FOUL GAME | the hunger games

16- CAPITOL CHRONICLES. (cw!)

cw warning for this chapter, as it is quite dark and implicitly talks about coercion, death wishes and doing things we do not want to do. 

CAPITOL CHRONICLES.

Fred.

"Fuck." I mutter as I exit the gamemaker building in the heart of the capitol. Powered by a two hour, restless sleep from the night before I head to the tribute building to figure out our next move. 

Now that both our tributes split ways, it's much more difficult to play. It has always been clear who I want to save. All of my efforts and resources are going to her, but now that they split, so have we. If I only negotiate for her, they will notice the foul play. 

These past four days have been hell on earth. I don't know how I am going to be able to do this year after year. I'm sick and tired of everyone expecting me to know what to do when in reality, I have no clue. 

My job as a mentor is, apart from training and preparing my tributes, to get sponsors for them and keep them alive. This is a game best played by two. But something no one ever tells you, is the extent to which you have to go for these deals. A common misconception that neither Maeve or me truly realised is that the power doesn't always lie on the tribute. It lies on the mentor. 

Finnick is not new to this. Someone truly devoted to keeping his kids alive. You almost never see him around, you know he is cooking sponsorships, doing whatever it takes to help his tributes. Just today, he got Aquor sent a basket filled with his districts' bread and fish.  A big one at that, so it helped me out with Phanuel too. But with Maeve? I'm willing to go to the absolute extremes. 

For her first gift it was easy. She got injured on mere day two and it barely took a few words for her best sponsors to send out the exact elixir she needed for saving. Finnick still has to thank me, though, for Vaiana benefitted from it. 

The games and their sponsors are actually darker than I thought. At least for Maeve, a sort of net has been formed. There are five guys who seem to be the leaders. Filthy rich, money falling out of their pockets everywhere they walk. They run it all and organise everything else. They make the money pools, they organise what gifts are gonna be sent out, and then they talk it out with me, as if they were the only ones putting the money. I pretend not to notice, I only talk to them. One of these guys is on a shared net with Finnick's tributes. 

I hate to admit that Phanuel is not my priority, but it's true. I need her out. I'm afraid of what people might do if I don't take her out. I'm afraid of what I might do if I she doesn't come back to me. 

Now that she is stable with a new pack she trusts, and far away from other people as of last time I check, I get to lay down and brace in for a couple of hours'rest. Or so I thought, until a frantic Finnick knocks on my door. 

"Open up, please, it is urgent." He says seconds before I reach for the door. He immediately throws himself inside and turns on the TV with the special mentor's transmission. She is alone now, and someone is chasing her. On her stats, it says she has no weapons in hand. What happened and what did she do? Did her camp get raid?

"Fuck." I mutter as I stand up and throw the first pair of jeans I can find. Not an ideal outfit to get sponsorships but I am desperate. 

"It's the injured one. See he is limping, but he is fast. He is armed, if he gets to her and she has no weapons on then..." he doesn't dare finishing the sentence but I know exactly what he means. 

I push past him and he follows me into the elevator. Once outside, in the bustling night street, I am clueless as to where to good. The blood on my veins pumps faster than it ever did when I was at the arena myself.