"One-Shots of Victors and Victims" #2

District 11: Annala

I looked at the sky through the window. The dark clouds wanted to spill rain, but unsure when. After I opened the window, the thick wet air told me that rain was coming soon.

Hopefully after the reaping because I don't want to get doused so much I'll be sick. My family can afford the doctors to heal me, but just having a cough makes me feel uneasy. Its my first reaping after all and I have to wear this ugly mustard colored rain poncho. Its transparent so my clothes underneath is seen, but its still ugly. I like brighter colors. My parents said I should be glad for what I have because others in our District don't have ponchos.

More than half of District 11 is poor little shantytowns. The small but richer side is mostly the Victors' Village, where I live. My mother won the 14th Hunger Games when she was sixteen, the first female victor of District 11. A couple years later, my parents married and had me. The girl who stands out in the crowd sometimes because her skin is paler than others and her clothes aren't rags that struggle to hold onto each other. I'm Annala Lee, the one with the naturally straight black hair and the hazel eyes. My skin and how straight my hair can be comes from my mom. The rest of my features is from my dad.

I shampoo my hair in the bathroom even though its useless, my hair is always fuzzy. I add makeup to cover that scar on my cheek. I'm not a brat, I just want to look good for my first reaping. The 28th Hunger Games.

My parents believe I will never be reaped to fight to the death, but that doesn't mean they prepare me for extra caution. Have me chop the firewood, work high in the orchards, or teach me talents that could be skills.

They don't want to lose their only daughter, their only child. The generous-to-a-fault one. The one who wants to take terrasse only to give the grains to others but her parents don't let her. The one who after every reaping had set aside money for the families of the reaped. The one who helps along in the orchards because she asked, not just because her parents want her to.

Lightning flashes through the sky when Dad yells for me to hurry up.

Sighing, I grab my ugly rain poncho and run downstairs.

This year I can see my mother and another victor, a man named Norris Bluephox, who repeats the last word he says, siting on the stage, just a little bit better because I'm closer. Closer and closer, year after year, until I'm eighteen and I can just wave at Mom without being lost in the crowd.

Our escort, Tumulous B. (her last name is so long we just say B.), is as jumpy as ever. Her red dress with millions of ruffles bump up and down in every jump, along with the shiny yellow afro with the red and white poke-a-dot ribbons. She's not wearing any kind of rain poncho, like the majority of us. With the thunder and lightning and the claims of rain drops in the crowd, she won't be as jumpy anymore.

"Hi District Eleven!" Tumulous says "It is time to pick our lucky girl and boy to participate in the 28th Hunger Games!" She claps and nobody joins her "First up is our lucky girls!"

Tumulous steps over to the girls' reaping ball, which always is filled to the brim with thousands of paper slips. One of them has "Annala Lee," written on it.

Tumulous takes her time getting a slip and then reads aloud the name. "Tallia Kyra!"

I'm watching the 13-year-olds section split and a girl is revealed. She's smaller than me, which is surprising is you saw my height, and her leg and arm is in some sort of cast. I recognize her. A week ago, a group of kids got too close to mockingjay nest. While they were being attacked, Tallia had fallen and broken her leg and arm while she was beaten by mockingjay beaks. It was scary seeing those peaceful birds doing so much harm.

People say I'm generous to a fault. I guess it was true when I found myself shouting, "I volunteer!"

At that moment, the downpour began. My mom burst into tears. Most of the crowd gasped seeing me mount the stage. Tallia was lead away to find her parents. As I stood next to Tumulous, I could hear my mother sobbing quietly, "Why? Why? Why?"

"Whats your name," Tumulous asked, putting the microphone to my mouth.

"Annala Lee," I said, my voice small.

"The victor's daughter? My, how old are you?"

"Twelve."

"A twelve-year-old volunteer! My!"

The rain fell hard on the poncho's hood. It made a good excuse for my wet face, which was really covered in tears. What made me think I could do this? What gave me the idea? Wouldn't it be better to not volunteer for Tallia?

"This rain is not good for my hair!" Tumulous exclaimed "I'll get it redone later. I have a reaping to finish. Now, for the boys!"

Tumulous takes a slip from the boys reaping ball. Then she read the name aloud. "Luke Notice."

The twelve-year-old section comes alive. A little boy with dark skin and short black hair emerges from that section, his face pale and his fist clenched together. He doesn't have a poncho and is getting drenched. He's the quiet kid at school. I've tried making friends with him once or twice but he never opens his mouth. He only talks when the teacher calls on him. At least I know Luke, it'd be better to make allies with him.

Luke has made his way next to Tumulous. From here I can tell we're the same exact size. She asks for his age and he responds with an extremely quiet, "Twelve."

"Any volunteers?" Tumulous asks.

Silence.

"Okay then-"

"I volunteer!"

