Brutus Santori

District 2 Male

49 HG

"You didn't tell me you were a father."

Brutus Santori winced. He had been expecting this question ever since the interviews, when he had told Caesar about his infant son. He had spent the past three days dreading it.

He looked up from the spear he was polishing and at his ally and night watch buddy. Summer Reeves's eyes held no judgment, just curiosity. "Yeah."

"And you still volunteered?"

Brutus sighed. There was the judgment he had been expecting, the reason he kept it all under wraps. It was common knowledge that Summer had two daughters at home, daughters she would have never have left had it not been for her name being drawn. Meanwhile, Brutus had, in her eyes, left Bruno willingly, which was not true in the slightest.

"It's not that simple," Brutus replied. "I… I had to. I was chosen. If I didn't volunteer then…" he sighed. "Don't get me wrong. I didn't want to leave Bruno behind."

"Then why did you?"

Brutus struggled to find the words, and then it was Summer's turn to wince. "I'm sorry, I…"

Brutus chuckled and shook his head.

"Nah, it's fine. Believe it or not, and I fully expect this to get cut from the edit, training for the Games is only a bonus. The Institute is a direct pipeline to the Peacekeeper forces. That's where I was headed until I found out my girlfriend was pregnant. Then she took off and plans changed. I planned to drop out, but the chosen volunteer dropped dead, and the place fell to me." Brutus sighed once more. "I'd rather die in the arena than have my son grow up living with the stigma of having a coward for a father."

"Don't you think he would have preferred a living father?"

Brutus winced again. He had completely forgotten that Summer had been married once only to be widowed a year and a half ago in a freak accident that killed hundreds. "In a perfect world, yes, but things are different in Two. I… If I had chickened out, he would have paid the price and..." His voice trailed off.

"No, I think I get it," Summer said reassuringly. "I wish you weren't here though. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to have met you, but…yeah."

"For the record, I wish you weren't here either," Brutus said. "You should be at home with your girls."

Summer snorted. "Yeah, well, when you're a part of the legendary 'Luckiest Family in Panem,' these things tend to happen."

A sense of calm settled over the two of them, as if they had reached an understanding. "Listen," Brutus said, lowering his voice. "We have three kids between us. Why orphan all of them if we don't have to?"

Summer frowned thoughtfully. "What are you proposing?"

"You and me. Our district partners are already dead. There's no one else to be loyal to. We stick together to the very end, until it's just the two of us. That way, at least one or two of our kids still has a parent."

Summer considered this for a moment, then nodded. "Okay, I can accept that. Just…promise me that if it's you, you'll look after my girls. I'll do the same for your boy."

Brutus smiled. "Of course. It takes a village after all. Our children are going to have a big one. Now, why don't we get started?"

Summer's face hardened. Then, she nodded and drew her knife.

The cannons began echoing through the marshlands.

"My boy, Bruno. He'll be a year old in September. Everything I'm going to do in that arena, I'm doing for him."

viii. understanding

I hope you enjoyed that little sneak peak into the 49th Hunger Games. Let me just say that Survivors 49 is a chapter I'm very excited to get to. Once I gave Brutus a kid, he kind of became a protective papa wolf and everything fell into place. He does awful things, but he does them for his family, and here we see Summer understanding that mindset. She'd do anything to get back to her girls, and while she tragically fails in the end, Brutus does make good on his promise and look after Summer and Amber from afar, something I plan to dive into in the future.