Chapter Text
"Some kill their love when they are young,
And some when they are old;
Some strangle with the hands of Lust,
Some with the hands of Gold:
The kindest use a knife, because
The dead so soon grow cold.” Oscar Wilde
The dead so soon grow cold
"Nobody ever volunteers from District 4." Haymitch tells her as they watch the reaping on the train to the Capitol. "They treat it like it’s some great honour." She wonders why he is sitting there with them and not drunk in his room most likely passed out.
"I thought they were a Career district," Peeta frowns.
"They are but they don't train the kids to fight like 1 and 2." Now she thinks about it Haymitch is slurring a little bit. "The rules of the district means that they have to take their position, hold their head high and do their district proud." there is a note of mocking in his tone, the same that Gale held when quoting Effie.
Later she watches through past games. After a while they end up muted and varying between playing at normal speed and being fast-forwarded. Her leg is starting to cramp as she watches a reaping from some fifteen years earlier. The child whose name is called reminds her of Prim. He's a young boy, and this is probably his first reaping. His jaw clenches stubbornly as he grounds himself before stepping forwards. He looks like he's about to march right up to the stand and punch someone, but his floppy bangs fall in his eyes and it fails to look intimidating, only cute.
Regardless he never gets there. His second step is barreled aside by an older blonde boy who shouts something out. The crowd stills and by the time then younger boy has managed to regain his balance, the other boy is once again shoving him away, gesturing over to where a dark haired, blue eyed boy and a short, scrawny kid chewing on a lollipop stand. The floppy haired boy stumbles over, and the older one ends up being the one to march forwards.
She's spent hours skimming through various Hunger Games. Each year has twenty-four tributes and each year has twenty-three dead. Soon there are one hundred, three hundred... She lost count long ago but for some reason she reaches for the mute button, turning the volume back on and preparing to watch these games through to the end.
The younger boy was the younger brother, and only later does she realise she sees something of herself in the tribute from years past. She knows he is likely to die, but she doesn't stop the playing.
It turns out the boy was from District 4. It makes her reconsider Haymitch's assumption that they didn't volunteer, but then thinks back to past years and realises that no previous tribute from 4 had volunteered.
It appears that there is where the similarities end. The guy is charming and well-liked when he reaches the Capitol. He wears silky material of a turquoise blue which danced like waves, but she saw only forest green which could be seen in his own eyes.
Katniss watches as it cycles through the various tributes training and then the smiling up at the crowd. The loudest cheers follow the blonde couple from one, both with eerily pale eyes. Their smiles are sharp and despite the white suit and innocent white dress they wear, it is as if they are already stained with blood. There are also high hopes for the other Careers: the boy and girl from 2. The girl has striking red hair and seems to play the bad girl image, flaunting lust and every other sin on her lips. The boy isn't much better, tall and striking and already with a nasty scar on his one cheek, curling around to his skin. It looks like his body is ripping itself open.
In comparison District 4 produces its usual Career material. The one girl is a suck up that trails the blonde from 1 with wide eyes. The boy is pretty, and the Capitol sigh over how he wouldn't make it to their beds. He flirts and chats with everyone, his smart-aleck tongue surprisingly making more friends than enemies. Yet he fumbles through training and ends up lifting weights in one corner while the other five Careers whisper behind his back.
It's quickly apparent that for all his suave and smirks, the boy from 4 is the Career pack’s weakest link. As if to prove their doubts, he scores a meager six in training. The Careers range eight to ten between them and the pair from 9 get a decent score for their skills with swords. The girl from 10 likes playing with knives while the boy from 10 seems to prefer playing with sock puppets than weapons. The rest of the tributes between them score an average of five or six, and Katniss can just see the betting for 4's male tribute dropping exponentially.
Then it is the games and the pods are rising up at the start in a wide circle. The arena is a ruined town, empty buildings with dead eyes staring down at the kids. To the one end a forest stretches up into the distance and a lonely road winds its way through the middle. There is a clock tower to the one end with one arm missing and the other perpetually pointing at four. In the centre of the courtyard where the tributes hover awkwardly on their platforms, was the Cornucopia, a crumbled structure made out of dull stone dusty with the red soil.
Everything runs as one would usually expect a game to run. There is a bloodbath that kills the boy from 5, the boy from 10, and both from 11. The boy from 4 clumsily knocks down the boy from 3, but it is 1 who stalks over to shove the guy away and the girlfriend who pins down 3 and kisses him, laughing as the poison she's already collected from the Cornucopia, her weapon of choice, is smeared all over her lips in a death kiss. It affects him immediately, and his muscles seize up, paralyzing him. Despite this it takes him another forty five minutes to die.
"You see?" the boy from 1 smirks at 4. "All you need to do is pick up the knife."