Luke's mouth opens and begins screaming, "No, Andrew, NO!"

Peacekeepers drag him away as a taller and more muscular replica of the boy steps up.

"My, District Eleven is volunteering today! Whats your name?"

"Andrew Notice," the Luke's older brother says. His face is as pale's as Luke's, as if blood does not exist in that family's face.

"That was your brother, wasn't it?"

Andrew nods.

Tumulous asks, "How old are you?"

"Fourteen."

Andrew's brown eyes were exposed with fear.

"Why, Annala, why!?" My mom cried.

I could hear the rain pounding on the Justice Building's roof.

"I saved her life," was all I could choke out.

"But you numbered yours, why!" My mom buried her head into my shirt.

My dad's eyes were pale and shimmering with sadness. He said, "You know your skills. Use them. Do your best to win, got it?"

I nodded.

My mom popped out and said, "Stay hidden as much as possible. Stay away from Districts 1, 2, and 4. Career Districts. They train to kill. They'll kill you. They volunteer most of the time. Avoid them."

I nodded. I knew I had a week longer with my mom than my dad because my mom is my mentor.

Mom was right about the Career districts. All three of those districts had only tributes volunteering.

The ones sticking out to me was Crystal from One, Avi and Chello from Two, Alexander from Four, a small girl from Eight named Susan, twelve-year-olds from Ten named Maleah and Saul, and a hulking big Jacob from Twelve.

"I want you to make alliances," my mom said. still wiping away tears after the reaping tapes were finished.

"Even with you two, two," said Norris.

"Not with Careers," mom added.

"Definitely not with Careers, Careers," Norris said.

Me and Andrew looked at each other and nodded.

I was waving from my chariot when I realized that I couldn't be a little girl anymore. I had to be strong and tough now, especially since that my fate was being determined. Ever since I had shouted those same two words Andrew did.

On the first day of training, I practiced my skills instead of weaponry. There was an obstacle called the Gauntlet that I mastered in two tries. I sped up and down the rock wall swiftly and flew threw the monkey bars that hung on the training center's roof. I passed the edible plants test with soaring colors. I wasn't even tried when I ran into the lunchroom after the bell.

I sat at a vacant table, the first one here in the entire room. I waited for Andrew to arrive.

Crystal and her district partner were the first two besides me to arrive. They saw me, whispered to each other, and sat across from me at my table.

"Want to be allies?" Crystal asked.

I remembered my mom's warning about Careers. But something else caught me. Crystal had a sweet, innocent, pleading voice. Her eyes were cold and untrustworthy though.

"Sorry, no," I said politely.

The District One tributes shrugged and moved.

Andrew and another boy were next to sit across from me. Andrew introduced him as Tech from District Three. He had on wire-rimmed glasses, was short and had a wiry build, had the palest skin I've ever seen, and had polished black hair.

"He's a trap maker," Andrew said.

"You haven't seen me with a knife," Tech said in a cracked voice "Its like a screwdriver." Tech's attention was drawn to me. "It was nice of you to volunteer for that girl. Whatever accident had gotten her in that position could have caused her her life if she was in the arena. Whatever happened to her?"

"Fell out the orchards during a mockingjay attack," I answered. I liked this boy.

Tech looked confused. "Mockingjays?"

"Black and white feathered birds that if you get to close to their nest, you end up like, you know-"

"Allies?"

I looked up and saw Avi and Chello above me. I saw their eyes, the same as Crystal's.

Before Andrew could say anything, I responded flatly, "No."

Chello looked ready to have a fit but Avi lead him away.

I told Andrew and Tech, "They were Careers, the tributes my mom told me to avoid-"

"Your mentor is your mom?" Tech asked. I nodded. "Cool."

"And second," I continued "Watch their eyes. Untrustworthy and cold eyes. Their just using this 'allies' thing to make us easier prey."

The second day of training, I used an ax. It was a small one with air holes to make it lighter. I just sliced off the dummy's legs when I saw Alexander approaching with cold, untrustworthy eyes.

"Before you ask, no," I said.

Alexander turned on his heels and walked away. Susan was standing behind me, giggling. I asked her if she wanted to join my alliance but she shook her head no. Thats when I noticed the fire-starting station had Maleah talking with Crystal.

Wanting to save her life and wanting her as an ally, I walked over to the station and asked, "Want to be allies?"

Maleah eyed me. She swished her long, blonde hair and said, "With your district partner and the boy from Three? No thanks."

"You can trust me and Jasper, Maleah," Crystal said, smirking with her cold eyes.

"When is a Career trustworthy?" I fought back "I mean, haven't you seen some of the recent Hunger Games?"

Maleah looked at me with gray eyes then at Crystal. She said to me, "I'm with you, whatever your name is."

"Annala," I answered.

Crystal's face went red and stomped away.

