Cypher "Cye" Oakwood,17, District 7 male
I effortlessly bring my axe down severing some firewood into two and place some more fire wood onto the ground and let out a small grunt as I bring my axe down severing the rest of the pieces before laying my axe down and sorting all of the fire wood together into a small pile and setting it ablaze. The smell of firewood burning, I'll never get tired of that smell as I inhale it and exhale.
I'm outside in the backyard of my house about to prep breakfast for my family and I let the fire burn for a moment longer before placing a pan over it and take out several slabs of my marinated venison and let it roast over the fire. I don't have much time, so I have to speed the process up quite a bit and the meat might be a little tough, but they'll understand i was in a rush. Once I feel the meat is cooked thoroughly enough, I crack several eggs and scramble them in the pan, letting the seasonings and natural grease from the venison mix with the eggs and it only takes a moment for them to cook and I promptly walk back into my home where my mother and twin sisters Lin and Ann are.
"Could smell the food from here! It smells so yummy!" Lin cheers.
"Can we eat already!? You took long enough!" Ann growls.
"Patience Ann, Cye just went through all the trouble to prepare this for us, be grateful dear." My mother kindly lectures her.
"Correct, Gratefulness goes a long way, I didn't have to go out of my way to prepare this for you." I give Ann a stern look.
"Sorry…" Ann holds her head down as I place the food over the table.
"Hmmph…" I grunt as I seat myself across from my family and begin sorting the food out across our plates. My mother made sure to prepare a pitcher of freshly squeezed orange juice as well, so we have the complete breakfast.
"Ah tastes so good!" Lin stuffs her face and my mother laughs while I do a slight smirk and the rest of us follows suit.
"Gosh this is so good!" Ann mumbles as she munches on the food as well.
"So Cye, how's work going?" My mother tries to make conversation and I sigh.
"It's ok, I've been giving too much leeway to some of the workers there though, it's my fault for allowing them to get this comfortable , but I'll fix it." I bluntly say.
"Hmm, maybe they're tired? Or stressed out, why not speak to them first?" My mother suggests.
"I know what I'm doing mother…I appreciate your insight though." I state and she slowly nods.
I'm the district foreman and I basically oversee the work of all of the fellow lumberjacks and the intake of all of the lumber here. This was initially my father's job and he was damn good at it. However he was diagnosed with stomach cancer soon after and his body gradually began to fail him. Using the limited time he had left, he retired and taught me the tools of the trade before he passed away when I was 10. I've been dedicated to my craft ever since and I will ensure that my family has food on the table and a roof over their head, that's all that matters to me!
"So I was thinking I'll prepare a special dinner tonight when you return home!" my mother suggests.
"Yeah, what would that be?" I curiously ask.
"Can't ruin the surprise dear! But I think you'll be very pleased!" she laughs.
"Well that's even more of a reason for me to get this day over with, and rush back here, I'm gonna go grab my jacket." I take my plate to the kitchen and wash it before putting it on the dish basket and going to my room to grab my coat.
"Hey Cye…" I hear Ann's voice and it catches me off guard as I turn around and I look at her. My twin sisters are only 7 and very tiny, I almost have to squat down to look at her.
"What's up Ann?" I greet her.
"Cye, I want to be strong like you some day, I see how powerful you are and it…it makes me want to be powerful too…" she shyly states.
"That's how you see me…as powerful?" I ask.
"Of course Cye! Look how tall you are! Look at your muscles and how easy you can pick up that big axe of yours! I wanna be like you, so can you start training me, please?" she practically begs.
"Hmm, well I guess I can start training you a bit, but we're not gonna be swinging axes right away, we're gonna work on conditioning first, getting your body in the right shape, like jogging and lifting small weights got it?" I ask.
"Yeah, got it! When can we start!?" She excitedly asks.
"How about we go for a jog tomorrow after the reapings?" I suggest and she jumps up in excitement.
"Awesome, yeah let's do that!" she agrees.
"We have a deal then, I'll see you later." I lower my hand down to her and she slaps her small palm into the palm of my hand giving me a high five.
