When I woke on the day we had all been dreading, I knew it; I had to be the one chosen.
We had lost the war and the Hunger Games had changed. Now it was us, the Capitol children, who were to be reaped. It would be just once; not seventy- five times, but once was bad enough. Now we knew the fear the districts had felt. Fear for their children. Fear for your family. Fear for our very lives.
For me, it is slightly safer. Being female, you have one less chance of death. We all know for certain that Cressida Snow will be reaped. The rebels will make sure of that. But that did not change the fact that twenty- three others, with no political power or ties to the government, would be chosen to be sent to the slaughter. The Avoxes that had once been our slaves had grinned at us for weeks, with their grotesque mouths and mutilated tongues. Even if the districts feel sorry for us, views will be high. Our families will be forced to watch, and our servants will revel in the bloodshed. I suppose Everdeen and her family will watch to, and laugh at the seeming justice. I hate her so. It was her vote that has doomed us, and I am certain that she, her idiot fiancé and her drunken mentor will love every minute.
The Pepin cell- where I now lie- is desolate. My father, a retired Peacekeeper, was killed in the final attack. My mother sleeps across the room, holding onto a shrunken head. The head is burned and blackened, with teeth missing and a faced contorted into an expression of pain. It's my brother, Mathias. He was killed in the same explosion that killed the Mockingjays' sister. I suppose that we have something in common. I would have killed myself long before the reaping if it weren't for him. He was the only reason I stayed alive for in the weeks of the final push. But now my mother cries constantly, sinking further and further into hysteria. If I get reaped today, she will have no-one but our Avox jailers. She will stay alive, but only as a demented wreck. But I must go, and I must win. I must go for two things. Firstly, for my brother. I must go to take my revenge. I cannot kill the one that did the deed, but there I make take my anger out on people that I know, perhaps even once cared about. My second reason; the reward.
In the original Hunger Games, you fought for your life. Now you fight for your death.
The 'reward' for this year is death. As soon as the ceremonies are over, you are to be executed, with your family, and others of your choice. If you lose, you family still dies, but in whatever horrible way you did. Some, when it was announced, saw it as folly, not having a real reward to fight for. Some, stupidly, still see it like that. But those of us that have lost everything, whose lives are not worth living, don't see it like that. Our lives are worthless now. For me and my mother, it will be a great justice. We were some of the firsts to surrender, believing life would go on. But we were stripped of our homes and possessions, and herded into family cells. The Avoxes guarding our families were especially cruel. They provided each family with a gun, with one bullet. They could choose to shoot a family member, if they so wished, but if they did, the rest would die of starvation. That night we heard many arguments, and many shots. It wasn't soon after that they used the able bodied to remove the dead. It was so wrong- these shells were people who had not eaten for weeks. They were swollen and skeletal at the same time. We had heard them scream and cry and moan through the walls of our cell, humans reduced to little more than cattle. But now dead, they looked so peaceful. Content, even. I want to know that contentment, and I want my mother to feel it too. But neither of us should suffer for it. So in order for us to finally be at peace, I, Comfrey Pepin, must win the Hunger Games.