"Didn't you notice any of the Careers' eyes?" I asked Maleah "Cold eyes don't make alliances."

Maleah thought for a second. "Crystal had this shimmer I couldn't ignore at first. But, your right, I did notice that. Maybe I can get Saul hooked up with our group of allies."

I nodded.

Saul and Maleah was our new and last additions. Most of the other tributes were allies with Careers.

"I was going to ally with District Two because of their strength," Andrew said on the final day of training.

"We'd probably be dead meat in a few days if it wasn't for Annala," Saul said and winked.

I winked in return.

I showed the Gamemakers my workings with an ax and my excellence at the Gauntlet. Most of the Gamemakers were bored, drunk, or both. Four were watching me with dreary eyes and writing things down in their notebooks. They just looked at me like they really didn't care. They didn't look serious enough.

After I was dismissed, I had a hollow feeling in my chest. My tough and strong feelings I had been clinging onto was melting off.

Once I got out the elevator, my eyes were swelling with tears. Norris was talking to an Avox about dinner when he saw me. Kneeling down to my level, he asked, "Whats wrong, wrong?"

I choked out the word, "mommy," and Norris told the Avox to fetch her.

He hugged me and said, "Its going to be alright, alright."

"Annala? ANNALA?"

Mom replaced Norris as I cried, "I don't want die, mom, I don't want to."

Mom began crying to but said, "Nobody wants to sweetie." She held me back and our hazel eyes met. "You… we both have to be strong. This is tough times." Mom's grip on my shoulders tighten. "In tough times, we have to be strong until the end. Hold on, please?"

I sniffed and nodded. I caught a look from Andrew in the corner of my eye. He had watery eyes.

Crystal and her district partner both got 9s. Avi got an 8 and Chello pulled off a 10. Tech got a 4, Alexander and his district partner got 8s. Susan gripped a 3. Maleah got a 7 and Saul got a 5. Me and Andrew got 6s. Jacob got a 7.

After the interviews, everyone was saying their goodbyes. Mom hugged me for a long time and wouldn't stop kissing me until Norris said, "She needs her rest, rest."

Mom told me before I turned in for the night, "Stay strong. Don't give up. Hold on to the end."

"Okay, mom," I answered "You too. I love you."

"I love you too, sweetie."

My metal plate clicked into place. I inspected the arena, which was a jungle with high trees and long vines. I could hear animal and insect voices from the clearing the Cornucopia was in.

19 seconds before the gong, an explosion surprised me, causing me to nearly loose my footing. I saw blood and dirt flying into the air eight tributes to my right. Tech was directly on the left of me. He said quietly, "She said she was going to, but I didn't believe her."

"Huh?" I asked. Then the gong went off.

My mind swirled. I quickly grabbed the closet pack to me, a small black one that might have anything inside. A small ax that I could carry was nearby. I snatched it and ran with all my might. When I reached the jungle trees, I climbed them until I was about 30 or so feet in the air. I watched the bloodbath go on.

I've seen a camera angle like this before. All the tributes were smaller than my pinky finger. I counted six dead on the ground already just as another one joined the count.

I recognized two tributes running together as Maleah and Saul. I called to them quickly I wasn't alone watching the bloodbath.

Nine died. The rest of the day was uneventful. Me, Maleah, and Saul have yet to find Tech or Andrew. We climbed lower in the trees and crossed through the jungle, finding no trace of anyone.

The sky got dark and the anthem played. We watched the sky as the face appeared.

The girls from Three and Four, both from Five, both the girls from Six and Seven, both from Nine, and Andrew.

Maleah and Saul pat my back once Andrew lit up the sky. I hardly believed it. How… how? I was more upset for Luke. His brother had volunteered for him and now he's dead. It doesn't seem fair. If someone volunteers for you to save your life, the volunteer should win, or at least survive the bloodbath, right?

At least I did, for Tallia. I volunteered to save her life, even though I had upset my mom and dad. I'm all there is for District Eleven. I must survive the Hunger Games. For Tallia, Andrew, Luke, my parents, and the entire District.

I woke up the next day to talking.

"It was cool how we took down that guy from Six, right?"

"Sure it was."

I looked down from the tree and saw Alexander walking with the boy from Seven. They were sitting at the same table during training. They were, "allies," as the boy probably thinks. I caught a glint of Alexander's silver sword, which we was holding the handle to. Maleah and Saul were watching with me now.

"The way you flipped him over," the boy from Seven said.

"Like this."

Alexander kicked the boy's legs from under him. He hit the ground and yelped.

"Then you held down his arms and legs." Alexander continued. He sat on the boy's legs and used his extended legs to keep down the boy's arms.

"They I got my sword and-"

A cannon fire shook the arena, but the boy was still alive. Alexander got distracted and looked right up at me, Maleah, and Saul, while smiling at the sight of us. The boy tried escaping Alexander's grasp but Alexander finished him off.

