12 Children who thought they made a mistake during the 24th Hunger Games
Immediate TW: Transphobia, extreme violence, seriously Madeira's PoV is one to skip over if transphobia is something you're worried about.
23rd: Tani Merdes, District Three, 14
Tani hadn't been bad. He hadn't cheated, or changed on his test, or done anything else that meant he'd be sent to the Hunger Games. But when the name was called, there wasn't a volunteer. Not even the wind rustled the dry grass, unwilling to take his place. No, Tani was off to the Games, and the worst part?
Emma was there too. Emma, who he'd had a crush on in the two years since they'd started apprenticing together at the lab in hopes of a job. Emma, who may have been his friend but he just knew they were meant to be something more, knew that if he'd just have a chance? He could prove it, prove that he was the guy for her. Maybe they could even make a new rule, let two kids out because they were just meant to be there, and they'd all see. Ten, the Capitol, his parents? They'd all see their son wasn't a loser, that he could save the day and get the girl and be like just the heroes of any number of books his parents had forced him to read as a child.
So he was nice on the train. Smiled, and talked to Emma that he was feeling just as bad as she was, and promised that they'd be getting out. Both of them, and he laughed a little when she said it was impossible. They were together through training, and of course they got along well enough – they'd worked together in the labs long enough to know each other, interpret body language and be able to work with each other. She was a whiz with edible plants, he could use a knife well enough the instructor said he was definitely in the top 10, and soon enough it was his term on the stage.
Lucky laughed. Flickerman laughed, when he'd said that maybe it would have been better for everyone if a District pair was allowed to win. Said that while he thought it was true, could make a good story, it wasn't like Dr. Gaul would ever allow that to happen. Maybe he was even right.
But Tani was a survivor. So, when he and Emma were basically next to each other at the Cornucopia (and only the girl from One was between them), he ran for the stuff as they'd agreed. She could get clear, and he could get the supplies. Then they could meet up and run into the woods, just needed for her to get away. But there were no woods, only tall towers, and he didn't go to her. Went straight for the goods, because if he could just get a knife then he could protect her.
He didn't get the chance. The first cannon fired, and he turned to see her there. Skull broken against her own pedestal, One smiling as she dropped the body.
The next thing he knew, Four's hands were around his head. He was thrown forward, once twice and the Cornucopia's steel was just so hard.
And maybe he should have just run to collect Emma first.
19th: Chrysler Jacques, District Six, 18
Big Chrissie. Big, dumb, Chrysler who'd never amount to anything more than a dumb mechanic for the rest of her life. Never mind that she could lift heavier stuff than most of the boys who apprenticed with her, never mind that she was one of the best scrappers when it came down to it (and a scrap from Six was something it was hard not to come down to). No, for her it was dumb mechanics, while the rest of the boys got to do the cool stuff, engineering and that.
Like she couldn't fight.
So when she was Reaped, it almost wasn't a problem for Chrysler because she wasn't just in that position to take it a long way. No, Chrysler knew different. If she just drove a little bit harder, worked a little bit better than the rest of them, then she'd be in the money before too long and there wouldn't be hell or high water who could keep her from that Crown. From proving to the dumb boys that there was no way that a girl could ever win the Hunger Games (as they called all the girls who won cheats, doubtlessly). From proving to Becca that maybe, just maybe, it was possible for two girls to make a life together in Six even if the parents said that they didn't deserve it, that they'd both be better off growing over this teenage fling and finding good men to find the rest of her time with.
So she really tried. Joined an alliance, and it all seemed like it was going swimmingly because with her, Eleven's girl and Twelve's boy? Well, they were a pretty damn strong team, and even better if they won? If any one of them won? They agreed they'd give enough to their Allies' families that there wouldn't be any need for Bee to take tesserae, for Eleven's grandma to be able to spend the rest of her life cold and hungry in her cabin, for Twelve's brother to open that sweet shop he'd always dreamed of.
It didn't go to plan. When Chrysler demanded that Twelve's boy (after all, he was the fastest and definitely the sneakiest) run into the Cornucopia, and then the boy said no? Well, she and Maddie kicked him out, and then it was just two. And then Maddie said what she'd said, and that was insane and would hurt their chances so when Chrysler said so she ran off crying? Well, there was nothing for it.
