The Price of Failure {Magus Oneshot}

Honesty. There are people who hide their true feelings inside of themselves for so long to succeed. Success in the Capitol was fed upon the games and the iron fist ruling that President Snow had with him. A job so close and high up in the world is what Magus held. A job that many people have heard of and wanted before Magus Argyris. Magus worked his way higher and higher to the top, hiding his true emotions deep in the pit of his heart, just like his father had done before him. The world wanted him to make it. The world wanted Magus to succeed in what he could do.

Walking away from Katelyn Persimmon was a bullet to the heart. A wound that would throb in pain for months to come. Her words still chaining him down to the floor in misery. The truth was out in the air, yet he didn't make it. You’re a swell guy, but I don’t know if we’re the right fit. Each word tearing a new emotion within himself. Driven and hardworking were words used to describe him. The reputation had to be withheld during the ceremony. A calm demeanor outside, but inside, he was cracking, breaking, falling. Everything around him felt like it was collapsing and crushing him, but a decision was made. Honesty was a lie.

A hug that tore his insides to bits. A quick thank you and he was gone. Leaving the filming of the Bachelorette. Insides feeling broken. Shame hitting him like a festering wound from the Seventy Third Hunger Games. Honesty was dead. The truth was meant to stay inside never to be shown to the world. Lungs pull for air, but everything is spinning around him. The world collapses on him. And the scene goes dark. Pitch black and a body lays on the ground, breathing.

Waking up in his room was a reality check he needed. Someone had taken him home to his nice home. The bed was empty, sheets hanging from his body slightly. Still dressed in the nice clothes that he had wore for the ceremony that didn't give him a rose. A new day with a new feeling of being broken on the inside. The memory of the rose's bright red petals and Katelyn's words still plaguing his head with sorrows.

The air felt cool against his skin. The capitol's fresh air felt blissful and calm upon his skin. A nice warm day for a saddened man. Katelyn just didn't like him in any way. There was nothing he could have done to change her mind. A woman with a fiery personality and looks that could kill, whoever snagged her would be lucky to call her theirs. Katelyn Persimmon had made him the fool right before everyone's eyes. People would stare and laugh. Anger would spread and his reputation was ruined once that first episode aired, but that was only the start of the worse to come. The world had an order and the people had to listen to it or be punished.

The office was at a calm. A calm before the storm. Work on the Seventy Third Hunger Games recap video was in process. A long and fun process of collecting the stories and putting them up to torture the victors and to show of the success in the games. A district would cheer as one of their kids made it home with a life. Ready to continue the games' process over and over again. Honesty was dead. Tributes were dead. And he had to watch them all die again and again. Over and over again like a cycle of pain and torture, yet he enjoyed the little spots of good in between. Learning people was his job, facing them was his nightmare. Miss Auclair was absent for the day, doing something on her own. A relief from the work she had to do while he was gone away from the office.

That's when he noticed the box on his desk. A package that held a mystery. His voice bellowed into the halls, "Miss Janet! Who left me a package in my office?" Heels click along the tiles, until her eyes greet him. A slight worry in her face. Intrigued by the package, Magus and Miss Janet look it over, until finally Magus opens it. A hat that was very easy to recognize sat in the box. Tears swipe at his eyes quickly. His father's hat before he had passed sat in the box, along with a rose. Curiosity of who could have found the hat strikes a fear into his spine.

That's when the flames lick the room. Screams emerge from the rooms outside. Miss Janet and Magus were stuck in the room with the flames. His heart pounded as he grabbed Janet's arm and pulled her along, trying to escape the flames that burned in the room. Hat and Janet in his hands, he manages to escape the burning office room, but a crumbling and a crunch sound as he escapes. Behind him was a nightmare to see. A horror that made his heart drop. The world was a cruel place, but the cruelty was much worse then. Miss Janet's body was crushed beneath the floor above. The flames licking her lifeless and crushed body to ash. Magus' heart shattered.

Magus had everyone escape the building. Only one death had occurred, the fire had taken one life and one room. Miss Janet was the only dead. His heartbeat quickened, air feeling hard to breathe. Shock set through his body. Everything was broken even more. Magus Argyris was broken, all he had left was the hat of his father. A burnt rose floats down upon the pavement. Magus Argyris knew. He knew that the fire should have taken him out. It should have been his life that was taken, not hers. The cause of the fire later being announced as a faulty gas pipe in the wall.

Honesty was dead. Success was fake. Fame was torture. Failure came with a price. Magus had paid the price. A woman who had led his life in the right direction was dead. Her voice ringing in his head, haunting him for the rest of the day. Magus Argyris had received a message from fate herself, his failures came with a price. Magus Argyris was dead. Magus was only left in his place. A broken man who had lost two women who were important in his life.

A serious face and the calm demeanor being on the outside, but inside, broken emotions and fear set in. Magus Argyris was put back in his place as a man with only one talent. To compile videos to show to the victors and the people all around. Magus would be a machine. A machine with no empathy and emotions. A machine who could tell a story with only a few clips of death. Magus Argyris had paid the price for his honesty, but now he had no morals. Magus Argyris failed and the price he paid was the rest of his life as the machine that tortured the people who would watch the videos. Magus wasn't going to be honesty, honesty was dead, so he'd follow what the fate wanted him to do. The charm still there, but the emotions were gone.

As Magus made it home that night. The man climbed into his bed, covers strewn over his body. Tears slowly falling from his eyes, emotions falling out of his gut. The hat of his dead father clutched in his hands. The world's eyes focused on him for only the moment, things would go back to normal, but Magus wouldn't ever be normal again. A fate that had been seen before. Like father, like son.