Amber Hart learned to deal with trauma at a young age. Her father was a Victor, you see, so she'd had an acquaintanceship with the horrors of the Hunger Games her whole life. But she never thought she'd have to face it herself, and how does a girl w...
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THE HUNGER GAMES SPARKED DIFFERENT REACTIONS FROM EVERYONE IN PANEM; TO THE PEOPLE OF THE CAPITOL, THE PROSPECT OF THE GAMES BROUGHT EXCITEMENT AND A THIRST TO BE ENTERTAINED; TO THE CAREER DISTRICTS, IT ENCOURAGED AMBITION, AND A DETERMINATION TO PROVE ONESELF; AND IN THE OUTER-LYING DISTRICTS, IT SUFFOCATED THE PEOPLE WITH DREAD AND FEAR. Of course, there was another category: the Victors. Almost every Victor acknowledged the Hunger Games with a hatred strong enough to petrify. They despised the Games for one simple reason — it took something from them. Even the volunteers felt it, though it was to a lesser extent.
It took away their innocence.
Whatever remained of their childhood.
Their potential to be anything more than what they were made in the Games.
It took their lives, even though they were the survivors.
And every year after that, they had to watch it take the lives of kids just as ignorant and hopeful as they had once been. They had to train and mentor these kids as if raising them like a lamb for slaughter. They had to smile and laugh as if unaffected by any of it.
They had to live a lie for the rest of their days.
The realisation of this hit Finnick hard as he stood on the stage in the town square, outside the sand-stone Justice Hall. He stared out over the crowd of teens and children awaiting to hear the names reaped for the 66th Hunger Games. He remembered standing there last year, nerves making him shake and sweat as their District escort, Pandora, flourished her hand above the bowl full of names. District Four was technically a Career District, kids being given basic fighting lessons in school — but they were no where near as prepared as those from District One and Two, so volunteers weren't that common.
The silence of the crowd gathered was unnerving to the young Victor, who looked down upon the children gathered, awaiting to hear their fate. Like everywhere he went, eyes watched him eagerly, but today it seemed worse than usual — today, their gazes were hopeful, too. He wished they wouldn't look at him like that, as if he had all the power in the world to save them from the Games, to help them win if they were reaped so they would gain the glory he had last year. It made him want to scream at them that his victory was nothing to be celebrated, that the Games were not a competition to win honour and pride, that he could save no one. But he didn't, he stood in his place with his perfectly convincing grin painted on his face, charming everyone who saw it, and he avoided the gazes of everyone who looked at him with such awe. Instead, the young Victor set his eyes on a pair of crystal blue ones, ones that made him think of warm days under the sun with the water enveloping him in a calming embrace.
Amber seemed to stick out from the crowd, whether that was because he searched her out as soon as he'd taken his place on stage or because she truly was apart from the crowd, Finnick didn't have an answer. Her gaze was steady and no different than the one she set upon him everyday — except from the fear. It was faint, well hidden in her sparkling eyes, but Finnick found it with ease. Her hands trembled slightly and there was a paleness to her sun-kissed skin that Finnick had never seen before. He knew he shouldn't have been surprised by it, given where she was stood and how well she knew the Games' cruelty, but part of him was as he watched the girl who always seemed so put together falter ever so slightly. The blonde had claimed she was never worried about Reapings, that she'd accept her fate should she be chosen and waste no time on fear — but Finnick realised that that was just another brave face she put on. Amber didn't want to let him see her fear when he already had so much of his own.
