District Four
Selene Ripple's POV
Underwater is the perfect place to be when you want to calm down and think. When you want to get away from everything and just relax and be at peace.
It's great place to be. The silence of being beneath the surface, the calmness that you get, it's nothing short of perfect.
It's the perfect place to die. What better place to die then somewhere that makes you feel at peace? If your going to die, might as well make the best of it.
Though, I did hate the pain that burned inside my lungs when I began to run out of oxygen, it made dying underwater unpleasant. Worse then something on the surface, say, a bullet to the head or a spear through the eye. Damn. You just can't win with death can you.
I felt hands grab my body before I felt myself being raised up from the ocean floor and head towards the surface.
I opened my eyes to see that two girls had their hands around my arms and were pulling me towards fresh air. I didn't stop them. I saw no reason to.
As soon as all three of us broke the surface, I heard heavy gasps come from the two girls on either side of me, one of them more cough like then actual gasping.
"Selene!" Dawn shouted in between gasps for air. "What were. You doing. Down there?"
"Thinking." I told her truthfully.
"More like. Killing. Yourself." Dawn shot back. "You were. Down there. For nearly. Six. Minutes. In. Deep water."
"Wasn't killing myself." I told her, quickly regaining air. A lot quicker then they were, especially Melody, who had water flying out of her mouth whenever she gasped for air. "I was just thinking. Can't I even do that in peace anymore?"
"If you want to think of killing yourself then do that without really doing it." Dawn told me bitterly. "Fourteen is too young of an age to die. Or even think of dying."
I've been thinking of dying for years, your never too young to die, or think of dying. And I wasn't going to kill myself, but seeing where this conversation was heading, I don't think that my friends would believe me, so I just didn't say anything.
As we were heading to shore, I just hoped that they'd drop the subject and leave me alone later. While I like having them around, I like being alone better.
My friends and I reached the sandy shore that bordered my home within a couple minutes of swimming steadily. We were all good swimmers, as expected from everyone in District Four. If you couldn't swim, you were looked at as dead weight, useless, even if you did useful things in the district. If you couldn't swim, you were worthless. Shunned.
But even so, I wish that I was hated for not being able to swim, it would be a lot less painful.
"Selene!" I heard the voice of my father shout from our house, which rested on top of a short cliff that was about thirty feet high at the edge of the ocean. "What have I told you about diving?"
Oh no. Not this again. Ever since that one accident he's been all over my case about diving. "You could get hurt, or worse."
"Sorry dad!" I yelled. "I just wanted to calm my nerves before heading over to the reapings! With the secret quell and all!"
My dad shook his head before shouting back to me.
"You don't need to worry! What are the odds of you being picked? And even if you were picked, someone would volunteer and take your place."
"That's not what I'm worried about!" I told my dad as I thought of the best way to say what I was of thinking last night, and was going to do today. But I didn't have any fancy ways of saying it, or any way of making it sound good, so I just went out and said it. "I'm not worried about getting picked, because I'm volunteering for the games!"
I then heard both Dawn and Melody both gasp at what I had just announced. I couldn't hear my father's gasp, but from his expression, I could see that he had the same reaction as my two friends.
Seconds of silence passed, only broken by the breaking of the ocean's waves, before another sound covered up those breaking waves.
"Oh hell no!" My father exclaimed.
Dylan Drake's POV
"You three geeks still reading?" I heard my sister, Creek, ask playfully.
I looked up from my book about star navigating to see that she was leaning against the door frame, looking at me and my two best friends inside my room.
"Nooo," I told her with heavy sarcasm. "We're investing our time in pointless activities that'll get us nowhere in our lives."
"Looks like only two of you are doing that while the other is doing something useful." Creek jokingly said as she pointed to my right.
I looked over to see Caspian sleeping, eagle spread, on my bed, taking up most of the space. "The rest of you can go back to, learning about star gazing."
"Hey," I interjected. "Star navigation has been used for hundreds of years, thousands even. It was passed down by fishermen all over the world so that they wouldn't get lost unawares."
"I know that Dylan." My sister sighed. "Anyway, get ready for the reapings and come downstairs, mom and dad want to talk to you about volunteering."
"Not this again." I sighed, thinking back to last night, when I told my parents that I'd been chosen to volunteer. While mom and dad wanted me to become a victor, like Creek, they were worried about my less that satisfactory physical abilities. In their eyes, I spent too much time in the library and not enough time in the gym, thus, making them think that I wasn't ready to volunteer, like Creek had when she was my age three years ago. "I was chosen among all the juveniles in the academy," I explained to my sister. "Out of the thousands of kids they could of chosen, I got sanctioned to volunteer. They didn't authorize you to volunteer, they didn't recommend you to volunteer, all you did was go with the mainstream and shout: I volunteer! Before fighting your way to the stage."
