Quick Note! The Reaping Chapters were done in 1st POV, by post-Reaping is all 3rd person. Sorry, but I found 3rd easier when I had a lot of tributes to deal with.

The 76th Hunger Games: The Haunted

By Dante Alighieri1308

Chapter 1 District 4: Red Dawn

Isabella West's P.O.V.

When dawn breaks in District 4, most of the fishing boats are already out at sea. If you stare closely at the horizon line you can see the outlines of those ships, using massive amounts of rope to pull out nets full of fish or baskets with crabs or lobsters depending on the season. The very lively hood and wealth depended on these men who worked earlier than dawn to pull up tons of slimy fish just so they could just live above the point of starving. Not that many people in our District starved though, or at least not like the outlying Districts.

Today though I couldn't see the boats as they were overshadowed by the imposing figure of the red sun. An old wives tale came to my head whenever I saw the red dawn spread across the sea.

'Red sky at night, sailors delight. Red sky in morning, sailors take warning.'

How fitting for a red sky to appear on Reaping Day. I guess nature has a sick sense of humor.

"Isabella!" a voice screamed. My heart rate began to increase with fear, though subsided when I saw the joyful expression on my ten-year-old sister's face without a look of hurt. I was smiling now, moving towards my sister who was running out of the ocean across the sandy white beach. Mother wouldn't be happy that she had been swimming on Reaping Day but I never thought it mattered anyways. More than half the District used the ocean as their bathtub, who cares if she smells like salt water at the Reaping?

My sister skipped the last few steps to reach me, stopping in front of me with a smile that stretched from ear to ear. Her brown hair stuck to her tan skin, and the line of freckles that spread across her nose made her look beyond adorable. She opened her hands and proudly displayed a beautiful clamshell. I gasped with approval, pushing my long brown hair out of my face to get a better look. "Oh how beautiful Elise! Where did you find this?"

"Down by the wading pools!" Elise responded, her eyes glowing with triumphant. "You have to come see them all!" She grabbed my hand and started to tug me towards the wading pools as I laughed lightly. Looks like I'd be getting wet too.

Low tide in the ocean often revealed wading pools, beautiful little oasis that the red sunlight danced off of. Each pool held fish and coral of all shapes, sizes, and colors. You had to climb across some slippery rocks in ankle deep water, which was no problem for somebody from District 4, but I always made sure that Elise was holding my hand when we crossed together. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if she somehow slipped and broke a leg on the sharp rocks.

Elise stopped abruptly and pointed towards a pool of water, "I found it in there! It was surrounded by all these fish and coral and a lot of really cool stuff! Come on! I want to show you!"

Elise continued to drag me towards the pool, her energy making me giddy as we went. When we stopped in front of the pool, Elise dropped to her knees and started to fish through the pool again. After a few seconds she looked up at me disappointed. "The fish are gone!"

"I'm sure they just went to another one of these pools, Elise." I said comfortingly, dropping to my knees as well. "It looks like most of shells and coral are still here though."

That cheered her up quickly. "Do you want one for yourself?"

I smiled ruefully, "I thought you were giving me your shell?" I said while eyeing the shell she had shown me earlier.

Elise gasped and quickly reached for her shell in her pocket. She pulled it out and clutched it close to her heart, "Sorry, it's not a gift!"

I laughed, "Well then yes Elise, I would love one for myself."

My sister cautiously put her shell back into her pocket and I held up my arms to show I meant no harm. She stuck her tongue out at me and turned back to the pool, her eyes moving around trying to find a good shell. She smiled as she noticed a beautiful shell in the corner of the wading pool and reached out to grab it.

What she didn't notice was the green sea creature that was eyeing Elise's incoming hand with carnivorous intentions. My eyes went wide with fear as Elise's hand broke the surface of the water and the creature posed itself to strike it.

