one little rose petal
fell to the floor
like the feather of a bird's wing,
and it pooled outwards like blood.

Judah Tines (15)

District Six

last night

"How's this look?" Abby called up into the trees above them. Judah looked up at the branches where Cammie was sitting, overseeing what Abby was spreading out across the ground. They saw a face full of consideration up in the sky, hand thoughtfully underneath her chin. After a long pause, Abby threw her hands up in the air. "Oh, come on. Just tell me, Cam."

"Move the big stick to the right a little bit!" Cammie's verdict fell on them like rain, and Abby began directing to Judah to move the branch as Cammie suggested while she went about using the blood red spray paint that had fallen into their possession.

Judah hopped away from the rest of the trees and junk laid out on the ground, trying to get a good perspective on it by standing on their tiptoes at the edge of it. It would look better from a distance, or from the eyes of someone much taller than them. The streetlights were starting to turn on as the world of District Six went dark, and out on the edge of the woods kind of wasn't a great place to be during that, but there were three of them, and they had a lot of sticks.

Abby had gotten this idea about a week ago, and they had just kept putting it off. All of the sudden, both of Judah's friends just got really antsy to start it, though, and Judah was pretty sure it had something to do with the reaping. None of them were ever super conscious of it—it was hard to live your life normally and also be super aware of looming reaping days all the time—but when it got close like this, suddenly things became about hanging out, a little more hugging, a little more connection. Just in case.

The rose built out of sticks and scraps of cardboard, garbage can lids tossed aside, all the twine they could get their hands on—it was actually really turning out nice. Despite their late start on it, they'd been collecting the pieces for it since Abby had the idea. The spray paint had just been a bonus. She had originally intended on just making it out of all the ugly pieces of scrap they were using, saying that was part of the point—the point being some philosophical concept in art that neither Judah nor Cammie could or would even try to grasp. The blood red spray paint had been someone's in town—someone from their school, and he was a huge douche. So they saw it next to his stuff when he wasn't looking and just… darted over. And took it a little bit. So it was maybe slightly stolen, but they were using it for way cooler things than the shitty graffiti Mason would've used it for.

They couldn't get their hands on any green spray paint in the same fortunate manner, so the stem of the rose was how it was originally intended to be: made out of twisting sticks that they did their best to weave together and using as little of the twine as they could, preserving every little bit as it got bigger and bigger. Luckily for them, the sticks were a little damp from rainfall the last few days, so they were easy to twist together. Unlucky for them, though, was the rain that would probably come back soon, and wash away all their hard work.

Abby said the point of it wasn't to show it to other people, but just to make her message come to life. Judah didn't think they understood why there was a message if not for telling other people, but they supposed they understood the concept of just having fun while they were making this really cool thing. They would know how kickass Abby's artistic vision was at least.

Something was bugging them as they looked over the rose. Maybe it was just the fact that the lighting was different, but there was something off. About the petals. They looked over it, moving slowly around the flower.

"What are you doing?" Abby asked, watching as Judah began to go around behind her to look over it from the top.

"I see it too," Cammie said from the tree.

She pointed over to the top of it, where the trash lid was, a bunch of spray painted leaves in it to give it the look of the swirling petals. Yeah, Judah saw it now. They pushed in the trash can lid slightly, further down into the sticks and leaves and scraps of fabric that made up the rest of it. They grabbed a bunch of fabric that was now too tightly squeezed together with the lid further down, wrapping it around the top of the lid. That made the rose a little pudgier than it was tall, giving it a more rounded shape. Judah stood on their tiptoes again to see how that looked, inching back over to the stem.

"That looks way better," Cammie said, slowly climbing down from the tree. "This thing is amazing."

Abby grinned proudly as she stepped back and looked over her work. "I want to draw it."

"You want to draw what you just made?" Judah asked, raising their eyebrows.

Abby nodded. "We don't exactly have a camera to take a picture of it," she said. "And I don't want to forget it."

"Well, I have a solution for that," Cammie said as she dropped to the ground and came over to them. "Let's just kidnap a Capitolite from where they're staying, and then we'll ask them if they have a camera."

"Why wouldn't we just steal their camera? Why do we have to kidnap them?" Abby asked, sitting down in front of their work. The other two set down next to her, eyes roaming over the angled view of the rose that they had from the ground.

"Uhh… because," Cammie answered, rolling her eyes.

