may the odds ! saleb

the mentor

besides caleb leblanc, there's only one other victor that belongs to district four: john gillilan.

he's forgotten and almost overwhelmingly famous all at once. caleb grows up hearing whispered rumors about john g, staring right at him when they cross paths in town, but never once seeing his games. he was only just born the night of john's reaping, and no one will mention a thing about his arena or how he won no matter how much caleb asks. it's some unspoken rule caleb doesn't think he will ever quite understand, but accepts.

but then caleb is reaped at thirteen, and his first night in the capitol is filled entirely with tapes of past games. "52" lights up the screen just when he is about to retire to bed.

the escort — he's forgotten her name, probably never learned it in the first place — glances at the victor in a way she must think is discreet before pressing play. caleb settles back down into his seat. john mumbles something he doesn't catch, but doesn't do anything to stop her.

when the number fades, caleb notices two things first: the arena is snow filled, and already there are mutts all over the place. it is bright, too bright for your eyes to focus completely, and when the countdown comes to an end, the first person to step off their plate is tackled by some kind of bear.

it comes as no surprise that by the end of the bloodbath more than half the tributes are dead. by dawn, john is the only one still standing.

later, he will learn the capitol had been disappointed in the way the games played out. so short it was almost considered anticlimactic; too many mutts and not enough fighting. so they forget their victor, forgot their disappointment. john is left alone in district four except once a year to mentor his tributes.

now, he understands.

and maybe that's why caleb survived. john so desperate for someone to understand after years of being lonely that he accidentally creates the youngest victor in history. it's almost funny. almost.