Certain Death {On Hold}

Certain Death

 Chapter One

Rue

I gasp for breath. A black and white mockingjay's wing flashes overhead. The green blur surrounding me is broken only by a face above me. One that is fierece, but at the moment, holds grief and hopelessness. My breathing is shallow, like I've come up from drowning. But I'm not being saved from death. No, I'm heading toward it.

"Rue Leisen!" A very scary woman with brilliant blue hair done up in a tall style held a tiny slip of paper in her hands. In her hands, she held the name Rue Leisen written in neat, curling handwriting. In this Capitol woman's hands was my life.

I was frozen. My limbs couldn't move. My eyes were locked on the woman in red. Blood red. My blood. Spilt in the games. 

A gentle hand on my back ushered me forward, and I saw a girl I'd never in my life seen before. A girl with yellow hair and fair skin. Blue eyes shone with sadness. She looked alike to me in build- slender, as though she could be blown away by a whisp of wind. She had a faded quality about her, but all the same, she had touched me. She had helped me, told me to be strong with no words.

I pressed my lips together in a desperate attempt to stem the tears that had appeared in my eyes. I took a step forward, finding each step harder than the last. Forced to walk toward my own death. Fragments. That was all I saw as I stepped onto the stage and faced District 11. The fair skinned girl, out of place in the tanned sea of workers. Luminous brown eyes belonging to my sister, aged only nine. Tears flowing freely down many faces. My own shaking hands clenched in front of me. When I looked over at the woman, I saw a blue-and-red blur.

There was a pounding in my ears, but I still heard the faint sound of blood asking for a sacrifice. A volunteer to replace the tiny girl from the Leisen family. Even under my heart's beating, I could hear the dead silence among my people. District 11 had betrayed me. They would give me up. Maybe not willingly, nor merrily, but they had nonetheless given me up. 

The woman in red crossed to the other reaping ball and fishes for a name among hundreds, if not thousands, of boys. I shut my eyes tightly and pray it is not a friend. Pray it is not someone I know. That would make things all the harder if we both survived the bloodbath in the beginning. The blood has stopped pounding. My heart has stopped beating.

The crowd waits with baited breath to know who their tribute will be. All is still. Not even the wind dares to disturb the silent square. 

"Thresh Dayo!" she calls. My eyes snap open. I don't know him. I've heard of him. I've heard he's strong, he's a fighter, he's capable of winning the Hunger Games. He's all a district could want in a tribute. The exact opposite of me. The whisp of a girl with wide eyes and in her first year of being entered. The ox, powerful, eighteen. I look him up and down, seeing him for the first time. Dark, huge, muscular. Threatening. He could kill me in an instant.

Instead, a small smile graces his lips, like an offering to me. I can't even comprehend what I must look like. A lost child with wide eyes. The corners of my lips twitch up, but it does not form a smile. Not close. But in his eyes in understanding. He knows how scared I must be, how the fear is coursing through me, pumping from my heart through every vein in my body. How the only thing keeping me from shaking like a leaf in a hurricane is staring into his steady eyes. 

Already, I know him. He's not cold, nor is he a murderer. He is a big brother, willing to comfort with open arms.

"Shake hands," the woman hisses under her breath before returning to grinning madly at the people. Her voice is ice in the warmth of Thresh's gaze. Thresh takes my small hand in his own, but does not shake it. Simply holds it. 

Suddenly, we are surrounded by Peacekeepers in uniforms. More threatening than my first impression of Thresh, with their guns. But Thresh's hand is still there, keeping me standing and steady. 

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{A/N: This book is based off of Rue from The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. None of the characters belong to me besides her prep team and stylists and the like. Any characters in The Hunger Games belongs to Suzanne Collins, and I claim nothing over them.

This book is meant to reveal what Rue went through personally before, during, and after the Hunger Games (yes, I know she's dead, just stay with me).

Also, I wanted to know if anyone can guess who the blonde girl is? 

Lastly, I wanted to say that all my author's notes will DEFINITELY not be this long. 

PLEASE let me know what you think! I may or may not continue depending on the response. Thanks!

xx Jae}