Disclaimer: Hunger Games does not in any way belong to me, it's the property of Suzanne Collins, etc.

Written for Starvation Forum's October prompt, 'Mutilate'.

Death and the Boy

(or, the tale of a hijacking)

Death stalks the boy.

Death is greedy. Death takes all that the boy has to offer - his bread, his love, his life - and gives nothing back.

The boy goes into the arena with Death. He confesses his love for Death, and Death throws it back in his face, ever ungrateful. But the boy still loves Death, so he is slow to anger and forgives Death.

Death abandons him at the Cornucopia, then returns to punish him after he makes other friends. Death drops a nest of tracker jackers on the boy and his allies. The blonde girl's body is swollen and disfigured, barely recognizable as human, much less the beautiful girl the boy had been coming to adore.

The boy escapes, barely - but he still finds it in him to defend Death, and nearly dies because of it. He hides, waiting for death. Face after face is shown in the sky: the blonde girl's partner, who was killed trying to protect the little girl from Eleven; the little girl; the genius boy - the list goes on, but the boy knows that Death has gotten to them all.

And then, Death finds him. They announced a rule change - partners can win the Games, now. Death needs the boy to act as bait.

Death nurses him back to health, probably wanting him to be conscious and lucid for the final act. The boy is overjoyed by the proof that Death loves him, no matter what it has done to him. Death watches as more faces appear in the sky - the knife-wielding girl, and then the dark-skinned boy from Eleven.

Death forces the fox-girl to eat the poison berries, and then only the strong boy who used to be the boy's ally is left between Death and freedom.

Wolf mutts chase them to the Cornucopia, and Death leaves the boy behind without a second thought. Somehow, the boy makes it to the golden horn without falling before the mutts, but then Death uses him as bait to distract the strong boy.

Death leaves the strong boy to face the mutts alone, enjoying his suffering as the boy slowly bleeds out.

When Death finally kills the strong boy, another announcement is made: only one victor is allowed. No one wants Death to win, so they hope that the boy will be able to overcome it. But the boy is weakened by blood loss and love.

Death tricks the boy into eating poison berries, telling him that it's both of them, or neither. The boy believes Death, because he is guileless and a little bit naive. But no one wants Death to be the victor of the Hunger Games - Claudius Templesmith intervenes, frantically crying, wait! wait! I give to you the victors of the 74th Hunger Games...

Death and the boy return to District Twelve. Death tells him that everything he has believed in, their romance and the bond that has developed between them - everything is a lie.

But, of course, would the boy mind keeping the pretence up? Death has a family, and the Capitol would punish them if its lie was revealed.

Because the boy loves Death, he does.

And then, because of Death, the boy enters the arena a second time. This is how Death repays him - love with lies, bread with arrows, life with death.

The boy's heart stops. Death loses it, shrieking and tearing at its hair - Death wants to be the one to finish the boy's life, so that's why the man with the trident restarts the boy's heart.

The old woman cannot escape the acidic fog, but Death does not want to be burdened by her, so it leaves the old woman to die. The boy clings to the man with the trident's back, but he can't help himself from looking back, to where the old woman had been just moments ago.

The boy had made some friends among the other victors during training. Death leaves the half-mad woman on the beach as bait, and then kills most of the boy's friends when they take it.

It gets worse, though. No, it was better this way.

What happened is this: Death leaves the boy behind, escaping the arena to join the budding rebellion and leaving the boy to the tender mercies of the Capitol.

No matter what, the boy always thought that, even if Death would never come to love him back, they would still have their shared hatred of their universal oppressor: the Capitol.

But that isn't the case; Death leaves the boy behind, no longer caring even remotely about the fate of the boy who had given it everything he could.

The only reason the boy is still alive is because the Capitol hates Death more than it hates the boy, and now the boy will have his chance to earn revenge.

(Death's name is Katniss Everdeen.)

Coriolanus Snow stares at the mutilated wreck of a boy before him. The boy's blond hair is filthy, matted with sweat and blood to a dirty brownish colour. The boy's blue eyes are glazed as he looks up at the President, none of the usual loathing in their depths. Bruises, burns and other marks from past torture sessions cover the boy's body.

And yet, the real mutilation is not physical, but psychological - the boy's memories have been twisted into something treacherous and unrecognizable, taking all that was good and turning it into bad.

"You'll kill her for what she has done... Won't you, Peeta?" Coriolanus asks mildly.

The boy nods, as much as the straps restricting him to the operating table allow. "Yes," he hisses, hatred twisting his features into a savage mask.

"Thank you," Coriolanus says courteously. "I must be going now, but I'm sure we'll see each other again." He turns away to hide his smile, ignoring what reply Peeta might have for him.

A/N: Not much to say about this one - it's shorter than I usually write, but lately everything I write has turned out really long so I like it. :D

Oh, in case it wasn't clear, the italicized part is Peeta's memories of the Hunger Games that have been modified due to his hijacking. Yep.

Feedback is very much appreciated ~