The Hunger Games- Prim's Story

Chapter 1

My legs shake as I walk up the stairs towards Effie Trinket, District 12's escort. The pink around her eyes contrasted with her bright green suit. My eyes start to tear up as she grabs my wrist, and suddenly I am in the Arena. I'm cornered and crying for help, but no one comes. No one can save me now. 

My sister's voice brings me back to reality, where I open my eyes, and to my relief, I'm back in District 12, back in my house. I let the tears fall and she strokes my hair. It won't be me, she says. I'm too young. I haven't taken any tesserae. This is the first time my name's been in the system. She repeats all that she has told me over the past months, ever since my twelfth birthday. I've heard these words many times, but today, nothing will comfort me until two tributes are taken to the Capitol, and my and my sister's safety is ensured.  

Katniss tries to pull me back down with her to sleep, but I know as soon as I start to drift off, my nightmare will resurface. I stay with her until she is back asleep and I creep out to my goat, Lady, who is safe in her pen. I let myself in and sit down next to her and start stroking her. My sister brought her home for me on my tenth birthday. I wish I could say I had nothing to worry about then, but I did. We were starving and even though Katniss was a skilled hunter, we still didn't know what we'd eat from one day to the next. But she still brought the goat. Maybe that's why I love her, she still cares. Even if there are worse things to think about, she still cares. 

I've been sitting here for a while. It was early morning when I woke up, and now the sun is slowly rising. Katniss will be up soon. I get up and walked to our small space in the roof. You could barely call it an attic. You have to crawl if you want to move around up there, but it serves its purpose well. We store our meat there. We never have much to store, but when we do, it's cool up there, and it doesn't go bad. It's perfect to store secret goat cheese. 

I took the cheese back down and set it on the table. Katniss will be up soon, earlier than usual, to start hunting. Just in case, it's just-in-case meat. She's been doing this ever since she became eligible for the Games, but she doesn't hunt with Gale anymore, not since he tried to kiss her. Buttercup weaves in between my legs trying to get me to feed him. He's giving me those sweet eyes that made me bring him home in the first place. "Not yet, Buttercup. I don't have anything to give you. And this is for my sister," I whispered. I doubt the cat can understand me, but he walks away anyway, with his tail in the air, as if he's too good for whatever food I'll be able to find for him. I creep back onto the mattress and curl up against my sister's warm body. She won't believe that I've been here the whole time, but hopefully, she'll assume I've got enough sleep. 

I ending up drifting back off to sleep because when I opened my eyes, my sister was gone. I glanced over at my mother sleeping on the mattress a few feet away from me. The Reaping isn't until two, so she'll probably stay asleep until one of us can pry her out of bed and to the square, where my nightmare begins. Buttercup climbs onto the mattress next to me and snuggles close. He must have already forgiven me for not feeding him this morning. It's peaceful for a few moments and then he starts again. "I can't feed you right now," I whisper, "And if you can't keep yelling, you'll wake her," I point to my mother and Buttercup looks at me condescendingly, as if he knows that she won't get up until Katniss is shaking her and begging her to open her eyes. 

I get up and walk over to our father's shaving mirror. He used to hate the coal dust that covered everything in the Seam. It covered our shoes, our clothes, even the smiles of those who worked in the mines, dragging their faces down until they couldn't feel anything anymore besides the numbness that infected everyone in the Seam. He would always polish his shaving mirror and after he died, I couldn't bear to let it get dirty. Every night I clean it, but today, I don't know if I'll even be here by evening. I take extra time on it this morning, making sure no trace amount of coal settles there. We don't have coal miners in our family anymore, but the dust still gets in, no matter how much we clean. When you think about it, it's depressing really.