GHOSTS OF FIRE AND GLASS | The Hunger Games

01 .. Tribute Becomes Victor

CHAPTER ONE
* . °•★| Tribute Becomes Victor |☆•° . *

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          "THIS IS IT," CAESER'S VOICE dragged itself over the harrowing moment upon which the cameras panned and focused. The image transmitted from the arena had gotten so clear, Finnick could almost feel the stickiness of the warm and humid atmosphere of the swamped area. In the lucious reflections on damp moss, he sensed just how uncomfortable it would feel for both Lucy and her attacker, the bulky boy from District 2. "This is the moment in which the Tribute becomes a Victor, ladies and gentlemen. I am on the edge of my seat."

No, Finnick couldn't help but contradict. I am on the edge of my seat, not you.

Lucy Bellwood has exceeded all expectations after deliberately screwing up her own evaluation score. For the entirety of the four training days in the Tribute Center, Finnick had received news that she was bad at pretty much anything and everything. He expected her to be a dull fighter, but to hear she's proved herself incapable of even mastering some of the more basic survival skills... it was disappointing. Out of the training days, she's managed to get the individual score of 3. A catastrophe, he had thought at the time. Had she been a bit more talkative, perhaps her beauty could have bought her some sponsors, but the girl was mono-syllabic at best during her interviews, almost mute around him; he could have placed her in the most beautiful clothes in existence, but her presence was disturbing regardless of her beauty.

He's grown so used to the idea that she would die amongst the first.

Then the games started.

Within seconds from stepping off her platform, Lucy Bellwood had shown her horrendous score had been a calculated bluff. Even then, intense and sleepless days later, Finnick remembered as clearly as a sober mind would have his own words in interviews right after the Cornucopia massacre had been broadcast: "She clearly came here with a plan to win. Though she should have let me in on her plan, in which case I would have advised her to score better during training too, it was smart of her not to do so. Lucy Bellwood knew there was no better way of truly standing out than showing everyone her worth in action. She's fast, she's intelligent and most importantly, she's ready to win the games."

"Do you believe she can, Mr. Odair?" The interviewer had asked him that first day.

Yes, she can, though he hadn't admitted it then, now he thought it with deep conviction. Come on, Lucy, he encouraged her from the silence of thought, his right knee bouncing restlessly beneath his elbow. The big screen he looked up at were not showing favorable images and his heart thundered in his chest with nothing but prayer left in him to spend in order to help her. Despite Lucy's attempts to take the District 2 tribute down from a distance or quietly, as she had the others, it all came down to close combat, where her advantages drained. Algae in their damn hair reminisced the brawls start in the swampy waters, but now, the District 2 boy leant on his back on the ground, arm around Lucy's neck from behind, choking her out.

She was paling fast and though her initial panic had driven her to attempt to push that arm away, she fortunately soon realized she had no chance on doing so. Her left hand dropped down besides her, her right remaining up to battle the boy's strength from completely crushing her throat.

Then, with little else to do, she bit down on his forearm. The boy hissed.

"Lucy Bellwood has fought admirably," Claudius spoke over the scene. "But I think you and I can both agree that there is no way she's getting out of that chokehold. Right, Caesar?"