Jia Yang 23, District 8

My fingers feel the warm tap water rinse through my hands and finish cleaning off the last dish. Then, all of a sudden there is the sound of a bell ringing through the house.

"Pat! Could you get that please?"

There is no reply but the bell rings again more agitated this time. Who could be calling at this time? Nobody has bothered me about the games since the capitol collapsed 5 years ago.

The final ring causes me to hastily dry off my hands and pull the door open. There is a person there, covered by a dark coat and hat. They don't say much, only handing me an old book.

"This was recovered from the old capitol archives and we found it addressed to you."

I shrug off their comment until they tell me who it's from.

"It's from a girl called Wrenna."

My heart melts as I am stunned, stuck to the door… unable to speak or move.

"Is everything ok?"

"I…I… thank you," I murmur in disbelief, slowly taking the book and quickly closing the door behind me.

I rush to the sitting room and plonk down. Hesitantly opening the book to await the inevitable, nothing that ever came out of that girls mouth was ever not shocking or horrifying…

Wrenna Chimes, 12 District 10

What if you could change the future? What if you could know what was going to happen before it did? But what if the knowledge you thought you had only led to more difficult choices that you couldn't make?

Of course, the first time I was sat on that train heading to the capitol I was just as scared as any other child my age being sent off to their death. Sure there was the accident which made me see things in a different way to everyone else, made me speak in different ways to everyone else and made me think in different ways to everyone else. I was still scared however, I didn't know what was going to happen. I had no control yet. Nor did the boy facing me on the opposite side of the table. Jameson Wright, with his jokey playful grey eyes and curly hair. He tried to lighten up the situation every single time, smiling with his crooked, worn down teeth as the train bumped along. But I barely even acknowledged him, maybe the odd eye contact and one word response but that was it. Even to his usual quippy remark of

"So I can call you Wren, Wrenny, the Wrenster?"

Sometimes now I wish I could have shown him a bit more appreciation for not being a nasty peace of work, like some of the kids I ended up in that arena with. For being a bearable district partner. However, I don't recall one time he ever made it past the bloodbath. So I barely give him a second thought.

The first time, I never even thought I would make it past the bloodbath. I was terrified. However, I knew something was different that day the capitol escorted me privately into a room. It was far from a normal control room, I knew that for sure. It was pitch white with strange portals located on every wall. The Head Gamemaker told me I was different to all the other tributes, that I was there to fulfil a purpose. With an unsettling grin under his grey beard. The Gamemaker of many years, he always had something up his sleeve…

The first bloodbath

The first time I went through the bloodbath it was like a flash, chaos erupting everywhere. Jay was quickly beaten and had his neck snapped by the bulky district 1 girl. I remember pushing through some of the larger kids who were too distracted at the time to notice my little frame squeezing through them. Then, just as I was at the entrance of the exit of the maze I saw her… for the first time. Jia Yang. At the time I could never have known that our paths would be intertwined together… forever. The first time I met her I practically crashed into her, she was shocked and scared at first. Ready to attack me but her eyes soon changed from a startled animal to one of sympathy when she saw who I was. We stopped and stared at each other in the middle of the chaos for what was probably a lot shorter than it felt. Only moments later her curly haired district partner received a sword through the back by the district 2 male. She screamed in shock and pain but there was no time to mourn... there never was. I was taken by the hand and we escaped into the maze together.

In that first games, something happened that I didn't expect. Tears were filling Jia's eyes about what happened to her district partner Pat. They had obviously developed a bond before the games started. As we sat there lonely, huddled in the corner of a dark room, I wrapped my arms around her and comforted her. Allowing her tears to drip onto my sweater. It was strange for me, I've never been a social person at all and comforting others never really came natural to me but with Jia it just felt natural. The only natural thing in this dark place.

I even managed to mutter in her ears the words.

"I'm sorry."