It was Four who finished her off. Grabbed a trident, drove her and Eight's boy into the centre and Chrysler could have run but she'd tried and failed to go back for Eight as an ally because he was big, to get a weapon. No, now she was trapped, at the point of a trident and One's melodic voice.
The fight wasn't pretty. Eight clawed at her face, she kicked him where a boy should never be kicked. Eight gouged at her eye until it went dark, and she punched his mouth and ignored the pain in her fist and their mixed blood on the floor.
17th: Lorelai Burns, District Four, 17
"Lorelai. What." There's nobody there. Lorelai had pushed for the hunt because she'd seen someone rush into the bushed, pushed for the hunt because she knew that if she got just one more kill then she'd be good to look like a hero. Two, this early on, would put her equal with Vi and ahead of that preening fool Amaretto. And then she could win, be a Victor, and they'd have to acknowledge her. She'd get Sponsor gifts, because the ones who killed got that. She'd get rewarded, and all she needed was one more kill.
"I promise you, it was just here, I saw them! They ran into the bushes, and tried to hide away and I chased them!" Her complaints are getting shriller as she looks around, tries to protest, can't form quite the words but she promises that she'd seen someone around, and that they were in easy killing distance. It was Royal, and Carcinus, and Diana, who were pissed. Amaretto just laughed, and Basalt brooded in the back looking like someone had shot his puppy, but that was just Basalt.
They stalked off, left Lorelai to her hunt as if she was just a stray dog. Told her to be back by sunset.
But the sun was setting and she could hear footsteps and one more kill. So she kept going, raised her trident and began to look around with wide eyes, taking in the light that remained so she wouldn't lose any light. Cocked her head to one side, and heard a rustling in the bushes. Turned. Threw her trident at rustling that wasn't the wind.
A rabbit squeaked, once, died. She was just going to collect her trident when a dirty body slammed into her from the side. Three's boy, and his eyes were big and round and for a moment she thought she could just throw him like an errant child. But soon enough his teeth found purchase, and her ear hurt oh stars it hurt and.
Now she's free, and his teeth aren't in her ear or her ear isn't in his teeth and where's her ear.
She doesn't even resist when he pulls a knife, patting at the side of her head. She's the killer, Mags had told her. Mags didn't like her, but when Lorelai had said she was just so looking forward to the Games Mags and Oceanus had let her go with a sigh and a smooth laugh and a wish of good fortune in the Games to come.
But now she doesn't even have an ear.
Soon enough, she doesn't have a throat. She gets her ear back, spat onto a broken corpse, but no more.
14th: Madeira Cousins, District Eleven, 17
Mads wasn't a girl. He'd told everyone that for as long as he'd known, and everyone had told him the same thing. To stop making up stupid stories. That he'd been born a girl, and that she would make a good wife, a good mother someday.
Like that was going to stop him. He was a man, just as much as River or Tanner or any of the others who said it was stupid for a girl to demand that she be treated like a boy. But he'd show them, of course he would, because it wasn't like he could do anything
He made an alliance, and soon enough they were laughing and talking like the best of friends. And given that Chrissie had had a girlfriend, surely it wasn't too much of a problem to do. Surely he could just say his piece.
But Mads wasn't sure if he'd pushed a bit too far when Chrissie had stumbled away. Called him insane, said that maybe if he'd said he was a boy during the interview he'd fuck up their chances. And that wasn't fair, because Mads was a boy and the Capitol was so strange. Surely they'd accept the simple reality that a boy was a boy, and that was that.
Lusitania, the escort, said it'd be fine. That she was sure that she had lots of friends who were like that, even brought a couple of them into the apartment and promised that Mads would get a suit and be (her words) 'all the more handsome for it'. She was nice.
It took a second for Mads to get the words out, but the applause was overwhelming, and even Lucky Flickerman was ok to call Mads Mads, be nice about it. For once, didn't crack any jokes, but just listened. And that in and of itself was one of the nicest things anyone had ever done for him.
