Hello! Welcome to my first completely original Hunger Games fic. This is the journey of Declan Peletier, I hope you enjoy what I am creating here and look forward to feedback and where this tale will take us.


Death isn't merely a theme in my life. It's a theme of my District's life. Barring cattle, it's the only thing that unites us and binds us to one another. It has less to do with the circle of life and more to do with the cycle of oppression. It's a defining feature of the culture I was steeped in from birth.


I never wanted anything that I was forced into. Pacifist by nature, survivalist by choice, killer by circumstance.


It's a chilly morning. Not atypical by any means, but still unwanted. I pull my threadbare jacket close against my chest and take a few seconds to breathe warmth into my palms. The sun hasn't quite broke the tree line but dawn is coming, and I have to finish my line. Once a little blood returns to my fingers I go back to the snare and dexterously use my billhook to cut the hen free of the snare grabbing her by the head. Still thrashing, she's a fresh one, must have gotten caught in the last hour. Either that or I managed to catch an honest to God wild chicken. Not likely.

"Declan, what knot is that?" Zia asks me with a hushed whisper. My younger sister, a tiny wisp of a girl, shivers to my side. She's barely 13 and so eager to learn and provide for the family. Only a few weeks ago my dad told me that she was allowed to start joining me on my trips. He knows the risks that are involved, and he doesn't care.

It was one thing when I came out here alone and was only risking my own hide. I learned how to handle myself out here. Which farmers and ranchers had the weakest fences, who would be awake when, how to barter with peacekeepers when I inevitably got caught. My skills weren't passed down from an omniscient mentor. They were hammered out in the forge of trial and error, and I have suffered for them.

Zia, however, won't have to.

"This is called a running bowline." I sheathe my billhook, a sickle shaped knife no longer than my forearm with a sharp keen inner edge and a hooked end. Typically used for reaching and cutting branches, I've 'reimagined' it to help me with my snares. Holding the chicken between my knees I point at the rope and expertly untie, straighten the rope, and then retie the knot. "You know this one. Something starts running through and then with luck their foot or neck gets caught and they keep running." I put two fingers in the hole as an example. "Once they're caught and keep moving the knot closes around them." I close the loop around my fingers. "Then they're ours."

"Right. I feel like you've taught me this one before." I gently chuckle at her expense. Despite being eager to learn, she doesn't actually do much learning. Can't fault her for trying.

"At least a dozen times by now. But, that's the reason you follow me and not the other way around." I muss her hair and she gives me a wide toothed smile. "Love you Zia."

"You too Declan." I grab the chicken by the head and yank quickly. Zia looks away as the distinctive pop signifies the end of the chicken's life.

The rest of the line takes us another half hour or so and when we finally get back home we have a pair chicken, three foxes, and one largemouth bass from my new river snares. Not exactly a feast but it'll suffice. I can trade the fox pelts for bread or rope. The chicken down can be made into a pillow and traded, hopefully for some new clothes for Zia. Being the only girl in the family she can really be hard to provide for. All my old clothes go to Frankie and Paul, 8 and 7 respectively. But Zia has to have something new every time she grows.

Lord knows we don't have any of mom's clothes.


As soon as I get through the door Frankie tackles Zia and Paul perks up asking about breakfast and food. I set my haul down and run at Paul picking him up in a bear hug.

"Would I ever let you go without breakfast rascal?" He squirms in my grasp but I clutch onto him all the tighter.

"Never." He giggles into my neck. I set him down and scamper over to Frankie.

"Didn't think you could get away did you?" Frankie starts running away, but me being a decade older I catch him in a matter of heartbeats. Frankie cackles and falls onto the packed ground floor. I pluck him from the dirt and toss him into the air. He screams gleefully and as always I catch him.

"What did you get today." My dad, Derek, asks in his typical no nonsense tone. The smile dies on my face and I set Frankie down. He, Zia, and Paul all run into the other room of our house, the sleeping room as we've come to call it. They know how this conversation goes.

Home isn't much, merely two rooms. One big enough for three beds and some ground space for the sheet I pretend is a feather bed. The other, our living space. A table, a few stools I'm managed to barter for from various bartenders around District Ten, a washing basin, and our bare bones kitchen.

Resigned, I grab my loot and pull up a stool to haggle with dad. "Not my best." I lay everything out on the table, praying for good fortunes.

