𝐒𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐬 ☘︎ 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐇𝐚𝐰𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐞

𝐇𝐔𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑 𝐆𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐒 ☘︎ 8

That night, the night before the games, I wouldn't sleep. I couldn't sleep, scared that when I entered void of unconsciousness I would either be frightened out of it and wake up screaming, or that I wouldn't be, and I would have to watch horrific nightmares for the whole night.

I decide to go and wander through the apartment, I would've gone and sat by the window but I saw a figure there. It was Austin.

"Hi," I said awkwardly, given the fact that I had just pinned him up against the wall and yelled at him.

He didn't seem phased in the slightest. "Hey," he said as he looked up. I sat opposite him in the window.

"Can't sleep?" I ask, in an attempt to keep the conversation going.

"No, course not," Austin almost laughs.

"I'm sorry about how I reacted," I say quietly.

"It's fine, I know you meant it as a compliment," he smiles slightly.

I look down from the window and see a bunch of Capitol people, cheering. Most likely because the games start tomorrow.

"Listen to them," I say in absolute disgust. "Half of us are going to die tomorrow and they're out ready to fucking bet on who lasts the longest."

"Yeah," Austin looks down too. "I just... I don't want them to change me."

"What?" I ask. "How would they change you?"

"I don't know," Austin looks to me now. "Turn me into something I'm not? I just don't wanna be another piece in their games."

"You mean you won't kill anyone?" I suss out.

"No," he shakes his head. "I mean, I'm sure I would, when the time comes, but I just keep thinking of a way to show them that they don't own me.

"If I'm gonna die, I wanna still be me," he says. "I wanna be the baker, the friend, the son and the brother that everyone knows me as, not some monster the games created. Does that make any sense?"

I nod. "Yeah."

"So... who do you wanna be?" He asks me.

I sigh. "I wanna be... Willow Hawthorne. The girl who hunts in the woods, trades in the Hob, lives in the Seam, the girl who can hit anything with an axe. The girl who has four siblings and two friends she'd do anything to protect, the girl that I was before the games. Before the reaping. Before my..."

I trailed off and close my eyes as Austin looks at me. I open my eyes in shock as I realise how much I've given away about myself to a boy who doesn't even know me.

"I'll, uh... see you tomorrow," Austin says, standing up.

"You too," I say, pressing my lips together.

I stay at that window for at least another hour, sifting through memories in my mind, trying to figure out who I am and who I am not.

☘︎☘︎☘︎

The morning of the games. Haymitch and I were in an elevator. I was going to where I needed to be.

Basically, before the games even start, all the tributes are placed underneath the arena, and from there, they get in these pod things that will take them upwards to it. This means that all the tributes will be placed in a big circle on their metal plates. The cornucopia lies in the middle of everyone.

Then, for sixty seconds, we wait, and if we step off our plates, then the mines in the ground will blow us sky high.

Anyway, after the sixty seconds is up, the careers and stupid people run towards the cornucopia, to get weapons and supplies that lie in its mouth. There's normally a bloodbath right then, and that's when the majority of the tributes get killed.