Chapter 1: Taken
I stood there in the square, the gray sky provided no relief to the already grim mood. I even felt a drop or two of rain on the top of my head. I was surrounded by other thirteen year olds, I recognized some of them from my class at school. We all at least survived our first reaping, but that doesn't guarantee our safety for this year. I felt my knee trembling beneath me violently, my teeth chattered together, and my stomach felt nauseous, at the thought of getting reaped. My name was only in the bowl twice, but I still didn't like those odds.
"Ladies First!"
Oh my gosh! Have I already missed Mayor Undersee's speech? I felt my stomach drop as Effie Trinket covered her pale hand with the names in the glass bowl. She finally pulled one out, and fumbled with it, while trying to open it. Finally, she said loud and clear into her microphone…
"Arda Welk." The sound echoed around the square, it bounced off buildings and resonated ominously.
I felt my stomach drop, I felt my mouth open slightly, but I quickly closed it. My whole body grew tense, and my feet were rooted to the ground. How should I play this, should I act tough and march right up to the stage, should I do a slow, small shuffle of sadness, should I act like it never even happened, and hope someone else is taken to the Capitol? I see some of the other kids look at me and start to inch away from me. I softly shake my head as though to say…"That's not me." and thankfully they stop.
"Where are you, Arda?" Effie says from the stage.
I'm not stupid, I am going to stall as long as possible. I see peacekeepers converse with the people at the check-in desk. They flip through the book of names and seem to find what they are looking for, because they send a peacekeeper to whisper something to Effie. She nods in understanding. The peacekeepers are coming towards the lines of thirteen year olds, my knee is trembling so much, I hope no one notices. They go down the line, shoving a device with a needle into the kids' fingers, it's the same one they used at the check-in desk. Once the DNA is registered your name pops up on the screen of the device. I think like 50 years ago identical twins were mistaken for one another or something, so now they have to check. There are only four kids before I am to be rechecked. I gently move my feet backwards, hoping to disappear into the crowd, but some sharp eyed peacekeeper notices me.
"Hey! Wait a second!"
The peacekeeper rushes over and grabs my arm, I feel the needle slide painfully into my index finger, and my name appears in clear letters on the screen.
Arda Welk
The peacekeepers surround me before I can even begin to register what happened. I feel their gloved fingers prodding me in the back forcing me to move closer and closer towards the stage. Effie Trinket smiles at me and gestures for me to come on the stage, her smile is so white and straight, it seems abnormal compared to the crooked, coal dusted smiles I am used to seeing in District twelve. As soon as I walk on stage, Effie wraps her arm around my shoulders, rather forcefully for such a petite woman, and positions me, so we are in a straight line on stage. I try to find my family in the crowd, but there are just too many people. I easily find Ike, my older brother, though. He's in the car fourth row from the front because he's seventeen, and more likely to get picked. His dark shaggy hair hangs in front of his grey eyes slightly. Mom cuts it regularly, but it always seems to grow back, within a week. He's much taller than many of the other boys around him. I finally find my Mom and Dad, they must've pushed their way to the front. My Mom buried her face into Dad's sleeve, he has his arm wrapped around her shoulder in a soothing way.
I look at a nearby screen, and see a close-up of myself, my face is pale and sickly looking. My whole body is tense, but my eyes are blank, no tears, just a bleakness that shows my shock, but hides my misery.
Effie moves with small light little steps to the boys container, and grabs a name from the very bottom. I feel a new wave of anxiety wash over me with every step she took, hoping that my brother is not chosen.
"Janus Cardell" She says calmly. I see a boy not much older than myself, maybe fifteen or sixteen, walk up, well more like trott up to the stage.
"Ah! So much enthusiasm, from our tributes this year. Now, any volunteers?"
The silence is unbearable, most of the kids just look at the ground, or just at some far off place in the distance. Thankfully after about a minute of that torture Effie moves on.
"Well, I guess not."
I shake Janus's hand, as is customary, then Effie asks for applause, the people of District Twelve give very long, slow claps of disapproval. Then Janus and I walk into the justice building.
It's kind of ironic what Effie said about the tributes having enthusiasm this year, since I needed the encouragement of needles and armed peacekeepers just to get on the stage. But, she might have been telling the truth about Janus, the way he jogged up to the stage, without hesitation, very strange...
My thoughts stop when my family comes in to say goodbye. My mother is hysterical, her face streaked with tears, she never imagined this to happen, none of us did for that matter. My father has silent tears making pale paths in his coal dust covered face, this is the first time I've ever seen him cry. Even my brother is tearing up. They all hug me for as long and as tightly as they can. My mother sniffles and breaks away as she takes something off of her neck and puts it over my own. It's a silver locket in the shape of a heart.
"I always wear it...every reaping, just in case…"
"Thank you." I choke out.
I start crying, I don't know how long it's been, but the thought of going on that train to the Capitol makes me sick. My mother hugs me again, her long dark hair falls in front of us like a curtain, concealing us from what is yet to come. I hear a light little tap on the door, and Effie is standing in the doorway. She tells me it's time to go, but I don't want to leave the safety of my Mother's arms. It takes a little while, but I eventually sum up enough courage to break away. As the door closes behind me something snaps inside my Mother, and she lunges for me.
"No! Don't take her from me!" she shouts.
"Martha…"My Dad says as he wraps his arms around her, a gesture of comfort and restraint. I can tell he doesn't want me to go either, but he has already lost me, and if my Mother interferes, he will surely lose her too.
I see my two friends, Cardea and Rhea in the hallway, probably waiting to say goodbye, but they were too late. I wave to them as I walk by, then I turn to follow Effie without looking back.
Janus is already in the car, when I get there, Effie sits between us in the backseat. I close my hand tightly around the heart locket, and watch as glimpses of District 12 disappear and reappear from my view. I tuck my head in to look down at the locket, and my knuckles are white with tension. My finger is covered in blood. I panic for a second, then I wipe it on my skirt. Thankfully it's unnoticeable, because my skirt is plain black. More blood wells from the small wound in my finger still, one of those stupid peacekeepers must've hit a vein. I tuck my hand into my sleeve, hopefully the sleeve will soak up most of the blood. While I watched the clean, green sleeve of my blouse absorb patches of muddy red a thought crossed through my mind, even though the Hunger Games have only just begun, blood has already been spilled.