73rd Games

Chapter two

I emerge from our little house an hour later in a clean blue dress tied at the waist with a bow and with ribbons keeping my hair in two braids. This is completely not my style but unfortunately necessary to please my mother. Hand in hand with Tommy, I walk down the street towards the Hall of Justice where Effie Trinket will appear to pick two lucky members of our community and march them to their deaths with only the drunkard Haymitch Abernathy as reassurance and company. And, knowing that everyone around me is doing the same thing, I pray that it isn't me or my sister who is chosen. But it has to be somebody, doesn't it?

The town centre is absolutely packed with people when we arrive. Tommy starts pulling at my hand, looking up at me with big eyes, asking me not to leave him. Mum ends up having to unwrap his arms from around my waist and carry him away after giving me a quick hug and kiss on the cheek.

As I line up to register with the peacekeeper I notice the boy I saw crying earlier, standing a few spaces in front of me. He is turning around to look at someone in the crowd. Following his gaze I see that he is waving at a small girl in a wheelchair, maybe ten years old but looking much smaller in the chair. Behind her is standing a frail old woman with a wrinkled face, so old I'm surprised she is still alive. As I watch the boy wave, clearly holding back tears, I realise why he was crying earlier; those two must be his family and if he is reaped and dies, they will have no hope of survival. And neither of them can work so he must have claimed tesserae so many times to keep them alive that his name almost certainly going to be picked.

Even if I am reaped, I know that my family will still be alright but this boy doesn't have that reassurance. Without him, his family is as good as dead.