Jia reminded me of something but I couldn't quite place my finger on who yet. She trusted me enough that she handed me something, it was a golden key with a green gem in the middle. We didn't know what it was for yet but we figured it was important.

However, on this first time neither of us lasted very long. Jia was killed on the second night, it stung at first. Watching that I felt her pain like we were linked in some way. Then I was cornered by the careers, the big guy from 2 moved to finish me off however I hastily used to the key escape through a door and then it happened for the first time! A flash of light brought me back to the train, heading to the Capitol!

I thought it was all a bad dream at first or one of my hallucinations I've been getting since the accident. However when things started proceeding exactly how they did the first time I knew something was wrong.

From Jay jokingly saying "So I can call you Wren, Wrenny, the Wrenster?" again to every detail of the training and interviews being practically the same. Something was wrong. It was to be something to do with that key!

The bloodbath went relatively similar as well, from watching poor Jay die again to bumping into Jia. I knew that if I did that it would buy me enough time even if it went I had to listen to the screams of horror as she watched Pat be brutally killed again. To the claustrophobia of this dank, grey, dark maze. Of course we lost again, Jia died and I was forced to reset.

Escalation

From the third day onwards I knew something wasn't right but I also knew I could use this to my advantage. Each time I reset, I gained more knowledge. I always stuck close to the door to make sure I had to option to escape and reset. With each day I survived in the arena my knowledge grew, I began to sketch a map of the maze on my sketch pad and while everyone else was sleeping during the nights of the pre-games, I was planning for the arena days. Carefully plotting. Trying to discover what I could do different. I also created a system to keep track of how many resets I'd had, keeping my sketch pad with me at all times and marking how many resets I'd had. It was simply but efficient.

Something I discovered was the more information I gave her about the truth, the more painful it got for me.

There was one day 4 where we had finished escaping from the careers, I had told her about my foreknowledge of events and as we were dashing away she asked me.

"Why didn't you tell me about the careers?"

"Never try to change fate… you taught me that," I smile back.

She reaches forward and rubs my hair playfully, smiling through a dreadful situation.

Hopeless

As the resets went on I began to feel the hopelessness fill my heart like a container slowly being filled with something toxic and painful with each time.

Sure I was able to allow us to survive for a few extra days but no matter what I did, no matter how much I planned, trained, prepared, sketched, no matter how many times I reset I could never get us past that fateful day 8. And the longer it went on, the harder it got. It got harder to watch Jia die each time. Whether it was a slash, stab, cut, burn or mauling from a mutt, the closer I got to her. The harder it was to watch her die. I started to find out more about her as well while at the same time with each reset her memory was wiped so she knew nothing about me. She has a brother called Eugene who is 19 however she has no idea what his profession is and her father works in a shoe repair shop – oh and her parents never let her watch the hunger games growing up. That one always amused me. At first I liked this because I don't really like people knowing about me and my past… at first.

I remember one night on the hundredth reset. It was night 7 of the games I think… my memory has started to go a bit fussy at this point. We were sitting at a desk in one of the rooms, reading, playing games and just generally goofing around. Then I asked her a question.

"Jia…"

She turns to me, joyfully smiling.

"What is it you truly want… deep down…"

She paused for a good moment, deep in thought until she finally chirped out sadly.

"I want to fall in love and get my first kiss,"

I knew then I was doing everything wrong, as I watched her lay bleeding out on day 8. The life leaving her eyes.

"I wish I didn't know you," I murmured softly.

I wasn't doing what a sister should do. That boy Pat, her district partner. Up to this point he had always died in the bloodbath, every sing time. So on the 101st reset I decided to do something different, something risky. On that bloodbath, instead of bumping into Jia, I decided to go alone, watching from afar like a silent guardian. You see the times I never met Jia in the bloodbath, Pat survived. Sure, I could intervene subtly, allowing the two of them survive slightly longer but every time I did, I watched them get closer and closer. They liked each other I could tell. His awkward, goofiness made her happy. At first I felt jealousy, that he was stealing all of my sisters attention but my feelings soon turned back to despair. I managed to get them to survive until day 8 however each time Jia died to one of those mutts and it was all because she saved Pat on day 1. You see, the only way I was able to get them both to survive as long as day 8 is if I slipped Pat a key in the bloodbath, it allowed Jia to give herself a warning from the future in day 8 but her heart was too pure and selfless. So much that she trapped herself in a causal loop. Unable to escape her fate because she cares too much about Pat.

