Memoirs of a Victor

Prequel to Like Father Like Daughter, The Burning Wing, and Ashes from Fire.

Summary: Ever wonder how Blaine Abernathy became to be the Lady from the Ashes.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games or original characters.

Chapter 1: Victors blood in my veins

A story like mine has never been told. I certainly was born to the life of a victor. Like so much in my strange life, my blood carried out the destiny and fate. One born from a victor of the Hunger Games held potential to become a tribute to the Capitol.

Long ago North America fell into ruins as nature took its course of droughts, storms, fire, tsunamis, and the brutal war. The foundation of our founding fathers government collapsed and the ally countries abandon the continent. In the darkest moment, Panem has risen from the ashes with new government called the Capitol. The mighty empire ruled the thirteens districts, which brought peace and prosperity to the citizens. Districts of luxury, masonry/weapons, technology, fishing, power, transportation, lumber, textile, grain, livestock, agriculture, mining, and graphite/nuclear. However the Capitol felled greedy by its power, turning the country into a totalitarian nation as the Districts practically serving the resources to them instead of the entire country. The moment of defiance's was the start of the Dark Days, where twelve district were defeated and the last…Thirteen was exterminated. The Treaty of Treason gave the twelve districts new laws that would guarantee peace, except it came at a price. In penance for our uprising, and so it was decreed that each year, the twelve districts of Panem shall offer up a tribute, one young man and woman between the ages of twelve and eighteen, to be trained in the art of survival and to be prepared to fight to the death. For more than seven decades the districts offered up twenty-four children now called tributes. The tributes be delivered to the Custody of the Capitol and transferred into an outdoors arena. Twenty-four people go in and only one comes out as Victors. Henceforth this diabolical pageant was called The Hunger Games.

My father is Haymitch Abernathy, victor of the 50th Hunger Game or popularly known as the Second Quarter Quells. In honor of the Games, once in every twenty-five years there is a twist to the tournament. In the first Quarter Quell the tributes were voted by the people of the Districts. On the Second…the amount of tributes doubled. The arena was a beautiful paradise, although what is beautiful can be actually lethal, for everything was poison from the fruits down to the river streams. Twas a battle of death, till Haymitch was one of the last with a girl from District 1, in the end he luckily survived. After the games he fell into depression, for what he did in order to survive infuriated the Capitol taking his family and love away. He drowned himself in alcohol while mentoring the tributes the next year alone. Yet he wasn't alone when his friend Lucy helped him through the struggles.

I was the consumption of their affair and marriage. My name is Blaine Maysilee Abernathy. Named after the color yellow and past tribute and friend. Although I was loved when growing up, my fate was set in stone for Haymitch blood lingers in vein. There is no peace with the fame and fortune as a victor. For every now and then the Capitol would reap a victor's child to punish the previous victor. I didn't know at the time, my mother tried to keep me naïve and innocent through my childhood. Every time Haymitch went to mentor the yearly tributes, Lucy would leave the television on for the first week of the games. Seeing the tribute parade, tribute scores, and the interviews. But the Hunger Games officially begin the television was off.

Life in District 12 was never easy. District 12 was the mining district for coal; however we were the poorest of any other. All resources were limited that it was impossible to grow anything from the coal dust or malnutrition soil. Everyone was hungry here as the district is split into two groups, the market and the Seams. The Seams are where the coal miners live heading as men and women headed out to the mountains early in the morning. No matter where you go coal sticks everywhere from the ground up to your finger nails. Surrounding the district is an electric fence keeping what lies beyond. Although the peacekeepers don't bother keeping it on as hunters illegally go out pouching and sell their game at the Hob. As for those in the Market lived peacefully in a somewhat clean fashion.

Even though I lived in Victors village, my mother never stop exposing me to the truth. She says never live so highly of one's self or be selfish. When I was young she would wake me up and walk along the fences staring out to the meadow.

"Do you hear that?" Mom asked.

"I don't hear anything," I answered.

"Correct," she nodded. "The peacekeepers like us to believe the fence are electrified, but it's not. Well…at least not all the time."

Curiously I touched the fence feeling the cold wire instead of a shock.

"There's nothing in these woods that we should be afraid of. What the peacekeepers fear is us getting out. Because the most dangerous things in Panem doesn't live in these woods…What the Capitol fears mostly is the citizen hope and freedom. They created the Hunger Games to remind us that they own us physically and the lone person who survives is the ounce of hope they allow. The Capitol may own us physically, but they can't have us spiritually."

"Why are you telling me this?" I asked.

"Because when the time comes the next five years of your life will be filled with fear. The Capitol might take you or not. Remember my little flower, they don't own you. You own yourself."

"Should I hate the Capitol like everybody else?"

Lucy sighed as she knelt down in front of me taking my hand. "Blaine, never be prejudice against those who are raised differently. Look at them, think of their story, and the possibility they themselves went through. Yes the Capitol has ruined our lives, but not the citizens, it is the government. As the saying goes, 'never judge a book by its cover'."

