|The Hunger Games|The Cresta Diaries|

Remembering Her |5|

A voice calls for me. The fluffiness tickles my arms and legs. I wake myself up, and shake my head from side to side. My eyes open widely. I am standing on the white clouds. What the heck is happening? I think. Where am I?

"You're dead," a voice from my head blurts.

The voice felt so life like. Like . . . I've heard it before. Flashes of memories appear in my mind. I kneel down, holding my skull tightly, like I am going to break it. A familiar face, her short blonde hair remains forever in my brain, her smile, her laugh, her kindness. Now I remember, it's Aira. My dead best-friend.

Just as I was thinking about her, she appeared before my eyes. I run to hug her, but I just simply go through her. She's dead. No body. This is just a dream, I tell myself. I pinch myself until it turned red. I close my eyes and the light flashes at my eyes.

I blink twice, and sigh. It was just a dream, a dream. At least I got to see her face before her . . . death. She was smiling, happily before she left. I smile, that's what I've always loved about her. The blinking clock reminds me that I have to go change for the arena.

I stand up and reach for the doorknob, before I could exit. Rene comes charging forward and hugs me with tears in her eyes. She mumbles something un-intelligent and continues to cry. I'm in shock. Why would she cry for me? I think.

"Take deeps breaths, and say it loud and clear," I say.

Rene inhales deeply, and sniffs. "Don't die on me, okay? I know you love Theo and you want him to get out. But, . . . I just wanted to tell you that- you w-were the best tribute I could ever have," she cries on my shoulder and hugs me tight.

A single tear comes out of my eye. I quickly wipe it away. "Don't worry. I'll be the one who'll be coming back," I wave at her and grimace when I face the door. I hate lying to her. It just pierces my soul.

I push open the door and see Theo, Mags and Finnick sit on their usual places. I'm not really hungry so I'll pass. I walk towards the outside of our flat and to the elevator. I am heading towards the room where'll change before we go to the arena. Rene catches up with me before the elevator door closes.

We both arrive and she opens the door for me. Rene hands me a kind of divers suit, a jacket, black boots, and a purple belt. She helps me change into my assigned clothes. A voice says, "Thirty-seconds." and Rene embraces me.

"Good luck," is all that she says before the door that leads to the arena opens.

I enter, and she says, "You know. I can tell you this, stop lying to me. I don't like it." The door closes and I wanted to say something to her, but I couldn't. I couldn't do it. My throat's sore and I didn't want the tears to spill. So I keep being quiet.

An abnormal procedure happens, a giant needle that glows blue is piercing my right arm. I wince in pain and shock. It's a tracker, I mumble to myself.

I hear a voice say, "Tributes from 8 . . . 9 . . . 3 . . . 1 . . . 4," the platform rises up and I see a giant dam to the left of where I was standing. Hills surround the background, and using the corner of my right eye I see Theo standing seven tributes away from me.

I smell something sweet. Lilies were her favorite flowers . . . Aira's death flashes before my eyes. I was eight while she was five, behind our house was an old shack nobody lived in for years. We were young then, so we thought ghosts lived there and we decided to explore. Once we were inside. We separated and minutes later I heard her horrid scream. One of the floor boards broke and she fell to the basement, and her stomach landed on a piece of broken wood.

Aira was so scared, and ignoring the stupidity of killing myself. I had jumped down and slowly removed the wood and slightly touched her wound. She didn't wince at all. Aira just stared at me, smiling. "Water . . ." she whispered.

I carried her towards the sea and dipped her in, while still holding her. She kept laughing and smiling at me, for no reason. I decided to tell her a story.

"Once there were two girls. Who lost both of their parents because of mutations. They left without saying, 'Goodbye'. That shattered their frail little hearts when they found out. But, the one thing they have in common is that they still have each other. They went everywhere not one without the other. But the little girl fell and was in pain. The older girl brought her to the ocean to stare at the horizon. Her favorite place in the world. With that thought she was going to be okay," I told Aira. "And they continued to adventure-"

She stared at me with her little blue eyes. Her hand held a white flower, a Lily. "Ni-Nie -- was her nickname for me -- Daddy's saying 'thank you for taking care of me' and he has to take me home now . . ."

Tears sled down my cheeks as she muttered her last words, "Ni-Nie. Thank you for the best ad-adventure I -- had," and she was gone. I couldn't accept the fact that she was gone and I started to avoid people. But, the only one who could understand was Theo Strauss.

"ANNIE! IN-FRONT OF YOU!" Dan shouts.

I'm sucked back to reality by his voice. A knife whizzes past my head and hits the boy tribute behind me. I watch a girl approach me with caution. Ariana had saved my life. I could've died. The gong had already rang? Stupid Annie.

Tributes pile circling a giant spherical wall, the flying hovercraft shows the cornucopia is inside the wall. So, where'd they get the weapons? I turn my head sideways to see another tribute charging towards me. I duck and kick the girls stomach and she falls.

There's got to be something to at-least get us some food. Or other essential items. A ladder? No. They wouldn't make it that easy. I turn around slightly to see another tribute tackle me. We roll in the ground, and she cuffs her hands around my neck suffocating me. I kick her shin and she groans. The District she's from is 7.

She finally lets me go, and I see one of the tributes run away with a pack. How'd he do that? I go back to my platform and step on it for a better look, and I find how he jumped over the wall.

[[ Sorry it's short.]]