Ice Cold
I rise before the sun. Somehow, my mental clock told me that it was time to get up. I suppose it's my hunter instincts. In any case, I swing out of bed, grab my hunting cap, my jacket, and my boots. These old, worn items of clothing are practically parts of me, and they settle the nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach, in my chest, everywhere, really, once I slip them on.
My mother, Rory, Vick, and Posy- sweet, darling Posy, she looks like an angel when she's sleeping and whenever else too- are still fast asleep. Rory snores. I chuckle. The kid- the eleven-year-old kid, I might add- snores like my dad used to. Used to. I sigh, remembering the mine that all of a sudden, turned into a million brilliant bits of light, beautiful and deadly. I remember the huge boom that shook all of District 12. The lights. The boom. That quick, and he died. Just like that. Leaving me the man of the family at the lucky age of thirteen.
But I shake this thought off and slink outside. I'm not afraid if anyone sees me, yet I sneak around anyways. Again, I attribute this to my hunter's instincts. Everyone knows me, and what I do- which is hunting, which violates a trillion laws and is punishable by death-, but as long as I keep hunting and supplying everyone with food, no one will care if they see me out and about during unholy hours. And besides, only the baker and his family are awake at this time.
Which has led me to this journey, at this early, early time of day, into the woods for some game that I can trade for some fresh bread. So that Katniss and I can share a fancy meal together, that could quite possibly be our last, on this damned day.
I call it hell day. It is hell, to know that people you know, people you've grown up with, people you love, might possibly be sentenced to death that day. Maybe not sentenced, but it's almost certain, since you and everyone else lives in the poorest district in Panem. District 12. Covered in coal dust. Ninety-five percent of us starving, and a great deal of us starving to death each day.