Flash Back Games (Closed)

Halina was very uncomfortable, and cold. Her eyes were closed, and her head hurt. She was almost afraid that she’s was in the Capitol, that she was about to be, or had been tortured.

It’s just a headache, she rationalized, opening her eyes, and sighing in relief that she was not indeed in the Capitol.

Or maybe she was? But she saw other tributes and stylists nearby, so that was a rather welcome sign.

Forcing herself to s curl, she pressed her palms to her head and sighed, she felt very tired, and her mind was foggy. What happened?

That’s when she noticed Alistar and Diana nearby, the female stylist turned her head in Halina’s direction, and Halina found herself sucking in a breath of air.

She really hoped this wasn’t some dream or hallucination.

She was about to speak to Diana, who turned back to Alistar and said something that looked like, from her mouth’s movements, she’s awake. But Halina couldn’t be for sure. All she was sure about was that she was confused.

That was, until the memories slowly returned. The arena, the opening, the escape. And with it came the guilt, she could have ruined it all. Halina wasn’t a kind child who was against killing to survive and win and make her District proud, but she didn’t want to needlessly kill. But she almost did.

That’s when it finally arrived to her about who was in the room, many stylists, many mentors, many people she didn’t recognize, and many of their other tributes. Ari, Burton, Alessandro, and Macaria.

Where were the others?

Something wrapped around her from behind, and she almost screamed out until the recognizable and jolly voice reached her, “Halina!” Was all he said, but her thoughts swarmed as tears pricked at her eyes. She was almost sure she may die in that arena, part of her didn’t expect to ever hear the voice again.

Turning, the best she could anyways, she gave the man a bear hug, and they saved him so Louden wouldn’t hurt him or mom, “Dad!” She cried out, and the reunion became more perfect when her mother joined in. “I’m sorry!” for ever volunteering, for playing their game. But she couldn’t phrase it into words, and she didn’t know why she was sorry.

She just was.

It bothered her, but she let it go, listening to the silence and tears that reassured her that she was alive, and for a moment all of the confusion and helplessness dissapeared.

And when she had enough, when the comfort finally came, and the safety set in, she rose her gaze towards Diana, who had approached the family while they embraced. And the calmness reassured her that she would live.

“What happened?” She croaked, wiping the rest of her tears with her left palm. She was still dirty, but that could be worried about later.

“The arena was destroyed,” Diana responded with a hollow smile, like something bothered her deeper than she was revealing. It unsettled Halina greatly. They were all alive and safe, right?

“What-?“ Halina couldn’t tell before, but she sounded terrified, “How?” She decided upon.

“We had a game maker on our side, someone who programmed in a bug into the arena,” Diana simply responded, blunt and to the point, and her gaze only seemed to darken as Halina’s eyes lit up in appreciation, “Don’t ask, but they were caught.”

Halina’s eyes dimmed just like that, her gaping mouth snapped closed, caught meant dead. And a pregnant pause remained for many moments. Halina finally found herself curious, “What happened to me? I don’t remember coming here.” She stated, leaving the old topic behind. It didn’t matter, the logistics and specifics, she needed to take in things at a small amount, but she was curious as to what happened.

She remembered a hovercraft, a tunnel, and nothing else.

Diana sighed, rubbing her temples slightly, “Shortly after running through the tunnels, you passed out, I assume from exhaustion,” she commented, and Halina rose an eyebrow at that.

It made sense, at least.

“And where are the others?” Halina asked, gesturing to the other present tributes. “Are Amadrya and Everest finally a thing?” She asked with a tiny grin, looking around still, and when she didn’t get an immediate laugh or awnser, her gaze swung to Diana.

Something’s wrong.

Very wrong.

Diana just stared with some sympathy and confusion, before shaking her head, remaining silent.

“No!” Halina found herself yelling out, “Where are they?” She asked.

Diana opened her mouth, but someone else was speaking, someone Halina was horrified to recognize, and her gaze swung in horrorto the front of the room. The mindless chatter of others hushed at it as well.

On the television was President Louden, his eyes boring at the television in a mixture of fury and annoyance. “-Let this be an example to the tributes who escaped the Arena,” he hissed, “And to all of Panem, the price of rebellion.” The camera shifted left, and Halina backed up at the sight, blood dripped from the figure standing to the side of Louden, bruises dappled their skin, and a hollow glance was in their eyes.

“No-“ The figure croaked, sending chills down Halina’s spine, and she forced her eyes closed as a baton swung down on the figure, refusing to watch. A horrified sound escaped someone near her, but Halina didn’t care to see who.

Louden turned back to the camera, “Let this be your warning, rebels, of what happens to those who defy the Capitol.”

The room filled with a horrified silence, before it became chaos.