"ELISE NO!" I shouted, reaching out to grab Elise's hand and pull it out of the water. We both fell backwards into a shallow pool as the moray eel opened its jaws to bite where Elise's hand had just been, its yellow eyes giving off an aura of evil for my pre-developed maternal instincts.

Elise was freaking out, "Oh my god an eel! It's going to get us!"

"No!" I shouted, holding my sister close, "It's not going to get us! Don't worry, we're fine Elise. We're fine."

Sure enough the Moray eel stopped eyeing us and sunk back down into the wading pool, disappearing into a side cavern. Elise wasn't shaking anymore, though was still breathing heavily.

"I guess we both know where all the fish went." I remarked.

For some reason that got us both laughing and soon the tension from before had disappeared. Elise looked at me apologetically, "I'm sorry Isabella, but I don't want to try to grab the shell."

"It's fine." I said, kissing my sister lightly on the cheek. "You just have to remember to be more careful in the future ok? I'm not always going to be around to protect you from those big, bad eels!"

"What do you mean you're not?" Elise said, an undertone of fear in her voice. "You're not going into the Hunger Games are you?"

That statement caught me off guard. I eyed my sister curiously, "Of course not! Why would you say that?"

"Somebody told me they had picked you this year." Elise said, fear creeping into her voice.

I sighed. Obviously tributes weren't picked until the Reaping, but every year before hand our District heads got together and talked about who were the best candidates to send to the arena. These candidates were obviously people who had gone through training for the Games and would gain the honorary title of Tribute if they were chosen. Since I had been through this training due to my parents, and since I had some of the best scores for ranged weapons, my name always seemed to be somewhere on the list of possible female candidates. Of course it was near the bottom since I dropped out of the training academy when I was fourteen. After four years of bruises and angry trainers I couldn't deal with it anymore. Plus I missed my family, which was always the most important thing to me. Or at least my sister was.

This year there was a fair amount of tension since our District's leaders felt that they had to send somebody who could become our next Finnick Odair. Finnick's death in last year's Games heavily damaged our district's morale, especially for people who had to see Victor Annie. It was sad to watch her walk around, demanding to know where her sweetheart Finnick had gone, only to have everyone ignore her.

To add even more fuel to the fire though just a week after the candidates were chosen, a pair of deadly and somewhat sadistic eighteen year olds, the candidates both managed to end up in a freak accident at the training center that left their bodies ruined. The girl ended up dying from her wounds and the boy was in a coma, the doctors unsure when he would wake up.

That was three days ago, and now today on the day of the Reaping nobody knew who would be taking their place. I guess some asshole told my sister that they had chosen me.

"Well that somebody is wrong." I said smiling, trying to get my sister to feel better. "I promise you that I will not be going to the Games this year. Or next year. Or the year after that. And neither will you."

Elise smiled and hugged me fiercely. I hugged her back just as tightly and we lay there for a minute, bobbing up in down in the shallow pool of water soaked. I noticed that the water level around us was starting to rise as the tide came back in. I stood up, dragging Elise up with me.

"Come on, we better get home." I said, "Mother will be enraged if we're late to the Reapings this year." Elise nodded and we both made our way back towards the beach and then our house.

Our family lived a rather isolated life. My parents five years ago had bought this coastal house to escape from the noisy and smelly city of District 4, preferring to have the nearest human life be a mile away in another isolated house. The houses on the beach were expensive, though my parents could afford it since they both worked for the Gamemakers.

Ya, they're Gamemakers. I don't exactly know what they do for the Games, but what I do know is that they work almost all the time and leave Elise and me alone in the house. They used to not do that, but after… after Genevieve died five years ago at the age of four it's all they ever do. It's probably also why they were keen to move out of our old house. I know that working is their way of dealing with grief, but I couldn't help but feel anger towards them for not even caring about their two other children. They left me to raise Elise by myself, which I didn't mind doing at all. Elise was the best thing in my life, and I would never let anything happen to her. Their Gamemaker employment was also the reason why I had to be enrolled into the training academy in the first place.

