The Hunger Games: Never Safe From Danger

Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

Frinn’s POV

Nothing’s real anymore. This isn’t my life. I am Frinn Keyden, I am thirteen years old, I live in District Nine with my sister, mother and grandfather. I have never been to the Capitol.

Until now…

I think I would be coping a lot better here if I hadn’t come with Ryda. I can only imagine what’s going on in her head. I conjure up these images of her killing me in all these different ways…

Charging at me with a spear.

Tripping me up and leaving me to the careers.

Pretending to be my friend then slitting my throat in the middle of the night.

Ducking my head underwater until I drown.

But…what if…?

What if she dies early? Hypothetically, what if she dies in the bloodbath? I have planned for nothing except avoiding her. We’re watching the recap of the reapings, and I have noticed none of them, except a lost-looking twelve-year-old girl called Leighla and her big brother. Maybe I could be their ally?

Nah. They won’t want me. Everyone in there will have some sort of talent. Like, Seven will be strong and good with trees, Five can handle electricity well, Eleven will know which berries are safe to eat and Ten will know about animals. But me? I am a useless excuse of a tribute whose area of expertise lies in different types of grain. Another disadvantage of coming from Nine.

So, they won’t want me as an ally. I’ve established that. It’s likely nobody will- the arena is not a charity, it’s a battlefield. Something horrible, and yet horribly overrated. There are people out there who enjoy watching children die…I wonder if they’d see it the same if Capitol kids were the ones getting murdered…

No, I can’t think like that. I’m kind of shocked at myself. I’m not a dark thinker. Peace. Justice. Harmony. Pretty little animals in a utopian universe, with plenty of food and fulfilled lives in harmony with friendly humans. Those are the things I like to envision. Because I’m Frinn Keyden, and I pursue ideals, not reality.

Reality. Look it up in a dictionary. Synonyms: Horror, Mistake, Terrible, Messed-up, Deadly.

At the end of the reapings recap, Ryda gives me that smile you expect to see from a shark before it kills a little fish. Yup. I was right. She will be the cause of my death.

Still, I can’t help but feel a twinge of satisfaction that she will be thrown in the arena too…who’s not going to survive the winter now?

I somehow can’t see Ryda making an alliance either. She’s untrustworthy, so no normal human beings will take her in, and she’s too small to be in the career pack. Good. Not Good. Gah, I don’t know.

The next morning, I am sitting in my private car, contemplating what has become of my joke of a life. There are people who can do anything they want. Become the president. Earn loads of money. Get famous. Live to a decent age. People who don’t ever have to worry about starving because they are from the Capitol.

And then there’s me. I contrast greatly from these people. Maybe I do have the potential to be brilliant, but it doesn’t matter anyway because it will never be realised. I won’t become the president. And if I do end up rich and famous and non-hungry, it will be for all the wrong reasons. It will be the luck of the draw.

I’ve put on the outfit they’ve laid out for me- dark green trousers with a cream-coloured shirt. They would be completely normal if they weren’t so scarily clean and wrinkle-free and perfect. They feel weirdly crisp and cold on my skin. Somewhat unpleasant, but the least of my worries.

Aquila Maressan’s voice calls me and Ryda for breakfast. It is not the most pleasant sound I have ever heard, I have to say. But whatever. Like I said- bigger things. I shrug it off and walk down to the dining car.

Breakfast is even more impressive than dinner- there are sausages and scrambled eggs and fried potatoes and beans and bacon and everything. I am reluctant to eat it at first, but the first bite of bacon sends my mind askew, and I forget everything. I finish my plate all too quickly, and I have to wait on everyone else. Ryda glances at me with disgust. I let my hair flop over my face and take a sip of the perfectly chilled water.

At the end of the meal, I ask if I can leave the table, and Aquila dismisses me, so I say thanks and walk calmly until I get out of the car, then I sprint back to the comfort that is the little seat and window in my private quarters. I like to watch the landscape change dramatically as we whiz by. The flowery meadows to the colossal mountain peaks to the gentle rivers and even the vast forests. It reminds me that there are still some things that remain undamaged by humans.

I fall asleep, only to be awoken by my mentor- Poppa Berre, telling me that we have arrived in the Capitol.