𝐆𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐆𝐋𝐎𝐑𝐘 || 𝐇𝐔𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑 𝐆𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐒 𝐀𝐔 ¹

𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍 • 𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐀

• • •

IT WAS OFFICIALLY THE MORNING OF THE 72ND HUNGER GAMES. Saraphina was woken up at the crack of dawn by Finnick.

"Happy Hunger Games day, Sara!" Finnick exclaimed. He really had a lot of hope she would win, maybe it was a denial thing.

"Shut the fuck up, Finnick," Saraphina grumbled.

"It's six in the morning, you have to be on the hovercraft in an hour," Finnick said. Saraphina took a few moments, but got up and washed her face.

There was no need to shower, she wouldn't be able to do that for a while now. She had a knot in her stomach, her intestines felt like they were tying around each other, suffocating.

All of the "what ifs?" were scrambling through her head. What if she didn't have that many sponsors? What if her allies betrayed her? What if the only thing returning to District 4 was her corpse?

Saraphina ate a large breakfast, who knew when she would have food like this again?

Her and Nero were silent as they were each led by their mentors to the hovercraft. The landing strip was where Saraphina would say goodbye to Finnick and Mags. She hugged them both for an unprecedented amount of time.

Her and Nero were separated prior to boarding. As they were going their own ways Nero shot her a look, "may the odds be ever in your favor, Saraphina," he said.

"You too, Nero," she answered softly.

When it was finally time to board the hovercraft, the tears in Saraphina's eyes started slipping from her eyelids. The last thing she wanted to do was cry, but it was just her natural body reaction to the rush of emotions. She wiped her face and breathed in and out to force herself to stop. Saraphina Odair wouldn't be caught dead crying. Ever.

There were only a few tributes on the hovercraft at the moment, Saraphina didn't remember where they were all from anymore. Good. It made them easier to kill if she couldn't remember their name, age, or district.

Saraphina spotted Augustus and Octavia seated next to each other, so she and Nero sat beside them. Saraphina was directly next to Augustus, and Nero was on the other side of her. Right now, everyone was wearing the same basic clothing. Black combat boots, black pants, gray shirt. Saraphina would receive her arena uniform when she got off the hovercraft.

The hovercraft would bring them to the catacombs underneath the arena. It was where they would meet with their stylists, be dressed, and eventually step into a tube that brought them up into the arena.

Once all of the tributes were in the hovercraft, a woman stepped in and started asking for tributes' arms. She placed a metal device to the tribute's arm and then the tribute grimaced in pain. Saraphina wondered what it was until she saw Augustus' being put in directly next to her.

Their trackers.

"Give me your arm," the woman said. Saraphina held her arm out and she placed the tracker in her. She didn't understand why so many of the others grimaced, it really didn't hurt that badly. Just a pinch.

Before she knew it, they were in the air. The windows weren't covered or anything, letting the tributes see out onto the land. Everything looked so small, Saraphina had never seen anything from this perspective. The birds were in line with them, flying at the same height and enjoying the view. It was hard to enjoy the view when all Saraphina was thinking about was the games.