Blood.
The thick and heavy substance covered the field, all the way to the bodies piled up carelessly in the middle of the clearing.
Such innocent lives, taken from their homes, never to come home.
And there was me, standing in the midst of it all. Covered in red, knife in hand.
Trumpets played throughout the arena, the cheering of the Capitol deafening me as I fell to my knees.
"Ladies and gentlemen! The Victor of the 89th annual Hunger Games, Hannah Jackson!" The cheers of the all mighty capitol echoed through my ears as I waited for the hovercraft to come and take me away from this.
But the hovercraft never showed up.
After what I could only imagine as ten minutes passed, one by one the lifeless tributes picked themselves up from the pile and dragged their unrecognisable and lifeless bodies to where I had fallen.
I screamed, trying to wretch myself of the bloodied ground, but I couldn't move, I couldn't move as they ripped me to shreds, all the while the Capitol were still cheering.
For my dead body.
I shot up, away from my nightmare and looked around.
I was still in my bed, breathing heavily from the dream I'm stuck with every night.
And then I remembered, today is the day.
The reaping of the 89th Hunger Games.
-...-
After about an hour of staring at the old, crumbly ceiling, I get up and walked out to the small kitchen of our small house, getting a small breakfast of stale bread and taking a small amount of time to gather the water for my bath.
We did have a good amount of money, well, in district twelve standards. Most of our money comes from my mothers job as a healer, I even got to learn some things from the disfigured miners that come to our house at least once a week.
There was the small amount of contribution from me selling some of the herbs I gathered that mother doesn't need, even the occasional rabbit from my half decent snares. But I don't go over the top and hunt other things like squirrels or wild turkeys.
As soon as I'm dry, I move to he bedroom-careful not to wake my sleeping mother - and pull on my reaping outfit. A black blouse, a maroon and black plaid skirt, black stockings and black boots. I then wake my mother, and once she's ready we head to the square.
She parts ways with me to get a place in the spectators area, so I'm left with my own thoughts as I wait to sign in.
I'm shaken from my thoughts when the children from the community centre arrive, blank looks on their faces accompany the red marks on each of their faces. I can't help but stare at the smallest girl who couldn't of been older than twelve, shaking in her dress-that was to big on her.
"Stop shaking you little brat!" The women leading them hissed, grabbing her small wrist and smacking the child on the hand. The girl let out a small whimper before lining up behind me.
"It feels like a pinch, nothing more." I whisper down at her. She looks up at me with tears in her eyes. "You've got the smallest chance of being chosen."
She looks taken back by the fact that I had spoken to her, but spoke anyway.
"Miss Blackburn makes us take tesserae to get extra food... I think I'll get chosen." She says quietly, looking up at me hopefully. I kneel down to her height and look her straight in the eye. Is it weird I want to save this small child from the harsh reality of the games?
"I promise you on my life, that you won't get chosen, and I don't like braking promises." I tell her truthfully, putting my index finger on the place her heart is.
"Really?"
"Really." I smile at her, and I see what seems to be hope fill those grey Seam eyes. "My names, Hannah Jackson."
"Holly Greener."
I hear the capitol attendant call next, and I realise it's my turn. I give Holly one last reassuring squeeze of the hand and sign in, moving into the pen of 17-year-old-girls.
The mayor starts all of his Treaty of Treason crap, but I find myself glaring at the Capitol representative. Ellie Trinket, daughter of the famous Effie Trinket. She wears a dress filled with every colour imaginable, like a perfectly white dress was smashed with a painters cupboard. Her wig was painfully white, the same with her shoes and jewellery.
I sneak a glance behind me and finally think I see the small face I was looking for(I'm supposed to wear glasses, but my sight doesn't seem to beat putting food on the table on my list of needs) I give her a quick nod before turning back to see Ellie making her way to the front.
I try my best to block out most of her speech as her voice was worse that all Capitol members combined. Although I just can't block out the sentence I've been dreading since I was first entered into the reaping.
"As always, ladies first."
She takes a painfully long time to pick a name from the thousands in the bowl, but finally pulls a pristine white slip from the clear glass. I stand there, eyes closed, waiting for my name to be called.
But it wasn't.
It's Holly Greener.
