ENGL 2707
Mac Fenwick
Shivangi Desai
The One Direction Games
I walk into my room after my shower, towel hanging around my waist barely covering my hip tattoos, I see clothes laid out on my bed for me. I never wore clothes like this before. It was a black and red suit with a white scarf. Back home I just wore drags and old clothes covered in dirt. I know the people in the capital wore fancy and outrageous clothes but I never thought I would one day be dressing like them. I hear a knock on the door.
"Come in".
"Harry! You're putting on the scarf all wrong!" Efffie yells and runs over to fix it for me while Haymitch laughs.
"It doesn't matter how his scarf looks, they'll all be looking for his secret talent".
"Well, if he doesn't look presentable he won't get a good rating".
"Hey kid, any secret talents you got? Everyone is going to show theirs tonight in hopes of getting a good rating".
I thought for a minute. Back home I was pretty good at using a knife and throwing knives. My dad was carver and would build things out of wood. My mom is a hunter and she caught food for our village.
"I'm pretty good with a knife".
"A knife? Like cutting food?" Haymitch asks not sounding impressed
"Something like that", I say back.
We hear the alarm letting us know the dinner is about to start.
I enter the room and see all the other candidates looking around at the equipment. I look up and see a room in which all the mentors and judges can see us from while they eat. I see Haymitch and Effie smile at me. I smile back.
I look around and see a bunch of weapons. I pick up a knife, it's a medium sized hunting knife similar to the one I had at home. I grip the black handle and slowly put my hand on the cold metal.
"Sharp knife". The sudden voice startles me and I slightly cut my finger on the knife and flinch. I look up to who the voice belonged to. It's a boy around the same age as me, a bit shorter than me, with bright green eyes and soft swept back brown hair that stopped right above his eyes. He looks back at me with a smile.
"Sorry about that, I'm Louis".
"Harry Styles" I say back.
"I'm from District 3, where are you from?" Wow that is one of the richer districts. That's the district that is known for its discovering new technologies and being very charismatic. I was a little embarrassed and ashamed to say my district, District 12, because we were known for being the poorest district. Before we could exchange any more words, we hear an announcement.
"Everyone get in positions, we are now beginning to show the talents and skills of our tributes".
"Good luck out there, maybe I'll see you again" he says with a wink before walking away.
When it was Louis' turn, all he did was stand up front and say, "I can differentiate between all kinds of plants and I have a medical background" and then sat back in his seat. Odd, but it seemed to impress the judges.
"Harry Styles from District 12", finally, it was my turn.
I go up and see that half of the judges including Haymitch weren't even paying attention to me. I looked around and saw a set of knives on top of a table along with other weapons. I pick up all the hunting knives and start throwing them towards the fake plastic targets on the wall, piercing right through the middle of each one. I hear some surprised gasps from the other tributes watching but notice that some of the mentors and judges still haven't turned to look at me. In a fit of rage, I throw the remaining knives in my hands towards the room. I make an outline of Haymitch's body on the wall behind him with the knives.
The room goes silent. Everybody is now looking at me. I smile and bow. "Thank you for your time", I say as I walk out of the room.
"Harry what the fuck was that? You could've killed me!" Haymitch starts yelling as he walks into my room.
Unfazed by his yelling I continue to keep eating dinner while watching the TV show results of all the tributes. Each tribute gets rated out of 10 for their skill. Simon Cowell is reading out all the results.
"Are you even listening to m-"
"Harry Styles-wow this is the highest rating this season- 10/10. It's the sign of the times!"
Haymitch and Effie stare at the TV in shock.
"Well paint me surprised. Never has anyone received a perfect rating before…" Effie says.
I shrug in response and try to hide the small smile that appears on my face. I hope Louis saw my rating and was impressed.
"Louis from district 3? I saw you talking to them. Good to make allies"
Oh, crap did I say that out loud?
"Yes, you did" Haymitch says while laughing.
"I talked to some mentors and got you some allies from the little stunt you pulled today. Their names are Zayn, Niall, Liam and of course Louis. Zayn is from district 1, Niall is from District 5 and Liam is from District 7. You'll recognise them tomorrow in the battlefield because they'll be wearing silver bracelets".
"How can I trust them?"
"You don't, just don't give them a reason to not trust you. Good luck tomorrow, maybe someone else from District 12 can win for once".
"Good luck Harry, it was a pleasure getting to know you". I can see the tears welling up in Effie's eyes as she gives me a hug before they leave my room.
The Next Day
The alarm goes off and everyone starts sprinting in one direction: towards the giant gold Cornucopia.
I'm running and feel a tap and look beside me. It's Louis and he smiles at me. I smile back but trip because I don't see where I'm running. Louis continues running and I get pulled up.
"I'm Zayn" the dark-haired boy says to me.
