This is a oneshot of Prim's reaping in the Hunger Games if she didn't have a sister to volunteer for her. Hope you enjoy, reviews are always appreciated. –B
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Sudden Death (Oneshot)
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Prim wakes up to a ball of fur licking her face. She reaches out, bringing it to her.
"Morning, Buttercup." Even though she is whispering, anyone could hear the anxiety in her voice. Today is the day her name might be called. Today is the day all of District Twelve might know who she is. Today is the day she might walk away to her death.
Today is the reaping for the Seventy-Fourth Annual Hunger Games.
Prim's mother is staring straight ahead into nothingness, as if she is in a trance. Prim walks into the room, hair still messy from sleep, and gently shakes her, attempting to get her attention. Soon she realizes it is no use. She'll come to when she comes to. If she even does.
Reluctantly, Prim walks out of her mother's bedroom and trudges downstairs. She is too nervous to eat, and even if she did want to eat, there's no food in the pantry. They haven't had anything besides dirty tap water for two days now.
This is when Prim regrets not going to the Hob with her father when he was still around. He wanted to teach her how to hunt - make that hunt illegally - and trade for other kinds of food and supplies at the black market. He'd begged her to come with him, seeing as he couldn't take his wife and leave Prim home all by her self, but she'd always refused. So he would go out by himself, pass the electric fence surrounding the tiny district that was never on, and hunt with the bows and arrows he crafted out of wood.
The food stopped coming home after he died. Now, Prim gets whatever she can find scavenging from trash cans or begging from pitying storeowners. But even that doesn't do much.
If she went to the Hob with him then, she wouldn't be scared to death if she went there now. And they would have food.
Prim walks back upstairs and into her room. There she opens the shutters, letting in the warm morning sun. She sees specks of dust floating in the air, with no aim, no purpose. She looks down onto the dirty street and watches silently as all the coal miners from the Seam head out to their morning shift deep down in the mines, and suddenly she sees her father, dressed in his coal miner's uniform, kissing her mother goodbye and joining those miners outside in the street.
Not knowing he would never come home.
A silent tear escapes, but Prim quickly wipes it away. She has to be strong. Her father told her to be strong.
So Prim leaves her house. She walks down the street, toward the Main Square, surrounded by wealthy shops. They are already setting up the huge stage in front of the Justice Building that could only be meant for the reaping. She crosses the square, empty except for the Capitol workers setting up the dreadful looking stage, and walks hesitantly into a little shop that sold groceries.
She walks down the food-filled aisles with longing, toward the back where the storeowner usually is.
This particular storeowner, Fabius, always hated beggars. But he was friends with Prim's father down in the mines before he died, so he always had a soft spot for Prim. He grabs five apples from the nearest shelf and hands them to her without a word. Prim nods in thanks and makes her way to other stores.
When she arrives back home, her mother is finally awake from her little trance. She lays an outfit on Prim's mattress; a white blouse and a light blue skirt, once worn by her mother herself. Prim slips into the clothes, and her mother gets the silver brush they share and starts moving it through Prim's blond hair.
It is almost two o'clock. Prim and her mother walk to the square, holding hands. When they get there, her mother stands in the back while Prim walks to the front of the crowd, where the twelve-year-olds are supposed to stand. And she waits.
Soon, after everyone is settled, Mayor Undersee walks onto the stage and begins to read. "Welcome, citizens of District Twelve. We gather here today to remember the rich history of our wonderful country of Panem…"
Prim is not paying attention. He says the same speech every year. Instead, she thinks of the unthinkable, drowning herself in her fear of being reaped, trembling with nervousness and anxiety.
The mayor then reads off the too-short list of District Twelve victors; there's only two people to name. The only one still alive is Haymitch Abernathy, who now staggers across the stage, yelling out unintelligible words at the audience and at the cameras. People look around in shock, some of them applauding, and the mayor looks utterly humiliated. After all, this will be televised all across Panem. Haymitch turns and tries to hug a Capitol woman on the stage, whose hands go up in disgust, barely fending off the hug. Her wig of pink curls is now crooked from the action. Some of the audience laughs, and the mayor introduces this bold-looking woman as Effie Trinket, District Twelve's tribute escort to the Capitol.
Effie practically dances to the front of the stage. "Welcome, welcome," she says, her voice too high and bubbly. "Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor!" she announces, the echo of her incredibly thick Capitol accent carrying across the square. "I am truly honored to represent this," she hesitates, taking an obvious glance at the ugly, run-down, coal-dust-ridden district before her, "wonderful district during the next few weeks. Today," she gestures toward two huge glass reaping balls behind her, "we will select one courageous man and woman to compete in the Seventy-Fourth Annual Hunger Games."
