District Five
Alexa 'Fortune' Langer's POV
Slumping against the tree that was a mere two feet away from the electrical charged chain link fence that guarded the district from wild animals and the other dangers in the wilderness beyond, I raised the busted up light bulb to my mouth with my left hand while igniting my lighter with my left hand.
I watched the wheel of the lighter produce a spark before it transformed into a small pillar of fire before I put the flame under the, unbusted, bottom of the light bulb that held the white crystals that made my life bearable.
The flame touched the blackened bottom of the bulb and started to heat up the substances inside for a few seconds before it started to produce thin curls of smoke.
As soon as it started to smoke, I inhale while my mouth was around the screw cap of the bulb, letting the taste of smoke, heated glass, and the acidic chemicals invade my mouth as I sucked the vapors into my lungs. I took a deep breath, getting as much of the product into my system as possible, before I pushed my lighter away from the bulb and extinguished the flame by releasing the lever that made the flame continuous and pulled the bulb away from my mouth as I held the smoke in my lungs for a few second.
When I wasn't able to hold it in any longer, I exhaled the smoke from my lungs and watched as the streams of thick grey substances sail into the air before thinning out and disappearing. Just like how most of my family disappeared.
They were like the narcotics I was smoking, they had died in a fire before being buried someplace dark. The remains of them were charred black and broken, but they were still recognizable. Just like the drugs I was smoking.
The house that I was living in now was nothing more then a shed I had built, but it kept me protected from the weather and the bugs. It was a roof over my head made with scraps of tin and whatever else I could find around the district.
I built the poor excuse of house until it looked like a box made from the scraps of the district. It took me nearly a week to build, another three to make it sturdy enough to withstand the elements.
It was poorly insolated, so it got cold in the winter and hot in the summer, and it was far from perfect, always leaking in one place or another. It's single window had been smashed by bricks thrown at it, usually by the little kids hired by the gamblers I gain my winnings from, or by concerned mothers who don't want me around to influence their kids to become like me.
I never was one to let people see me take narcotics, but with kids, they always seem to find things out, or wonder into the wrong place at the wrong time. And with the kids my age, they just seem to know everything from someone spreading rumors, or by them spreading news around to their friends until the word is around the entire district. It seemed that the only things that everyone really knew about was the bad that everyone did, because wildfire spreads faster then grass.
Who said that? I tried to remember, but my head was already starting to feel fuzzy and light because of the crystallized drugs. It made it harder to think, but it wasn't enough that I couldn't forget some of the things that I wanted to forget. It wasn't enough that I wasn't thinking about anything besides my immediate thoughts.
I knew that it was starting to take effect though, the drug made me feel less tired and I could feel my heart rate increase slightly, but I hadn't smoked enough to get the pleasure that came with it. I needed that pleasure, because without it, my life was nothing but misery, past, present, and most likely future.
I lifted the light bulb up again and spun the wheel of the lighter and created a small flame again. I lifted up the two items so that they went together and the flame licked the bottom of the glass bulb and cracked the drug, producing more smoke for me to inhale.
I placed the metal screw cap in my mouth again and breathed in deeply, letting the strong taste of smoke and chemicals burn my mouth and throat as it passed down into my lungs.
I breathed in until I couldn't hold anymore in, let it settle in my body, before blowing it out.
I looked past the electric chain link fence that was topped with razor wire and thought of the three boys that came down here to harass me. To taunt me for whatever reason they felt, be it my bloodshot eyes when I was high, my red and cracked lips, my unclean hair, just anything that they could see.
It's reaping day today, and I hadn't seen them for nearly four days, I missed them, they were good company, kept me busy thinking about other things rather then the death of nearly everyone in my family.
It was funny though, one of them seemed to like me. He didn't show it directly, and he didn't even say it directly, but I could tell that he liked me. The way he looked at me, the things he said when his friends weren't around, even if they did sound harsh, they were still nicer then what he'd say when his friends were around, and I could tell that he didn't know how to really complement someone.
Reading people, that was what my father had trained me to do, look at their facial expressions, look at the way they say things, the way they move, look for the small things that people do. He also thought me how to strategize, how to plan. That was how I was able to get my money, how I was able to forget.
Jamie Paradis's POV
"I didn't think that it was that powerful..." Elizabeth said with some shame in her voice.
"It's all right." I told her as I shook my head to relive myself of some of my headache. It didn't work.
"Well, either way, I got you out of that hell hole you call home." She boasted with a smile.
