Hyperion Graham, 18, District 3

POV Trigger Warning: Self-Harm, Depression, Suicidal Thoughts, an offensive remark concerning autism

One year before the reapings:

District Three has always been one of the more developed Districts with modern infrastructure and many skyscrapers. On one of these skyscrapers stands Hyperion Graham, his hands grabbing his hair and tears dripping from his face.

Normally, people would be scared to stand this close to the edge but Hyperion doesn't care anymore, he's stopped caring months ago and yet he can't bring himself to do it, to jump, because his brother's face keeps popping up right in front of him.

"Holden…" he mumbles to himself. "No, no, no, no…" He punches himself in the stomach. If he isn't here, there will be no one to take care of his autistic little brother, since their parents are far too busy working in order to provide for them.

Hyperion takes a step back and breathes heavily, his chest rising and sinking rapidly. He leans on a wall and slowly slides to the ground with the cool night breeze blowing in his face.

This, right here, has happened around fifty times since his first testosterone injection.

Growing up, Hyperion has never felt like a girl and although every day he would protest against the way his parents dressed him and the way they called him, they just didn't seem to notice, ever. It was only when Hyperion turned 16, that his parents realized that something was up. That their little girl might not actually feel like a little girl.

Hyperion continues to sink to the floor until, finally, his whole body is laying there like road kill. Sometimes, he actually feels like road kill. A little smile forms on his face when he looks back at that moment when he was still happy. At that moment when he got his first testosterone injection.

He thought it would be something life-changing, that he would finally feel like himself. He's always heard of people going through life-changing transformations and finally finding their true self. This was supposed to be his one and only life-changing experience and, yes, it was life-changing… but just not in the way that he expected it to be. Darkness started to creep it's way into the inside of his body, sucking away the little joy he had left. Instead of all his worries being vanquished, new and strange anxieties appeared, anxieties that isolated him from society, anxieties that pulled him into his own little darkness. The only way for Hyperion to fight this darkness was to distract himself from the emotional pain by inflicting physical one. Instead of talking to his parents about his depression, he pretended like everything was fine like he was finally happy with his new and improved self and the reason for that was, Holden. His parents were already under enough pressure because of his little brother's autism and Hyperion knew that he couldn't possibly add to the stress of it all by sharing his issues with the already existing ones and since his parents were working day and night, it was up to him to take care of his little brother. Hyperion didn't mind doing it. He loved Holden. He loved him more than himself and so he put his worries aside and focused solely on Holden.

That was his life up until now. He hides his anxieties, he pretends everything is fine, he takes care of his autistic little brother by taking him out for walks, playing with him, cooking for him and trying to teach him how to read and write.

Once in a while, when he wouldn't be able to keep his pain in check, he would come up here and look down at the gateway to heaven and think how with one simple leap of faith, all of his worries would disappear.

Getting up from the icy cold asphalt floor, he wipes the tears from his face and makes his way back down to the apartment.

"Hyperion!" Holden screams, attacking his older brother.

Hyperion lifts him high up and sets him on his shoulders.

"Guys, get ready for dinner!" his mother shouts from the kitchen.

August, his father, walks in from the living room. "How was your walk outside?" He gives his son a pat on the shoulder.

"Uh… good, it was fine, yeah." Hyperion looks down awkwardly. His parents always think that he's out getting some fresh air when he's actually balancing life and death in his hands.

"Look who's here Holden?" Hyperion sets his brother down so their dog, Juno, can lick his face.

Holden falls to the floor giggling. No matter what Hyperion would never put his worries or his pain before Holden's. His little brother deserves the world and Hyperion tries as hard as he can to give him the life that he actually deserves. That is why Hyperion suffers in silence. There is no room for his sorrow in this world.

The sun shines into the train, illuminating the room. Hyperion silently watches his district partner. She's… he doesn't quite understand what she's doing, but it seems like she's trying to break out of the train. Whatever she's attempting to do won't help so instead of focusing on her, Hyperion continues writing. The capitol was 'kind' enough to let him send a guide to their parents. The guide contains important information on how to take care of Holden and his condition. Since Hyperion has spent the most time with Holden, it is up to him to make sure that when he's gone, his parents will be able to care for his little brother.

Hyperion doesn't want to succumb to the luxury that their capitol train has to offer because he has a deadline. He needs to finish before they arrive because they won't let him continue once they reach the Capitol.

"Focus, focus, focus…" Hyperion mumbles to himself. His district partner is so incredibly loud. He looks over to her once more. Now she's holding a kitchen knife and trying to… do something. "You know there's no point in trying to break free, right? The glass is made out of Egnadon, so even if you were to bash at it with a hammer, it wouldn't break…" Hyperion finally gives in.

His partner looks at him as if he had just insulted her a few seconds ago.

