The Tenth quarter quell winner: District One's Jenriko "Jen" Florence's POV
"I must say Mrs. Florence, it's a pleasure to have you back with us." The interviewer told me with a great big smile on his face, showing off his pearl white teeth that seemed to sparkle.
"It's great to be back," I told him truthfully. "I've missed this place. Feels like a lifetime since I last here."
"I'm touched by that Mrs. Florence,"
"Jenriko." I interrupted. "There's no need to be formal, you can call me Jenriko." It was a weird feeling being called miss. I wasn't used to the formality. The only time someone used my last name was when I was in trouble back home, and hearing my last name in the Capitol didn't exactly make me feel safe because of that.
"As you wish, Jenriko." The interviewer said kindly. "Anyway, we're all touched that you've missed us so. An't that right everyone?" He called out to the audience, which caused everyone to start cheering loudly. It felt great that they were all cheering for me, but at the same time, I didn't like that I was being cheered at. After all the things that had happened, I didn't want the praise, but I was forced to go through with this. But that's okay, I'll get through with this, everything's going to be all right.
The cheering and applauding went down before the interviewer continued on. "Now Jenriko, before we get into this year's gaming re-cap, I'm going to ask you a couple of questions."
"Go ahead." I told him, knowing that I didn't have any choice anyway.
"Right. First question. The games apparently began at six in the morning instead of the normal ten in the morning. How was getting ready at that unexpected hour for you? As I seem to recall, most of the tributes looked like they had been dragged out of bed."
"Well, that's because we did get dragged out of bed." I told him, thinking back to how I had just gone to bed with my mentor, feel asleep, then ended up getting a painful shock in the neck before I woke up, and saw that myself and the other tributes were all together. We hadn't even gotten the chance to put on any clothes before we arrived. "We got dragged out of bed without any warning what so ever before entering the arena as we were."
"I'm guess that's why you were naked in the beginning." The interviewer said to me.
"Yes." I told him, not wanting to remember that.
I then told him about that blonde peacekeeper along with his friends who had beaten up Timber and Vida before giving out some announcements. About how more kids from the districts had been murdered, how some truths were revealed, and how he killed my mentor. I didn't tell him that I had sex with him though. It wasn't one of my high points.
The audience seemed shocked at what I revealed. This wasn't normal for them, so of course they'd be surprised. I'm still surprised at what happened. My interviewer though, I didn't know if he was shocked or not, but if he was, he kept on being a professional about it.
"That's not good." He said as he shook his head. "Not by a long shot." He paused before quietly saying. "And that answers question number two." Another pause. I'm guessing he also got affected with hearing the news. "Anyway, let's forget about all that now, your here, alive and well, let's say we watch the re-cap of the games, see your walk towards victory."
When he said walk towards victory, I knew what he meant, but a completely different thought rose inside my head. My walk towards Victory.
"Sure." I told him, knowing that everyone in the audience wanted to see the re-caps, and that I could deny what they wanted. "Let's see it." I said with fake excitement. If it were up to me, I'd never want to see my game. I didn't want to see what I had done and what I had gone through to get to where I am right now.
But it wasn't my choice, the Capitol wanted it, so the Capitol got.
The lights faded out before the giant screen above me came to life.
They started with the reapings, starting with my district. I re-watched the violent reaping of my district once again, seeing our escort get murdered by our head peacekeeper before he called out the names and ages of the girls and boys before they started to rip each other apart. I watched, yet again, myself volunteering, as well as Calamity volunteering before sampling a piece of Goldy's brains. The very sight of Calamity made me want to find his ghost and murder him again.
"Happy Hunger Games, Jenriko." Calamity said on the screen before it faded to the District Two reapings. Victory and Jeremiah volunteering as kids got stabbed with machetes. Unlike my reapings, they only showed quick flashes of their reapings, showing the bare minimum that needed to be showed. The method of killing the innocent, and who volunteered.
District Three's execution method was explosions, their tributes Caia and Kendrick.
District Four had electrocutions, Selene, and Dylan.
District Five had mist of death, Alexa, and Jamie.
District Six had burning, Adrienne, and Colton.
District Seven had bullets, Willow, and Timber attacking the escort.
District Eight had acid, Malik, and Vida attacking the escort.
District Nine had flesh eating flies, Wren, and Trim.
