The Quell

Part 1: The Announcement

I glance over at my dad, his body sprawled out
across the couch, whiskey in hand. I'm sitting on the dilapidated sofa chair that sits in the corner of our small two-room shed-like house. I grimace as he snores and fumes from the alcohol travel throughout the small makeshift living room.

Rolling my eyes slightly, I push myself up on the seat and watch the small, scratched up TV screen intently. It clicks on automatically, like all the TV's and Holos in Panem do whenever there's mandatory viewing. After a second of static, the screens shifts to a man with graying hair, and snake-like eyes that confidently look out at the crowd of Capitol citizens. He's wearing a blood red velvet suit, with a black collar, and his lips, as usual, are bright and puffy. Even through the screen of this old TV, just looking at him gives you a feeling of uneasiness, of terror. His gaze doesn't falter, and he's so composed that you start to wonder if he's even a real person. President Coriolanus Snow. I watch intently as the music fades out and a Capitol official dressed in white steps up and hands a small, polished, wooden box to the man.

Without a word, Snow elegantly flips the box open to reveal hundreds of cards of writing, all of them yellowing with time. He picks up the second one in line - the one that holds the rule change for this years Hunger Games. And for the second Quarter Quell. Snow glances down at the card that he's delicately pinching between his thumb and index finger. When he looks back up, he seems pleased, his puffy lips sets in a slightly upward curving line. His voice comes booming over the TVs small speakers, filling the room. "To show the rebels that there is no limit to the Capitol's power," he takes a dramatic pause as his eyes sweep the square full of eager Capitol citizens. "The amount of tributes that each District will provide will be twice the amount of tributes per usual." The audience in the Capitol collectively gasps and immediately begins to murmur with excitement. 50 tributes. 25 more dead tributes this year. 25 more dead kids.