"Yeah." I said with smile while rubbing my head, thanking her for getting away from my dad, even if her method was strange and somewhat brutal.
I looked at her taster and thought of how it had knocked me out in nearly ten seconds. It was modified for lower voltage of course, since her father, a peacekeeper, knew that she kept on stealing it from him.
I remember Elizabeth's mother giving her father a hard time due to how Elizabeth as able to steal the taster from under his nose, only for her to be surprised by her husband. It turned out that he knew that Elizabeth was stealing it, and just let her think that she was taking it without his knowledge. He lowered the electric current in the weapon that she stole and hid his real taster, a high powered one that would have grown men on the ground crying just by being touched by it.
Though Elizabeth never really used it for real, she only used it for threats and bluffs. This was actually the first time she even used it on a person, so she must of been surprised when I fell to the ground just by getting two seconds of it.
The look on her face, it was one of surprise, but I knew that was a good thing, it showed that she never used it for real.
"Can't believe that guy," Elizabeth said, placing the taster behind her belt and covered it up with her blue and white checkered blouse. "It's reaping day, and he still wants you to train until you drop from exhaustion."
My dad, that's who she was still talking about. My dad, ever since his brother, my uncle Wire, won his Hunger Game at the age of fifteen, he's wanted at least one of his kids to win the Hunger Games, and since I'm the only child still with him, it was apparently up to me win in his name.
I always skip his lessons though, I care nothing about winning the games. Besides, I don't like listening to that man anyway, all he does is yell at me and hit me when I don't do good enough.
I shrugged my shoulders to show my friend that this whole thing didn't matter to me, who cares whether my dad wants me to train, or that he hits me, or that I do anything? It's not like any of this is going to make a difference in the long run. I wasn't going into the games, and nothing he says will make me. He can disown me after I turn nineteen because I didn't volunteer for the games, or I didn't get picked, I don't care. In fact, it might be better that way, cause then I'd be able to live my my mom and half sister again.
Whatever, I was stuck with dad until I turn nineteen, maybe. Either way, it wasn't so bad since we were financially well off due to dad being a skilled generator technician. "Anyway, there's people that want to meet you again." I heard my friend say as she grabbed my by the hands and lifted me off the bed that I was sitting on before pulling me towards the door. I didn't stop her, I let her bring me where ever she was bringing me without a fight.
Elizabeth let go of one of my hands before opening the door in front of me, reveling the scene in front of me, which consisted of three people. My step father, or something like that. My mom, and my half sister, who I was really happy to see.
"Jamie!" My thirteen year old half sister happily shouts before she runs up to me and wraps her arms around me, which I then did the same to her.
I then looked up to my mom and her husband and thought of how he was the reason that Quinn and I look so different from each other. Quinn had blond hair and blue eyes while also being a tiny little thing with a small frame, while I was nearly six feet tall and was thin, but lean with dark chocolate hair and blue eyed.
Her features were because of our mom and her real father, both were blond haired and blue eyed, and surprisingly, mom was taller then her husband, but only a little, and they were both small framed. Dad on the other hand was a monstrous six foot six and was muscular with dark chocolate hair and brown eyed.
It also struck me how my dad, Cable, and Quinn's dad, Chain, were opposites not only in looks, but personality. Dad was violent, impulsive, obsessive, while Chain was kind, a little slackly, and easy going. Not only that, but he was closer to mom's age then dad is. "You come here to move in with us?" My sister asked me.
I shook my head. I wish I could, but I can't, not until next year, not until I'm eighteen, then I can do whatever I want. But until then, I'm dad's.
"Hello Jamie. Elizabeth." My mom said happily.
I looked at her and said.
"Hello mom. Chain."
"Mr and Mrs Griffin." Elizabeth said. "Quinn."
*two hours later*
"I'm scared," Quinn told us as we walked down to the square for the reapings, following the mass of people heading in the same direction we were. "What if I get picked?"
"You won't get picked," My cousin, Kaylee, assured her, confidently walking with us like she had no fear of the reapings. The truth was, she wasn't scared, unlike the rest of us. Her dad, my uncle Wire, the victor, had trained her just in case she did get picked, but it back fired on him because unlike most of the kids in this district, Kaylee wants to volunteer. Confidence practically radiated off of her when we went to the reapings instead of showing fear. "And even if you do get picked, you won't have to worry, because I'd volunteer for you." She said before throwing an arm around Quinn's shoulder.
