Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games

The Person He Never Was

Marvel Hoffman is not generally a nice person. That is not to say he is a bad person: he has his moments of kindness and amiability. He holds some respect for people. But he is not a good person. If you had a choice between him and anyone else then nine times out of ten, you would pick the other person (the one time being when the alternative is worse than Marvel).

Marvel is often rude, arrogant and a bully. He has never killed but he has beaten people up for fun. He is highly trained and relatively spoiled. He is the stereotypical candidate for the Hunger Games. He is what Panem has made him.

He volunteered for the Games and, after the tributes from District 12, was one of the favourites at the Opening Ceremony. He received a training score of nine. He has accumulated a large amount of sponsors. He knows he may not win but he is confident of his chances.

It is the night before the interviews and Marvel is bored. His mentor seems to have taken a liking to Glimmer and is little more than 'cool' towards him. He is supposed to stay on his floor but Marvel has never been one to follow the rules. Instead, he heads towards the elevator and thumps the button for the gym. He knows it will probably be locked since the tributes have no need of it, so he is surprised to find that he can go in. The light switches on automatically. He is disappointed to find that most of the training items have been taken away. However, the climbing wall is still there so he heads towards that.

As he walks, he hears another set of footsteps and whirls around, expecting a Capitol attendant, a Peacekeeper or Gloss. Instead he finds a small girl whom he recognises as one of the other tributes. Apart from that, he has no idea who she is. He walks over to her, recognising an opportunity to intimidate an opponent.

"What are you doing here, girl?" he sneers.

The girl looks at him, slightly nervous. "Thinking," she answers quietly.

"About your life before I end it?"

"Sort of."

That throws Marvel. He was expecting mocking, fear, defiance. Any of those. But not agreement.

"Good," he says after a pause. He tries to make himself scary again. "What's your name and district? I like to know who I'm killing," he growls.

"Sulia Davisun, District Three."

"I'm Marvel Hoffman from District 1 and the next victor. Don't you forget it!"

"OK."

He looks at her, perplexed. "Do you agree with everything, District Three?"

"No."

"But you just agreed I'm going to win."

"I don't know if you will."

Now he's back on firm ground. "And who do you think will win? You? Don't make me laugh!"

"I'm not going to win. Even my mentor thinks I'm going to die." For the first time, emotion other than politeness creeps into her voice. "She's given up on me."

"Because I'm going to win." Sulia says nothing. He studies her again. Everything about her suggests defeat. "Doesn't the thought of losing bother you?"

"No," she answers calmly. "Dying would be better."

Being this confused is a new experience for Marvel. He has a secret fear of death but he knows that's not the same for everyone. Yet surely not many thirteen year old girls are suicidal? "What the hell are you talking about?"

"If I win, I'll probably be free. If I die, I definitely will be."

"What the hell are you talking about?" he repeats, feeling like they are having two different conversations.

"It's nothing. You wouldn't care anyway."

She's right: Marvel has no concern for the lives of others. But his pride is stung and he answers without thinking.

"How would you know, girl? Just answer me."

So she does. She explains her life in District Three. How her mother died giving birth to her, something her family have never forgiven her for. How she is simply a useless mouth to feed. She tells him of regular beatings, of forced starvation, of rape. He is silent so she describes the cruel tasks she is made to do. She invites him into a world of hell.

And it stuns him, not because he feels sorry for her (though he does) but because the father and brothers she describes could so easily be him. He likes to think he would never beat and rape his own daughter but he cannot deny the pleasure he feels when he attacks someone weaker than himself. It makes him wonder: how close is he to being the monsters who have tortured Sulia every day of her life?

He examines her a bit more. Her face is thinner even than the boy from her district. Little scars pepper her arms and face; something the stylists did not or could not remove.

"Why didn't you tell a Peacekeeper ... or someone?"

"Peacekeepers wouldn't care and the neighbours can't do anything. And I'd have suffered." She thinks for a moment. "You're the first person I've ever told. I ... I'm not supposed to tell."

"Why did you tell me?" His voice has lost its usual arrogance and hostility. Neither would seem right here.

"I didn't want to die without someone else knowing. And you asked."