I leave my house soon after and I remain focused as I walk towards my job which is only a few minutes away from me. Many of the people in this district notice me and greet me accordingly and I only give them a faint nod of approval as I continue heading to my job but in the distance I see two kids, one is against the wall of a small building while the other is bullying him and I only suck my teeth as I immediately recognize the two kids and speed walk over to them. The "bully" is only a few inches taller than the other boy he has pinned against the wall and his head is small enough for my hand to completely grab as I pull him away from the bullied kid.
"Whoa!" the bully screams and I effortlessly press him against the wall with one hand glaring him, the kids name is Mike, notorious for being a bully around this district, but obviously he won't be able to bully me around like he does the rest of his peers.
"C-Cye!" Mike gasps.
"It's Cypher to you, so you're back at it again huh, even after I warned you to stay away from this kid!" I sternly say to him keeping him pressed against the wall.
"I-I- I was only playing with him, it was a joke, oh god please don't hurt me!" Mike literally starts crying. He's only ten… but he needs to learn sooner than later.
" I'm giving you one last chance, there will be no more words after this, you understand me?" I sternly warn him.
"Yes, yes!" mike cries and I effortlessly pull him off the wall and shove him away from me.
"Now get out of here!" I glare him and he runs away crying.
"Thanks Cye…" the other boy thanks me and I see he has a bloodied lip.
"Your lip is bleeding Forde." I alert him.
"Yeah I know…it's ok though, you came just in time…" he sighs and I check my coat pockets for any napkins I may have and I manage to find a few and hand them to him where he presses it against his busted lip.
"What are you even doing out here?" I question him.
"I was on my way to your place actually, my stupid brother Damien got arrested again, he got drunk and got into a fight last night" Forde informs me and I only roll my eyes, I literally just bailed this moron out last week!
"Jesus christ, Forde head home, I'll deal with it." I sigh.
"Uh ok…thanks again Cye!" Forde waves as he runs off and I start heading to the only place he can possibly be detained at and I literally storm into the detainee center and the usual peacekeeper that's there greets me.
"Here again huh?" she greets me and I glare Damien who's sitting behind a cell only giving me a guilty look.
"Yeah, and at this point you know exactly what for, what's the bill?" I ask and she shows me a bill of his charges and the final bail out amount and I suck my teeth digging into my pocket and place the coins over the counter. The peacekeeper counts the coins to make sure it's the right amount and promptly releases Damien from his cell.
"You're a true buddy mate, I'm so grateful to you!" he smiles as we head outside but I angrily shove him to the ground afterwards and he gasps aloud.
"Dude what the hell!?" Damien gasps as he hesitantly stands back up.
"You're a fucking moron! How many times do I need to bail your ass out!?" I scold him.
"Hey man this punk started with me first, he shoved me!" he tries to explain to me but I'm not having it.
"I don't want to hear your fucking excuses! You wanna snoop around the house stealing your familie's cheapest booze and go out being a menace to society, these are coins I can be feeding my family with, but instead I'm using it to bail your ass out cause you just can't help but be a pain in the ass!" I scold him.
"Geez Cye, I'm sorry bro…" he tries to apologize.
"Don't be sorry, be better! I'm not bailing you out anymore after this, you're on your own so if you wanna go out and be an idiot again, by all means do so, but you're gonna rot in that damn cell cause I promise you I'm not coming back for you after this!" I warn him.
"Alright Cye, alright…I get it." He agrees and I sigh again.
"I need to go to work, go home Damien, read a book or something, be productive…" I send him off.
"Yeah…alright, I'll see you later bro…" he holds his head down and walks away. This is Damien, my childhood best friend. Used to be a decent guy, he still is at his core but has a habit of getting drunk and getting into fights outside…
I reach my job shortly afterwards and I already see most of the men hard at work, keyword, most of them as I go through the paperwork to see the intake of lumber we currently have, and I take off my coat while I'm reading to get more comfortable and I see our intake is significantly lower than it was last week, yeah these guys have been getting too comfortable here, it's time to fix this mess, and I'm gonna start with the weakest link here. I see most of the men hard at work but I see one of them, Henry, who's moving very sluggishly and it seems for every piece of lumber he cuts, he has to take a water break.
