linus strauss :: d2 :: fin

We're going to put the fear into you.

Real fear. Fear of death, so that we would fight with everything we had to stay alive. For what is it to be alive without the fear of death, to keep us clinging to this thin plane of existence?

It's all a fucking joke.

Do I really need to explain it? Some asshats adopt twelve questionably stable orphans and subject them to immoral forms of mental manipulation to- to what? Train them to become the greatest killers Panem has ever seen? To win the Hunger Games and bring glory to the Strauss name?

Well that just ain't gonna work, is it?

Why? Fuck's sake. It ain't rocket science. Anyone with half a braincell can see how fucking on-edge everyone's been since Finn struck down Anabelle like she was nothing more than a training dummy. Blood, screaming, horror. Kids locking themselves in their rooms for weeks, hesitation in training, no one making eye contact for weeks.

So let me ask you this, if that's what they're like at seeing one death - what the fuck are they gonna be like when they step off that podium and into a bloodbath of twenty four people all hacking and slashing and murdering eachother like a rabid pack of animals?

It ain't fear of death these asshats are teaching us, it's fear of human nature.

You think any one of those precious and impressionable young children is going to come out of this at all sane, strong, and ready for a real fight? Like I said, it's a joke.

But I'll play the game, because I understand it isn't one.

Train, learn, keep your head down and get to eighteen. Kill if I have to. I mean, I don't know if I have it in me, when it comes down to it, kill another person? I don't know. I like to think if it's them or me, yes, I'd do what I had to, but I'm a hesitant person by nature. Can't even get my words out half the time. But I'm a good fighter, very fast, agile, hard to hit, great with a spear. I have every chance of making it to eighteen.

Then they'll cast me aside like some diseased hobo - rain their shame down on me, because they can't swallow their own. After that, my life is mine, and all of this is behind me, and I won't have to worry about stupid Victor's constant, never-ending nagging every waking hour of the day:

Linus your form is wrong. Linus you're getting too stocky. You need to stay slim, Linus. Linus your speed and agility is all that will keep you alive. You don't have time to pee in the Games, Linus. Don't talk to Isabelle, Linus. Linus you need to train with a spear more often. Spar more with Finn, Linus. Stop staying up so late, Linus. Don't get too friendly with Agnes, Linus.

Fuck, his voice is like a droning bell bleeding into the back of my head. And Octavia's no better, constantly hitting me with that stupid ass cane of hers, making fun of my stutter, calling me a slacker, a degenerate, a good-for-nothing who's lucky to even be here.

Well, one way or another, there will come a day where I won't be.

linus strauss, 16, d2