District Ten had attack dogs, Perla, and Tanner mouthing off.
District Eleven had boiling water, Caritta, and Adrian.
District Twelve had dropping coal, Daria, and Zeal.
I had seen all that before, but back then, I hadn't looked at them properly. I just skimmed through, looking at who my allies were. Now that I watched the reapings, I felt horrified at what had happened during our first day of this year's game.
Everyone was feeling pain, some were just expressing it more then others, like Timber, Vida, and Tanner. Honestly, I couldn't blame them for their actions.
Next came the training days in the Capitol.
It showed me and my fellow careers, minus Calamity and Selene, showing off our skills as well as Timber and Vida fighting on the first day. The second day highlights then came in, showing Timber and Tanner fighting before I started to seduce Tanner before he agreed to join the careers. If there was something about Tanner, it was that he could see through everything. He saw through my seduction, and he saw through a lot more. Remembering our talk in the arena, I found it hard to believe that Tanner, at first, had been nothing more then someone that swore a lot and seemed stupid. Someone that could only be used as dumb muscle.
It also showed the conflict between our careers. Dylan's smart talk, Victory's anger, my uncaring attitude. I was practically begging to be killed by Victory. Seeing myself act like that, I could believe that I had ever acted like that. I was like seeing a completely different person.
On the third day, it only showed Victory recruiting Trim into our alliance. Looking at this made me want to shout to the Trim on the screen not to trust her. But of course, he wouldn't be able to hear me, he was already history. But still, I couldn't help but feel a little sorry for him.
The interviews then came, and through the whole interview, I couldn't help but noticed my flirtation with the interviewer. I couldn't believe that I had actually acted like that! And the way I talked with such arrogance! The way that I thought I was invincible! This was so embarrassing.
Then just like the reapings, I got a full length interview, while everyone else just got a fragment of their's.
Calamity acted crazy, talking to himself mostly. Victory talked about how she was going to win the games for her family and the district. Jeremiah was humorous. Caia saying that while she wasn't strong, she was smart. Kendrick also saying that he was smart, and yet, he looked so strong. Selene refusing to talk about her sexuality. Dylan saying that he was smart and dangerous. Alexa being reserved and fidgeting a lot. Jamie saying that his smarts would bring him home. Adrienne was a charmer. Colton said that while he was short, he was a fighter. Willow muttered quietly. Timber saying that he was already dead to them and that they didn't understand anything about anything. Vida taking pride in her athletic ability and strength. Malik being quiet. Wren being a nervous mess. Trim being confident and humorous. Perla, with her fake red eyes, talking like she had glue in her mouth. Tanner swearing and telling bad jokes. Caritta acting like a rebel. Adrian acting strong and confident. Daria acting confident and unafraid. And Zeal, acting like he didn't even know what he was doing.
Seeing them all like that made me think of how much almost all of us thought that we were going to win the game, how confident we were of our skill and how much we wanted to go home. Timber being the only one to admit that he was a dead man, and Caritta ranting towards the Capitol, which was a death wish. Seeing as she died, it was one, even when the blond peacekeeper said that she wasn't going to die immediately.
Then the bloodbath occurred, and it showed us tributes in whatever we were wearing the night before. I couldn't help but notice that I was one only one naked. Luckily, nobody was controlling the cameras at the time, so they couldn't get a close up on my body. Even so, I could feel the male audience members staring at me on the screen, whispering dirty thoughts to each other. I wanted to bury my head and die.
But then Willow jumped off her plate and blew up into bloody chunks. I thought of her as the smartest tribute in the game, because at least her death was quick and painless. Unlike every other death I knew of.
It then showed Victory emotionlessly killing Trim blowing him to smithereens as she attempted it on Alexa, and failing because Alexa noticed her sneaky attack.
Then the bloodbath officially started, even though they were minus two tributes.
On screen, I saw Jeremiah jump up and down on Colton's head until his skull exploded beneath his feet, followed by Victory hacking Jamie's face in half. The instant Victory was done killing Jamie, she looked up, and saw Malik, who had just gotten jabbed in the neck by Daria, who was currently running away from the cornucopia with a bow and quiver of arrows. Victory threw her cleaver into Malik's neck with deadly efficiency.
It was then that I saw something that I dreaded. I saw Dylan and I chasing after Timber and Vida. Of all those people, because of their fighting, I thought that they wouldn't of continued to be allies, but they seemed to care about each other, that much was shown when Timber stood up for her against those peacekeepers.