By the time we reached our two-story beach house, both of us were relatively dry thanks to the beach winds, though we were now covered with sand. Elise's right side of her body was covered, which made me laugh. "You need to clean up before the Reaping Elise."

"Do I have to? Everybody else there isn't going to have sand on them too!" she protested.

"Not like you do, Elise." I said.

"But that would make me special!" Elise cried out, quite happy with her argument. I rolled my eyes and pointed to the stairs. She groaned but relented and ran up the stairs to her room. I moved to the kitchen and put down the house keys on our small dining table carved from driftwood. It was suppose to be for family dinners and stuff, but after Genevieve passed it wasn't used anymore. I noticed a note on the table and read it with the help of the red sunlight.

Isabella,

Gone to the city with your father to prepare for the Games.

Make sure Elise and you wear what we talked about.

See you tonight,

Katerina

I sighed and put the paper back down. My mother never called herself mom, always addressing herself by her first name Katerina. At least my father, Jameson, called himself 'father' in his letters to us. Though mother did say 'See you tonight' which was better than her only signing her name.

Not surprised that my parents had left us, I moved towards the stairs to head up to my room when I noticed a small, open box by our front door. It had the Capitol insignia on the side of it. Curiosity took over and I moved away from the stairs to the box. I grabbed it and cautiously pulled out an electronic pad, something I had seen my parent's use plenty of times before whenever they were home. I ran my fingers on it to look for the on button. I finally found it and the screen lit up, flashing the Capitol insignia again before a box popped up displaying a message.

HG-76

PROJECT DD

PROJECT BRANCH: ISLANDS

ENTER ID:

ENTER PASS CODE:

It dawned on me that I was trying to access classified material and I stuffed the pad back into its box and ran back up the stairs, deciding to forget all about that pad and Project Branch Islands. As I got to my room I sighed when I realized my special visitor had not left this morning like he was suppose too.

I slid onto my bed and hugged the muscular male figure in my bed. He started to stir as he felt wet fingers run across his half naked body. "Koi," I whispered to my boyfriend, "Koi, wake up!"

Koi, my nineteen year old boyfriend, opened his blue eyes slowly and smiled at me deviously. "Is it time for me to go?" he asked in his deep voice.

"It was time for you to go last night when my parents got home." I said, pushing my body closer to his to feel more of his warmth against my cold skin.

"I could have gone, but then you would have said I didn't care about you enough to risk your parent's anger." Koi countered, and cheeky smile still on his face as his lips moved closer to mine.

I smiled back, "Very true." I responded before we started to kiss and roll around on my bed.

We broke apart and lay in each other's arms for a while, simply enjoying each other's company. I kept staring into his beautiful blue eye, which matched one of my eyes. I had some genetic thing that gave me one blue eye and one green eye; apparently it was kind of sexy.

Koi smiled comfortingly, "You're going to be fine today."

I didn't need to guess what he was talking about. "Of course I'll be fine." I responded, but even I could hear the scared undertone in my voice.

He hugged me tighter, his heart beating against mine, "Your parents are Gamemakers, I'm pretty sure that means you can't be picked."

"I very much doubt that." I said snidely.

"Well you don't have to take as much tesserae because of them." He countered. I rolled my eyes and separated myself from him slightly to show my discomfort with the topic. I had put my name on the tesserae list a few years ago but my parents had forbidden me to do it again. Even so, my name was in there four more times because of that act, more than the majority of girls at least. Our district wasn't big on taking tesserae.

"It's not something you have to worry about, Koi." I said, a flare of annoyance in my voice.

He looked angered by that statement, "Of course it is! Your name in that bowl, you could be picked!"

"They probably have a volunteer by now." I said. Koi looked saddened and I started to panic a little. Koi lived in town and was thus more connected with what was happening in our District. For myself, whom only goes into town one day every weekend, I'm obviously a lot less connected.