—

For a little while, Amadrya was only aware of darkness. A cold, endless, suffocating darkness. The kind of darkness that scares you but also tells you instinctively that the darkness is far less scary than what awaits you if you open your eyes.

But then the splitting headache came in, causing a quiet groan to cross her lips, and her whole body suddenly seemed to be aching. A dull, throbbing pain. She was aware she seemed to be lying curled in the foetal position, something which made her feel all the more vulnerable.

The last thing she could remember was forest, forest that made her feel safe and secure and hidden. Forest like District 7, a place she had finally allowed herself to feel hopeful that she might see it again. She remembered running with Everest, legs carrying her as fast as they could. But it hadn’t been enough, she remembered, as Everest first went down (she recalled her distress as she called his name) and then her, a numbness spreading throughout her body as the world faded to black.

And finally, cautiously, she opened her eyes, doing so slowly so as to allow her eyes to adjust to the light. She was in a cell, confirming the broken memories she had over what had happened. She hadn’t made it out. She was in a cold metal cell, bars stretching before her.

She uncurled herself from her position, moving to sit up against one of the walls of the cell.

“Where...where am I?”

A dry, groggy voice could be heard from a couple of cells to Amadrya’s right, pausing to cough in the middle of its words. She couldn’t see the figure, at least not well, but she did recognise the voice. It was...

“Holly?”

Another voice had beaten Amadrya to the punch, this time from the cell next to Amadrya, to the right. A voice that would ordinarily bring her comfort, that would normally cause her heart to race and her cheeks to flush and for her to have to fight to remain emotionless. But now this voice made her stomach drop, made her want to cry or maybe punch something out of anger. Because it confirmed her worst fears. He was here, he shouldn’t be here, he should be safe with the others.

“Everest?” Amadrya spoke now, her voice sounding hollow already. She was already practically broken if he was there with her. They would hurt him, probably use the two against one another.

She didn’t want to see him in pain, she couldn’t. But she realised that this meant she had to be the protective warrior again. If it were just her and Holly she would have nothing to lose, she could shout whatever awful things about the Capitol she wanted, or she could be the scared kid she really was, no matter how much she pretended.

But that wasn’t an option now. Strength was paramount once again. She was getting tired of being strong.

“Amadrya?”

And when he said her name, her heart twisted.

But before anyone could say anything else, a new voice interrupted. Louden.

“How kind! Now, if we are done with greetings, I believe we should get to business.”

Nobody said anything, But Amadrya struggled to her feet, just to stare him down on more equal ground. She was here but he wasn’t going to break her. Her only goal was to protect Everest and the others as much as she possibly could. Beyond that she couldn’t care less. She couldn’t care anymore about what happened to her, she didn’t have anything left in her.

“Panem is in outrage! To show them that it will never be repeated, we are going to make an example -“

Panem in outrage? Just the Capitol, more like. And what the hell was all of this anyway? Make an example of them? Their whole role as tributes was to be living examples, their whole existence within the Games was to make an example. To die and kill. She was fed up of being used as a symbol for somebody else’s use. She was Amadrya Darrow, an individual. Not a pawn to be used by Louden or the Capitol in order to spread whatever message they wanted to Panem.

Amadrya would have said so herself if Holly hadn’t spoken instead.

“Killing us wasn’t enough?”

Amadrya found herself nodding in agreement, there. Holly was right. But killing them would never be enough for the Capitol, they all knew that really. The Capitol, and Louden in particular, never went in for just an ordinary death. Death always had to send a message, to mean something, to be a show. Just killing them wouldn’t accomplish what Louden wanted. Oh, he planned on killing them; the District 7 girl had no doubt of that. But it would be very public and preceded by a prolonged period of horrible torture.

“I suggest you shut up, enjoy your time of peace as it lasts, because soon, you’ll be wishing you were dead.”

And with those words, Louden stalked off and left them all in silence for a moment, as Amadrya sunk back into her sitting position before casting her grey eyes towards the figures in the other cells.

She wouldn’t call this an ideal situation

Still, she was just glad that the others were safe. Perhaps all of this would end up being worth it in the end. Ari was still alive and out there, he could get home to District 7. At least one of them should. And the others would be okay, they had hope and they were all strong. Even the ones she hated, she knew they were survivors. It would be alright.

“Let the 91st Hunger Games begin,” she said grimly

There was no verbal response from the neighbouring cells, apart from perhaps a light sound of agreement, which sounded like it came from the furthest cell from Amadrya’s – Holly’s.

Nobody spoke for a while, each seeming to be thinking in silence, until finally Everest spoke up. His words were clearly meant to be a joke, the kind of gallows humour that came easily to Holly, but there was no amusement in his tone. The District 7 girl didn’t blame him; it appeared that only Holly and Burton were really capable of making light of situations like this, not that Holly seemed to want to do that right now either.