"What do you know?" She walks over to him and slams her hands on the table, where he's writing on. "At least I'm trying something. Everyone who gets reaped just gives up immediately because it is so much easier for them to just lay back and let fate take control. I'm not that kind of person… I'm not gonna give up just because it is easier, got it?"

"I do understand but I'm just trying to tell you that-"

"I don't care," his partner interrupts abruptly. "And what are you doing anyway? Writing a diary?"

"No, this is for my brother he has autism…"

"Oh, so he's retarded?"

Hyperion is fuming with anger right now but he won't let her get to him. He needs to focus. But as soon as he stops paying any attention to the girl, she snatches his letter away.

"Could you please give that back?"

She ignores him and proceeds to read the letter.

"Hm… so you're representing Patience. Boring."

Hyperion looks at her carefully because he's able to see a drop in her facial expression as she continues to read. Suddenly, she lets the paper fall gently to the ground and looks at him as if she'd just seen a Nightcrawler.

"Your name is Hyperion?" she asks.

"Uh… yes, why?" He's starting to get worried because her tone and her attitude changed completely from when she first spoke to him a couple of minutes ago. The edges of her mouth begin to pull upwards.

It's not a happy smile. No. It's a smile filled with sadness and sorrow. Not the smile you would expect from a girl as fiery as her.

"My father was… is called like that," she corrects herself.

Before Hyperion is able to answer, she's already gone

Dimona Summa, 16, District 3

POV Trigger Warning: Underage drinking, drug consumption

three months before the reapings:

"Mom? You there?" Dimona creeps up the staircase to her mother's room. It's the middle of the night and there isn't a single sound to be heard. Whenever Dimona can't sleep she likes to go to her mother and sleep in her bed. Once she enters the room, however, she isn't greeted by the sole presence of her mother but also by a strange naked body lying next to her. Sleeping.

Before her mother sees her, Dimona runs back down, grabs her phone and gets out of the house. She hates it when her mother invited strangers into their house. When she was still together with her father, her mother was happy. But now, she's just as sad as Dimona herself.

"Darek, you awake?" Dimona calls her close friend. "Ok, cool. Make sure Vista and Express join us as well. We're going out drinking!"

Dimona waits impatiently in front of a local pub called: ,, Fire Breathers". The place throws a party every Friday so it was the perfect opportunity for them to meet there tonight.

The first one to arrive is Darek. Her closest friend. He's extremely flirtatious and likes to hook up with many younger girls. Dimona doesn't really care that he's a bit of a fuckboy because he's always there for her.

"Hey there, sweetheart," he greets her.

"Fuck you." Dimona hates it when he calls her that. She's not a sweetheart.

"Love you too," Darek teases. "Would you look at that… Vista!"

Dimona looks over in the direction that Darek is waving in. The next to arrive is Vista. Vista is a complicated one. She's definitely the most 'pleasant' one out of the four and loves to lighten up the mood and to party but she's a bit of a wreck. She has this on and off relationship with Darek and she and Dimona have hooked up a couple of times before.

"Sup losers! Time to get wasted." Vista winks at them.

Soon after, the last one arrives. Express. Dimona and the others to tease him quite often because of his name but it is never meant to be taken seriously. Express is the mom/dad of the group. He's quite gangly and awkward but they love him nonetheless because he tries hard to keep them in check although he does fail sometimes, no, quite often in fact. Although it is embarrassing for her to admit, one of the reasons why they keep him around is because he sells them anxiety prescriptions so that they can get high.

"So, all of us here?" Dimona looks over the group. Everyone gives a small nod. "Perfect. Let's fucking do this!"

As the night went on it kept getting crazier and crazier. The music, extremely loud, created some sort of mystical atmosphere that was hard to describe and Dimona could feel the heavy beat vibrating and crawling all over her body. But did that stop her from drinking? Hell no.

Her friends, all drunk and high, are moving with the beat on the dance floor and acting more like animals than humans. Darek is dancing seductively with another girl and Vista is just all over the place. Express, not nearly as wasted as them, sits in a corner silently. Looking around, Dimona spots herself a prey. A young man, maybe in his twenties, nice dirty blonde hair, muscular frame, and the sharpest jawline she'd ever seen.

"Hey there, you all by yourself?" Dimona carefully lays a hand next to his.

"Yeah, just… trying to let loose a little and forget about the rest of the world, you know what I mean?" He gives a small chuckle.

"I know exactly what you mean. I'm here to do the exact same thing."

What exactly happened next before they wound up making out in the bathroom is a blur for Dimona. But here they are, he touching her in places he wouldn't if he knew her actual age, and she, pulling him as close as possible in order for her to forget the pain in her chest that keeps getting stronger and stronger when she's not on the influence of something.

