Hey, guys, it's SnowLucario again! I still need 16 tributes for this Games, but I decided to write this first chapter now. This is kind of a sneak peek. This chapter will be when Johan Bainbridge dies. I hope that you enjoy, and please remember to review! It really makes my day.

I will draw a map of the arena and put it on my DeviantArt, fairly soon. It is based on, as I'm sure you are aware, a Dr. Seuss book. I think that this is a great, diabolical design for the Hunger Games. It only had two votes out of the nine in the poll, but I "reaped" it, so this is what's happening. This chapter does contain prostitution, but it's not explicit in the details. I think that this can remain T.

Enjoy the first chapter of Lorax: The 64th Hunger Games!

It was in the early hours of the morning in the Capitol. Even though there were not too many people on the streets at this time of night, the various JumboTrons around the city were very much lit up. Taxis went around the city, making familiar buzzing sounds. Truly, the Capitol never slept.

And, in the city's red light district, a young woman stirred. She had barely slept all night with the man who had paid an exorbitant sum of money for her company, but, towards two in the AM, she had finally managed to drift off. Not for too long, though. And, when she woke up, the man was still there, sleeping deeply, clearly very inebriated from a night of heavy drinking. She couldn't have woken him if she had tried, not that she would have wanted to.

The young woman decided to leave. No point in staying when she had already been paid, after all. And the man was in no condition to just chase after her. She didn't like being a prostitute, not like very many people did at all. But that was just the way things went. She didn't want to take a taxi, because she always enjoyed the feeling of the night air on her face. It was early spring, and the flowers in the windows of the various brothels in the area were just beginning to bloom. Just a little bit, though. Maybe it was just some type of special Capitol technology, she thought.

She left the red light district and decided to go to some place for breakfast. Hopefully, the man whose apartment she had just left wouldn't notice, or care, about her absence once the sky got lighter.

As the woman searched for a cafe that would be open at such an ungodly hour, she reflected on her situation.

Outsiders who saw her would assume that she was just a garden-variety hooker, doing it just because she simply had no money to do anything else with her life. She was one of those down-and-outs who simply went to drunken men's places to sleep with them for the night. In reality, though, she had all of the money she could ever ask for, and she got regular STD tests. Because she wasn't a garden-variety prostitute.

She was Margaret Malachi, victor of the most recent Hunger Games. That was what happened to the victors whom President Snow considered relatively desirable. They were sold as prostitutes to the highest bidder. And that was what Margaret had been required to do, in exchange for winning the Hunger Games. And getting her life back. She'd been required to throw some of it away.

This was even more horrible than she had expected it to be.

Margaret was currently on her second tour of duty for what Snow had asked her to do. She was fairly new to the business, so she was still not always the most desirable person to have around. Every month, she would leave her Victor's Village home in District 2 for a week, and travel by luxury train to the Capitol. There, she would check in at Snow's mansion, and she receive her assignment. She'd go around to various apartments in the red light district, and for her services. Of course, since she was very well-known, the sums people offered were very often astronomical.

She never got to keep the money, though, not that she would have had much use for it. Every cent had to be returned to Snow, where it would probably go to families in the Capitol, or maybe a bit of the very richest in the districts. Not to anyone who could have needed it. This was another thing that made Margaret's blood boil. Like so many other things, though, she just had no control over it.

So she would stay in the Capitol for a week, at a different man's place every night. And then, she would go back to Snow, return the money, and the day was hers until four in the afternoon, when she would have to return to the presidential palace. There, she would receive her next address of the person who had offered the most. Rinse and repeat. That was how it would go until there was another desirable female victor. Then, Margaret would be freed from her obligations. And she could go back to being completely normal.

After two miles on foot, Margaret found a cafe that had breakfast starting at five in the morning, which it was 5:07 AM right now. She went in and thought about what she would order. At the same time, she took out some of her coursework for District 2 Community College. She had enrolled shortly after her victory, even though it would ultimately amount to nothing. Her classmates knew, of course, that she left for the Capitol a week every month, but they didn't know why. The forced prostitution of victors was not common knowledge to the people in the districts.

And so, Margaret was forced to suffer in silence, unable to tell anyone else of what she had to do. And it might only get worse from here on out, because she would be serving as mentor in the upcoming 64th Hunger Games. She had heard, from a male victor who was also prostituted, that the guilt that he experienced whenever one of his tributes died was almost unbearable. Bric was from District 8, and he had won the 47th Hunger Games, at the age of sixteen. He was, of course, not a Career tribute, so he had won his Games through luck, mainly, as well as his survival skills.