"C'mon now, keep running!" I hear someone else yell and see it's a blonde boy wearing a silver bracelet.
Before I can start running a spear flies through the air and pierces through Zayn. He falls to the ground screaming in pain.
I want to help him but get dragged away by Louis. We start following the blonde boy and another boy.
"What about Zayn?!" I thought we were allies.
"We can't help him, there's too many of them we'd get killed!" The second boy yells back.
We hear a canon go off in the distance. That means someone is dead. That must be Zayn.
We continue running through the forest until we find a cave to hide in.
"Oh my god that was crazy! Did you see that? Zayn got stabbed with a fucking spear!" the blonde one exclaims and then starts laughing really hard.
I look at him in shock, we just saw someone die how can he find this amusing?
"Don't mind him, that's just Niall" Louis says. Ah, so the other one must be Liam.
"Did anyone grab any weapons?"
"I grabbed this giant trident" Liam says.
"I grabbed the knife set and a medical kit" Louis says smiling and handing me the knives. He's so sweet.
"We should get go looking for food in a bit"
"Good idea Harry, we'll split up in teams. Harry and I and Liam and Niall"
We hear three more canons go off. That means only 8 tributes left including us.
We decide it's safe to go hunting now that there's less tributes.
Louis and I go looking for meat.
"I'm so hungry" Louis says
"Me too" we hear a voice say back.
We both turn around and see a blonde girl smirking at us holding a bow and arrows.
"Taylor Swift, there's two of us and one of you, do you really think you can win this?" Louis says as I grip onto the two knives in my hand harder. Louis is unarmed.
"She's not alone" a dark-haired girl also holding a bow and arrows pops out from the trees behind us.
"Hello Harry Styles, nice to finally meet you. Was hoping we could've been allies", the dark-haired girl says.
"I'm Selena by the way" she says as she fires her first bow.
I push Louis out of the way and throw my knife at her.
It lands in her right eye and she falls to the ground screaming. "Justin! Take away your things and go!"
A blonde hair boy comes running out of the forest with a spear in his hand. So, he's the one that killed Zayn.
"You killed Selena!" He yells and charges towards me with the spear.
"Louis you're unarmed, go hide!" I scream.
I reach for the knives tied to my thighs and start throwing at Justin while Louis runs towards Taylor.
The knives pierce Justin before he can get anywhere near me. We hear two canons go off.
"Look what you made me do", Taylor says as she starts to aim her bow towards Louis.
He tackles her to the ground.
The arrow still gets fired and nicks me on the side of my stomach. I hold onto the part where I can see blood seep through my shirt.
I see Louis struggling to fight with Taylor and I reach for my knives. I used all of them up.
I run over to Justin's lifeless body and rip out two knives and get ready to stab Taylor with them but before I can, Louis is on top of her so I can't get to her.
Taylor grabs one of her bows and tries to stab Louis with it and I take my chance and throw the knife aiming for her head.
"Louis, move!"
Right as he moves, the knife lands right between her eyes and we hear another canon go off.
Breathing heavily, I run towards Louis and hug him forgetting all about the throbbing pain on my stomach. We pull away and I stare into his green eyes and start to lean in and-
"Louis! Harry! Bloody hell, are you guys alright?" Liam and Niall come running towards us.
"Yeah, we're fine" I say back. We hear a canon go off. That leaves us four. We stare at each-other not sure what the next move is.
What could have killed the fifth tribute if all four of us are here?
We look up and see birds and small animals running away in one direction past us.
We all realize what is coming.
Poisonous rain.
Liam stabs Niall in the leg and throws in the direction of the rain as we see the clouds and rain quickly approach us.
I grab Louis' hand and start running with Liam close behind us.
We hear Niall scream in agony as the rain pours over him and starts to melt his skin. The smell of burning fills the air as my legs burn from running. A canon is fired.
Louis trips and falls spraining his ankle. "Harry keep going without me!" The rain is so close.
"No! I won't!" I scream back.
They're trying to leave only two tributes so we can fight to the death. I will not let Liam live over Louis.
"I'm sorry mate" I say and throw the arrows that I picked up from Taylor towards Liam.
The arrows hit his legs and he falls to the ground.
I pick up Louis and drag him with me as we both watch the rain cover Liam and stop as soon as it hits him.
A canon goes off. There is only Louis and I.
"Louis I'm not going to hurt you. I… I think I'm falling in love with you. We can win this together"
Louis stands up on his own and brushes a curl from my face.
"Harry, District 3 is well known for its intellect yet you didn't see my special skill all along and that's what makes you beautiful. You're so talented and strong yet you failed to see the bad in me"
I feel a sharp pain in my stomach.
It's Louis stabbing me.
"I'm sorry Harry, but nobody can drag me down".