"We'll give them the bass and two foxes. That sounds more than fair to me." I bite the inside of my cheek angrily. He always does this. I would call myself a pacifist by anyone standards but when it comes to those three in the other room I'm as much a mama bear as anyone.

"What part of that is fair." I say with an unusual anger on my lips. "That's half of my haul. We have mouths to feed."

"You're right we do have mouths to feed, a whole district of them. You think I'm just throwing this food away?" He questions me sternly. We've had this exact argument maybe a million times. Doesn't stop me from rebuffing him.

"I'm trying to feed the ones that live in this house. They're my priority. They're what matters." He spits on the ground.

"Bullshit. The rebellion is what matters. I love those kids too, they're quite literally my children, as are you. But, the freedom fighters are the ones making a difference. You're just getting one family by. I'm getting this whole district through." I stand angrily.

"Forget your rebellion! Hasn't that cost us enough already?"

"Cost us? Have you already forgotten which one of us is missing a hand?" He hold his right arm up to my face. Coarse burlap bandages cover his stump.

"That should have been the first warning that you were messing with powers beyond your control. But you had to keep pushing the line and we all lost something way more important than your stupid right hand." My dad stands up abruptly and gives me a hearty shove to the ground. Within a second my ass is skidding across the dirt.

"Don't you dare talk about that in my presence. You know the sacrifices I have made over the years, don't you dare chalk that up to nothing. You might be what holds this family together, but my eyes are set on the whole of District Ten. Don't you dare forget that." I rise wiping dirt off my legs and butt. I glower at the man. I hate how much we look alike. We share a tall lanky figure with lean arms and tawny legs. The same dirty blonde hair the entire family share, but only I got his blue eyes. Everyone else got mom's green eyes.

"This district is made of families. Without people like me there is no District Ten." I say defiantly staring him down.

"Because it's reaping day you can keep all this. I expect breakfast soon." He storms out of the house and slams the door on the way out. Almost immediately after he leaves Zia and the boys come out of the sleeping room. I put on my best smile and start on breakfast.

We eat in peace. I make Paul clean up and Frankie scrub the dishes in fresh water. It wasn't anything amazing, just some bread from our next door neighbor I gave the bass and some apricot preserves I got from my best friend. His name is Dustin Price and he helps me out any chance he gets. That's just how our families survive. Granted, he's the only child of a middle class shop owner, but just like me his father is also missing a hand. We work at the same ranch, and he's the only reason that I truly laugh.

Dustin is my best friend, my partner in crime, and my closest confidant. He's 17 like myself but he has a strong jaw line with a beard that could get him into any bar without getting carded. Where I'm lean he's bulky. Huge arms and legs that make him a prime farm hand. He's down right perfect in every way. Quick witted and sarcastic, but unyielding in how passionate he is about life. He's the only reason that this dull brown and gray district has any color to me. He's simply wonderful.

"Zia I need you to get ready for the reaping. I got you something special." She comes over to me and I pull out a tasteful bluebell dress I hide in my sheets.

"Declan we can't afford this." She says grabbing the garment from my hand laying it over her body.

"Well I guess I didn't buy it." I say smirking. "I pulled a few favors down at the ranch and Samantha gave it to me as a thank you." Her eyes alight at the prospect of genuinely owning a nice new dress. "Go try it on." She nods vigorous and scampers into the other room.

Samantha is my other best friend. The only daughter of a wealthy ranch herder, or at least wealthy by District Ten standards. She's beautiful, charming, and hard working. The ideal District Ten woman. She believes in working us to the bone while we're at the ranch but she's right there in the ditch with us. She can rope a steer better than anyone I know, and when she gets on horseback she can direct a herd in circles all by herself. Sam always calls me and Dustin 'fire and ice', apparently he's red hot but I'm icy cold. It's a nickname we've come to love. It's our personal little moniker in our tiny slice of life.

She doesn't have any siblings and I earned the dress by setting up a few traps around her property to get rid of a swathe a rats who decided to name one of her silos home. Personally, I think she was pitying me and my family. She knew I would be able to trade the rats and knew that I was looking for a dress. A double win for me. Although she'd never say so, she pities me, and while that bothers me I will never have too much pride to provide for my sister.

Zia steps out looking like a soft bluejay. She has her light brown hair tied back into a quick ponytail and the dress fits her almost perfectly. I can't help but smile at her.

"How do I look Declan?" She asks confidence emanating.

"You look pretty good by anyone's standard." Dustin says from the front door, standing behind my dad.

"Dustin?" I say startled but happy. "What're you doing here." He smirks at me with his typical surefire grin.

