Tales of the Hunger Games

Cassius Heath: The Reaping

I was packed into a ring, packed against numerous other children, all around my age, from my district. My best friend from my grade, Cicer, was on the other side of the pen, being jumbled around with the rest of our anxious classmates. I made eye contact with him, but he avoided me. He had always been timid. Now, however, his eyes were wide and his body ready to bolt. I held back a dark laugh. If he was called and he ran away, they would catch him quick and easy.

A Capitol woman, who had arrived a few hours earlier, at the break of dawn, stepped up onto the stage. She was accompanied by men with dangerous looking guns and armor. Dressed in a long golden gown, glittering with rhinestones, her golden hair done in complex, elegant loops and knots, she looked starkly out of place among the rest of us, in our plain shirts and trousers.

After making a long, drawn out speech, explaining once again why the 'barbarous' districts were being subjected to such a harsh punishment, the woman called for the reaping bowls to be brought forth. Two large bowls, hefted by two more of her guards, were placed on two small tables in front of her on the stage. They were clear glass, and filled with thousands of small slips of paper. I stared, knowing that as a sixteen year old, my name would be in there multiple times.

As the woman shuffled around in the girls' bowl, I saw many worried mothers stretching up on their heels to catch their childrens' eyes. I saw my mother looking for me, but I looked away.

The woman withdrew a slip over paper, and shouted a name over the crowd. The crowd, loud with worried cries, rose in volume. I strained my ears. Who had gotten called? I was not able to make out the name.

"Perena Towner!" The woman called once again, shouting once again, this time louder. Her voice was high and squeaky. "Perena Towner?"

The crowd grew grimly silent, though relieved sighs could still be heard echoing throughout the square.

Then, a piercing wail broke the silence. A thin man, dressed plainly, shoved his way through the crowd of adults, and pushed through the rope that seperated him from the children. As he was attempting to push through the ribbon that led into the girls' pen, the Capitol woman's guards surged forward, restraining him. They dragged him away as a girl, slightly younger than me, pushed her way towards him. "Daddy!" She called out "Daddy!"

"Perena!" The Capitol woman shouted. "Please come up to the stage."

When the girl remained at the edge of the pen, clutching the ribbon with bloodless, white fingers and screeching for her father. A guard grabbed her around the waist from behind, and hoisted her up, carrying the bawling girl like a misbehaving toddler up to the stage. He then put down the kicking child. "Stay." He commanded, his voice unnaturally deep.

The girl sunk to the ground, hugging her knees to her chest with her arms, whispering to herself. Her father was gone, nowhere in sight.

The Capitol woman composed herself. "Okay then! After that interesting performance... Now for the boys' reaping!" She reached her long, slim fingers into the other clear bowl, and after intense moments of her shaking her hand in circles inside of the bowl, she withdrew another slip of paper.

She then called out, in her high voice, "Cassius Heath!"

What? Me? All those names and she chose me?

I was going to die.

Then a realization came upon me. I did not have to die.

I had to win. I could win. I was strong.

Though I wanted to hunch down, instead I stood up, betraying my instincts. Ignoring the cries of my parents, the desperate looks my friends shot me, I strode forward, chin up, confident. I climbed up the stage, not even sparing a glance at Perena, rocking on the ground.

"Cassius!" The Capitol woman chirped. "Do you know Perena?"

"No." District Two was a big place.

"Well, then! Now is your time to meet! Shake hands with your district partner!"

I held out a hand, angled down, towards Perena. After a few moments, she took it, grasping my fingers as if they were her lifeline, and looking up at me hopefully. I still avoided her eyes. Only one person could win these Games.

And that one person would be me.