𝙵𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚜 || 𝙰 𝙷𝚞𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚛 𝙶𝚊𝚖𝚎𝚜 𝙵𝚊𝚗𝚏𝚒𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗

1|| 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚙𝚒𝚗𝚐

The July heat smothers my body, suffocating, weighted and tinged with salt, as I sit on the crumbling wood of the dock, my feet dipped into the gently rolling sea. The sun cleared the horizon only an hour or two ago, but heat lines already streak the distant terrain- a mirage- distorting it with a strange shimmer, like a splash of oil on a roadside puddle. 

The pier is near silent, ships and boats docked, the usual bustle of a busy morning now gone quiet- save for the occasional screeching of the gulls. The sailors who are usually hurrying to get onto the water are nowhere in sight, but that's to be expected; Nobody sails on the day of the Reaping. Bad luck, supposedly. It's superstitious nonsense, in my opinion, but it doesn't matter. The quiet's welcome, honestly.

A seabird, specifically a young gull flies over my head, descending on a rotted -wooden pole that sticks crooked out of the water. It stares at me with that signature glare that the great white birds always seem to have, and I can't help but smile as I pick up the sketchpad that sits at my side, and scratch a few lines onto the weathered paper with my pencil, roughing the bird's pear-shaped body and slanted eyes. My nimble fingers fly across the crinkled surface, bringing it to life. I've always had a strange affinity with gulls- They're annoying birds, pretentious and loud, but I've always been drawn to them, leading 'Gull', to become one of my many nicknames. And that was one of the ones I tolerated.

I'd had plenty of nicknames in my younger years, usually inspired by my real name- Whimsey. It sounds too much like 'Whimsical' for some of the more witty bullies to leave it alone. They saw my quiet nature, and my name, and ran with it. I hated that one- it made me sound weak and fragile, like one of the mythical beings in the storybooks that are so rare in the districts nowadays. But all it had taken was one boy's bloody nose and a quick trip to the principal's office for it to all but disappear.

Once I'm done, I hold up the paper to the gull, comparing them.

"See that? That's you. You're welcome." I explain sarcastically, watching as the bird tilts its head before flying away.

"Didn't even pay...Rude." My pale eyes track it as it disappears around the bend of the bay, and l look for something else to put on the pages of my sketchpad. It's my ritual; Going down to the docks almost every morning- at least, the mornings when my family aren't on the water- to draw and escape the dreariness of being indoors all day, every day. But this morning doesn't have anything eventful to offer. Same salt-crusted boats, most of them desperately needing maintenance, the same sweltering horizon, same docks, and the same landscape. And it's far too hot to be outside for long anyway.

So, without much other choice, I stand up, tuck a few strands of stray hair behind my ears grazing the small fishhook-shaped studs that are nestled in each ear, brush the flecks of paint and chips of wood off my sun-faded shirt and shorts, and start off on the five-minute walk back home.

On the way, I can tell that things are different today. A sort of anxious silence replaces the sleepy summertime feeling that usually hangs over the small fishing town. I feel the skin crawl on my arms and back as I note the reason for the anxiety- The Hunger Games.

The most brutal and bloody event in Panem, where twenty-four people from the ages of twelve to eighteen would be thrown into an arena to fight to the death. Punishment for the wrongdoings of the ancient Districts, a constant reminder of a failed revolution. 43 years and there was no sign of relief for us- Twenty-three were doomed to die yearly for what could be a hundred years more. It was senseless violence, and from the moment I'd had been able to comprehend the concept of the games, I'd both despised them and been petrified of them and the citizens in the Capitol for enjoying and glorifying them, making them out to be some sort of huge reality show. But there was nothing fake about these games.