Chapter 1:
Anastasia Kristos, District One, Age 15
Victor of the 76th Hunger Games
Nothing could have ever prepared Anastasia for the terror of being sent into the Hunger Games. She thought she had seen enough horror for a lifetime from the Second Rebellion. She saw the nation rise up against the Capitol, not caring who got caught in the crossfire as they tried to bring down President Snow. They didn't care what innocent families got torn apart in their mission. They didn't care that Anastasia had to hold her twin sister as they hid under the bed, keeping her hand over Natalia's mouth to keep her from crying out as the rebels came into their house, determined to bring District One down. The District was too loyal, too dedicated to the Hunger Games. The rebels didn't think the mayor would change her mind about what side to be on.
They didn't give her mother the chance to give an answer before they shot her.
Anastasia thought losing her mother would have been the worst horror she faced. But then they kidnapped her and Natalia, held them prisoner, and made them watch as the victors they had grown up alongside with were murdered. Victors who were family to them – her godparents were victors.
But none of that compared to the absolute horror of being placed in the ruins of District Twelve.
The images Anastasia had seen of the destroyed District had seemed…not real, in a way. It was so isolated from her normal life that she could pretend that the District hadn't been destroyed. She didn't personally know anyone from Twelve, why should it affect her? But once she rose up into the center of town in Twelve, she could no longer pretend that an entire District hadn't been wiped out of existence. Not when she was surrounded by the remains of hundreds, if not thousands, of people.
She has lost too much already to give up, even if she wants to. She is tired of constantly fighting for her survival. All she wanted was to try and put together the shattered pieces of their life with Natalia. She wanted to figure out how they were going to get past the trauma of the war and the loss of their mother. But now if she makes it out of here, she'll be living with the memory of being surrounded by the skeletons of an entire District that was destroyed, all because one person from their District defied the Capitol. If she lives, she will never be able to erase the sight of tiny skeletons being held by larger ones. She'll never be able to erase the sound of crunching bones as she ran away from everyone. Why would she even want to live with the memory of this?
There's only one reason: Natalia.
She can't abandon her sister…they're all each other has.
"Okay Anastasia, wipe off those tears," Anastasia whispers to herself, trying to stop the tears pouring down her cheeks as she finds the broken structure of a building to hide in. Yet when she's all alone in a giant graveyard, it's hard to stop herself from breaking down. She's all alone…for the first time ever, she's truly alone. Even when they were taken prisoner, she still had Natalia by her side. But now, all she has are the ghosts of the past.
Anastasia tenses up when she hears a whimpering nearby and immediately clutches the knife she was given, holding it out in front of her. She knows she doesn't have it in her to actually kill someone – how can she do that to a family when people did that to hers? Yet she has to defend herself from whoever is out there. "Show yourself," Anastasia calls out with as much strength as she can muster and she hopes the person can't hear the wavering of fear in her voice.
The whimpering stops and turns into a squeak of fear as a small face peers out from behind stacked bricks that must have been a chimney before. Raised hands soon follow, showing Anastasia that the tiny girl has no intention of hurting her. "P-please don't kill me…" Livia says quietly, sounding resigned as she steps out fully into Anastasia's sight. "I…I know you're supposed to but…" The tiny girl starts shaking her head and she tries to hold in a sob, but it soon slips out. She wraps her arms around herself and Anastasia finds herself lowering her knife. "I didn't do anything in the rebellion…I'm only twelve. My aunt, she…"
"I'm not going to kill you," Anastasia whispers to her, starting to crawl over towards the young girl before even realizing what she's doing. But something about her just…takes her back to when she was protecting Natalia. Livia watches her cautiously, but stays still, aware that Anastasia does have a knife and could still hurt her.
"Why not? I'm related to a rebel, did you forget that?" Livia asks her bitterly. "A well-known rebel in Two."
"And I'm related to the former mayor of One," Anastasia tells her in return. "We're not defined by who we're related to…"
"Tell that to the Capitol," Livia says under her breath, turning away from Anastasia. She stares out of the building for a few long seconds in silence. When she continues, she still stares away from Anastasia. "You should just go ahead and kill me now. Be the good citizen the Capitol expects you to be."
"No," Anastasia says, knowing how dangerous that one word could be, but she doesn't care. She's not killing this innocent kid out of cold blood. "I don't care, I'm not killing you because you had an aunt that rebelled. You didn't rebel and that's what matters. So come on," Anastasia holds out her hand to Livia and the girl stares at it for a few long seconds in silence. "I'm not leaving you here. We're working together from now on."
Livia still stares at her outstretched hand for long seconds, until finally reaching out and slowly taking it. "Okay," she says quietly as Anastasia shakes her hand.
"A loyalist and rebel, working together," Anastasia says with a smile. "Bet they didn't expect this to happen."
Welcome to a side project of mine, one that's been in progress for a while now. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love my victors, so I want to take the time and acknowledge each one by taking a look at each of their Games. I give you...The Victor Memoirs.
I have no clue how often this story will be updated. It's mostly for myself to have fun and explore the victors, but I hope if you like my victors you'll enjoy this as well!
I give you: Anastacia Kristos, Victor of the 76th Hunger Games. Yeah I just spoiled Hysteria. I did that XD (I mean, it was already mentioned in Wayward but oh well lol). Anyone that is reading Hysteria knows the victor of those Games isn't the focus.
Also this story is part of my sponsor point system so yay more points! XD
So yeah, no idea when the next update of this will be because the early victors are the ones I know the least about, but it gives me the chance to develop them!