"You already forget that we agreed to walk to the reaping today? It's kind of a big deal. Capitol picks people for the Hunger Games, we always get dinner afterwards. It's kind of a tradition since we were like, you know, 12." I go up to him and give him a tight squeeze.

"Shut up." He squeezes back, a familiar hug. "I didn't forget, just didn't realize the time."

"Well my dad gave me this, so I'm quite punctual now." Dustin takes a step back and holds out an ornate seemingly gold pocket watch on a pewter fob chain. I take in his attire for the first time and realize how well dressed he is. His typically dusty jeans and plaid flannel are replaced by a freshly pressed pair of black dress pants and a crisp white button up tucked in. He looks handsome.

"It's wonderful." I say going back to the watch from his clothes. "Who did you get this from?" I ask obligingly.

"Little thing from mom, it's nice right?" I nod quickly. "Not quite as nice as the one my dad gave me, which I am now giving to you." He reaches into his pocket and pulls forth a polished pewter pocket watch on a chain as gold as sunlight.

"I can't take this." I say, my mouth agape.

"Sure you can!" Dustin says with a perk. He grabs my hand, his rough with callouses, and places the small metal disk and chain in mine. Dustin quickly pulls away his hand. "It's yours now, consider it a birthday gift. Don't you turn 18 in a few months?" I start laughing and shake my head.

"I turned 17 last month. You were at my party."

"Then this gift is late."

"Dustin I can't accept-" He cuts me off.

"So Zia and I are ready and you're not? Declan being late, yikes. Samantha would be shocked to hear about that. I guess we'll just skip the reaping and get a pint down at Smiley's." I roll my eyes and leave Dustin and the family standing around. I hurry into my nicest plaid shirt and the only pair of men's pants in the house that don't have holes in them. I step out and dad is forcing Paul and Frankie into clothes while Zia and Dustin chat amicably.

"Dad we're heading out." Zia says already half out the door practically dragging Dustin behind her. Another reason I adore Dustin is that he treats my family like it was his own. Zia and the boys trust him, which is worth more than anything in this day and age. If you can't trust the people around you then you're not really living a life. You're just getting by.

"Declan." Dad says waving me over. "Meet us after the reaping by O'Malley's place. City Center is always so hellish and busy after the reaping I don't want the boys mixed up in that bullshit." I nod, understanding.

"See you then."

The walk to the reaping is exceptionally pleasant. Dustin and I banter, Zia laughs, and the sun is out. It would be a great memory if we weren't walking to a human stockyard. Peacekeepers surround City Center in their shiny white uniforms. Guns and batons in hand they force us all into lines. Zia looks sweaty and nervous as the peacekeepers draw blood from her finger. I know it doesn't hurt, but do we really have to get pricked every year?

Dustin says it's the Capitols way of making sure that every single one of us in the districts gives blood, that it's their way of taking a pound of flesh from everyone.

She winces and they dab her finger on the ledger. A peacekeeper with his black visor down shoves her to the side grabs me and pulls me forward.

"Name?"

"Declan Peletier, 17." I hold my finger out, take the prick and smear the blood across the page walking away quickly afterwards. Dustin is soon on my heels. A few steps past the register I take Zia by the shoulders.

"Stay by the back of your pen and find me and Dustin right afterwards ok? Dad told us to meet him at O'Malley's. Understood?" She nods at me swallowing a nervous lump. "Don't worry Zia. I would never let them take you." I wrap her in my arms again. "Don't worry." I mutter into her hair.

We leave her and go to our area. Dustin chats to a few people around us, always the social butterfly. I twiddle my thumbs and watch as a man wrapped in bubbles wearing a pair of bullhorns steps up to the microphone, our escort and the only Capitolite who would ever step foot in District Ten by choice.

"Attention please!" He trills with a high pitched whine. Though the crowd silences as he continues. "My name is Wulfric Snowden and it is a pleasure to be here with all of you." I bite the inside of my cheek nervously. After doing this for so many years you get used to it and simply want it to be over. I'm tired of watching people walk to their slaughter. I'm tired of watching families collapse and cry and mourn. Nothing about this is a game.

Last year a girl named Jessica was reaped and she was so fierce and fought to her bitter end. For days her mother sat in City Center crying or being so still you would think she died. People gave her food they could spare but she wouldn't eat. I held her 2 weeks later, her cheeks hollowed and eyes sunken, and forced bread into her mouth. I never bothered to learn her name, but she was broken and my instincts took over. How can a world be so cruel to where that's the interaction two strangers share?

