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Zed’s night had already been bad enough before he heard the gunshots. He was supposed to start his first day as a Mentor in the morning, and he was not looking forward to it. He had pushed it for as many years as he could, but now he could not delay it anymore. When his own Mentor had died, when Zed had only been 17, he feared it would be his time to step up, but instead seeing his struggle with it another older District 6 Victor had stepped up to the role.
Zed had not slept a wink on the vigil of the 149th Games, spending all night fidgeting and messing about with one trinket or another he had created.
It was dawn when, through the open window he heard a gunshot loud and clear. It wasn’t uncommon to hear, the Peacekeepers were always finding someone breaking the law, but it had been scarily close to his home in the Victor’s Village.
When Zed craned his neck outside the window, wondering if it had actually been his neighborhood, his fears were confirmed as four Peacekeepers were dragging away a limp body, still dripping blood on the paved street.
The twilight should have made it impossible to recognize the victim, but their clothes made it clear. The dead woman was District 6’s Capitol Escort.
He knew better than to keep staring, so Zed quickly withdrew inside, closing windows and blinds behind him, and hoping no one had noticed he had become a witness.
The knock at his door that came an hour later made him almost choke on his own panic. With unsteady legs and sweaty palms Zed made his way to the door, waiting for the bullet that would take him out too, or the handcuffs to take him into the jail. But on the other side of the door, the Peacekeeper did not appear to be threatening, so he opened up.
“Good morning Zedaph, sorry to disturb you so early, but due to unforeseen circumstances your role for these coming 149th Life Games has changed. The Capitol Representative assigned to your district is no longer available, and not easily replaceable, so from today you shall undertake both the role of the Mentor and the Escort. Starting with the Reaping Ceremony which you will host later today. Have a good day.”
As soon as he was done talking, he turned around and left without a word, Zed still stood in the doorway elaborating what that meant. When he finally managed to get the door closed, he muttered his way to the kitchen to get started on coffee, since there was no way he would get any sleep now.
Taken as he was by his own stress and anxieties, he didn’t even notice that the blood on the street had already been cleaned.