HAYMITCH
I find myself lying on my bed staring at the ceiling. I haven't been able to sleep at all tonight. I still have 2 more hours before I have to go to the grat hall of victors. The only thing I have thought about is the boy and how I am going to convince the sponsors to support him. Perhaps, I can tell them that he has a secret ability that he will show when they least expect it. Damn! Even I find it hard to believe that. I decide I better start fixing myself, not only does the guy have to make a good impression, but so do I. I choose the most sober clothes, but similar to the fashion of the capitol, that I find. I shower and dress quickly. I drink what's left of the bottle by the bed.
"Haymitch, Haymitch wake up!" I hear Effie's voice calling me or rather shouting. I jump out of bed. If that woman is upset, it's because something has happened. I open the door "there you are! You have to go immediately to the victors' room with the other mentors, apparently the night has been busy..."
I don't listen to her anymore and I quickly go down to the hall of the victors. We are almost all in the room now, only the mentors from district 5 are missing. Although there is little point in their being here, their two tributes are dead. Well, that doesn't matter, they still force you to come and watch the games until the end.
"what happened?" I ask Chaff, sitting next to him in the same place as yesterday. I notice that no one seems to have moved from their place. Next to me are Johanna, Finnick, Cecelia and Woof. The eyes of the last two do not take off the screen.
"It's the girl from 8" Chaff begins, passing me a bottle of white liquor.
"Leila" I interrupt him
"Yes, she" he answers me with exasperation "apparently she didn't waste time all night, she tracked down the remaining tribute of nine and killed him with the spear she carries. That's not all, apparently the trajectory that she has taken is leading her to either cross paths with your tribute or with the girl from district 7, both are not far away"
Incredible, the "silly" girl has already had two deaths. I look at the screen and there I see it. She still has the rabbit tied around her waist with the same rope she caught it on and I see the spear still bloody from the tribute she killed and the knife in her hand ready to strike, if necessary. However, her expression says nothing, it is blank. She moves cautiously, looking around the place as she walks, and being as quiet as humanly possible. It's obvious, she's not looking for a safe place, she's hunting. Suddenly I see that she finds one of the traps that my boy has left on the ground. She examines it, and it looks like she's going to move on when she decides to change her mind. She lets go of the rabbit she is carrying and arranges it in the trap in such a way that it appears that this is how it died. Once Finished her work, she walks away just a few meters, climbs a tree and hides among her branches while she waits. Yes, I know what she is waiting for, that my boy falls into her trap and dies poisoned by the rabbit, or by an ambush of hers.
The camera focuses on my tribute. So innocent, checking each one of the traps he left, looking for what to eat. I prayed that something would happen that would make him forget about his task. The bitterness I feel for the inevitable, I can't help it. I wish she'd fall out of her stupid tree and break her neck. Finally the boy reaches the trap and sees the rabbit. He smiles with real triumph at having caught something. He skins the animal with a sharp stone he has found, he doesn't wait to cook it. Perhaps he remembered my advice, a bonfire will only attract the attention of the other tributes. On the third bite, I hear the cannon go off. For a total of 34 children that I have accompanied to die.
"I'm sorry Haymitch," Chaff whispers to me. My other companions repeat the same thing, although it is unnecessary, we all know what it means to be in the games. I uncork the bottle and drink. I stay contemplating the roof of the place, I wish I could leave but they wouldn't let me.
"Damn bitch!" I hear Johanna's scream of rage. I turn my eyes to the screen and see the assassin from District 8 chasing the girl from District 7 with great agility. Her desperation to try to escape from her is evident. When Leila gets to a close distance, she takes the spear, and throws it, hurting the girl from 7, she falls with the spear stuck in her leg. She tries to get up but it's too late, the girl is next to her, she pulls the spear from her and sticks it in her chest. We heard the sounds of the cannon shot again.
Johanna gets up and angrily hits the table in the center of the room with her foot, breaking it. I don't judge her, years ago I also took it out on the furniture. Only 5 minutes later we hear a cannon shot again and the cameras focus on the corpse of the girl from district 6. She drank from the poisoned stream.
The mentors of the surviving tributes are called to meet with the sponsors. I see the hesitation between Woof and Cecelia. In the end it is he who decides to go alone, she still has not recovered from everything we have seen.
"I never thought she was like that, Haymitch" Cecelia tells me in a choked voice.
"It's not your fault" Cecelia
"she was creepy when she talked about the capitol but otherwise she didn't seem to be mean. I don't understand".
" It's the game, Cecelia, nobody decent wins these games" I cut the conversation. I don't need her explanations and I don't have the patience or the desire to comfort her.
Two hours later all the mentors return. Chaff seems to have gotten some good deals. What happens in the hours that follow, however, happens so fast that it leaves us all stoic in our seats. The 6 career tributes have decided to get into action. They've already caught and killed the tribute from District 3 and the girl from District 10. Leila hasn't let up either, she's moving stealthily to attack the boy from District 11 by surprise. I feel Chaff's tension next to me. As soon as she gets the chance, she emerges from her hiding place and attacks him with astonishing speed. She manages to hit him with her spear, but he struggles, easily dodging him, tripping him. Wasting no time with the tip of her spear, she cuts his throat. A new cannon. Chaff goes to get a second bottle for himself and me.
