The 52nd Hunger Games

District 1 : Sunflower Nimisa

CHAPTER 7

I stared at the screen with anticipation. "5, 4, 3, 2, 1!" The gong sounded, signaling the start of the Hunger Games. My eyes were on Gleam. She was fast as she ran to the Cornucopia. I didn't know what she was doing, but I hoped beyond hope that she wasn't going to panic and do something she would regret. She kept running, her golden hair flying behind her. Go, Gleam, go. I mentally urged her. Other tributes were starting to reach the Cornucopia, and she looked over her shoulder. She turned back to the Cornucopia and stumbled. "Gleam!" I yelled as she looked down. I just noticed the knife sticking straight out of her stomach. I already knew she wasn't going to survive. A healthy adult wouldn't survive an injury like that, let alone a little girl. She stumbled again, rolling to the ground, facing the beautiful sky. "Gleam..." I said, pressing my hand over my mouth. The sweet little girl was like a daughter to me in the short time I'd known her. If it weren't for the fear that my children would be sent into the Hunger Games, I would have children, a family of my own. But she was all I had. And now... now she was lying on the ground. Dying. Her blood slowly spread across the shirt. Her face was contorted into pain. Other tributes tripped over her still form, and I was furious. "Does no one even care that she's dying?!?" I shrieked, throwing myself forward. I screamed a banshee cry, throwing myself at the screen. It crashed to the floor and cracked. "The Capitol could save her!" I yelled, tears of pain and rage dripping down my face. I threw myself at the wall, denting it and collapsing to the floor. I stared at the broken screen and watched the vitals on the side of the screen as her heartbeat dropped to 0 and flatlined. "Ooh, that's a shame. Gleam Daylee from District 1 didn't make it through the bloodbath." Caesar Flickerman said, sadly shaking his head in a box in the corner of the screen. "You could have saved her!" I yelled, stomping on the screen. I threw myself into the ground, into the glass shards, sobbing and yelling and kicking like a toddler throwing a tantrum. The sweet little girl was dead. Peacekeepers heard the ruckus and stormed into the room. "Another mentor having traumatic flashbacks?" A Peacekeeper said gruffly as he observed two of them trying to restrain me. I kicked out at the Peacekeepers angrily, talking about me like I was a dispensable pet, not noticing that Gleam was dead, and maybe even more children by now. "Let me go! Let me go! Let me go!" I shrieked with a sob, falling limp and shaking with sobs. Everyone had the Hunger Games wrong. They weren't entertaining. They were cruel. Evil. They needed to be destroyed. Then I felt something sharp pierce my neck. I panicked, thinking that I was in the Hunger Games and screamed, thrashing. The next thing I know, the world goes black as I hit the floor.

I wake up in a sterile white room in a sterile white hospital bed. A doctor greets me with a warm smile on her face. "Welcome back, Sunflower." She said with a smile. I tried to lift my hand to my neck, to see if I had actually been stabbed, but something cold caught my wrist. I glanced down to see a firm metal restraint around my wrists and ankles, and a belt strapping me down at my waist. "Sorry about that, but the Peacekeepers informed me that you were hysterical." The doctor said, sterilizing a syringe. I watched her apprehensively. Ever since my Hunger Games a few years ago, I had stopped trusting doctors. "What are you going to do with that?" I said, hating how weak my voice sounded. The doctor avoided both my gaze and my question as she stepped towards me. I tried to flinch away, but I couldn't. "Relax," The doctor said menacingly. I was trapped and stiff as the needle painfully stabbed into my arm. A cold liquid darted through my veins, causing myself to become a bit drowsy and my muscles to go limp. I didn't even have time to ask the doctor what she was doing before the world went black again.

The next time I woke up, I wasn't restrained. I quickly stood up, worried that the restraints would click back on. The doctor walked back in. I stepped toward her threateningly. "Where's Gleam?" I said, hoping beyond hope that I had just imagined her dying. Maybe even imagined the entire Hunger Games. The doctor looked nervous and looked at her clipboard quickly. "I... Sorry, but you can't talk to her right now. She's in the Hunger Games." The doctor peeped, her voice anxious. Apparently, I was terrifying because I had killed in my Hunger Games. But she was just as bad, watching the Hunger Games, not doing anything to stop them, to stop innocent children from being slaughtered. "Is she alive?" I said, my voice rising. I made a point to keep calm though, if I went into a fit of hysterics again, I would be restrained back onto the hospital bed. The doctor quickly looked back at her clipboard and avoided my gaze. I took that for an answer. Without waiting for anything else, I stormed out of the room and left.