It had almost been a year since the reapings.

Since the game that changed your life, that haunted your dreams.

but you'd won.

right?

It was like you had sold your body to win and get sponsors, and continued to to get the capital off your back.

It had been..rough, at home. Well, the few weeks you'd spent at home anyway. Some weeks at the capital. The hype for the games still hadn't hyped down. 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒐𝒍𝒅𝒆𝒏 𝒃𝒐𝒚.

𝑩𝒖𝒕, 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒉𝒐𝒎𝒆? 𝑰𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉. 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒏𝒕 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒅𝒊𝒈𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝑻𝒓𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒑𝒆𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒔. 𝑬𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒘 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒏𝒚, 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒈, 𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒏𝒆𝒓. 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒊𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒎𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒕 𝟒, 𝒆𝒚𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒚𝒐𝒖, 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒚 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒑𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒍. 𝑨𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒍𝒍, 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒃𝒂𝒔𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒘𝒐𝒏 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒍𝒐𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒚.

𝑻𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉, 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝒈𝒐 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂 𝒇𝒆𝒘 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒉𝒔. 𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒇𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒈𝒐 𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏, 𝒇𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒂 𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒆. 𝑻𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒚, 𝒉𝒆 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒊𝒕 𝒂𝒕 𝒉𝒐𝒎𝒆. 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝒎𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒅𝒂𝒚𝒔. 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒑, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒌, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒅𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒌. 𝑮𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒄𝒐𝒉𝒐𝒍 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒗𝒊𝒄𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒔 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒆, 𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖, 𝒉𝒆'𝒅 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒖𝒇𝒇.

This was your routine for days, until, finally, your dad cut you off. It was subtle. just him throwing away bottles if you weren't in the room. But you got the memo, You weren't starting a fight with him. Not after scaring him.

*One day he asked if you could pick up his order in town, just some fishing bait. You reluctantly agreed. When you got there there was a young boy sitting at the counter, maybe 4-5, he had jam on his face. He was sitting next to what seemed to be his sister.

*Annie. Thats what her name was. You learned it after a few times of seeing each other. But the first time? She acted like you weren't the winner everyone was whispering about. She was snappy and stubborn, a good sister to her brother Reuben. She ran her dads shop when he was at another job at the docks.

*She didn't seem to like you much, but you stuck like glue. It was hard to drop the, "golden boy" act but, it got easier and easier.

You stuck around with them, helping her at the shop. You sold all your capital clothed and got more modest ones. You slowly stopped secretly drinking. She started to tolerate you more, and you seemed more, you. You two grew close as you helped out- growing close..

Though, it seemingly went all down the drain the closer the reaping was. You were going to be a mentor now that you had won, so whoever got reaped was your responsibility to help win. They replayed the previous hunger games more often. You had more nightmares. Starting to drink again.

Thats what led you to the docks, you were in the water spearing for fish. Though it was literally 2 am. It was the only thing that kept you at least calm. The reaping was in two days.

It reminded you of when you fished with your father before your mom died, before you dad started to drink again. Though he had gotten better. He was still distant.

You jumped when you heard footsteps on the sand and a voice.

"How are you so good at that?"

Annie

You glanced over to where she was looking, you had already caught several fish, some still flopping around, sitting on the dock.