Creek wasn't fazed by my explanation, nor did she seem to care. All she did was look blankly at me, waited until I had finished saying my say, then responded.
"Mom and dad still want to talk to you." Waste of breath that was, I still had to tell my parents that I was ready, and that I was going to bring them another victor and make their dreams become a reality. A complete one.
"I'll be down in ten." I told her simply as I placed my book on my desk, after which, Creek exited my room and went downstairs to eat breakfast.
I turned towards Caspian and shook him awake.
Caspian muttered unintelligently as his brainwaves started to get back to standard thought again.
"Hibernation has ended early buddy," I told him before I grabbed my reaping clothes, a white dress shirt and black pants that conveniently hung two feet away from my bed. "My kin want to talk to me before I volunteer today."
Caspian stretched a little before he got off my bed.
"I don't know why they'd want to talk to you," He yawned. "You got recommended to volunteer, and Creek was your age when she volunteered."
"It's because of me being ingenious rather then vigorous." I explained, knowing that my parents disapproved of me spending more time in the library then out in the training center.
"Can you dumb that down for me please?" Caspian asked. Damn, I keep on forgetting to tell things in simple form for Caspian. Unlike Ermin and I, he's not used to listening to our choice of words. Caspian always did say that that was one of my annoying quirks.
"It means that his parents want him to be more of a brute then a genius." Ermin told my friend.
"Well Creek wasn't a brute, she was just good at killing people."
"And my parents don't think that I'm up to the task." I explain further. "They think that an egghead like me won't last past the bloodbath because of my studying. It also don't help that I'm dependent on these glasses. If I lose them, then I'm blind, my sister's a good fighter, and so am I, but mom and dad think that because of these glasses, I'm subordinate to Creek."
"Well whatever your parents say to you," Caspian said while walking out of my room. "Just remember that people can't get close to you if you use your spears right."
Leave it to the only true career in my circle of friends to remind me. I threw my spears straight and true, and spears, being a mid distance melee weapon by themselves, could keep even someone with a sword from reaching me if I did the right things.
Yes. Caspian was right. As long as I used my spears right, I wouldn't have to worry about anything. The arena would affect whatever plans I make prior to entering, but I could always make a new one. And while I wasn't the best at fighting, too many careers have fallen due to lack of planning.
I wasn't going to let that happen to me.
Selene Ripple's POV
Dad. My over protective dad, hated the idea of me going into the games. Can't say that I was surprised, after all, dad didn't like me diving off the cliff that our house was on, so imagine how he reacted when he found that I was volunteering for the games.
As I change into my reapings clothes, a simple white dress, I heard my dad telling me to not going into the games.
I told him that I was going to wither he liked it or not, and when asked why I was going into the games, I told him that I was going in because of my reputation as the freak I was. I told him that maybe if I won, I'd finally get some respect from the district and not be seen as the stupid girl I was, because if there's one thing that the district needs, it's change.
My father, though he didn't like that I was going into the games, knew that there was no changing my mind, as I'd been thinking about it for nearly two years now, told me to be careful. I was going to, cause after all, people get injured just trying to get to the stage.
Walking thought the streets of the district, I saw people whisper about me as I passed. Though I couldn't hear what they were saying, I still knew that they were talking about me, it didn't take a genius to figure it out, and if they were talking about me, they were talking about my 'condition'. My 'flaw'. Just like they always do.
Way to ruin a perfectly sunny day everybody.
Everyone talked about it, and while they didn't say it to my face, I had heard them say it one more then one occasion. It was like my condition was the plague, and it was far from it as far as I was concerned, I was just different.
It was so widely talked about that the only people in the district that didn't talk about it were my father, and my two friends. That's how bad it seemed to be.
I saw a girl no older then eight point to me and start talking to her mom about my condition. Damn, find something else to talk about District Four. I just hope that I can get this reaping done as fast as possible so that I can get away from all of you.
I walked up to the sigh in booth and signed my name before going over to the fourteen year old section. I found this year a little strange. This year, we weren't separated by rope, we were separated by black cages that looked like over sized jail cells. What was going on here?
I went over to the cage marked: 14, and as I entered, the other girls, despite how packed the cage was, tried to keep a distance away from me. Not too obvious, but obvious neither the less. I'm not a disease! God! You all act like I'm the only one in the world with this condition!
"District Four!" A loud voice erupted suddenly from the many megaphones spread across the square. The voice came from our escort, Venus Valentine, A.K.A The pumpkin lady. Only in her early twenties, she's got to be one of the youngest escorts this district has ever had. With orange hair and orange lips, she could look pretty if she didn't have orange skin as well.
