The Hunger Games: The Cry of Temperance

[TL] Districts 7 through 12

Districts 7 and 8

Satiya was a mess.

Quite frankly, it wasn't hard to see as she was wrapped her hands around her arms, as she squeezed as her gloves creased– doing her best not to make a fool of herself in front of her home partner, and the two children that were right in front of her.

Kiana and Chip had only watched, though Chip was the only one who was trying to make an effort to comfort her.

"It's– It's okay, I'm sure that.." He was trying to think of something honest– real, but how real could he be? The words he'd say were either going to be lies if he were to reassure her, and how could he even reassure her without telling her that her death was to be come imminent unless she were to kill twenty-three other tributes– including himself and the girl he had sat along with.

The girl didn't intensify her reaction but she only tried even more to wipe at her eyes with the dirtied sleeves that she wore, her eyes becoming more red from the irritation of the dust on her sleeves and from how hard she had been crying. It had been hours since they she left her districts, never thinking that she would have missed the industrial smell.

Though, she knew that if she were to head back, she would quickly revoke it. There was not the fact that it was the place she missed, but the thought that she was going to be going home without an issue as every reaping before this had come.

It was just supposed to be another day. A regularity that everyone had to deal with every year, so why did it have to be her?

The more she thought on how her chances had been one in a million, the more she thought about how she could have been home now from her duties at the factory. She would be home with her parents, they would set up food on the counter, even with what little they had– her parents must have been devastated. They were, in the short time that she could see them.

She couldn't imagine it– she didn't want to keep imagining that their only child would have been tossed away to the Games. How cruel is that?

The more she allowed her rumination to get the best of her, the more her tears had become even more apparent– her cries becoming clamorous as she pressed her hands back onto her face, completely disregarding what Chip had been trying to say–

"God, do you ever shut your mouth?" Her district partner, who was a brooding tower amongst the four of them snapped, as he brought his hand abruptly to the plated wall– everyone's gaze fixed to him, as they all jumped as if the tracks had skipped a beat.

Satiya looked out from her hands as Cotton huffed, glancing over at her– a dead look in his eyes as he shook his head, "give us some goddamn peace– for a minute. One, goddamn minute! Is that so hard to ask for?"

"Woah man," Chip shook his head, trying to sympathize with the girl, "she's shaken up–"

"You think she's the only one?" Cotton shrugged, scoffing as he shook his head even more, his eyes boggling in their socket as he let out another sharp breath. "You don't see us cryin' our eyes out."

"Still–" Chip started as he remained in his seat, his legs outward as he kept his forearms along the top of his thighs, averting his gaze back to her as her cries had– even though harshly, come to a stop.

"We've only got a few minutes, okay? I want to take my last few minutes here in peace before we have to greet all the circus out there."

"Okay, asshole," Kiana looked over to him, her legs crossed as she looked over to Satiya. "You're fine, just take a breather." She wasn't exactly empathetic, but she despised Cotton's treatment more than she disliked Satiya's wailing.