She beckons to the Peacekeepers behind her, who take it as a signal to bring the girls' reaping ball forward. "Ladies first!" she says with excitement. She titters over to the glass ball and reaches her hand in, digging through thousands of slips of paper until she finally picks one and withdraws her hand from the reaping ball. She unravels the clean white slip of paper and does not hesitate.
"Primrose Everdeen," she says, enunciating both words so as to make sure everyone heard correctly. But she doesn't need to. All of District Twelve is already so silent you could hear a pin drop.
Primrose Everdeen's odds are not in her favor. Prim, kind and lovely Prim, whose name was entered only once along with thousands of other people's names, has been chosen the first year she was ever reaped.
Prim's heart stops. She can't move; she is paralyzed with fear. She knows it. Her heart fills with dread, and to her it feels as if her body is being pulled down by a deadweight, and she has to use everything in her to keep her from falling to the ground altogether.
Effie Trinket taps the microphone several times as if the whole district couldn't hear her. "Primrose? Primrose Everdeen?"
People look around, wondering who Primrose Everdeen is and why she isn't stepping forward.
Prim forces herself to look forward. Even though her legs feel as if they will collapse underneath her, she steps into the main aisle, and all the eyes of Panem are now on her. She walks forward. Right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot, she thinks to herself. Right foot, left foot.
It seems like forever until Prim reaches the massive stage. Effie Trinket practically has to drag her forward to face the rest of the district.
"Congratulations to Primrose Everdeen!" Effie is barely holding her disappointment in. Aren't people supposed to be excited for the Games, not all dejected and scared like this little girl is? Effie shakes the thought away.
No one claps, as usual. Effie tries not to dwell on the subject as the Peacekeepers bring the boys' reaping ball forward.
"And now for the boys," she announces. Her hand dips into the reaping ball, digging and digging, until finally she's satisfied and takes out one folded slip of paper. She unfolds it and squints to read the small print.
"Peeta Mellark!"
After a few seconds, the boy who must be Peeta steps forward, barely hiding his shock. He is a stocky boy with blond hair, definitely not from the Seam. Prim vaguely remembers him as the baker's son; the one Prim has to approach when his beast of a wife isn't around if she has any hope of getting some leftover bread.
"Ah, the excitement," Effie Trinket chirps. "Let's have a round of applause for Primrose Everdeen and Peeta Mellark!" Effie congratulates. Of course, no one claps. No surprise there.
Soon the mayor comes up and reads the Treaty of Treason, and Peeta and Prim are told to shake hands. So they do, and Prim feels a reassuring squeeze as she looks up at Peeta Mellark. I'll have no chance against him, Prim thinks dejectedly. He'll kill me in a second.
As Peeta and Prim are ushered into the Justice Building, nervous thoughts race through Prim's head. What am I going to do? I'm going to be the first one to die, I know it. How can I ever face the Careers, or even the kind-looking blond boy walking next to me? I know nothing about weapons! I'm going to die! This will be the last time I set foot in District Twelve, the last time I will ever see Mom.
It is only now when the full magnitude of what just happened hits Prim. She knows she'll be dead within a week. I'll die at the Cornucopia, Prim thinks to herself, her heart empty of hope. Her feet feel like slabs of lead, dragging themselves across the cold floor. Her eyes are full of tears, and her body suddenly feels as it it's going to explode.
I'm done for, Prim says in her head. I'm done for.
She says goodbye to her mother when she visits. Prim pulls her mom into a fierce hug, knowing her mother will be all alone, both her family members dead by the end of next week.
But soon, too soon, the Peacekeepers barge in and drag her mother away, the woman screaming for her daughter. This only makes Prim feel worse and more alone as the Peacekeepers shut the door behind them. Soon she is whisked onto the train that is to take Peeta and her to the Capitol.
I don't want to die, Prim thinks.
I don't want to die.
Then, before she knows it, a whistle blows and the train leaves the station, wracking Primrose Everdeen into oblivion.
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Epilogue note: For those of you wondering, Prim does indeed die at the Cornucopia by Glimmer, and Peeta dies a day after the Cornucopia bloodbath because he ran into the Careers. Cato and Clove are the star-crossed lovers, and Clove eventually wins. There is no rebellion, and the Hunger Games continue for many years to come.
Please review, it would be greatly appreciated! -B