"Henry!" I call to Henry who's below me sipping his water and he quickly looks up at me.
"Cypher, how's it going?" Henry smiles greeting me.
"Can I have a word with you for moment?" I ask and his smile immediately fades away as he hesitantly walks up the stairs and I lead him into my office where I close the door behind me.
"So…what's going on Cypher?" Henry worriedly asks.
"Well you tell me Henry, I've been paying attention to your work performance lately, well actually for a while and you're not pulling in good numbers. You always have the lowest intake of everyone else here and you often disappear sometimes for an hour at a time, so what is going on Henry?" I ask.
"Well ughhh…nothing. I guess I've just been under the weather lately…" Henry scratches his head.
"This isn't a recent problem though Henry, like i said before, it's been persisting for a little while." I remind him.
"Look if you want me to move faster, I can do that." He explains.
"I don't need you to work faster Henry, I need you to work effectively, something you haven't been doing for a little while,. I'm sorry Henry, but I'm going to have to-" I begin.
"Fine you want to know what's actually going on!?" Henry appears to be getting emotional and I try to give him a calm look as I do a faint nod.
"My wife cheated on me ok? Actually she cheated on me with a fellow worker here, Gregory! Tried to keep it a secret but when our baby that she just recently gave birth to came out with black skin despite both of us being as pale as a ghost, the cat was out of the bag, she told me everything, how she's been fucking this guy for months, and that he's the father, so yeah having my family crushed before my very own eyes, that's gonna tend to fuck me up quite a bit!" Henry states and I can only give him a shocked look, this is what he's been bottling up for so long.
"Henry…I was not aware of this, at all." I inform him.
"Of course you weren't but i…I'm such a fucking fool!" he laughs hysterically and I give him a worried look as his hysterical laughter only gets louder as he drops to the floor.
"Henry…" I calmly call to him, but his laughs turns to sobbing shortly afterwards and I walk over to him and kneel down rubbing his back trying to comfort him.
"Henry…I'm sorry. The best thing to do right now is to rest. Go home Henry and take the time you need, I'll make sure you'll get paid for the next two weeks…" I explain to him.
But Henry only stands back up sobbing.
"Thank you…" he manages to cry out as he leaves the office and I take a deep breath as I look at Gregory, who is effortlessly cutting up lumber. Gregory is easily one of my finest workers, he always pulls in the highest numbers, he's also a married family man and to find out he committed such a horrendous act…this is unforgivable.
"Gregory…" I call to Gregory as he effortlessly cuts a log in half and he looks up at me with a cocky grin.
"What's up Cye! Wanna come join the fun!" Gregory laughs.
"Can you come up here for a moment?" I ask.
"Heh, sure but make it quick, got a lot of work to do!" he jogs up the stairs to meet me and I lead him into my office afterwards.
"Am I finally going to get that promotion I've been asking for!" Gregory cockily asks.
"You're fired Gregory." I bluntly say and Gregory gives me a shocked look for a moment.
"W-what?" he gives me a surprised look.
"You heard me the first time…" I glare him.
"Cye, what the hell are you talking about!? What are you firing me for!?" he yells.
"Do I really need to say why, you know what you did, now get out of here." I warn him.
"I'm telling you right now Cye, you're making a big mistake, I carry everyone here, I'm your best worker!" he shouts.
"And I'm not questioning your work ethic, you are my star worker, but the things you've committed, it's unforgivable, now please leave…" I say once more and Gregory only glares me.
"You're gonna fucking regret this Cye, I swear!" and Gregory proceeds flip over my entire work desk before storming out of the office and I only sigh, with Gregory gone, the rest of these guys are seriously going to have to step it up, I can only hope that they can…
Bryn Briars,18, District 7 female
I continue sharpening my hatchets with a file as I sit next to a fire, preparing for yet another one of my duels. I sharpen the hatchets some more and look at my reflection on the clean steel on these hachets that's claimed the lives of many and see my green eyes gazing back at me. These eyes are filled with nothing but hate, violence and bloodlust, but I'm fine with that, it's the only way to thrive in this kind of world…
"Bryn." I hear a familiar voice and turn my head slightly to see Blake walking towards me.
