(A/N: Here's District 7 for you lot! Please review, if for nothing else but to tell me you're liking it! Please? It's not hard! Change of plans, guys! Two chapter per day from now on! The way this will go now, the final two districts will be posted on the seveth day of this story's existence. After a week, instead of the twelve chapters I planned on doing, I'll now be posting only seven; one for each day of prep before the actual Games! n_n Enjoy!)
~Fauna's POV~
I throw myself into my mother's arms, screaming at the top of my lungs. Hoping that someone would pinch me and stir me from this nightmare. That perhaps I would scream myself awake. That maybe it was one of Lois's jokes and the real tribute hadn't been named yet. But I knew our escort. Lois wouldn't be that cruel, and the lack of humor in her voice told me that she was very serious, and the strong hands of the Peacekeepers ripping me away from my mother told me that this was very real.
I kick and scream and do everything I can to try and get away. To no avail, of course. The Peacekeepers were anything but wimps. They only gripped me tighter, their barks for me to shut up completely dwarfing my cries for help.
It takes the unhooking of a thick whipping strap from one of the Peacekeepers' belts to silence me. Though a public beating is much better in my mind than being shipped to the Capitol to be killed, I've seen what these Peacekeepers can do with those straps to people younger than I am. The idea of that kind of pain being put across my bare back or bottom is enough to force my body to take the reins and clam it.
I turn slowly toward Lois, my lip trembling and my face wet with tears. I'm about to move, but I hear my mother begin to choke up, and the motivation leaves me. I stand there hesitantly, blubbering like a child.
*crack!*
I jump and cry out as a sharp and burning pain bites into my left hip. One of the Peacekeepers struck me. When I look back and blink tears at him, I can tell by his appearance that his full strength was not behind that lash. I doubt he was even using half of his strength. It was more a persuasion than a punishment. It doesn't work. My body refuses to move, refuses to let go of its quaint life here in the massive logging camp that was District 7. My terrified mind struggled against my stubborn body, and when I try and move, I only succeed in dropping to one knee.
*crack!* *crack!*
The thick leather unyieldingly rips into my skin under my thin clothes. I try and move, but the strikes are stronger and my muscles feel like they're turning to stone. Though the Peacekeeper is probably unaware, I am completely at his mercy. The pain causes my vision to blur, and I fear I might black out… He raises his arm again, but hesitates as a voice meets his ears.
"Stop! Stop it! She's a child, you monster!" my mother caterwauls with all of her soul. The man turns and starts toward my mother, strap still raised. Another Peacekeeper takes him by the shoulder and holds him in place. The two lock eyes and the interloper slowly shakes his head. As he hooks the strap to his belt again, I weakly stand and waddle painfully up the stairs to join Lois on stage.
There is pain in those big pink orbs. She rubs my back and gently asks, "How old are you, dear?"
"S-Seventeen." I manage to mutter, still cringing from the resonating stinging on my hip and back. More tears fall and I drop my head, completely ashamed of myself. I freeze up at the feeling of a disciplinary tool. How on Earth would I fare against spears, swords, and bludgeons?
"Fauna Violet, ladies and gentlemen." she said. There was something in her voice, in the way she said it, that caused sympathy to crash over everyone present. They began to applaud, and my head raises slightly, my quivering lips twitching into a brief smile of appreciation.
~Thorne's POV~
I didn't want to watch, but I couldn't turn my eyes away. I winced each time the heavy leather whipping strap met the poor girl's back. It was only four times, but it was enough to almost move her to faint. I watched as her mother screamed for the offending Peacekeeper to stop, the entire scene causing an emotional stone to fill my stomach to the point of bursting.
District 7's mayor sat with his head in his hands. As mayor, he should be able to put a stop to this, too ease the regimen of the unforgiving white-suited sentinels, but it was out of his hands. His position was superficial. The real power, of course, belonged to the Capitol.
I was one of the first to start clapping for Fauna, and upon seeing that she was feeling at least a little better, I smiled. It flipped again moments later however, as Lois Wyvern pulled a card from the boys' reaping ball.
"Thorne Fagan."
The stone gets twice as heavy… Unwilling to share Fauna's painful ordeal and minimize the ambiance she's managed to build, I lug myself up to the stage from the pool of 18-year olds and stand on Lois's other side. Sighing is painful for some reason, and my throat tightens.
I stare out at all the faces I was leaving behind: my sister, my mother, my aunts, and my grandmother. What cruel luck that the only boy in a family of women gets ripped out of the picture so suddenly, made worse by the fact that this was my last year before I was in the clear…
I look over at Fauna. Her face is still sopping, and she refuses to meet my gaze. I don't blame her…
(A/N: There ya go! District 8 will be here tomorrow! Tell me what you think so far!)
