There she is again. Why do I keep seeing her? I shake my head and follow her down the path that I barely caught her walking on. As I disappear deeper and deeper into this direction, the world starts to recede around me. I can only see in front of me. I try to look to the side and see only darkness. I turn my head quickly. Same thing. I turn my head back and the darkness turns into a forest set ablaze. Panic and adrenaline courses through my veins as I look for an escape route. I won't die here. I look expectantly to my right and left. Both paths are lit up with unbelievably high and powerful waves of fire. All of sudden there's a shriek that sounds so familiar, too familiar, that I have to move in the direction it came from. Unfortunately it's coming from deeper into the fire. My resolve doesn't waver, I have to get to the owner of that shriek. I must. As I travel deeper and deeper, I start to feel the effects of the fire and smoke. My eyelids start to drop and my heart rate is speeding up and slowing down inconsistently. I clutch my chest trying to rip my lungs out of my body. They're as inflamed as this forest is.
"Where are you!?" I call out to her, my voice dry and raspy. No response. I grit my teeth and continue forward. Each step feels like it shaves a few years off my life and I'm going to drop any second. I take one last step before I drop to my knees. Defeat. It tastes so bitter until I hear her voice. She says something, I think my name. As soon as the last decibel of noise escapes her lips, the entire forest is extinguished and the meadow we are now resting in looks almost pristine. My head is on her lap as she sits there looking over me, applying a damp towel to my forehead. My eyes fly open and all of a sudden I'm in my bed looking for the girl of my dreams in a cold sweat. My mother rushes to my room quickly.
"Finn?" She calls my name gently.
"Yeah, sorry mom I had another strange dream." I say wiping my face. She turns on my light and gets a towel from my washroom. After she hands it to me, she sits on the side of my bed, deep in her thoughts like usual. I can see her weighing options in her head, probably deciding whether or not to tell me something as I watch her mouth move to open and then stop suddenly.
"Are you worried about the reaping? It's your last year you know." I shake my head. I haven't really been 'trained' for the games but considering that I was birthed from two prior victors, I picked up on some stuff. I mean my mother taught me how to hunt as soon as I took my first steps. She took me to the woods every morning for 13 years and passed on everything she knew. My mother was different here. The way she commanded grace and flew through the grassy earth, I could tell that my mother was truly the queen of these woods and I'm the heir she's passing it down to. Even as a child I felt an immense pride to share these woods with my mother. We still go out every once in a while to compete. I've gotten better and I've definitely gotten close but I've never managed to overcome her. How I admire her. I was lucky enough to inherit my father's stocky build although I'm a bit taller than he is now. Genetics aside, he also taught me how to paint. Actually he taught me more than how to paint, he taught me how capture a moment through gentle but utterly tactical strokes. He showed me how a fleeting moment like a shooting star can be captured on a canvas and appreciated forever. Both of my parents raised me in a way where I wasn't usually too worried about myself.
"I'm not worried about the games." I sigh deeply.
"You see, there's this girl-" I stutter as a picture of the girl rushes into my head. I spot my mother's face. She looks kind of surprised and slightly worried. She was unprepared for this.
"Oh, would you like me to wake your father? He's much better with this kind of thing." My mother offers. You can see she's desperate to escape this topic.
"No thanks. It's nothing like that. Well, at least I don't think it is." I'm stumbling over my words now.
"There's just this girl that has been showing up in my dreams for a while now but I don't think I've never seen her in real life before." My mother considers this for a second. All of a sudden a playful smile crosses her face. I can't figure out why.
"What's so funny?" I ask her, so obviously confused. She just smiles at me and says,
"It obviously means you're going to meet her soon."
I wake up again, this time I'm not sweating profusely and it's also morning. I get out of bed and stretch myself out, getting prepared for the day ahead of me. The reaping isn't for another few hours so I have some time to go out. I go to the washroom and make myself at least look presentable enough to go outside into the real world. My parents are kind of celebrities around these parts, my father is the mayor and my mother still carries her status as the most famous victor, so everyone knows who I am. I can't go out looking like I just woke up and embarrass them.
After I groom myself, I head downstairs to leave. I'm minding my own business when all of a sudden I get side swiped by a beautifully delicious aroma wafting in from the kitchen. My mother is frying some eggs, potatoes and ham while I can smell the scent of freshly baked bread coming from the oven. I abandon my quest to the outside world to fill up on some of my mother's wonderful cooking to wake me up.
"Smells delicious." I tell my mother, my mouth still drooling.
