125th Hunger Games

My eyes slowly crack open from the blinding sun shining through the cracks in my window. I rub my puffy eyes from crying all night and sit up. My hands grasp my shoulder length hair and caress it while erasing my thoughts of the night before. I take my hands down and throw my pillow against the wall to only have tears fall from my eyes again. Good thing today is not reaping day. I slump back down onto my bed, stuff the pillow to my face and cry silently for what seems to be all day. Once I'm sure I'm able to stand up and walk without crying, I run into the bathroom across my bed and slam the door. I look lazily into the cracked, dusty mirror located above the sink and scowl.

"I'm so ugly." I nag at myself.

I place one hand on the sink handle and turn it on but only a few droplets come out. Did they shut off our water? Oh god, this cannot be good…

"Hey ma! The water's been shut off again!" I shout to my mother who is probably still asleep.

My ears send an un-easy type of noise to my brain and I'm forced to the floor with a thump. I just lay there because I'm too heart broken to get up. My head rests on the cold, wooden floor and I play with some dust on the ground by writing words in dust. This is peaceful enough right?

I hear footsteps coming from large boots- boots that the peacekeepers wear.

I lift up my tiny body and my head quickly follows. Now sitting upright, I stare down at the floor, not caring about the world at the moment. But really, since when have I?

I can see boots white as snow approaching me but I still sit there in dismay.

"How 'bout her?" the peacekeeper calls out to another.

"Sure I guess, we need a good mix of age groups. You reckon she'd know the boy?"

"No idea."

I lay my head down while large hands come around my chest, to my shoulders and hoist me up. I don't thrash or scream; I lay there like a rag doll. The peacekeeper must be utterly confused because he is still tense and I see the shoe prints on his pure white suit.

I get placed in a truck and left there. It's colder than a meat locker in the truck and I'm only wearing a thin night gown. Shivers run up and down my spine until I notice him.

Rowan.

My best friend and big time crush since I first met him. He must've attempted to run or injured a peacekeeper, hence the thin wire around his thin body.

"Rowan, are you ok?" I say with my voice cracking and teats yet again falling.

He merely shakes his head and the doors separate us.

"LET ME OUT OF HERE!" I scream and bang on the windows. "Let me see Rowan damn it!"

There's no reply, no noise until the truck starts up.

I scream to awaken myself.

I throw up both hands to my face when my mother comes rushing to my side and takes my head in her arms.

"What kind of dream-"

"Shh—Talon, it's ok. But you should probably come, the president is announcing the quell for next week's reaping."

"Just let me wash my face first."

I walk into the bathroom, slam the door and turn on the sink. Water freely flows out of it and I place my hands in the refreshing water. I get the rag we use to clean ourselves and splash it to my face.

I walk out and sit on the floor to listen to the quell announcement. This will be my first reaping which is also a quarter quell.

"The fifth Quarter Quell this year is…" the president opens a box filed with envelopes neatly in a horizontal order. He carefully selects one with great care like he is reading with X-ray vision. "Each tribute must locate a Mocking Jay pin in a time limit of one week."

My eyes stay glued to the television until the screen goes blank. "Is that all this year?" I ask to my mother who seems care free and starts making breakfast.

"Is that all? Do you know how well-hidden they will hide those pins?" my mother replies', staring into the hidden world her mind brings her.

"That's right, and there's a time limit, too. I've never heard of a Hunger Games with a time limit that just puts on extra pressure and they still have to kill each other." I turn to look at the T.V again, "What'll you do if they don't all retrieve the pins, or, what if everyone finds it? They better have that all planned out."

"Talon, of course it's all planned out, it's the capitol after all."