The Princess and The Owl // Johanna Mason x OC

Chapter 1 - Can You Hear me Now?

"And that, ladies and gentlemen," Caesar bellows out to the adoring audience, "is what makes an amazing victor!"

Flashes of her kills scroll across the screen: every angle; every speed; every close-up. The reel finished on a slow motion pan of her victory. Raising the lymphatic bones above her head, echoes of her jubilance and celebration bounce around the auditorium.

"That, I do have to say," the presenter leans in as he addresses the clamouring crowd once again, "has to be one of my all-time favourite kills."

"It was marvellous!" Claudius calls from off stage, making the audience laugh.

"I could not agree more," his Cheshire grin beams, "the way you took your very own district partner's spine and fought your fellow careers with it: I've never witnessed anything quite like it!"

His animated recount of the kills riles up the crowd into even more rapturous applause. Once more, the replays flow behind her.

We see Ouranos' flesh split and melt from his bones. His large and built frame withering in a scorched-red burst before the canon sounds, drowning out the clatter of his flesh-less skeleton on the concrete ground. Snatching the set of bones from the gory rumble, her firm grasp clutches around it.

"We've seen it all; talked about it all," Caesar finally addresses Athena directly, "but tell me, Miss Andre, which was your favourite?"

She ponders for a moment, recalling them all vividly, before settling on one, "The district 5 pair: Belle and Tolkien, I think their names were?"

"Ohhh, now that was a moment not to be missed," without a moment's pause, the replay begins.

The pair pressed themselves into a rocky cut-away. There were pleads of mercy and forgiveness: the two had insulted my brother in training. The girl had been the worse of the pair. The boy was a silent accomplice. Slitting his throat gracefully, he drops to his knees in a growing, crimson pool. Kicking him to the side, the deafening canon makes the girl flinch. Eyes still a-gaze, his dulling pupils lay transfixed on the unfurling scene.

"I didn't m-ean it," she chokes out, glancing at her district partner. Visibly paling, she looks back to Athena in nothing but utter terror.

"I-I d-d-didn't mean t-to, please f-forgive m-me," she mocks, closing the metre gap. Up in her face, the young girl's panting breaths condense in dewy droplets on her cheeks.

"I-"

"Shhh," she strokes her face, pretending to calm her, "you wouldn't be crying if you weren't guilty, now would you?"

"I didn't m-mean any-"

"I'd be quiet, if I were you," Athena shushes her with a knowing grin, "Oh, but that pretty little voice is the reason we're having this little chat, now isn't it?" she coos, tracing young tribute's lips with her bloodied thumb. She is silent immediately, "and I can't have you talking about my dear brother, an almighty victor, like that."

"So I guess we'll have to change that, haven't we," suddenly reaching into her fear-slackened jaw, she wrenches out her tongue. Slicing the already blood-splatter knife through the thick muscle, her agonised screams rip through the otherwise silent surroundings.