Shattered (A Hunger Games Fan-fiction) (Wattys2015) (#feels)

Chapter 17

Annie and I stand shoulder to shoulder and I watch as she rakes a hand through her dark brown hair before letting it drop to her side. Her face is set in a frown and she is clenching and unclenching her fists. I reach over and squeeze her hand before looking up at the stage.

There are three chairs there. One is occupied by the mayor of District Four. Mayor Williams is a tall, thin man with a receding hairline and a permanent scowl etched on his face. Next to him is a frail looking woman of about sixty. Her hair is grey and her face is clearly covered with age lines. She is going to be my mentor: Mags. Her hands are clasped firmly in her lap and her lips are drawn into a thin line. When I look into her eyes, I can only see grief mirrored in them.

The last chair is occupied by a voluptuous woman who looks to be middle aged. She is District Four's escort, Jia Fisher, and I find myself looking at her sophisticated hair before my eyes land on her face. She is known for dying it a different color every year. This year, it's a bright pink and is styled into elegant curls with some of it piled at the top of her head. Her dress, which is also a dazzling shade of pink is set with heavy stones at the hem and when she moved, the stones caught the sunlight and glittered.

And so begins the same ceremony that I have watched for the past two years, only now I know that there is a chance that I am never going to be standing here again. There is a chance that I am going to die before the next one. Jia Fisher is beaming as the video starts on the screen behind the chairs and I find myself sighing through gritted teeth. Annie chews nervously on her lip as they show the Capitol, a glimmering city full of elegant, sophisticated people, much like Jia.

They show the Dark Days, when Panem was a land of conflict and bloodshed. I watch as countless people are killed for rebelling against the rulers. And then, they show the Seal of the Capitol and the people being brought to justice. They show District Thirteen being bombed and I watch as it is burned down to the ground. I always wondered why they always showed the same footage of District Thirteen. They always show the Justice Building being bombed and nothing else.

I watch silently as the Capitol is shown again, a shining city born out of the ashes; a pinnacle of victory for Panem. The extravagantly tall buildings with stainless windows are shown and the glittering jewels that adorn people's heads and necks are shown and I have to swallow hard at the sight of it all. They have so much and yet, they give so little. All their resources, the coal, electricity, fish- it all comes to them from the Districts and they are never repaid.

The treaty of peace is shown next and we watch as the twelve districts are shown on the map of Panem with no sigh of Thirteen. Jia Fisher stands up as the anthem of the Capitol plays out and we stand in oderly lines, with our hands limp at our sides. At last the Seal of the Capitol is shown again on the screen and Jia walks to the end of the stage. The stones set at the hem of her dress catch the light and I wince as the light is reflected in my eyes.

"Wasn't that beautiful?" Jia asks in a carrying voice. Her tone is bubbly and full of charged energy. No one answers her and we watch with baited breaths as she claps enthusiastically. "Utterly beautiful."

"Utterly cruel's more like it," Annie murmurs next to me and I nod my head, silently agreeing with her.

"It is time for the sixty fifth annual Hunger Games!" The mayor smiles coldly from his chair and Mags just sits there with her fingers interlaced. Jia looks around around at all of us with a smile pasted on her face and walks to the small table placed in the centre of the stage. The table has two glass bowls with slips of paper inside it that bear the names of every person between the ages of thirteen and eighteen.

We are all ordered to put our names in at least once, however, the Capitol has many ways of cruelty. So in order to get people to enter their names more than once, they promise extra food for the family of the person who does so. My father forbade me to put my name in more than once. He said it was only a matter of chance and if I was ever picked, he wouldn't know what to do. Annie, however, has put her name in more than once ever since her mother fell ill. She has been lucky so far.