Justice, the 4th hunger games book, the story after mockingjay

Chapter thirteen

Chapter thirteen

"Today we gather on the tenth anniversary of the Mockingjay rebellion." She has to pause as the entire city erupts in a chorus of cheers and whistles, I have to hide my sudden outburst of laughing at her irked expression which she is trying so desperately to hide as her face is plastered all over the country. Peeta glances worriedly at me as I try to pass of my fits as coughs, I think he may think that I'm beginning to finally lose the plot.

"What?" I say behind my hand a little to innocently causing me to start laughing again and him to raise a skeptical eyebrow at me. "Just look at her expression. Priceless!" I manage to whisper in between my laughing coughs.

When the noise finally dies down she continues. "It has been ten years since the last hunger games, since the rebellion, since peace has been restored to our country. But this peace was short lived. As you are all aware of crime has steadily increased over this time, theft, gang violence, even murder. These acts are against the laws of the land and used to be punishable by death. I do not think this is a suitable punishment, and so instead culprits have gone before a jury and imprisoned for their crimes but this does not seem to be much a deterrent either! Our prisons are full and the country is no safer. This act of defiance from a meagre percentage of you has not gone unnoticed. You left me no choice but to punish you and you're loved once. Once suggested by lovely Mrs Mellark, formerly Miss Everdeen, I saw no other alternative but to bring back a new version of the hunger games, where the criminal plus one loved one will be thrown into a single area." I roll my eyes when she says this,again blaming me. What I don't notice is the cameras have sight me out and are locked on me as I do this and I hear the other mentors begin to cough as they also try and hide laughs at my fed up I-don't-want-to-be-here-bored expression. Paylor pretends not to notice as she continues. "Two may survive forty-six will die. If you do not care for your own life maybe you care enough about another's not to commit the crime! This is a reminder that although we have won the rebellion I will not stand for violence and such blatant disrespect for the law! Now just remember, may the odds be ever in your favour." Gale and I exchange a nervous glance and I smile weakly at him and he rolled his eyes at the statement causing me to smile even more. Once she finished she turns and strides over to two empty seats to the left of the stage, I assume one for her and Plutarch. Once she is seated she nods to Plutarch who has now taken her spot at centre stage, this is his queue to begin the selection process.

"Ladies and gentlemen, as there is no limit on how many are male and female tributes are chosen and therefore all the names have been placed in on ball. Furthermore, both names will be on one slip, the first is the criminal followed by their district of birth and the second, the loved one followed by their district. lastly the Mentors here will choose which tribute they wish to mentor once they take their place on stage. Only the loved one will get a mentor and if more than one mentor wants the same tribute, the tribute may choose their mentor." There are looks of confusion and outrage on everyone's faces as we all exchange looks at this last turn in events. I make eye contact with Haymitch and he mouths 'don't worry' to me making sure I know he will wait till the end and my name is called. Plutarch then walks over to the ball which is stood at the very front of the stage and reaches his hand deep into it, rummaging around for affect before pulling out a single slip of paper. He then carries the slip unopened back to the microphone before opening it and reading the names of the two unlucky people.

"Darren Peelsburg, District Five and Sophie Peelsburg, District Five." At the announcement the cameras pan around to find both tributes and the screens split showing both reactions and faces. Both tributes look to be in their mid forties, the woman has long black hair and a very weak bone structure, if she would fall apart at anytime, and is wearing a simple grey dress which falls just below her knees, the man as a very similar bone structre and hes skin clings to the bone, he has very short brownish hair probably to hide early balding, age has not done this pair any favours i think. I glance at Peeta and I can tell he is thinking the same, these two will be no match for us.