We tore that alliance apart. Timber, taking a dart to the back, ran towards us before I stuck a spear into his shoulder and sent him to the ground. Dylan then slit his throat, stuck his hand into his neck, and pulled out his tongue. It made my neck throb, and I felt sick as I insulted Timber in his time of death. If I had known what it was like to have a hand inside my throat, I doubt I would of said anything at all. I would of put him out of his misery instead of letting him bleed out.
I then saw just how early Calamity had started his raping spree with his attempted rape of Caia. He would of succeeded as well, if Caia hadn't alerted Kendrick before Kendrick scared him off. But what was weird about it was that he shouted
"Fuck you, Calamity!" Why was he saying that to himself?
Kendrick then chased him down, but never caught him due to him remembering that he had left his ally alone.
Meanwhile, Alexa was using a toilet to breathe in fumes of an oven cleaner. It seemed to burn her throat, which didn't surprise me. I had to wonder what kind of person would do that sort of thing. What had been going through her mind to think that breathing that stuff in was a good idea?
Things quickly changed when she heard Vida calling out for Timber. The boy that Dylan and I had just killed.
Alone and defenceless, Alexa took advantage of that by hitting her in the back of the head. It didn't knock her out. So Vida fought back, making Alexa bleed. But then Alexa started spraying her oven spray at Vida. It only caught her legs at first, but it started to make her skin peel, and it clearly confused Vida more than it hurt. It wasn't until Vida got a face full of oven spray mist that he started to scream.
Even though her face was literally falling apart, Vida kept on fighting. But she was blind, and Alexa managed to steal her backpack as Vida continued to search for her.
The screen then cut to Adrienne attacking Zeal. She must of thought that Zeal was some kind of pervert, because when he said that he liked what he saw, which Adrienne guessed was her in her underwear, she went berserk, attacking Zeal with everything in the room until Zeal gave up. Adrienne then robbed him of his shirt and jacket before making him take off his pants. While he was doing that, she smashed the heavy pot that she was lifting over her head. Zeal didn't get knocked out, so he attacked her, which was quite different from how he had been acting just seconds before. He called her a bully and ran away, saying that he hated her, just like a child.
It then showed Tanner and Adrian talking about friends before Adrian told Tanner that he was a bad friend. Tanner then attacked him before Adrian started to fight back. In the background, Selene started to run away from them. The two boys, or rather, the boy and girl that looked and acted like a boy, started to get even more violent with each other until Adrian started to bash Tanner's face in with a shovel. By the end of the assault, I had to wonder how Tanner was still conscious, or even alive. Sure she said she had a thick fucking skull, but there was a limit to what someone could take.
Tanner then told Adrian that she didn't want to die, and she denied that she was crying, even though she was. It was a glimpse into who she really was, and she wasn't the Tanner from the Capitol training days, or the Tanner from the reapings. She was someone completely different.
It was then that those two discovered that Selene was missing.
The screen then cut to Me, Victory, Dylan, and Jeremiah, walking through the abandoned lab. And me, taking nothing seriously, kept on feeling around. I hated seeing myself like that. I should of listened to Dylan, because Dylan seemed to be always right.
We split up, with me going to the one that was clearly marked danger, wanting adventure. I sighed to myself. Why did I ever act like this? How could I of acted like this?
I then saw just what had happened with Jeremiah. Victory went into one of the rooms, Jeremiah followed. Victory attacked a mutt in the shadows, she got knocked onto her butt. As Jeremiah attacked the mutt, more mutts appeared, and Victory ran out of the room before shutting the door and locking it.
Jeremiah banged on the door, wanting to get out, Victory just smiled at him before Jeremiah took a final stand, and got torn in half by the human like mutts.
Dylan had been right all along. I now knew first hand, that Dylan had always been right.
I heard several people in the audience start to talk. About what I did not know, but what I imagined was them calling Victory smart, while calling Jeremiah stupid, and calling me blind. I could take them calling me blind, but Jeremiah was not stupid, how could he of known that Victory was going to do that to him? I bet that if it had been anyone but Dylan, or maybe Tanner, we'd of been killed as well.
