The Games The Capital Forgot

Training Day Three

 

It only took Emily one blow to down him, one single well aimed blow to topple a boy half her size. She didn’t even hesitate and judging my the look on her face she would have done it again in a heartbeat. Emily was quite apparently willing to do anything to get home, all of these kids were and that was what made the games so successful; desperation combined with the perfect amount of hope. I don’t know what about this sent tremors down my spine, but it did. This wasn’t the Emily I knew.

 

I watched her hop down and walk towards me wiping her bloody palms on her pants that hugged her hips tightly. She smiled at me like she expected me to be happy that  she had won. She noticed my expression and her smile faded, she said nothing and turned to face the arena in which the next pairing, Jin and Willow, were taking their places.

 

I felt guilty, I should have been happy for her. The boy she had triumphed over would only suffer a minor bruise, but I just couldn’t get over the fact that she had choose herself over the pain of another. Then again, I remembered the morning before the reaping as I’d held the knife up against the peacekeeper’s throat in an attempt to save Emily and her child. The situations were different, but they showed me the same picture. All humans are monsters deep down inside.

 

I watched Jin and Willow’s swords clash before Jin’s training paid off and she toppled to the ground with a venomous look on her face.

 

I felt a little sick as I began thinking again. I didn’t want to fight anyone. I just wanted to be left alone- no I needed to be alone. I’d been paired with someone named Celeste? I sorted through the tributes but I couldn’t put a face to the name. I tried to close my mind and focus on Axel and Karen ducking under the ropes to face each other. Karen had chosen knives as a weapon while Axel stayed true to his District 7 origins and clasped a two handed battle axe.

 

It was another uneven fight, Axel downed Karen with two blows, the first making her shrink away, dropping her knives and the second landing her next to her fallen weapons, a little blood trickling from her nose.

 

The peculiar male tribute from District 1 was up next, I had not seen much of him and he did not interact with the other careers. Up until now he had hardly crossed my mind. The boy sloped up to the ring casually as if he were simply walking to his home, he went over to Kaiden and shook his hand smiling as if they were just about to play a friendly game of chess. Kaiden grinned and pulled the boy into a friendly bear hug before taking a step back and raising his brass knuckles eagerly as if to him, fighting was just a game to him. I frowned…. I didn’t understand how people could hurt each other out of fun- desperation yes, fun no.

 

I watched the boy from one lash out as Kaiden ducked, grabbing his arm and flipping the career district boy over his head as if he were no more than a twig. I glanced over at Cornelia Vestro who was whispering uncomfortably with Daryle, these fights were very unevenly matched, I think they’d been hoping for more blood….

 

Suddenly I wondered if I was wrong. What if fighting and killing was perfectly natural? I was a minority, accepting the philosophies of unconditional love and selflessness that my grandmother had hammered into me without question. What if she was wrong? Had I been brainwashed? Had everyone else been brainwashed? How did I know who was right? Was there even a ‘right’?