The Way We Fall

Chapter One - Do

        I bring my legs up to my chest and wrap my arms tightly around them. "How could this have happened?" I think rocking back  and forth, my back slightly brushing the head of the bed. Soon after the train departed from District Twelve, I had followed Effie, Peeta and I's, maniacally upbeat escort to my room and barricaded myself in to consider my situation . I am going into the Hunger Games.

        It is very simple really; twenty-four go in, and only one comes out. But what happens in between; the murders that the Capitol, the people who run our country Panem and the districts, cheer on. They are forcing us to fight to the death and every second this train is moving, the closer we get to the Capitol where they can stuff and treat us like prizes before they throw us together to slaughter one another. 

        I could be dead in moments, never able to return to District Twelve and see my little sister Prim and my best-friend Gale again. The thought almost makes me cry, but then I realize I can't, this is neither the place nor time to cry, Effie told me to ready myself for dinner when she showed me to my room. 

        Letting out the shaky breath I didn't seem to know I was holding, I fill my lungs with air. The air on the train is different from that in the Seam of District Twelve. In the Seam, the air is filled with a sort heaviness that I have grown accustomed to. Anyone from the outside looking in would only see the dead part of down where only the poor live, but one who is from the Seam would feel how the Seam really is alive in its own way. But the Tribute train only carries an air of grimness, foolishly unnoticed by the Capitol idiots that actually take pleasure in the death of innocent children. 

        "Katniss, come on dear. It's time for dinner!" Effie yells knocking on door. Ugh, how can she constantly warble and smile when she is preparing Peeta and I for our deaths? What does she do all day besides altering her appearance and going on and on about manners and how lucky we are to be tributes in the games? How is it honorable to be slaughtered with your family and the rest of the entire nation watching? What part of murdering innocent children is alright? But I guess in the eyes and ears of the Capitol and its people, none of it would ever matter. 

        Everything the Capitol does is to keep the districts in line, to create fear in the eyes of its people. How can one go against another and win, when there is no one bold enough to fight. Of course officially, the Hunger Games are the punishment for the districts rebellion against the Capitol. The thirteen district rose up to take down the Capitol but in the end it wasn't the rebels who prevailed. In return for the uprising, each district was to give one girl and one boy between the ages of twelve and eighteen, to fight to the death until a lone victor remains. Twelve districts were devastated, the thirteenth was obliterated. 

        I unwrap my arms from my legs and rise to walk to dinner. No matter how I feel my chances are in the games, it definitely won't hurt to put on a few pounds. After I walk the short way to the dining car I am met with the pungent odor of alcohol the moment I step into the room. I don't even have to look to know it is Haymitch; he carries a cloud that reeks of spirits and unwashed flesh wherever he goes. 

    Wrinkling my nose and holding my breath, I slide into the seat next to Peeta and am immediately served a meal large enough to keep mine and Gale's family going for months.  A thick carrot soup, puffy rolls, green salad, ham and sweet potatoes, a chocolate cake, and many more foods that I can hardly describe are placed before me in courses. I am stuffing myself because I have never had so much food like this; so good and so much. All the while, Effie keeps saying to save room since there is more to come. 

   Just when I feel full enough to explode, I sit back and take in my Dinner Companions. Peeta is still eating, while Haymitch is knocking back what appears to be water. But judging from the smell it's obviously alcohol. Effie is going on and on about how beautiful the Capitol will be when we arrive there in the morning. One more night. It seems from where I sit now, that one night is all I have. It's all the time I have before I'm to be shipped off to be pampered and mussed over for the ever waiting cameras that are surely waiting in the capitol.

      One more night.

       Marvel

    I don't know what the fuck I'm doing. The train ride is quickly turning into a place for a mental breakdown to take place on my part. Not in seven days will I be carted off into an arena filled with twenty-three other tributes. Five of them as close to blood thirsty monsters while still being physically human. Though I may be from District One, I've never been one for combat. Sure, I went to training, but only for my family to receive the weekly payment for my participation. It was either training or the sapphire minds. Huh, lap of luxury my ass.

      But I should be grateful - it's going to be me in there instead of my little brother or sister. Then again, me being gone isn't exactly better on their part. Our father, Mason, is a slap-happy drunk. If I'm not their to block the punches, who else will? I hold my head in my hands. What am I going to do? But the answer is as clear as day.

    Get home. Kill 'em all and get home.