Well hope this chapter is alright. Please even if it isn't your chapter or your character, put in a review? I would really appreciate it. Also if you don't read some of them, I will be giving away some secrets and hints. So please have a chance a make a review. Thank you to SeekerDraconis for putting in the tiem to review and making very well written and amazing tributes for the games. And this fellow Martin is his as well so now let us start Martin and Maria's journey.
Check out the forum page, released some new daily info. Monday was Arena day. Next is Opinion.
Martin Sinclair
Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person.
Albert Einstein
My eyes close, my thoughts stop. I imagine a tribute running straight at me. A gentle pace and a weapon ready to thrust. I grip my hatchet, tightening my grip around the wooden handle. The splinters stab my hand but I ignore it. The pine smell fills my nose. I prepare to aim, lifting my arm above my head.
Still imagining the person getting closer I throw, heaving a slow painful noise. The perpetual outcome was the tribute getting slaughtered by the sharp edged weapon. The hatchet goes abysmal into the mulch, exploding the wood chips.
I am relieved of the outcome. I had gotten much better at my aim and targeting nowadays. I wipe the sweat off of my forehead, launching it to the ground. I hear clapping from my fellow members. I peer behind me to see Alec Eucliff, our 'mentor', beaming at me. "Nice on Martin. You might be ready to volunteer you know."
I turn to him. "Really, you think I am ready? Am I like prepared to?" I ask him.
"You're sixteen, which means you only have three more chances. You're the longest member here."
I nodded. I guess I could possibly volunteer. "Vote?"
Kevin, Erin, Kahlen, and Evan agreed to the idea. Alec faced the four members, each a different age. The oldest being me. I am almost seventeen, while Evan is the second oldest, sixteen. But Alec would be the oldest. He trains us and gave us our weapons. He is a District two runaway. Surprisingly he never got caught. He says that the Capitol counted him as dead. He faked his death. It was told that he was blown up by a bomb, but Alec tells me that he was never near the bomb and it possibly could have been that they gave up on him.
Alec was buff, muscular, agile and has amazing strength. This was most likely how he was able to survive alone. He taught us these skills as well. Alec was a much better mentor than our District seven's mentor, Harold.
"Well the votes in Martin," I blink fast, if I am able to volunteer by their vote I can win the Hunger Games. Alec's tone goes low and a little saddened. "They don't think you are ready. Sorry Martin. Evan, Erin and Kevin don't think you are ready." I am stunned. They don't trust me none of them do. I believe I am ready and Alec knows that. I just guess they don't think that.
"What ever. I am going now."
I stomped out of the forest to be accompanied by a flying airship. The reapings were getting closer. I swallow hard, lumping my neck. It fat whale like body sailed deep into the clouds, creating horrible wind currents. It swayed my black hair into a fro. I moaned. Reapings were coming, and I wasn't going to be reaped.
I finally made it to my house. My house was a very large oak house. Painted with a tint yellow and surrounded by the ecosystem of massive redwoods. The neighbors lived in smaller cottages with gardens circling their gates. A mountain outline was off in the distance. We are the closest to the Capitol, the first to be reaped.
I squeeze the doorknob to open the door, allowing the strange odor sweep into my nose. I see my little sister Sophie, who is ten. She is blind, weak. Her black hair is pulled back into a clip. In front of her is a book, brail book to be exact.
"Oh you're here Martin," Sophie announces, staring at nothing but the air. "Jarrod, is in need."
I am confused by what Jarrod needs. "Has he gotten any better at all?"
"No, just worse."
I scurry to his bedroom, which is only a two arm length room with only a bed. I peak inside. Jarrod is sleeping silently in his bed. His body shook when he breathed. The sadness and weeping face, made it unbearable to stop him from doing so. His death-bed was coming, and soon another member will be gone.
Even though Jarrod is only two years younger than me, he is not at his age level. He is illiterate from his catastrophe, and can never do anything besides get even worse. The Capitol is so selfish into not giving us medicine. The only thing they allowed for my family was to have Jarrod and Sophie not be drawn into reapings. They don't even have to show up, but they day we should be grateful for what they managed to do but I say they are dumbasses. Stupid, fricken monsters, who steal lives of children.
I put my head down onto the panes of the door. I can hear Sophie walking slowly to me. She can hear my breathing and my tiny movements of my feet.
