible fate. Her brother Katsuo was there for her when he could be, but there was only so much he could do for his devastated sister. The Hunger Games showed no mercy.

VICTORS BY YEAR:
1HG: Fukaya Kerezaki (#1, District 5)
2HG: Lucy Takamatzu (#1, District 11)
3HG: Naseru Litzak (#1, District 3)
4HG: Naisha Szasz (#1, District 2)
5HG: Jade Prima (#1, District 1)
6HG: Cedar Hardin (#1, District 7)
7HG: Susan Jackman (#2, District 5)
8HG: Malcolm Reed (#1, District 6)
9HG: Mags Cohen (#1, District 4)
10HG: Faren Dragmire (#2, District 1)
11HG: Maius Karuha (#2, District 2)
12HG: Iunius Karuha (#3, District 2)
13HG: Hilda White (#1, District 10)
14HG: Minali Otoyome (#2, District 3)
15HG: Willow James (#3, District 1)
16HG: Lark Chandnea (#2, District 11)
17HG: Woof Casino (#1, District 8)
18HG: Leah Holden (#2, District 7)
19HG: Zeruda Mezkiel (#2, District 6)
20HG: Muscida Lee (#2, District 4)
21HG: Kada Lahka (#4, District 2)
22HG: Gleam DiFronzo (#4, District 1)
23HG: Ivette Coronado (#3, District 5)
24HG: Olivia Thurman (#1, District 9)
25HG: Laurel Fox (#1, District 12)
26HG: Daron Armstrong (#5, District 2)
27HG: Cobalt Evans (#5, District 1)
28HG: Lyme Golding (#6, District 2)
29HG: Ash LosDias (#3, District 7)
30HG: Challis Worth (#2, District 8)
31HG: Beetee Latier (#3, District 3)
32HG: Fletch Crossley (#4, District 5)
33HG: Seeder Howell (#3, District 11)
34HG: Price Emerson (#6, District 1)
35HG: Leto Irizari (#7, District 2)
36HG: Jackson Kjelle (#5, District 5)
37HG: Zerviah Hawke (#3, District 6)
38HG: Wiress Plummer (#4, District 3)
39HG: Nephi Lott (#3, District 4)
40HG: Miriam Luxio (#7, District 1)
41HG: Marcelina Kovac (#6, District 5)
42HG: Niles Lincoln (#8, District 2)
43HG: Blight McKay (#4, District 7)
44HG: Sagittaria Svenja (#4, District 11)
45HG: Dezna Meraxa (#4, District 6)
46HG: Alice DeSiete (#3, District 8)
47HG: Aurum Zianja (#8, District 1)
48HG: Layla Aranai (#9, District 2)
49HG: Chip Sangster (#5, District 3)
50HG: Haymitch Abernathy (#2, District 12)
51HG: Derrick James (#7, District 5)
52HG: Chaff Mitchell (#5, District 11)
53HG: Brutus Gunn (#10, District 2)
54HG: Tiffany Waxler (#2, District 10)
55HG: Zak Dreggite (#4, District 4)
56HG: Zoroka Chandaki (#9, District 1)
57HG: Cecelia Sanchez (#4, District 8)
58HG: Meili Meisha (#5, District 6)
59HG: Zhin Lyautey (#6, District 3)
60HG: Lucas Drazen (#10, District 1)
61HG: Kara Petersen (#5, District 7)
62HG: Enobaria Taos (#11, District 2)
63HG: Gloss Zianja (#11, District 1)
64HG: Cashmere Zianja (#12, District 1)
65HG: Finnick Odair (#5, District 4)
66HG: Elroy Trujillo (#12, District 2)
67HG: Varric Svenja (#6, District 11)
68HG: Carver Tabris (#2, District 9)
69HG: Bethany Shanza (#8, District 5)
70HG: Annie Cresta (#6, District 4)
71HG: Johanna Mason (#6, District 7)
72HG: Immanuel Cox (#3, District 10)
73HG: Paige DeSiete (#5, District 8)
74HG: Clove Kazera (#13, District 2)
75HG: Katniss Everdeen (#3, District 12)
76HG: Johnny Stallings (#9, District 5)
77HG: Ikki Ortolani (#7, District 3)
78HG: Ryuka Satoru (#6, District 6)
79HG: Nailah Zoraki (#13, District 1)
80HG: Zenzi Tallarico (#7, District 11)
81HG: Kaede Raiden (#14, District 2)