The End of Innocence: The 72nd Annual Hunger Games

The Hovercraft

"Your clothes." One person from my prep-team says bluntly. Her hair is very fancy and her makeup done exceptionally well ranging from bright orange to bright blue across her entire face. They're all dressed up. The opening day for the Games brings all in The Capitol to dress in their best clothes, after all, it is a historic event.

I examine the pile of fabric she hands me. It's a brown t-shirt with cargo bottoms. The boots are the trekking type, so I'm guessing a hard terrain or many different terrains to battle. No point in in asking her what type of Arena it'll be. She has no clue. She's as clueless as me.

"Thank you." I say with no tone. She gives a half smile and walks away from me to the door. She looks back at me one last time and closes the door behind her, leaving me with these clothes that will have blood all over them in a few hours.

I put them on though, without hesitation. The clothes are a perfect fit, despite they've never even measured me. I look at myself in the mirror and I sigh. The sight isn't pretty. My eyes are completely puffy from crying all morning and my stomach is all over the place. I was only allowed to eat what was put out for me, a simple bowl of oatmeal. They offered me five minutes to shower but I didn't see the point in it so I refused.

I walk over to the hair gel that sits on the desk and put some in my hair. I style it the way I would usually do it, just my fringe up with everything else laid flat. This is the simple way my brother would style it up for special occasions or for the school graduation. John admired himself knowing he was reasonably attractive for a person from District 9, which made me envy him a little bit. He always had girls over whilst I had to pretend I didn't hear them. He could have been here instead of me. He's charismatic, I'll give him that, but he never bothered to hunt like I did. He wanted to pursue a career in the official side of the District instead of working in the grain fields like the majority do. I wonder what he's thinking of right now, waiting for the television screen to go from black, to suddenly full of colour broadcasting the beginning of the Games.

I look out the window one last time. The sky is a beautiful light shade of yellow and red. The early rising sun. Every District will wake up and immediately know what day it is. Same goes for The Reaping and The Victory Tour. In District 9, a huge chime sounds. We call it 'The Death Song' because of how menacing and powerful it is, it echoes throughout the entire District to tell us the tributes are going to the Arena, in about an hour, my District will hear it. My death song will echo throughout The Square.

A knock on the door brings to to full attention. "Um, yes?" I cough out.

A soldier comes in with a gun. He's in all white. "Time." He says with his deep voice. I walk up to him and take one last look at the room before closing it behind me. Lesa is dressed up in the exact same outfit as I am. "Hey." She says as soon as I approach her.

Before I can answer, the soldier makes us backs to each other, looking at one wall each. I feel Lesa's fingers trying to find mine, I grab them hold her hand. Her palms are sweaty and she's shaking a little bit. I have no clue how she's shaking and I'm not.

Suddenly my vision goes from seeing the door to black. I begin to panic, and I feel Lesa's hand tug away from mine and we both begin to lash out at whoever's putting something on our faces, either a blindfold or a mask. At first, I don't have an issue with this, it's only when Lesa begins to freak out when I do. The soldier forces the mask down on our faces, which makes me slightly unable to breathe.

"Stop!" He bellows. "You must wear the masks!"

I begin to realise this is part of the process, probably so we don't have the faintest idea of where this Arena is. When I feel Lesa knows this too, we stop resisting. We hold hands as we're escorted into the elevator. Finally, after going down nine floors, we reach the lobby.