It was Chrysler who died first, her face in the sky and burning like a skull into his eyes because she may have been rude (and she was rude) but that wasn't a fate anyone deserved, not a face in the sky people could point and talk about. 'Look at Chrysler, look at how dead she is.'
He was tracked down Four's boy, and One's on the fifth day. They walked up to his shelter, kicked him awake, laughed.
"Look at the little boy from Eleven. We should just kill him."
The last thing he ever heard when the trident went in his back and out his chest, before Four could pull it out and move on. Leave his body in the dirt.
12th: Texeira Garcia, District Ten,
"We need to go." Maizie hasn't returned. Hasn't returned, and Tex is scared, because she didn't want Maizie leaving in the first place but Lani was insistent. Demanded that they let Maizie go out, because otherwise how are they going to know what's going on? It's a good question, and was one Tex didn't have an answer to, and so she was forced to let Maizie go out and explore with the promise that Maizie would be back by nightfall.
But now there's raw moonlight filtering through the skylight into the area they're in, and Tex and Lani are standing outside their cave shouting at each other like there's nobody around to hear them. Because they need to argue, need to get it out, one of them needs to back down or they're going to be in a mess because neither of them is willing to concede an inch on the issue.
He's being stupid. She knows he's being stupid because what else do you call it when someone's refusing to accept the obvious – that Maizie's run off and left them, run off and abandoned them, been a coward and never looked back at the team she was leaving. His insistence that no, that she's probably out there and just got a little lost, out there and handling stuff is just that. Refusing to accept the obvious.
Which was why she got a bit exasperated. Why she shoved him, and then he dropped his food and it went into the water, but she was just trying to make her point ad he was the one who'd started, really, this stupid argument in the first place. Why was it her fault that Maizie had run away, that they hadn't been able to link up with Balman because he'd been so insistent on going for the Cornucopia and it'd gotten him killed. Sure, she'd said maybe he'd had a point, but going in? Trying to challenge one of the Coyotes, the boy from Four, to a fair fight? That wasn't quite what she'd envisioned.
But then Lani pushes one last time, tells her that he's sure Maizie didn't want to leave, has to be coming back, and she's had enough.
"Stop it! If you want to wait for that traitor here, then you can stay. I'm going. I'm not staying around in the promise of a liar – why would she leave us accidentally? Either she's dead, and we haven't heard a cannon yet, or she's run off. So I'm taking what's mine by right, and then I'll be off. Don't try anything."
He doesn't. She divides the resources they have, takes her half after all, a girl who ran off won't be needing any more, and ignores Lani's increasingly panicked pleading that they should stick together. Shoves him aside, and she can hear some genuine hurt in his voice but ignores it. Maybe she has broken the alliance, but it's his fault – she knew what was up. Knew Maizie had abandoned them, like Ma. Like everyone. It wasn't her fault that he was too slow to realize that until she was leaving.
And for the first few minutes among the bushes, lit by starlight, maybe she has a chance. But then the cannon fires, and she can't exactly turn around. Might look weak, and besides it might be anyone. Nine's boy, either of the Fives. Six has someone out there somewhere.
When Maizie's face appears among the stars, she knows she's made the wrong choice. But there's no turning back, not now.
9th: Montana Burns, District Six, 16
Montana wasn't cut out for this. That, he was insistent of from the moment he got on the train. He wasn't big like some, wasn't fierce like some, wasn't the child who should be Reaped for the Games because he was good and did his part and that was all that mattered in Six, right? He wasn't a troublemaker, wasn't a rabble-rouser unlike some.
Which he insisted to the man who was mentoring him as soon as he stepped on the train. Insisted to anyone who would listen that he wasn't meant to be here, that if the Capitol was good then he'd be able to get home in plenty of time, and they could take someone who truly, properly deserved it. Cairo, who he knew was shoplifting and didn't know it was to feed her sister. Troy, who he was certain was involved in subversive activity and who was reporting it all to the Peacekeepers. Dallas, who he knew had cheated in every test and now she was the one apprenticing to a merchant because of her stupid blonde hair and her stupid good looks and it just wasn't fair.
