Challenge: Kids
Title: Five Kids
Author: godsdaisiechain
Fandom: Hunger Games
Type: Fic
Characters/Pairing: Five of the Tributes
Word Count: ~900
Rating: PG
Summary: Five tributes reflect on the Games

I am going to keep posting until someone else does, so apologies for any diminution in quality over time...


Foxface
I heard them talking in the woods just before I stole those berries. “Foxface” they called me.  Peeta and Katniss.  They never even bothered to learn my name.  I was a person of no worth to them. Of no worth to anyone.

If I had been born in the Capitol, I would be a person of importance.  A leader.  Someone of my intelligence.  But I was marked out early as a problem. A troublemaker.  Figuring things out.  Asking questions that have no good answers.  My mentor said as much.

“I’m sorry, Lilah,” he whispered when he shook my hand.  “I tried…”

And he did.  He told Sammi to get himself killed in the bloodbath, that it would be the quickest way.  That he didn’t stand a chance and that sacrificing himself would prevent them from coming down hard on our district.  Sammi had nodded grimly, then went into his room and cried.  After that, he ate as much as he could and wrote letters that our mentors promised to deliver to his family.

“Your path will be harder, Lilah. You could have a chance. You could outsmart this.  That Haymitch Abernathy kid did it in the last Quarter Quell.”  I watched the tapes, studied hard.

“It’s a long shot,” I said. Dom nodded.  Then he explained what had happened to Haymitch and what they were doing to Finick O’Dair and Johanna Mason, what would happen to me, afterward, if I did win.  A young attractive girl from a poor district.  I managed to get to the bathroom before I threw up.

“I am sorry, Lilah,” he said again.  “You needed to know.  You can make your choice now.  I respect your courage.  I had to give you that much.”

I did make a choice.  The only person I killed in that arena was myself.

Clove
I don’t know what they did to me to make me like this.  It must have been bad, or I would remember some of it.  Instead, all I do is wake up shrieking and throwing things.

Cato would be the winner.  I knew it.  He knew it.  He was bigger, stronger, more insane.  All I would be able to do was cut and kill.  At least I would be able to escape the daily horror of my thoughts, the desire to hurt people and things.

It would have to be enough.

Thresh
She was only a little girl. That was all I could think standing there, watching the kid quivering in terror on that stage.  Only a child.  Chaff had cursed and then sighed when he found us on the train, the little girl curled up, crying in my arms.   The older man was firm. “You can’t be seen to protect her.  If you show that weakness, they will kill you.  You could be the victor.  It is your choice, but you have to be ruthless.”

“Like you?” I asked.

Chaff had laughed then, slapped me on the arm. “You got guts, kid.  I have to give you that.”

“You have to try,” Rue whispered.  “You have to.”

“Like you?” I asked again, serious.  His eyes clouded, thinking about what he done.  What he become after.

We both knew in that moment that I was not like him.

“You last till the end, Thresh, and it will be better for your family.  They’ll get some clothes, maybe, for the interviews.  Maybe some food.  You stay alive as long as you can.”

“And what about this little girl?”

“You play with her up here, keep her distracted.” He looked hard at Rue. “You follow that girl from District Twelve.  She volunteered to save her sister. Volunteered.  From Twelve.” My mouth fell open. That girl would take some watching.

“There’s hundreds like you in Eleven.  Hundreds.  Thousands.  You think about why we rarely win.” Chaff turned away. “You make up your mind, Thresh.  You can win this.  Just keep away from the career pack.  Find something  they want.”

But I promised myself not to kill, not to play their game.  I thought that I broke that promise, smashing that knife girl with the rock.  I let the fire girl go, for that little girl.  For Rue.

As my life drained out, I realized that I had not let them win, those gamemakers.  I died smiling.

Marvel
The day of the reaping, Gloss told me that I did not have a chance, that it would be someone else. There were too many Victors from One and they wanted things to be more even.  If I did win, things would be very bad for me and my family, and Moonstone, my girlfriend.  I wanted to scream, cry, beg, but I knew it was no use, especially not when they started to describe, in graphic detail, what would be done to her.

“I’m sorry, Marvel.”

So I knew.  I would have to be a killer, to kill other defenseless kids, maybe even that little girl.  And be killed myself.  And I would never know if I had saved her or not.

All for the glory of the games.

Rue
I watched her from the first day, and decided to trust her because of that pin, the mockingjay.  What I didn’t expect was to find out how much of a child she was.  Innocent.  Not like me.  She has never seen real evil, like I have.  She was so shocked that the peacekeepers would kill a boy who was just a little slow.  How could she be so stupid? How could she not know about the boy who loves her?

Maybe the same way she shared so much food with me, held me and hugged me.  I thought that was over the minute I got into the arena.  No one ever took care of me like that.  Ever.

I hope she wins, though.  Since Thresh said he didn’t want to kill nobody and they won’t let him win that way.  His way.  I hope it’s her.

I just wish someone would look after the kids at home for me.