"It's time…they're here." She informs me and I hold my hatchet over the flame intently continuing to gaze into my reflection.
"You ok?" she asks realizing I didn't answer her but I only do a slight grin and I stand up spinning both hatchets in my hand.
"What is there to not be ok about? This'll be another easy kill!" I arrogantly state and I walk towards the group opposite of me while Blake and our leader Dahlia folllows beside me.
The other group approaches us and we stop several feet away from each other looking at each other intently and it's none other than the barbarians, a gang I have quite the history with. The leader Fredrick stands in front of the rest of the group glaring me intently and I gaze back at him and I can't resist the blood lusted grin that begins to coat my face.
"So Frederick, are we finally going to have our duel?" I question.
"That duel may never happen…" Fredrick looks beside him and his right hand man Miles walks beside him spinning a hatchet in his hand giving me a cocky grin, but I'm completely unfazed.
"It'll be me that brings you down, and avenge all of my brothers you killed!" He says through gritted teeth and I only scoff
"Thats what they all say, If only you actually believed that shit, let's get this over with…" I state and me and Miles remain in the middle of the field while both of our respective parties back up to give us space to duel, and I look into his eyes waiting for him to make the first move, and he has a confident look plastered across his face, but I can still see how uneasy he is. This is what Fredrick wants, so this is what he'll get. Each gang in this district has their own territory in this district and once a gang crosses into another's territory, it's an act of war. Each gang will select a champion and they'll engage in a duel to the death. Fredrick lately has been abusing this as of lately, he'll intentionally cross into our territories to trigger a duel, and ive cut all of his "right hand" men with ease but I've pretty much reached my limits with him.
Miles swipes at me with one of his hatchets and I manage to weave out of the way and try slashing his face with one of my hatchets but he manages to block it and I duck under his other hatchet and slash his across his thigh with my other as he gasps in pain and backs up but angrily swipes at me again and I block it but his sheer strength causes me to stumble back a little and he growls charging at me but I kick one of the burning logs from the campfire at him and it hits him right in the face stunning him and this allows me to cleave right through his cheek and several gasps ring out as the cut was enough to slice off his entire cheek and I can see his flesh and teeth underneath it as he let's out a roar of pain and I launch my other hatchet at him that lands right into his skull and just like that, another one of Fredrick's grunts are down.
"So anymore of your grunts you want to send out here?" I cockily ask spinning my hatchet in my hand but Fredrick only let's out a low chuckle.
"No need for that, the next time we see each other, it'll be me fighting you." He glares me.
"Hmm, well I might actually have a challenge for once then, good luck finding a new right hand man." I spit on Miles' corpse and proceed to walk away.
"Yeah enjoy whatever time you have left…" I hear him mumble but he's not even worth acknowledging at this point…
"That was another flawless win, Bryn. Made it look almost too easy." Dahlia the leader of our gang commends me.
"I don't need a pat on the back, just doing what needs to be done, let's grab some dinner, I'm hungry…" I grunt and Dahlia nods and Blake walks beside me and holds my hand.
"And I know just the place! It'll be my treat!" she does a shy smile and I can't help but smile back at her. Blake here is the love of my life and we've been through pretty much everything together. Tragedy has bought us all close together and in the process we are arguably the strongest gang in this district. Our gang arrives back in our territory in the district and the few people that are still out here this late at night, scurries away upon seeing us and it angers me, it angers me how many weak people are in this world, it's almost insulting to even have to breathe the same air as them.
Violence, it's only human nature. We shouldn't come together and try to talk our problems out, No, only weaklings do that shit! The only way to resolve conflict is for us to confront each other and settle our differences through bloodshed until only one of us is left standing! Anyone who thinks otherwise is a fucking weakling! This world is the survival of the fittest, those of us who dwells on violence, it is us who are the natural selection while those who strives for peace will always be crushed by the jaws of this brutal world!