"They haven't found anybody to send have they?" I asked.

Koi shook his head, "They found somebody for the guys, though nobody for the girls."

I sighed, "Crap." I muttered, not able to look Koi in the eye. "Who did they pick for the guys?"

"Who do you think?" he asked.

I shrugged my shoulders, breaking free of his embrace. "I don't know, Marlin? He's the only other eighteen year old in the group."

Koi shook his head. "Nope. It's Caspian." My head spun around to give Koi a look of shock, who only shrugged in return.

"You're kidding right?" I asked. Koi shook his head and I laughed, "What the hell were they thinking?"

"That he'd put on a good show." Koi responded.

He was right about that. The Capitollites would love all the drama surrounding Caspian de Burgh, the protégé and friend of the late Finnick Odair. With his ocean blue eyes, perfect teeth, cropped bronze hair cut, and his weapon of choice being a net and trident, the Capitol would look at him and see Finnick reincarnated. He practically was too since they spent so much time together. They seemed more than friends; they were like brothers. Which is why it was no surprise when Caspian disappeared from the public eye after that bastard Brutus beat Finnick to death.

When he emerged from his isolation he trained hard, beating all the records and every other tribute wannabe and trainer in the District. He made it plainly obvious that he expected to be 76th Games, probably out on a personal vendetta to avenge Finnick or something stupid like that. The only reason that he wasn't picked originally for this year's Games was because of the seniority that the eighteen year olds had. Now it looked like Caspian was getting his wish since Marlin, the only other eighteen-year-old boy, had nothing on Caspian skill wise.

There was a knock on the door, and my sister's voice followed. "Isabella!" she cried out, "Can you help me!"

"Just a minute, Elise!" I shouted. I grabbed Koi by his arms and forced him out of bed, throwing his discarded clothing into his arms. "Time for you to go!" I whispered.

"She probably already knows I'm here." Koi said.

"Just get back to town!" I said, pushing him towards the window he had snuck in last night to get into my room.

"It all makes sense now," Koi said jokingly, "You're just using me as a warm body, nothing more."

"You got it all worked out, Koi. Now get going!" I said, kissing him one last time before he climbed out the window and down the vines growing underneath it. He hit the ground and looked back up to me and blew me a kiss.

"Put your clothes on!" I shouted as softly as possible to him. He laughed and started putting them on as I closed the window and moved to unlock my door. I opened the door and saw my sister standing outside with a knowing look on her face.

"Koi spent the night didn't he?" she asked.

"Of course he didn't. You know how mother and father feel about that." I said, failing miserably at lying to my sister. I can lie pretty well to most people, but never to Koi and Elise for some reason. I guess I just care about them too much to betray their trust, even over small matters.

Elise shrugged, "Ah well. I don't get why you like having sleepovers with him anyways. Boys aren't any fun at sleepovers."

I laughed at my sister's naïve attitude. "You said you needed help with something?" I asked. Elise nodded and spun around, showing she was having trouble buttoning up the back of her dress. I bent over and did it for her while she stood there with pursed lips annoyed.

"Why do I have to get all dressed up for the Reaping? I'm not even in it!"

"You have to look good standing besides Mother and Father, Elise." I responded in a dull voice. I had to answer this question every year for her. I finished buttoning it up and spun her around to look me in the eye. "There you go, you look beautiful now."

"I always look beautiful I thought." Elise said with a cheeky smile.

I smiled back, "Well you always outshine me."

"No I don't, you're beautiful." Elise said hugging me.

"Aw, thanks." I whispered, laughing lightly. She was right though, I was quite the looker. My body developed pretty quickly so I looked like I was really eighteen. Training at the training center helped my figure out a lot too, giving me a lean and well-toned upper and lower body.

Elise broke away from the hug with her mood now changed to one of slight fear. "You promise that you're not going to get Reaped?"

