Manouver the Trident

A/N::

Hey, so this is the first story I've posted in a long time. I really hope you like it but if you don't, sorry. My chapters aren't long but I put loads of effort into them. I don't update often, either. Oh, and if you don't like my story type, too bad. Don't read it then. Simple, right?

This is a Hunger Games fan fiction. I hope to Buddha this isn't counted as copyright. Haha. Anyway, credit to the amazing Suzanne Collins for creating such wonderful characters and a magnificent trilogy. Hats off to you, Suzanne.

I love constructive criticism but I don't like hate. Please keep from posting nasty things. Not just here, either. Anywhere at all.

I'm a total peacekeeper. (ha, see what I did there? HG REFERENCE!)

So here goes. Enjoy.

✧Manouver the Trident♔

♚chapter one✸

✧♚♔✸

I'm nervous. More nervous than I've ever been in my life. Today is the day of the reaping. It's hard knowing that I could be chosen to take part in the annual games. Being forced to kill others around my age that I've never met before. . . well let's just say even the thought is hard.

It's not fair how the Capitol has held the Hunger Games every year. It's not fair how people are losing their children for the entertainment of our rulers. It sickens me how they bet on who's lives will be lost and who's wont.

But fame is glory and many people want it. A chance at a better life instead of the hard one we already have here in the districts. I've been trained, since I could swim, for this. I'm only fourteen but I've had practice in the art of murder for eleven years. I'm fluent with a trident but I'm also a good shot with knives. I'm not amazing but I'm good compared to the people who live in districts where they don't train. Like 12, for example.

Mother has laid out a deep blue shirt and black trousers for me. She's also spread out on her bed a green summer dress for Evelyn. It would complement her beautiful eyes.

Three years ago we had lost Evelyn to the hand of a District 1 boy. She was reaped to participate in the Hunger Games that year. She had naturally made allies with the other Career tributes, from 1, 2 and the other from 4. When only four other non-Career tributes were left, the District 1 boy slit his allie's throats. Evelyn was the second victim.

It was terrible, watching as my sister died at the young age of fifteen. It was also hard knowing my mother was falling apart quicker than she was before. When my father died, mother would cry all the time. She was broken into a million pieces. Eventually, she started to mend as the years went by.

Slowly, ever so slowly, her pieces were being put back together. When Evelyn was killed, murdered, her whole world collapsed again. Her bits came unstuck and shattered. She's never been and never will be the same since that unfaithful day Father drowned.

Out to work, he was. Fishing like always. Bringing seafood to the people who shipped the loads to the trains. The trains that went straight to the Capitol. We get the bad fish. Whatever wasn't good enough for the people of the Capitol was brought back to the home of whoever found or caught it. I'm almost certain that people in the lower districts think we get good meals. How wrong they are. I guess it's true that we probably get more to eat, but it's not necessarily good food.

Sometimes my father would purposefully damage a good fish. Just enough to be rejected. He'd always come home after a long and hard day with a few fish and we'd cook them and eat them for dinner.

But one night he didn't come home. We waited, we did. Hours went by and no sign of our jovial father. Mother was terribly worried so she sent me to the place where Father worked and I searched for him. I couldn't find him. I went up to the site supervisor and asked him, 'Where's my dad?'

The man just shook his head, a pained expression written across his face, and handed me a piece of paper. The paper was all folded up and I could see the little bits of green entwined in the white. It's District 4's special paper. It means something really good or really bad is written there.

When I opened the delicate paper the first words I read were 'I'm very sorry to inform you'. I couldn't bear to read the rest without Mother and Evelyn by my side. I didn't want to find out what had happened alone.

I quickly closed the letter and ran home. It wasn't a long way to go but since I was the bearer of bad news, it seemed further away. What was usually one and a half miles, felt like four. When I came barging through the front door I saw Mother and Evelyn sitting in chairs staring at nothing and looking glum. As soon as they heard me come in, they came into focus.

I started to read.

"I'm sorry to inform you that Mr Odair has passed. He was down by the water, diving for oysters. When he didn't come back up for a few minutes, a work mate jumped in and looked for him. They found him floating in the water. It's suspected he hit his head and went unconscious. He then died. I'm truly sorry about this terrible accident. Sincerely, Mayor Sanlan."

When I finished, everyone was silent. A minute passed and it felt like we were all frozen. Then came the heart wrenching cries from my mother.

When Evelyn died, Mother's depression came all over her again. If I was reaped, I don't think Mother could survive. She'd fall in such a deep and dark place where she couldn't be contacted. She'd be worse than just crying and doing nothing. She'd be worse than being uncommunicative.

She'd be part of the living dead.

✧♚♔✸