My gang struts ourselves into the only diner thats still open at this time and there understandably aren't any people in here but I walk up to the waitress who's at the counter cleaning it off and there's a barley drunken pint of beer sitting there that I guess a customer didn't finish and I help myself and chug the rest of the pint down.
"You plan on paying for that?" the waitress coyly asks.
"What if I don't fucking feel like it?" I get in her face and that's enough for her to back off.
"Make yourself useful and get 3 steaks on that grill, medium rare, chop chop!" Blake orders and she's much more laid back than me, but also isn't going to take any shit from anyone. Being outnumbered and clearly outmatched, she has no choice but to obey us and puts some steaks on the grill and us three only sits down and make ourselves comfortable. I put my feet up on the table and fold them over each other as the smell of the fresh cooking steak begins to fill up my nostrils.
"Those fucking barbarians, they're getting too out of the hand, we need to do something about this." Dahlia suggests.
"That's nothing to be worried about, it'll be us marching on their territory next time, the game is over." I say through gritted teeth.
"I'm just glad the end is near, you've come such a long a way though Bryn, Rosa would be so proud…" Dahlia states and I do a low grunt as I gaze at the table for a moment. My mother died giving birth to me and I was left in the care of my father who made it no secret that he blamed me for her death. He became a heavy alcoholic soon after and began to take his frustrations out on me, often beating me to a bloody pulp, but I couldn't do anything about it but try to improve my relationship with him, whether that was cleaning the house, cooking for him, washing his clothes, hell I even stole booze from the store for him, but all I ever got in return was an ass whipping. This continued until I was 13 and as I was bringing a cup of coffee out to my father in the morning, I accidentally dropped it on the floor and he went into another frenzy, proceeding to me to a bloody pulp yet again.
This beating was different though, I knew if I didn't do something, he wouldn't stop until I was dead. Thankfully there was a rusted knife on the table next to us and I grabbed it and without any hesitation plunged it through his throat. I was homeless for the next few months, having to scavenge whatever I can off the streets, stealing and fending off weirdos until I encountered Dahlia. She was also a survivor of domestic abuse and when I told her of my upbringing, she pitied me and allowed me to stay with her and two other girls. Blake who is now my girlfriend and Rosa who I saw as a motherly older sister. She was incredibly sweet and caring and despite being a skilled fighter, she hated violence, and preferred to always go the peaceful route if possible.
We all quickly bonded together and I truly was able to see what a family felt like, this continued for three years and everything was perfect until Rosa was ambushed by three members of our rival gang and killed…
I went on to avenge her soon after and took on all three of her murderers at once. They were all muscle bounded brutes but I used my agility and skill to overwhelm and murder all of them. They didn't get a quick ending though, no I dragged it out and made sure to dismember all of their limbs before burning them all together. This is what got me noticed and from there, I rose through the ranks and became Dahlias most powerful and trusted ally.
"Yeah… she would be." I grumble and the plates of steak are sat down in front of us where we immediately begin to dig into our food. It doesn't take us long to finish our food and we promptly leave afterwards without paying, but once again, there's nothing this waitress can do about it, I'm sure her life is worth more than a few steaks and a pint of beer. We arrive back to our place afterwards and after getting cleaned up I lay in the bed next to Blake and she's pretty quiet which is rather unusual, so I move closer to her and wrap my arms around her waist.
"You ok?" I whisper in her ear.
"Y-yeah, I am. I was just thinking…" she mumbles.
"About what?" I curiously ask.
"It's just…You're one of the most feared people in this district, I know how strong you are and I know how many people you cut down in your path, but no matter how many times I see you fight, I just get worried, all it takes is one strike and…you're gone. I don't want to lose you Bryn." She admits and I'm honestly touched by this but still…
"Its going to take alot more than that to bring me down, you don't need to worry Blake, I'm not going anywhere." I vow to her and she turns around teary eyed as our eyes lock into each other.
