Our Love Could Be Lethal

Act II: Anew

Here is the first chapter of part 2. This is the lead up to the 74th Games and from there the Quarter Quell. A question for my readers as more of a check-in for me to make sure I'm on the right track: What do you like about Octavia? It can be personality, how she interacts with people, etc. 

Edit: For clarity's sake I will clarify the order of Victors in the Games after Annie:

71: District 10

72: District 4

73: District 2

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I took several quiet and shallow breaths as I look around the landscape; it's a heavily wooded forest, an arena very different from my own games. I look down from the top of my tree and see my first tribute targets. There's a group of them just sitting around chatting. I leap down from my branch and land behind them silently.

I find a shrub to cover me, and I throw a knife towards one of them, hitting him in the head. The other two didn't notice what was wrong until they saw their group member coughing up blood before his body dissolves into pixels. They begin to look around in a panic, looking for the source of the knife, but for them, it's too late, I've already circled them and am on their other side.

I walk up close behind them to give them a nice scare first. "Hello there," I say slyly.

The other boy swings his sword at me, which I quickly dodge. The girl tries to go around me to get a good position for her bow and attack from the other side. She shoots an arrow, but I sidestep it and watch it lodge itself onto a tree. I know I need to get rid of one of them fast to even out my odds. The girl goes to shoot an arrow but rolled out of the way, allowing the arrow to lodge itself into the boy with the sword's chest. He dissolves.

I walk towards the remaining female tribute slowly with a smirk on my face. "You know what I love about people who specialize bows?" The girl was clearly still mentally berating herself for hitting one of her group members. "They're not good with close-range combat. Thanks for the arrow, by the way."

I grab the arrow out of the tree and throw it at the girl. Direct hit. The girl dissolves, and so does the rest of the simulation around me. The trees and forestry around me fade away as the training room's bright lights come back into view.

On the floor around me are the "tributes" that I had taken out in the simulation, they were all sore but very much alive. Behind the glass, the other trainees clap for me and shout teasing remarks at their fellow students who had just been defeated.

I go to help the girl up. "Don't worry too much Alexandria, in the real games, you wouldn't be playing as a group like this where all of you could've won. I wouldn't sweat it."

She nods in appreciation.

"Oh and make sure to look up," I laugh. I walk away from her, and she rejoins her friends. I swing towel over my shoulder, I walk out of the room where Brutus is waiting for me with some of his students.

"Not too shabby. I knew you'd be the perfect fit for teaching them the new stealth curriculum all those years back," he says.

I chuckle. "I'll be the first to admit that I wasn't that good at it when you first asked me but that... it felt pretty good."

A voice calls from behind Brutus' towering figure. "And it looked totally awesome from here too."

Cato makes his way from behind Brutus to give me a hug. He's almost half a foot taller than me now; he has been for a while now but I can never believe it. "Well, if it isn't the little shrimp."