It then cut to Adrian and Tanner chasing after Selene, with Tanner tracking her down. Tanner was clearly smarter then he had let on in the Capitol when all he did was swear. And still swear in the arena. Another screen cut, and it showed Zeal shouting
"Out of the way!" Before slamming into Selene, yelling sorry as he ran by.
It was then that Caritta showed up next to Selene, and the audience seemed to go silent. It was like they didn't want to miss a word from the exchange Selene and Caritta were having.
After a brief exchange of words, Caritta being kinder to Selene than anyone else, Tanner and Adrian showed up. Tanner and Caritta shot insults to each other before Adrian told her that she was being fake and selfish, saying that he knew why she was really defending Selene. Caritta didn't seem to like what Adrian was saying, and the four of them looked ready to fight each other, before Kendrick and Caia showed up and my allies left them alone.
Caritta then shot insults to the District Three allies. Kendrick wanted to fight them, but Caia managed to talk him out of it. I didn't think that it was the wisest choice, until Caia explained why they shouldn't, and I agreed with her. Another fight was averted.
It then showed Wren coming out of her hiding spot, which happened to be under a bed, and helping an unconscious Vida. I thought that it was an incredibly kind, yet stupid thing. Vida wasn't her ally, and what made her think that helping her would do for her? The only thing that that would do for her would be making herself feel good. For her to think 'yeah, I helped someone.' But then I thought of how it might not be in Wren's character to take a life. Still... It was kind of stupid of her.
It then cut to where Dylan was trying to warn me about Victory, to watch out for her. Me, being my stupid self, didn't believe that Victory would harm us, because of the simple fact that we were in an alliance. How wrong had I been.
I remember what I was thinking when that happened, I thought that it was cool that Victory and Jeremiah got to fight mutts, and I thought that was really cool. I shook my head. How could I of ever thought that?
The screen then showed Perla digging into her skin and removing bits of her under flesh. She soon started to scratch her skin so hard that her skin started to tare, and she didn't stop. What was she trying to do? Get rid of something underneath her skin? I saw nothing, but did that mean that it wasn't there? Or was it part of her imagination.
Zeal then showed up and started to comment on what she was doing, saying that it was gross. Perla then attacked him. Zeal did a poor defensive maneuver, and ended up getting his palm ripped off with Perla's teeth being the weapon.
A chase then occurred. Perla chased him into the cafeteria area, and all the while, Zeal was just trying to run away from her.
It wasn't until Daria occurred and told Zeal to fight back, told him that he could fight back, that he started to actually fight back, with devastating results. It was like he became a whole new person.
But then Perla escaped his grip, by having a chunk of her hair being ripped out. She took advantage of Zeal's confusion to rake her sharpened nails, which I'm guessing she chewed on, and caused his face to grow red stripes. It didn't take long for Daria to put an arrow into Perla's arm before jabbing her in the soft spot of her back that was between her shoulder blades. Daria then grabbed her, smashed her fist into her face once, then Perla escaped before the two District Twelve tributes started to give chase.
The chase must of gone on for a while, because the screen changed scenes, and it showed Calamity walking down the jail area before finding the cell that Vida was in. She couldn't of gotten there on her own, so I'm guessing that Wren dragged her there. But Wren was nowhere in sight.
Calamity entered the cell, saw Vida, then shouted out a message meant for Timber, asking him if he was all right with him having some fun with his ally. Of course, Timber being dead, couldn't answer. It didn't matter though, because someone slammed into him, someone else was trying to defend Vida. That person was Wren.
I couldn't help but shake my head. She should of just stayed hidden under that bed, she would of been safe that way. But no, she had to be the helpful girl, and she got her ass kicked because of that. She fought back, but Calamity ended up breaking her legs before the screen skipped over to something else.
It wasn't difficult to guess what Calamity had done. He was raping Wren. I clinched my fists, wanting to hurt him so badly, again.
But then it showed Tanner and Adrian worrying about telling Victory that they had let Selene escape. They were scared of Victory. They didn't even know about the murder and they were worried about Victory killing them.
Tanner slamming Adrian's face across the wall before she slapped him across the face several times. They exchanged insults before Victory, Dylan, and myself, appeared.
I asked what the serious situation was, and Tanner told me that Selene had attacked them before leaving us. I then saw and heard myself get angry at her.
Selene never attacked them, they had attacked each other, blaming Selene because they didn't want everyone to know that they had fought each other and let Selene get away. It showed that Tanner was smart, and good at planning on the spot, something that I wouldn't of thought that she could of done.