Looking alarmed 4 pushes himself up and stalks over past a dead tribute: the female from 9 who lies with some small metal pen through her throat, blood pooling around her. The other Careers are bickering over supplies and the girl casts 4 a narrow eyed glance when she thinks he's not looking.
He's the weak link, the bottom rung of their pack and even he knows it, though he hides behind smirks and his smart tongue. Katniss thinks his best bet would be to leave them now before they realise they might be better without him.
Like most years the Careers use the Cornucopia as a base. They venture out, but the other tributes have gone to ground. It's late in the second day when they finally get the scent of the girl from 6 in the depths of the town. They split to chase her down the ruined alleyways and buildings and everything seems to be going normally right up until 4's male tribute spins around the girl from his district and slams a short blade nobody quite knew he had into her stomach. She chokes, gasping for breath and he gives the blade a vicious twist before pulling it back. She slips to the ground, still coughing blood and he wipes the blade off on his sleeve, before leaving her thee. The stab isn't fatal but the blood loss will be, but it gives him to slip away, back to where the pair from 1 have cornered the mousy blonde frail looking girl from 6.
The boy, one of the oldest tributes at eighteen, has her pinned to the clock tower by the knife in her one arm. Her body is sagging and she screams and begs and he laughs, enjoying the torture.
"You're still playing?" 4 doesn't need to try hard to sound disgusted.
"Where's the squealing bitch?" the older boy looks up at him.
The lie slips so easily out of his mouth it makes Katniss wonder how much practise he had. "She gave up. Headed back to the camp."
The blonde girl rolls her eyes, and for a moment they look almost white.
That is when the canon goes off and the two from 1 shoot each other a glance and then down at where 6 still struggles feebly. The male from 1 pauses to make sure her canon sounds before heading hurriedly off, 4 trailing them and leaving 6's body crucified to the clock tower. By the time they get to the alley where 4's female tribute is slumped the blood has pooled outwards in a bloody halo. They have her body but no killer, and shrug it off. It's one step closer to their final goal anyway.
The tributes are down to six dead and eighteen left. The Career pack are thirsting for blood and whre she watches, Katniss knows that it won't be long before they head out again and another tribute dies. But for now the three returning share the news with the pair from 2 who were left to guard the camp. They spend the night lounging around the fire.
The Career pack lasts until the fourth day. There are no deaths in that time but the camera scans over the other tributes. The two from 7 have teamed up, and the girl from 12 takes the young boy from her district under her wing.
On the fourth day the girl from 8 makes a mistake, and her fire sends a smoke trail rising into the sky. With barely contained feral smiles the Career pack sets out, leaving 4 to guard their supplies. He waits for all of half an hour for them to vanish well out of site before grabbing a pack and loading up supplies for one.
Katniss feels a weird sense of relief that he's getting out now early. The camera alternates between the death of 8, her body ripped apart as if from a pack of wolves, to his dogged progress through the woods... In the wrong direction. He is following the trail the Career pack left earlier, heading straight for them. They are laughing and whooping over their kill, oblivious to the other boy.
As he gets closer he sinks into a limp, and suddenly he looks haggard and terrified. The four approaching stop and frown at him.
“What are you doing here?” The boy from 2 stalks forwards.
“The… the pair from 7 turned up. I couldn’t…” his act is flawless, and with a snarl 2 pushes him aside and breaks into a run back to the Cornucopia. The female tribute from 2 follows, as does the boy from 1. The girl however stays, slinking closer as if to get rid of their pack’s weak link, and Katniss wonders if this was what he was intending, because 4 rounds on her, act dropping.
There is a moment when her face registers surprise and then she is dead, body crumpling to the floor. Blood pools from the cut throat, running down the hill through the grass in twisting lines like a snake. 4 takes a moment to slow his breathing, before grabbing his pack and moving quickly the other direction. He circles around back to the town, and takes to the old buildings on the forest edge, making his way to the rooftops. The boy from 9 passes below, and 4 goes unseen. He relaxes then, having made his exit and left his mark.
The Careers find out about his betrayal soon enough. The boy from 1 flies into a rage and the pair from 2 scatter, and just like that the pack is dissolved, as if it never was. 1 starts hunting 4 with a vengeance, but it’s actually the pair from 2 who find him first, as he stalks the rooftop.
There is a fight and at some point the boy from 2 gets too close to the edge and he falls. His flailing hand catches the ankle of the boy from 4 and they go down together, the Career softening then landing for the boy with green eyes, but Katniss still hears the crack of breaking bones. 2 dies, although whether from the fall or from the knife buried in his head it’s hard to tell.
4 stumbles away with a dislocated arm that he clicks back into place, and the remaining tribute from District 2 flees, knowing that she wouldn’t win. 4 returns to his haunts on the edge of the town.
