[81st] The Reaping — District Nine

Life was an odd fucking concept and not a lot of people ever really paid attention to that. Ambrosia did. He spent a lot of time on it, wondering why it was that life continued on despite the conditions. The world must have ended once or twice before now, he knew that too. Otherwise there was no way they'd live like this, inside of a fence with nothing else for miles and eyes on their heads always. He could feel the eyes, burnign a hole into his skull and it burned. He itched at his head, glancing up every now and then from his spot in the front row. They could see inside of his skull.

They could see his whole brain and their fingers were digging and digging down, they were all just a big fucking experiment. Ambrosia had said this before and he'd happily say it again if anyone would just listen to him for once, they were bugs on a dish under a microscope and they were all going to die one day anyway. No one knew this but him.

It didn't matter what order it was in, no one was going to live past twenty because everyone had stopped aging. They were in purgatory. He'd started noticing a couple years back ever since the reaping crowd stopped changing. They'd poisened the water. Ambrosia paid attention but the government probably didn't realize this. He knew that last year, he'd turned fifteen but this year he turned fifteen again and Ambrosia knew. He knew. They couldn't fool him, not anymore, not since Titus and not since Cickel, he had a tragic backstory and he was being groomed for the arena.

So he'd killed, yeah. As a leader in his gang, it was expected. He'd killed kids and dumped their bodies off the bridge or sunk them in acid like everyone in this goddamned district did because that was his backstory too. He was a murderer and violent and he was always going to be because that's what the Capitol wanted. He played into it well and all he wanted in return was Tate's fucking head on a platter but apparently that was too much to ask for.

They were all being watched and Ambrosia in particular all because of Titus. Stupid Titus who had to fucking die for the drama. So he had eyes on the top of his head yeah. Ambrosia knew how to deal with that though, he raised his hands over his head and flipped them all off, benefit of that was it was two birds with one stone. Titus and Cickel were getting flipped off too, fucking assholes who left him alone in this fucked up place.

Ambrosia didn't want to turn fifteen three times. Purgatory was a weird spot to be in and if this was the only way to get to Cickel and Titus than so be it. He'd made up his mind. He barely waited for the male in his district to be called before tossing a hand up, "Yo wait! I know you'd rather have me anyway," he said, climbing onto the stage from the front. Ambrosia realized belatedly that he'd just saved Calcifer, someone else close to Tate Seraphim. "Well, well, well, guess I'm really walking in Titus' footsteps huh?" he said with a smirk.