Jaded ||| Johanna Mason

eighteen

Two weeks into the games, there weren't many tributes left. The 1's, 2's, two other different tributes from 8 and 5, and Johanna.

The night before, the tributes managed to track down and kill the 5. And in the morning, they were looking for Johanna. They wanted to make her death last.

It wasn't hard to find her, though, because she'd started a fire to keep herself warm. And it was massive. It was a miracle she'd kept herself alive that long.

Jade was actually feeling a bit sad when the career pack tracked her down. They were laughing and joking as they made their way toward Johanna.

And when they arrived, Johanna was in a little clearing next to her fire. They started taunting her, expecting her to start crying like she had all those days in training. But Johanna did not.

"I wondered when you idiots were going to show. I started this fire an hour ago." Johanna's voice was unnervingly calm. She didn't even look at the pack as she stood and picked up her axe. Her entire personality had changed. It was then that the victors began to realize what was going on.

The careers themselves seemed stunned and suddenly unsure. This girl they'd thought was an easy kill was starting to scare them. Johanna being calm was more worrying than her being angry.

When the careers said nothing, Johanna looked up, feigning innocence again. "Oh, are we not fighting anymore?" She smiled. "Come on, you were all tough in training. Come kill me."

Shaking off her strange behaviour, the careers went at Johanna.

It was a massacre.

Johanna killed them all.

There was no hint of the girl that was sobbing on the stage at the reaping, of the girl who scored a 4 in training. No, Johanna was only aggressive.

She handled the axe with more precision than Jade had ever seen, it was like a lethal extension of her arm. She hacked and slashed and chopped, dancing away from the careers who were trying to fight back.

When everyone realized what had gone on, that Johanna had been acting, Blight had a wide, shit-eating grin on his face.

"You son of a bitch." Odius was fuming, that his tributes couldn't recognize an act when they saw one. That Johanna had acted her ass off and convinced them to leave her until last, until it was too late.

Jade chuckled and raised a glass to Blight. His plan had worked flawlessly. He nodded his head in thanks. He was finally going to have another winner.

And 10 minutes later, Johanna had completely slaughtered the entire career pack. She was heaving, sweating, and covered in blood. But she'd killed all of them and revealed to all of Panem that she was not a shaking, sobbing, weak little girl. She was a cunning, sly, vicious woman.

Was it bad that made her even more attractive in Jade's eyes? For someone to slaughter the whole pack and trick a whole nation, that took skill. And now her outward appearance matched the inward.

Johanna looked incredibly attractive covered in blood.

***

The 1 and 2 victors were very angry with Blight when they were forced to leave their stations. His tribute had played them all and killed their chance at another victor. The last career tribute winner was Jade and she hadn't even played it by the book.