I wake up with a sudden sharp shock. I'm not sure what woke me and am disorientated for a few moments. Then I remembered.
It was the day of the reaping.
Although it was still really early in the morning, I was now wide awake with a sick sense of twisted dread, churning inside my stomach. I rolled over, trying to see if I could fall back asleep and catch another hour of snooze, but my brain was thinking otherwise.
Across on the other side of the room, a slender figure lay, still sleeping, oblivious of what was to come later. Mikasa, my sister, looked so peaceful when sleeping so I decided against waking her up. Her usual straight, black hair was ruffled, which contrasted to her normal stoic appearance.
Apart from Mikasa, there was no one around in our small, rundown house. My mother had been brutally murdered seven years prior by the peacekeepers, who had claimed it was an accident, but everyone in our district knew differently. My father had been called away to District 2 about a year ago but me and Mikasa had heard no word from him since and we both had come to a silent agreement that we expected the worst had happened to him.
I got up from my bed, as quiet as possible as not to wake Mikasa, and walked silently across the wardrobe where I put on my trousers and slipped on my sturdy leather boots. Over my head I pull my scratchy, green woollen tunic and over the top of that my mother's leather hunting jacket.
Over on the table Mikasa had laid out a breakfast which would be extravagant even by District 12 terms; a loaf of soft white bread, goats cheese, a single plum tomato, all wrapped up in a bundle of basil leaves. Normally we would be eating a bowl of watery porridge and that was if we had enough food in.
I grab the breakfast and slip it into my pocket and headed outside into the early morning sunshine. Normally at this time in the morning, this whole area would be crawling with miners on their way to work, hunched over, muscles red and raw, with black coal dust sparkling under their fingernails.
However the cinder lined street was unusually desolate, with everyone still in bed trying to enjoy the one day of the year where they were allowed to sleep in without fear of losing their pay. The day of the reaping is meant to be regarded as a holiday by the Capitol but everyone here in District 12 considers it a day of hell; as there is an anxiety inducing wait in the morning as the actual reaping doesn't take place until 2 in the afternoon. Being seventeen, I only have to endure two more reapings before I am officially free from this annual fear inducing event.
However even then, the reapings made me angry rather than intimated. Angry at the Capital for holding these stupid games, all for their sick enjoyment. Angry at the inevitable outcome that would always befall our District, the loss of two innocent children's lives, the fact that we've only ever had two victors. And angry at myself for being so useless, unable to change anything but sit and watch as yet another 23 children get publically slaughtered every year on television.
As mine and Mikasa's house was located at the edge of Shiganshina, I only had to pass a few houses before I reached the Meadow. Beyond there was a huge 50 foot chain linked fence with barbed wire spiking around in loops on the top. Supposedly it was meant to be electrified, but here in Shiganshina we were lucky if we got more than three hours electricity a night. And why did we even have the fence in the first place?
Behind the fence was the Woods which was apparently home to huge man eating creatures, dangerous animals and deadly predators. It was meant to be a deterrent to these things, but in all of the six years of sneaking into the woods told me that the only thing that I had to be weary was any poisonous snakes or the odd cougar. However even then they would stay away unless aggravated.
I turned to check that nobody was watching me. Then next I listened to see I could hear the faint hum of the fence, which was to signify that it was on. Luckily however nine times out of ten it was always off. I walked over to spot where the fence was loose and wiggled underneath, getting dust up my nose and I sneezed loudly. I clapped my hands over my mouth, but there was nobody around to hear me. After all, it was only me and Mikasa who were brave enough to regularly sneak into the woods. Sometimes during the autumn several people would sneak in and harvest some of the pears that grew on the trees close to the fence, but even then they would never venture very far inside the woods.
Me and Mikasa on the other hand, knew all the paths that crisscrossed around in a five mile radius and so I took the quickest route to our favourite spot in the woods. It wasn't very far in, but it was far enough that I could talk and move about freely without fear of being caught by someone standing by the fence. Here was an old and knarled tree with plenty of wide branches stood on a jutting rock.
Inside of the tree was stashed a bow with a quiver of arrows, various snares and a small hunting knife concealed inside of a waterproof tarp. Possession of these weapons carried a heavy penalty and being caught trespassing and hunting was an even heavier penalty, however the promise of food and solitude from the district outweighed these risks for me. I climbed the tree and considered pulling out the bow and hunting a small deer or a bird to take back to eat that evening, but then decided against it, as the security would be tighter today with it being the reaping and all.