Quinn smiled widely before saying gratefully. "Thanks."
"Not a problem," Kaylee told her. "As family, we take care of each other, not like what Cable and Wire do to each other." As grandfather Spark once said to us when he was still alive, those two could never get along, even when they were infants, it was like competitiveness towards each other was in their blood. One always had to up the other.
"Friends also take care of each other," Elizabeth added. "I'll take care of you like I take care of Jamie, who I've gotten out of more jams then I care to remember."
Well, she has gotten me out of more jams then I'd like to admit, but hey, I've done the same for her, and like they say, friends stick together.
As we walked to the sign in tables, I heard a girl crying to my left. I looked over to see a little girl that looked around Quinn's age, maybe a little younger, crying her eyes out while another girl, her older sister from the looks of it, crouching down in front of her.
"I don't want to sign in," The little sister cried. "I don't want to put my name in for the reapings, I don't want to go into the arena."
"You're not going into the arena," The older sister told her, hugging her. "Your just putting your name in, there's no guarantee that your name'll get picked."
"But I still have a chance," the little girl cried. "It's a quarter quell. I don't want to die."
"Damn these games," I heard Elizabeth growl. I looked over to her and saw that her teeth were clenched together tightly and her hands had turned into fists. "Nothing I ever do is good enough, this district is too scared of it's own shadow to take on the Capital. Don't they want these games to end? Don't they want this suffering to end? Next year, or even this year, I want to volunteer so I can wreck havoc on the Capital."
This was Elizabeth the rebel talking. Though her rallies were virtually useless, they were still punishable by at least forty lashes to the back with a whip. The only reason she's gotten away with it is because the other peacekeepers keep the head peacekeeper from knowing about her rebellious acts, despite how useless they are, in respect for her father.
I worry about Elizabeth. She's brave all the time, not like me who's only brave by sneaking away from my dad, but that bravery's going to get her killed one day. I don't care a lot about a lot of things, but Elizabeth is one of the things I care a lot about.
I reached over to her with my left hand and gently touched her right hand. I saw her features lighten up a little before she loosened the tension in her teeth and hands before she let her fingers slip through mine.
I'm glad she's calm now, it's not a good idea to get rebel Elizabeth talking around the square on reaping day. Besides, we're the only ones to blame for these games. We wanted change, and we got change, we got our asses kicked by the Capital before they introduced the Hunger Games for our rebellion. The Capital was right to give us this punishment, because if they didn't, all we'd do was rebel again. It was to keep us in check, and it worked.
"When are you going to ask her out?" I heard Quinn ask. I looked to her, to see that she was looking at Elizabeth and I.
I looked to Elizabeth, before we both started laughing.
"He's never going to do that." Elizabeth told her.
"Friends is all." I quickly explained to her before letting my hand slip from Elizabeth's grip, not that she had calmed down.
I was never going to ask Elizabeth out, we were friends through and through, and that's all we'll ever be. I wasn't going to ruin out friendship due to relationship complications.
"Coward." Kaylee fake coughed.
I shrugged. I didn't care what she thought, it was the truth, and nothing was going to change that.
"Well you two'd make a good couple." Quinn told us as Wire dragged her to the sign in booth.
I sighed before turning to my best friend and looking her right in the eyes.
"Don't volunteer." I simply told her before turning around and walking to sign in for the reapings.
I noticed something different about the square though, black cages with thick, clear Plexiglass covering all sides, plus top and bottom. What the hell were they for?
Alexa 'Fortune' Langer's POV
I'm not going to get picked, I'm sure of it. I don't know if it's the drugs talking or just me knowing that I wasn't going to get picked once again, but who cares? I'm not going to get picked! I can feel it!
I walked over to the sign in table, and waited for the Capital attendent to sign me in.
"Name." She said.
"Alexa Langer." I told her, hearing the mutters of other kids behind me, no doubt talking about me.
"Age."
"Sixteen."
"Tesserae."
"None."
"Get to your cage then." She said in a monotone voice. She didn't care about us, or what we had to say, all she wanted was for the reapings to be over with so she could get out of our district and get back to the Capital.
I did as I was told and made my way to one of the black cages covered with hard plastic walls labeled: 16. I guessed that it was supposed to be our age group since the numbers ranged from twelve to eighteen.
Along the way I saw people glaring at me, both kids and adults. Though they looked like they hated me, I knew that they disliked me rather then hated me, though some of them did hate me.
