The art of War

Chapter 3: "Happy Hunger Games"

Sitting down in his seat Blake Everrett looked at the cot his child was sleeping in. He hushed his two years old daughter to sleep, once he finally saw her fall to sleep he got up leaving the room and making his way downstairs. When he got downstairs he saw Atom stumble into the room rubbing his eyes tiredly, looking up he grinned seeing Blake still awake. "Hey daddy." He greeted his younger brother slapping his brother's back and Blake rolled his eyes taking a glass and pouring water in it. He then glanced over at Atom lazily. "Deena keeping you up?"

"Deena is keeping everyone up." Vida commented with a sigh walking in through the back door, her hair a mess. Blake and Atom looked over to their 15-year-old sister seeing her hair a mess, her make-up smudged and her clothes messy. "What?"

"You know you sleep around so much you should charge for it." Blake teased her flicking her nose causing Vide to squirm and hit him, annoyed.

"At least I'm using protection." Vida bit back.

"Burn!" Atom exclaimed howling with laughter as he pointed to Blake, Vida smiled seeing Blake's exasperated look and he shook his head. "What? She's got a point."

"Painful memories." Blake muttered.

"Really? Because I could have sworn you haven't been depressed over this for like seven months." Atom pointed out with a shrug and he then handed Vida some food which she took and sat down stuffing her face with the food that he'd given her. "So where were we at with the prostitution?" Atom casually asked looking to Vida who rolled her eyes as Deena began to loudly cry and she groaned throwing her head back.

"Blake." Vida called out.

"No. I spent over an hour trying to get her to sleep." Blake shook his head looking to his sister. "Besides she likes you more." Blake pointed out and Vida sighed standing up and walking up the stairs picking up Deena. Blake sighed and sat down finishing off his water as he thought of Deena's mother, he looked down at the ground and his heart clenched in pain as he remembered holding her limp body as Deena wailed in the background. He remembered her pale and cold skin, her legs covered in blood.

"Blake?" He heard his name being repeated by Atom and Blake looked over to his taller and more muscular brother with a tired smile. "You alright? You sort of zoned out." Atom asked looking to Blake, his blue eyes narrowed curiously at his younger brother. Blake nodded pouring himself some more water knocking it all back as he took in a deep breath.

"Yeah. I'm fine. Hey how was your first day of work?" Blake asked him tilting his head to the side. Atom was one of the lucky ones, he'd gotten in and out of the worrisome period of life without ever being in the Hunger Games. A lot of people weren't chosen but a lot of people were. Their parents, mother was a cheating drunk and their father was working longer hours to support all of them. They were good parents but after Vida's birth they'd all gone downhill. Their mother falling into a depression while their father worked hard. Atom ended up having to try and raise his siblings as best he could. Atom had been studying to become a systems analyst like their father but at the moment all he would muster was maintenance until he'd completed studying for the test.

"It was alright, cleaned the bathrooms, at least no one was violently leaking." Atom shrugged at his less than glamorous job. Blake nodded understandingly forcing a smile to his lips as he stood up and slapped his brother's bicep.

"Well I'm hoping someone floods the floors with shit." Blake teasingly shared walking past him and making his way into his bedroom. He crashed on the couch looking up at the roof, turning he saw Vida walk in and she sat beside him. Blake pushed himself up into a sitting position looking over at her. "She didn't want to go to sleep huh?" Blake asked.