"Grab a seat little duck," My mother says sweetly as she turns to grab me a plate. I take a seat at the table and grab my fork and knife ready to dig in. I look over expectantly at my mother who is walking to me with a big plate full of eggs, potatoes and ham. I can't help but inhale all the food in front of me until I can't breathe. I sit back and rest my hands on the back of my head, satisfied. As my mother takes my plate and sets it in the sink the doorbell rings. I'm so full that all my movements are slowed and I take a long time getting up. Suddenly the doorbell starts ringing repeatedly and I know who has to be at the door. Damn it, who does she think she is? I take my pleasant time walking knowing I'll annoy the person waiting for me, one of my very best friends in the world, Sasha Brooks. When I open the door I see she's standing in my doorway expectantly, probably waiting for an apology. Her nose is wrinkled in irritation and slightly reddened by the cold morning air. I just woke up so I'm slightly annoyed.
"Why the fu- (My mom is right behind me!) -hell are you ringing my door bell like that!? (That was close!)I-I swear to god, you're going to break it."
"Well why didn't you answer your door faster!? I waited exactly twenty-five seconds and you didn't show up!"
"Well what if I wasn't here and all you were doing was disrupting my parents!?"
"Well if you weren't here then you would've been with me, right? Who the hell else do you know?" She says wryly. I catch the glint in her eye. She's teasing me but she's also kind of right. Whenever I go out, I usually drop by her house and ask her to tag along anyway. She's fun to be around.
"Yeah, whatever." I say back with a playful smile. My mother catches us in the doorway and comes to say hi.
"Oh, hello Sasha, were you the one "spamming" our doorbell?" My mother asks her, smiling gently. Sasha blushes so clearly even I feel kind of embarrassed.
"I'm sorry Mrs. Mellark, your son was just taking too long and I got impatient-"
"Say no more." My mother cuts her off. "You do what you have to do to whip my son in to shape!" My mother adds. I just look at her in disbelief. She doesn't know it, but this has Sasha fired up beyond belief.
"You got it ma'am!" Sasha says as she salutes my mother. She smiles at us and walks away.
Sasha starts smiling back at me when all of sudden she brings her palm to her forehead like she just now remembered an essential piece of information.
"Theo, Leslie and Sol are waiting for us in the meadow," she informs me. Those are my other three best friends. We all met in kindergarten when we were put in the same table group. Let's start with big ol' Theodore Lasus. He's a big ol' ox. That's what I call him because he's incredibly big and strong. We both box and wrestle in the district wide school competitions. He's always the star though. I've lost just a little bit more than he did and I never get to forget about it because he always reminds me of it. It's mainly because there was almost no one in his weight class, though. Either the opposing schools would have to back out or try their luck. Leslie is my second best friend and Theo's girlfriend. She's probably the smartest person I know. I don't even mean book smarts (Though she was on the honor roll,) but she has some kind of clairvoyance. She always has an answer like she can see everything. I remember this one time last year, when we were in eleventh grade. All five of us wandered deep into the forest, the first reaping of the "Updated Hunger Games" was the next day. Nobody said it but I think we wanted some kind of "escape". I didn't think they were willing to go all the way to meadow, it's quite a hike to get there, but we did eventually make it there. First whiff of that clear lake water and I felt refreshed. Still, nobody said anything until Sol slips out:
"This is a pretty peacefully place to sleep. There's no noise but the water." Hmm. I had never thought about that before he said it. I just decide to sit down and relax. Theo and Leslie leave to do whatever couples do. Kiss or whatever. Sol sat next to me. Sasha went to go play in the water. That girl who has way too much energy.
"Hey, Finn..." Sol's tone got real serious. That's worrying. You see, Sol is an odd guy but probably my closest friend of all. He has a strange lack of self-worth but somehow this gives him an incredible amount of selflessness. He always does what he can for others. If he can help you in any possible way, he will. But at the same time, he will almost never ask anyone else for help. With, ANYTHING. He once broke his right arm while helping an elderly man fix his roof and ended up fixing his arm himself. I swear! I was there the whole time saying he should go see a doctor but he just kept it to himself and moved on. He was on the school fencing team and had to compete against a District 3 student, while using his left arm. I would love to say he won but he lost, although it was close, just one point. The point is, he's gained my respect and when he starts talking to me in such a serious tone, I listen carefully.
"Have you read over the rules for the Hunger Games?" Sol asks me.
"Mhm."
"What do you think? It sounds oddly... I don't know. I'm not exactly mad."
