The 50th Hunger Games (ON HOLD)

Chapter 7

A/N: Hey you guys!! Sorry this took so long to upload my computer wouldn't let me for some reason! But here is chappie 7! :)

I wake up next to my mother as the sun creeps in through the curtains. I sit up silently, and look at my mother; she looks younger when she sleeps. Her face is peaceful and soft, unlike the pain and grief that takes hold when she wakes up. I slide out of bed and look at the time 8am. Good, this means I haven’t missed the recap of last night’s events.

I sit in front of the TV, and turn the volume down until Caesars voice is only a whisper. Last night there had been another two deaths, both being from district 10.

“Coming upon these deaths we have found out that nearly everything in this seamlessly beautiful arena is poisoned. From the luscious fruit dangling from many of the branches of the trees in the arena,” Caesar says, the screen cuts to two tributes eating one of the plump beautiful fruit from a tree. Their faces turn a strange colour and soon after collapses to the ground, the canon fires and the girls are scooped up by the hovercraft. “These two girls where allies from District 10, our thoughts go to those families and friends” Caesar said, placing his hand over his heart with a look of true sorrow crossing his face.

The TV then cuts to the live arena. Two boys from District 10 found a small lake in their journey last night and were swimming in it. They mustn’t have had contact with much water over the last day because they both scoop large mouthfuls of water into their mouths. For a while they look generally happy to be in the water, drinking, cooling off. Their joy is short lived. The first boy stops swimming and just floats on top of the water, the other rushes over to him, flipping him onto his back. The first boys eyes are glazed over and his body is pale and lifeless.  The other boy, the one who is still alive shakes him and tears start welling up. I conclude that they must have been friends or something back in District 10. The second boy soon turns pale and his body goes limp, both boys lie in the water motionless and both their canons fire straight after one another.

I make a mental not that there are now only 26 tributes left, which means we are almost down to the normal reaping size but also means that nearly have the people are dead. I must have been concentrating hard on the TV as I hadn’t heard my mother rise out of bed and make her way to the living room; she stood at the door with a look of shock and pain on her beautiful features.

“Effie, why are you watching that? It’s not mandatory so why are you watching it?” my mother asks, her eyes are dull and full of sadness I can’t help but shift my gaze.

“I just wanted to see, who was left” I said, immediately feeling guilty.

“I thought, oh, never mind” she says shaking her head, “maybe you can go visit your father today. Ellie has been there since the Games started” I nod my head and she walks away.

I turn the TV off as a picture of a tribute smelling a flower comes on. Nothing interesting will happen with that one. I go and get dressed into my favourite casual outfit, pink high wasted shorts and my favourite opal shirt, I slip on a pair of flats and head out the house door, completely ignoring my mother’s sobs coming from her bedroom.  I walk to the training center where a special room for the conduction of the Games takes place, several Game Makers are sitting at large touch screen computers, and in the middle there is a large holographic image of the arena. I walk into the room and see my little sister asleep on one of the lounge chairs; I smile and walk over to my father who is giving the order to send in another hovercraft.

“Hello father, what’s going on?” I ask, giving him a quick and distant hug.

“Effie, umm, District 5 boy 2, just died, we are sending in a hovercraft to bring him out” father said, my eyebrows furrowed together in confusion, wasn’t I just watching the District 5 boy smelling a flower? But then a strange thought enters my mind.

“How did he die?” I ask.

“Poisonous flower” father says and walks over to the other end of the room.

“I look up at the large screens on the front wall of the room, on one you can see the hovercraft appearing and taking the district 5 boy, on another in a large pack of careers trekking through the mountains, there are about 10 of them and they look as dangerous as ever. Another screen shows Maysliee Donner, one of Haymitch’s district partners, she carries little; a small backpack containing a bowl and dried beef, her weapon of choice seems to be a blowgun with two dozen sharp and very deadly darts. From what I can tell she is coating the darts in poisons from the flowers and fruit, she’s a smart girl I think which means she is a threat to Haymitch. My eyes focus on another screen, Haymitch is hiking through the woods with a frightening sureness he looks as though he is trying to find something.

I faintly hear my father tell one of the Game Makers to unleash the squirrels, or whatever that means. To my horror Haymitch is attacked by fluffy golden squirrels, there are at least 15 of them and they all make a beeline for Haymitch, seeing nothing else, feeling nothing else, just an urge to kill.

*****CUT TO A PAINFULLY PLACED AD BREAK******

Haymitch senses the attack before they are fully at his side. He gets out a sword he collected at the Cornicopia and starts swinging it around wildly, obviously never having used a sword before. He cuts off several of the squirrel’s heads in a swing of the sword before they reach him. The small and carnivorous heads rolling the ground and the unnatural blue blood flowing out of the necks of the animals confuse and startle Haymitch sending him off guard and completely unprepared for the rest of the pack to attack. Haymitch is smashed to the ground by the force of 10 squirrels; he barely has time to swing the sword before several of them attach themselves to his arms, ripping holes and huge gashes in them. I can’t bare to watch, I start crying and screaming out for them to stop as one of them launches for Haymitchs face. My father must hear my cries because the attack stops and the squirrels retreat. I almost instantly calm down, wiping the tears from my face and soothing my own breath.

“What the hell was that Effie?” my father yells, “What do you think you are doing?”

I am taken aback, of course I knew this was going to happen but I was still completely unprepared for his outburst. My sister must have been woken by my screams because she was instantly by my side giving me a loving hug. 

“Effie?” father yells.

“I’m sorry, I just, I don’t know what came over me!” I say, completely understanding why I did it, just that father cannot know why.

“Effie, do you know that it is not polite to scream out or make a fuse in public. You must always be punctual and composed. You are a disgrace” father tells me.

“Sir, she wasn’t in control of her emotions, it comes with being a teenager” one of the female Game Makers said, I immediately felt deep gratitude for her but also fear. She defied my father and my father is a very powerful man, she is most likely going to get executed, for standing up for me. Right I was too because my father’s face went from being remotely angry to the point of exploding from the amount of anger he was about to let loose.

“WHAT DID YOU SAY WOMAN?! ARE YOU TELLING ME HOW TO RAISE MY CHILDREN?! WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!” my father screamed his face full of fury it was as red as a tomato. I felt my sister tugging my arm as father continued to yell at the women.

“Let’s go Effie, before he remembers we were here.” Ellie whispers, even being fathers favourite she was still terribly frightened of him. I nodded and we quickly scurried out of the room, but not before we heard a loud snap. Both of us could imagine what happened. We both know how father is when he gets angry or when someone corrects him, we also know the strength he possesses on a normal day. But them together and your dead.

Scary right? Comment, Vote and Fan xx