𝐇𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬: 𝐁𝐥𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐬 ✔️

Chapter 4 - Carlo

^Persephone

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 4

POV: Carlo (District 5)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We sit on the massive District 5 dam, our legs dangling dangerously over the edge. The sun's just beginning to set over the far edge of the lake. Despite the calm atmosphere, Persephone is anything but calm.

"And I just know he asked me to the dance because he knows I can't say no," she vents.

"Seffie, just tell him no!" I laugh. Inside, I'm not laughing. I want her to go with me, but I would never tell her that.

"Dean's dad is my brother's boss, Carlo. I can't reject him, it's too risky."

"Why don't you just tell him you were already asked?" I ask, getting serious. Hopefully I'm not being too obvious.

"I wasn't, though!" she sighs. "And the dance is mandatory, I can't skip it either."

I stare into the distance at the sunset. "Just say I asked you," I say mindlessly before I realize what I've said. I quickly recover, saying "what's he going to say, no?"

Seffie just laughs, like she always does. "It's okay, Carlo. I don't want to drag you into this."

I can't back down now. "What? I want to help you! Go to the dance with me for one night and problem solved."

Gosh, I sound so desperate, don't I? I want to pinch myself. There's a moment of silence. Did I say something wrong?

"Actually, sure," Seffie says after a bit. "I'd rather go with a friend anyway. Boys suck."

I poke her in the side, making her laugh loudly. Her words hurt me, but a victory is still a victory nevertheless.

~

It seems so long ago when I asked Persephone to go to the annual District Dance. When I finally gave myself the chance to make a move. Now we'll never get the chance to go. Just my luck.

I sit in silence in the large visiting room of the District 5 town hall. I heard talking coming from Seffie's room, so her family must have stopped by. Or maybe it was the other girl - Velia, I think her name is. My uncle hasn't come to visit, but I'm not surprised by this. He's probably happy I'm gone so he doesn't have to spend any more money on me. I don't get a single visitor. Why would I? Nobody cared about me before, why would they start now?

I'm surprised to hear the door to my visiting room opening. Looking up from the floor, I see Seffie step quietly into the room, shutting the door behind her. She must have broken the rules to get in here - we're not allowed to leave our rooms, but if we're being sent to our deaths today, rules don't really matter anymore.

I'm suddenly unable to hold my emotions in. Seffie's the only one who can get me to break like this.

"Seffie," I call, emotional, as she comes across the room and hugs me tightly.

"What's going to happen to us?" I whisper to her.

"I don't know, Carlo..." she says. "I don't know. I'm sorry."

I knew I was at risk in the Reaping, since my father was Reaped as a tribute while my mother was still pregnant with me. I didn't know, however, that Seffie was in danger. How could we have known that one of her relatives was a tribute decades ago? Now there's no hope for either of us.

"It wasn't supposed to end this way," I whisper. There's a pit in my stomach. Either way, one of us is going to die in the Arena. Probably both of us, if we're being honest. Persephone buries her face in my shoulder. We're both destroyed. What do you say when your life has been ripped from you in a matter of minutes?

~

A bit of a short chapter, but hopefully it played at your heartstrings a bit. I promise this plotline won't be a love triangle like in the actual books, and these two are pretty low-drama overall.

~S