I can't believe they voted for me, my own home...

I feel so betrayed, so alone...

PART ONE: THE QUARTER QUELL


It's the 25th Official Hunger Games, where 24 children, called Tributes, are sent into an arena to fight to the death. Now I am one of those children.

The Hunger Games happen every year. Two children, a boy and a girl, are chosen randomly from each of the twelve districts across Panem. This happens ever year, except this one. It's the Quarter Quell, so it's obviously gonna be something spectacular. This year, the Tributes had to be voted in. And you can guess who was voted in from District 6. Me, if you can't tell.

The boy tribute from District 6 is Brystol. I don't know much about Brystol, but he certainly is quite nice. I'm hoping I won't have to kill him, maybe I won't even be alive when he dies, or maybe he won't die, he might even win.

I don't remember much of what happened before the games, just me being called out at the Reaping, no one daring to volunteer for me, then the train ride to the Capitol, then the interviews and now I'm here, in the car on the way to the arena.

It's a long drive there, and the car has no windows so we can't see the arena from the outside. Before we arrive, we're blindfolded, as I said before, so we can't see the arena from the outside.

When we finally arrive, we're taken underground to separate rooms, and there's a metal plate in the middle of my room. The plate will be lifted up and I will be placed in the arena. But for now, I can just sit and wait until the games are ready to take place.

As I sit here waiting, the lullaby my mother used to sing to me pops into my head. It reminds me of home, which I might not ever see again. It reminds me of my family, sitting at home waiting for the games to start, hoping that my death isn't too gruesome. I try to stop thinking about those things when the tears start flowing from my eyes, and also because I'm being called to the plate.

As soon as I step onto the plate, a transparent metal tube surrounds me and I'm lifted into the arena.

The arena is huge, very huge. I can't even see where it ends on any side.

I see the other tributes in their tubes, coming upwards at the same time as me.

I look around for a forest, but I can't see one yet. There might be one behind me, but I can't move to check, I can't move at all actually.

As the metal tubing lowers back underground, a loud booming voice echoes through the arena.

"Ladies and gentlemen, let the twenty-fifth Official Hunger Games begin!"