"Well, well," Alexander said, standing up and wiping the blood from his sword with his shirt, "Three more victims. How nice."

Saul shook his head.

Alexander pointed his sword at us, but we had 20 feet above him. "Come down!" He shouted "Or I'll slit your throats!"

"You suck at threatening people," I said. Maleah laughed.

"I'll come up!"

Right away from his size I knew that Alexander couldn't. Maleah shouted, "Don't even try! You aren't the only ones with a weapon!"

I held up my ax and I saw Saul waving a long spear made of metal. Maleah had a serrated knife.

Alexander laughed. "I'm coming for you twerps!"

Alexander vanished under a fat leaf. We knew he was trying to get up to our level. I knew he couldn't but we changed trees just to be safe.

"Ow! Oh you little kids! I'll get you!" Alexander stomped away. His back was covered with mud and grass.

"I knew he would fall!" Saul laughed.

Later that day we found out that the first cannon fire was the boy from Eight.

On Day 3, we were low on food. Already.

"All we got is a small pack of dried fruit and not even ten pieces of jerky," Maleah reported that morning.

"I can't believe the Gamemakers would decide to have a backpack with everything but food," Saul said "and I had to be the one to pick it up."

I shrugged. "We could steal from Alexander," I suggested "He's not to far from us."

"But where exactly?" Maleah asked.

"I dunno," Saul and I said at the same time.

"Exactly. While looking for him we could be going farther away from him or, even if we do discover him, he could kill us before we could even get close enough to his backpack."

"We still need to find Tech," I said "Maybe he has food. Or some other tribute."

Until noon, we searched and found ourselves alone. Nobody seemed to be here in our area.

"Can't you recognize any of the plants here, Annala, I mean, being from the food district?" Saul said later on as we lunched "Maybe some are edible."

I looked around. I shook my head, saying, "Jungles are foreign to me."

I woke up to screaming the next day.

"No no, no no, NO NO, NOOOOOOO!"

Silence, then there was a loud cannon.

"We need to keep our eyes open," Maleah said, waking up Saul.

"RUN! DON'T LOOK BACK!"

"BEHIND YOU!"

"A-" The scream was cut off immediately.

There was hustling and growling noise that sounded nearby. A cannon went off and the noise continued.

"I'm thinking there's a mutt on the loose," Saul said.

"AAAAAAAH!"

The next cannon was so loud, it literally shook my ears. Thats when the mutt appeared. It was like a huge dog but had thick, navy blue skin. It could see its large teeth stained with deep red blood from here. The claws were short blue are sharp as a serrated knife, and also covered in blood. It glared at us from below, its eyes a night black for its pupils and blood-red whites. I could read what it wanted, it wanted our blood, wanted to tear us apart, wanted us dead.

The blood made a growling and hustling sound and vanished. It literally was there then turned invisible with patches. All but a deadly silence.

"Where did it go?" Maleah asked nervously.

The tree shook violently. The three of screamed as it shook harder again and didn't stop at all.

"Its a bull ride, a crazy bull ride!" Saul and Maleah screamed.

"We're going to die!" I cried.

There was great splinting sound and the tree began to lean to one side. The tree was falling!

Me, Maleah, and Saul screamed as the tree came crashing down, unable to do anything about it. It banging off the ground with a thud. I was about to scramble when I noticed the mutt was visible. It looked at me and I knew I was its next target.

"Run guys!" I yelled, still motionless on the ground.

"Annala!" Maleah yelled, moving from a heap of the tree's leaves.

"I said RUN!"

Saul forced Maleah to her feet. As the two took off, I looked to the sky and screamed.

The mutt lunged at me. Its arms and legs held down my own limbs. Its claws melted into my flesh with a terrible pain. The mutt appeared to be smiling, having a happy mental celebration for a fresh kill. Its forth one, probably.

I tried to struggle my way free, but it was useless. I could only move my head back and forth to avoid the mutt's vicious eyes. I could see, not so far away, Avi on the ground in a mess of blood. I knew I would look like that soon.

Very soon. I felt something bite deeply into the back of my throat and I screamed. And I felt the same thing in the side of my head.

The mutt jumped off me and ran in the direction Maleah and Saul had gone. I could only look into the sky again. Green leaves, large bright green leaves. The sky was a clear blue. My vision was slowly getting brighter and brighter until I could only see whiteness.

Then nothing at all.

District 11: Annala was a Victim. 10th place in the 28th Hunger Games

Next in "One-Shots of Victors and Victims":

District 3: Nero

Don't hate me that Annala died, I actually was mad at myself for making her die. I had a big debate on it, bigger than for what the ending would be on the previous one-shot.

I had a friend who pointed out that "Annala" spelled backwards is "Alanna." I did NOT do that on purpose.

Thank you for reading my story. Reviews are appreciated. :)