"I know what you mean." The updated Hunger Games have a bittersweet taste to it, I have to say. On one hand, you don't have to die. You can say "Mercy!" That means you "lose". However, losing could mean the possibility of starving you alongside your District. See, the games made their way back into our lives because the world had been running out of yearly resources. There was only enough for every District, including the Capitol, to live just above starvation annually or have one District starve for a year while the rest are taken care of. President Valley, the current president of the Capitol was the first one to suggest the Games, with a new twist. Now, the games will be about whoever survives to the end AND actually has something to do with the word "hunger". She actually said these words according to my father who was at the negotiations. If the games start and you're the first person to call "Mercy!" you come in last. That means your district, or the Capitol, has to starve. The next seven to lose receive just enough to get by. The top six receives more than enough to get by on with the Victor getting a special prize; a twenty five percent cut of the money from the people who lost betting on the games. Being the Victor once, just once, insures that you probably won't have to work for twenty years at least. It's strangely... Fair. But still, I bet a lot of people will die anyway. I mean, no one wants to lose first and so that means until you've heard that first cannon, you can't quit. "I'll volunteer for you if it ever comes to that, okay?" Sol says to me way out of the blue.
"Huh? What are you talking about?"
"It would be embarrassing for you and your family if you lost all our food for the entire year. Everybody will make fun of you. I mean, you're the Victor's child. 'The golden boy.' If I lose, I'll just start living out here."
"Shut up, Sol. If you get nominated, I'll volunteer for you because I don't mind being made fun of as long you're not forced to live out here during the harsh winters. I would prefer you stayed alive and in 12. Okay?"
"...Hmph." He just scoffs then lies back. I do too. As I close my eyes, I think to myself, "Sol's right. This is a nice play to sleep."
I woke up to a blanket of stars shining between the cracks of the rustling trees. I can see them clearly because there's oddly no moonlight. When I look to my side I can barely see Sol who's right next to me. I shake him awake.
"Sol. Sol! Wake up. We gotta get outta here." The forest is dangerous to be in at night. We /are/ in the meadow but it would just be better to get back home.
"I'm already awake. I was waiting for you to wake up."
"Jeez! You could've woke me up before it got this dark!"
"You looked tired."
"Gah! Whatever, just go wake up Theo and Leslie. I'll go get Sasha."
"Alright." Sol responds bluntly then hurries off. I told you. Sol is a real odd guy. I look over to the water. I remember Sasha splashing around before I fell asleep. Suddenly, I hear snoring coming from beside me. Sasha was sleeping, curled up next to me.
"S-Sasha?" I blurt out.
"Hmm...?" She says weakly. "What do you want Finn? I'm tired."
"We gotta leave now. We shouldn't sleep out here."
"Hmm? Why not? It's quiet and peaceful." She responds with a hint of annoyance. We should've fallen asleep in the trees. There are wild dogs who aren't necessarily satisfied with the rabbits that this forest can barely supply them with. I don't want to worry Sasha too much so I decide to keep it to myself.
"We just have to go, okay? Trust me."
"I'm tired-drunk. Piggyback me."
"Huh? You're kidding right?"
"But I thought you /liked/ me?"
"A-Are you actually drunk right now?" I did tell Sasha, my long-time friend, that I did in fact have some kind of extra emotions for her. She likes to hold that over my head and tease me with it when she's upset with me.
"...You're really serious... Fine... Hop on my back." I slip out reluctantly. I bend down and she mounts my back.
"Not even gonna say thanks?" I say as I look back. Turns out she's already asleep. I just sigh. Liking someone who's also a close friend is a strange thing. Theo, Leslie and Sol walk over to us.
"How are we gonna get back when we can barely even see the people in front of us?" Theo says as he and Leslie rejoin us.
"I don't know," I respond. I'm sure my mother knows these woods well enough to maneuver around blindfolded but I haven't quite reached that level yet. Just as this thought crossed my mind, Leslie finally says:
"We just have to wait for Finn's mom to show up. I told her we would be coming out here before we left."
Clairvoyance. We just sat and waited for 5 more minutes and sure enough, I heard my parents calling for us. We got out of the meadow relatively easily and all got to sleep in our own beds. Each of my friends are special in their own way and have a place in my heart. All I want to do is protect them. Which is why I'm starting to get awfully worried. For some reason, I start smelling heavy smoke. Now, even though this is still a coal and mineral mining District, this aroma was the smoke of flames straight from hell. I've never smelled anything quite like this before. I can see Sasha recognize the panic in my eyes.
"What's wrong Finn?" She says as she shakes my shoulders. I'm paralyzed by fear. Suddenly my dream is becoming all too familiar because the world starts closing out around me. I can't tell why. But, finally I hear a shriek that snaps me back to earth. I look to the left of my doorstep and see that the shriek came from an elderly woman pointing at the woods. Thick, dense clouds of darkness are escaping from the middle and I can hear the fire starting to spread. Sasha follows the woman's finger slightly slower than I do and I get to watch the expression of her face change from confusion to realization to horror to an understanding of what comes next. Sasha and I are off to the woods before we even exchange any words. If we even have a chance of getting them out alive, waiting won't help. I get to the weak part of the fence when I hesitate, partly because I'm afraid, partly because Sasha's just a little bit behind me and for some reason I'm expecting to see her. The girl from my dreams.