Darkness. It is all I see. Ever since I was born, I've had this blindness, people call it a set back but to me it's a disease. Nobody else has ever understood what it's like, I am completely alone.
My mother has always worried about my name being called at the reaping. I would die in minutes. Sometimes, that doesn't seem so bad. Today is my last year at the reaping, my name is in the bowl thirty seven times from almost countless tessaraes. My family has barely been alive ever since the bombing. My father was severely injured in a mine explosion, and we were not the only family to suffer. I always feel bad whenever I hear the voices of the Everdeen family, they are barely making it by each day, especially Primrose, the youngest. I pray that such a poor family doesn't get reaped.
My mother has laid out my clothes and guides me to the bed. I am not nervous, or even fearful, but I am anxious. I slip on the soft, cotton clothing that we must've paid a fortune for. I sigh.
Effie Trinket. She is a laughing stock in District 12, her Capitol accent and as far as I've heard, a ridiculous fashion sense. I would kill to be able to laugh along. As soon as I am done checking in, the sharp needle pricking my finger and blood dripping onto the page, I am sure there isn't much, but I always worry, a strong hand quickly grasps my wrist and the feeling is all too familiar. My best friend, Sae, named after the old woman in the Hob, holds my hand, and gives a supporting squeeze. She has never needed a tesserae, her brothers have always taken them.
"Are you nervous?" her warm breath on the back of my neck. I shake my head, I don't often get nervous considering my world is filled with darkness. I take a deep breath, my worst nightmare isn't me getting reaped, but Sae. I fear of losing the only light in my world, the only spark of happiness and hope. I wish so badly that I could volounteer if she got reaped, a world without Sae is unimaginable.
Effie Trinket does her usual welcome and shows us the annual uprising video. There is a booming voice narrating and bomb explosions in the background. As the video comes to an end, I listen intently to the high click of her heels as she crosses the stage to the girl's bowl. A pause. She is probably trying to make it dramatic. And she did. A crumpling of paper, another pause.
Then a name, "Sae Cathwither," and my heart stopped. The hand that was still gripping my wrist suddenly starts shaking and eventually let's go. Footsteps. Shaky breathing. My worst nightmare.
Another pause and then more clicking heels. More unfolding that seems to take forever. Another name, "Tuck Galway". My heart beats faster and I hear a scream. Sae. Everyone knows I am blind so I am guided up what seems like a mile long path, and then up approximately seven stairs. I feel an unfamiliar hand on my shoulder and I close my eyes. My mother, my father, Sae, everyone I love will soon be taken away from me. Sae and I have done everything together. We've always traded at the Hob, studied at school, and spent every minute of our lives together. Now, we will die together.