On screen, Tanner then asked where Jeremiah was, and that's when things started to fall apart. I didn't think that Victory killed him, Dylan did, and we were making fun of Dylan. Dylan got angry, and for the right reasons, and decided to attack Victory, but Adrian and I got in his way, and we paid the price for it. We injured Dylan, but he nearly killed us before Victory started to chase after him.
It was then that Tanner started to heal us, himself wrapping my neck with bandages. He was the one that had saved me.
On screen, it showed Dylan running down the corridor. At one point, he started to cry. I couldn't imagine what was going through his mind. He was right, and we all didn't believe him. He was trying to do the right thing, and now he was alone.
Victory threw her cleaver into Dylan's back, and that was when I knew that it was all over. Dylan was dead, it was just a matter of time when. He fought back, but it wasn't enough to stop Victory before she started to torture Dylan. I didn't want to watch, so I looked away, knowing that I was a big part of why Dylan died that way. I couldn't block out his screams, because I wasn't allowed to hold my hands against my ears. I looked away until Dylan's screamed stopped, and Victory let out a cry of victory.
I didn't want to watch the rest of the games, knowing how it was going to end, but I was forced to watch. The show would go on, for the Capitol.
The next part that I saw was Daria, and Zeal, chasing Perla. They ran down hallways and rounded corners, and Perla managed to stay ahead of them, though they were still chasing her.
Perla then managed to find a room that she could hide it. A children's room.
Perla hid in one of the air vents before she screamed, crawled out, and got attacked by child looking mutts. They ripped her to pieces by the time Daria and Zeal arrived, and they were forced to retreat.
The video just jumped to the District Three alliance getting attacked by the District Twelve alliance. A fight occurred, which had Daria go against Caia, trying to grab her tire iron before Kendrick started to beat on Daria, before Zeal started to scream out in anger, shouting to Kendrick that he had killed him before and for him to stay dead. Meanwhile, Caia had beaten Daria up, telling Zeal to either take her and leave, or to stay and die. Zeal took the first option, taking Daria in his arms and running away while telling her everything was going to turn out all right.
Several audience members aww'd, but I knew that everything for them wasn't going to be all right. I should know, I witnessed their deaths.
I then saw Adrienne on the screen, killing a mutt before the blond peacekeeper's voice appeared, telling her that she could end the games if she pushed a button. The catch was that she also had to kill everyone that was close to her victims as well, as well as those closest to her.
The screens in front of her then came to life, but whatever she saw had been cut, so I didn't get to see what she had seen. But whatever she got to see, it caused her to not push the button.
I heard audience members sigh and call her stupid, but also say that they were glad that she didn't push the button. But those reasons weren't because it prevented the death of innocent people, it was because it stopped the games from being over and boring. It made me sick. People had suffered in those games, and you were saying that you were glad that they had suffered? So that you could have your entertainments worth? Fuck you all!
On screen, Tanner was acting different then she normally did. She wasn't swearing, and if anything, she seemed really sad. But Adrian managed to get her back into her normal personality, for about ten seconds.
I then heard Tanner call me horrible, and compared me to a pig. That got audience members to laugh. I couldn't help but giggle a little as well. Only you Tanner, would think that calling a girl horrible and telling her that she was like a pig was a good thing.
A quick scene then showed Caritta and Selene. It showed Caritta saying that she didn't like bullies and that those two girls became allies.
The next scene showed Alexa acting crazy, like she was seeing things that weren't there before she slammed her fist on a wall, breaking her fingers, before she started to laugh. It really creeped me out, but it got even worse when she started to bite into her disfigured hand. Started to eat herself!
Alexa then started to cry, before Calamity showed up and started to do his thing to her. They skipped over the rape scene, yet again.
The next scene was of Vida waking up, finding out that her legs were broken, finding Wren near her, then attacking Wren. Vida, consumed by anger, tore Wren's face off with her nails, ignoring that Wren was screaming out in pain. Vida didn't seem to care that Wren had fixed her up, but it's not like she knew that she had been fixed up, or that Wren had helped in anyway. I wanted to shout to her that Wren had helped her, but I didn't, she would of been able to hear me. Vida was already dead.
It didn't stop audience members from booing Vida and calling her obscenities.
