The 25th Hunger Games (fanfic)

Chapter 16: The Truth

BOOM. The sound of the bullet echoes through my mond. The bullet shot by a Peacekeeper. The bullet aimed for an innocent woman with three kids and who just wanted to see two siblings come home alive. The bullet that killed a woman. The bullet that left three kids motherless. The bullet that is the cause for the blood spilling over the ground.

I watch helplessly as the kids scream and reach for their mother, but they can't reach over the chaos. The crowd is in a full-out madness now, and the District 12 kids just wait up on the stage for their interview to begin. People are kicking and hitting each other, biting each other, hugging each other, jumping over each other, tripping each other, and running into each other. More than 7/8 of the crowd is chanting for us to come home alive, while the other 1/8 is trying to calm everything down, but being attacked by my admirers, my fans, my people. My people who want to see Crystal and I alive. And it's all because of me and my uprising.

The kids now start shoving through the crowd to reach their mother, dead and bleeding on the tile floor. When they finally reach their mother, they grab her and try to bring her up, tears dripping down their faces as they beg for their mother to return to earth, which is of course impossible. She's gone. 

I am staring at a dead woman. My vision becomes blurry and my head turns dizzy as the truth sinks in. I'm staring at a dead woman. A dead mother. I start to sweat and panic as I realize the whole truth. A Peacekeeper just killed a woman without batting an eye. My head starts to hurt, my heart pounds, and I wipe my palms on my legs as I realize something.

I realize that this is exactly what the Hunger Games will be like. Just instead of mothers and women, innocent children will be ruthlessly murdered by bloodthirsty teenagers who thrive to kill other children. The thought makes me sick to my stomach. I can already see the blood on the soil, burning red on the green grass, blood of innocent children... 

I can see Crash raise a sword over his head and slice open another boy's face. I already smell the scent of Veronica's blood, wafting up my nose to lick my senses and play with my vision. I can already hear a child's scream as Sky brings a rock onto their skull. I watch as Shane gets a chokehold on a girl no older than 13 and snap her neck, and I helplessly watch as the girl falls to the girl, dead. She didn't have a chance anyways. 13 year olds never do. It's all up to the older kids. Suddenly, I slap myself as I see the girl is none other than my little sister. I fall back into my chair, which almost collapses. 

I just said my sister doesn't stand a chance. I can't believe what just went through my mind. I knew it all along, I just refused to accept it. And now is the moment when I face the truth: my sister will die in these Games.

I realize it here, staring as the three little children holler and scream and cry and beg for their mother. They beg and beg for their mother to come back, but of course she doesn't. They break into tears and weep into her dead body, mourning her. I don't even hear the sound of the audience going psycho, I only hear the oldest boy scream awful things at the Peacekeeper who killed his mother. I only see the youngest girl get up and go to that same Peacekeeper and kick him in the shin. I only see the kids bury her mother in flowers, trying to cover up the ugly wound in her head that is dripping blood. I only smell the blood, spilling over the tile floor. I only see the mother, covered in flowers, and worst of all: posters of Crystal and I. 

Crystal will die. It's all a chain reaction, all from a trigger pulled by a Peackeeper. The Peacekeeper pulled the triger. The trigger released the bullet. The bullet went into the mother's skull. The mother's damaged skull killed her. Her death brought her kids to her. Her kids screaming and crying dawned what the Hunger Games is really about on me: death.

Maybe I do stand a chance. But I should've known Crystal didn't. And here I am, just now realizing that. I'm sick to my stomach as the Peackeeper throws the oldest boy to the ground and beats him with a bat. I want to do something, to prevent it, but I can't. I'm frozen to my seat, watching miserably as the middle child is thrown onto a chair, gagged, and then handcuffed. My mouth is hung open, my body is limp, my eyes are glued to the scene, and I'm in total panic mode by the time he reaches the little girl, who kicks him again in the shin.

Shock is replaced by adrenaline as the Peacekeeper's hand slaps the little girl's face, and hard. Her face beams red and she bursts into tears by the time I leap from my seat and sprint to them. She is no older than 6 years old, and a big, burly man just slapped her. The Peacekeeper positions his bat to come across the girl's head as I dive and take the blow to the face.

Let's just say I've never felt this pain. I've been burned by the stove, cut by knives, burned by fire from Private Training, hit by bricks, but this tops them all. My face feels like the Great Wall of China just broke down. I fall to the ground, and the siblings are staring at me, grateful I saved the girl's life. I jump off the floor and go into a tackling position towards the Peacekeeper. By the time he realizes what I'm doing, it's too late.

I run him into the ground, making the bat fly through the air. He hits his head on the tile and blood erupts like St. Helen. His head is gushing blood like a river as I yell at him.

"HOW DARE YOU HIT THAT LITTLE GIRL!" I scream into his face.

"WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, KILLING THOSE KIDS' MOTHER AND THEN BEATING THEM!" by now, everyone is silent and staring at me, but nobody attempts to break me apart. They've seen me when I'm angry, and they don't want to again.

"DON'T IGNORE ME! WHY DID YOU KILL HER!? WHAT'D SHE DO!? SHE JUST WANTED TO SEE TWO SIBLINGS GO HOME ALIVE, IS THAT SO BAD?! HUH! AND THEN YOU DARE HIT THEM! HOW WOULD YOU LIKE IT?" my hand reaches for the bat, and I don't know why I do what I do next. Nobody has time to react as my hand grabs the bat and I bring it over my head.

If I wasn't in a rage, if my head was clear, if this man hadn't of just killed this mother, I would have never done what I do next. But I'm in a fury, and let's just say, I'm strong. I've broke locks, beat people up, lifted two ton chairs, and that would hurt if I ever hit someone as hard as I hit this Peacekeeper.

The bat comes down, my hand swinging it towards his head. And as the bat comes in contact with his head, you can hear the CRACK from two miles away as his head splits in half.

Author's Note: Sorry it's late! But still before the deadline. Sorry it's short, I have lots of homeowrk! Fan, comment, vote, share with friends!!!!!!!!!!!! Deadline: Saturday, May 19, 2012. Peace!