_-_
Year two, take one. I'm not going to blink, not for one second. No matter how boring this becomes. I've listened to it five times already, and I've never gotten too bored, though the same woman's voice has gotten tedious over the years. What was her name? Amythist Luden, if I could remember. She had the distant accent I couldn't place, and the gruesome detachment in facial features that the Capitol residants all had.
"Welcome, welcome, to the fifth annual Hunger Games." it echoed in my ears. Only four more years, five, four? Just some amount more years until I was out. I thought that was it. The terms were all still so unfamiliar. Two tributes from each district. That made ... twenty-four in all. Volunteers would be accepted, but everyone was hesitant now, throw away your life? Why do that, if you hadn't gotten picked? Of course, here it was, district one. We were starting to warm up to the idea. Most of us had the means to survive, and have the time to train ourselves. We'd had one victor so far, but since no other district had two, we were still on good terms with the rest of Panem. Or, you know, they kind of all disliked us, but the next two districts, those were the other ones who were surviving enough to actually enjoy the thought of going into the Games.
"The history of Panem." or something like that. I didn't hear much. Time passed quickly. I didn't blink. "Laaaadieeees, firrrssssssssssssttt." the woman dragged out the words, like a snake almost. I could imagine that, her highlighted face had a sickly green color and her hair was sandy and yellow mixed up together. "Artemis Crane." I blinked. "Please, come to the stage, Artemis." I blinked again. No words, there were no words for this. I couldn't remember if anything else happened before I toppled over and fell, but I couldn't see anything, couldn't hear anything. I might've fallen asleep, I must have, I was dreaming. That wasn't my name, not my name. I wasn't picked. I couldn't have been.
I woke up in the nicest room I'd ever seen. Even in my district, it was beautiful. Where was I? Oh, now I remembered, my mother dragged me here, to say goodbyes to a friend last year. She had died in the Games then. And I, Artemis Crane, was picked to be in the Hunger Games. Yes, the realization dawned now. Had I mentioned that I cannot stand the sight of blood? I filled a bucket with vomit when I got a paper cut last week. Oh, I was doomed. But I sat in the room quietly, until two peacekeepers led me out of the room. Something other than my impending death struck me. I hadn't gotten one visitor. But I could've expected that. Mother didn't care for me too much, and I didn't really have friends.
I was on a train and oh, trains almost made me feel sick. They had about ten different kinds of some sort of juice, and one of them looked so much like blood, I think I actually was sick. Amythist was there, along with Missy Rae, the mentor, and so was Eribus Luka, the male tribute.