Very special thanks to Number One Fan of Journey, PeachyKeenx088, GhostWrite123, and TransFormers101, Kirapaw, and The Browneyed Bookworm for being extremely loyal reviewers! Now, on with the District Four reaping!
PS: Please tell me if I am writing your character incorrectly, so I can fix him/her next time.
PPS: A couple people asked, and I thought I'd answer now; I will be doing the sponsor thing, so when the time comes in the arena you can have some fun!
PPPS: This is just getting ridiculous…but please tell me who you would like to be aligned with so I can ask the character's creator. Thanks!
(Alaia Hemlock D4)
My silver-blonde braid bounces in the light breeze as I walk towards the town square, holding Harbor's hand tightly. He's sweating bullets, I can tell.
It's been hard for us both, ever since our mother died. One less person to keep our family going, and one less person to, well, be there for us. My father, Reed works countless hours, and yet that still isn't enough. Both me and Harbor, who is on his second reaping, had to take tessarae. I convinced Harbor to give less than me, as he wouldn't stand a chance against that Three this year, with his rippling muscles and heartless glare. People like this disgust me.
The town square is now slides into view, a peninsula surrounded by docks, lapping water, and clean shops. I breathe in the salty sea air and glance at the sky, a clear, beautiful blue with puffy white clouds. Such scenery should not be subject to something as horrible and life-taking as the reaping.
An ocean of a crowd lay in front of Harbor and I, so before he can take off, I hold his shoulders.
"Listen to me. Don't panic; just go into that crowd with dignity, alright?" He nods, and I give him a quick hug before I part to the area of sixteen's.
Lakelann Dabley, a fellow sixteen and my best friend spots me and weaves herself through the crowd, a silver sequin flower in her hair glittering in the sun. Brushing away my nervousness, I walk forward to meet her.
"Look at you. Gorgeous as ever." she smiles.
I savour my few moments of happiness, and giggle, smoothing my tight black dress. "Look at yourself, Lakelann. You'd have something to show if you were called."
But she won't be called.
Lakelann has always had it better, even living in a family twice as big as mine. I'd never held it against her, but it had always nagged me, especially the times when we would stay over at each other's houses for dinner. Lakelann's family could provide a large feast for us, and my father had to give meagre portions of cod and standard District Four bread.
Snapping back to the present, I see Mayor Zehner making her way to the stage. She smiles warmly at the crowd, but I know it's for the cameras. I roll my eyes.
She starts the annual speech as mandatory, insufferably boring us all to death. I steal a glance to a few of the newest Hunger Games winners in our District, wondering if we will have another this year.
Sitting off to the side looking bored is Evan Vorhes, a fifteen with long sandy blonde hair and sea green eyes. He won the Games when he was twelve using knife and nature expertise.
Celeste Barnette, a tall, dark haired twenty with beautiful yet terrifying brown eyes stares dead straight into the distance. She won the Games at sixteen, killing brutally and utterly destroying the Career pack.
The rest of them fade into the background, not being of much significance.
Mayor Zehner finishes, and there is a brief, beautiful silence before Xabier Ubell, a thin man with spiky powder white hair streaked with blue is bouncing onto the stage, trilling, "Happy Hunger Games!" and so forth. I wrinkle my nose in disgust.
Xabier makes sure to keep the crowd in suspense, and I feel my knees shaking as he calls the name.
"Alaia Hemlock!"
I only have a few seconds to register my angle. I draw a breath and walk forward, stretching a fake flirtatious smile onto my face. Before placing a foot onto the stage steps, a wail rings through the square. Harbor.
His eyes are trained on my face, tears trickling down faster and faster. A lump forms in my throat, and I want to embrace him, tell him everything will be okay. But I can't.
Because everything is not okay. This is the Hunger Games.
I finally stride up to Xabier, and Lakelann makes her way towards Harbor to quiet him. I shake hands with the escort, trying to hide my disgust.
"Alrighty then! Boy's next!" Xabier shrieks, walking over to the boy's reaping bowl and grabbing a name.
"Scilence Moores!"
A small twelve is nervously weaving through the crowd, until a voice shouts from behind him.
"I…I volunteer for tribute!"
A good-looking fifteen with dark, messy hair and sea-green eyes mounts the stage, wearing a strange, goofy smile. A few snickers come from the crowd at the boy's strange name and grin. We are both ushered into the Justice Building, and seated in dark blue egg chairs with posh throw pillows.
The Building doors swing open, and I'm hugging Harbor and my father so hard it hurts. When we finally break apart, Reed just stares at me.
"Keep that necklace safe, Alaia. Your mother would want you to bring it to the Games."
I grasp the large sand dollar necklace on my neck, tears threatening to spew across my face. Before my mother died, all those years ago, she had told me I could receive it when I first had children, just as my mother had. Before one salty tear can slide down my face, I wipe them furiously.
"I'm coming back."
It's not like I've not a chance. District Four is a Career district, and I can use a knife well, if not perfectly. So why am I crying, then?
Because you know there is going to be people who can do much, much more. I try to push the thought away. I need to try, for my family at least.
Both Harbor and Reed nod, fully believing in me. But soon the Peacekeepers are saying in their harsh tones to leave, and I give both of them a hand squeeze, finally giving up and letting a few small tears stream down my face.
But then I snap back to reality.
Stop it, you insufferable coward. You're going to win these games and help your family out of poverty. Anything it takes.
The visit with Lakelann is quick, she exclaims that she knows I can win, and to just remember everyone will be watching and cheering me on. I smile, and we hug for a while until she is ordered away.
My last visitor is River. I've known him for years now, not as many as Lakelann but he means just as much to me. As a friend, of course. He smiles warmly, and I walk to him, waving.
"Alaia, I need to tell you something." he says, drawing a breath.
