Twenty Four Shades of Blood [A Hunger Games Fanfic]

District One Reaping: Ruby Gallen and Austen Hughes

"Hello Panem!" she shrieks, "And you're joining me in District One, where we have just finished the speech and the atmosphere is rife with tension and excitement, isn't it, folks?"

As expected, she is rewarded with deafening cheers, and many of the older children in the pens hammer their feet on the floor until the air was all noise. Even the children in the youngest pens, she notices, are dressed finely, although in more subdued colours than their older counterparts. One day, one of them will make their district proud.

"So you know what that means, Panem?" she teases, waggling a manicured nail at the nearest camera, and the whole crowd roars back as one. "That's right! It means that we can get straight on with reaping your tributes for this year's Hunger Games! Are you excited?"

The reaction from the crowd is exactly as expected. She knows that back in Capitol Square, people will be going loco, crazy with anticipation. The Games isn't the only thing about the Capitol, but it is the main event, the main festival. Her parents will be watching, her sister, her husband. This is her time in the sun.

"Good! Now we've got a lot to get through today, so without any further ado, your District One female tribute is..."

She reaches into the glossy, jewel-studded reaping bowl, the small slips of paper darting elusively around her fingers. The crowd goes quiet, leaning forwards as one even though it makes no difference what name is on the paper.

"Amber Colt!"

Amber rolls her eyes and hops neatly out of the thirteen year old girl's pen. Her golden hair is twisted into a complicated roll that the escort's Capitol eye can see would take hours, and it glitters with some kind of sparkling dust. No trace of fear flickers across her face, and she laps up the attention gladly, blowing kisses into the crowd and prancing up onto the stage, her dress twirling around her knees.

"Any volunteers?" the escort calls. There is a slight pause, the kind designed for dramatic tension. Amber doesn't even seem rattled. And then...

"Well, I guess I'll have to do it, then."

A few people chuckle as the girl made her way to the stage. The escort is surprised that she didn't notice her earlier; with her squat build and slight squint, she ought to stand out in the blonde and beautiful District One. Her cool black eyes survey the stage calmly as she hurtles up the stairs, taking them two at a time. Some people in the crowd cheer; she looks capable, and those who know her from training know that almost nobody trained harder. Her dress, deep blue silk, doesn't suit her, and is already ripped down one arm. Someone has attempted to make her hair pretty by pinning a cluster of fake jewels into it, but it is half-hidden among the short, mousy flops.

Ruby Gallen glowers out across the crowd, tugging at the cuff of her dress with short, stubby fingers, her mouth pressed into a determined line.

The escort beams a thick, lipsticked smile and hands her the microphone. It never strikes her as odd that she was dealing with teenagers who volunteer themselves for near-certain death. All she ever sees is the winners. She can't even remember the name of the girl from last year.

Ruby takes the microphone as though it has personally offended her, and glares at her feet as she spoke. "I know I'm younger than normal," she starts - she has come out of the sixteen year old girls' pen - "And I know I'm maybe not as pretty or as appealing as most of this lot. But pretty doesn't win you anything. Determination does, and trust me I've got that in spades."

As her words fall over the crowd, beamed out across Panem and into the Capitol, people start to clap. Ruby doesn't even acknowledge it, just continues to frown unblinkingly at the ground.

"Can we get this show on the road, please?" a boy's voice calls up. Peering down into the crowd, the escort can see that it comes from a boy lounging on the pen of the fence and grinning widely, dark hair artfully scruffy, his shirt crumpled. This year's male volunteer, then. She squints to try and get a better look at him, but the light reflecting off the buildings is too bright. Still, something about him raises her hackles.

"We've got plenty of time, young man," she responds sternly, leaning slightly away from the microphone, her voice vanishing into the square, "Let Ruby have her moment first."

"I don't care," Ruby grunts with a heavy shrug. The escort wisely decides not to press it and hastily reached into the boy's bowl. No sooner have her fingers brushed a slip of paper than the boy has already flung open the gate to the pen.

That is more like it.

As the volunteer bounds up onto the stage, the camera finally catches up to him, capturing the glint in his eyes perfectly. He waves a hand at the lens and plants an exuberant kiss on the powdered cheek of the escort, seizing the microphone off Ruby without so much as a glance.

"Hi guys!" he grins at the crowd, "My name - though of course most of you already know it! - is Austen Hughes, and I will be your victor this Hunger Games!"

Short and simple, and the escort imagines the sponsors drooling over him already. The crowd love it, stamping on the ground and whooping. Austen's eyes scan over them, seeing just a blur of colourful faces and not the one he's looking for. This is his moment, and his father isn't here. He was expecting it, but he can't help a small pang of disappointment.

It only lasts a moment; the rest of him is thinking that this is exactly what he has been training for, he's finally going to make it all worth it. He grins and waves at the crowd, basking in them cheering and thinking about the Capitol watching on screen, the other children in the other districts trembling.

"Shake hands!" the escort trills over the cheering, smiling brightly at both of them. Ruby scowls up at her, not even bothering to smile at the woman whose job it is to make her life easier. What remains of it, anyway. Although she will win, won't she? So that's not a problem.

The escort has a shred of something stuck between her teeth. For a second, Ruby debates pointing it out to her, but it doesn't matter; the world has already seen it. Serves her right for smiling too much, anyway.

Austen tries to crush her hand, giving her the charming smile that she knows is supposed to be cute but she only finds irritating. She looks down at the floor instead, gripping his hand so hard that it drags a yelp out of the cocky eighteen year old. Ruby grins to herself; good. They might end up as allies, but she doesn't want to give them any reason to like each other. After all, he's going to have to die.

The escort hurries them both into the Justice Building, still grinning at the camera.

The crowd stays in the square, exclaiming brightly about how they are sure they've got a winner this year.

The sun drifts on over Panem.