Remember, I don't own the Hunger Games! Suzanne Collins does. I don't really know what to say about this chapter. Other than there will be more... Oh yes, and reviews would be luurvly :3
"Don't think I'd let them take us sweetie. I'm not as dainty as I may seem. I think it's time to settle down now and get some rest, it's been a terrible day today"
Just past dawn the next morning I heard the crunch of broken glass on the street outside, and the thud of combat boots connecting with doors. They were here.
"Wake up sweetie, time to hit the cupboard" Mama hissed as she man-handled me towards the back of the apartment. There was a loud shout close by the front door.
"They must be here, get this door down!" I know I didn't mean to and it was a stupid mistake but I screamed. Loud and high pitched. Mama slapped me; she's never slapped me before. The sensation was odd and I felt kind of woozy. She pushed me to the back of the cupboard, into a stash of furry leggings, and closed the door as silently as possible.
"Stupid idiot girl" She snapped and I began to cry again. We heard footsteps outside; Mama muffled my blubbering with her hand. The footsteps stopped, everything was silent. All I could here was my ragged breathing and my Mama's quickening heartbeat against my head. Her anger seemed to have dispersed.
"It's going to be fine dear, they'll never notice us in here" She whispered in my ear as she held me in her arms. For a moment I thought she would be right, the soldiers had gone, we were safe. Then I noticed the belt that had fallen from a shelf and wedged itself under the door of the wardrobe.
"Oh shi.." My mother muttered, cut off as a bearded man triumphantly pulled the door open. We tumbled out together onto the thick carpet. The first soldier moved towards grabbing me as the rest ran back through the front door and into the bedroom.
"Don't you dare, scum!" Mama cried "You are not going to take my daughter, not now, not ever!" With this she pulled out her knife, three sturdy looking guns pointed at her.
"No, we want them alive" Shouted beardy. "Dido and Claudia Snow, you are under arrest for consorting with..." Mama's cries drowned him out as she lunged for him with the knife. He hit her around the head with the side of his gun, but that didn't stop her one woman mission.
"You may have the guns, but you are not taking her from me!" She exclaimed as she then turned her knife towards me, I looked at her wild eyes, the eyes of a mad woman. I still don't understand how she could go from caring to psycho so easily, but she did. Strong arms pulled me from her reach as another soldier knocked her to the ground. She staggered to her feet, knife still raised proudly.
"Mama!" I yelled as gloved hands muffled me. I bit down, hard but the large body restraining me no more than flinched.
"Farewell my child, they are never taking my freedom. Down with the rebellion, it's all lies child, all lies!" She screamed as I foresaw what she was about to do. As she raised her knife I looked away, eyes wet with tears. The squelch as she thrust the blade into her chest featured in many future nightmares, and there was nothing I could do to drown out her dying screams. The soldiers had made no effort to stop her, one less trouble for them I suppose. They only wanted me, not Snow's deluded daughter-in-law.
I cried into my captor's chest as he carried me away. I turn back to look, just once to say my good-byes. We had already passed out of the bedroom and through the door at this point, so my last memory of my mother was her bloodied white stole draped across the floor, her lifeless eyes staring upwards, as if out of the window.
I must have passed out then, or they drugged me. The next thing I remember was being dragged from a small dark cell towards a room with a TV set. I tried to bite the strong arms restraining me but another guard slapped me.
"Come see Gramps die you dirty little brat!" A harsh voice called down to me, his accent unfamiliar. I looked down at my clothes, or the lack of them, I was just in my underwear, my creamy skin now puckered with deep purple bruises. That scared me. I tried to remember staying here, or losing my clothes, but it was a drug induced haze. They could have done anything to me.
We reached the TV room at the end of the long corridor, I was then hand cuffed to a chair. I realised what was happening on the screen. My vision was still a little blurry, but I made out a balcony, a crowd, a middle aged woman with long straight hair, a girl with a bow ("the mockingjay" as they now called her) and my Grandfather, strapped to a post.
Katniss raised the bow, the crowd roared, Grandpa chuckled as he coughed up blood. I wanted to look away, but the guards behind me held my head so I was looking right at the screen. I closed my eyes for a brief second, and when I opened them saw the older woman tumble from the balcony, an arrow in her chest.
Both the crowd on the screen and the guards behind me gasped. The woman must have been the rebel leader. The child in me half expected Grandpa to now make a daring escape, but he was overwhelmed but the stampede of the crowd. The television broadcast cut off as Katniss was dragged away by a guard.
I smiled, this is why the people of the Capitol are superior, we have control and discipline. We don't let slightly crazy teenagers with weapons run amok.
I kicked at the guard in vain as he stabbed a needle into my arm, and everything disappeared into a warm fuzzy sensation. When I woke up again I was wearing a raggedy dress, hurrah, result. There was also some kind of thin soup in a bowl in front of me. My body had only just realised how hungry it was and my stomach let out an embarrassing growl, but frankly I couldn't care less. I felt thin and weak and there was some kind of food there for me, it would have to do.
I was halfway through wolfing down the bland soup when it occurred to me that it could be poisoned. I figured it was too late for me if it was, so I may as well keep eating. Moving on from that thought, why would they want to keep me alive in here anyway if they were just going to poison me now? And why would they want me alive anyway, when the rest of my family were dead?
I regretted asking that question to myself as soon as the answer appeared on the television at the end of the corridor. They didn't let me though to see it, but they had turned up the news bulletin nice and loud, so I could hear my doom perfectly clearly.
An enthusiastic reporter who I didn't recognised declared that President Blaske, recently elected I presumed, was about to make an important announcement.
"Greetings, citizens of Panem. As your new President, my aim is for eventual peace, and for our previous slave drivers to be punished for what they have done. After a vote some weeks ago be previous victors and other people of note I am delighted to announce that there will, in a matter of weeks, be one final Hunger Games."
There was a collective shout of dismay from the audience, Blaske coughed loudly and continued.
"In this final, 76th Hunger Games, the roles will finally be reversed. 23 of the surviving Capitol children will be selected to compete.." I had a really really bad feeling what he was about to say next.
"And of course Claudia Snow's participation will be guaranteed. May the odds be ever in your favour." He finished, dripping in sarcasm.
One of the guards from my cell walked over to me chuckling and promptly spat on me.
"It's what she deserves." He said, his cronies chuckling.
