The confining air of district eleven seemed to tighten further on reaping day. So much so Mahli thought it might snap, that people would begin to gasp for air.
But they already were.
Terrified.
Terrified of their name. Terrified that it would be chosen. For their name to kill them.
For the hunger games.
Mahli stared glassily at the sky. She couldn't help but notice how nice the day was, they way the sun shone to maintain a perfect balance of warmth and light. A perfect equilibrium.
It was such a shame that death clung to the air like shadows to the night.
Mahli faintly felt Azalea shake as she came to stand beside her. The reaping was almost upon them now. They stood like cattle to the slaughter in the marked zone awaiting the verdict of this years district elevens tributes. Or so she imagined- district eleven only knew cattle from the slabs of meat at the butcher's shop.
Mahli grasped her hand and smiled gently at her as she brushed her finger along the seam of the long sleeved cotton dress she was wearing. Azalea wasn't much older than Mahli only by a year or two, though the age showed clearly on her face.
Mahli couldn't ever remember seeing her shake so much since Royen; her boyfriend, was murdered in the hunger games two years ago. When she had been just Mahli's age.
Mahli remembered the way she had practically fallenw over the wooden box he had been returned to district eleven in and wept and clawed it as if that could bring her any satisfaction. How he was still clutching the token Azalea had given him before he had left for the Capitol.
When he promised he would return.
It was one of the hairpins she always wore, green like the leaves... It was still there; even in death he clutched the last piece of Azalea with cold bloody hands.
Her strangled cries stayed with most of the district in the night, reminding them of the decimation the games left in their wake of the dead.
Azalea had never been the same. She stared off into the distance like a glass ornament and everyone in the district seemed to walk around on eggshells just waiting for her to break.
Besides Mahli, Royen was practically all Azalea had besides a few cousins in the area.
The reaping had begun and Mahli had been wrong about the air. In the very moment when the Capitol woman with strange colored hair and feathers reached into the bowl with perfectly manicured fingers all the air in the world disappeared.
It just vanished.
And then there is a wave of self-relief and pity for the name that is called, the name that isn't yours. The name of the girl you've known for years in classes, whom you occasionally shared idle chitchat with.
The young boy that you frown at in the market as he ditched a rock at pigeon in the square.
And then they would die.
Vanish from existence.
And the district would move on with their lives, for what else was there to do?
Unless; you were one of the unlucky ones. The ones who loved those who left and never to return. Like Royen or Mahli's mother.
Mahli wondered whether the woman could feel the eminent death as she grasped the small piece of paper in her fingers. She took this moment to watch the expression of those around her; she watched the air and light leave every person's eyes in that single moment. That painful moment she had been enduring since she was twelve and not even for herself.
She hadn't even registered what happened when Azalea's name was called until she heard her gasp and grasp her hand tighter.
Mahli watched as the sea of people around them stepped back leaving Mahli and Azalea alone. Her hand was grasped tighter as if she feared Mahli would leave her as well. If she would ever live long enough to look back on that day, Mahli would think that it was in that exact moment she knew.
As Azalea clung to her hand pleadingly in despair. As she watched the light leave Azaleas eyes, as she watched the air being siphoned from all around her.
A life flashed before her eyes- but it wasn't clear just who's life she was seeing.
She watched Royen die.
Her father spoke about her mother with distant painful eyes that screamed every time he thought she was t looking.
The memories strangle her until it is impossible to breath.
"I volunteer." she found herself saying as the peacekeepers approached to take Azalea away. Away to die. Away from her.
Mahli knew her fate.
Her fate had been sealed for years.
This wouldn't change anything. If anything it might give her short insignificant life some purpose.
If she couldn't save herself she was going to save Azalea.
She couldn't stand the pain in her eyes any longer as every image of Azalea Mahli processed in her memory assaulted her. Azalea helping her up as child, bandaging her scraped leg and scaring away bullies. How looking at her now was so different. Like she couldn't even see that strong little girl in the hollow version of her friend anymore.
It was Mahli turn to help her. It was what she deserved.
"I volunteer as tribute," she says louder with more confidence as she tried to shove off a peacekeeper that was holding Azaleas arm.
She looked back at Azalea who seemed to be somewhere else, probably with Royen.
Mahli was lead about half way to the stage before Azalea seemed to snap out of her daze and protest. Mahli clasped her eyes shut tightly as she heard Azalea wail, loud and painful like when Royen died.
In her daze after climbing the stairs to the podium she heard the Capitol lady vaguely say something about volunteering and watched as Royen's brother Michael hold Azalea back with confused and pained eyes.
"A volunteer how strange in such a... District." the woman settled on.
"What's your name dear?"
Mahli barely realized she was being spoken to, "Mahli day." she said slowly blinking at the sunlight. The sun blinded her and it seemed more menacing and hot now. The balance was wrong.
