LUCIFER. It may be thou shalt be as we.

CAIN. And ye?

LUCIFER. Are everlasting.

CAIN. Are ye happy?

LUCIFER. We are mighty.

CAIN. Are ye happy?

LUCIFER. No: art thou?

MANIA

we were never supposed
to make it half this far...

RISEN FROM THE RUIN AND RUBBLE OF THE 73RD HUNGER GAMES, Alecto Heller knows she should be content now that she's walked home with the crown and insurmountable respect for the glory she'd brought back to District 2. But she isn't.

Underneath the halo of victory, behind the laurel wreaths and the shiny, killer smiles, Alecto Heller dragged home more personal ghosts than a 17 year old girl should be carrying. All her life, she'd been forged into the shape of a killer—but the act of killing, taking a human life, is not the same as driving a spear through a training dummy. That is the first lesson she learns. The second casualty of the Games is innocence—the first is freedom. Every night that passes never gets easier. The nightmares keep coming, the sudden fits of blinding rage washing over her with such a vicious fury doesn't cease, and every time she closes her eyes, the faces that appear behind her eyelids can't stop dripping with blood. Blood and guts and the smell of despair. Why should she be content? How can she be content when the Games have taken so much from her?

            Two years later, it demands take again.

AFTER THE 47TH HUNGER GAMES, Atlas Heller thought he'd be done with all the bloodshed. Thought he'd left it all behind once the gates of Victor's Village welcomed him home.

But the sick thing about the Hunger Games is that even if you've won, you still lose. You're alive but you can never be whole again. Part of you will always remain trapped in that malefic arena. Atoning for your sins will never be enough. You'll never wash the blood off your hands. Some stains can't be erased. The fever dreams plaguing your sleep will never cease. Even though it's been 28 years, Atlas can't stop finding himself locked away in his closet with the voices in his head screaming so loud he can't breathe. It isn't enough that the Games have stolen his sense of security. It's taken his only daughter from him too. She'd returned with the crown, but with it, she'd also dragged back a vacant shell of herself—a glass dashed against the edge of the table, broken and damaged beyond repair, subject to violent fits of rage instigated by the most irrationally trivial things. She was never much of a talker, but after her Games, Alecto had stopped speaking completely. And now the nightmares have her too.

And now: the 75th Hunger Games. The Quarter Quell. The rules are different this time. This time, the male and female tributes will be reaped from the existing pool of victors.

Atlas can see the warning: you will never leave the Games. Nobody is safe. Not even the ones who've already won it.

And when Alecto volunteers in place of a friend, Atlas has no choice but to voluntarily re-enter the Games to keep his daughter safe.

With both of them back in the Games, back to square one, back to the place where it all went downhill, they have fight for their lives again, alongside the skeletons in their closets threatening to break free. And this time, they know they won't come out of this together.

THE DISTRICT TWO TRIBUTES

                         FEMALE: ALECTO HELLER
                         AGE: 19

— saoirse ronan

                         MALE: ATLAS HELLER
                         AGE: 45

— joel kinnaman

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SOUNDTRACK:
ADAPT  OR  DIE.

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TIMELINE: CATCHING FIRE

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AUTHOR'S NOTE.

no romance, just family (or if i feel like it, mayhaps a romance subplot between alecto and Someone, but that's only if i'm feeling the chemistry, so idk) 

i like writing about dad and daughter duos okay fight me i just miss my dad a bunch (he aint dead he's just been dodging my texts because i'm on the other side of the world now 🙄)

yes i'm bending canon, so enobaria and brutus won't be participating in the Games.

ALSO!!!!! iko!!!!! from throne!!!!!! will be in this!!!!!

BOOK TWO OF THE
'CONVENTIONAL WEAPONS' SERIES

GRAPHICS BY bayports