Avox {#Wattys2017}

06

There was a sigh.

The man ran his fingers through his greying hair, every year the pain multiplies. Every year is a reminder of what he's lost to the Games, to the Capitol.

His husband and him were gifted with the adoption of two beautiful girls, the eldest, Dawn, and the youngest and he might dare say the boldest, Lynx. One dead, one better off so.

All in one year.

One year is all it took, to lose them both.

It happened so fast.

One name out of thousands and it had to be Dawn, if it weren't, none of this would have happened. They would still be a happy family, there would still be smiles to offer between him and his husband. But no, Dawn was chosen, the moment after that things took a turn for the worse.

Lynx rebelled. She started with the smaller things, sneaking out past curfew, nicking things from stalls. But each time the task became increasingly riskier, until one day, she was caught. She had been rummaging through some of the deliveries, grabbing necessities such as food and medicine. She didn't know that they had installed security alarms, how could she? Before she had time to leg it she was grabbed from behind.

They decided to choose a punishment worse than death, they cut out her tongue and took her to the Capitol.

He sometimes wondered if this was some sort of sick punishment for being gay. Everyone had shunned him, telling him how he would go to hell, he was in hell already, he thought.

District 11 was hell.