"Hello to you too." I say, pretending to sound bitter but flashing him a smile to know I'm joking.
Before I can register what is happening, he utters three terrifying words, ones that I cannot fathom to deal with now.
"I love you."
I force myself to stay steady. Shit. Shit, shit, shit.
It's not like I hadn't considered something might be happening between River and I, but he expects me to know what to say now. But I haven't a clue.
"I…um…"
And before I know it, I'm screaming. About everything. How unfair this all is, how much I long to stay home tonight. Everything. River looks confused, and I don't blame him, but I'm just as confused. In a different way, of course, but it's still just as torturous.
River then steps forward and wraps his arms around me, and I become quiet. It's not a romantic hug, it's a friendly, supportive one. I just want to stand there, in this moment.
"Listen…I just wanted you to know what I have been thinking for a long time. When you come back, you're going to figure out how you feel about it, okay?" he says in a pained whisper.
I give him a sad nod, and before he must be dragged away by the Peacekeepers, I kiss his cheek, unsure why.
And at that moment, my desire for coming back home has received a new meaning. It's not for me, it's for the people who have rooted themselves into my heart. Habor. Reed. Lakelann. My Mother. And River.
(Rat-Trap Moores D4)
"Rat-Trap! I have a gift for you, for the weaping." Raindrops, my young sister says in her small tone, smiling broadly. I give a small chuckle at her mispronunciation. She fiddles with a clasp on the small wooden box she received for her fifth birthday this year, pulling out a doll the size of my thumb. I crouch down to get a closer look.
The doll has a painted wooden face and ragged blue dress. It's been in my family for a while, passed down from my grandmother, mother, my older sister Rattling, and now to Raindrops. She places it in my hand gently.
"Thanks, Drops." I ruffle her hair and kiss her forehead.
Slipping the doll in my dress shirt pocket, I make my way to my mother, Hollis' room. The door is halfway open, and I peek my head through. She nods her head, beckoning for me to enter.
Hollis has been deaf since before my siblings and I were born, but she never told us the cause. I know it aches at her horribly, watching her make pronounced clacks with her only pair of heels, as if she expects to hear it. I hate watching my mother suffer like this, wishing to hear the crisp sounds of birds in the morning, or even a high pitched shriek. She wouldn't care. It's why we're all named after Hollis' most favoured sounds.
Rat-Trap. I grimace at my name. What had compelled my mother to give me such a strange, rather unpleasant name?
I cross over to her nightstand, which is has drawers filled to the brim with paper and pencils. I grab one and scrawl, Are you ready? In handwriting. She nods her head, straightening the creases in her white eyelet dress.
I hold Raindrops' hand as we stroll through the streets to the town square, Hollis holding our newborn sister Violin. Rattling, Howling, and Scilence lagging behind us. It's Scilence's first reaping, and he looks terrified. Thankfully, Rattling has been whispering words of encouragement in his ear, as she has made it through all her reapings.
As despicable as the Hunger Games is, I'd never really been particularly terrified by it. Death is so quick, so irrelevant in the grand scheme, that I have learned to enjoy the middle.
Middles. You're whole life is a middle, so why is everyone trying to buy themselves more time? Death is inevitable for everyone, and enjoying the moments you have is much more sensible.
Before I know it, we have arrived in the town square, the sun glaring down on us.
I say quick goodbyes to the rest of my family, and move through the crowd until I reach the area for the fifteen's. My cousin Millisan slides into view, waving to me. I wave back, and make my way towards her.
We have little to no time to talk, because Mayor Zehner begins her speech eagerly, stretching her charismatic abilities for the Capitol audience. I hear snippets of the annual dialogue, but I allow most to be a faint buzz in my ears as I pull out a small rubix cube on a rusted chain, finishing the puzzle quickly.
The next speaker is Xabier Ubell, an incredibly strange man in his own right, just like most citizens of the Capitol. He shouts the same unintelligible phrases as usual, and after a while, the girl's name is picked.
"Alaia Hemlock!"
A young boy is letting out pained cries when a pretty girl with silver blonde hair and unique violet eyes walks to the stage, smiling convincingly enough.
Time is flying by rapidly now, and I realise Xabier is rising the boy's slip to his eyes.
"Scilence Moores!"
I feel my eyes bulge out of their sockets and I barely have time to register what I'm doing.
"I…I volunteer for tribute!" I boom.
Alaia and I are rushed into the Justice Building, and seated in plush, dark blue chairs. When she has finished with her visitors, which takes a while I might add, but I don't hold it against her. The doors burst open, and my whole family is flooding into the room. Scilence and Raindrops are wailing, and I spend my time hugging the life out of them, telling them it's going to be fine.
I could do well in the Games, after all. I tell myself not to get cocky, but if I don't have confidence in myself I can't win.
Later, I give quick hugs to Howling and Rattling, and smiling to let them know I can do it.
Most of my siblings file out, until I'm left in the room with just my mother. She doesn't like to talk much, but this moment seems fit.
"I think it's time I told you why I named you Rat-Trap." she whispers. So, she had noticed my confusion.
For the first time I feel in danger of crying. Not because of what I will face in a few days, but how much I am risking by leaving my family.
"The last thing I heard before I went deaf in the hospital was a rat-trap, you know. I fell asleep watching the rat run into the trap, when I woke up, unable to hear, I watched the rat struggling so hard. It was a fighter. I felt like that rat, dangling onto what I wanted so much. I know it's not the name you would have wanted, but I hope this makes you feel better." she flashes a small smile, and we're hugging tightly.
"Thanks, Mum." I whisper in her ear.
And then she gone, just like that, forced away by the Peacekeepers.
It's finally finished! LOL thanks for waiting so long, guys! Please review with your thoughts! : )