Disclaimer: Sadly I only own my OCs and the twists and turns of the storyline. Everything else is thanks to their respective owners.
Hey guys, so this is my very first fanfic and I hope you like it. I just started writing and would like to hear your opinion about it. English is not my first language, so please bear with me and my grammatical errors. I have the storyline planned to some extend and would like to give every chapter a theme song. As I write I listen to the song almost the whole time. ;)
Starting with Time to say goodbye. Please enjoy.
Chapter 1 Time to say goodbye
Standing in front of the justice building in the section of the 17-year-olds and waiting for our escort to finally arrive, I hear the girls next to me gossiping. A lot about the handsome boys of district four: hard work, harsh sun and lots of swimming apparently sum up to good looks. I don´t mind and have to admit, looking over to my left where the boys are standing in their respective sections, that most of them are indeed good looking. Too bad most of them won´t even talk to me.
It´s not because I´m ugly or have a nasty personality, it´s because my mother got pregnant before marrying my father and both of them died shortly after my birth in a sea-storm. People simply assumed I was the cause of their misfortune, since I was with them on the boat that day. My survival was what made them wary of me and had the whole district spinning with stories. Most of them were and still are completely made up and don´t even have an ounce of truth in them, but I wouldn´t know, having almost no memories of that day myself.
But my story caused the people to mistrust me, even if they had to admit, that I didn´t do them any wrong. I even helped a lot of people and did little tasks for them, mostly in exchange for food.
Most of my time I spent babysitting a 12 year old boy from my district – Damien. He was, after many bribings of peacekeepers and a lot of money send to the capitol, diagnosed with having some form of handycap, but his parents never elaborate about it. He is somewhat slow at grasping new concepts and appears extremely childlike, but he is almost always happy and tries to make people laugh wherever he goes. He is really sweet, but has problems with reading people and often doesn´t catch an underlying meaning or forms of irony and sarcasm.
Snapping back to reality after surveying the other poor unfortunate souls waiting for the reaping for the 74th hunger games, I heard Ursula, a snobbish girl from my class, whisper something to the girls standing next to me. I didn´t catch all of it, but I was pretty sure it was something or another about me looking all "granny-like" and not being able to look normal at least once a year.
Narrowing my eyes and suppressing my anger I look down at my feed, clad in old leather sandals. They are one of the few possessions Elmar and Louise, the elderly couple that took my in after my parents died, left me. I am even wearing one of Louises old dresses, hanging in an odd shape around my body and covering me chin to toe, resulting in making me look like a goon.
I had my reasons for choosing this outfit and Ursula knows as well, so her commenting on it is just a way of trying to get a rise out of me. Something that will not happen, at least not today.
After waiting for what felt like an eternity Skylar, our district escort, makes an appearance and walks up on the stage next to our major. Greeting us in her high-pitched voice she starts the film about the history of the hunger games. Most of us don´t really watch it though, it´s always the same and the information content is rating up to zero.
"Awww, I simply looove it! Now on to the best part, the reaping of the district 4 tributes for the 74th annual hunger games", she screeches and walks over to two oversized goldfishbowls, containing the names of all the children gathered around the townsquare. "And like every year – Ladies first!", Skylar reaches into the bowl and her manicured fingers swirl around, twirling the slips around. There are many pieces of paper, my name entered 11 times, since I once took tesserae after Elmar and Louise died. Quickly doing the math and just crossing my fingers that the odds would be in my favour for another year I take a deep breath. Skylar is still fishing for a name and everyone has grown quiet. Finally she snatches one and slowly unfolds the paper, obviously basking in the limelight and keeping us in suspense. "This years female tribute is – Loreley Cantara!", Skylar looks expectantly over the crown, scanning for the girl whos fate she sealed with drawing her name.
