𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐦𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭 || 𝐀 𝐇𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐅𝐚𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

03 | trainrides and teenage tears

Her

Finally realising the true extent to what my name being on that one piece of paper means, I let myself gasp. A small shocked sound escapes my lips. Several people to turn my way. But not from the sound, from the general fact of me getting reaped. The only 'crippled' teenager in all of district ten gets reaped the first year the revoked rule is introduced, how accidental that must be.

Snapping me out of my cloud of thoughts, Pixie almost squeals of excitement, the microphone echoing the awful sound throughout the entire square. "Come on darling, hurry up now !"

So, with slow steps, I find myself walking out of the crowd and towards the stage. As I finally climb up the final step, Pixie greats me, a hand outstretched in welcoming. I take it and she shakes my hand for a beat before letting me walk towards her. I stand just right of her as she speaks into the microphone again, "boys now !"

After her short sentence, she crosses the stage towards the bowl of boys names. And upon repeating the same steps she took with the girls, she regains her spot next to me. After a several second moment, she unfolds the paper and reads out the slow words of, "Jamie Rickory"

Before the young boy can even step out of his line directly at the front, a screaming comes from the side and the majority of heads turn to face the woman who's being held back by several men as she screams her sons name. Her shouts echo throughout the square before an even louder voice announces,

"I volunteer."

The woman's sobs grow slightly louder as she screams the name Walsh so loud that Pixie isn't quite sure what to do with herself. With her screams still in the background, the volunteer boy steps out of the crowd of fifteen year olds in the centre, and starts his walk towards the stage.

As he steps up, Pixie repeats the same steps she did for me, holding onto his hand for a moment longer than needed as she looks up at him, examining his face. He then takes his place on the opposite side of Pixie to me, he stares at the boy who had been previously called - who's now being escorted by peacekeepers towards the sobbing woman who's already on the floor.

After a moments of seemingly everyone looking at the crying woman and her son, Pixie begins to speak again, "and what's your name, dear ?" She asks the man stood beside her.

He shuts his eyes for a breath before turning to her and speaking the simple word, "Walsh."

"Walsh what ?" Pixie asks, holding the microphone slightly in his direction.

"Rickory, Walsh Rickory," he says, breaking eye contact with the woman to glance back at his family.

That simple motion, him looking at his family, makes me remember mine. And so, I turn to face the crowd and scan it, looking for anyone apart from Maynes for I can already imagine the guilty expression that sits across his face. But, I can't see anyone. My mother surely isn't excused and neither shall be Hades. So, unless they're betting, I don't suppose they're in my view currently.

But, what sends me over the edge of tears, is Maynes. I make eye contact with him accidentally, and before I can turn away and say it never happened, he changes his expression. It goes from one of remorse to one of seemingly anger? And that, that single, simple motion, is enough to send several stranded tears down my cheeks. Tears that are quick to be wiped away, but not quick enough to not be picked up by the capitols cameras and now streamed to the majority - if not all - of Panem.