𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐦𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭 || 𝐀 𝐇𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐅𝐚𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

01 | the districts children

Race - Alex G

"But then it disappears like smoke, and you're alone"

Him

A hand sticks out from the dark shadows covering the settee. It extends towards the table in front and flicks on the capitol issued television. The screen flashes a bright white before dimming into a neutral gray background. Two men, scripts in hand, sat at a glass table, their makeup fully done and wigs fully perfected - apart from the man on the right whose lace is lifting. The man on the left - Caesar Flickerman - adjusts his quickly fading red hair, before clearing his throat and beginning,

"For those of you who did not tune in this morning, we have very, very," he gives a light chuckle as he turns to his cohost - Claudius Templesmith. "Very, good news."

Claudius smiles - obviously fake, but fit for television - before following after his cohost. "We finally - after eighteen whole days! We finally have a victor of the seventy-third annual hunger games !" He squeals excitedly as he finishes his sentence, much like a child would.

Caesar quickly adds, "and it's not who you'd think, well," he pauses, thinking, "perhaps, but the majority of you were not."

Claudius then drops the scripts to the table, widens his smile and presses his lips together before speaking, "well, I definitely wasn't voting on... them? Oh who cares, the victor of this year's games is Theia Python !"

And then he turns around, and in the background of the studio they're filming in, her face is there, she's smiling? Her hairs clean, freshly washed and styled to be pin straight. She's got no obvious makeup on - base 0 is what the capitols stylist shall call it. Nobody would come fresh out of the arena looking that unharmed, that perfect. This is an obviously edited photo but, why?

I quickly flick the television station away, finding another one revolving around the hunger games after several clicks. The image on screen shows Theias face again. The same fake, edited one though. I repeat my actions and flick through to another station, but it's just the same. They're all the same, but why?

Her

The month before - July 1st

I glance down at the bottle of rum in my hands and take one final swig before throwing it into the embers that lay dying beneath my feet. The small flames do one final dance before drowning in on one another and murdering the hot wood they once relied on. I breathe in a half sigh of relief that my feet are no longer in danger of being set alight but also half a breath of craving for the warmth that's no longer there.

"Theia ?" A voice calls from behind the tree line on the opposite side of the field to where I stand.

"Maynes ?" I call back, turning my attention from the chunks of blackened wood below me to the direction in which the voice came from.

A figure emerges from the trees, his face hidden by the cloak that hangs so limply across his shoulders. The hood is brought up and hanging over his scalp, his eyes the only thing visible in the brightness of the sun. He takes a step forward upon seeing me and brings down his hood.

"Oh, sweetheart. I wish I was Maynes," he says, a smirk etched into his mouth as he slowly crosses the clearing in the woods.

His eyes glitter a silver as the light above reflects them and then I realise who they belong to. "Hades ?"