rising from the ashes || a hunger games story

chapter three

willow's pov

i take a deep breathe in and look down at her. she's standing next to me and looks up at me. she starts to walk away when i grab her by the hand and look at effie.

"i volunteer as tribute!"

i can see my mom gasp as she sheds a tear. i think i can hear effie whisper "like mother like daughter" when a peacekeeper grabs me by the arm and leads me to the stage.

i walk up the stairs and towards effie who engulfs me in a hug. she walks back to the microphone and i stand next to her. "and your name is?" she says for the audience because she definitely knows my name.

she brings the microphone up to me, "willow mellark". i look over at rye who's crying while he holds dahlia. she's crying into his chest.

my mother just looks at me with sad eyes as she cries and my dad covers his mouth as he tries to cover his sobs. my lip quivers as i start to cry but i quickly stop because i cant look weak for the cameras or i'm going to be the easy kill.

i block everything out until effie walks over to the male reaping bowl. there's 2 slips in there too. all i can think is "please don't be rye". i need rye to be there for my parents and dahlia.

thankfully, it wasn't rye. it was the other boy. he looks absolutely terrified. his hazel eyes have gone green and he has tears in his eyes. afterwards, we're told to shake hands and we're dragged into the justice building.

we're lead into seperate rooms once we get inside. there's a table in the corner at the left side of the door. a plant sits on top of the middle of the table. a couch sits in the far left corner.

another couch is laid out on the right side of the room. it's long enough to take up the whole wall. i sit in the couch that's in the left corner as i look down at my lap.

i hear the door open and my family comes in. i hug my dad first and cry into his shoulder. when my parents aren't paying attention to the other kids, i'm closer to my dad. he hugs me tighter as he says, "it's okay, you're okay."

once i let go of him i hug my mom. i hug dahlia and rye last. rye looks at me and his hands lay on my arms. "you can't shut anyone out. not like last time. you have to listen to everything haymitch tells you since mom and dad can't mentor you. you can't do what you did last time."

mom and dad cant mentor me because they're related to me. it's was a random rule they decided to add last minute. but he's talking about the first time they tried bringing back the games. i was 9, rye was 11, dahlia was 5. uprisings started in district 12 when paylor announced the games. all of district 12 trusts my parents and haymitch so they were going to the square, since that's where everyone was gathered, to attempt to calm things down.

we were supposed to go to a shed in the woods with effie because it was too dangerous. dahlia was cooperative and let rye take her to the shed. i wouldn't let go of my parents so effie stayed behind me waiting for me. i was crying and yelling for them to not leave me.

my mom grabbed my face and looked me in the eyes, "hey, calm down, it's okay. we'll be back before you know it." i was scared so i shook my head when i felt arms wrap around my waist and pick me up.

i assumed they were effie's, which they were, but i was kicking, screaming, and crying. by the time we got to the shed, i had no emotions besides that i was crying. she put me on the floor when we got inside and i walked away from everyone into a seperate room that was in the back.

people would offer me food, give me hugs, but i wouldn't accept anything. i would push everyone away, i didn't talk until my parents came to the shed. i was still in the same room when they walked in. i jumped into my dad's arms.