87th Games: The Aftermath

The 87th Victor

Life had been hard ever since I returned home.

I felt like everybody in District Ten was treating me like some kind of old war veteran who just got back from war. I felt like everyone was saying “watch out everybody; don’t let Scarlett Aspen work in the fields with the horses because she might remember her old horse Trouble! Don’t let her talk to her old male friends because she might remember Arrow! Don’t let her participate in basic daily tasks because she is sad and broken and nothing can fix her!”

Home wasn’t home to me anymore.

District 10, a farming country was filled with bushland and vacant fields, the resemblance almost uncanny to the arena used in the 87th Hunger Games. So as anyone could guess without fail, each and every time I was left alone in the country I remembered things I was dying to forget.

Sometimes if I closed my eyes I could still hear the faint trickling of the creek where Zane died. If I listened close enough sometimes I could hear the whinnying of Trouble, the laugh of Arrow and the crackling of the cornucopia fire.  

But that was only if I was lucky enough to be left alone. Sometimes I would have to specifically hide from the towns people by leaving the center of our district. But only then would I be bombarded by the bush men who lived just outside our town. They were older folk and seemed to flourish with no kind of technology whatsoever. I found it strange how interested they were in me, and the fact they asked so many questions when they didn’t even own a television.

“What’s it like being in a games?” The bush men would ask.

“Do you miss Trouble?” A young boy questioned.

“Do you know if Arrow is alive?” They’d continue relentlessly.

I found it hard to be around people in my state of mind. So for the majority of my time here in my District, I stayed in my room. I was safe there. Nobody could touch me, talk to me, or even be near me.

Sometimes I would stare into the mirror. For hours, I’d sit there, trying but failing to recognise the person staring back at me. I had scars and burns all over my body including my face. The Capitol nurses wanted to remove them but I didn’t want them to. The scars from the cornucopia fire are the only reminder I have of everything I loved and lost.

After everything I had been through I didn’t want to forget the only thing that made me sane: Arrow. I missed him so much and all I wanted in this world was to know if he was okay. He was taken away from me during the end of the games and I haven’t heard about him since. I haven’t even said his name because I was too afraid to think about it for fear of any negative thoughts becoming reality.

Each time I saw my reflection I would stare at my burns, my cuts, my bruises… I couldn’t help but cringe at my head of hair. They Capitol had to regrow my hair due to the ‘unfortunate events’ in the cornucopia fire. It had grown back to its regular length but still looked terrible somehow. Without asking me, the Capitol had changed the colour of my hair. It wasn’t a fiery red anymore, it was darker. It had light red streaks in it as well as some orange. It made me look like I was from the Capitol, like I was somebody else.

But how could I forget? Only 5 months ago I was reaped to be tribute in the 87th games, along with 23 others. I made friends and lost them. Zane and Tuckett died because of me, Avery had been sentenced to live as an Avox and Trouble, my best friend as well as my noble horse was gone. I found love in the games and lost that too. I wasn’t sure if Arrow died or if he survived. Surely if he was alive he would have come back to the District with me? What if something happened to him? I didn’t know what to think anymore. I loved Arrow and I missed him.