Songs & Seas | Hunger Games

Prologue

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RAIN POURED DOWN AS MARIA ROSE COVEY danced through the dark cobblestone street back to her home.  Her colorful dress was drenched but she didn't care. Her feet were bare the shoes she once had on were dangling from her fingers.

She was working the graveyard shift at the factory and was finally heading home. The buses only ran until eight and it was well passed then. Usually, District Eight was an eyesore at least during the day, but when it got dark and the street lights would come on it was like the smog didn't exist.

And the rain only made it better. Maria loved her city when it rained. The cobblestones shined as if she walked on streets of silver.

She was truly enjoying herself. That is until she passed the pub. A pit formed in her stomach but it was unavoidable. The odds were not in her favor this time as just as she walked past three drunk men came stumbling out the door.

"Heyyy swweetheart," one of them slurred tripping over his feet as he dizzily followed her down the road.

Maria tugged her coat a little tighter over herself. Attempting to keep her head high her pace quickened. Her eyes ran across her surroundings as she began to calculate the quickest route to take home. If she cut through the next alley she could climb on a dumpster to hop the fence. But it's electric and it's past eight so there's no chance of it being off. So there goes that plan.

They laughed behind her. What could they possibly find so funny? Was it her? Were they laughing at her? Laughing at the things they were planning to do to her? Maria nearly jumped out of her skin when one of them stumbled into a trash can knocking all its contents into the street. No doubt the rats will be thankful for that.

Her house was still a few more blocks away. It's at these moments she wished she lived in a district like four or seven where the real beasts lay in the forests or oceans like sharks and bears she had read about, not in your city streets. Though she knows that's naive of her to think. Four and Seven most likely have men roaming around just as much as Eight does. Dreadful thing really, Men.

She could feel them catching up to her the smell of alcohol was so apparent in the air it was almost suffocating. She was about to make a run for it when suddenly she felt an arm wrap itself around her shoulder.

"Hey, Mari." Maria sighed with relief at the sound of Colton Geller's impossibly casual voice.

She sighed looking up at him through her lashes. Looking back over her shoulder she can see the men shake their heads disappointedly as they cross to the other side of the street.

"Thanks," she said with a shy smile. She attempted to move out of his grasp but he just pulled her closer.

"I don't think so Mari," he smiled boyishly down at her. "Your house is still a few blocks down and those drunkards aren't your only concern."

Maria perked a brow. "My concern or yours?" she asked suggestively making him chuckle bowing his head.

"My concern is for your poor feet," he looked down at her bare feet on the wet pavement. "What do you have against shoes?"

 Maria groaned. "I've been in these things all day," she waved around the shoes she held in her hand. "and decided enough was enough."

"And who did you swipe this off of?" He asked pointing to the locket that hung around her neck.

Maria smirked amusedly. "Just some drunkard who lost his way home." She spoke as she fiddled with the chain around her neck. District Eight was poor perhaps not the poorest but they weren't living in luxury that's for sure. So Maria and Colton got good at "borrowing" as they called it.