The crowd remained silent in admiration and confusion as to why a young girl volunteered for a friend... when others wouldn't even think of volunteering for their own blood.
"Well lets give a warm welcome to district eleven's volunteer Miss Mahli Day." the woman spoke cheerily as she clapped her perfect hands that were soaked in death together in an awkward motion.
The people of district eleven couldn't seem to bring themselves to attempt the gesture, as all that could be heard over the sea of people was Azalea's heart wrenching cries.
The cries the people of district eleven had heard before.
And then. Not a single person couldn't understand her need to volunteer in her place as tribute.
"You can't cry when you say goodbye. If I let you in there alone you have to promise me you won't break down like at the reaping."
Mahli heard the muffled noises of Michael speaking to presumably Azalea through the thick wooden door of the justice building.
Mahli felt relief that Royen's brother would be able to at least keep an eye on Azalea when she was gone. But ever since the reaping Mahli thought she had been to late in stopping Azalea from cracking open like a walnut.
She couldn't even imagine how she would react when she died.
The door opened and Azalea stood next to Michael who couldn't seem to look Mahli in the eye.
"Do you need-" he began.
"No well be fine, she'll be fine." Mahli confirmed over the top of his words as he nodded and left quickly.
"Why did you do that!" Azalea said angrily gripping at her sleeves as her arms remains tightly crossed.
"You know why. I promised." Mahli said simply not even flinching at her words.
"That doesn't mean I'll let you die for me! I don't care that you're- it doesn't make it okay." Azalea whispered harshly before she took in a large breath to stop the tears from flowing again.
"I'll make sure I die as painlessly as possible. it's more than can be said for the alternative." Mahli stated in what she thought was reassurance.
"You're not even going to try?" Azalea whispered angrily.
"Do you want me to?"
"What kind of question is that? I don't want you to die period!" Azalea shouted, even more enraged at her friend's current complacency.
As if she didn't know Mahli had always been complacent about death.
"But you already knew I was going to-"
"It's not the same! Dying for sport in front of everyone. It's not you. Not the way you wanted it." Azalea tried to rationalize with her pulling at her hair in a manic manner.
"But I want you to be alive more than anything else. You always promised me you'd live enough for both of us." Mahli stated quietly.
"Times up!" a peacekeeper's voice rang loudly over them before Azalea panicked clutching to her.
"I'm not ready for you to leave me!" Mahli heard her shout as they took her from the room. It was even worse than the crying.
Just as Mahli thought she might cry herself Michael appeared.
"Michael shouldn't you be looking after Azalea," Mahli began to ask looking worriedly at the door.
"Why are you doing this?" he demanded grasping her shoulders suddenly as his eyes stared deeply into her own and hers widened in surprise.
"I could have volunteered for Royen you know-"
"Michael I-"
"But I didn't. I was older. I was his older brother and all I could do was hold Azalea and our mother as he died. She's not even- and You're not even- I-I just. Please HELP me. Help me understand this..." he choked out his eyes pleading.
But she couldn't tell him.
"I couldn't watch her die." Mahli finished in an odd sense of honesty.
"So you think she can watch as you? She's already dead Mahli!"
Michael left then, without looking back at her. His anger still remained heavy in the air in his wake. But Mahli couldn't tell if it was still directed at her or himself. 'He'd carry that anger with him forever' she thought sadly.
Mahli saw her father lastly, his grey eyes and hair softened as they embraced for the last time. All of the life was gone from him.
"Now I'll have no one," he whispered hoarsely after a few moments.
"But you already knew that." Mahli choked out still holding him.
"You know that's not the same... Brave though what you did for Azalea. She wouldn't have been able to handled It," he adds holding her at arms length his eyes far away now.
"I don't think she is, even now." Mahli added worriedly and she felt her father clutch her tighter in reassurance that he would look after Azalea.
Mahli shed her first and only tears when her father told her that death would be scary and that he now wouldn't be able to be there when it happened.
Mahli wondered if he had felt some kind of relief. Relieved that he wouldn't have to hold her for those weeks while she faded so slowly. Like her mother had before her. Alone. When her bones would protruded from her skin, when her breath slowly left her body for its final time. That nothing would be able to fix her, not all the salve or medicine would cure what she had inherited.
Mahli sometimes wondered if the disease was the only thing she inherited from her mother.
She had always known she was going to die but she never thought the cause of it would be the hunger games.
Mahli was unsettling to her team.
It was probably to do with her acceptance.
The other boy form her district was rocking beside her. He seemed younger than her by a few years and she felt a pang of pity for him.
He had his whole life ahead of him.
Unlike her.
Mahli was already going to die.
A/N: So did you like it? I know the chapters not super long but I've written more stuff, Should I continue it? Please review and tell me what you think