A/N: Thank you for reading!
Chapter Thirteen: It Begins
Back in District 8, the children would be asleep by this time. Only the adults pulling overnight shifts would be awake, working hard to catch up to the quota set by the factory manager sent by the Capitol. The workload would even double during this season, since most of the Capitol citizens want to look their best and flaunt their prettiest dresses during the Games, even if they do nothing but watch and make their bets.
As I lie awake and stare up at the ceiling, I cannot help but think back to where I was a year ago. I remember the three of us—Garett, Nidle, and I—running to the factories for our shifts after school was over. We all wanted to sign up for an overnight shift that day, but Lenora Paylor, our factory supervisor, told us to go home.
"I'll only let you work until midnight." She says as she rubs her temple out of frustration, it seems. "But after that, I want you gone."
"Come on, Nora." Nidle pushes back. "We don't have school tomorrow, anyway."
"Until midnight only." She repeats firmly.
When I get home that midnight and tell Mom that Paylor didn't allow us to take the overnight shift, she sighs. "Nora's going to get reprimanded again for not letting kids work the overnight shifts." She tells Dad when she hears me close the door to our room. "I hope they're not as harsh on her as before."
"They might be." Dad grunts. "All they want is to reach their quota."
Is Nidle working tonight? Did Paylor give in and let him take an overnight shift? I wonder if he's doing anything to distract himself from the fact that two of his best friends are in the Games. Will he have the stomach to watch when it begins? My family will be given the tech to watch the Games from our homes, as is customary will all the reaped tributes for the year's Games: will he be watching with them? Will he root for me alone?
Dad is probably awake already. He's not much of a heavy sleeper ever since the accident. He told me it's because he never really slept easily, but I know that it's because of the phantom pain from his missing legs. Will he be drinking coffee today, to stay awake and watch me struggle through the Games? Mom will probably not go to work today since it's the first day of the Games, but I just know she'll try to distract herself with work afterwards. Dad can look after the boys anyway.
I hope my brothers are not watching when it's time for me to die.
The darkness outside is dissipating, alongside any hope of me getting to rest my mind. I could hear Zarven's voice, saying, "I told you to get some rest, sweetcheeks."
Juliana arrives an hour later, wearing a tight dress with the texture of a snake's skin. Her now-silver hair is in braids and tied up in an intricate bun. She doesn't look like she was drunk last night at all. "My fabulous tribute." She rouses me from my bed. "We need to get ready now."
I can feel nervousness eating at my stomach as I get dressed in the shift Juliana gave me. She wrinkles her nose as soon as she sees me in my clothes. "It's not fabulous at all, but you'll get changed once you get to the Launch room."
We head out of the room and move to the elevators. She's talking away, telling the story of how she and Adel got home last night. I don't understand everything she is saying but when she says Garrett's name, I ask her to repeat what she said.
"He and Adel already left." She says as she presses the button for the roof as soon as we get inside the elevator.
I try not to feel disappointed. Garett probably thought the same as I did when I left his room when he was asleep: saying goodbye is hard, and saying goodbye without knowing if we'd see each other again is much, much harder. I swallow the disappointment down, and the elevator starts moving up.
The hovercraft is already there when Juliana and I exit out to the roof. A Peacekeeper points to the ladder waiting for me. I swallow hard before grabbing one of the bars. I can feel my palms starting to sweat. What if I slip because of my grip? They would be losing one player even before the Game begins.
But all of a sudden, I am unable to move, and instead am lifted into the inside of the craft, where a woman in a long-sleeved gray uniform walks towards me when my feet settle on the metal floor. She takes my forearm. I cannot even flinch as I feel the sharp pain of a needle being injected into my skin, and as she pulls it out afterwards. "That was for your tracker." She simply says when I begin to move again.
Another Peacekeeper escorts me and Juliana deeper into the hovercraft, until we get into an area where four of the tributes are already buckled into their seats. The Peacekeeper directs and straps me to my seat, before leading off Juliana to a different area. As soon as they leave, I look at my companions. Beside me is the girl from District 11, and to her left is the girl from District 5. Across from me is the boy from District 10, and beside him the boy from District 3. Only the District 10 boy, whom I recall being 17 years old, looks relaxed: the other are unable to mask their nervousness. It's not strange; after all, none of them could be older than 14.
Only one more seat is empty, but it doesn't take too long to see who the last tribute is. I almost breathe a sigh of relief when from behind the Peacekeeper emerges Aiden. He gives me a small nod when he sees me.
"Well, Happy Hunger Games, everyone." He says nonchalantly as he is buckled into his seat.
A few moments later, the hovercraft begins to move. I grab the straps of my seatbelt at the sudden movement. Flying is a different sensation than riding a train. I know that they're carrying us like previous cargo, but I cannot help but feel nervous as we move through the air. I remember Iris for a moment, recalling her face when she told us that she'd love to try riding a hovercraft when Mayor Trent left for the Capitol once in one.
"Look at me now, Iris." I say underneath my breath.
It takes me some time to have my bearings. I try my hardest to look as unfazed as the District 10 boy. By the build of his body, I guess he's been working since he was young. 10 is one of the poor districts where children start labor early.
Our eyes meet, but not for long. I immediately look down.
After what seems to be a lifetime, the hovercraft windows start to dim until they are nothing but dark. It could only mean that we are close to the arena now, since they are trying to keep it concealed from us. I can feel my stomach dropping as we begin our descent.
Peacekeepers undo our seatbelts as soon as the hovercraft lands. The woman who injected my tracker is also there, and she announces that our stylists are already waiting for us outside. We alight by District Number. I nod again at Aiden as I get up from my seat.