I avert my eyes as Snowden repeats the Treaty of Treason and plays a little holoclip about the Dark Days. I personally don't care much for history but I wonder about the time before the Dark Days. Was it always like this? What vile type of people sat around a table and came up with this? How bad must the war have been to justify such pain? I guess it doesn't matter. Certainly I'll never know.

"Let us begin with the women." Snowden says high pitched and gleeful. He prances over to a great crystalline bowl with thousands of slips. He rifles around until he finds one that suffices him. He peels apart the slip and speaks clearly. "Lyanna Connington." A girl steps out of the 16 year old section with brown hair so dark that if the sun wasn't catching it just right you'd confuse it with black tucked into a braid. She's thin, but not without muscles. Maybe a part time farm hand? Her tidy yet pedestrian clothing tells me that she too knows what it's like to be without.

"Congrats!" Snowden screeches as Lyanna reaches the stage. "How are you feeling?" She rolls her eyes and puts on a brave face before replying.

"I'm just so thrilled and lucky to be here." The satire drips from each word and yet Snowden claps like a moron.

"We're thrilled to have you! Let us find you a partner!" He claps and goes over to the men's bowl. I ignore him and look at Lyanna, to her credit if she's feeling scared or overwhelmed it doesn't show on her face. She's not looking confident by any means, but still silent and strong counts for something in my book. "For the men we have Declan Pelter."

"It's Peletier!" I reply instinctually scoffing that yet another person messed up my name.

Wait. My name. Oh my God. I was reaped? No. What the hell.

"Declan stay here I got this." Dustin starts to edge around me holding me by the waist and pushing me behind him. I grab his wrist.

"Don't you fucking dare." Dustin holds my eye contact shocked at my swear, something I don't do often.

"Declan you can't." He says with pain in his voice and tears forming in his eyes. "Let me. I'm the fire and you're the ice right?"

"I don't need you to burn out for me." I push him aside and muster a stern face and advance towards the stage. A path of people opens up before me. My hands sweat and I can feel my heartbeat pound through my ears. Everything seems to close in around me even as people step farther away.

Step. Step. Step. Just get to stage.

Feelings of sadness and confusion flood over me with undertones of anger and fear.

How dare they. What gives them the right? No. No. No. Dammit. What about Zia?

I finally get up on stage and look out across the crowd. Blank faces. People relaxing that they aren't being sent to death. A few faces with tears. Mainly Dustin who has gone from watery to full blown crying, two different peacekeepers hold him back. I scan looking for Zia but she's short and hidden in the crowd.

"How did you say your name?" Snowden says shoving a microphone in my face.

"Declan Peletier."

"That's simply magnanimous! Well, shake hands you two." We do. Lyanna holds my gaze and gives me a firm and sturdy handshake.

"I give you your tributes! Lyanna Connington and Declan Peletier!"


It didn't take long for me and Lyanna to get separated and shoved into different rooms. Peacekeepers need to be promptly renamed because nothing about how they deal with people is peaceful. Within in a minute Zia bursts into the room with Paul and Frankie hot on her heels.

The three envelope me in a suffocating hug. I wrap my arms around the mass of my siblings and feel their sobs against me. I'm not one to cry, never have been. But this is heartbreaking. I feel tears forming and choke down the urge.

"You can't leave us." Paul says crying. Frankie echoes his sentiments and I hug each in one arm close against my chest.

"It's gonna be ok. I'm going to come back."

"Always the optimist you were." Dad says with a resigned tinge in his voice. I stand up from hugging the boys and embrace Zia, ignoring his slight.

"Declan, you have to come back. We need you." She buries her face in my chest and I rub her back with one hand and hold her head against me with the other. My sweet innocent loving sister.

"I'll come back." I say trying to convince myself.

"You have to. I can't do this without you." I release her from the hug and grab her shoulders abruptly.

"Listen to me. You're not allowed to think like that anymore. If I don't come back that makes you the bread winner." I think back to this morning reminding her about a knot I've taught her a dozen times.

"I'm not ready Declan." She says tears streaming down her face.

"Stop. I've taught you almost everything I know. My billhook is with my bed sheets and all my snaring ropes are at Dustin's house. You know what to do, I promise you. You can do this."