My smile disappeared from my face. She knows I can't promise that, but she's still asking for it anyways. And just like buttoning the back of her shirt and answering her on why she has to dress nicely, I repeat the same answer I said last year and all the years before.

"I promise."

We hugged and Elise ran downstairs, leaving me alone to get changed in my blue and green dress. My parents had also laid out sea star earrings for me to wear along with a beautiful coral belt that complimented my tan skin.

I looked at myself in the mirror, uncertainty shaking my body. I forced myself to smile.

"You're not going to be picked, Isabella." I said, "You're not going to be picked."

District 4 was a massive place to live, with the best transportation system being the many waterways that run through the District. In order to get to the city, Elise and I had to get on the intercostal ferry, which moved lazily along the river at about the same pace at the clouds above us. Ferries didn't use gasoline to power themselves due to the outrageous costs the Capitol imposed on gas; only wealthy fishing companies could afford it.

Dawn had passed a long time ago, but streak of red still moved across the sky to mix with blue. It wouldn't be long until those disappeared to and gave way to the typical hot and blue-skied day in District 4. I looked around the rest of the boat, which for Reaping Day was filled with a bunch of excited people. Only teenage girls on the boat weren't really partaking in the festivities, fearing being Reaped. At the front of the boat was a young girl performing by herself, dancing around the boat to entertain people. Ferries usually hire some entertainment trope to perform for large groups, though the entertainment trope is usually bigger. The girl was the youngest of the three other girls in her trope, the others probably off sulking about the Reaping today.

My sister was holding my hand supportively, a gesture that I was actually very appreciative of. I felt stronger with her there, knowing I wasn't facing this alone. On the other side of the ferry I noticed some girls staring at me while whispering in a hushed tone. They were all circled around one girl named Cascade, the brat daughter the owner of the biggest fishing company in District 4. Her and I didn't get along; in fact I don't get along with many girls in my grade. Cascade was a special case though.

About a year ago Elise came running home crying, saying how some young boy was making fun of her. They were some pretty nasty comments so I went to this boy and talked with him about them. The boy was rude to me too and told me to go talk to his sister if it was such a big deal. His older sister turned out to be Cascade, who was an even bigger pain in the ass than her little brother. When she blew me off and insulted my sister too I kind of slammed my fist across her face. Hard. The bruise didn't disappear for about three weeks.

Cascade stuck her nose up to me and turned back to her 'friends', all of them now laughing no doubt at some stupid insult Cascade made about me. Whatever, screw them. They're all shallow whores anyways.

The ferry stopped and the dock master started to unload all of us. Elise and I walked off the boat hand in hand and headed towards the Trident Quarter, the heart of the city where the Reaping would take place. When we got there I saw my parents standing around, waiting for us to come. When we walked up they both smiled.

"How are you two?" my mother asked.

"Fine mommy." Elise answered for both of us. I nodded my head to agree with her while my mother and father gave me a sympathetic look.

"It will be over before you know it." My father said bluntly.

I nodded again and let go of Elise who spun around and hugged me one last time before walking over to mother and father. Both of them hugged me, though I could tell it was somewhat forced, before walking away to the designated area for important people in the District.

I looked around to see if Koi was anywhere before I checked in with the Peacekeepers, but couldn't find him anywhere. With nobody having seen him I walked to the main plaza and waited in line to get my finger pricked so the Capitol that I wasn't skipping the Reaping. While in line I noticed Caspian getting his finger pricked at the same time as me. He looked stoic and angry, dressed in fine clothing that was given to the tributes that would volunteer for the Games every year. There wasn't a girl wearing the matching set of finery.

Caspian himself looked very different from the person I remembered a year ago. That Caspian was fun loving, optimistic about everything, and quite the ladies man. He even asked me at one point if I wanted to hook up, and I was very tempted to do it, but I refused due to my interest in Koi. I wouldn't do for him to hear about me hooking up with Caspian and think I'm some sort of whore, or worse! A fan girl.