"That's what happens when you do drugs," I heard one guy say. "You end up like her, a homeless, depressed, nobody who only cheats to live."
I didn't say anything to him, and why should I? Nothing I say's going to change the way they think.
I found the girl's sixteen year old cage and went inside of it. Girls glared at me like I was the worst thing inside this cage. Couldn't I go anywhere without being shunned? No? Okay, whatever.
"Welcome everyone to the tenth quarter quell and may the odds be ever in your favor!" Our escort, Luna Marie announced through the microphone in front of her.
Was it just me, or did she sound happy? What was with the edges of her mouth twitching ever so slightly? I was a fair ways away from her and other kids were blocking my view, but were her eyes...lighting up? "This year is a very special year," She continued with a voice that had more joy in it then it should have.
Even though this was Luna Marie, borderline psychopath, she shouldn't of been this happy for a reaping. "Because of the reading of the card and the dramatic sky rocket in Panem's population, the Capital's made some," Luna gave a little laugh. "Breathtaking changes."
She shouldn't be this joyous. Unless... "Now for the drawings!"
Oh no.
The narcotics made me more aware of my surroundings, made me more alert, that plus my natural observation skills of people made me realize that this was bad. Really bad.
Seven slips of paper in the glass bowls. Reinforced hard plastic walls on cages. Borderline psychopath acting as gleeful as seeing the murders on T.V. "Ladies first."
She reached into the glass bowl, grabbed a piece of paper, unfolded it, then read out. "Fifteen."
I turned to look at the cage behind me, unlike the other girls in the cage with me, who just stood around with confusion. I bet the majority of them didn't see that silver cylinders with black skull and cross bones were falling from the roof of the fifteen year old cage, into the cage with the kids inside.
Suddenly, all the can started to pour out orange smoke.
The girls inside the fifteen year old cages were startled by it, but then rashes quickly appeared on their skin, followed by huge blisters, then burns, their skin started to turn red and peel from their bodies. Their faces seemed to melt into dried pieces of meat and fall off in strips as they screamed in pain, but no sound was heard outside the cage. They pounded on the hard plastic walls, but couldn't get out.
The fact that I was high and a little out of my mind made it both easier and harder due to how I saw things. I saw it with better eyes, I could imagine their screams vividly, I was more aware of the surroundings, but at the same time, I was calmer, so in a way, it evened out.
My thoughts were different though, because all I could think of was how cruel this was. As if the Hunger Games alone weren't bad enough, as if all the death around us wasn't bad enough, they had to do this, kill more of us then they needed to.
It was just another way for us to die, to show how weak we were compared to the Capital. If was shown in full by Luna's reaction to their death. "Any volunteers?" Luna asked. Absolutely no sympathy was in her voice. She was as heartless as they came.
I waited a couple seconds to see if anyone would volunteer, and sure enough, someone did volunteer, I heard the girls around me muttering in surprise as they talked about the rebel girl in our district.
The rebel girl, the one who tries to helplessly recruit people for the cause. She was volunteering? What was she planning?
I turned to see if that was true, and it turns out it was, out of the seventeen year old cage in front of me, I saw her being escorted by a peacekeeper before she got up on stage. "Name." Luna asked.
"Elizabeth-" The girl started.
"King." The head peacekeeper finished. "Funny to be meeting you here." He didn't sound surprised or anything, had he expected her to get up and volunteer? He was smiling. What did that mean?
"How is it funny?" Elizabeth asked, not scared in the least that she was going into the Hunger Games.
"I heard about your little plan girl," The head peacekeeper told her, his right hand shifting to his hip. "You're planning on going to the Capital and created mass destruction. Unfortunately for you, your going going to get that far."
Then before anyone could react, he whipped out his handgun and shot the rebel girl in the stomach three times in rapid succession before Elizabeth fell to the floor screaming, crimson red running out of the six holes in her body.
The sounds of the gunshots scared me, I hated that sound. "You may be a peacekeeper's daughter, but your subjected to the rules like the rest of us." The head peacekeeper explained to her, not taking his eyes off her the entire time while Luna looked at the injured girl like a child looked at a healthy puppy. Big smiles all around. "This is what we do to rebel wannabes in this district!" He shouted before another thundering crack rang through the speakers inside this cage, scaring me once again.
Red liquid exploded from the rebel girl's skull before her body turned lifeless and slumped fully to the metal stage as blood pooled around her body. "So any volunteers?" The head peacekeeper shouted. "No?" He said, not giving anybody time to even say anything. "Fine, your funeral."
