The Twilight Games

"Bella," Edward whispered softly. "Wake up. I have to hunt, and then we need to get ready for the Reaping."

I sat up and rubbed the sleep from my eyes.

"Good morning." I said sleepily to my heavenly vampire husband. Edward smiled and helped me out of bed.

"Stay here, love. I'll be back in a few minutes." He said over his shoulder as he ran out of the crappy house with inhuman speed. I quickly got dressed into a chalky blue dress. Edward had bought it for me yesterday. It smelled new; like pine and cotton. The dress was short sleeved and the pleated skirt came down to my knees. The collar of it was folded down neatly and the chest was buttoned up. I admired myself in the mirror for a moment until I realized what my hair looked like. I found an ivory comb by the bed and pulled it through my tangled brown hair. After it was smoothed out, I braided the chocolate brown locks with care. I tied it with a white ribbon and pushed it away from my shoulder so that it fell down my back.

"I'm back." Edward said nervously as he walked back into the dumb shack. I felt bad for him. He used to live in a mansion, could have anything, but gave it all away instead. But ever since North America was turned into Panem, all of his riches were taken away and given to the Capitol. Carlisle had moved to Asia with the rest of the Cullens, where it was still the same. Edward, on the other hand, stayed with me in Panem. I don't even know why. We had no money. Not that I cared. Edward put on a white dress shirt and some nice khaki shorts.

"What are you going to do about the blood taking?" I asked him. I wasn't worried that he might go crazy. I was worried about his blood, which he didn't have. What was the Capitol going to do when they found out that he had no blood? Or worse; what if they found out that he wasn't even human? I peeked up at Edward's face through my lashes.

"Maybe I'll just..." He trailed off. He wasn't sure what to do. I had to help him.

"You can take some of my blood!" I told him, faking my enthusiasm for him.

"I can't. They'll identify it."

"...Oh! I know! You could just give them your spit and change its color to red with something!" I winced at my unintelligible words while Edward chuckled.

"So, use my saliva and put food coloring in it to use as fake blood?" He asked me with my favorite crooked smile. I looked down. "I guess..."

"That's a good idea, love. Don't be embarrassed." He spit into a small paper bowl and set it down on the splintery, wooden table and searched around the house.

"What are you looking for, Edward?"

"Some red food coloring..." he replied, not even looking at me. He opened some drawers.

"That still exists?!" I asked, completely dumbfounded. I wasn't used to this. I wasn't born in Panem. I was born in North America. The real one.

"Yes...I found it!" Edward took a small white tube out of a drawer and squeezed it into his saliva. In my opinion, I thought it was pretty gross. But I didn't say anything. Edward mixed it together with a toothpick until it became thick and dark.

"It looks pretty real to me." He said.

I opened my mouth to beg him to change me before the games started, just in case, but I was interrupted by the Reaping horn. Edward looked at me worriedly and flung me onto his back.

"Don't worry." He said as we raced off to the Reaping at an impossible speed.

This was my first time at a Reaping. Usually, you start at the innocent age of 11. But I'm from an "older" generation, as the Capitol says. We signed in with the blood taking and lined up. Edward had to go off to the boy's side. After my many almost-death situations in the past, I felt unprotected as he left my side. An odd looking woman with poofy pale pink hair and a sparkly hot pink outfit tapped the mic. The giant television monitor next to her introduced her as Effie Trinket.

"Happy hunger games!" She said in a high-pitched British accent. "And may the odds be ever in your favor." She showed us a pointless video and walked over to one of the gigantic bowls on either side of her.

"Ladies first!" She shoved her hand inside the bowl and rummaged around the folded papers with innocent children's names on them. She picked one up and I anxiously watched her unfold it.

"Primrose Everdeen!" Effie shouted into the microphone. I watched sadly as a small blonde girl slowly made her way to the stage. An older brunette girl, who looked around 15 or 16, ran up to the stage.

"I volunteer!" She yelled, obviously about to cry. "I volunteer as tribute." I just couldn't bear to watch this. You could tell they were sisters. I couldn't let either one of them die. I ran up to the stage too, my braid swaying side to side on my back.

"No, I volunteer." I bravely said. I looked around in the boy's crowd and saw Edward's look of pain. I quickly turned my head away from him because I knew that I was about to cry too.

"Ooo! Drama, drama!" Effie said excitedly. I smiled half-heartedly at the brunette as I passed her and walked up onto the stage.

"What is your name?" Effie asked me, showering her strawberry scented breath all over my face.

"Bella Cullen." My voice cracked as I said it. I swallowed the lump in my throat. Effie gave me what seemed to be a genuine look of pity and shoved her hand inside the boy's glass bowl. She picked a piece of paper that was at the top of the pile and read it. "Peeta Mellark!" She said. A blonde boy with a fearful look on his face, walked up to the stage. I heard a familiar voice shout, "I volunteer!" I looked over to Edward and frowned. He didn't have to volunteer too. But I knew he would be okay. I wasn't so sure about me.

I waited inside the large room. Why did I volunteer? I didn't know them, yet, I helped them. Edward was probably rubbing off on me. Suddenly, the door flew open and the brunette girl walked inside with her younger blonde sister, Primrose.

"Thank you." The brunette said, her voice cracking. "I'm Katniss. Katniss Everdeen."

"It's okay, really. I'll be fine." I told Katniss, faking a smile. Primrose burst into tears.

"If only I didn't get chosen!" She said between sobs. Katniss patted her head and told her that it wasn't her fault that she got chosen.

"Let's get to the point. I'm sorry that you volunteered for us and we've caused you this much trouble. We brought you something." She pulled out a rusted bronze circular pin with a bird in the middle. I opened my hand and she dropped it in.

"Thank you." I hugged them both. Again, I didn't know why.