"You better not Bryn, cause I'll fucking kill you." She states and I can see her eyes watering, but I plant my lips against her and the night takes us away…
My eyes shoot open again where the daylight greets me and I swear it feels like I was only asleep for a few minutes, if even that…
I'm the only one in the bed right now so Blake is already up and I can smell toast coming from the living room area, I need to hurry up…
I wash up in the bathroom but I have to kind of half ass it as I'm in a hurry and without even fully drying myself off, begin to throw on my clothes for the reapings which is a white under shirt with a black leather jacket over it, ripped black jeans and brown working boots. I make my way to the living room and see Blake sitting two plates of toast on the table and I quickly walk over and give her a quick kiss, but some of the wet hair smacks her in the face.
"Geez did you dry your hair at all? We gotta hurry though! We're gonna be late!" she exclaims and I pretty much have to hold the piece of toast between my teeth as she practically drags me out of the house.
We have to speed walk there and the district is practically empty as mostly everyone is already at the square.
"Gosh we're so late!" Blake complains.
"You could've woke me up…" I counter.
"Well I was ready to pour a pitcher of ice cold water on you, you woke up just in time!" She laughs and I smirk a little too, that would've been annoying to say the least…
We arrive to the square, get checked in and we see our escort Violet is already about to pick a male's name from the bowl and I join the row of 18 year old girls who immediately begin backing up away from me.
"Cypher Oakwood!" Violet happily announces and I recognize that name, yeah he's this district's foreman and moments later he emerges from his row and starts walking towards the stage with a pretty confused look on his face. He's an attractive young man, pretty tall at around 6'3 and is very muscular due to his line of work, tan skin with short wild brown hair that matches his sapphire blue eyes well, he's wearing the typical lumberjack outfit but he's making it work.
He reaches the stage and tries to stand tall, well he does, but he still looks confused as to how he got reaped, he's clearly more well off than pretty much everyone here so I doubt he had to take out any tesserae, not that I give a shit.
"Are there any volunteers?" Violet asks but of course no one volunteers.
"Well, let's go over to the ladies!" Violet skips over to the females bowl and plucks out a name.
"Bryn Briars!" she announces and I almost burst out laughing in excitement, but I manage to control myself and only grin instead, what were the odds of this? I already enjoy killing as it is, and now I can go out there and kill more to become rich or die in a blaze of glory! Death doesn't fear me, hell the thought of a bloody and difficult fight excites me, and if it leads to me dying so be it, death can have me when it earns me!
I walk over to Blake and give her a long kiss and confidently walk over to the stage making sure to glare Cypher who only bravely gazes back at me. All he is , is just another obstacle for me, but he looks tough, being a foreman he must be pretty handy with an axe and I look forward to clashing with him!
I reach the stage and continue grinning at Cypher who only looks back at me with an observant look on his face.
"Is there something on my face that interests you?" he suddenly asks.
"If there was, I wouldn't have a problem snatching it off." I counter and he scoffs for a moment.
"Uhhh any volunteers?" Violet practically whispers but everyone pays her no mind.
"Yeah, you're one of those tributes huh, nature will take its course though, you'll be dead soon enough." He does a light chuckles but I quickly try smacking him across the face and he effortlessly catches my hand in mid-air which surprises me.
"You're gonna have to be a little quicker than that..." he glares me and we're quickly seperated by two peacekeepers but i can't help but do a devilish grin while he glares me. so he's not just a walking brute, and my blood is rushing at just the thought of fighting him!
"Wow uh that was intense huh!? please welcome our two tributes for district 7!" Violet annoucnes and Cypher immediately leaves the stage heading towards the justice building i assume. I'm going to fnally get what i want. An excitng, brutal and blood filled fight, Don't disappoint me Cypher!
Yes guys i am back after months of inactivity! a few things happened while i was away. First off the main device i was using to write abruptly broke and it corrpupted all of my data aswell and since it wasn't backed up, i essentially had to start from scratch, and this happened while my next chapter was nearly completed which was supposed to be district 2. This unmotivated me for a little while and when i did return to writing, i had a massive writer's block and could Barley write anything, but i found my fire and i'm back again with our tributes for district 7! as you can see theres already some tension between these two and we'll see just how that'll boil over. Anyways thats it for me for now, see you guys soon with the next chapter, till next time!