The 76th Hunger Games

The Ride

"Wake up it's a big day," I wake with Gale whispering in my ear. The day for the capitol reaping was here, the people of the capitol will finally know our pains of sending their children to their deaths. I sadly must pick the girl names from the ball. I will send 12 girls to their death.

I rise out of bed, glancing back at Gale before I run to the shower quickly. I dress in my simple hunting clothes and leave my hair alone. My prep team will make me presentable. Of course, it won't be an easy job, my arms still have the scars from the fire mutts and there's the scar on my arm the team always frets over.

Gale comes in gently grabbing my hand and leads me towards the train station. It has been reconstructed since the bombing, among the deaths of 12.

I board the train and as always Haymitch is in the corner nursing a bottle of liquor. I sit in a window seat and watch the vast land go by. I think of how Peeta would want to be here but...he's gone forever.

It was four months ago, Peeta had been released from the capitols care two days before he decided to hang himself. He arrived home and could no longer take being alive anymore with the world. The housekeeper found him hanging above his bed with a noose around his neck.

In his suicide note, it said he couldn't face the world. That it was too much with the deaths of his family, the deaths of most of 12, the deaths of the war, and the upcoming games. He said he couldn't live life knowing all these innocent people were dead.

I arrived the next day and saw his limp body. No one had dared to move him before I told them to. I had him buried in a meadow and surrounded his grave with flowers as I had done for Rue.

It tore at my heart but I understood him. He would have had to pick the names from the ball for the capitol boys.