Juliana is smiling as she sees me descend from the hovercraft. "Let's go, darling." She links her arm around mine as a Peacekeeper leads the way to the Launch Room. Every step I take into the slaughterhouse feels heavy.
I take a shower as Juliana tells me to. She tells me to eat while waiting for the clothes to arrive. Seeing the feast laid out in front of me makes me lose my appetite even more, but I reach for a District 8 pretzel and a glass of water. The bread feels soft in my hands but when I eat it, it feels like I am eating pebbles instead.
"Tell me if you want to eat anything else." Juliana says as she braids my hair, and then twists is up into a bun and secures it in place with some bobby pins. "We tell an Avox to bring it here."
"This is fine, thank you." My throat feels dry even if I drink water.
I am done with half of the pretzel when the clothes arrive. Juliana helps me dress in the same clothes all of us will be wearing: brown pants, a yellow shirt, and a black jacket. "Marique checked the material himself when he designed this wear." Juliana says as she helps me into the jacket. I'm too nervous to ask who Marique is. Instead, I put on the socks and boots that came with the clothes.
Juliana dabs some tint on my lips. "You can never look too fabulous for the arena."
"Will this help?" I scoff. It's not as if the Careers will stop themselves from killing me if they see me wearing lipstick.
"It's not even that noticeable." She assures me. "Just enough to still get the attention of your sponsors." I can hear Zarven speaking behind her rationale. When she is finished, she leads me to a mirror to let me check on my appearance.
"No token from home?" She asks me when I zip up the jacket.
I shake my head. I don't want to tell her that my goodbyes were over too quickly that no one was able to give me something to remind me of home.
"Oh." She says. She takes off one of her bracelets and clasps it around my wrist. She shushes me before I could come up with a protest. "Here. This is your token now."
I frown. "Juliana, this is too much."
She smiles. "It's not an expensive bracelet, if that's what you're thinking. Vergil gave it to me two years back, anyway."
I could not help but be touched, even if the bracelet is technically Vergil's. "Thank you, Juliana."
"Just do your best." She pats me on my head.
Every minute that passes by make me even more nervous. I roll up the sleeves of the jacket and notice that a bruise has formed on the area where the needle for the tracker was inserted earlier. Juliana tells me not to touch it and rolls down my sleeves for me.
I can feel Juliana trying to distract me from my own thoughts, but I do not have the capacity to reciprocate. All I can think about are the things that could go wrong once I am up in the arena. I could fall off even before the countdown is done. I can get a knife in my back as soon as I start running. I can live to see another day but not find Garett, or Marcy, or Aiden. I can die from starvation or dehydration, or from the cold, or from the heat. Maybe the Gamemakers know of my fear of lightning and are planning to use it against me.
I shudder. Juliana doesn't say anything anymore but instead holds my hand and rubs the back of it with her thumb.
My heart and stomach drop even further when a voice speaks through. "Tributes, prepare for launch." I rub my hands and bite my lip before standing up.
Juliana embraces me before I step onto the circular metal platform in the middle of the room. "Come back, Anya?" She says as she holds my hands for the last time. "Come back, and I'll make you into the most beautiful Victor."
I swallow down the lump forming in my throat. A memory of a girl twirling around in her red dress flashes by. "I want a red dress if I win."
She smiles. "I'll get you the most beautiful red dress."
"Thank you, Juliana." A glass cylinder closes me in. This is finally it. No escaping from whatever is outside there.
The platform begins to move upwards. I see Juliana disappear from beneath me until I am enveloped in darkness, but still moving upwards. I can feel the cold of the chain from Vergil's bracelet on my skin. Come back. Juliana's voice echoes. Can I really?
Then I am out in the open. My eyes adjust to the strong sunlight, and when they have, I see buildings rise to the sky like the ones back in the Capitol. But they look so far off, and not a match to the trees surrounding us.
Claudius Templesmith's unmistakable voice rings out. "Ladies and gentlemen, let the Sixty-ninth Hunger Games begin!"
The Cornucopia stands tall and a dazzling gold under the sunlight. A hologram appears above, showing the countdown, beginning from 60. A voice also counts down, and it's not Claudius Templesmith.
I look to my sides and see the other tributes, but not Garett. Is he across from me, or on the other side, hidden behind the Cornucopia?
"Fifty-two. Fifty-one. Fifty." Is Zarven really going to try his best at getting sponsors for me? I might've not done enough during the interview.
"Forty-five. Forty-four. Forty-three." A lot of things are sprawled out in the field, but the treasure rests in the mouth of the Cornucopia. My eyes frantically scan the floor to see if I can grab something close to me, but everything looks so far off.
"Thirty-seven. Thirty-six. Thirty-five. Thirty-four." I am feeling lightheaded all of a sudden. Can I run here as fast as I did in the District? Can the Careers run as fast as I can? Are there any weapons I can get my hands on? Even just a knife would probably suffice.
I feel like I am being swayed. I try to plant my feet firmly on the plate I am standing on. One wrong move and I fall, shipped back to District 8 in pieces. "Twenty-six. Twenty-five. Twenty-four."
Come back. I told Juliana to ready a red dress for me. Maybe she'll still let me wear one even when I am returned to my parents in a casket. "Seventeen. Sixteen. Fifteen."
I feel like I am gently swaying again. Maybe it is because of nervousness, of knowing that my impending doom is close to its peak.
Ten. Nine. Mom's watching. So is Dad. Cliff and Bron, too. Iris, Nidle— all of them.
Eight. Seven. Will I be able to find Garett after this initial bloodbath? Will I find Marcy, or Aiden? Will I find any of them?
Six. I have to. I need to find them. I can't survive this game alone.
Five. Everyone's watching.
Four.
Three.
Two.
One.