But his insistence on it made him few friends. His Mentor looked down at him, muttered something about delusions, and from then on spent most of his time working with Chrysler until she stormed out one day and didn't come back until several hours later. Chrysler herself thought he was an entitled child, didn't spare any words in telling him as much. Balman from Seven asked why there'd be a need for him to ally with Montana and didn't take good PR for an answer. It wasn't pretty.
But they were dead. Chrysler, Balman. Sure, he was hungry, and that raw squirrel had probably given him something nasty even if he'd had to eat it raw, but he'd win, and then they'd just fix him up like they did all the Victors.
Instead, he was found by Two's boy, kicked backwards and scrambling further. Pleading, begging for his life because this isn't how it's supposed to go – how it's supposed to end for Montana.
"Please, just let me go. I'll do anything, I swear, I'm not meant to be here. I just want to go home, please, I can't die. They need me back in Six, they need me to go home and-"
There's no heeding his pleas. The sword raises up.
Montana Burns does go home. It's just in a box.
8th: Douglass Arwell, District Seven, 15
Dougie was almost glad when she got picked as Tribute.
Oh, that wasn't a nice thing to say. 'I'm glad I'm going to die'. But if you met her parents, you'd understand as well. She just hadn't deserved this, that was it. But deserving isn't the same thing as wanting, and Dougie had good reason for her having wanted to be picked.
Oh, she was scared sure, but she'd win. Maple had won, and Dougie was close enough. Brown-haired rather than blonde, taller and probably a bit skinnier, but everyone had told her she had the same charm when they'd asked, and it wasn't like they'd lie to her.
She'd seen the life Victors led. She wanted to be able to taste chocolate, real chocolate, every day and not feel guilty because if she ballooned? They probably had something in the Capitol for that anyways. She wanted the kind of orange juice she got a cup of after the Reaping, which she just knew flowed from the taps, or at the least could flow from the taps if she asked the Capitol after she won. She wanted the money, the status, the social life that came with being a Victor and not just the daughter of a paper-mill worker. It was the kind of want that, in hindsight, would have felt a little silly had she won. Had she known how it'd go.
But in the Arena, Dougie was all smiles. Sure, One hadn't even looked at her when Dougie had sidled up, but that was just feigning disinterest – Dougie knew the truth, that One was interested in her.
And sure, she got a three. Sure, she may not have drawn the best score in the world. But she knew, really, that the Gamemakers were just bad at scoring – that if they'd seen the grit, the dream she'd had, then maybe she'd have gotten a seven. Just like Maple.
During the Arena was where (at least she thought) she shone. The wardens hadn't stopped her from grabbing some rope, a knife, some jerky and soon enough she was out into the woods past the Cornucopia and free. With her rope. With her jerky.
It's cold, now. Always is. But she managed to get some food – some berries that looked good and tasted better, some leaves and bark she boiled in lake water (like she knew people did back home). She even set some traps, crude things that swung a branch down when triggered and she knew would kill. The ones that went off had just been another fluke of bad luck, the wind or a rabbit too low to the ground.
Except they didn't work when Five stormed her woods. And soon enough she found herself backed up against the wall, pleading for her life.
Eyes inching to the right, towards the knife that can save her.
Five doesn't need a weapon. He smashes her head against a tree and the pain is blinding. Smashes it again and there's a wailing coming from somewhere and it's clearly started raining because her head is damp and.
And.
6th: Linnet Fe, District Five, 17
Linn was sure that she was a shoo-in for the Squad. She was Five, and more to the point she was pretty, fun, enjoyable. She'd been told as much in Vipeche, she was the first waitress to actually come from Five at her casino. She was practically perfect, and even if she may not have had the same fighting skills? Well, not everything is fighting, and she's sure that when it comes down to it she can finish one of her enemies off with a knife.
But she doesn't go up. No, even for Linnet that's too brave a step, too much for her to do more than wish she had the courage to do it. Instead, she lingers near their group, stares over at them and hopes that maybe she'll catch their eyes. That maybe she'll be good enough she can join their alliance. To know that she's good enough, and trust that they can see that.
She thinks One does, knows One does when she's called over by the blonde girl. And maybe she's finally caught a break, finally got a reason to stay in the Games because now she's not just prey. Now she's a survivor.
But One, to put it simply, doesn't invite her. Belittles her, yes, insults her. But invite her to join the alliance? No, Linn is turned aside.
