Final Masquerade [Harbinger one-shot]

It's been a long week. Sitting here watching other tributes fight it out. Pretending I'm happy when a victor is crowned, but everything that happens next is a blur. The anthem playing as faces float through the sky. President Snow announcing the twist that the tributes are alive. That they've been hidden below this very building when they exit the arena, but I think it's just a lie. They want us to think they're alive to cause a divide to separate us even more. It's a sick joke. I watched the weapon kill him. I saw his skull. I saw everything. There's no way he survived that. No way.

Everything is happening so fast, and then I see him and the others, and it doesn't make sense at all. How can they have survived? What can they have done? How? I don't get it. The Capitol is toying with us, and I hate it. I hate everything about it. I hate that Snow would sink so low to do this. They've cloned the dead tributes, and I want to kill Snow for doing that. I want him to suffer. To pay the price for all the pain he's caused me.

Even sitting on the long train ride home, I don't know what to except. It's lonely despite all the people dancing around. It's hard. I haven't said a word to my brother at all. I haven't talked to anyone here, and I don't want to. It's impossible. This is a dream. I watched them all die. I watched their cannons sound. Why are we all on a train together? Why? I want Kirito to wake me up from this nightmare so I can go on with my life once I get home.

I sit in a corner away from everyone as I watch the trees disappearing in the distance. Sometimes I look and see Faux stumbling through the train. He looks so real. Like my brother, but he's not real. He can't be real. He died day two, and to see a fake like him only crushes my heart even more. He's so innocent and didn't deserve this, yet he died, and I can't bring him back. I just want to go hug my kids. I want them to know that I love them more than they can ever imagine. I want to protect them forever, but I know I can't, and it hurts so bad. Every part of my being aches just thinking about what Snow can do to them.

A heavy sigh leaves my chest as I press my head against the window. I may have survived the games nine years ago, but I'm not a winner. I submitted myself to a life of torture and pain. I submitted myself to a world where Snow ruins every single thing I cared for. I should be heading home to bury my brother, but instead I'm on a train with those that were dead. No corpse came home this time, and I don't like it. I don't think I will ever talk to this imposter since he's not my brother. I'll just have a funeral without his body. It's the least I can do, and I hope he actually appreciates it.