The Forgotten Days

▬▬ 𝟬𝟐 ∙ 𝝩𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝝾𝗿𝗺

･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽

˚✩ ⋆｡ ✩┊ 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐃𝐚𝐲𝐬 ┊✦ ˚ · .

▬▬ 02 ∙ 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚂𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚖

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DREAD WASHES over me when I walk to school with Annie the next day. Usually, they play recaps of events during lunch, but the bloodbath is something that the entire nation watches live.

I always hated watching the bloodbath, and this year is no exception. It was fast and heart-stopping, and several cannons always followed it after the tributes had cleared away and the Careers took control of the Cornucopia.

We file into the viewing room, where all the children stand, shoulder to shoulder, packed in a room that threatens to burst from the number of us.

They start coverage of the arena fifteen minutes before the start; Claudius Templesmith welcomes the viewers and the screen cuts to the arena.

The arena, I wish I could warn Finn about the arena. It looks like a piece of fantasy; a floating island covered with a thick blanket of trees. The Cornucopia sits on top of a hill, the platforms surrounding it, arranged at the bottom. Rain beats the hill with streams of trickling water, making the ground slick with mud. The stability is precarious, and I can only pray that his footing is stable.

But the real danger is not the slickness of the ground nor the pounding rain that rushes on the camera. No, it is what will happen to the tributes who slip and tumble down the hill.

A ring of emptiness surrounds the Cornucopia, separating the mountain of supplies from the rest of the arena. Below it, red molten liquid spews, filling the air above with thick steam that makes it hard to see anything below. The jump from the Cornucopia to the arena is dangerous at best, lethal when unexpected. With the thick fog blanketing the air, the only giveaway is a slight glow of red.

I grab Annie's hand as the tributes begin to rise, feeling my throat close up.

"He'll make it, don't worry," she whispers, and I feel the words worm in and calm my racing heart, if only a little.

"Please, Finn." He's next to the girl from 10 and the boy from 3, and even with his height, he looks young and small.

"Ladies and gentlemen, let the 65th Hunger Games begin!"

Happy Hunger Games—

✯✯✯

Their numbers play like drums in my head, not their names, just the district they came from.

Odius got two of the right from the start, slashing through their bodies like it was stuffing. The boy from 10 and the girl from 11, gone.

The second to get up was Aphrodite, and she armed herself with two axes and acted as backup, but surprisingly, she didn't get any kills under her belt.

At least, not completely. The girl from ten snuck up behind her, and Aphrodite shoved her down the hill, into the ring of burning fire. She perished in a puff of smoke, so fast that it was sickening to think of the heat and the pain.

Third was Finn, and like Aphrodite, he chose his weapons - knives and a spear - and acts as a backup. He's okay! I almost screamed, biting my lip as if to keep it in, and I believed it was true until I saw it. A knife came whizzing his way through the fog and the chaos, one thrown by Cassia, aimed for someone behind him, but the sheer closeness of the blade flying past his face sent me into a frenzy. The girl from 3.