The Peacekeeper drew my blood and then dismissed me when everything checked out. I moved quickly into my position with the rest of the sixteen year old girls. Some of them gave me looks but I ignored them. Half of them I didn't even know me since I spent so little time in the city. My parents had educational programming and stuff that they left for Elise and me to watch, preferring that to sending us to school. It was stupid programming too, filled with a lot of Capitol propaganda and stuff. Most of the time we let the video play and just ran down to the beach to hang out in the ocean.

Finally the mayor appeared and delivered his doom and gloom speech about how the Capitol saved us all from the terrible past and how the District were ungrateful and how the Hunger Games came to be. It was beyond boring since the mayor said it every year. I'm pretty sure a lot of eighteen years actually have the entire speech memorized. Finally he was done and he introduced our escort, Tamara Atlantis.

Tamara was a mess of blue and green colors, obviously trying to make herself look like the sea. Instead she gave off the appearance of somebody who had dunked themselves in different colors of paint and put some jewelry on. She had massive pearl earring that shocked me to since I didn't think pearls could get that big. When she spoke her voice gritted against my eardrums and I noticed a few girls groan when she spoke.

"Happy Hunger Games!" She shouted, "This is the 76th one! Can you believe it? What a long and rich history we are creating!"

I didn't even want to even consider the obvious problem with her statement. Instead I waited while she spoke, attempting to block out her voice but failing miserably. She stopped and announced "Now, let's see who we have for the girls this year!"

Tamara walked over to a big bowl on the left and stuck her colored hands into the bowl, scooping around for a name. She must have found one that she liked as she smiled and pulled out a single paper. She walked back to the microphone and opened it, cleared her throat, and announced the lucky girl.

"Isabella West."

… Silence...

"Isabella West? Is she out there?"

Oh she was, but her body was in complete shock. I could feel myself shivering despite the heat and my stomach doing flips, feeling like it was ready to send all of my breakfast back up my throat and mouth on national television.

The cameras were still searching for me so I took that time to compose myself. The trainers taught us that first impressions were always the most important, so I had to look tough and in control when all I wanted to do was scream. With as much control as I could muster I stepped forward and exposed myself to the cameras.

When my face appeared on screen though a single scream rang out from what seemed like every direction. I finally realized that it was Elise screaming and my composure completely broke down. "NO!" Elise was screaming, "YOU CAN'T TAKE HER! YOU CAN'T DO THIS!"

Mother and father were dragging Elise away from the cameras that were now focused on her entirely. When they disappeared, the cameras returned to my stunned and horrified expression. I started to stumble backwards to get away from the stage, but was stopped by two Peacekeepers who forced me towards the stage.

'This can't be happening!' I thought, 'I promised Elise that this wouldn't happen! God damn it I promised!'

We made it to the stage and the Peacekeepers handed me to the freak Tamara, who was smiling like an absolute idiot. She dragged me onto the stage and held the microphone up. "So you must be Isabella West."

I nodded since words didn't seem like something I was capable of right now.

"Well we are proud to have you as the tribute for these Games! A big round of applause for this brave girl everyone!" Tamara said, starting to clap as soon as she finished. A few people started to clap too, but I realized that it was sarcastic clapping. I got angry which helped me compose myself just a little more. I noticed my mouth was dangling open and I hoped it wasn't like that the entire time.

"And now for the boys!" Tamara said. She walked over to the boys bowl and pulled out a name, read it off, and within a heartbeat Caspian had volunteered.

This got Tamara really excited, "Oooh! A volunteer! How exciting!" She suddenly got quite serious when Caspian stood besides her, towering over her small figure. She gasped, "You look like our late Finnick!" Caspian said nothing, looking at the cameras with strong determination. He was really scaring me. Tamara smiled again and walked back to the microphone. "Well here you go ladies and gentlemen! Your tributes from District 4 for the 76th Hunger Games, Isabella West and Caspian de Burgh! Shake hands you two!"

