The Capitol's Tribute

The second I entered the clearing, two slender—but strong—pairs of hands grasped my arms, pinning them back, making me useless. Ridley snagged my bow and tossed it aside. Velvet kneed me in the back, causing pain to ripple up my spine and cry out. The mountain towered ominously over us.

“Rixa!” Freddy cried, “Rixa, I’m sorry! I wasn’t paying attention like you told me to! I was just so hungry—”

Malum smacked Freddy across the face and I screamed out in anger. “Don’t you dare hurt him!”

Someone grabbed a handful of my hair and ripped me back.

“I’d watch what you say, girlie.” Ridley sneered grotesquely. “You’re in our hands now.”

“Let him go.” I pled. “Please, you have me. Now, just let Freddy go.” My begging was useless. They were just eating it up.

“Oh, we’ll get to you.” Malum grinned viciously. “But, first, we’re going to play.” He thrust the hand that wasn’t pinning Freddy helplessly to ground into his pant pocket. Pulling it out, a few bluish-red looking beads fell out of his hand.

I was breathing heavily now, terrified for Freddy more than myself. Malum was the one I truly feared. Give me my knife and I could handle the others, but Malum was a different story.

“What are—” I tried to get out my rambling words. It was all too much. I couldn’t see what he was holding until he held it up to me in the light. The dark ink that seeped out of the berries stained his hand. I furrowed my blonde brows, struggling with my captors to reach Freddy, only earning another yank to my long hair.

Malum tilted his head, staring at the berries like they were mesmerizing. “You can thank your buddy Katniss for this one.” That wide-toothy grin filled his handsomely dangerous face and he pulled back Freddy’s protesting head, forcing open his mouth and shoving the berries in it, smearing the juice all down Freddy’s face.

His brown eyes bulged, trying to force the foreign invaders out. I kept fighting. Nails pierced into my bear arms. I watched powerless as Freddy’s throat contracted. He had swallowed the berries.

“Nightlock.” Malum said in an awed sort of voice, releasing the dazed Freddy. “Pretty quick to strike. Better say goodbye while he’s still lucid. See you on the battlefield, Rixa Hart.”

I was unceremoniously thrown down and trampled on. The three careers were gone before I could gasp for air. Following them didn’t even flash in my mind. I scrambled towards Freddy.

He sat up, glancing at me with that fearless face. A warrior’s face. “I don’t feel anything.” There was hope in his voice that maybe it wasn’t Nightlock. I closed the rest of the distance between us, catching his small frame just before it swayed to the ground. I held him close, brushing my shaky hand through his unruly, dirty locks.

“You’re gonna be okay, Freddy.” I choked out, tears beading up in my tired eyes. “It’s gonna be okay.” I rocked him gently back and forth as he stared up at me like a lost little lamb.

“Did I make Johanna proud?” He asked for the second time that afternoon. This time his voice was faint.

“Yes,” I told him firmly, “You made her very proud.”

“I’m so tired.” He muttered, his brown eyes coming in and out of focus.

“Go to sleep, Freddy.” I whispered tearily. “I’ll be here when you wake up.”

“You won’t leave me alone?” He asked in that small voice that broke my cold heart.

“I promised, didn’t I?” One of my tears fell upon his forehead. He didn’t seem to notice I was crying. Freddy gave me a weak smile, reaching up to the small Mockingjay pin I had forgotten about once again, before shutting his drowsy eyes.

It felt like hours of silence passed in the moments that followed after. I watched his tiny chest rise and fall in decreasing intervals—until it didn’t rise at all. A miniscule sob fell out of my mouth and the canon blew off, signaling Freddy’s demise.

Little Freddy Mason was dead, ripped from the world at the small age of eleven. I cursed the sky, the ground, Malum and the career pack. I screamed about everything that wasn’t the real reason Freddy was dead: the Capitol and its sick Game.

I cradled Freddy’s lifeless body, sobbing into the chest that would no longer lift with delicious air. I tried to find solace in the idea of Freddy being somewhere better, safer. But when I was still stuck in this hell, I couldn’t imagine much else but what was undoubtedly in front of my eyes: another death on my hands.

The shuttle would be coming soon to take Freddy but I couldn’t bear to leave him. I made a promise and I’d be damned if I didn’t see it through. I didn’t care what they did to me at this point. They could shoot me down and take me with Freddy in a body bag and I wouldn’t give it a second thought. I wasn’t leaving Freddy.

There was another canon and I briefly wondered if Brant had caused it, by his own death or somebody else’s. Then, I realized I didn’t care. I was too devastated by the tiny life swept away in front of me. It was enough to make the earth shake.

I sat up a little straighter, not letting go of Freddy, wondering if that shaking wasn’t completely metaphorical. The shaking indeed became even more violent and clamorous. I jerked my head up at the monstrous mountain and watched as an explosion of red burst out of the top. Black smoke seeped out like that mist from earlier, sprinting down the hill towards me and Freddy.

I panicked. They still hadn’t come for Freddy and the lethal red goo was gliding down the mountain. I grabbed a hold of Freddy’s armpits and tried to drag him along. Even though Freddy couldn’t have been more than ninety pounds, his dead weight was too much for my exhausted, hungry body. Even on a good day I couldn’t have carried Freddy to safety.

My brain was fried. The molten lava was inching closer and closer with every second I wasted trying to pull Freddy away from its burning fingers. I couldn’t leave him. I promised. I grunted, puffing a stray hair out of my face, pushing on. I couldn’t give up. I wouldn’t.

But, my body wasn’t cooperating with my determined mind. With a final groan, I slumped to the ground, wondering how fast burning alive would take. Obviously it would be blindingly painful, but would it be quick? I doubted it, but even with that thought, my body couldn’t get going again.

I had finally given up. I sat there with Freddy’s limp head in my lap, watching in awe as the bubbling liquid that would be my certain death hit the bottom of the mountain. It seemed to be coming faster now. The Gamemakers must have been pumping it out; cheering for my death, for my family and the Mason’s not to have a body to mourn.

I was just about to lie down and wait for death when someone unceremoniously grabbed me from behind and tossed me over their shoulder. A shocked gasp fell from my lips as I watched Freddy’s body slip away, the lava almost at his feet. “NO!” I kicked in protest, “Let me go! Freddy’s body! The lava!” I sputtered phrases, trying desperately for my savior to understand and go back for him.

The lava crept up on him like Malum had and I observed in utter horror as the red liquid burned away his beautiful flesh, melting it to the bone, and then to nothing. “Freddy,” I wailed, unable to look away. His big brown eyes stared lifelessly out to me before the blanket of lava covered them too, ruining everything about Freddy Mason and dissolving it to ashes.

There was nothing left but the memory of Freddy Mason to mourn.