Item from The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Deadly poisonous berries that kill in seconds — Katniss and Peeta's threat to eat them together rather than give the Capitol a single victor was the first act of open defiance that cracked Panem's foundations.
Nightlock kills within seconds of ingestion — no antidote, no reversal. Foxface died eating them accidentally, mistaking them for edible berries. Katniss knew exactly what they were because her father taught her. When the Gamemakers revoked the two-victor rule and demanded Katniss and Peeta fight to the death, Katniss pulled out the nightlock. The message was absolute: we both die, or we both live. You get no victor. The Capitol blinked. Two victors were crowned. But the damage was done. Every district watched a seventeen-year-old girl outmaneuver the Games themselves with a handful of berries. The rebellion's password systems later used 'nightlock' as a command code. The berries became a symbol of choosing death over submission.
Small, dark berries resembling blueberries. Deceptively innocent-looking. They grow on low bushes and are easily mistaken for edible fruit by anyone who hasn't been taught to identify them.
Also known as: nightlock, the berries, nightlock berries