Dusk Falls

Chapter One

My eyes shot open as I heard the crowing of a rooster. The odd thing was, it sounded like the noise was coming from inside the small cottage I lived in with my family. My hearing had always been outstanding, and my father said I seemed like I was able to hear a pin drop across a room. I got to my feet, my back aching from the stiff mattress I had been using since I was three years old. The rooster noises continued, getting louder and louder every minute. I pursed my lips and furrowed my brow, skeptically walking towards my bedroom door. Slowly, I grabbed the handle and turned it, opening the door ever so slightly. Outside, I saw my older brother, Ben, making those dreadful rooster noises.

"What in the world are you doing?" I snapped at him. He just smirked with that sly grin of his that I always hated.

"Mom said I had to wake you up." He answered, patting me on the head as he always did since I was a foot shorter than him.

"But why so early?" I whined, my eyelids still heavy with exhaustion.

Ben's face fell. "The reaping is today..."

I was immediately awakened by his words.

"The...the reaping?" I repeated quietly, and he just nodded.

"You better get dressed. Mother and father want to have a talk with all of us before it starts."

As he left, I closed my door and opened my small closet. Inside were a few clothes I wore when I went out to help my mother with our garden, and a beautiful dress my older sister, Dawn, had given me when she had outgrown it. It was a pale green color, with white daisies decorating the fabric. I remembered the days when I had admired it from afar, and now I was able to wear it. If only it were under different circumstances...

You see, last year, my oldest brother Sam had been chosen to compete in the Hunger Games.

He was one of the last people alive...but he was killed by a girl from District one.

"Dusk! Get down here!" I heard my other brother, Dennis, shout. I let out a small sigh and left my room, leaving the door open behind me.

I entered the kitchen and sat down with the rest of my family at our small, wooden table. Everyone else was just as dressed up as I was. My father was wearing his cleanest polo shirt and my mother was wearing her deep purple dress she had worn for every reaping. It was sickening to think that we all got dressed up for an event like this...one that would eventually lead to the deaths of twenty three children.

"Sit down." My father said sternly, his face taut and his eyes dull. He wasn't normally this tense, and was usually a fairly cheerful man. But today was the one year anniversary of the day we had lost one of the brightest lights in the world to the Capitol.

I sat down in the seat I usually picked during mealtimes and family meetings. It was shorter than the rest, and creaked everytime I moved on it. We had gotten this chair for free, since it was considered "unfit for anyone of importance to purchase". The man who had given it to us wasn't the nicest person, but at least we had a chair for me to sit in.

"As you all know, today is the day of the reaping." My father said, a pinch of remorse and sadness in his deep, tired voice.

"Like we could forget..." Dennis muttered to himself, his thick mop of curly auburn hair almost covering his green eyes. But my father just ignored his muttering and continued on.

"And, as I have made it clear in previous years..." My mother let out a small sigh, one that even I could hardly hear, "the odds are clearly not in our favor."

"If you hadn't had us take so much tesserae, then we would have a better chance of not being picked."

My father slammed his fist on the table, his lip quivering as his eyes narrowed at my sister. I knew that Dawn had always blamed my parents for Sam's death. When I was barely a baby, we had hardly any money and could barely have a meal a day. Since Sam, Dawn, and Dennis had been old enough to put their name in for the reaping, my parents had to take out as much tesserae as we needed to keep us on our feet. And for a family of seven...that was a lot. Ben and I stood a better chance than Dawn and Dennis, but that didn't mean there wasn't any chance at all.

"We...we would have starved, sweetie." My mother told Dawn in her soft, silky voice. She reached out and grabbed Dawn's hand, but my sister quickly pulled away, glaring at both of our parents. "It's better to starve than to die in the games." Dennis whispered, his voice barely audible. I saw Dennis and Dawn shoot tiny glares at Ben and I. We hadn't been old enough to be in the games when we were poor, and so they had always thought of us as lucky. In my opinion, they were the lucky ones. If they were to get picked, they would be resourceful enough to stay alive for a while. But if Ben and I were picked...we had no survival skills. We had grown up in the lap of luxury. There was no hope for us.

"All of you, just remember that we are still a family, no matter what happens." My father finished, letting out a long, heavy sigh.

"Yeah, because families definitely sell their kids to death itself." Dawn snapped and stood up, storming away to her room. I had half a mind to go after her, but I wasn't dumb. Dawn never liked me very much, it wouldn't do well if I were to try and talk her out of it. But Dennis followed her anyways, so I didn't have to, and the rest of us just sat in an awkward silence.

"I suppose...I should finish getting ready." My mother said, and stood up, heading towards her own room. My father and my brother left the table too, but I stayed put and looked around the room.

This was my home. I was supposed to feel whole and happy here. But everything had gone stale once Sam died. He was like the sun, my mother used to say. Warm and bright, and able to light up a room with just a smile. I used to look up to him. He was my role model, and the best older brother one could have.

But now...he was gone.

And there was a chance that someone else would leave today too.