When Vida did finally see what she had done, she vomited on Wren's exposed face, before giving her the gift of mercy by biting into her neck and letting her bleed to death faster. That was when Vida started to cry.
I then saw the cornucopia on the screen again, and heard Tanner and Adrian talking to each other, trying to decide wither or not to kill Victory then or later before they discovered that Victory was gone, then started talking about burning the cornucopia.
The screen then skipped over to Daria and Zeal talking. Zeal was talking about his friends, and Daria didn't believe that he had any friends. Zeal talked about his life growing up, and Daria found everything to just be an excuse on Zeal's part. I for one found Zeal's past interesting. Living on the streets, like Terry had been. I had to wonder if Terry would of ended up like Zeal and his friends if my family hadn't let him live in the training center.
The next thing the screen showed was Caritta telling Selene that she liked her right before she burst into flames. I ignored the burning Caritta, thinking of Adrian's words to her, saying that she was protecting Selene for her own selfish wants. He had been right, she was only protecting Selene because she was a lesbian, and she wanted her.
Several of the audience members started to chat about how noble Caritta was, how she was protecting Selene because of love and all that crap. They didn't see Caritta as selfish or a bully, or anything, like Adrian did, who knew Caritta better. If love forgave her of everything, then it was a stupid reason to be forgiven of everything.
Victory tortured Caritta before the screen jumped to Selene stabbing herself in the throat. The audience calling it lovers remorse. I hated that they were playing those two up as a couple that was forgiven of everything bad that they had done. That they were misunderstood. Just because Caritta said that she loved Selene didn't make everything right.
Calamity then showed up, and they skipped over the rape of Selene.
They then showed Alexa spray oven cleaner in her mouth before they skipped over to the next scene. I guess people just wanted to see how she died. After all, the most entertaining thing about the games was the killing. Not the tributes themselves, but the death of them.
They then showed Caia defending a defeated Kendrick by refusing to leave him for the mutts. They were allies, but I could see that Caia had a good chance of meeting death if she stayed, but she stayed anyway. She fought, but eventually got overrun with mutts, until Kendrick saved her.
Kendrick then asked if she was all right. She said no, he told her that he was the same, but he was glad that she was still alive. The audience aww'd, and I wanted to shout at them that not every act of kindness between a boy and girl was an act of love.
Caia then asked if she was useless, with Kendrick telling her that he wouldn't still be alive if she were.
The audience seemed convinced that they were in love, and that's why Caia didn't leave Kendrick, and why Kendrick was defending her. Didn't they ever think that it was a survival method? Or that they were just friends? Guess not. After all, they knew nothing about them.
I watched the fight between Calamity and Victory, both of them utterly destroying each other, until Victory got injured in that explosion. If I hadn't known better, I would of thought that she died. But Victory didn't die that easily. She was still alive, and was going to kill more people.
Still, it was good to see someone knock the two of them down several pegs.
The screen quickly skipped to Adrian burning down the cornucopia supplies before the two of them, while Tanner carried me, leaving the burning items behind.
The next thing that appeared was Vida dying in the same way my male mentor died. Choking to death on her own blood as she cried tears of blood. The audience erupted into cheers. I wanted to tell them to shut their mouths.
The next thing that I saw on the screen was Adrian and Tanner fighting the District Twelve duo. Adrian fought his hardest, but it didn't stop Daria from stabbing him in the neck with her tiny knife. She would of taken it all off it I hadn't thrown my knife and snap her neck.
Tanner, who had been fighting Zeal, grabbed a rubix cube and smashed it onto his head until it shattered and Zeal's head turned into mush. After that deed was done, Tanner vomited before she started to cry.
It then skipped over to Tanner and I arguing, Tanner telling me how much I've changed and how Dylan had been right all along. It showed me beating her up while she did nothing to defend herself. She then brought up the fake proposal that I had forgotten up until that point. She made fun of me for having sex with an older man, and then kissed me.
I felt my face burn as I heard the audience erupt with cheers.
I then saw the two of us talk for a bit before she whispered to me her secret. It was quiet enough that the audience couldn't hear it, but I knew what she said. I saw the me on the screen look like fainting as the audience looked confused. They were wondering what she had said, and I didn't want to tell them. Not because it was weird and a little bit embarrassing, but because it was her secret.