At the end of the day, the kill count is 15, only 9 tributes left. If they keep moving this fast, it'll all be over by the end of the week. As soon as I enter the apartment, Effie greets me with her tirade.
"oh Haymitch I can't believe that once again, our tributes didn't achieve anything. But I have to add that these games are causing quite a stir, as I haven't seen for years. Everyone is talking about it. I have heard that in other circumstances the gamemakers would be furious because they are killing each other so quickly, yet the games are so popular as ever that they are just letting things go. People just place their bets. Everyone is impressed with Leila. How lucky Varia is to be her escort. She will be showered with praise, even if her tribute doesn't win. I wish we had tributes as talented as her, right Haymitch?" I don't answer her, I just slam the door angrily in her face. I wish we didn't have any tributes, that would be a dream.
I get drunk until I lose consciousness, I want to forget about these shitty days. Of those gray eyes full of hope, stabbed in the back. the boy's face of victory for having managed to catch something, when it was a lie. When I manage to sleep, I only have nightmares, with the faces of the 34 children I failed, the faces of their families when they received them in a wooden box. Everything is so stifling.
The next day, I go back to my usual place with Chaff and the boys. Cecelia and Woof have decided today to sit in the farthest part of the room. The morning "seems" to start quietly. The career have decided to leave the cornucopia to go "hunting". As soon as they leave, 15 minutes later Leila appears in the cornucopia. She begins to gather large amounts of wood. Does she mean to burn down the cornucopia? That does not make sense. Since what she is doing doesn't look so interesting, the cameras decide to focus on the other tributes. The careers decide to split up into groups of two in order to cover more ground. A couple of hours later the tributes from District 4 meet up with the girl from District 11. The hand-to-hand confrontation begins, two against one. The tribute from eleven terribly wounds the male tribute from 4 on his arm, however they manage to reduce her and kill her with a stab. The boy's arm is practically dangling, his partner tries to bandage it with what's left of his jacket. Chaff just sighs and drinks more, there's no point in comforting him, it doesn't work at all, that's the game. The cameras quickly change focus and now the tributes of 2 are in full pursuit against the remaining 10 tribute. They manage to cross paths with the tributes of 1 and thus manage to trap him in the ambush. All with their weapons in hand, riddled him at the same time. It's an unpleasant thing to see.
Unexpectedly, smoke begins to be seen in the distance. It's Leila. She has made a large bonfire. But what is she up to? To bring the other tributes and be easy prey? And apparently that's what she intends, she adjusts her spear on her back, the usual knife in her right hand and a new oval-shaped knife, which I'm sure she took from the weapons that careers keep, in her other hand. She then sits down to wait.
Everyone in the room sits closer to the screen to see better, we are intrigued and waiting for what is going to happen. It only takes an hour for the other tributes to arrive from different angles. Yes, they all saw the smoke signal and responded to the call. They stop when they see Leila alone sitting quietly with a blank expression. The boys laugh and make jokes to see who can finish her off first.
"They're going to massacre her" says Johanna.
"Maybe she just wants to bring them to run away and take them to another point, the girl is fast she would have no problem escaping" Finnick intervenes
"That doesn't make any sense" I pointed out "why spend so much energy just to do that? It is also noticeable that the game is taking its toll on her, she has not slept, she is dehydrated and I have not seen her eat anything either".
"Today I was supposed to buy and send her food and water with the money the sponsors gave me yesterday, but everything has been happening so fast that I haven't had the chance" Woof intervenes for the first time today.
Leila gets up from her place. I see that finally the boy from district 1 is the one chosen to face her, at least only one will kill her and they won't do the same to her as to the boy from 10. However, she does not disappoint, she gains momentum running so fast to meet him, she dodges him so easily, she wounds him in the leg and with a kick she makes him fall to his knees, and with a single movement of her great curved knife she decapitates him. The panting in the room is collective. The other tributes have decided to take action by uniting against her, however she knows how to fight. She is not only able to dodge their attacks with her agility but at the same time she is effective at attacking back, always hitting the target. The District 4 tributes have fallen and it continues the fight. At one point Leila manages to use the weight of her attacker against himself and manages to stab him without killing him, the boy from district 2, can barely take breaths, he only spits up blood and the girl pushes him forcing him to walk in reverse using him as a human shield. When trying to attack her, they only manage to mutilate the boy. She drops the boy's body against the other tributes and takes advantage of the moment of confusion to finish off the remaining tributes.
The games are over. Leila is the 67th victor of the Hunger Games. Looking around me I see the different faces of horror, surprise, confusion for everything we have just seen. It is not for less, as far as I know, this is the first time in the history of the hunger games that one, these are finished in a short time and two, that a tribute by itself ends with more than half of the contestants . Yes, Leila has a record, she alone killed 13.
Two days later the victor's coronation ceremony takes place. All the mentors are obliged to attend, once it is over we can return home. The only positive thing about these games is that since the girl was unharmed, they only needed two days to make her presentable for the ceremony. Once on stage, she again dazzles the audience with her charm and wit. President Snow seems quite pleased with her. However, there is something different there, something that I can't figure out what it could be. I notice that for brief moments she seems a little off or nervous and she looks up at her prep team, and she constantly smooths out the invisible wrinkles in her dress. Maybe she's finally realized that winning the hunger games isn't really a prize.