It must have been about the 500th reset when I found myself on the train feeling more hopeless than ever. Listening to Jay's.

"Wren, Wrenny, the Wrenster," again like an extremely ancient broken record at this point.

It was around the 500th reset yes but I wasn't keep track anymore, not because it was too difficult but because I didn't know nor care anymore. When I reset it began feeling like I was waking from a dream more than anything, I was sketching the arena more as a vivid memory. I could no longer tell the difference between past, present and future or what's a dream and what's not. It had been so long…

Everything goes well until day 10. Pat dies yes but I get to keep me alive with Jia. I get to see her warm, sunlit smile on the 9th night as she tells me stories but then something happens to that District 5 girl, she loses a screw or something and stabs me. The first time I barely made it to the door to go back and every other time I wait. Waiting for the inevitable. Sometimes Jia dies protecting me but no matter what I do this is the furthest I make it.

That is until one day when it had been at least 1000 days, I had an epiphany. Probably the biggest I've ever had in my life. It was true. I have to let myself die. It's the only way. Jia might still have a shot at winning and I have to give it to her. It's what any sister would do.

So the time came. Emmy's cold blade stung into my body and she was chased away by Ryker.

I stumbled back towards the door, clutching my wounded torso. I turn back to Jia who's crying again and give her a smile.

"Wrenna!" She exclaimed like she's only watching me get stabbed for the first time which I guess she is.

"It's ok… everything's going to be alright now," I reassured her with a warm tonne.

I then saw her eyes move down to the key clasped in my hand. The realization shoots into her eyes like a wild gust of wind!

"How…how many times has this happened… how long have you known me?" She stuttered.

I continue making my way to the door but turn my head to smile at her again.

"By now it must have been years…"

"We've been friends for years?" She croaked.

"Not friends… I was your sister."

My words seem to hit her like a tonne of bricks. She had no answer to me, only stutters.

I turn one last time towards the door and slowly place my key in the lock for the very last time. I hear her voice again.

"You… you never told me who gave you that key,"

I chuckle…

"You still have worked that one out… you did," I replied… turning to her.

I saw her eyes sink again with a mixture of sadness and a small bit of hope.

With that I turn the key and wind the clocks back one final time.

So that's what has taken me to where I am now, on the train, writing everything. Telling you the truth so that one day you might find this. This will be my last day in this hell and the only day you will remember if you survive. I don't know what happens past day 10 but I believe you do and that one day you'll find this…

Jia Yang 23, District 8

My hands slowly move the book shut, tears rolling down my eyes. No words and no thoughts.

I hear Pat appear beside me, I glance up at the young handsome man he's become. All thanks to Wrenna.

"What's that?" He asks, taking the book from me.

I watch his face change as he begins to read it, silence fills the room except for the sounds of the night street life from outside. I had explained to him what happened in the arena, I had even showed him his own grave so he had no choice but to believe me. But this is different, he's reading it from the account of someone else. Never before had I gone into detail about his deaths and what happened to him. Well, the other him.

"So… was this the district 5 girl?" he asks.

"What no! That was Wrenna… the district 10 girl."

He laughs.

"Sorry, I get mixed up… I try not to think about it too much if I'm being honest."

He's right. I still don't know if its ethical what I did or if I did it just for me.

"She's the reason you're here… the reason we're both here."

And I'll never forget that. He slams the book shut appearing to dismiss it and takes a seat beside me.

"Well, at least we've got each other."