As my mind was dead to everything around me, I saw Tanner look up as she said the names of her friends, and thanked them for being her friends. That she loved them all. It didn't get the reaction that Tanner deserved. Instead, she got no reaction from the audience. They didn't care about Tanner's life.
They then showed Adrienne's fight with Calamity, and yet again, skipped the raping. Adrienne then tried to say something, but it wasn't anything that I could understand.
It then skipped to the District Three alliance, showing Kendrick and Caia going to split up so that Kendrick could have Caia heal whole he searched for medicine for her. She thanked him for being her friend, he said your welcome, and he was off, never to see her again.
It then skipped over to Tanner leading Victory away from me as my mind was elsewhere. Tanner then fought Victory. Tanner kept on fighting, even to points where I thought that she shouldn't of been able to. Her ribs were sticking out of her chest, her arms were broken, her legs were at impossible angles, and her face had been torn apart, her teeth were missing, and only when all her limbs were broken did she stop fighting.
It then skipped to me running around looking for Tanner. They had skipped out how Victory had killed Tanner, and I couldn't blame them, it wasn't anything that I wanted to see again if I could help it. I heard several audience members vomiting from the mere reminder of how she had died.
On screen, I saw myself attack Kendrick, who was trying to save someone. I was trying to save someone as well, only mine was dead and Kendrick's was still alive. I ruined his chance of saving someone.
It then skipped to Kendrick getting tricked by Victory before she started to torture him. I couldn't help but see that they had my reaction of finding Tanner's body. They probably didn't want anyone to see her body, but I thought that it was something that I needed to see again, myself caring. Seeing that I really cared about someone.
After Kendrick was killed, it showed Caia fighting Calamity, and her kicking his ass!
I wanted to shout praise at her, from the looks of her, she had been raped as well, but they had edited that out, and had been pushed too far. She nearly killed Calamity before he turned tail and ran. Go Caia!
But then it showed me forcing Caia's body into the deep fryer. I didn't like seeing myself like that, it made me look like a cold blooded murderer, just like I had been with Timber.
Then the mutts started to chase the three of us towards the cornucopia.
We climbed the horn before we got into a three way tangle.
They really highlighted the finale, showing the fight in full detail, making it the best edited scene of the entire game.
It still skipped out Calamity raping me, but I found it confusing that Calamity was the one that freed me from the knife that he had put in himself. He attacked himself like a crazy person, freed me, then let me attack him. He had just stayed there, arms open, and let himself get kicked by me. He could of easily moved away, but he didn't. What was up with that? Ah well, it doesn't matter, he got what he deserved. I watched with great satisfaction the mutts rip him apart.
Then the fight between Victory and I occurred, and I was surprised that I had even survived that fight. I was surprised that any of us had made it as far as he had with the injures that we had. But I won.
I saw myself doing things that I hadn't even remembered doing. I knew I won, but that was because I was still alive. I couldn't remember how I killed Victory, but now that I saw what I had done, I had to wonder if a part of Victory had entered my soul and took over. The way that I had ripped out her spine, destroyed her head, and ripped her brains to pieces, the way that I screamed in victory, it made me wonder.
The lights then shot back on and the screen went black.
"Let's give another hand to our victor!" My interviewer shouted, and the audience happily obeyed.
I should feel happy, this was my dream for the longest time after all. But the thing was, I didn't feel happy, I felt sad. Everyone in that arena had gone through so much, and they only ended up dead. Everyone in there had suffered to some degree or another.
Vida would never discover the sacrifice that Timber had given her. Wren would never get a thank you from Vida. I would never be able to forgive Dylan and tell him that he was right all along. Jeremiah would always know that he had been betrayed by someone that he trusted. I would never be able to tell Kendrick that I was sorry for ruining his chance to save Caia, and I would never be able to tell Caia that she didn't deserve what I had done to her.
I would never be able to see Jeremiah, Dylan, Adrian, and Tanner alive ever again.
We had all suffered.
The only ones that had deserved that suffering was Calamity and Victory. They were monsters that needed to die for terrorizing everyone that crossed their paths.
Twenty four tributes enter the arena, only one leaves alive. Right now, I don't know wither I wanted this, or wanted to turn back time and die with my friends.
*Six hours later*
As an act of forgiveness, the newly elected president offered me a gift. The gift was something that I had expected I'd get in my lifetime.
