Seducing the Careers

Electra

All of the mentors prepare to watch the games in a room with three rows of seats and screens for each of us.

The screens are currently showing Caesar and Claudius introducing the games and stats.

I sit between Beetee and Finnick in the first row, as we're seated in numerical order.

Johanna is directly behind me, in the second row.

I look at my screen to see Electra's odds. 14-1. I feel better, knowing those were pretty good odds for district 3. My own odds were 9-1 going into the games. Even little Chip had odds of 25-1. But then I remember that Seneca may have had influence in the calculations. Their odds could be much lower.

"You scared?" Beetee asks me.

"Yeah" I say, truthfully.

"I know you said not to get attached. I really tried" I say.

"It's okay, Toni. Everyone gets attached their first time. Except for maybe your little girlfriend. I don't think I'd ever seen a kid care less" he chuckles.

I smile. "She's strong. I like that about her" I tell him.

"Ooh, what soppy stuff are we walking about over here" Finnick leans over.

I roll my eyes. "Shut up" I laugh at him.

"50, 49, 48, 47..." I hear.

"Crap. The countdown's starting" I say, looking back to my screen.

Johanna rolls her chair back to be closer to me. "Loosen up, Toni. Come on, let's go get some of those refreshments" she says, pulling me up to get food.

We walk to the back of the room, where the food was, and I see Haymitch in row three, drink in hand.

"Got a good feeling about this one" he says to us.

"Poor guy hasn't gotten a single tribute to win in the past like 30 years. At least he's optimistic" Johanna whispers to me as we get our food and sit back down.

"5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0" the countdown ends and a gong sounds.

The bloodbath commences.

Tributes begin running in all directions. Cannons start going off, and I hear commotion in the room coming from mentors cheering on their tributes or complaining about their early losses.

I feel relief seeing Chip run out towards the trees in the forest, like we told him to.

"Yes!" says Beetee, giving me a high five.

But our moment of happiness is broken when we see Electra run towards the cornucopia.

"Oh god, what is she doing?" says Beetee.

She runs toward a spear but is tackled by some other girl.

I sit there and watch, hating the lack of control I had over the situation. It was like when Clove was holding me back so I couldn't save Rue.

I hated this feeling of having no control.

Thankfully, the guy from 4 saves Electra and kills her attacker.

I hear a woman in the room groan gritting out Finnick's name in frustration. Fin chuckles in response.

"Oh thank god. Just take it and run" I say, as if she could hear me.

She grabs the spear in her hand and turns to run away.

But before she can, the girl from 1 shoots a knife directly into her stomach.

I feel so in shock, that not even the sound of her cannon going off allows me to truly understand the fact that Electra had just died. She was dead.

I cover my mouth with my hand as I watch the rest of the chaos unfold around her.

"Toni. Toni!" Beetee bring me out of my state of shock.

"It's okay, Toni. Even you couldn't get that girl to listen to you. She was headstrong" I nod, knowing he was right.

"She was just nervous. And scared. She's so little, she was just a little kid" I say, on the verge of tears. Finnick gives me a pat on the back.

The bloodbath ends and the commotion in the room dulls down.

I try to ignore the pain I felt from losing my tribute and watch the game, as the Careers begin hunting tributes. That was me last year.

I try to watch, but it all kind of fades as I remember Electra.

"Fuck, you gotta be kidding me!" I hear Johanna yell behind me, bringing me out of my head.

She sighs and wheels her chair back closer to me.

"I saw what happened. You ok?" she asks, turning to face me.

"I'm okay. Guess I just thought she'd last longer" I say.

She sighs. "Come on. Up. Let's get you a drink" she says, grabbing me and bringing me back to the refreshments.

We sit down to eat at the table and I zone out.

"Hey!" Jo waves in my face.

"Hmm?" I ask, snapping out of it.

"I was just saying these donuts are really good. Where'd you go?" she says.

"I don't know. Guess I'm just having a hard time wrapping my head around all this mentor stuff. They are good though. The donuts" I respond.

"Jo, our girl got a sponsor. Go prep and send it" her partner yells.

She gives me a look.

"It's okay, you can go. I'll be right here" I say, taking a sip of some random alcoholic beverage.

She gives me a short smile and goes back to her station.

I sit there drinking as I watch the games on the big screen. I watch as frustrated mentors curse and leave the room.

Haymitch comes to the refreshments area and refills his drink.

"Still in the game, hmm?" I comment.

"Yeah, those kids don't fail to surprise me" he says, with a chuckle. I smile at that.

"They seem to really like each other. It'll suck when one of them dies. Especially if they're the last two" I say, sipping my drink.

I think I'm getting a bit drunk by now.

"That'd be like if you and that girl got to the last two last year. Uh, what was her name?" he says.

"Clove" I say.

"Right. Clove. Would've been a tough situation" he says.

"No it wouldn't have. I would've found a way for us to both get out" I say.

"Then maybe my tributes can too" he says.

I scoff. "Doubt it" I say.

"So enlighten me, then. How would you have played it?" he asks.

"We were gonna threaten the Capitol by agreeing to kill each other at the same time. I knew they wouldn't allow there to be no victor" I tell him.

I often think about what might've happened if we'd have gotten there. Clove would be here now. I wouldn't have been pimped out by Snow. But then maybe my family would be harmed. And I wouldn't have been able to get to know Johanna.

Maybe it's good that Electra died. She doesn't have to go through all this shit.

"You're a smart girl" he says.

"Hmm. I've been told" I say, drinking some more.

"And here I thought you hated the taste of alcohol" he teases.

"Yeah, well. It's growing on me" I say, downing the rest of it.