Judah looked up at the sky, which was really starting to darken now. Their parents were all probably going to start wondering where they were soon, since they said they'd be home before too late. Judah hadn't intended to stay out here this long. Usually on the night before reaping day, their family stayed together, wanting to spend time together. But they'd made an exception for what Judah had told them was an incredibly important thing they, Abby, and Cammie needed to do.

"We should go," Judah said, looking over at their friends. They didn't want their parents angry at them for getting home too long past dark.

But it was the perfect night for this. It wasn't chilly even as it got dark, and it hadn't been too hot while the sun was right on them. There were no weird noises, only the nighttime sounds of crickets and owls somewhere in the woods. Judah could live forever like this, sitting out by the woods with artwork sprawled across the ground in front of them, and their best friends looking out at the sky.

present day

Why couldn't they just get a fucking nonbinary bowl? Judah didn't know quite how it would work, what with there still only being two tributes—and by no means was a nonbinary bowl worth an extra tribute going into the arena—but would it hurt them to put their brains together and figure out a way? Instead of lumping them in with the girls?

Judah looked up at the stage like it would have all the answers for them, and it was only after a few moments of this that they realized what had sparked their anger. That the situation sank in for them.

Their name had just been called. Oscar Wintry had just drawn their name out of the girls' bowl, had just sunk his hand into the pool of slips and drawn Judah's out. He'd read it over the crowd, had probably seen thousands of faces finally relax in relief, and then immediately tighten up again in guilt over feeling relieved at the name being pulled. Judah had seen it a million times before; they knew how these things worked.

Now it was their time to walk up on the stage. It was their time to follow the other tribute up there. They'd seen that Balisong Thatcher wheeled up on the ramp on the other side of the stage, opposite to the stairs. For a moment, there was nothing but heartache and pity for the person in a wheelchair, the person who would obviously be much worse off than most of the rest of them, even in such a weak district as Six.

Next they were going to be up there, feel the pity rest like knives in their back, watch as the crowd shifted on their feet, uncomfortable at the sight of two corpses. Judah didn't want to die.

A Peacekeeper began to step into the crowd, looking over the girls' half on the right. Judah felt their eyes begin to get teary, and they reached up and wiped away at it quickly. But holy shit, the Hunger Games. Holy shit, no. They just wanted to drop at the Peacekeeper's feet and beg them no, beg them to do something about this, to keep them from going to the arena.

But they took a deep breath, and stepped out into the aisle.

Out there, with all of the people from Six who didn't know them by name now seeing who had been reaped, it was a different world. It was a world that seemed a lot more real. This whole situation was starting to feel alarmingly less like a dream by the second, and they were fucking terrified of that. They wanted to claw at the split second after they'd come to the realization that the reaping should have a nonbinary bowl, where everything felt fake and ignorable.

They wanted to run away. They glanced behind them, looked out to the street next to the Justice Building. They were fast. They might be able to make it to somewhere to hide at least. But they couldn't stop walking, and they were on the stage before escape was ever really an option.

"Judah Tines, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance," Oscar Wintry said with a warm smile. He had always been so much, constantly chaotic and rambunctious from what they'd seen of him on TV in previous years, but he'd seemed like a decent guy. Now, after having watched him pull their name out of a bowl of thousands, his voice hurt their ears, grated at them. "Do you go by Jude, by any chance?"

Judah gritted their teeth for just a moment. But even angry, they couldn't bear to be mean to this man. "No. Judah," they said. They'd picked the name out themself. They liked Judah. "Sir," they added as an afterthought, feeling bad about being short, even though their voice didn't sound angry.

"Ah. See, I know a Jude back home, and she's a fighter," he said, pointing his finger at them with a snap of his wrist as he said "fighter." "I think that bodes well for you, Judah Tines."

They nodded a little bit, feeling their lip quiver and taking a big breath to avoid crying again, even though their eyes were still teary and their cheeks were still wet from the crying they'd already done. They had seen the boy from Five crying in the reaping before Six started. They didn't want to put themself at that disadvantage.

"Well, shake hands, my loves," Oscar said, and Judah looked over at Balisong Thatcher as the wheelchair spun in Judah's direction. The two of them shook hands and Oscar looked out at the crowd with bright eyes. "And here are the tributes of District Six for the One Hundredth Annual Hunger Games, Balisong Thatcher and Judah Tines!"

To Oscar Wintry's credit, he didn't falter once at the sight of an average fifteen-year-old kid and a kid in a wheelchair, smiling out at Six like they were looking at two possibilities for this Quell's victor. Judah, though—they knew how this was going to play out. They knew what Six would be facing again.