Maybe that's why she breaks into the great old building that the Squad has settled in, throwing a rock through a window before storming the building. Nobody was inside, thankfully. Instead, she could sneak through, yelping a tad at piles of bones and animals trapped within glass cases, but never found. Why she steals in, and takes what she can – a few bags of food, a knife, even a sword given how many of them they are in the stash that they've looted from the Cornucopia.
But One, and Two, chase her down. Two's arrow sinks into her leg, and she can fall and scream and plead as One stalks over. Doesn't end it, but allows Two to fire another arrow into Linnet's bag, and oh it hurts, it hurts so much.
She isn't left alone for the hour it takes to die, and struggling as One worked and Two waited with an arrow aimed down.
When Linnet can finally die, her final thoughts are of the fact that maybe she should have pushed harder, tried to get in more. Maybe she could have.
Nobody would ever hear those thoughts.
3rd: Royal Stellemont, District One, 18
Basalt's looking at him with that same disappointed expression. "We could kill. Get those two dead so they can't fuck with us, and then we could fight it out and decide us a Victor. They'd love it, one of us would be home within the day, and then we could go on. One of us home. We could be home."
His eyes fill with hunger for a second. The hunger to go home. To see Jewel again, because stars above knew she deserved the world and the Spire wasn't the place for a young woman like Jewel. Not for sending Jewel off to a place where she wouldn't be able to feel the sun on her face all hours, and she'd told him that was where she wanted to go. No. First of September she was off to the caves out in Eleven, to serve as the first batch of tour guides, and that just wouldn't do.
So of course he agreed with Bas, agreed and drew his sword and soon enough they were waiting on both sides of the door. Bas with his longsword, Royal has his rapier out and is ready to do some damage.
But maybe if he kills Bas he can go home sooner.
So he swings, and Bas parries. Clash, clash, clash and he's clearly the better swordsman – he can see it, and so he's sure can Bas. There's going to be an end.
But Royal gets cocky. Swings his sword in a hissing arc that sweeps through the air and slashes at Bas's throat, going for the fancy shot. A decapitation, and a decapitation that would send a head artfully flying through the air to land and roll across the floor. A decapitation that would bring four to three. A decapitation that might get him sponsors enough to fight Diana and her psycho puppy.
He's gotten too close. Let Bas get too close, and in an instant Bas has drawn the longsword and slashed it across his leg. He's gone too far, gone too close.
He collapses. Grabs Bas by the shoulder. Slashes the sword across his stomach, drawing the long edge along with a grimace because it takes the world. Grabs Bas again and slashes the sword across his throat, and Bas has dropped to the floor with a yell and a cannon.
Royal's done.
2nd: Amaretto Serrett, District One, 17
"No." The girl from Five's been eyeing up their alliance for days. Sure, the tradition is six, and it's not like they're missing any strength with Two, Four and One. Still, Five's been sniffing around, redhead looking at them, dogging their steps if not directly getting involved. Looking like she wishes she was in the alliance, and if she's completely honest with herself Amaretto can't blame her. Five wanting to be in the alliance is only natural, it's a strong alliance with strong members, and that could make all the difference in the Games. That difference has been made time and time again.
But Five's a threat. Five's pretty, and while Amaretto can appreciate pretty, respect if even, she can't allow it to taint the alliance lest Five steals that chance at gaining an ally away from her.
So she moves the alliance away. Keeps Five out of their sight as well as she can with gentle smiles and pressing to try something else, to go and do something and not quite mentioning that her goal is to cut the girl out of any chance of being invited. Still, it isn't quite enough.
So, when they're all heading out to that third night, it's Amaretto who turns up with Five. Taps her on the shoulder, drags the redhead aside and presses her gently into a seat. IT's only them left as everyone else files into the lifts, and eventually just them two. Two.
Which is when Amaretto smiles, leans a little closer. Allows blonde hair to drape in curtains over her shoulders as she leans in and gives Five a wink, swinging her legs into Five's lap. "So, sweetheart. You're nosing around us, right? Want to join, have a hand in something big?"