He can't avoid the others forever. The older boy from 1 stalks the shadows and gets the drop on him when he finally descends from the rooftops. They fight, with fists and blades and bastardised martial arts moves that Katniss has no idea where the boy from 4 learnt them. He's losing though against the strength and brutality of the older boy. He crumbles to the ground spitting out blood and 1 stalks towards him triumphantly. In the glare from the light his pale eyes look almost white.
"You're getting rusty," the boy smirks, blood dribbling down his nose, "Maybe I should teach you what it means to kill and maim."
"Go to hell," 4 pushes himself backwards, his lip split and bleeding.
1 just laughs.
Katniss thinks this might be it for him, and wonders if it is going to be the same for her, lying bloodied and battered in an alleyway. 4 forces himself to his elbows himself up, and then surprises them all as he kicks out 1's feet from under him, sending the older boy tumbling to the ground. Like a rabid wolf 4 seizes his chance, lunging for the kill and for a moment they roll on the floor for a few seconds, before 1 finally stills, 4's hands wrapped around his neck and choking the life from him.
He stands, and Katniss can see he is dizzy and in a bad way. He limps away, and now would be the perfect time for one of the others to ambush him, to end him before he ends them. Yet the other tributes are nowhere near, 9 hunting down the far side of town, the pair from 7 down by the road, the duo from 12 skirting the edge of the arena while the remaining tributes from 10 and 3 stalk the forest. The remaining tributes are the girl from 2, the boy from 6, the girl from 5 and the boy from 8.
The latter is the tribute who finds 4, and although he originally seems to have the intention to kill 4, he has a change of heart and they shares supplies and food. The rest are quickly seized from the Cornucopia by anyone brave enough. The remaining tributes grow more confident with the early dissolution of the pack and so somehow 4 and 8 end up sticking together.
"Why are you doing this?" 4 asks suspiciously as 8 helps to dab some sort of medicine 4 had stolen from the Cornucopia onto his bruised face. "I'm gonna' kill you eventually."
"We're all going to kill each other eventually brother," the brunette chuckles, "But for now you and I... We'd fare off better together."
For two sixteen year olds who had never really spoken before then, they make a well-oiled team. 8 favours an axe while 4 sticks to his knives. He obviously never showed the Game Makers that, because he can hit a flying bird at a distance of thirty feet.
4 and 8 head down to the road to try and deal with the pair from 7. Meanwhile on the edge of the forest a fire starts up, and the duo from 12 are forced to move closer to the town and other tributes. No one dies until the girl from 7 turns around and snaps the neck of her partner revealing a thirst for blood and a streak of crazy that she had been keeping well hidden until then. 4 stabs her with a knife before she can start monologue and laughing hysterically.
The girl from 2 and the boy from 6 get into a tussle, which is interrupted by the building they are in collapsing around them. 2 limps away relatively unscathed but the boy remains trapped beneath the rubble, and Katniss can see the bone sticking out. He's still alive, and it takes another hour for the canon to sound, and he's screaming nearly the whole time, struggling as if he might be strong enough to push the heavy chunk of rubble off him.
The Game Makers want to speed things up, bring together the remaining tributes. They release monsters: black goo which chokes the victim with creepy sentience, six headed snakes that grow two back for every head it loses and grotesque spectres that appear and disappear like ghosts, even look vaguely human.
"I thought I'd hate this," 8 shared with 4, "But it's actually simpler than I thought, just fighting and surviving. You don't have to worry about anyone else."
The blonde boy with green eyes says nothing, jaw tense.
"It kinda' feels pure."
4 and 8 kill their way through anything in front of them, but the new monsters really affects the pair from 12 who have managed to outlive the Careers. The girl is losing it, and her partner pays the price of her madness, when she sinks one of those silver swords into him. The poor girl is distraught, red hair limp and lifeless and she babbles about angels and voices in her head as she stumbles away through the trees.
4 finds her. He splits off in the dead of night, stalking out among the rooftops to keep track of the other tributes. He finds the girl from 12, and Katniss is witness to a first class example of how he managed to make himself appear weak and soon to die, when he talks her around until she thinks she has an ally, a source of comfort, and as she sinks into his embrace he sinks the knife into her stomach and she dies crying tears of blood.
4 cleans the blade and turns down towards the town, preparing to sneak back to his current ally from 8 but as he spins around, he finds the boy is already there, shaking his head.
"I've been thinking..." Katniss has no idea how the green-eyed boy can sound so emotionally detached, "That it's time we went our separate ways."
"You're really doing this," 8 looks slightly hurt, "And here I was thinkin' you were different from the rest. But you're a Career to the bone."
"I have to get back to my brother," 4 whispers, and Katniss has to crank up the volume to hear that. Moments later she winds it back down as the boy from 4 dissolves their alliance in the quickest way possible. By taking off the other boys head. Her hands cover her mouth in shock as the head rolls to the ground. The swipe was clean and scarily accurate, cutting between bone and severing muscle in one slash.
