Trigger Warning: Bullying

14. The Puppet - Alone

Annette Vysotskaya, District 3, 8th Place Tribute of the 76th Hunger Games

Annette wasn't prepared for the community home.

The day Fawkes Chau had returned to District 3 for the first time after betraying the district twice, Annette's parents had let her sleep over at a friend's house. She'd watched footage from outside the Justice Building as the Victory Tour Attack had taken place. She hadn't realised that her parents had participated in the attack until the peacekeepers had come to question her.

Now, she was being led into a community home. She was starved, bruised and sleep-deprived from her week of questioning. She couldn't believe that the peacekeepers were letting her go. She couldn't believe that they'd seen her shocked reaction to the hateful messages that her parents had posted on that online forum and not assumed that it was fake. Peacekeepers didn't often give suspected rebels the benefit of the doubt, especially when they were connected to the biggest act of terrorism in decades.

Maybe the peacekeepers had known that as mad with hatred as Annette's parents had been, they never would've involved their twelve-year-old daughter in their plot.

In the community home's dining hall, stick-thin and hollow-eyed children stared at her. Annette could see the suspicion radiating off them. She heard a group of girls whispering something about coyotes. Then she heard a howl.

With that, the dining hall seemed to descend into chaos. Children were banging their knives and forks against the tables, howling at Annette. Feeling completely overwhelmed, she fled the room. But the howling in her ears didn't stop.

Annette found a corner and curled up, trying to block out the noise. Until she heard someone approaching her.

"Hey," a boy's voice said, gently.

"What do you want?" Annette asked.

"A friend," the boy said. "My name is Axel Vincent. You might've heard it before."

Annette tried to figure out why that name was so familiar. Then she remembered her interrogation, when the peacekeepers had listed the names of all the people in the rebel group with her parents.

"Your… your father… He was…"

"Yeah," Axel said. "He was."

"So you know what it's like?"

"Yeah," Axel said. "I got here this morning. I've figured out why they howl at us."

"Why?" Annette asked.

"The rebel group your parents and my father were part of has been named the Coyotes."

"That's a weird name," Annette said.

"They got it from the interview Manel Lobos did on TV yesterday. He said killing them was like shooting coyotes."

Annette's mind was flooded with rage at the thought of the man who'd killed her parents calling them animals.

"The bastard," she muttered.

"I'm actually rather glad he killed my father," Axel said.

"Why?"

"Because as much as Manel must've hated my father, he would've had to kill him quickly, because Fawkes was in danger and Manel probably just wanted to get him to safety. But my mother… As far as I know, she wasn't involved. She was just as surprised as me when the peacekeepers raided our home. And now they have her…" Axel let out a sob. "And I know they're not going to let her go. And they're not going to kill her quickly."

He broke down. Not sure what else to do, Annette pulled him into a hug.

For the first time since she was arrested, she felt like she wasn't alone.

When Annette crawled out of the rubble, she was alone.

"Axel," she called. Then she started coughing from all the dust.

This wasn't supposed to be happening.

Annette and Axel had been trying to get their lives back on track together. He'd given her her first kiss for her thirteenth birthday. She'd been trying to think of how she was going to find a gift for Axel's fourteenth birthday when they were both reaped for the Seventy-Sixth Hunger Games.

Of course it was too good to be true. Of course there was a reason why the peacekeepers had released Axel and Annette, two children who'd both be eligible for the next reaping, and not Axel's mother, who'd been aged out for years. The peacekeepers were just saving them for later.

"Axel!" Annette called, once she'd got her breath back. She was desperately trying to ignore the fact that she'd heard something that'd sounded like a cannon when the section of the castle wall they were hiding in had collapsed.

This wasn't meant to be happening. Axel was the level-headed and smart one. The one who'd decided after the reaping that he was going to try to comply with what the Capitol wanted from him because he didn't want his death to be too painful. Annette couldn't bring herself to stoop that low. She'd been the rebellious one. She'd been hoping that, if she died first, maybe Axel would have a tiny shot at victory because he'd been so well-behaved. Maybe he'd live to see his fourteenth birthday.

But no, the gamemakers must've killed Axel as a punishment for Annette's rebellion.

Staring at the rubble which her sweetheart was buried under, Annette Vysotskaya had only one option left.

"Dear Capitol," she said, softly. "Thank you for sparing my life."

It was time to show the Capitol that they'd won.

Fun Fact: I just looked over the list of tributes I'm planning to cover and Annette is on the list instead of Gus. I regret nothing.

I actually really wanted to use this as an opportunity to briefly explore the Threes' backstories and the struggles they faced since the Victory Tour Attack that caused them to develop a strong bond. Annette would've been the seventh POV tribute in A Traitor's Tale if I hadn't decided to limit it to six tributes, so I decided to include the moment where she betrays her rebellious ideals and appeals to the Capitol. This is why she's the only 'rebel' so far to survive the bloodbath only to be killed by another tribute as opposed to a hazard. I say 'so far' because Mitch is still alive somehow.

Our next act will be The Mermaid.