A/N - Welcome to Sapphire Tears everybody!!

This story is the sixth entry in the Bleeding Hearts series, but unlike the previous five, it will not tie directly into the series as a whole. In this story, I wanted to feature a new batch of tributes who are not featured in any other story so that the Victor is completely unknown until the very end. The Victors of all of my previous stories have been featured elsewhere in the series, which spoils the surprise a bit. With that being said, please make sure to still give my other stories a read :)

And one more important announcement: Ever since I started my account, I've been keeping a little Wiki online to help me keep track of characters, events, etc. I thought this would be a great opportunity to show it off, as it features information and pictures of many characters, including some not featured in any of my published stories yet! Keep in mind this is a work in progress and many pages are still blank/unfinished.

On this wiki, you can become acquainted with all 24 tributes in the 98th Games before you even meet them in this story! Copy and paste this link to find it:

https://hunger-games-bleeding-hearts.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Tributes_in_the_98th_Games

Or there should be (hopefully) a little link at the bottom of this chapter to the wiki :)

I will also be featuring pictures of the characters at the top of each chapter, so the top of this chapter features Violet Chappelle, our first narrator.

With all that out of the way, I hope you enjoy Sapphire Tears!

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Chapter 1

NARRATOR | Violet Chappelle, District 7

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"And we are down to four," I hear the host, Sterling Crosby, announce over the cheering District Seven crowd. "What a shot from Logan Chappelle!"

I wrap my mother in a hug; behind us, the crowd is going crazy. "He's going to make it, ma," I whisper to the woman in my arms. My brother is just minutes away from winning the Hunger Games, just like he promised. Only three more tributes, and then he'll finally be home...

"Logan has proven to be very strong with his bow, but he has to be careful at this critical point, Sterling," a woman says. She must be a Capitol analyst; I don't recognize her. "Tanya may be out of the picture, but her ally, Marissa from District Two, is still on the search nearby."

"They're running out of time now," Sterling says, leaning forward a bit to get a good look at the live camera feed in front of him. "Our reports from the Gamemakers' room tell us that a tidal wave will be approaching soon, washing over most of the Arena and pushing all the tributes to the center. Logan and Marissa have to stay focused right now or they could both be in trouble."

I clench my fists as I watch my brother sprint through the forest, blood dripping down his face. It  pains me to see him like this after everything he's been put through, but I know he can do it. He has to.

My mother is gripping my arm, but she doesn't care about this half as much as I do. Logan is my hero, and nobody wants him to come back home than I do. He practically raised me when our mother worked long hours, and he's the bravest person I've ever met. Everything he's endured and everything he's done has been for me. In his interview with Sterling, he told the world that he'd do whatever it took to come back to me, and I know that he meant it.

Logan pauses as the camera begins to shake slightly. He takes a look around, searching for the source of the trembling.

I want to scream at my brother to run, but he doesn't have live commentary from Sterling like I do. He doesn't know that a tidal wave is about to crash down on him at any moment. Logan takes a look around, freezing when he spots something behind him.

My heart nearly stops when I see what's caught his attention. It's not a rushing wall of water, but a girl. Marissa Holland from District Two.

Marissa is the last person I want to see right now. She's the strongest tribute left in the Games and the only one who could outmatch my brother. I mean, I'd expect her to - she's been training all her life for this as a Career tribute. My brother's just an average boy with a good aim.

My brother strings an arrow into his bow, launching it at Marissa, but she avoids his attack. She launches at him, swinging at him with her sword. Luckily, Logan predicts her next move, ducking to the side.

"Marissa and Logan need to start running now, Sterling," the woman says on the broadcast as the two tributes lock into a full-on brawl. "If they don't head out in the next ten seconds, they'll likely be caught in the wave."

"Come on, Logan!" my mother cries from next to me. Behind us, people are screaming - run!

Logan doesn't run, though. He can't, or Marissa will bury her blade into the back of his neck. Instead, he continues to avoid her blows.

"Please," I hear my brother beg. His voice is hoarse; he looks exhausted. "Kill the others before you kill me. I have a family back home, they're counting on me-"

"You know what you did," Marissa seethes through her teeth. "Killing Tanya like that when she did nothing to hurt you... don't beg me for anything."

Marissa swings down at Logan. His eyes are pointed at the sky as her blade slices down and down and down, into his neck...

I can't rip my eyes from the screen in front of me as blood spurts from my brother's neck. He shudders, his face twisted in an unrecognizable grimace. He collapses to the ground, and Marissa wastes no time in ripping her blade from his body.

My brother is dead. The realization crashes down on me so hard that I nearly collapse to the ground. Hands grab me from behind, holding me up on my feet as strangers I've never met whisper condolences into my ears.

"And there goes the wave," Sterling says; I barely register that the Games are still going. "Looks like Marissa wasn't able to make it out in time, and the Games are down to only two..."

A rigid, paralyzing feeling takes over my mind as the crowd presses against me. I feel like my own neck has been cut open, and all the blood in my body is pouring out of the open wound. How could he really be gone, just like that... he was so close...

"Anyone special rooting for you back home, Logan?" Sterling had asked my brother. "Any girls you'd like to shout out?"

Logan had looked straight into that camera, speaking directly to me. "My sister is rooting for me," he said. "Violet. She's the light of my life, and she means everything to me... I'm coming home, Violet, I promise..."

After that day, after I saw him die, I was never the same. Nothing had meaning to it anymore, nothing mattered. How could it, when I didn't have my brother here to experience it with me?

I tried to pour everything I had into my schoolwork. I wanted to get my anger out with a hatchet, but my mother wouldn't let me stoop to the level of a lumberjack.

"There are better jobs out there for educated women like you, Violet," she'd said. "Stay focused on your studies."

So I did. I was only thirteen, but I was at the top of my class. Finally, when classes wrapped up in the winter, I realized what I needed to do.

It was six months after my brother died, at the Victory Tour. I was forced to stand up on that pedestal in front of my entire District, in front of all of Panem. My mother wept the entire time, but I kept it all inside. I couldn't stand to let them see me cry.

Georgina Burgess stood on that stage, and she read from her soulless cards at us the entire time. Not once did she even look at us.

"Logan was a boy with a kind heart," she'd said, not acknowledging the family of the boy she was speaking about. "He deserves to be remembered for overcoming the odds for the sake of his family."

Something about Georgina's speech, the way that she didn't care about us, made me obsessed with her Victory Tour. I watched every single one of her other speeches - did she even care about any of those kids who died so that she could live? I knew that if Logan was up there speaking on that stage, he'd speak from the heart. That was the type of person he was.

Georgina's speeches didn't reveal anything inspiring to me. What a dull, uninspiring girl. It made me sick that my brother had died so that she could live.

It wasn't Georgina's speeches that changed my life... there was something else in those tapes.

When Georgina visited District Two, I saw her. Marissa Holland. The girl who killed my brother. And beneath her picture, a younger girl who looked just like her. Just like that, memories flooded back.

"I want to make my family proud," Marissa had said in her interview with Sterling. "My sister means everything to me. Safira is her name, and she's only thirteen. She's always looked up to me, and being a role model for her has been so important in my life. She wants to enter the Games someday just like me!"

"Oh, how special!" Sterling had exclaimed. "Maybe we'll be seeing Safira in a few years' time."

Maybe we will, Sterling... maybe we will.

In that instant, I knew exactly what I needed to do. It would take years of work, but I needed to do it. For Logan.

I had to kill Safira Holland.