Bloodshed Blade (Prologue)

            I moved my way through the Justice Building with my heels click-clacking on the polished floor. That was the only sound to be heard really; otherwise everything in there was completely silent. Everything around me is glamorous and dazzling, not like sparkly things were rare in District 1, if I were to say that I’d be a complete lie. This just seemed what I imagined the Capitol’s quality to be like; I guess that’s what happens when you’re in a government building. It takes a bit for me to realize this is my first time in the Justice Building as no one I felt like I needed to say my farewells to become a tribute, until Glimmer Hart.

            Glimmer got what she wanted, to be this year’s tribute. It seems so distant from now when I went over to her house before the Reaping to get my hair done. She was always dressed in a beautiful pink ensemble with her hair already styled in curls, waiting to do the same to me with my shoulder length platinum blonde hair. I was lacking of curling iron and on reaping day she tends to lend it off just for the event, she’s exclusive to it all of the other days of the year. While working on my right side that’s when she decided to drop the bomb on me, yet then its timer was still actually ticking.

            “Diamond… Don’t volunteer, I have to become tribute this year. I have to make up for the loss of Sparkle,” she said in a normal chit-chat tone. Sparkle was the tribute for the 73rd Hunger Games and also Glimmer’s cousin, I remember the death of her broke her down for a bit. They were like sisters, but she had to watch her get chopped into bits by the boy from 7 with his axe. I think the thing that snapped her into her normal strong yet girlish self was watching him get consumed by fire.

            “Huh?” the question caught me by surprise “I guess I won’t, I’ll just try again next year.”

            “What’s the supposed to mean? The Quarter Quell is next year it’s not like we have any idea if you can get in. Maybe they’ll draw a name of adults of each district. Exactly why I have to this year,” she took the next section of my hair to curl with a hard yank.

            “Yow!” I yipped “Seriously though Gli-“

            “Don’t even try to argue, I’m going into that arena!” I noticed in the mirror her face starting in get red with anger and she can completely scald my hair if she wanted to so I just kept it calm from then. “It’s not like I’m completely inexperienced anyway, I can win this thing with my hands cuffed… Okay maybe not with my hands cuffed,” she laughed at herself and that laugh seemed to play again in my head as a Peacekeeper let me go into the room which she was sitting in.

            I sat down in the nice leather chair across from her and just looked into her emerald eyes.  She just sat there with a smirk but her eyes showed the expression of sadness, maybe the bomb just hit her because I swear I heard the timer clicking away at the last few seconds. Three… Two… One… GLIMMER! I just realized this may be the last time I see her alive. I have no idea what my expression was but it must have been something.

            “Diamond… Don’t worry for me; I can make it out of there. If I don’t… I just don’t know what the point of my life has been then,” she responded to be grief. She was my only friend, or at least my closest. Ever since we were seven, we made pact to stay together. Now look at how I’m repaid for it.

            “Yeah, I believe in you I guess,” I make an obviously fake sheepish laugh as I look down at my hand. The ring. If you turn the little jewel it becomes a poisonous spike. I have to ensure her safety in the arena, by that I have to make sure she’ll always have a way to defend herself. I just can’t take my chances. “Take this ring, wear it, remember me, I want you to have a piece of me in case you do… Die,” I slip the ring onto her finger.

            “I’m going to make it out just fine so stop doubting me!” she shouted but then looked down at her hand “Thanks,” she looked up with smile. She doesn’t know what the ring does though; I just hope she can figure out when she could really use it. Right after that a Peacekeeper came in to the room to signal me to get out of there; it’s time for her to go to the Capitol. I don’t argue, but I do give her a quick hug before I make my way out to go celebrate the festivities set for the day. The last words I hear from her "If I actually do, my curling iron is all yours!" then the door closes.

            Little did I know when Glimmer went out to the Games she’d be murdered by Katniss Everdeen and her tracker jacker trick. I will avenge her death one day, somehow. Katniss Everdeen, District 12, you will pay.