"Martin you know how you told me that mom and dad will come back again?"
I pause for a second, trembling. I feel like I am withering, like a shriveled up plant.
My face turns to see Sophie staring blankly at wherever she sees light. "Yeah… why do you ask?" I question her.
She blinks rapidly prepared to answer me. "Well when are they."
"Ah, um… well,"
Sophie now knows that I was lying to her face, lying just to make her feel better. "You didn't have to lie to me. Thanks to you my hopes have been drawn to a skim line. Why can't you go back to the mayor to tell the Capitol to bring back new parents?"
"It doesn't work like that. Chances like that from the Capitol means that 'pigs could fly' but it doesn't work. I tried okay Sophie. I tried to make you have your sight back, a new life, but I can't," I take a deep breath, pulling myself together again. "Listen, it is hard trying to prepare myself to face the Hunger Games. I am trying to work and get us money. It isn't fun lying in front of you but it is a way to make you believe that you can make it through."
My own words had brought me back to my original determined self. I was right. I had to believe that I can make a better lifestyle for my family, for what is rest of them. If I can, I am done with training. I am ready to volunteer. I will do it, for them, for Sophie and Jarrod.
I grab Sophie and pull her into a warm hug. She clutches my shirt for guidance. "I will volunteer, and give you a better life. After the reapings come for goodbyes, I will tell you what to do then. Do you understand?"
I wait for a scratchy answer of a yes or a no but get something else instead. "Win it Marvin. Jarrod and I will be cheering for you, even if I can't see you at all."
And then I felt the only happiness I have ever gotten from someone. They were going to be better.
Maria Beilschmidt
The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.
Ernest Hemingway
"Oh shut up Gilbert." I scold.
Gilbert, my brother, flips my two pony tails laughing like a hyena. Gilbert is a tease I should say.
"Maria come on! You wear your hair better!"
I shrug his hand off of my shoulder. My white hair is always noticeable, especially when I put them into two pony tails. Gilbert always thinks it is funny how I wear my hair. Well guess what it is my hair not his.
"Gilbert just leave her alone." I hear my other brother, Brendan, say.
I smirk at Gilbert. He has short blond hair, which is cut to form a small mount near his bangs. My violet eyes stare into his red eyes. Oddly enough Gilbert and I are almost the same. We have the weirdest hair styles, unordinary eye colors and we are both covered in muscles.
My dad enters the living room, all dressed for the reapings. We are all ready for the reapings, which is located in the Log Hedge Quarters. I wear my floral dress that is just right for the reapings. For shoes, I wear my amazing white laced boots that go right up to my knees. They were my mom's. Mom was killed in the hundred-tenth Hunger Games to the District six tribute and winner Alanna Kent. News has already been spread around that Alanna's sister Annie was reaped during their very early reapings.
I am just hoping that whoever is our district seven female is that she will kill Annie in a slow painful death. I smirk with the thought of seeing her fall to district seven.
I stroll inside the Lodge. It is massive, bigger than anything seven has made. Made out of just logs and glass, it is truly magnificent. I am at the desk where a young girl injects me with some serum. There is no pain; there is no pain I could ever feel from it. The sixteen sections are up ahead and the blood spills onto my name chart.
I notice she doesn't even look up to see my face. Just a simple question of, "Name?"
Fools.
I walk to the only space open. It is a tall, black haired boy. I remember his name. Melvin… no. Martin. That was his name. I can honestly say he knows what I am. He doesn't like me. He thinks I am a pyromaniac. It is true though but I wasn't the one to start the fire explosion that killed and injured his family. His eerie look in his eyes scares me a little.
I frown at him. I am slightly taller than him which makes me more intimidating to him. I buzzer goes off, and our escort enters the stage. The chatter diminishes into swift whispers. "Well hello to all you district sevens!"
No one replies, no one talks, just the sound of the fall breeze. The escort continues with her so called 'speech'. "Since out last escort is now working for the Capitol as a commissioner, I will be taking the job as an escort and how lucky am I to get the best district?"
I roll my eyes and turn to look at Martin's expression. His eyes are wide open, his cool shade of blue. The blue I wish I had. I hate to say but he is kind of cute when he gives me the eye look. I shift my eyes back onto the escort. "But further more, my name is Harp Estran. Now let us reap our next very brave tributes."
