A/N: The SYOT Alliance Forum is currently hosting the third annual SYOT Awards! We are in the voting time and have lots of great nominations, so if you're interested in voting, check out the link on my profile to the forum! :)
Chapter 7:
Rami Grant, District Eight, Age 14
Victor of the 82nd Hunger Games
Entering the games had certainly never been part of their plans for their career. Never in the various plans they made about their future did they ever include the games. And what person would actually want to go into the games? Well, excluding the careers but they were a special case and they weren't even a thing anymore thanks to the Second Rebellion. And Rami most definitely was not one of them. When Rami first heard their name called out, they assumed this was it. No more chances for them to open up the business of their dreams.
But then they entered the arena and started to slowly realize that they might just be able to do this. And slowly their plans started to change to factor in their fame and wealth as a victor. They can pay for whatever education and training they want now. And once Rami was done, they could start up their business and start creating fashion, even aiming to sell clothes to the Capitol. Before the option of becoming victor, they hadn't even thought about selling to the Capitol because who would want to buy clothes from some nobody in District Eight? But certainly there will be some people who will want to buy clothes from Rami Grant, victor of the 82nd Hunger Games.
Well… they just have to get that title first. But they are ready to play dirty to get that title and an even better career than they had ever imagined. They were smart enough to have a solid ally and together they had come up with a plan to trap one of the remaining tributes now that their alliance had split up.
But Rami hadn't revealed all of the plan to their ally Davo. And why would they when it involved Davo being the bait and Rami probably leaving him behind? Rami wasn't particularly proud of this plan and didn't want to betray Davo, but they know they need to if they want to win. The reality of the games is that you don't win by being friendly and sometimes you have to play dirty to win. And Rami is going to win.
"I think she's approaching now," Davo whispers to them from where they're both crouched down behind a rock outcropping. They had nearly stumbled off the edge of the cliff near them, giving Rami the great idea to use this to their advantage. Throughout the night Rami had worked on setting up a trap to make it seem like the cliff extended further than it actually did while Davo set up a trail, deliberately making it seem like tributes had made their way up here.
But as Rami worked, they couldn't help but think about how few tributes were left. They were down to the final eight, their alliance making up a quarter of the tributes remaining. And so they had started to plan how to make sure their ally didn't take their title as victor.
Sure enough, Davo is right and the young girl from Four is making her way up the path, searching around here for the tribute that must be around here. As she passes their hiding spot, they both crouch down even further to avoid her detecting them. But Davo messes up and a rock slips from under his foot, alerting the girl to their presence.
Rami turns to Davo, their ally's face full of fear at their detection. "I'm only a little sorry about this," Rami whispers to him before shoving their ally towards their trap. Davo lets out a cry of surprise before he lands on the false ground, immediately tumbling towards the ground. His screams grow farther away as Rami stands up, facing the girl from Four and taking out their knife to fight her.
Boom.
The girl stares at Rami in shock, clutching her spear so tightly that her knuckles are growing white. The girl can't be older than fifteen and right now, it's clear to Rami that she never would have won.
Rami strikes out, the girl letting out a scream of surprise and swinging her spear wildly, desperately trying to hit them. But their knife cuts against the back of her hand, making her drop the weapon and cry out in pain as she holds the damaged hand to her chest, fingers barely attached. She drops to her knees, facing growing white as she stares up at Rami. "Please don't kill me! Please, my mother needs me back home!"
"Everyone has a reason to get back home," Rami coolly responds to her, contemplating what to do with her now that their trap didn't go as planned. "But unfortunately, you won't be getting back home. I will be getting back home."
And with that, Rami gives a solid kick to the girl's chest and she flails out as she starts to fall backwards towards the edge of the cliff. She grasps Rami's still raised foot with her good hand, throwing them off balance as her body starts to swing over the side of the cliff. Rami falls to the ground and the girl's nails dig into their leg as they desperately try to grab onto the loose gravel on the cliff. No, no, no, they can't die!
Their other foot digs into the ground, stopping them from both sliding off the edge of the cliff. They're both still for a moment, Rami half hanging off the cliff and the girl only hanging by one hand from Rami's leg. The girl tries to start climbing up, using their leg as a ladder and Rami starts shaking it, trying to get her to fall off. But it's no use, she has a death grip on their leg and they can feel their grip starting to slip.
Rami glances back as she grips their ass, trying to pull herself up. And she looks scary for someone that young. Rami turns back around, searching for their knife that fell on the ground when they fell and spots it a few inches away from their hand. They carefully reach for it as they can feel themselves slipping with the girl's climbing efforts. Finally, they grasp the knife and throw their arm back as the girl lets out a cry of anger that gets suddenly cut off as Rami feels the knife make contact. The grip on them lets go and Rami turns around in time to see the girl starting to fall with the knife embedded in her skull.
They pull themselves back onto the cliff, rolling over and staring up at the sky as they breath heavy from the exertion of holding themselves and the girl on the cliff. Fuck. That was way too close.
Boom.
And we have another victor: Rami Grant, Victor of the 82nd Hunger Games! They are another familiar face and anyone that read Wayward has seen them before! They're a lot of fun and I just like their no bullshit attitude and willing to do whatever it takes. Really though, that has been a lot of the victors in the first few years after the Second Rebellion as they had to toughen up to survive that.
We'll keep moving along with the victors! I have the 83rd and 84th written at the time of posting this so those will definitely be up this month. And then we will kick off a new era of Games with the 85th!