He gave me one of the three people that were responsible for the slaughter of the reapings and the horrific games that got away with so many things it was almost unbelievable.
He told me that I could do whatever I wanted with him, and gave me every kind of torture tool I could imagine, and more. So much in fact, that I didn't even know what I could do with some of them. It made me think of Victory and how much fun she could of had with the equipment in front of me.
He then left me, and Conrad Blizzard, alone.
Conrad was tied to a chair with copper wire, he couldn't escape. And even though I hadn't done anything to him, his face was already a mess. People had already beaten him, and I would of as well, if I wasn't sick of death.
Being in the arena, actually killing people, and having severed attachment to people close to me, destroyed any glamorization of the arena I had once had. Fighting, killing, and all those things, I no longer wanted.
"There's only one question I want you to answer." I told him, sitting in a chair in front of him as I played with a pair of pliers that I had no intention of using. "What was the point of this game? The reaping slaughter, the Capitol anarchy, the things that you allowed to happen in the games. Why did you do it?"
"To send a message." Conrad told me. He wasn't fighting back, he saw that it was useless.
"Which was?" I asked, interested to know why so many had suffered for this game.
"To show everyone the horrors of war." He answered. "Everyone had forgotten why the Capitol took control, why they keep a tight lease on the districts, and why we have The Hunger Games. To prevent the districts from rising up and rebelling. To show my home, the Capitol, how lucky we are to be here, and that The Hunger Games originally wasn't meant for entertainment."
"War, huh?" I said, wondering where war fit in with all this. "What about it? After all of this, why shouldn't we go to war?"
"The reapings were to show that everyone suffers from war, that not everyone's safe. That to avoid a war, the districts need to submit to the Capitol's demands. The games have several. To show that war isn't pretty, it has everything that you experienced in the arena, and more. That the games aren't entertainment, to show what would happen if you tried to take control of the Capitol. I mean, what makes you think that the districts will be any better than us? And all the while, anarchy will rule as the war goes on, maybe anarchy will continue to rule even after the war is over."
"So basically you tried to show everyone that they shouldn't fight against the Capitol, or else this is just a taste of what's going to happen to all of you?"
"Yes."
I spat at him. Angry at him and his way of delivering the message. But at the same time, I guess it was the only way to send it. Nobody listens to the words of the Capitol, so he had to show them. Still, it didn't mean that I had to like it.
"You disgust me." I told him before standing up and leaving.
"Wait!" He shouted to be. I stopped and turned around, wondering what he wanted. "You aren't just going to leave me like this are you?"
"Why shouldn't I?" I asked.
"Because I want to die." He told me, which surprised me. I didn't think I'd ever hear this from someone from the Capitol.
"Why?" I asked, curious to what would make him think that way.
"Well first of all, everyone that I care about is gone. My father, my mother, my brother, all gone. And second of all, if you don't kill me, they will, and it'll be worse than what Victory did to everyone in the arena. They'll keep me alive for days, slowly killing me until my body can't take it anymore, let me recover, then torture me some more."
"I don't care about you," I told him. "Why should I grant you a quick death?"
"Would you want my suffering on your conscious?" He asked. To which I thought, no, I don't. Even if the way he sent the message was wrong, I knew why he was sending it. The original purpose of the games had been forgotten. The districts, my home, just saw it as the Capitol being cruel. The Capitol saw it as entertainment.
The reality was, the games were there to punish us for rebelling against the Capitol. It was our fault, and if what happened in the arena was a tiny sample of what war was like, I'd say, let the Hunger Games continue.
"No." I told him, dropping the pliers, I walked over to the table with all the torture devices, picked up a large knife, and stabbed him deeply in the throat.
Conrad's eyes went wide a second before I ripped out the knife. Conrad's blood began to spray violently out of his neck before I dropped the knife, dropped to the floor, and vomited everything that I had just eaten.
Conrad would be dead in two minutes, a mercy kill, if what he said was true about others torturing him. Even so, I hadn't wanted to have to experience this thing ever again.
Even though I'm out of the arena, I was still living the nightmare.
Was this what I had to look forward to? Death, death, and more death?
I knew that answer, but I didn't want to hear it, but even so, it screamed at me.
Yes.
A/N: Just two more chapters until this thing's finally done! Yeah!
Well, these last few chapters haven't been the best, but as I've said before, I just want to get this done. So, sorry for lack of quality control.