Alyssa of Nine (Reimagining the Hunger Games)

Prologue

District Nine

Some time in the early era of the New Republic of Panem

I am living as a free citizen of Panem, which is something I once never thought that I or anyone else from any district in my lifetime would be able to claim. But even now, I lead a life that so often feels lonely, and any true sense of peace still evades me when I remember the very worst of not just living as an oppressed orphan. Or even all I had to do to survive not one but two Hunger Games, but everything that happened in the war to end the Games, to end President Snow's corrupt regime. And realizing that not even President Alma Coin of District Thirteen could be trusted in the end.

One small consolation I suppose is that I think my parents would be proud of what historical changes I've contributed to and accomplished. Right along with my friends, at least half of them are now gone, including my old mentor who once lived just across from me in this former Victor's Village, which at times seems even lonelier than it did in the dark time of the Hunger Games. He was the only man I'm certain I'll ever love as I did.

Are you sure you want to know my story? I suggest you better be. One thing I can promise you is that it's not for the faint of heart. Like the Games, once I've begun, there'll be no turning back. I don't sugarcoat anything.

My home district is a town interspersed with many golden fields where the wheat and other precious grains are grown every year from spring until harvest time. We then have to mill the wheat into the kind of refined or enriched flours that only the citizens of the Capitol and maybe the wealthier districts like One and Two are allowed to use. At least, this is how it was before the longed for Era of Great Freedom began.

I was named Alyssa and I am a Whitestone, the last living Whitestone that I know of. My district and home is Nine, always has been, and I certain always will be. Where else would I go? The Capitol? I would rather be dead than live there, even though Snow, my most dangerous enemy is also gone, and the whole country is now liberated, and President Paylor is a fairer, better leader and human being overall than Snow, driven by the need for power and control, or even Coin, driven by the need for revenge against the Capitol she so despised.

The Hunger Games were one of the biggest problems with this society in Panem, once called North America. There is the Capitol, and there were officially twelve (but actually thirteen) outlying districts.

Apparently the old story goes that the people of the old Panem, not being content nor appreciative enough of what the earlier Capitol gave them, soon rebelled. History would call this period the Dark Days. Everyone turned on one another, and nobody really knew who to trust anymore. The Dark Days seems only a fitting name.

And then came the supposed era of great peace, when the war had ended, the rebellion had been crushed, and the Capitol had been triumphant. A treaty of the treason had been negotiated, and it had been decreed that the rest of Panem, the districts basically, were the ones to be held forever accountable and punished for the rebellion. And to ensure that not only will there never be another rebellion, but that the people will always remember the cost of the last rebellion, they wrote into law the Hunger Games.

The Hunger Games were disgusting, depraved, evil, sick, humiliating, and plenty of other things that are too numerous to mention right now. And by the time I was a teenager it was still ongoing, the one that both changed and ruined my life forever would be the 73rd when I was just seventeen. And the worst part of it all was that we were all forbidden to complain, to protest against it.

See, another twisted part of this cruel punishment is that everyone in all of the districts must celebrate the Hunger Games by law. They must be not only accepting but honored that the Capitol might at any reaping pluck out any of their children to compete in the Hunger Games. In some of the wealthier districts, like One and Two, where there are kids who were trained from an early age in preparation for the Games called Careers, (and they were the tributes who most frequently won the Games) it is easier for many of them to see the Games as they are supposed to.