“Well, this is not exactly an ideal situation,” the District 2 boy pointed out

“You think?” Holly shot back sarcastically

But the brunette’s mind, as it so often was, was back in District 7. If it wasn’t she could only be back in the Arena, and that wasn’t what she needed right now. The Arena was only marginally better than this; at least there she had been given a chance to fight. Here it was just waiting and pain.

No, she was thinking about District 7, her mind fixed on her family. She could see her tribute token, the bracelet, still on her wrist. Either they hadn’t noticed it yet or they’d deliberately allowed the captured tributes to keep them, but right now she didn’t care about that. Her concern now was for her uncle and her cousins, and for the people of her district. The Capitol could kill anyone who had ever even spoken to Amadrya before if they wanted to.

“What about our families? They could kill them,” Amadrya asked “or they could attack our districts, make them like District 13. We might never see them again.”

She missed home, and that was what she was trying to express, even if she wasn’t saying it in those exact words. The normally confident girl, who was always blunt and straight to the point, found herself uncharacteristically afraid. Her voice sounded smaller somehow, the first veins of fear creeping their way into her tone.

“Don’t worry,” Everest assured her, “I’m sure whoever took down the arena will have made sure our families and districts are safe. They’ll be alright.”

He didn’t sound entirely certain either, but Amadrya chose to believe him anyway. She needed something to hold on to, and she trusted Everest more than anybody else. She had to tell herself that if he said everything was going to be okay, it was going to be okay. They might die, and in fact she suspected they would, but she knew that it would all be alright in the end.

“You’re probably right,” Amadrya replied “I’m sorry, I really need to pull myself together.”

And she did need to. If she was going to be the strong warrior girl she realised she still needed to be, letting herself react like this wasn’t a good idea. She had to be strong, especially because Louden and the Capitol would prey upon any signs of fear or weakness.

Holly hadn’t said anything – or at least not much – for some time now. Amadrya didn’t really know what to think of that one. This was a scary situation, there was a lot to process, she was probably worrying about Burton and District 8 and about everything else. It didn’t surprise her that the raven-haired girl hadn’t said much so far.

Amadrya was about to ask Holly if she was okay when approaching footsteps could be heard. And more than one. Now was definitely not the time to say anything – Louden must be returning.

Sure enough, it was him, and he was flanked on either side by two peacekeepers, batons at the ready. She could see Louden speaking to the peacekeepers as they approached, but the words were harder to catch. She was pretty sure she heard ‘the boy’ somewhere in there as the three approached the cells.

And it appeared that she was right because first they walked right past Amadrya’s cell to Everest’s in the middle. Amadrya felt sick as the watched Louden open the door to Everest’s cell, and the peacekeepers enter.
Everest barely had time to stand, much less react, before the peacekeepers began to beat him with those terrible batons. The District 7 girl heard Everest hit the ground, letting out groans of pain between the relentless flurries of blows. She was sure she could hear him being kicked, too.

It didn’t take long before Amadrya, tears in her eyes, rushed to her feet. She couldn’t bear that sound, she couldn’t bear him being hurt, she couldn’t just let this happen. She loved him, he didn’t know it but she loved him. And any kind of physical pain they inflicted upon her could not hurt her more than the pain of him being hurt.

She was at the front of her cell in a heartbeat, hands curling around the bars, her grip tightening until her knuckles whitened and the cold metal almost seemed to be burning her hands. Everest was still groaning, asking for it to stop, occasionally crying out. There was a heavy silence from Holly’s cell.

“Stop it! Leave him alone!” Amadrya was begging, “Please!”

The peacekeepers landed a couple more hits on Everest for good measure but Louden was looking at Amadrya with a self-satisfied smile, clearly very pleased to be seeing the girl beg. Tears were already running down Amadrya’s face, and she never cried.

“What wonderful manners! Well, seeing as you asked so nicely…” Louden responded

He gave the two peacekeepers a nod and they left the beaten Everest. But then they started approaching Amadrya’s cell, and Louden seemed to be about to unlock the cell door. Amadrya didn’t move from where she was standing. The front of the cell was as good as anywhere and it wasn’t as if there was anywhere else she could go.

“Don’t touch her,” came a voice

Everest’s voice sounded pained, but despite everything he seemed to have struggled to his feet. The District 2 boy headed for the still-unlocked door, apparently in his desire to stop the peacekeepers before they could harm Amadrya. But just as he was about to reach the door, Louden swiftly locked the door, leaving Everest helpless to do anything.