I sighed and felt like shouting angrily into the rising sun, but yet again that would be another bad idea, the risk of being overheard was higher than normal and I was worried about it. When I was younger, I would always rant off about the Capital to my mother, which shocked her and scared her half to death, which resulted to her always telling me to control my thoughts and feelings. As I grew older and with the sudden brutal death of her, I realised the power of the words that they wielded and as a result I understood why I couldn't say things like that in front of other people. I became the son I should have been, quiet and hardworking at school, learning to hold my tongue. Only in the woods with Mikasa, I would let off steam and rant to my heart's content about the Capitol. Most of the time I would do the raving, but sometimes she would pitch from time to time with her views.
These sessions would help me calm and become focused the hunt that followed. Me and Mikasa worked well as a team, having perfected our techniques of hunting together. Being so poor, most of the time we would go to the Hob to trade where we would make most of our money to live, until we were eighteen and could qualify to get a job. We would only make small talk at the marketplace, wanting to keep our heads down and keep out of trouble. At home, conversation would be sparse as we would do most of our talking in the woods and would have nothing much to say to each other.
Suddenly I hear a rustle of leaves behind me. I turn quickly to face Mikasa, who was smiling at me. She jumped up and climbed across the branch to sit and swing her legs.
"Good morning Eren," she said. Her heart wasn't in the smile however, the reaping was obviously strongly on her mind, making her scared enough to nervously smile at me.
"Get enough sleep?" I asked.
"Mmm, enough for today," she replied, "You picked up breakfast I presume?"
"Yeah sure," I said, pulling out the food bundle from my pocket. Mikasa's smile become more genuine. Here was good quality bread, soft and white, instead of the flat and grainy bits that we normally had to make out of our grain rations. Mikasa had obviously made a very good trade for the bread, as stuff like this was only consumed on special occasions.
"Did this bread cost much?" I asked, trying to rip it in half as evenly as I could.
"Only a squirrel and handful of mushrooms, the old man selling it said he was feeling particularly sentimental."
I passed over half of the bread and she took a bit of the goats cheese to add on top.
"Well everyone is feeling closer today than normal," I said doing the same. I took a huge bite and let the bread rest on my tongue as I savoured the taste. Today it tasted especially good.
"Well we've got a real feast today," Mikasa remarked taking a bite out of the tomato before passing it to me to finish off.
"Cheers," I say, holding my bread in the air. Mikasa copied and held her half in the air and we made a toasting motion with them.
"May the odds," I say putting on a Capitol accent, doing my best to mimic the eccentric Hanji Zoe, the escort who arrives every year to pull out a name in the reaping.
"Be ever in your favour!" Mikasa finished, also putting on a much better accent than me. We 'clinked' our bread before devouring another huge mouthful each. To be honest, the accents didn't matter too much, as the Capitol accent sounded so stupid; anyway you said it sounded funny.
I gaze at Mikasa as she finished up the last bits of her bread. Although she is my sister, she is only adopted, as we could not be any more different in appearance to each other. Her long straight black hair put my messed brown hair to shame, whilst her skin was pale compared to my tan. Her black slanted eyes contrasted with my own green eyes.
We come from different parts of District 12 but after Mikasa's parents were killed, my family had taken her in. Her parents had been bakers whilst my own mother and father ran the apothecary, the closest anyone had to a healer in Shiganshina, since nobody could afford one. When I was about nine, me and my mother had gone over to supply them with some herbs, since my mother had heard that the baker's daughter was sick, she was shocked to find the walls covered in blood and a sick child upstairs crying and confused.
Mikasa's parents had been killed by Peacekeepers because they had received a tip off that they were obtaining the ingredients for their bakery illegally and when they had protested, the peacekeepers had brutally murdered them in cold blood to serve as an example to the rest of the district what would happen if they too were to selling illegal products. Events like this were rare and had shocked as Peacekeepers weren't normally this strict, often finding one in the Hob hoping to get a piece of meat at a cheap price as they too suffered from food shortages. However the black market had flourished, as the threat of another event like this happening seemed distant.
"Fancy foraging some strawberries to eat after the reaping?" Mikasa asked once we had finished our meal. The sun had risen quite high in the sky as we had been sitting.
"Sure," I replied. We still had a few hours left before we had to go back and get ready for the reaping and I didn't fancy just sitting around thinking it.
Hey so this is the first time I've ever written from the first person perspective. Normally I tend to stick with third person so I can switch around with characters, however for this I tried to get close to writing style of Suzanne Collins.
I've decided to make it my New Year's resolution to write a multichapter fanfic and complete it as I normally write about three chapters and then lose motivation. So yeah, this chapter is going to be a bit slow but we have the reaping next chapter so tune in if you wanna find out what happens to Eren and Mikasa.
Thanks for reading ^-^