Just like that the tributes are down to six and the camera cuts to the interviews with the family members. She leans forward to watch the boy's younger brother, cute and innocent with floppy hair and wide hazel eyes which have an edge to them, and edge that says ‘if my brother doesn't return I'm going to kill them all. I'll kill you all.’
She doesn't know why he worries. Alone once again 4 is a predator, at ease in his environment. For the first time the cameras pick out the glint of gold at his throat where a metal amulet sits, a gift from his brother when they were children.
On the ninth day of the games they release monster hounds in the woods. Their howls ring through the night and in the morning the blonde girl from 10 is dead, chest ripped into ribbons.
A second girl dies that way, the well-spoken brunette who had been trying to be on everyone and anyone's good side by selling something illegal. She was actually meant to be 4's kill, and somehow she ended up on his tally, because there was no way she would have been in those woods if she hadn't been running for her life already from a much more adept predator. He had chased down the girl from three, leaves crunching underfoot. She finally stumbles and he catches up with easy strides, blade catching the light as his face sinks into a mask.
He pins her down, straddling her body and ignoring her desperate attempts to kick him. The knife in his hand flashes towards her throat and her struggles intensify. That is when the baying starts, sending chills down the spines of the viewers behind their screens, even safe in their homes. 4 stiffens in realisation at what is coming. Katniss sees a flash of deep seated fear or terror and for a moment he seems to have forgotten about the games, the hunt, and is somewhere else entirely.
"No!" the girl actually appears more desperate when he comes back to situation at hand, loosening his grip. She lets out a scream as he pushes backwards off her, and then attempts to scramble up after him.
She isn't quick enough. The hounds are on her in a shot.
The cameras pan into where 4 has made it up the nearest tree in almost record time, "See you in hell sweetheart," he whispers, so quietly it is barely audible to Katniss, sitting and watching, but then the small throwing knife catches the light like some heavenly justice and 3's screams are silenced. 4 sits in the tree and she can see his limbs trembling and even once the hounds leave he stays up there another two hours.
The girl from 5 who has been hiding and using her various skills to stay off the other tributes radar meets her end at the black goo which chokes her and wraps her in its embrace. The boy from 9 finds her body before the canon has gone off, still thrashing and gasping for air and the dark skinned boy ends her plight by sinking a silver blade into her side.
Then suddenly, eleven days in and there are three of them left. 4 and 9 meet first and fight with silver blades flashing. 4 has the advantage, able to dart inside where 9's blade can't cut him and that is how the other boy dies, gutted from shoulder to waist and blood staining the ground in a messy, gory kill.
2 uses the opportunity, appearing before 4 can recover and tackling him down. His knife sinks into her side but she laughs and tosses it away. Weaponless he goes for 9's silver sword and lunges but she is fresh and he is not.
She twists his arm and the blade clatters to the ground. She spins him around until he kneels before her, throat bared and one hand traces along his chest.
"Who's have thought you were hiding this all underneath a pretty face?" she sneers, "Shame I didn't see it earlier because you and me lover, we could have gone far."
The light changes suddenly, as if in preparation for the victor, and she glances up, and 4 pulls himself backwards. She falls with him and they both crash into a glass window, the shards falling around them like rain.
His hands tear on the fragments, but he finds one and goes for the kill. A few minutes later he staggers to his feet in the sunlight, the shine hanging around his head like an angel's halo even as the blood drips off him, staining his clothes and skin like a demon out of the darkest corners of perdition.
Looking back everybody laughs over how they knew about the ploy. They had known he would win and there had never been any doubt.
Curled up Katniss wonders if that could be her, returning home to her sibling, and a small gold mockingjay pin glints like a promise to her mom, to Madge, to Prim... Just like the golden amulet that promised 4's return to his brother.
She asks Haymitch about him. He laughs. "Sweetheart you and him, you're nothing alike."
She asks where he is now. "Back at his district with his brother and friends. He used to mentor but after his golden prodigy won a few years back he hasn't been back to the Capitol and the Capitol hasn't bothered them. They know not to touch Sam or Dean Winchester with a 10 foot pole."
"Which one was he?" She queries.
"Dean won when he volunteered for his brother. Two years later Sam volunteered for his brother's friend and walks out, last man standing."
"I thought you said they don't volunteer in District 4."
They don't. Those brothers are the exceptions to everyone's rules. So don't you go thinking you're anything like them. They are dangerous and you... You're well..." he considers her and decides not to continue that sentence lest he end up with a knife through his hand, "Are you prepared to kill sweetheart? Are you?"
She doesn't know how to answer that and Haymitch walks away in search of alcohol. To his back she whispers, mockingjay pin in hand, "I promised."
Katniss Everdeen always keeps her promises.