Thresh's POV

The heat in the square was blistering; the cloudless sky and blazing sun coupled with the hundreds of tightly packed bodies turned the square into an oven. The crowd of eighteen year olds around me jostled for position, craning their necks to see the stage that had been set up outside the Justice building, upon which stood the mayor and the previous Victors. Everyone's soft murmurs to each other created an almost deafening layer of sound over the square, each conversation blurring with the others. However, the mood was blacker than the noise suggested- after all, it was a reaping. At least one person in the crowd would be dead before the month was out.

The escort, a garishly dressed woman with her hair piled into a tower atop her head who I recalled to be named Perisa, coughed once and the whole square's attention focused on her. The microphone echoed the sound throughout the square and when she spoke her piercing voice reverberated through my head. I let my mind drift as she spoke, letting the words drift past me and float away on the breeze.

I only jolted back to reality when I heard the distinctive ring of nails against glass- the first name was being pulled. I held my breath in a silent prayer; please not Elsa. Please. My sister was all I had left of my family, apart from my grandmother who was nearly senile. Her mind seemed gone most of the time but sometimes she snapped back to reality and I caught a glimpse of the woman who had raised two children alone… but that only lasted minutes. Most of the time she was simply empty, a husk of a woman.

The squeal of feedback from the microphone nearly masked the Perisa's words but through the noise I could just make out a name.

"Sinnia Carell!"

A girl a few rows in front of me dropped to the ground, white as a sheet. Gasps ran through the crowd and a few sighs too- a tribute who fainted at the Reaping was nearly always a bloodbath.

Two peacekeepers began to push their way through the crowd to revive the unconscious tribute and bring her up to the stage but they halted when a voice called from across the Square.

"I'm Sinnia."

I turned to see the source of the noise along with most of the crowd and probably most of the Capitol viewers, and saw a girl, probably my age or a little younger, stood in a gap in the crowd of teenagers, who had parted like the red sea when she spoke.

She was tall with a complexion akin to that of Seeder, the only female Victor from 11, and skinny to the point of ugliness. Her face wasn't much to look at: sharp, catlike features and mud brown eyes but what cemented it in my memory was the expression she wore. It was somewhere between a snarl and a smirk- the look of lioness as its prey struggled underneath its paw. It was a look that meant danger.

The escort beamed, showing teeth so white they were blinding as she beckoned Sinnia towards the stage.

"This way, Darling!"

Sinnia sauntered up to the stage amidst the murmurs and whispers of the crowd. The escort was still smiling widely as she climbed the steps and took her place in front of the previous Victors. She still wore the curious expression she'd had when her name was called, but that didn't stop the escort grabbing her hand and shaking it. Sinnia didn't return the handshake. Instead, she curled her lip in a look of disgust and pulled her and out of the escorts. The escorts face fell and she pulled away and strode over to the second glass bowl containing the boys names.

I tensed, my hands clenching into fists as she pulled the slip of paper out the bowl and opened it slowly. I sent up my prayers again- with the tesserae and my age, I had 28 entries in there.

The escort held the paper up to the sunlight to read it, studying it with what seemed like deliberate slowness, as though she was trying to draw it out. Finally, she smiled and lent towards the microphone to speak:

"Thresh Oaks."

I managed to pull my face into a mask of indifference before taking a step towards the stage. The short walk seemed agonisingly slow and I could feel the burn of hundreds of gazes upon me as I pushed through the crowd. The escort's smile seemed like a sneer now and her eyes unfriendly.

My heart pounding, I climbed the stairs to the makeshift stage and turned to face the crowd.

The escort grabbed my hand and pumped it vigorously but I didn't shake back. Instead, I gazed out over the square for what might have been my last glance of my home. Hundreds of blank faces stared back up at me, both familiar and unfamiliar, but none of them register through the mist that seemed to cloud my thoughts.

I could vaguely feel a hand on my shoulder- from the glimpse I caught of pink talons it was most likely Perisa's-on my shoulder guiding me towards Sinnia, who looked at me like I was a bug she wished to squash, and shook my hand as loosely as was physically possible, and a smattering of applause as we turned to face the crowds.

The blood rushed through my head and I closed my eyes against a sudden avalanche of fear.

So that was the first chapter! I want to say thanks to my amazing betas, AndItsGonnaBeTotallyAwesome and .Dauntless. You two are amazing, no joke.

I don't really have anything else to say except- Review! Oh, and I hope you liked it.