"Every year, it gets harder and harder for me to live with myself" Bric said. "Literally, I can feel it starting to drive me insane".

Margaret hadn't even mentored anybody yet. Even so, she already felt bad for the District 2 tributes who would probably be going off to their deaths in July. And there was little she could do about it.

When the waitress came over, she became very excited at the sight of Margaret there. She was actually serving a victor! As Margaret ordered strawberry French toast and hot chocolate, one of her favorite things in District 2, she was constantly trying to hold in cheers. Clearly, she was surprised to find that Margaret was bringing her work to the Capitol with her on her tour of duty for prostitution.

Fifteen minutes later, Margaret dug into her food, lamenting her latest lot in life. But, she reminded herself, things could still be worse...

As the sun rose over the Capitol, Johan Bainbridge woke up in his luxury apartment. He was still feeling very hungover, incredibly nauseous with a pounding headache. But that wasn't really a surprise. He had been out late, partying and drinking, with the other Gamemakers, after a day of working on the arena. And it truly was going to be an amazing one. Even now, three months before the actual Hunger Games, he daydreamed frequently about what it would be like. President Snow would no doubt be very pleased with his idea. After all, he had seemed fairly happy with the Labyrinth. And, Bainbridge figured, this arena's theme also began with an "L".

In his mind, Johan thought about the Dr. Seuss books that his mother had used to read to him when he was younger. Those had often been very bright and colorful. After all, they were meant for kids. And that was his whole goal. He was going to make an arena that they could never, ever forget.

On this particular day, Johan Bainbridge had an unpleasant job. He was to oversee the execution of one victor in particular, who had committed a crime by physically attacking another victor. He went over to the Capitol's execution room. This would remain quiet. The public story would be that Janet Jingles had committed suicide due to the stress of being a mentor getting to her. That would be pretty believable, after all. That happened all of the time.

Okay, not all of the time. But Johan wasn't going to shy away from his job.

Bainbridge looked at the condemned. Janet was standing with a noose around her neck. In a few seconds, the floor would drop out from underneath her, and she would fall, down and down and down. Then, the rope would snap her neck, and she would be dead. All for assaulting Margaret Malachi.

Then, it happened.

As Janet fell, she let out a scream, but that wasn't the only thing that happened. Yes, one of their most recent victors was dead, but someone else was dead.

Johan Bainbridge crumpled to the ground, dead. Someone had just killed him.

And that someone was Glacier Jackalburg, the new Head Gamemaker. Just a few days shy of seventeen years old, he had been selected to be the new HG due to the Labyrinth arena being boring. After all, that was how things went in the Capitol. If the Games were boring, it was off with the Head Gamemaker's head.

And now, Jackalburg looked up to the sky, his very tall frame outlined in the rising sun.

It was his time to shine, now.

RIP Johan Bainbridge and Janet Jingles

Johan Bainbridge: The Head Gamemaker of Labyrinth is dead, just like I said he would be. I'm sorry I didn't put much effort into his death, but I didn't want this first chapter to be too long. I just wanted to set the stage a little bit. Plus, I didn't want to work on it too much, considering that it's the weekend. Even so, he was fun to write while he lasted. I loved portraying him as the Head Gamemaker.

Janet Jingles: I loved writing her friendship with Elegance in the last story. The flashback scene in the Goodbyes was very similar to the Toxicroak scene in BTT. And that's not a surprise. Even so, I am glad that I got such good feedback from the creator of Elegance for my writing of her. And WNWF has another tribute in this story, too. Hopefully, I do as good a job on Glory as I did on Elegance.

With that out of the way, your sneak peek of Lorax is over. The next chapter will not be written until I have all 24 tributes. So, if you want that day to come sooner rather than later, I suggest you start submitting!

I have a mixed relationship with the Dr. Seuss book. Yes, that's what this arena is based on. I loved the book. As for the movie, I saw all of it except for about ten minutes in the middle, because I threw up in the movie theater's aisle, because I was sick. In case you are wondering, the arena is going to be based mainly on the book, not the movie, because I am more familiar with the former.

Enjoy and make sure to review!

Sincerely, SnowLucario