Caspian turned mechanically and extended his hand for me to take. I took his hand slowly, cowering under the strong grip that he possessed. This guy could break me in half.

Tamara smiled one last time and led us away to await our final visitations.

The small room that was designated for final goodbyes was filled with an overflowing of emotion. My mother was actually teary eyed, which made me teary eyed, and my sister was hysterical. My father was trying to compose himself but I could tell he was having a hard time.

"I'm so sorry." I begged to Elise, "I'm sorry."

Elise was still crying, unable to fully form words more than three syllables without breaking into tears. "You… you can… you can win can't you?" she asked.

I gasped, holding back the tears. "Yes Elise I can!" I said, "I will win I promise!"

"You promised you wouldn't be Reaped!" Elise cried out, her tears mixing with snot.

"I won't break this one! I promise!" I said with as much confidence as I could muster. Elise nodded and continued hugging me. She was shaking furiously, as was I. I still couldn't believe that this was happening.

But it was. And it was time for me to pull it together. I cleared my throat and looked at my mother and father, who were holding each other, and addressed them in as clear of a tone as possible. "What is Project Branch Islands?" I asked.

They both looked stunned, "How do you know about that?" my father asked.

"Does it matter? What is it?" I demanded.

"We can't tell you." My father said with as much control as he could muster, which was much more than me.

"Y-you can't tell me?" I said, stunned. "What the hell? Do you want me to die?"

"We can not tell you." My father repeated, though my mother gave him a harsh look before turning to look at me.

"Stay away from the islands." My mother said.

"What?" I asked.

"Katerina." My father said with a slight edge in his voice. "They're listening to us."

"NO!" My father shouted, "They've already taken one child from us! They will not take another one!"

'Taken a child from us'? What was she saying? I didn't have time to ask as my mother grabbed me by the arms. "Listen to me Isabella. There will be a place in the arena that looks like paradise, which has food and water and everything you need to survive the games! Do not go there under any circumstance! Do not associate with anybody who goes into that area either! You will die there!"

"Ok!" I said, even more scared now, "There where do I go."

"Somewhere else," my mother said, "I don't know what else to expect from the arena. They don't allow us access to the full plans of the arena, only the parts that are assigned to us."

"What's in this 'paradise'?" I asked, "Mother what did you put in there?!"

The doors opened suddenly and a bunch of Peacekeepers marched in and grabbed my family, dragging them out of the room. "Isabella!" My sister shouted, struggling between the arms of a massive Peacekeeper.

"We love you Isabella!" My mother shouted.

I ran after them, trying to get them away from the Peacekeepers. "Time isn't up!" I protested, "We still have a minute left!"

"No you don't." A Peacekeeper said, pushing me back into the room. "Visitation rights are now revoked."

"You can't do that!" I shouted.

"Isabella!" I heard a man shout. I looked over and saw Koi, struggling to get through a bunch of Peacekeepers to say goodbye. I jumped to my feet and tried to force my way to him, but had as much success and I did earlier. They push me back into the room and shut the doors as Koi and I screamed at them not to. The doors shut loudly and I heard a lock go off, leaving me alone.

I was a mess. I banged on the doors, screaming Koi's name and my sister's name while also screaming 'I love you!' and hoping they could hear me. I started to cry, the tears falling all over my dress. After a bit I screamed and attack anything in sight, throwing chairs over, breaking pictures on the wall, and trying to break the door down with no success. Finally I stopped and fell to the ground exhausted, lying in a fetal position trying to recover. I moaned and cried, not feeling any courage that the trainers had told us we would feel when we entered the games.

I was about to start screaming again when I heard voices coming from the other room. One voice sounded a lot like Caspian because it was Caspian, speaking to some unknown people. I crawled slowly to the wall, interested in what he had to say about all this.