Her hand goes to the boys first for a change. She digs her hand inside, searching for a feel of a good name. The male tribute will be flooded with sadness once he hears his name. I just wonder who. Her fingers slide out a slip that is folded in threes.
She opens it and breaths into the microphone. "Ladies and gentlemen, our male tribute for the 128th Hunger Games is… Evan Keller!" She shouts.
There is a common stir in the sixteen crowds but something had happened. Some one had volunteered. "I volunteer!"
I look to my side to see Martin, his family's last hope, willingly volunteer. "Martin, no don't. Your family." I tell him.
He stares at me. "What would you care… pyro?"
He jolts to the log stage. Evan seems shocked, mad almost. I don't understand why would he volunteer why would anyone volunteer. "Wow a volunteer, we have Martin as our tribute for District ten!" She proclaimed.
"Now for our females," She hesitates on the girls but finds a perfect slip. "Our district ten female is… Maria Beilschmidt."
My face hardens. I am the tribute. After all this time of saying that District ten's female will kill Annie, now it will be me to complete this dream. I straighten my back and march forward to the stage. Martin is angry now. He will kill me in the games. That it is what will happen. I will die in the hands of revenge. Revenge.
Martin POV
I feel like I did something memorable for my training group. I still feel like I betrayed them but I was ready, I am ready for the Hunger Games. Even though we have the pyro as female tribute, it just feels like it was meant to be. I mean even if she might not be the one who set the fire explosion, she still has some toughness in her. She doesn't care what others think of her.
The couch in the room is feels like a rock. It is probably the ugliest room. Furs scatter the walls. Ruffled pillows pile up near the corner. Then there is just a window. I wait for Sophie.
"Okay you have three minutes." I hear the peacekeeper say to someone. I jolt up, knowing that it must be Sophie. Now I hear a woman's voice.
Two figures enter the room, both girls. I smile Sophie and Judith, my neighbor, is gathered around me.
"Martin, I am here now!" She blissfully tells me. "I am with Judith. I couldn't walk alone to the Lodge."
I look up to Judith, who winks at me. "Thank you."
Sophie is brought to the couch by Judith. She plumps herself onto one of the empty cushions that is not covered with pillows. Still she stares at the light seeping in from the window. Judith stands beside her shoulders, waiting for someone to speak. I remembered what I was supposed to tell Sophie. "Sophie when I am gone to the Capitol, I want you and Judith to watch over Jarrod," I stare up to Judith. I want to know if she is okay with it. She nods, and I continue. "But over the next few days, you will need to hope for the best. I will win this and Jarrod will be able to get better. You might even get your sight back!"
Sophie smiles, and grabs Judith's hand. "And one more thing, if you can send in sponsorships. I might survive better with the help of you. DO you understand?"
"Yes Martin I understand!"
At that moment, the door is slammed open revealing another person. The peacekeeper tells Judith and Sophie to leave. I squint to see the person. The lighting is horrible and my eyes aren't so great as well.
"So you volunteered. Alec is mad at you."
It is Evan, my friend and the one I volunteered for. He grows a smile, steps closer to me. He grabs me and hugs me. "You will win it."
I shrug him off and turn my back. Placing my hand over my head, I close my eyes. "What if I don't make it? What if it was all a waste? Sophie Judith and Jarrod are counting on me. What do I do?"
Evan shakes his head.
"If you won't win it that means you will die but what if you were to die in a winning way. Then it could stir something." He replies.
I think for a bit. The games isn't about being the last one but losing something, or someone. Sighing, I turn back to him.
"Promise me, do something for the better if I die. Train but don't volunteer. I don't know who is out there but in those games the Careers take over. Harp told me that she had gotten a call. She said that the District 1 and 2 are done with their reapings. They volunteered. That must mean that they are tough, deadly. I am going to die. Not die with no hope but die in a way where I wi-" I am cut off by the peacekeeper.
"Time is up. You get out. Martin Harp will escort you to the trains."
Evan is taken away, while I stand outside waiting.
I am not ready to die.
In this chapter, I am shadowing Martin's movements. I am hiding Maria's plans and real story for the Games. Remember the games are suppose to reveal secrets and fears. These two are the Capitol's next targets. Hope you enjoyed. Review Please!