“Oh, you stupid boy,” Louden was chuckling now, “did you really think-“

But the president was interrupted as one of the peacekeeper’s batons came flying through the air, hitting him hard on the shoulder. Amadrya, in the relatively dim light, could catch what appeared to be a triumphant smile on the face of Holly, a sparkle in her green eyes.

It appeared that, while Everest was being beaten, one of the peacekeepers dropped a baton close enough outside the District 8 girl’s cell for her to grab it. Amadrya hadn’t noticed, too focussed on what was happening to Everest. Luckily Holly was far more observant.

And Amadrya didn’t think she’d ever seen the President’s face turn quite that shade of beet red before, but it was obvious the man was embarrassed and absolutely furious at the actions of Holly. A calmness seemed to settle on his face though as the redness faded, and a malicious glint was in his eye as he turned his gaze towards Holly.

“Forget Darrow,” he snarled to the peacekeepers, “this one instead.”

And what followed…well, it wasn’t pretty. The peacekeepers attacked Holly instead, since President Louden was clearly determined to break her resilient spirit. It was an agonising few minutes (though it felt like much longer) of blow after blow landing, and of pained sounds from Holly. Protests from Everest and Amadrya once again appeared to fall on deaf ears.

Amadrya could do nothing but watch, helpless, as the girl who had saved her from a beating took the punishment herself, if not far worse since she had angered Louden in the process. She had always said she didn’t like owing people, but that didn’t seem to matter so much anymore. What she did know, though, was that she was firmly in Holly’s debt.

It had seemed like an eternity before Louden, with a simply raise of his hand, commanded the peacekeepers to stop. Silence fell, the only sound being the heavy, ragged breathing coming from Holly. Some blood shone on the batons, both Holly’s and Everest’s together.

“You three will all learn your lesson about speaking out, and you will pay for your rebellion,” Louden said cooly “Crimes do not go unpunished, and there is no place for fiery spirits here. If you want to survive, at least for a little while longer, I suggest you keep your emotions to yourself. Don’t you think for a second that I’m done with you, Miss Alandria, either. Because of your little stunt earlier, you can expect that I’m only getting started”

A coldness suddenly seemed to spread through Amadrya’s body as Louden’s gaze fixed on her.

“As for you, I trust having to watch your fellow tributes be beaten has been sufficient? I have don’t my research, I know everything about all of you. I know exactly what you are like, Miss Darrow, and I expect that seeing your two allies hurt is punishment enough for the moment. And I suspect you speaking in front of the Capitol will have the same effect. Don’t worry, though, if you’re feeling left out. It won’t be for long.”

Once again, he looked to all three tributes.

“I’ll be back in a moment. I suggest you all attempt to recoup your strength; you’re going to need it.”

He vanished then, and when his footsteps had receded Amadrya let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding at all. She finally took a moment to wipe the tears from her face.

“Are you two okay?” she asked almost immediately, her tone worried.

She heard an assenting noise from Everest, though he still sounded like he was hurt. At least he seemed okay. It was Holly who spoke, for the first time in a significant period.

“You two need to be quiet,” Holly hissed “You heard the man, we need to keep our emotions to ourselves. And no offense, but neither of you have done an especially great job of that so far. If you keep acting like this he’s going to end up using the two of you against one another, and you don’t want that.”

“You’re right,” Amadrya nodded “of course, you’re right. I don’t want that at all.”

“Then zip it.”

“Fine, but you have to look after yourself,” Everest said, “you don’t say anything either.”

Holly did not respond.

There wasn’t time for any more conversation, though, because Louden was already back. He’d scarcely stepped in front of Holly’s cell before she was shouting at him.

“You’re never going to win!” she was saying “I’m never going to stop fighting you. You can beat me, make me speak to the Capitol in stupid frilly dresses, but it isn’t going to change anything. I’ll always hate you and everything you’ve done, and with every bone in my body I want to make sure that everyone else in Panem hates you just as much as I do.”

Holly was right, and Amadrya agreed with it so much, she felt such hatred burning in her now for Louden and the Capitol, who had harmed Holly and Everest so much. Who had been the only cause of any of the suffering she’d ever endured in her life.

“Yeah-“ she began to say, about to agree with the other girl, but that only earned her a warning look from both Holly and Louden. Holly obviously wanted her to keep her mouth shut like they’d agreed.

“Say another word,” Louden warned in a low voice, “and I’ll have my peacekeeper friends beat Everest again, and I’ll make sure they don’t stop for a long time.”

That, though Amadrya felt guilty about not helping Holly, caused her to stop talking instantly. She couldn’t let them hurt Everest any more, and clearly Holly didn’t want Amadrya to speak out, she wanted her to keep quiet so Louden didn’t use Everest against her.

That was why Amadrya could only watch helplessly, silently, as Louden unlocked Holly’s cell and lead the girl away into the darkness.