UNLUCKY NUMBER SEVEN: The story of The Lumber District
Chapter One: (I will post more chapters soon!)
The sound of the bloodcurdling scream jolts me awake. It's Haddasah. She's having another seizure.
She squirms and writhes around the flimsy cot beside me. Her screaming shoots a sharp sensation through my heart. I want to scream back, but I keep my composure. Well, it least on the outside I try to act calm.
All emotions rush through my brain in an instant. I feel angry; angry for not watching over her and being there for her when she needed me. I feel happy; happy to know that she won't remember a single moment of this tragic torture. I feel confused; confused as to why she was made this way, and what she ever did to deserve such a disease. But the strongest feeling is love. My twin sister deserves to have love, for her life may be over any second. I have trained myself to feel that one emotion whenever somebody walks in the room. I have developed a heart as weak as Haddasah's, which truly wouldn't give me an advantage during the Hunger Games.
All of this floats through me in less than a second. Before I realize it, I rush to her side and shake her shoulder. I receive no response in return. She's still shaking. She's still breathing. She's still alive, but barely.
"Scarlet!" the words finally explode out of my mouth. "Come quick!"
Scarlet, my godmother, rushes down the hallway.
"Is everything all right, Phox?" her voice is distant. She may be standing right in front of me, but she seems to be off in her own wonderland, not yet taking in the essence of the cruel reality. She must've just woken up from a pleasant, utopian dream.
"Haddasah is having a seizure!" I holler.
This snaps her out of her dream-like state. She rushes to Haddasah's side and begins to inspect her.
Haddasah has a brain disorder. She's not mental; she just loses control of her body during times of anxiety. She does this every reaping eve. Her heart beats slower than normal, only nobody knows why. She is prone to having seizures when the ambience of someplace is anxious or scared. You have to be calm around her.
Scarlet knows just what to do. "Phox, go get the medicine she needs."
Scarlet works at the local hospital. The hospital is as ancient as the Hunger Games themselves. You can't turn a corner in there without seeing a cobweb or a deep, thin crack in the wall.
We live in this ancient, run down building that everybody calls a hospital. There's nowhere else to go. We're dead broke from paying for all of Haddasah's treatments. Luckily, the hospital staff is kind enough to give us a place to stay. I share this room with Haddasah, and Scarlet bunks with the other nurses.
I rush to Haddasah's side with the medicine and I pour the gooey, green liquid into her slightly open mouth.
"Stay with me," I plead. "Please don't leave me here without you. I can't brave this world alone." I grasp my twin sister's now steadily shaking hand.
I watch as her beautiful green eyes flutter open. These moments, the moments that you realize your loved one is fine and everything will be okay, are my favorite moments.
"Phox," she croaks. "I would never leave you."
A tear rolls down her pale, red cheek.
Haddasah is never out in the sun, for it makes her dizzy. Thus, she's ghost pale. Despite the fact that she shies away from the sunlight, however, her cheeks are the lovely shade of a sun-kissed rose. Her green eyes shine like the brightest emerald, and her long, platinum blonde hair cascades down her thin body all the way to her bellybutton.
Despite us being twins, I look completely different. I am as tan as a buck, and my shaggy hair is a soft shade of strawberry blonde, not bright, platinum blonde like Haddasah's.
Scarlet leaves the room with a toss of her bright purple hair (she used to live in the capitol and is only here to help the peacekeepers keep order. She felt sorry for us and took us in. She knew my parents, and they made her our godmother). She rushes to find the doctor.
"Are you scared?" I dare ask. I am not asking about her seizure, and she knows it.
"I'm more scared of losing you to the Hunger Games." She sighs. "You have to promise me something, Phox."
"What?" I ask.
"Listen," she clears her throat. "If I get chosen for the Hunger Games, don't… don't do anything crazy. Don't put yourself at risk. I can't have you getting shot like… well, you know." She begins to cry again.
She means our parents. We were originally a set of triplets, but Jeremiah, our brother, got chosen last year. The second the name was read, my parents went ballistic and ran up to the stage. They tackled the escort, Lovato Bobbin, and peacekeepers shot them immediately.
I've lost my mother, my father, and my brother all in the same year. My brother didn't even get past the cornucopia before he was stabbed in the heart with a spear. All I have is Haddasah, and all Haddasah has it, well, me.