Dusk Falls

Chapter Two

I sat up in my room as the hours ticked by, playing with a lump of wax my mother had given to me. It was surprisingly fun to play with, but my hands always felt weird afterwards. At least I had something to help relieve my stress. For example, whenever I would wake up from a nightmare about Sam dying, I would reach for the lump of wax and mold it into things with my hands. There was something in there my mother had put in it that made it so the wax wouldn't completely harden, and that it would stay good for a long time.

But even now, it didn't calm my nerves. There was a chance that I or one of my siblings would be picked to compete, and the thought of losing another family member to the Capitol's cruelty scared me half to death. What if Dawn was chosen? She was resourceful and a good hunter, but she hated hurting anyone physically. If Dennis was chosen, he would probably hold out for a few days but then die of hunger or thirst. He wasn't the brightest person in the world, and quite frankly was bad at tracking things. If Ben was picked...he might have a chance. He could lure people towards him with bird noises, making them think he was a bird, and then he could kill them.

I didn't stand a chance if I was chosen. Yes, I had extremely good hearing, but what good would that do for me? I wasn't strong, or brave, or resourceful like my siblings were. I would most likely be killed within the first five minutes.

Then the big clock in the square struck twelve, and my palms started to sweat.

"Let's go, Dusk!" One of my siblings called out, and I let out a shaky breath.

"I'm coming..." I responded, trying to make my voice loud so that they could hear me, but it came out as a whisper instead. Hesitantly, I left my bedroom and went over to where my family was waiting for me. My mother was wearing a simple pink dress, her hair done in a braid which was draped over her shoulder. Dawn was wearing her new black dress with plain white stockings underneath to cover her legs, which were heavily scarred from something she wouldn't dare to tell anyone about. Not even my parents knew what had happened to her. Both Ben and Dennis were just wearing simple overalls with polo shirts underneath, and each had a brown cap positioned neatly on their heads.

Everyone looked fancy. If you didn't know what The Hunger Games were, you would have thought that we were off to some fancy party. But District twelve hardly ever had any parties, and the few that were held were reserved for the wealthy people among us.

"Are we all ready?" My father asked quietly, looking over all of us with a somber look in his eyes. No doubt he was remembering just a year ago when Sam had been chosen. He was seventeen. If only he hadn't been chosen, then he would've never had to fear his name being drawn.

When every one of us had nodded at my father's words, we headed out the door. It was a cold, foggy day. Usually it was unbearably hot at this time of day from the sun being so high in the sky, but there was barely a patch of blue that could be seen through the thick, dark clouds.

"Dusk, are you coming?" Ben asked, looking back at me. I snapped back to attention and nodded, speed walking for just a few seconds to catch up with my family. As we walked, I grabbed Ben's hand. He looked down at me sympathetically and squeezed my hand in a reassuring way.

It was almost as if he was reminding me that I would be fine. The odds were definitely in my favor, and there was absolutely no way my name would be chosen. It was only in there once, after all. But I wasn't so much worried about me as I was my two oldest siblings. Their names were in there so many times...

But I took a deep breath as we continued on, through the Seam and into the town square, the place we usually gathered for events like these. My parents stepped back as Dawn and Dennis had their fingers pricked so that they could be identified, and they headed off towards the group with the older kids. I watched them both as they stalked towards the others, their chins held high. They were always so confident...how were they not worried? At least, they didn't show their worry.