Act 3
'Departure'

My mom did not come to see me.

After I had been harvested for the massacre, I mean, reaped for the Games, I was taken to a room aside to say goodbye to my family; my only family being my mom. The Peacekeepers said they couldn't find her. Thus either meaning she was busy shooting up and they couldn't find her because she was in some alley hiding from prying eyes. Or they had found her and felt uncomfortable/didn't want to do their jobs because she was shooting up and just thought it best to lie. Either way, I am disappointed in my mom.

Dezji had said goodbye in a separate room. I swear I could hear Lilleth screaming.

Once finished with that, we were forced onto a train and within seconds, left the district we had always called home.

Gaius, as our escort, was supposed to be telling us what to expect when I arriving in the Capitol and how to act and all that jazz. Yet instead, there he was in front of us, snoring. The poor soul had fallen asleep. His life must be so hard.

I sat by a window and watched as scenery whipped past us. Dezji sat across the aisle from me, paying attention to some randomness I had no concern for.

"You're going to get motion sickness doing that."

I turned my head to see Dezji had looked towards me when I hadn't noticed.

"I don't get motion sickness," I said.

Lie right there. I don't know if I get motion sickness. I had never been on a train prior to this, so it was a completely new experience for me.

"Look, I am just being polite to you for my sister's sake," he said with a groan. "If you weren't friends with my sister, I would probably kill you first in the arena."

"That's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me," I said, obviously pushing sarcasm.

Dezji didn't take the joke or just didn't care for it, because he just scowled at me. I sighed at his reaction.

No getting through him, I thought.

I ended up matching his scowl with one of my own.

"Look, it was no insult," he said. "But the truth. You look rather sickly yourself, having barely anything to you."

My family had barely any food to ration, even with tesserae. I didn't have the best diet, but it was the best I could do. I still thought I looked better than a morphling addict.

"You probably can't even hold half the weapons and the ones you can hold, you probably won't be able to wield them properly," he continued, not holding back the criticism. "You are a perfect stereotype of District 8."

That really hit me. I thought I was better than that. I know at least my attitude is, but apparently my physique was hitting a homerun in that field.

Still, I couldn't handle such an insult. I ended up standing up and moving to the back of the car, away from him, my fellow tribute.

"Whatever," said Dezji, shrugging his shoulders as I walked away.

So that is how people will see me.

The thought ran through my mind. If my own district sees me as weak, which are a bunch of weaklings themselves, then everyone will. That would make me a great target early on to get rid of. I wouldn't be considered any use to anyone.

I'll just have to play on my strengths, I thought.

And if my strength is my physical weakness, I guess I have to deal with it.

This was a short update. I am not normally going to do short updates. I want to normally update with 1000+ words, while this one is roughly 600 words. I just wanted to give a bit into the train ride. Next chapter should be the Capitol and the chariot ride.

By the way, I would like to thank all of those that submitted. I finally have a full list of characters. Thanks to all those submitters, even the ones who didn't have a character accepted. For those whose character was accepted, even if they die in the bloodbath, which at least eight of them will, they will still be shown a bit during the chariot rides and the training.

A full list can be found on the bottom of my CAST LIST section on my profile. Just search for Overture of a Massacre.