"I promise I'll come back to you guys." I heard Caspian say soothingly, "Finnick's death will not go un-avenged."

"And what about us Caspian," I heard a female voice say, clearly upset. "We're you family and you're just going to leave us? Why couldn't you have waited another year like we told you too?"

"Because mom," Caspian said, clearly agitated by that last sentence. "Finnick's memory doesn't have time to wait that long. And I don't want to see us lose another year to those bastards in District 2."

"Watch your language young man!" His mother said, now sobbing. A deeper voice, his father I think, was now speaking.

"He's doing what has to be done, Sophia," he said comfortingly, "He can be a hero and victor."

"I don't want a hero I want my son!" his mother was saying. I rolled my eyes, how could she be saying this? He had trained for this his whole life and now his mother didn't want him to go?

"Take care of them for me will you, Perceval?" Caspian asked.

"Of course brother." A new voice, Perceval, said. "You just do what you have to do and come back with all the glory. Then we'll be set like our pal Finnick was."

"Ya, just like him." Caspian said, laughing lightly. "Thank you again for helping me take care of the other tributes too. I'll make sure not to mention it much when they ask how I got in."

"Quiet Caspian!" His father said, "What we did should never be spoken of."

"The girl is dead and the boy is crippled," Perceval said, "What does it matter now?"

"It might matter to some." His father said.

It suddenly dawned on me what they were talking about. One dead and the other crippled? They were talking about the chosen people for this year's games! And they had…

They had sabotaged them.

Caspian had sabotaged them. He had prevented them from entering the games and forced me into this position!

Caspian was the reason I was here.

Rage filled me and I screamed, throwing myself away from the wall onto the chair nearest to me. I started screaming into the pillows, hoping that nobody would come and check on me. I felt a sudden desire to kill Caspian, to watch him bleed and tell me he's sorry for putting me in this position. I wanted it so badly.

But I knew I couldn't do it. I couldn't kill anybody.

It was my flaw in training, part of the reason why I had dropped out. The trainers would put up realistic dummies that had blood and sound effects implanted in them to simulate killing. I had failed it, getting squeamish all the time. Not because of the blood, but because of the screams that for me caused images of scared tributes from past years to flash through my head. I wasn't able to kill a single dummy, and now I wasn't going to be able to kill a single tribute.

Could I survive without killing anybody? Maybe, two years ago that red haired girl from 5 had done a pretty good job at it until the Girl on Fire had shot an arrow through her heart. I guess hiding works out for a while, but in the end doesn't give you victory. This was the Hunger Games, which forced you into combat when you didn't want to.

I continued crying until Peacekeepers came in and dragged me outside. I was then bombard by video cameras and photographers, all wanting to get the latest scoop on the new tributes. Caspian was now standing next to me, his composure calm and deadly. I imagined pushing him down the steps and hoping he might break his neck, but found myself even less capable to doing that.

I saw Koi and Elise standing in the aisle, waving and screaming at me. Both of them were trying to look supportive for me, stay strong for me. I braved a smile and blew each of them a kiss, feeling like I had gained some of my composure back. As soon as we were in the car and on our way to train station for the Capitol I allowed myself to start crying again.

Tamara leaned in and patted me on the shoulder, "It's ok sweetie. I'll take care of clothing and food, you just worry about winning ok?"

"Don't touch me!" I shouted at Tamara, whose eyes flew open in shock. Caspian raised an eyebrow to me and then looked away. I sniffed and wiped away the tears, feeling pathetic now. I had to be strong, I could be strong. I was strong for my family, I was strong for Elise, I was strong against all the asshole girls and boys who lived in our District. But that wasn't what was going to be my downfall in the Games.

I couldn't bring myself to kill anybody.

So I was going to be killed.

So there you have it folks! The very first chapter!

Thanks for Reading! I hope that you also review because I love getting your guy's feedback!

Next Chapter: District 9 -Tributes Keller Raven and Anastasia Louivere