73rd Games

Chapter four

Everything is a blur as I try to process what this means and suddenly I find myself standing on the podium, Effie's hand on my shoulder. I can hear her beside me, addressing the crowd, but all I can really hear is the screaming and crying of my family and then their silence as they are dragged away by peacekeepers.

When Effie's hand leaves my shoulder, my mind snaps back into focus. Across the other side of the stage now, she reaches her hand into the boys' bowl and snatches a piece of paper from the top of it.

"Joshua Renwick." She calls out over the crowd. When the boys part like the Red Sea, forming a path to the stage, one boy is revealed. It is him. The crying boy, the one with the cripple girl and old woman. I must have been right; his name must have been in there so many times his reaping was almost definite. As he walks towards me I can tell that he has prepared himself for this moment. Unlike most tributes, his isn't an expression of surprise or fear, it is one of anger and resignation. His death is written on his face with such finality, leaving no hope that he might survive, that it breaks my heart a little.

When Joshua is standing beside me, he looks over at me for the first time and I realise that I have been stating at him since his name was called. He has a pretty face with a strong jaw, big green eyes and black hair that falls over one eyebrow. But it isn't his looks that make him beautiful, it is the emotion inscribed in his featured. His eyes are so full of sorrow that it almost hurts to look at him. In one glance he seems to take in my entire being and I know that he understands how I feel immediately. He mouths two words at me that fill me with so much conflicting emotion I nearly cry: 'I'm sorry.' Because this boy who doesn't even know me is apologising for something he can't control. And for once I am shown the little amount of goodness in humanity when most of my life had been surrounded by heartless, inhuman peacekeepers.

I give him a small nod of gratitude in reply and reach out to take his hand in a small sign of rebellion - I will not kill this boy. Effie comes to stand behind us and I know, finally, that this is it. I am the district twelve tribute for the 73rd Hunger Games. And I am going to die.