Five nods. Smiles, even, and leans in. "Of course! I'd love to join you, I'm a great asset, I'm good at a lot, and I think I'd make a valuable ally! Hell, maybe we could even form a closer team – just us two. Cut out the middleman as it were, prevent that kind of issue if we don't have anyone when it breaks down. How does that- "
"I could kill you right here." Amaretto has to interrupt, her tone cold, before Five gets any ideas. "Jab into your throat, and you'd be choking. Just an accident, you started the fight. Elan Florent, Alissandre Cassiter – they know how much the Capitol loves a pretty One. Just an unfortunate accident, if they even reported it." The smile never leaves Amaretto's lips as she speaks, eyeing Five with cool blue eyes.
"You-you." Five's stuttering all of a sudden, of course she is.
"Couldn't? Oh, I definitely could. So, you're going to fuck off, and stop acting like a wounded puppy, or when I find you, I'm going to take your guts and hang you from them!" Amaretto's still smiling as she lifts her legs off Five's lap. Still smiling when Five stands, looking at her, eyes wet.
"I-I can help, I-I promise. I c-can."
"Can what. Can sneak around. Don't need that. Now, fuck. Off. Run along."
Five bursts into tears, and Amaretto can't help but laugh at how easily she's been pushed over the edge. Five runs into the elevator, and Amaretto slinks in after her. Eyes Five, other girl shrunk into a corner, until she can get out and leave Five to cry as the elevator raises up and away. She doesn't feel bad at the time.
When Elan tells her off for scaring Five and causing issues with Skye, she feels a little bad.
She feels worse when she catches Five, and has to look into the pleading, pained, eyes of the girl Diana's just shot with an arrow.
She closes her eyes for what comes next.
Victor: Diana Fairway, District Two, 18
It's dark. It's late. Diana has her bow in hand, cradling it with the arrow gently strung. But she's heard something, has to have heard something, and so she's already running after whatever it was. There's a rustling up in the bushes ahead, sign of something (she doesn't quite know who or what) moving. But that's her quarry, and so it's with steady feet she runs after it. Jumps over a bush, and she can already hear Amaretto running behind her because the bootsteps are loud and crunching. It's not exactly a positive sound, not when she knows what Amaretto will want if it is someone, and yet she can't exactly tell her Ally not to come. Not when Amaretto's been so instrumental in this Victory.
Soon enough, she sees a flash of red hair, fires her arrow after it, and soon enough the girl from Nine is sprawled on the floor, clutching her leg and whimpering with the shaft buried deep within it. "Please, please. Just let me go. I'll never tell anyone, I swear. I'll be on my way, and Lani and Tex won't have to-"
She's said to much. She knows she's said too much, and Nine blanches but shuts up as Diana aims the arrow. Before she can fire, though, Amaretto's already pressing the top of the bow down, aiming it into the dirt with a laugh. "Di. Di, you can't just kill her. She knows where, who is it, Lani and Tex are. Tens, am I right?" A nod, a terrified little nod from Nine and Amaretto properly laughs as she sashays in, holding knives in both hands. "Well. I need numbers, so does Di here, so we're going to need that information."
Eight shuts up, lips closed, but in an instant Amaretto's grabbed the skinny girl by her hair, is already dragging her towards the edge as Nine struggles, kicks, tries everything in her power to get free. IT's no use, and Diana looks over at Amaretto as One pins down Nine on the paving.
"Amaretto. A bit far, isn't it?" Maybe Amaretto can be swayed this time, but she only offers a perfectly predatory grin and in an instant there's nothing that can be done except mouth an apology at Nine, turn with bow still strung and stand sentry as Amaretto engages in her work.
As screams fill the air, interspersed with begging. Pleas for help, pleas for it to stop, promises that the Tens are just in the aquarium and if Diana, Amaretto go they can still catch them. It's no use, and it continues until Amaretto clicks her tongue, calls Diana over.
"Come on, sweetheart. Need to get this over with, get my favourite Two's numbers up."
Diana doesn't want to. Doesn't want to look at the red mess which conceals any scrap of humanity, doesn't want to do anything at all if she's totally honest. But green eyes are still pleading even if lips are silent, and so she raises the bow.
Fires the arrow.
Fires away any hope of redemption.