Every year, I kept on thinking how she could even walk in those twelve inch heels that she walked in. But this year, I saw that she was struggling to even stand straight in those heels.
She was off balance for a few seconds before she kicked her high heels off and started to speak with slurred words. She had been drinking. But why? She was normally happy and energetic and would flirt with the boys that volunteered. Why had she been drinking on what was her flirting day? "I'm sorry District Four!" She cried out with sadness. "But I've got no choice. Due to the orders of president Blizzard and the reading of the card, many of you are going to be executed."
It was then that kids started to whisper among themselves. They didn't believe it, and why should they? Executions weren't part of the reapings, never have been, so why do them.
"They're not going to really execute us, are they?" Selene asked worryingly.
"Of course not," I told her confidently. "This is the reapings not an execution."
"Fifteen!" Venus suddenly announced.
I watched as all the heads inside our cage looked towards the fifteen year old cage, to see that peacekeepers were dousing the girls inside the fifteen year old cage with water.
I didn't think too much about it, until one of the peacekeepers turned on his taser, wrapped tape around the device, then tossed it at the soaking wet girls inside the cage.
I suddenly saw the girls inside the drenched cage start to shake around violently and shout in pain before one by one, they fell to the ground, until all that remained was the sound of crackling energy.
The entire district seemed to be shocked by their actions. They had just electrocuted every fifteen year old in the district to death, including Melody, one of the nicer people in the district who didn't judge me because of my 'condition'. She was a quiet girl that never hurt anyone in her life, she didn't deserve what just happened to her. "Anyone want to volunteer?" Venus asked with sadness in her voice, like she was going to cry. "If nobody volunteers, another age group will die."
"I volunteer!" I shouted before anyone else could mutter a word.
As much as I didn't like the people in this district, I didn't want them to die like Melody. That, plus the fact that I wanted to volunteer anyway.
A peacekeeper unlocked my cage door and guided me up the stage until I was next to our orange coloured escort. "What's your name?" She asked me. The stench of alcohol in her breath was strong and I took a step away from her to avoid the smell.
"Selene Ripple." I answered.
"Welcome Selene." Venus told me before walking over to the boys reaping bowl, picked up a piece of paper and read out the number "eighteen."
Dylan Drake's POV
Our pumpkin escort called out the number eighteen before the peacekeepers reproduced what they had done to the fifteen year old girls moments ago. They doused the boys with basins of water before one of them turned on his electric taser, taped the button, then tossed it into the shallow pool of water along with the soaked victims.
I was stunned at first, and a little uncomfortable watching those kids die right in front of me, but I quickly shook if off. I had seen death before, I had seen it on T.V. But still, it was right in front of me, and it was different then seeing it on a screen.
Still, twenty three more kids were going to die in the arena, and possibly by my hand. If I couldn't handle seeing death now, what makes me think that I can handle it in the arena?
"Any volunteers?" Our drunken escort asked.
"I volunteer!" I shouted.
A peacekeeper unlocked the cage door before he guided me to the stage.
When I got onto the stage, I didn't get too close to Venus in case she decided to molest me. She was notorious for her brief dalliances with our volunteers, and I wasn't going to get involved with her wordly or sexually, and that meant no touching me in front of the entire district.
"Name?' She asked with drunken words that were totally out of character for her.
"Dylan Drake." I simply told her.
"Thank you Dylan." She said. Like she thought that I had volunteered to save more kids. No, I didn't volunteer to save lives, I volunteered to go into the arena.
That girl, Selene Ripple, was here for the same reason I'm guessing. She wanted to show everyone that she was worth something, someone to respect rather then vilify. She was only tolerated in the district because her father's a rich pearl diver who gives lessons to whoever pays, and you get to keep whatever pearls you manage to find. She didn't volunteer for anyone, she only volunteered for herself, like the careers we are.
Just as I was going to prove that I wasn't just a bookworm to my parents, she was going to try to prove to the district that she was more then just a homosexual to those homophobes. I don't want to kill her, but if she gets in my way, she'll get what's coming to her.
A/N: Hope you all like this, once I'm done the next district I'll be half way done. Yay. Reapings are hard. Dylan, you made me use words that I normally wouldn't use.
Sorry to all of you for not giving enough description about things, but I don't want to describe everything in the background and stuff, I want to get the reapings done ASAP.
Next up is District Three.
AthenaGal01, I made some changes on Selene because I think that being in a career district, Selene would have more reason to volunteer then the one you gave me. Oh yes, and Mel had to die, because one does not simply survive a death sentence.
Oh yes, and to all of you, sorry that I didn't reply to your reviews, but I do really appreciate them. So thank you, all of you.