The Starving Artist: Hunger Games 2015

TASK FOUR ENTRIES

For this round we decided to switch it up. Instead of being ordered by district, the entries below are ordered by rank.

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DISTRICT 13: NAVEEN AHMED [33]

Naveen's mind was left to wander its own nooks and crannies. He couldn't see or hear anything but a black void of darkness that engulfed him. He wandered around the void, hoping to find his teammates, but to no avail.

It took Naveen a while to realize that he was in some sort of dream. There was a weightlessness to the world and before long, he was able to float away from the black floor and into the dark sky. Not only that, his legs both worked fine and his left arm was still attached. It was a dream that he wished was his reality.

As Naveen floated, he wondered what was happening with his physical body. His arm was gone so there was a good chance that he was bleeding out, on the edge of death.

Maybe I'm already dead, he thought solemnly. His father had taught him that until Allah causes the Day of Judgement, the deceased souls would remain in their bodies. Was this death? Was he doomed to wait in emptiness, hoping for his deity's appearance? The questions poisoned his mind and he tried to push them away, though they latched onto him like parasites.

Would it be bad if I was dead? Almost as if to answer the question, the black void started to morph and change. At first, it was subtle, as the blackness started to ripple and move, like a disrupted puddle. But soon, colors started erupting from the darkness. Naveen tried to float away, to escape the memory, but it soon overwhelmed the blankness until it was all that he could see.

"Can you explain these grades to me?" his old eighth-grade teacher said. She had been a stern and worn woman, with creases on her face from the stress of teaching all of District 13's hormonal preteens singlehandedly. She sat at her desk in the classroom, glaring down at the almost impish Naveen, while holding a D-graded paper

"I guess I'm not very smart," Naveen snickered. The woman's eyes only narrowed.

"We both know that you are the most brilliant one in this school Naveen," the teacher scolded. She inhaled loudly, to Naveen's annoyance. "Tell me, what do you want to do when you get older? What are your goals?"

"I don't know," Naveen shrugged. "Have fun, I guess," was all he could muster. The teacher only shook her head at the answer.

"Oh Naveen," she said affectionately as she placed her hand on his cheek. "What is the point of living if you have nothing to live for?"

Naveen desperately gasped for air. Something was different now. He could still only see darkness, but it wasn't all encompassing. Instead, it seemed that it would all go away if he merely opened his eyes. He tried to shift his body and that's when he noticed the sharp pain in his left shoulder, the lack of the arm apparent. Once he felt that, he preferred not to open his eyes.

Naveen could hear leaves cracking and people bustling around him. There were four indistinct voices all squabbling at each other.

"It's best if we kill him now," one of them said. "He's going to have to die eventually, so why not when he's weak?"

"Because he's an ally," one of them objected. It sounded like a male voice. Was it Percy?

"He's only slowing us down," the first voice said. It was a female, though Naveen couldn't seem to distinguish who.

"It's not right," a new voice said. "He fought the mutts of single-handedly while we ran. He deserves better than a quick execution."

"It's more noble if we put him out of his misery," the female said. It was starting to sound like someone, though he couldn't place it yet.