Moonlark

Tribute

Sophie straightened her tunic and turned to tighten the bow on her sisters curly brown hair.

"No reason to worry, right?" Amy laughed at the quote. Della Vacker, the announcer of the hunger games had a catchphrase. 'There will always be a reason to worry.'

"I don't know about this year." Sophie had entered 64 times to get ration cards for the family, including their cat Marty, whom Amy had taken in out of pity. The odds weren't exactly in her favor. 

"You'll be fine, I promise." 

"Go get the door Soybean." Sophie playfully rolled her eyes at the endearingly annoying nickname and opened the rickety door to reveal a figure masked by a black cloak. The stranger pressed a pin into her hand, and the sharp needle drew a single drop of crimson blood.

"Keep it with you." Sophie hesitantly nodded, fingering the small metal bird. A swan. A black swan.

Sophie looked up and the person was gone. Amy grabbed her hand and pulled Sophie along into the straight lines of citizens, reluctantly letting go to stand by her age group. She was afraid. They all were.

"Welcome to the seventy-fourth annual hunger games. Do enjoy these lovely histories." Della Vacker hit a button on the podium and the yearly video played. The bloodshed, chaos, the Capital standing over the bodies in victory, a white eye emblazoned on their leaders arm, encircled with a ring of snowy stitches. "Lets begin with the boys!" Della swished her hand around in the glass fishbowl filled with slips of paper. "Dexter Alvin Dizznee! Don't be shy darling!" A strawberry blond boy trudged up to the stage, facing his inevitable demise. It was only a matter of time. Dexter Dizznee...the bakers son! "As for the girls..." Della stretched the silence out, building ambience and suspense for the rich Capitol viewers. "Amy Rose Foster!" 

A guttural scream ripped through Sophie, the guards holding her back as she clawed at the sky.

"I volunteer! I volunteer as tribute!"