He did. And he regrets it now.

They sit in silence for a minute.

"If you kill me," she says suddenly, making him jump, "do it quickly."

"What?"

"I'd rather you did it than anyone else. If you find me, kill me but please, quickly. I don't... I can't..."

Again, Marvel is confused. This is not something he has ever encountered before. Somehow, sincerely promising to kill someone from kindness is weirder than swearing to kill them from anger.

"Why me?" he asks in the end.

"Because you know. And you listened."

He shakes his head, unsure what to think. He wonders whether this is all an act but, somehow, he can't believe it is.

"I ... I'm going," he says gruffly. "Gloss is going to be angry. Your mentor will be too."

She nods and they head towards the elevator and ride to the first floor in silence. The door opens. He finds himself sticking his hand out to Sulia.

"Good luck, District Three."

"I hope you're the victor, Marvel."

The words sound so innocent and heartfelt that, as the door closes, he turns around and says, "I promise I'll find you, Sulia."

But the door has closed and he does not know if she has heard him. Gloss, however, is waiting and as he endures his telling off, Marvel wonders what has happened tonight.

By the time of the Cornucopia, Marvel has ignored the memory of the conversation and is instead focusing on winning the Games. Once at the Cornucopia, he doesn't even look for her. Instead, he concentrates on the alliance's plan. However, once he has picked up a spear and looks around for a target, he spots Sulia Davisun running from the Cornucopia. He immediately runs after her.

He is a much faster runner and runs in front of her, to cut her off. Their eyes meet for a second and Marvel's head is flooded with things Sulia told him. He raises his arm and casts the spear into her with as much force as he can before pulling it out. He tells himself that it is one kill on his list. But he sees the slight relief on her face as she lies, bleeding, and feels happy that he has kept his promise.

As he turns back to the melee, he also finds himself swearing that when he wins the Games, he will use his power to have Sulia Davisun's father and brothers killed. Maybe he doesn't have the right to pass judgement but he's giving himself the right to be executioner anyway. Just like he does in the Games.

Sulia Davisun does not leave Marvel. Although he manages to forget her a lot, her influence remains. When they capture the girl from District 8, he hates himself for what he does – because he sees Sulia being tortured by her father in much the same way. When he threatens to kill Liev, the boy from District 3, unless he sets the mines, he thinks of the threats Sulia endured and tries to avoid Liev afterwards. When he leaves Glimmer and Zita for dead as he, himself, endures the agony of the tracker jackers, he hears Sulia screaming as her brothers beat her, and more guilt floods him.

Sulia has stopped him from being a happy, mindless Hunger Games tribute with no guilt. Now he is a guilt-ridden boy from District 1 with a motive to win. Maybe it's a good transformation; he cannot see how.

When Marvel checks his snares for tributes, he is pleased to see he has caught the girl from District 11 in a net. He considers giving the audience a show but as he raises his hand, he is startled to see Sulia lying in the net. Glancing at his hands, he sees the hands of an unknown father gripping the spear. Instead, he sends the spear through the girl's stomach. He has to win. He has to kill Sulia's family in revenge.

But he needs to remove the spear first and let her die quickly.

He has time to look up before an arrow pierces his throat. Katniss Everdeen. The pain is intense. He grips the arrow and pulls it out. He is not as brave as Sulia; he cannot endure that pain.

Marvel has often wondered what happens when you die. His private fear is that anyone he has killed or caused the death of would be waiting to damn him. But as the forest fades, he begins to see a light room. A gym. And sitting on the floor, waiting for him, is Sulia Davisun. As the trees in his vision begin to black out, she stands up and gestures to him.

Maybe she is his saviour, he thinks. His one hope at redemption; of not being her father and brothers. And maybe he really is the stereotypical Hunger Games tribute; he found a good side, deep inside him, and he lost the Games. But if he has this good side, he can use it to protect this strange, broken child from District 3. He can be the person he never was instead of the one he would have been.

"Come on then," he says to her, placing his hand on her back and grinning his cocky grin. "Let's get the hell out of here." He pauses and the sunlight of the arena fades out completely, leaving him in the gym. "Let's go someplace safe."