Chapter 59:

Mazie Kiernan, District Nine, Age 14

Victor of the 134th Hunger Games

For the first time in Mazie's life, she's actually grateful for her innate ability to fade into the background. No one ever paid attention to her back home – or when they did…she wished they wouldn't. Just the scrawny middle child in with the flirty, popular older sibling, and the troublemaker younger sibling who always took the attention away from her. Really, it wasn't a surprise that the other tributes barely gave her a second glance in the Capitol – and it was for the best.

Now they've all forgotten about her, letting her slip around the gardens, stealing food from them while they slept. And if they did see her, she just played up that innocent little kid act and got them to leave her alone. Worked well enough to get her right to the final eight without any blood on her hands.

But she knows she can't keep this up for any longer. While she might be getting overlooked by all of the tributes and able to skate by to the final eight…well, she now has the attention of the country on her with her family getting interviewed. And surely the Gamemakers are watching her, waiting to see if she will do something. Time is ticking for her to prove to them that she deserves to win and if she doesn't do it now…

She won't get a second chance.

For once…she doesn't want to fade into the background. Doing so means death, and she so badly wants to live. She'll deal with the attention of being a new victor for a year before she is forgotten about by probably the next career victor. But it's time for her to make a move – and not just any move. She is going to make a big move, one that could easily mean death if she's not careful enough…

But you don't win the Hunger Games by being careful.

Mazie taps her fingers on the side of her dart gun as she hides behind the massive plant leaves, so huge they easily hide her from sight. This arena has been a true blessing for her. So many places to hide, so many trees to climb, and…so many poisonous plants just asking to be used. She is so glad she spent her days at the plants stations in training. She was confused at first how she managed to get a 6 with just plants – and alarmed that it would bring attention to her. But now she understands. Head Gamemaker Arune recognized she had the skills for this arena before Mazie did.

Is this even going to work? She…isn't sure if the makeshift poison is going to work… She knows the flowers she picked are poisonous, but… Will it be poisonous enough when mashed up into water and put in a dart gun? Guess there's only one way to find out…

But she's certainly not going to test it out on one of the careers left. No, she's testing it out on that kid from Eight who she is pretty sure she can outrun if need be.

Mazie watches him for another minute before slowly bringing the dart gun up to her lips and aiming at him as he sits there, filtering water from the lily pond. She takes a deep breath before blowing hard, and the boy cries out as the dart sticks in his back. It takes him a few seconds to grab it and yank it out, and he has a look of fear on his face as he realizes it's empty. "Shit!" he yells out as he starts looking in Mazie's direction, trying to find who did this to him.

Mazie hides further in the plant, trying not to move the leaves at all, and counting on her camouflage to help her. His eyes pass right over her spot as he takes a few steps closer before he already starts wavering. She holds her breath as he trips over his feet and falls over, slamming his head hard on the ground and starts seizing. The seconds drag on until he finally stills and she waits and waits for the cannon…

Boom.

Even with the cannon firing, she stays still for a few more minutes, just to make sure the boy is actually dead and it wasn't dumb luck of someone else dying right now. She picks up a rock and tosses it at him, tense and ready to run in an instant, but he doesn't move at all. Slowly, she crawls out from her spot, looking around for any other tributes that might be nearby, dart gun clutched to her chest. But the only sounds are the bubbling of fountains and wind blowing through some plants as she approaches him. She kicks his leg and jumps back, just in case, but he's completely still.

Mazie just stares at him for a minute, trying to feel…something…over taking a life. Shouldn't she be feeling guilty? Or something? But she just feels…numb. He wouldn't have hesitated to kill her if he found her, so why should she feel upset to have killed him? Maybe it will hit later, but for now… She smiles a little as she looks around, hoping she can find a camera watching her. She waves her dart gun up in the air before opening her pouch to show the five remaining darts in there, all filled with the same poison.

Hopefully her intention is quite clear to the Gamemakers. She is not going to be overlooked any longer by the Capitol. She entered this arena, determined to win, and she is going to get out of here alive.

She quickly sorts through his supplies and takes his food. She tucks the knife on her waistband, feeling a lot safer just having that there, even if she knows she isn't winning any knife fights. The sudden sound of leaves being cut has her ducking into the plants once more, just in time to hide from the boy from Four cutting through plants with a machete, having no regard for the living things. How…barbaric.

He stops to look at the boy from Eight and kicks his body, before rummaging through his supplies. "Useless, except for getting me one step closer to victory."

Mazie tightens her grip on her dart gun, knowing she has a prime opportunity right here… Her heart races as adrenaline pumps through her body and her hands sweat as she slowly pulls out a dart from her pouch, loading the dart gun agonizingly slow to avoid making any noise to alert him to her presence. But the boy's ego is so large that he's so completely unaware of the noise and disruption he's causing around him. But not for much longer.

No one will be overlooking her now after she takes down a career… And so Mazie takes a deep breath, before taking her shot.

Well in the theme of forgetting about Mazie, I forgot I had uploaded this to the doc manager a while ago, proceeded to upload the next one, and almost posted that instead. Whoops, sorry Mazie.

Well, what I was gonna say in the next victor's chapter, gonna try to get through this story soon because it's gone on for Too Long. But hey, three year anniversary is next month, maybe I can zoom through and get Odyssey's posted on that day and wrap it all up. Yeah, that sounds like a Good Plan.

Alright, see you soon with who I thought was up next and got all excited because she's one of my favorite spitfires lol.