METANOIA ↝ THE HUNGER GAMES [1]

[4]

Two Peacekeepers ushered Aspen into a room and slammed the door shut behind her, leaving her to glance about at her surroundings and fight the nausea that continued to build up in the pit of her stomach as her heart started to beat faster and faster.

It was a small room, nearly empty save for a small set of a table and chairs. The room was completely devoid of all windows, for fear that a tribute may try to escape before they made it to the arena, though she couldn't bear to think what might happen once a runaway tribute had been caught. She paced back and forth with her arms crossed over her chest and biting her thumbnail nervously before the door opened, revealing Ash and Cedara. They rushed in, gathering Aspen into the center of a tight group hug. They stood there for a long moment, the only sound audible in the room being the occasional sniffle of one of the three devastated friends.

"You're going to give them hell." Ash said adamantly.

"It's like I said." Cedara added as they all stepped back, Aspen still in the middle of the group. "I don't pity whoever has to go up against you in a fight to the death."

"We don't even know if they'll have an axe this year." Aspen started to protest.

"Then you'll figure something out." Ash insisted. "You're coming home to us, Darrow, and that's an order. Who else are we going to make fun of for being late every day?"

"And who's going to beat Ash in tree climbing races?" Cedara added.

"I don't know what I'd do without you guys," Aspen chuckled, fighting back her tears.

The room grew quiet for a moment until the door burst open again and the two Peacekeepers returned, moving to usher Aspen's friends from the room.

"Time's up," they said, pulling them from the room one by one, starting with Cedara and leaving Ash alone in the room with Aspen for a brief moment.

"Remember what you said this morning." Ash pleaded as they forced him back into the hallway. "You're not going down without a fight."

The door slammed behind them, leaving Aspen alone once more before the door opened again and her family stepped inside. Jack ran across the room, hugging Aspen tightly around her knees before she knelt down and picked up the little boy, cradling him in her arms as he buried his face in her shoulder. Ivy and Grover followed quietly behind him, and their father Tomer brought up the rear, his eyes never once leaving his youngest child's.

"I'm sorry," Aspen started, but Ivy shook her head, walking forward and pulling her younger sister into a tight hug, Jack seated between the two of them.

"Don't say that." Ivy ordered, shaking her head. "Don't say you're sorry. This is not your fault. And you are coming home to us, do you understand me?"

"I-I'll try," Aspen choked out, fighting the tears that threatened to spill again.

"You will." Ivy said, slowly stepping out of the hug before Grover stepped in, hugging her tightly.

"Go be awesome," Grover said reassuringly, "and we'll see you when you get back."

When Grover pulled out of the hug, he turned, arms wrapping tightly around his wife as she buried her face in his shoulder and began to cry. For as long as Aspen had known him, Grover had never been one to show many emotions, instead remaining stone faced as he watched the exchanges happening around him.

"My turn." Tomer said, crossing the room and pulling his daughter into his arms. "Come back to us."

As Aspen hugged her father tightly, the door opened, revealing the Peacekeepers coming to escort her family from the room. Ivy took Jack from Aspen, carrying the crying boy from the room and continuing to fight back her tears. Tomer released Aspen from his embrace, the sad parting smile on his face as the Peacekeepers each took one of his arms and began to remove him from the room.

"I'll do my best to make you proud." Aspen assured her father as he was pulled out of the room.

"You already have," he said as the door slammed shut behind him, leaving her alone in the empty room.

When the room finally opened again to reveal Sabrina waiting with a kind smile, Aspen shrugged her shoulders back and stood tall, following the woman out of the Justice Building to where a car was waiting outside. Alder was already seated in the backseat, with Peacekeepers surrounding the car to prevent him from escaping, as standard protocol since a tribute from District 2 tried to escape in once of the first few games many years before. Alder was looking out of the window facing away from Aspen and Sabrina, but turned towards them when the door opened and Sabrina climbed in first. As soon as Aspen was seated, a Peacekeeper shut the door, and the vehicle began to move.

"You two are going to love the Capitol." Sabrina chatted animatedly to the two tributes as the car began to move, but they didn't appear to have heard her, for neither of them had been paying attention, choosing instead to stare out the window as District Seven passed before them. "The food is wonderful, the parties are divine... and your living quarters, they're about to be spectacular!"

Aspen watched as the forested area passed by in a blur from inside the car. Paths she'd worn through her entire life and knew like the back of her hand were growing further and further away, and the impending sense that she might not get to see them again continued to creep up on her the closer they got to the train station. Aspen had only been in a moving vehicle a few times, when she got to tag along with Ivy and Grover to move the trucks full of lumber to the factories.

When the car rounded the corner and the train came into view, Aspen's breath caught in her throat. The train seemed endless, stretching out before her as far as the eye could see. The car pulled to a stop and Sabrina thanked the driver as Peacekeepers opened both backseat doors and escorted Aspen and Alder from the vehicle and onto the train.

"Here we go," Alder muttered, the first words Aspen had heard him speak since their names were pulled at the Reaping. "the seventy-third Hunger Games have begun."