I start to look around, only to realize, that everyone is staring at me and even Ursula - I so can´t stand her - looks at me with a sad expression. Skylar interrupts my wondering, asking for the female tribute to show up: "Loreley, dear, come up!" As my eyes widen for a split second, it dawnes on me that she is indeed asking me to come up to the stage. Meanwhile everyone is staring at me, drawing a shaky breath I start my way over to Syklar. Feeling like Moses parting the sea, everyone stepping back and creating a wide path, I´m not even in need of peacekeepers escorting me. I try to look not to forlorn and desperate, but I can sense that I´m miserably failing. Even Skylars smile falters for a brief second after spotting me.
People start murmuring and I´m sure I hear a low whistling sound, but it could be my imagination. At this point I would be kind of glad if my mind was playing tricks on me and this is simply a terrible nightmare.
After what felt like an eternity I stand next to Skylars smiling form, trying to hold my tears at bay.
When exactly did I start crying?
Wasting no more time our escort moves over to the bowl full of boys´ names. Not even trying to fish for a slip she simply grabs the one on top and states the name over the microphone. Again my mind is too slow to comprehend what she said. The first thing I register is a loud sob in the audience. Searching for the source of it I quickly make out Mrs. Pisco, Damiens mother. Wait- what?! I look around for Damien and sure, there he is, skipping up to the stage and practically throwing himself in my arms. He can´t grasp the whole concept of the games, his parents would not even let him watch them, as no one wants to find out what it would do to his already complicated state of mind. The whistling gets louder and now I´m convinced that it´s not just a fragment of my imagination, people start humming and Damien just looked wide-eyed at me.
I glance around, unsure of what to do and look over at Syklar, she´s the one with the plan here! But our escort seems to be at a loss to, gaping around and not saying a single thing. This never happened before.
Now almost every citizen of district 4 is humming or whistling and as I recognize the song Damien tugs at my dress: "Lori, sing for me!" His smiling face and the hopeful look in his eyes make me melt, I had jet to see the day where I would be able to say no to him – this day will probably never come – and so I clear my throat and start singing
When I'm alone I dream of the horizon and words fail me. Time to say goodbye.
There is no light in a room where there is no sun
and there is no sun if you're not here with me, with me.
From every window unfurls my heart the heart that you have won.
Into me you've poured the light,
the light that you found by the side of the road.
Places that I've never seen or experienced with you.
Now I shall, I'll sail with you upon ships across the seas,
seas that exist no more,
it's time to say goodbye.
I´m crying the whole time and even after I´ve finished the song people are humming, whistling and/or crying. Skylar and some peacekeepers shoo us into the justice building and as the door closes with a bang dread fills me I´m going to die. Damien is going to die, there is no turning back. Oh my...I´m going to die! My thoughts turn in a circle and as I start to panic my breath hitches and I feel as if I can´t get enough oxygen. Hyperventilating and with blurry eyes I can´t even make out where the peacekeepers a leading me, moments was it just a few seconds or more than a minute later I feel a hand gently rubbing the small of my back. Confused I look at the peacekeeper next to me, a peacekeeper actually comforting me? Can´t be happening- the one in question seems oddly familiar. After blinking away a few tears his try to calm me down seems to take effect I try to look closer at him, but we reach a door and he simply pushes me into the room so much for being nice, but at the last second his eyes find mine and I immediately recognize him, it´s Nelson, a drunkhead I cleaned up on more than one occasion, at least he remembers.
Not a single person comes to see me off, but I didn´t expect anything else. Most people didn´t know me, just things about me. Which are most likely not even true. They were nice enough, giving me jobs and I guess some of them kept an eye out for me, but right now they were undoubtedly busy clinging to their own flesh and blood, happy it wasn´t one of their own going to the capitol.
Composing myself and rubbing my face to get rid of the tearstains I simply wait, there isn´t much I can do, my fate has already been decided. I will die in the 74th hunger games. I just hope Damien and me make it past the blood-bath and if we are lucky enough die a quick and at best pain-free death. That would be most agreeable.
Please leave a review and tell my what you think about the start of the story