Those were her moral lessons she taught me during the ten years of my life. Yet on my tenth year my mother grew very ill. She worked as a geologist going deep into the mines to analyze the material if it's profitable. However the amount of coal dust disrupt her lungs to a point she was coughing and breathing irregularly that she would use an inhaler or herbal remedy. Haymitch saw this and tried to convince her to quit working, but she said she wouldn't let herself be dependent. So he manages to get her better medicine from his salary. The Capitol doctors said it was lung cancer stage four. On my tenth year I watched my mother die slowly as she coughed her life out.

She laid in bed all paled, covered in sweat while pupils dilated. I tried to remain strong while lying beside her.

"You have to win," she whispered. "You have to win."

"Why do ya say that?" I asked quietly.

"Do not hate your father for his actions to survive," She said ignoring the question. "My little flower, I wish I could protect you. I wish you could live a happy life, get marry, have children, watch them grow as you grow old…" she slid a porcelain pin of a snowdrop into my hand. "No matter what cost you'll fight. No matter what cost…never let them win."

She died later that night. Two days later, my mother was cremated in the fire of the land she explored. No longer did I felt naïve believing I lived in a safe and sound for the blanket of protection was gone. When it was the 64th annual Hunger Games, Haymitch brought me along to the Capitol to help with his mourning. During the autumn season he drank himself to near death for the loss of his best friend. When spring came he realized he needed to drop his act and raised me after the Districts Justice warned him to separate me from him. I was scared and excited to visit the Capitol as the new escort Effie Trinket told me the flamboyant culture. Although the two tributes were scared at what the games will hold.

The Capitol was a new experience for me. All the building architecture, the fashion, and food. There I met District designer Chanel Pontmercy. Her name was so foreign and different compare to the other Capitol Citizen that a girl missing her two front teeth couldn't pronounced. So I called her Channel, for she seemed to channel right into you before you could utter a single word. When the tributes went to the training center, Chanel would bring her son over. His name was Cinna, thirteen years old and very discreet. Every time he came over he would either grab a sketch book or book to read never talking to me. He always seemed sad as he green eyes looked out to the scenery.

On the second day I walked over to him. "What are ya reading?"

He jumped surprised to see me, "um…Alice in Wonderland."

"What's it about?" I asked.

He paused looking at me strongly before adjusting himself leaving room on the couch, "Why not sit down and I'll read it to you."

I smiled as I sat down next to the maroon boy who read fairytales. Cinna was some of the reason why I enjoyed coming to the Capitol. He was kind, patient, and caring to read me literature or play games that weren't common in Twelve. However after the pageant week was over the Hunger Games began. The isolation from the horrors I understand now why my mother kept it away. Effie ignored Haymitch's rules to never let me watch the bloodbath. But the beginner escort tossed it aside as she turn on the plasma hologram exposing me to the bloodbath. I watched in horror as kids and teens kill each other while Effie cheered on like it was some sport. I watched the tributes from Twelve die in minutes. But it wasn't just their death that traumatized me. No. It was a boy from District 6 who was fifteen and he was the son of a victors.

"Will I be in there?" I asked Effie.

"You never know," Effie said. "It is an honor to represent ones district."

Yet it wasn't.

When Haymitch and I return back to the district twelve, I was never the same again. I paid attention in health physical and isolate myself from others. I spent the warm seasons climbing trees and running around victor's village. In the winters I test myself to endure the cold. Haymitch scolded me a few times when I got sick demanding what has gone in my head after Mrs. Everdeen gave me medicine.

"I don't want to die." I whispered.

"Well, you're gonna die from pneumonia if you play outside without a jacket." Haymitch exclaimed. "What has got into you?"

"I saw the bloodbath, daddy." I cried. "A victor's child was killed in it."

Haymitch stopped his yelling as he paused staring at me. He sighed combing his fingers through his blonde hair and sighed sitting on the edge of my bed. "Shit Blaine, I was gonna tell you soon."

"I'm gonna die aren't I, daddy?" I asked, but Haymitch didn't answer. So I took his hands, "I want to learn."

"What?" he gasped.

"I want to learn how to fight and use a weapon." I pleaded.

Haymitch paused thinking about it. Without a word he left my room leaving me crying myself to sleep. However the next morning Haymitch yanked me out of bed, teaching me how to fight, to use a knife, and more. He gathers friends to teach me plants know what are poisonous and what are safe to consume or heal. Two years I learn to become a career.

When I was twelve, my name was entered in the reaping. A year goes by and two lives were taken. Relief, shame, grief, rumors of careers killing onward year after year. Then another year. And then another year. Until the fears grows deeply that it seems nothing more than a nightmare. And then another year. Train, reaping, breathe and another year. Train, reaping, breathe, and the next year. Nothing.

On my sixteenth year did my nightmares come true!

The odds were never in my favor.

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So this is a summary of Blaine's life before she was reaped. I hope you guys might enjoy this prequel and be free for suggestions. If any are wondering this story is part of the Blaine Abernathy Saga…or whatever series from Like Father Like Daughter, The Burning Wing, and Ashes from Fire.

Inspirations for this chapter are from Memoirs of a Geisha.

Thanks for reading and Please leave a review.

Review help a lot!