𝐌𝐀𝐃 𝐖𝐎𝐌𝐀𝐍 - 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘬 𝘰𝘥𝘢𝘪𝘳

― 𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐞

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chapter nine: whatever it takes to win

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𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐕𝐈𝐒𝐇𝐀 𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐓 𝐓𝐖𝐎'𝐒 𝐒𝐔𝐈𝐓𝐄, 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐈𝐒 𝐖𝐀𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐑𝐎𝐎𝐌. Before she even crosses the threshold from the dining room, Hunter makes his way across the room and envelopes her in a hug. "How was it?" She hears him ask as he pulls away from the impromptu hug that definitely wasn't supposed to happen. 

"Good," Visha shrugs, smiling up at the man softly before sitting down in the loveseat, right beside Delia. She waits for Hunter to sit down― reluctantly― beside Blake and Aife while Gideon occupies an armchair all to himself, before continuing, "I threw knives around with my back to the targets. Got bullseyes. Then I knocked an assistant on his ass a couple of times before finishing off with my katana at his throat. Overall a very fun evening." 

The platinum-haired woman next to her shivers. "You sound downright uncouth when you say things like that, Visha," she tuts. "Positively vicious." 

And the dark-haired girl's lips stretch into a wide grin, which shows off her unnaturally sharp canine teeth. "I'm glad," she says. Then, she turns to face Blake the Demon with raised eyebrows. "What did you do in there― boast about how amazing you think you are?" 

"First off," he scowls, "I know I'm amazing. And second, I smashed one of the plastic dummies to bits with a wrecking ball. And then I showed off my mace skills." 

"The non-existent ones?" Visha can't help but taunt. 

"You little―" Blake lunges for her, but is quickly stopped by both Hunter and Aife. 

"You both did wonderful," Aife assures, her words short and clipped, implying that they were anything but. Visha nods, still shooting daggers at Blake the Demon. 

Before their little verbal spar can continue, the television flickers on. Caesar Flickerman, the diva, flashes onto the screen. He laughs raucously, before announcing that the scores were in. God, how Visha hates his blinding smile and deafening laugh. Not to mention his poor sense of humour― the man really needed to learn how to make better jokes. Even dad jokes would be better than the crap he pulled. 

Everyone sits up a little straighter, eyes glued to the television. 

An image of the District One boy flashes onto the screen― Basil. Below his smirking face is the number 10. Not a surprise, considering his brute strength and spear-wielding skills. Next, the District One girl comes up; Scarlett. Her score is a 9. Again, as expected. The Careers usually get scores in the 8-10 range, while the rest of the Tributes average out around 5. Then Blake's sneering face pops up on screen. Another 10.