Chapter 57:
Zephyr Ondrej, District Two, Age 18
Victor of the 132nd Hunger Games
Zephyr is getting so damn tired of keeping this act up all the time. This jokester he's been pretending to be all this time just isn't how he actually is. He knows it's all part of the plan to manipulate the others – they knew Emilio would tell his tributes not to trust Jory's tribute – but damn, is it exhausting. He can admit it was a bit hilarious to put his allies' underwear up on the camp flagpole, but he's tired of being looked down upon by the others.
But exploring the campground kitchen yesterday gave him the perfect way to end this miserable time for him. He knows he has their trust and won't think twice about taking a s'more from him again at this evening's campfire. But they don't have to know that he stuffed the marshmallows with the rat poison he found in the corner of the food cupboard today.
Zephyr whistles as he swings the bag of marshmallows in his hand as he goes to join his three remaining allies at the campfire. Man, is he still salty that District One still has both of their tributes left while he lost his District partner first. Granted, she was a dumbass and could have exposed his strategy, but it's the principle of it! He can't have Emilio's tributes being better than him! No, he has to prove to Jory that he is obviously the superior choice to date over his washed up ex who can't even give proper mentorship to his tributes. Oh he wishes he could see the look on Emilio's face when he realizes that Jory's tribute took out both of One's tributes in one go.
Time to prove to Jory he's the best option available.
Zephyr grins as he sits down between Raphael and Joss, keeping up the act of being just a little innocent gay flirting with the boys. "Hey boys, ready for some s'mores?" he asks them before looking at Bryn and it takes every ounce of acting ability in him to wink at her without making a face. Ugh, he can't wait to get rid of Emilio's tribute. "And I suppose you too, Bryn."
"I've been thinking about this s'more all day!" Joss says, the boy from Four leans back on his chair and rubs his stomach. "Yesterday's was so fucking good. I swear, I'm gonna get home and just make myself s'mores every day."
Zephyr laughs at that comment, knowing Joss would be doing no such thing. "What about you, Raph?" he asks, gently elbowing him with a flirty grin. Just keep pretending they're Jory.
The boy from One doesn't look like he wants to admit it, but Zephyr can tell he's excited. "I suppose," he mumbles and Zephyr laughs at his reaction.
"It's okay, I won't make you admit you find my s'mores delicious," Zephyr teases as he gets two marshmallows on sticks and looks over at Bryn. He raises an eyebrow at the girl, "You going to take one from me or just come back out to sneak one later?"
Bryn flushes at getting called out on that and crosses her arms at him with a small pout. "I did not…" she says and Zephyr raises both eyebrows at her, making her sigh. "Alright, fine. I'll have a s'more," she begrudgingly admits.
Zephyr has to control his grin, knowing he finally won them over and got her trust. She really should have listened to her mentor to not trust him. "Alright, well, you'll just have to wait your turn," he says, gesturing with the two sticks before putting them by the fire. "Only have two hands and you know I'm a simp for boys." It wasn't a complete lie, but he was just a simp for one specific man.
They start chatting and joking around as the two marshmallows cook, somehow turning out perfectly golden brown, much to Zephyr's surprise. He's complete shit at cooking marshmallows, he doesn't know how this has happened. He carefully gets them both set up on graham crackers with chocolate before offering them to the two boys. "Here you go, two tasty s'mores!" he says, setting one stick down and grabbing another marshmallow. He watches them for a few seconds as they take bites, his free hand on his hip near his knife just in case they tasted something funky about it.
Joss moans at the taste and Zephyr grins as he gets the next marshmallow going, knowing he has to work quickly to make sure Bryn eats hers before she sees what happens to the other two. "Just as good as I've been imagining all day!"
"I'm glad," Zephyr laughs as he focuses on Bryn's marshmallow. "Don't worry, Bryn, yours is up next."
"You can make one for yourself first," Bryn tells him, her arms wrapped around herself.
"Nah, a good person doesn't eat until everyone else has," Zephyr tells her, spinning the marshmallow around as the two boys finish up theirs. He smiles at them and winks, "I'll make you a second after I have mine."
"I'll be looking forward to it," Joss says, licking his fingers as he leans back in his chair. Raphael nods his head in agreement and shuts his eyes for a moment, sighing in contentment.
Oh this is going so perfectly. Another minute or two passes before the marshmallow is ready, and Zephyr makes sure it's loaded up on chocolate before passing it over to Bryn. "Here ya go, pretty lady."
Bryn hesitantly takes it from him and gives it a sniff as Zephyr slowly gets a marshmallow on a stick to pretend to cook for himself. He watches her from the corner of his eye as he starts toasting this one, and smirks when she takes a tentative bite and quickly takes another big one. The s'more is gone so quickly and soon she's looking over at him with hopeful eyes. "Can I also have another one?"
Zephyr laughs and gives her a finger gun as he clicks his tongue. "You can have all you want," he tells her before crying out at his marshmallow catching on fire. "Shit!" he tries to blow it out but it's burnt to a complete crisp. He sighs dramatically and sticks it back over the fire, letting it burn off. "Guess I have to wait a bit longer for my own."
Raphael sits up a bit, holding his stomach. "I think the sweets are not agreeing with my stomach, I'll be right back," he says, getting up to start running towards the bathroom. Joss frowns at that, rubbing his own stomach before gasping at Raphael collapsing to the ground in spasms.
"The fuck?!" Joss starts gasping for air as he stands and collapses to the ground. When he starts bleeding out his mouth and nose, Zephyr jumps up and pulls out two knives, putting the campground between him and Bryn.
Bryn jumps up at his defensive pose and pulls out her sword. "What the fuck did you do?!"
Zephyr holds up his finger as Joss and Raphael stop seizing and two cannons fire in quick succession. He chuckles and slowly grins at her, so fucking ready for this bombshell reveal. "Yeah, you really should have listened to your mentor when he said not to trust me," he says, all hint of joking gone from his voice now. "Those marshmallows were laced with rat poison. And I wanted you to see what happened to those two and know there's nothing you can do to stop it from happening to yourself."
Panic floods Bryn's face and she quickly drops her sword and tries to force herself to vomit up the poison, but it's too late. Her vomit is full of blood and she collapses to her hands and knees, coughing up more blood. She clutches her throat as she gasps for air and looks at him with bloody eyes, before collapsing into her vomit. She spasms for a few more seconds before stopping, and a cannon soon fires.
Zephyr stands there for a few seconds, taking in the three bodies of his allies around him, and slowly starts laughing. Oh, it was so worth the many hours of pretending for this moment. His laughter gets louder as he knows there's no more threats in the way of his victory, and soon he'll be back home with Jory and will continue showing him that he is the right man for him.
"Hey Emilio!" Zephyr yells up at the sky before putting up his middle fingers. He grins and laughs, just imagining what that asshole's face must look like right now in the mentor's room. "You can suck my dick for what you did to Jory!"
Well it sure has been a hot minute, but I got the urge to post another chapter of this so here we are, finally at Zephyr's chapter! And boy was this a fun one to write lol. It would be fun writing a whole story just about a campground arena, but alas, no time for that. We'll see when the next update for this happens considering working a real job has sucked away so much of my free time and energy. But eventually I'll see this through to the end.
Alright, time for me to look up who is next because it's been so long... Aha, time for my favorite introvert from Seven. See you whenever I see you with that update (and hopefully a Renegades update in the somewhat near future).