Chapter 13:

Embla Rinyes, District Six, Age 18

Victor of the 88th Hunger Games

The splash in the water woke Embla up with a start and it took everything in her to not let out a noise in shock and alert whoever was in the bathhouse with her that she is there. That was so stupid of her to fall asleep. She couldn't help it though, not in the warm water of the bath house. She had meant to just soak for a bit, wash away the sweat, blood, and grime from a week in the arena…and now she's surely going to be caught.

But her luck wasn't out yet and it seems like the other tribute didn't know she was there, the steam too thick to see her across the vast bath. She could almost kiss whoever is running the arena and kept the water steaming hot.

"Get it off!" they all but screamed to get the blood off of their hands as they splash around in the water, desperately scrubbing away at blood. Embla recognized the desperation in their voice, having felt it after she had made her first kill and had blood on her hands. But she also knew that meant they were also a killer and when push comes to shove, most likely won't hesitate to kill once more. And she happens to be the closest tribute for them to kill.

Not if she kills them first.

Embla couldn't let her advantage here go to waste. Not when she was sitting in a bath with someone who has killed. She doesn't care who it is. They're standing between her and victory.

She quietly took a deep breath before plunging her head under the water. She kicked off from the wall, using it to propel her forward across the bath. As she gets closer, she can see them scrubbing their hands under the water – but no knife in their hands. Good.

As her lungs start to burn for air, she braces her feet to push her up above the surface. She only has one shot to surprise them and can't waste it. Embla clutches her knife tightly before she kicks herself above the water in a big splash, gasping for air as she gets ready to stab her knife into the tribute in front of her.

Embla recognizes the tribute as her District partner Ji-Yeong just before she drives the knife into their chest, too late to stop the movement even if she wanted to. And as much as there is an unspoken rule about not killing District partners…she doesn't care about the rules when it's a matter of life or death.

But still, shock fills both of their faces as they stare down at the knife sticking out of Ji-Yeong's chest. Neither of them dares to move – Embla out of shock that was quickly fading away and Ji-Yeong out of fear that removing the knife will make them bleed out faster. "I didn't know it was you," Embla tells them, not apologizing for her action, but still explaining herself. They'd been so quiet the whole time in the Capitol, terrified for their life and barely speaking that Embla hadn't recognized the panic screams as they desperately tried to scrub blood off of themself. She hadn't given them a second thought since the bloodbath, fully expecting them to die early on. The fact that they made it to the top half was actually remarkable. Clearly something must have snapped in them in the arena to drive them to kill.

But Embla also changed in the arena.

She yanks out the knife from their chest and they gasp in pain as tears start to fall down their cheeks. "W-why?" they stutter out as they start to sink down into the bloodstained water. They let out one last gasp for air before their eyes flutter closed, dying without hearing any apology from Embla.

Boom.

Embla sighs at the body of her District partner floating in the water and gently pushes it away from her. She gets out and sits on the edge of the bath, staring at Ji-Yeong's body, waiting for…guilt. Shouldn't she feel guilty for killing her District partner? She feels like she should. Everyone is surely expecting her to be feeling it. But she's not. Why should she feel guilty when taking their life puts her one step closer to getting home? Maybe if she had purposely hunted them down she'd feel guilty. This…this was just an accident. She just didn't recognize them in time to not kill them.

Yet even if she had recognized them…she still would have killed them. They might not have been the strongest tribute, but they were her biggest competitor. Their victory would have meant certain death. Only one of them ever had a shot at getting home to District Six and she wasn't going to let it not be her.

"Sorry you were in the wrong place, Ji-Yeong," Embla whispers to their corpse as she pulls herself up. Watered down blood drips off of her, a sure sign for anyone to follow after her until she dries off. For a moment, she contemplates hiding in the room until she's dried, but soon changes her mind, setting off through the open door. She runs a bloodied hand over the paper door and down the hallway, hoping someone will see it.

Let them come and find her. She's not afraid to take more lives. These people in this arena mean nothing to her. The only one she might have hesitated to kill in this arena she did kill.

Embla doesn't care if they hate her in Six when she gets back home. All she cares about is getting home.

I give you Embla Rinyes, Victor of the 88th Hunger Games! The legendary woman who got Dampero his hot tub lol.

Wow, what's this? A new Victor Memoirs? Yes, I did not forget about this story lol. It just put on the furthest backburner for a long time as I worked through Ashes. Well, today I got the motivation to do some writing for it so here we are! And I have the next victor done to so woo having two new updates! Working my way through the early years with mostly undeveloped victors is a double edged sword - I get to develop new victors, but at the same time, it means I have to start from scratch and so that's made me struggle a little with some of these. But we're just a few victors out from getting to the ones we all know and love so I'm looking forward to reaching that point!

So here's to hoping I'll do some more writing with this story and not put it to the backburner again for another few months lol.