The Starving Artist: Hunger Games 2015

ENTRY: The Boy Who Cried "Shark!"

The verdant green of the arena beneath Percy shifted, morphed into a bright, shimmering blue. Something was wrong. Blue stretched on for miles in every direction, and the ground kept undulating. He knew where he was in an instant: at sea. He wanted to move, but his body was in a paralysis of sorts. What had the Gamemakers done to him this time? Immobilized him for someone to skip along and make an easy kill?

He may have been incapable of movement, but his senses were in working order. Even his normally useless ears could pick up the lap of waves against the wooden surface of the small boat he sat in. His hands brushed along the sides of their own accord and he felt splinters dig themselves in his palm.
Percy's body sat straighter and he was able to see behind him. Another boat of the same build as his sat in the water beside him. When he saw who was in it, his breath hitched in his throat and he found his limbs freed from their incapacity. "Nigel?" he said. His own voice was hoarse, as if he hadn't spoken for days.

"Yeah?" the boy asked, facing him directly. There was no doubt this was his brother. But why is he in the arena? He was safe. He was safe, what's going on?! Percy found his breaths coming and going rapidly, a sign he'd familiarized himself with. "Percy, calm down, what's got you spooked?"
Those were Nigel's chocolate brown eyes, there were his freckles sprinkled across his tiny nose, that was his concerned expression. No, this can't be right. I volunteered and he's safe at home. "This is a trick," Percy said. He looked down at his hands. He was shaking. "You're an illusion."

Nigel let out an exasperated sigh. "You must've fallen asleep. I'll bet you haven't caught anything yet, have you?" This was all too familiar. Percy just couldn't put his finger on it... "Bad dream? You look like you're gonna wet yourself."

Could he have possibly been dreaming the whole time? The reaping, the training, the Capitol. Killing Demetriot and Caina at the Bloodbath. The mutts. Was it all just a nightmare? Nigel's soft smile confirmed it. A smile like his couldn't be recreated with any of the Gamemakers technology.
"Yeah, must've been a dream..." Percy dropped his face in his clammy hands and laughed for the first time in seemingly forever. Just a dream. Nigel is safe, I'm safe. Everyone is safe. It's calm, calm, calm. He looked back at his brother, who was checking his fishing lines. His face was free of worry or stress, the way it'd always been. A strange feeling stirred in Percy's stomach. A mix of something between relief and fear. Relief that he'd been dreaming, fear of going back to that dream. "Nigel?"

"Yeah?"

"You know I love you, right?"

Nigel furrowed his brows. "You never say stuff like that. Must've been a freaky nightmare you had." He turned to his lines again, a lopsided grin sneaking on his face. "But yeah, I know. Love ya too."
Percy checked his lines, too. Each had some scaly creature attached and he reeled them in, going through the usual process of fishing. He'd never felt so happy to be handling fish. Routine. Normalcy. Calm.

"Percy, I'm bored," Nigel said. "And now I'm stuck waiting for you to catch your share. We can't go back until we've met the quota."

"Yeah, I know." Percy waved him off. "I'll be done soon." Nigel groaned and rested his chin on his fist. The only sounds between them were the waves rushing by their boats, and the occasional splash of a flying fish plopping back to sea. Seagulls squawked overhead. A few feet from Percy's boat something dropped from the sky and landed in the water. Gross. Bird crap. He crinkled his nose in disgust but went along with his work.

After a few minutes there was a rustling in Nigel's boat. Percy thought nothing of it, until the kid shrieked in terror. He whirled to face his brother, who promptly screamed, "Shark!"

Percy snatched the emergency spear from the bottom of his boat and stood, poised to toss it at any creature hunting them. Weapons were prohibited amongst the citizens of District Four, but spears were, thankfully, permitted. He scanned the sea for anything that would tell him where the shark was. "Where is it?" he asked. If anything comes within ten feet of him, I'm killing it. "Tell me where it is!"
Nigel stared at him, eyes practically bulging from his head. He kept this visage up for a few seconds, and Percy was convinced the kid was shocked into silence. That is, until he let a round of boisterous laughter escape past his lips. "What's so funny?" Percy growled. He should've known his brother was only messing with him. He was constantly pulling stunts like that. The kid sure knows how to get on someone's bad side within seconds.