the games ~ kiribaku

[2] saying goodbye.

"Eijiro Kirishima."

My head shoots up. As unsurprised as I am, I find myself not as prepared as I thought. I was chosen, there's no way to get out of this now.

Everyone in the crowd is moving away from me as I wander towards the podium. I stare at the ground, unable to focus. I stumble on a stone before balancing myself and stepping onto the podium.

"May the odds be ever in your favor," Aizawa says before practically dragging us into the modern-looking building that we only ever see the exterior of, until now of course.

I look over at the pink-haired girl to see her sobbing. I pull her into a hug.

"W-what are you doing?" She stutters, unable to contain her sobs and cries.

"Mina, right?"

She nods.

"We're gonna survive, for our district," I said.

What's wrong with a little bit of false hope?

She wipes away her tears, smiling through her fearful, miserable eyes. "Hell yeah."

---

I sat at the window. I was supposedly waiting for my family to come and say goodbye, I didn't know we had this luxury of saying goodbye, maybe the Capitol president isn't as bad as I thought.

When I heard the doors swing open, I slowly pulled my head backwards to see my mother and younger siblings rushing towards me. I didn't understand why I had to be chosen, now the burden of feeding the family will have to fall onto my younger sister. I don't want that for her, I wouldn't want that for any of them.

They were sobbing and telling me that I have to win, my mother sat with defeat on her face.

"You will win for us, won't you Eijiro?" She sighed out. To me, it was more of a plea than a question.

"We both know that's impossible, but I'll try."

"We love you." My little sister whaled.

Just as she said that, they were being hauled and rushed out by the peacekeepers, leaving me sad and lonely to think about the situation that I'm in. I've heard stories about kids killing themselves in this exact room that I'm seated. Maybe that's why it's so bland in here, with just a table and a chair, so I couldn't hurt myself. The worst part is that if a failed a suicide attempt and I was injured, they wouldn't care, and they would throw me in anyway. That's how sick they are, they'd throw in an injured minor just for their little game.

Before I could even blink, I was being dragged to a car where Aizawa bragged about the Capitol, clearly sick of doing this year after year. I stare out of the window, looking at nothing in particular. After what seems like hundreds of relentless hours, I'm now walking into a fancy looking train, it looked silver and modern on the outside, but the inside was golden and victorian, filled with things that my family couldn't afford in two lifetimes. Candleholders made from pure gold, paintings that seemed to have been painted 300 years ago by the best artists, knives and forks which looked like they were handcrafted and designed specifically for our Hunger Games trains. It was breathtaking. 

Mina and I sat on two blue chairs, where Aizawa told us to wait. After a few minutes of sinking into the silky, luxurious chairs, some loudmouth wearing orange sunglasses comes charging into the room, crashing and tumbling onto the chair in front of us.

"The new kids are here! HEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!" He shouted.

Jesus, could he be any louder? He was hurting my ears and disturbing my relaxation. Anyways, this was Hizashi Yamada, our mentor and the second winner of the 86th annual Hunger Games. Good for him. We haven't got a winner in District 9 for 13 years, meaning that all 26 of the tributes that became victors over the past 13 years, were not from District 9. Not good for us.

"Okay guys, I'm sure you'd want to know how to win, let's get started."

I zoned out during his chattering, he had gotten distracted and started talking about his aunties pet crocodile. What a useless mentor he was. I thought about how I'm going to win. I wondered who my allies would be, if I had any, that is. I also thought about if I'd be able to kill someone, well I'd have to if I want to win, right? Mina began shaking me after an hour of my useless daydreaming.

"Are you listening?" She said, still shaking me.

I hit her hand away. "I stopped listening when he started talking about crocodiles."

Our mentor just stared at me.

"Who says I'm not still talking about crocodiles."

Silence filled the room.

"Can you at least teach us something?" I sigh.

His face grows into a huge smile as he starts talking about our essential needs. A conversation on how to get water soon turns into Yamada and Mina laughing about Yamada's flooding kitchen two years ago.

That's it, I can't handle this anymore. He's treating our lives as a joke and I'm not staying here for it. I stood up from my chair, stomping out of the room. I couldn't be bothered to listen to some old man talking about his problems while we're here, about to fight in an arena until death. I'll take my own advice, I'll put on the biggest smile I can, and I'll make everyone love me, because that's how it works around here. If people like you, it means sponsors, sponsors mean help and everything goes from there. I can win and return to my family, bathing them in my riches.

I switch on the TV, watching hundreds of videos of the past Hunger Games. It was absolutely crazy. Throwing a bunch of angry teenagers in an arena to fight until two people remain because of some old grudge.

I sigh and turn the TV off. I have a pretty good idea on everything that happens in the arena, I can see that the start is a legit bloodbath and you might be stuck in the arena for a month, fighting for your lives. As soon as I put my head back, I hit the pillow and my vision grows dark. I let sleep take over.