A sob comes from one of the bathroom stalls and a frail girl comes out. Once Dimona realizes the presence of this girl, she pushes the man away and tells him to get out. He looks at her in confusion but when Dimona starts shouting at him, he leaves without hesitation.

"Why are you crying, Xiomara? Why?!" Dimona approaches Xiomara. "You have everything, so tell me, why the hell are you crying? What right do you have?" Dimona's face is about to fill up with tears but she pushes them back and tries as hard as she can to stay strong.

When Dimona's father, Hyperion, won the Games and came back, he changed. He wasn't the man his daughter once knew and he didn't act like him either. He ended it all when he came home. He told his wife that he had been in love with another woman even before he had been reaped and that he didn't want to waste any more time with someone he didn't truly have feelings for. That woman he was so deeply in love with and that he left his original family for was Xiomara's mother. Even worse: Xiomara was Dimona's best friend… and know she's her father's stepdaughter. Dimona hates Xiomara. She hates her so very much.

"My grandmother passed away a few hours ago… so I thought I'd come here to distract myself," Xiomara sniffs.

Part of Dimona wants to envelop her old friend in a big, comforting hug but whenever she looks at Xiomara her blood starts to boil and she can't think of anything else but that her father picked Xiomara over her.

"Why do you hate me, Dimona?"

Dimona stares at Xiomara with an icy glance before finally stepping closer. "Because you took everything away from me…"

The only other sound to be heard is the booming music outside but other than that the two of them stand still in the bathroom, neither of them knowing what to do or say next.

"I…" Xiomara starts.

"Don't, just don't." Dimona leaves the bathroom without looking back.

As she returns to her friends she sees Xiomara leaving the party. Quickly Dimona grabs Darek and Vista and calls for Express to come over. "We're following her."

"Who? I just… there's this ffffunny lookin lil cup there, you see it? The cup," Darek mumbles, clearly drunk.

"Just shut up, Darek." Dimona pushes them out the door and the four of them follow Xiomara. Express and Dimona are in front, always looking back to see if Vista and Darek are keeping up. Sometimes they'd have to pick them up when they fell down. It is a miracle that Xiomara hasn't noticed them yet.

Finally, Dimona gestures for them to stop because Xiomara has arrived at her destination. Her home. Dimona's father's new home. Dimona doesn't quite understand why she does this to herself but she wants to believe it is because she is strong enough to face reality and not look away… but deep inside it is because she misses her father, she misses him so very much to the point that there hasn't been a single week in the last couple of years where she hasn't been drunk or high or getting laid in order to numb the pain.

When her ex-best friend rings the doorbell, her father comes to greet her. Dimona clenches her fists. He wraps her in a big hug and kisses her on the forehead. Dimona grinds her teeth. He takes her hand and leads her back into their warm and cozy home. Dimona's face fills up with tears.

"I need to go, guys," Dimona says abruptly.

Darek and Vista have no clue what is going on and where they are but all they can do is sit there and laugh at nothing. Express is the only one who realizes that something is wrong.

"Dimona, do you want me to take you home?" He puts a hand on her shoulder.

"No, it's ok." Dimona hides her face. "Just make sure that these two get home safely."

After that Dimona turns around and starts walking away into the darkness. The dim alleys don't scare her anymore because there is something that frightens her a lot more. Loneliness.

Dimona can't comprehend why this Hyperion kid is just giving up. She can't really comprehend why any of them do. Clearly, there must be a way to break out. No one is invincible, not even the Capitol. But alas, after trying for hours to find a way out, Dimona has come to the conclusion that, no, there isn't a way to flee from this hell hole.

She hasn't told Hyperion her name yet. Why should she? He'll most probably find out anyway sooner or later and if she were to tell him it would seem like she wants to ally with him and she doesn't, she doesn't want to ally with anyone.

Dimona reads her letter once more.

"Dear Dimona Summa, Congratulations on having been hand-selected to represent Gluttony in the 6th Quarter Quell."

She was sure that she'd be representing something like envy or wrath but now that she thinks about it… she couldn't have summed herself up any better than that. Gluttony.

"God, I need some Morphling…" Dimona mumbles to herself.

Heyy dudes! So, sorry for this heavy chapter. I promise ( ok, I don't know yet but I think ) that this is the darkest/most depressing chapter… but who knows maybe I'll make the other ones just as heavy, we'll see.

IMPORTANT: Don't worry updates will usually not be this far apart. It's just that I'm on vacation right now and am still for the next week. This is why I haven't updated in a while but I thought that I had to squeeze in one more chapter. So, don't worry ;)

Anyway, I'd like to thank Mayfly for sending in Hyperion and Santiago for Dimona. What do you think of the two? Hyperion was definitely harder to write but he's also quite a complex character.

Please, please, please leave a review because it shows me that you care and that you are following and I would really, really appreciate it and I love all of you so, so much and goodbye!