They watched as Athene Maine stood up and stepped over to the two of them, putting a hand on Judah's back and resting her other hand on Balisong's wheelchair. "I'm so sorry, you two," she whispered quietly, and Judah suddenly felt their chest constrict, closing in on itself. They were going to start crying again, any second now. "I will do all I can for you."

A Peacekeeper separated her from them and led Judah and Balisong to the elevator that would send them to the floor for goodbyes. Judah watched as the Peacekeeper pressed the 2 button and wondered why they couldn't have just walked up a flight of stairs. Their mind was so spacey, jumping from holding back sobs one second to wondering why the sky was blue and sun was hot the next.

"How old are you?" the Peacekeeper said quietly as they started to ascend. Judah froze for a second, glancing down at Balisong in the wheelchair, before turning back to the person themself. They were still waiting expectantly for an answer from either of them.

"I'm fifteen," they answered, their voice small.

"Sixteen," Balisong said.

"Your hair is blue," the Peacekeeper commented, looking at Balisong. "They'll like that."

Balisong reached up and ran a hand through his curly blue hair. "I guess so," he said with a shrug. "They could just dye anyone's hair."

"But you came with blue hair," he said. "Act a little like them. Play off that."

Balisong paused and then looked down at the floor, ignoring the Peacekeeper's advice. Judah tried to move as little as possible, as if they were in a room with a predator and the only way to avoid them was to not draw any attention to themself. Like the dinosaurs who would only get you if you moved.

The elevator door opened and Judah stepped out of it, looking around the brown hallways. Everything seemed so drab and depressing here.

Just as the Peacekeeper started to motion toward their separate rooms for goodbyes, they paused and their helmet turned to Judah. "And you," they said, voice low and cautious. "Hide. Just hide."

Judah went into the little room feeling on edge from whatever they'd just been told. The Peacekeeper had no reason to be giving out advice, no reason to feel attached to these two reaped kids at all. They glanced back at the door that was now shut behind them for a moment, wondering what person was underneath that helmet, wondering if they were from Two like lots of Peacekeepers were. And if they were, why would they ever bother to care about two unremarkable kids from Six?

Hide. Just hide. That was such a strange thing to say.

The room they were in was just as unremarkable as they were for the Games: a comfortable-looking floral couch with a loveseat across from it, and a coffee table sitting in the middle. A little cooler over in the corner that probably had waters, if it had anything at all. A big window with dark brown curtains, and a white rug over most of the dark wood floor.

Their parents and Lia rushed in, the door opening and closing with a thud as they all crowded around Judah. Mom and Dad were crying, and Lia had her hands over her mouth, just looking at Judah like she was already seeing their dead body. They were so overwhelmed that they had to shut their eyes for a moment, tuning out their family's panic.

"Judah," Mom said. "Judah. Judah."

It was happening outside of this room, they were sure of it, because they couldn't make sense of any of what was happening. Like they couldn't make sense of why they wouldn't have a nonbinary bowl to draw their name out of.

They looked up as the door opened again and her sister's wife, Alicia, came into the room, her lip wobbling and her eyebrows scrunched up in pain. "Oh, Judah. No. Are you okay?"

No, of course they weren't okay. "I'm okay," they said quietly, and it could barely be heard over the sound that just flew out of their mom's mouth, a sob so painful and choked and aching that it sent Judah back into panicked mode for another few seconds.

They didn't like all this attention being on them. They felt themself shrinking inward, eyes moving between their crying mother, their sister and sister-in-law clutching at each other tightly, their father looking on with horrified eyes and nothing coming out of his mouth despite the fact that it looked like he had so much to say. Everyone they loved in one room, mourning together.

"Dad," they said quietly, turning toward him and trying to focus only on him, not on the rest of the room. He looked at Judah attentively, nodding for them to continue. They wanted to say something, but like him, they couldn't find the words. So instead they crashed into him, shutting their eyes tightly as they wrapped their arms around him. He slowly put his arms around them, too, and soon the other three were behind them, all five of them wrapped up in a hug that felt as constricting as a coffin.

woot so i wrote the d7 girl before i wrote judah here (who is from Mystical Pine Forest) so i'm literally gonna just... post the next chapter right after this one so yee & also haw here are 2 back to back chapters for ya

also i wanna note that judah refers to balisong as he not bc i forgot their pronouns but bc they obvs don't know each other's pronouns yet

i don't feel like doing a chapter question for this chapter so yee & also haw and see you in a minute with wilda