Almost immediately, Luna picked out another piece of paper from the reaping bowl and read out.
"Eighteen."
Just like with the fifteen year olds, silver canisters fell from the roof of the cage before releasing thick orange smog, causing the kids inside to wail in agony before their skin grew huge blisters before their skin started to crack and peel and burn. It wasn't long before they all fell down and died. Their eyes remained open and pleaded for help. "Any volunteers?" Luna asked, in the same joyous voice that she had since this whole thing started. She didn't seem to want anyone to volunteer.
"I volunteer!" I shouted, not wanting anymore death, but most of all, not wanting anymore gunshots to ring out in the air. At least if they don't like me, I can die and not hear the bullet hitting me.
The girls all turned to me and gasped.
I didn't need to look very hard to see that they didn't expect poor, drug addict, Alexia Langer to volunteer.
Jamie Paradis's POV
A girl in a blue hoodie and matching jeans had volunteered and was being escorted up to the stage. Everyone around me was talking to each other about that girl. She was either famous or they were just surprised that someone was volunteering. I guessed that later, but I didn't listen in to their conversations.
The only thing that I could concentrate on was the fact that my cousin had been killed by the Capital by the very chemicals that we manufacture, and that my best friend had been killed by the head peacekeeper. Something that I had always feared.
I couldn't stop thinking that only minutes ago we were talking to each other, talking about the reapings and having fun with each other. But now, half of that group was dead. I felt like crying, but I didn't want to, I couldn't cry in front of everyone, not now, not before I was planning something important.
"Name." Luna asked, as joyous as ever from seeing all those deaths.
"Alexa Langer." The girl answered.
Luna then immediately went over to the boy's reaping bowl before picking out a piece of paper.
"Fourteen." She called out, before thick streams of orange poison killed the poor fourteen year olds behind me. The fourteen year olds then had their skin blister and burn before they fell down dead. "Any volunteers?" Luna asked, not caring that another age group had just been chemicaled to death.
"I volunteer." I announced. I then heard the kids around me gasp in surprise before turning towards me.
"He talks willingly." One kid said.
"I know." Another told him with surprise in his voice.
I didn't care what they said or thought about me, the only thing I cared about right now was about Elizabeth, and Kaye.
A peacekeeper unlocked the cage door before ripping me out of the mass of kids before roughly pushing me towards the stage. He continued to push me until I was in front of the head peacekeeper, and right above my best friend's body.
I looked down at my Elizabeth's body, and saw where she had been shot, three times in the stomach and once in the face. Her blouse had one large spot of red where her stomach was along with little splatters everywhere else. As for her head, the bullet had passed straight through her nose, so that, plus the center of her lower jaw, had turned into a bloody hole.
I felt my stomach churn from looking at what happened to my friend.
"I'm going to ask you the same question I asked that girl," I heard our head peacekeeper say.
I took my gaze away from my deceased friend and looked at the head peacekeeper. "Are you going to act like a rebel, or are you going to play the game like everyone else?"
"Play." I told him simply and truthfully.
I was going to win the games. I was going to win it for both Elizabeth and Kaye. They wanted to go into the games, but they died before they could. I was going to win, in their honor.
"Good man." The head peacekeeper told me as he smiled. "Now shake hands with your partner."
I walked over to my district partner, the girl in the blue hoodie, and extended my hand before she took a hold of it.
"Name?" Luna asked.
"Jamie Paradis." I told her as I looked into my district partner's blood shot, icy blue eyes.
Had she been crying? I hope not, because if she started again, I might not be able to hold my feelings in.
A/N: Eight days to make a chapter. That's actually a good thing to me, considering that I've had a lot of stuff to do that doesn't limit to overtime night shifts at my new job, helping my brother move back home, several appointments and home renovations.
Anyway, to all of you, I don't care anymore, you can send in as many tributes as you want, it doesn't seem that a lot of different people are submitting to this story, so yeah, help yourselves to the ones that are free. Or you could get some friends to submit, or something. As always, tribute sheet is in my profile and PM only.
I'm going to be using the D12 male for another one of my characters, so yeah, that spot's mine.
I hope that the hiatus made a difference.
Oh yes, two more things, the ending was a bit rushed because I wanted to get it done and my computer crashed, so it was better before, but I got impatient. And the D2 girl is now unreserved. (Now watch as a million people try to get her spot and all the others spots are left wide open XD)