Chapter 12
1576 Words
Willow Trill POV
"This is so stupid. Whose dumb idea was this?" I asked as I was about to leave the house. What kind of dummy would say make the Hunger Games? People like that were running Panem. Goodness.
"Willow!" my mother said sharply. "You can't say things like that." Barley, who was rolling around a ball, looked up at her tone. Mom glanced out the door and turned back to me. She smoothed my shirt and checked my pigtails.
"It's just the way things are. I know it's hard. Please, try not to talk to your friends about it," she said. Her dark skin was ashy, and she clung to my father as I opened the door.
"Sometimes it's better not to talk," he said. "We love you." I knew he was right, but it was so unfair. The anger I expressed was only covering up the terror inside me. I was just a kid. I shouldn't have to worry about dying. It was like living with one foot on a mine.
I found Daina and Zora and we held hands, clumping together against the world. Despite the fear, I still found myself in awe when we saw Snapdragon. In Eleven, I hardly ever got to see someone with pale ivory skin and tilted eyes. We had a few white people, but I always did a double-take when I noticed them. She would have looked prettier if she didn't carry death with her.
"Good morning, Eleven! I'm sure you're all very excited," she said. People from the Capitol fell out of the stupid tree and hit every branch on the way down. I wished she'd just get it over with and let us stop hoping.
"Let's start with the ladies," she said. Daina whimpered when she fished out a paper. I was already crying when she unfolded it. My name was in there six times thanks to the tesserae I had to take. Would one of those kill me?
"Willow Trill!" she shouted. I shrieked and grabbed onto Zora. She screamed back and grabbed onto me. Daina started to sob and pointed at the Peacekeepers coming over to us. Two of them took us by the waist and started tugging us apart. I dug my fingers into Zora's arm and screamed for her to help me. Daina stood by alternately staring and pounding on the Peacekeepers. The Peacekeepers yanked me free of Zora, leaving ten thin scratches on her arm. The one holding me dragged me to the stage and held me in place while I strained against his arms. There weren't any solid thoughts in my head, just a pounding, screaming terror that tore through everything. There was nothing but fear.
"And now-" Snapdragon tried. My screams drowned her out, and she held her microphone closer to her mouth. "And now the BOYS!" she shouted over me. She grabbed a slip off the top of the bowl. She yelled a name I didn't hear. A pale-skinned boy joined me. It would have been cool to see him if we weren't both dead. The boy yelled something at the crowd, then looked nervously at me. Snapdragon said something again, and then the Peacekeepers carried me to the Justice Hall.
"Willow, we got you a surprise!" Harvey said when he ran through the doorway. He held out a bracelet. When I didn't look at it, he dropped it into my hand and looked back at our mother. She looked strangely serene.
"It was for your birthday. It will have to be early," she said. I ran to her and buried myself in her arms. There was so much to say I didn't know what to do.
"What's wrong?" Harvey whispered to Barley.
"She's going to die," he whispered back. Mom stiffened and I pretended not to hear. She couldn't tell me it was going to be all right, or that I would be okay. I'd never heard such silence.
"Where's Dad?" I asked.
"He loves you," Mom said. I could understand. I didn't want to say goodbye either.
I couldn't scream for them not to leave. My voice was burned out. It felt awful, but I didn't care about seeing them again. I didn't care about being a Victor either. I just didn't want to die.
Caleb Lindsay POV
I wished I could be with Shaw, but he was four months older than me, and that was enough to put him with the fifteen-year-olds. I could hardly see him through the rows of kids behind me. I didn't know anyone else in the crowd. It was hard for me to make friends, and I never seemed to fit in. My pale skin didn't help, even though they never excluded me because of it. It just made me feel different. Shaw was the other different thing about me, in the best and worst way.
At first glance, Shaw looked like the rest of the boys at school. He had dark skin and short black hair. He was a little taller than I was and was fit from working in the fields. I was jealous of whatever girl caught him, so I was delighted when I noticed him peeking at me during lunch. It seemed too good to be true that someone that perfect would be interested in me, and the past seven months have been like a dream. I suppose we'll be together forever. I only wished he could be next to me now to keep me safe.
Snapdragon picked Willow Trill out of the bowl. Chaos erupted on the girls' side of the crowd, and the Peacekeepers carried a squalling girl to the stage. Seeing her just made the rest of us even more panicky. When Snapdragon yanked a slip from the boys' bowl, I squeezed my eyes shut and prayed to something that it wasn't me or Shaw.
It wasn't Shaw. It was me. I jerked back a step and searched him out in the crowd. The boys next to him were holding him as he strained toward me. I screamed his name as a Peacekeeper tugged me onto the stage. Willow and I made it impossible to hear Snapdragon as she announced us. It was perfect chaos.
Mom died of heatstroke a few years ago, so Dad was alone when he came to see me. He was a hard man, worn down by years of exhaustion and hopelessness. There was nothing either of us could say, and I held him awkwardly when he broke down, my tears joining his.
"Can I see Shaw?" I asked when he was leaving. I wasn't sure what he thought about us. We didn't try to hide, but I was only thirteen. It would be hard for him to believe I was really in love.
"He's waiting outside," Dad said. "I love you, son."
When Shaw ran inside, I jumped up and we smashed together in a clinging embrace.
"I'm so sorry. I didn't even hear her call for volunteers," Shaw said. His face was broken with guilt.
"I didn't hear her either," I said. I tried to hug all the fear away, but it hung around us. "What are we going to do?"
"You have to win. Then we can live in the Capitol together," he said.
"How am I going to win? I don't know anything," I said.
"Just keep running away. Don't let them catch you," Shaw said. He held both my hands.
"I wanted to be with you forever," I said. My eyes hurt from all the crying.
"We will be. Don't give up," he said. We sat on the bench for a few minutes and took comfort in each others' presence.
"Shaw?" I asked. He looked over.
"Did you bring a picture with you?" I asked.
"No," he said. He jumped up and looked at the clock. "I'll be right back." He darted out the door. His quarters were pretty near the Justice Hall, so he was back in a few minutes, holding a hand-sized picture of himself.
"Now you'll have something to raise your spirits," he said with a goofy smile.
"It's not as good as you, but it will do," I said. A Peacekeeper poked his head in and warned us that we only had a minute left. My heart started racing again. I didn't want to lose Shaw a second time. I leaned in closer to him. I had been so afraid of getting hurt again that I hadn't done a lot of things I'd wanted to do with Shaw. I had a lot of ground to make up. Shaw leaned in with me and we shared our first kiss. It was short and hesitant, like we both weren't sure how to do it. It left me feeling closer to him than ever and longing for a million more.
That certainly was dramatic. The Capitol must have eaten that up.
Willow's charm bracelet has an apple, a seed, and a barn charm. She was too scared to note it.
I simply love it when people say their Tribute's reaction to being reaped gives me room to make them full-out terrified. Willow and Caleb aren't any more emotional than the rest, but if I can I'll make any Tribute react like that, since it's just more realistic. Unless they're in shock, like Katniss and Peeta seemed to be in the movie, they'd probably get dragged onstage or at the very least cry.
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