"Declan." I cut her off and go into quick lists of what farmers are less strict about trapping on their lands. Where you have to use stealth and where you should just avoid. Names of knots she'll never remember, but can hopefully tie. Refresh her memory of the differences between duck, geese, chickens, goslings, and even the occasional swan.

"They're not pretty waterfowl anymore Zia. They're prey that can feed you, the boys, and dad. Understood?" She nods at me but I know half of what I said went over her head. Hopefully she remembers enough.

"Son." Dad finally steps up to me. "Do your best and stick it to the Capitol every chance you get." A peacekeeper slams through the door.

"Time!" He grabs a screaming Paul and a sobbing Frankie and hauls them through the door. Another grabs Zia by the waist and picks her up, kicking and screaming she goes.

"I'll have you know you've always made me proud. Providing for me and the kids like you do. Your mother would be really proud of the young man you've become." A peacekeeper grabs him by the wrist, but I quickly hug my dad.

"Thank you." In a flash his words and the faces of my family are nothing but a memory now.

Not even 5 seconds later Dustin comes busting in the door. He quite literally runs in and tackles me to the floor in a tighter embrace than I've ever known.

"You son of a bitch." He's already crying. I pry him off of me and we stand up. He hugs me again. "You stupid son of a bitch. Why wouldn't you let me die for you?" I can feel his tears wet the side of my face. His sobs don't stop the whole conversation

"How could I live with the blood of my best friend on my hands? I've taken so much from you and you've given me so much the least I can give you is the promise of a future." I say each word measured and calmly. He's the fire. I have to be ice.

"I'd happily die for you and those kids time and time again. All I wanted for my life was for it to mean something." He says, body still shaking and sobbing against me.

"Your life still can mean something. Zia is only 13 and will need all the help she can get. You're not the one walking into a 24 way fight to the death." He manages a light chuckle at that. Anything at all Dustin will find a way to laugh.

"Got a good point there." He wipes the tears from his red puffy eyes. "God I'm going to miss you."

"Not for too long hopefully. I'll be back soon." I say nodding solemnly.

"I know you'll come back, just do it alive and not laying in some box or with all your pieces in a bag."

"We're going to miss you." Samantha says standing by the door. "I came in with him, just not as loud." She smiles slyly. Dustin releases me for a split second and I give her a gentle hug.

"Thanks for coming Sam."

"We'll miss you around the farm, but even if this one can't keep himself together to keep your family in tact, I'll be there." She elbows Dustin. "I know about the trapping, and I'll keep those snares up if I have to grow an extra arm."

"Thank you." My heart beats a little easier, between the two of them they can provide for my family. Or at least my siblings. Neither is super fond of Derek, but they love my siblings. "You guys are better than I deserve."

"Impossible. You're the most amazing man I've ever met." Dustin replies. Another peacekeeper bursts through the door.

"Time." Samantha makes for the door with a frown on her face. She salutes me and exits with her head held low.

"Declan you can win this. You're smart, you know how to trap, you're sneaky, and I need you to come back. I really need you to come back."

"I promise I'll do my best."

"Your best will get your ass back here."

"I promise." The peacekeeper grabs his arms. He elbows him in the neck and he lets go clutching his throat.

"You have to get back here Declan." His body wracks as he cries. "Keep my watch as your token. Remember me. Please don't go." Another three peacekeepers grab him and he starts writhing back and forth trying to throw punches and kicks but simply being overwhelmed. I pull the watch from my pocket to prove I still have it.

"I could never forget you." I say tears pricking at my eyes. "You're my best friend and I love you." I've said the words to him before but something about them seems more real this time.

"Come back to me Declan I love you too-" If he was going to say anything else he is cut off by the slamming door.

My respite in the heated blue velvet chair lasts only a moment before another set of peacekeepers comes in and ushers me out the door. I'm blitzed with lights brighter than the sun and far more numerous. I force a smile and wave into the void and place one foot in front of the other until I ascend a metal slant and end up in a train cart.

A group of strange people surround me and the door shuts behind me.

"You ready kid?" A husky man with a beard asks with no joy in his voice.

"Let's get this started."

"Yes. Let the games begin."


As some of you may have noticed if you went to my page I've got a few stories running right now. 2016 was rough on me and I will continue Wade in the Water and Victory is Relative as soon as I get around to it. Though, for the time being this story is my focus. Sorry to those who followed either of those tales.

So please, don't hesitate to give me some feedback. I know my grammar needs work but I hope you like what I produced. I'll see you in a few weeks with the next chapter. And, Happy New Year!