Thread: Hope is the Only thing Stronger than Fear |||| Randomname and Horror_Show

Here's some advice... stay alive. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them to all send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. The childrens names are entered in a glass bowl to be chosen at random. Every year, one extra slip of the childs name is added into the bowl. The event served two purposes. The first was to demonstrate the overwhelming power the Capitol had over the districts by taking their children by force and forcing them to slay each other in a no-rules competition. It was proof that the Capitol's control over its people was so inexorable and unstoppable that they could do something so sadistic as to force the children of their conquered foes to slay each other in a battle royal. The second purpose was purely for entertainment. The Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in the same vein as a reality show, its tributes practically considered celebrities and the events themselves dramatized and glorified. Today was the day known as the Reaping. This takes place in every district before each Hunger Games, where the tributes of the upcoming Games are chosen. Each district's escort randomly chooses the name of one male and one female tribute from two separate glass balls. Those picked are then the official tributes for the upcoming Games. Each age group is contained in roped-off areas in the town square, waiting for someone to be picked. The reapings take place at different times in different districts, so that Capitol citizens can watch them all live on television. Many members of the Capitol often place bets on who will be chosen. Unless someone is already on their deathbed, they receive the death penalty for not attending their district's reaping. For most people, this was clearly a terrible thing. Either you knew somebody that could be picked to compete in the brutal games or you were that person that could be picked. Strangely enough, Districts One, Two, and Four became famous for sending volunteers to the Games. They were known as the Career districts and they were the annual favorite and safest bet to win. In District Twelve, the reaping took place at the center of the Town, known as the Hall of Justice right outside where the Mayors offices are located. In all honesty, nobody really cared too much about this place. It was the longest distance away from the Capitol all the way across the country and it is also the poorest District and least populated District by far. In the seventy-three total games played, only twice has a victor arose from this depressing place. All the citizens were good for happened to be coal mining as Panems coal production stemmed solely from here. Despite the hard work so many innocent people put in, they were never rewarded and had short life spans. Working in the mines was dangerous work with many mine explosions in the districts history, claiming the lives of so many people. However, this district was divided up into two sections The Seam and The Town. The Seam was the poorest section where all the coal miners worked, most of the time, the people from the Seam were looked down upon by citizens from the Town. Families from the Town were much better off than the Seam but that was not saying too much. They owned shops and usually lived right above their businesses. Though the supplies could be plenty, the Capitol would take nearly all the leftover supplies and leave the owners with next to nothing. If any owners were caught stealing extra product, then they would most certainly be executed or punished in some imaginable way by the police force of the districts known as the peacekeepers. Despite these odds, one young man from District Twelve considered himself lucky. This man was seventeen-year-old Kolton Smith. The Smith family resided in the Town section, owning a butchering business. They would get a shipment of meat and package it for sell off to the Capitol. Most of their meat came from District Ten and some would get shipped back leaving very little to circle around District Twelve. Anyways, this young man stood at nearly six feet and three inches tall. His hair was blonde and curly, always looking messy. Despite the circumstances, his body looked quite toned for a slender guy. Without proper nutrition and access to any exercise equipment or training, it was difficult to be healthy but Kolton was a curious young soul and often scavenged for books in the Hob. Most books were banned but he could find a few floating around every now and again. Thankfully, he managed to snag himself a read about taking care of the human body and how to exercise and build muscle with only using himself as the equipment. Still, not having enough food made him malnourished and he was not even close to having the physique of a boy from District One or Two but when compared to all his other male counterparts, he was definitely eye candy. Plus, he was rather popular because of his social status though that never went to his head. Kolton was actually one of the very few members from the richer area of Twelve to hang around with the poor group but saying he was from the richer area did not mean his family did not struggle. He could recall stretches where his parents would go an entire day or two without eating so himself and his older sister Brooke would have food to eat on their plate as little as it might be. Through it all, his family persevered. Brooke was now nineteen years old and working at the family business, managing to survive all of her Reaping visits. For Kolton, his name was entered in the glass bowl ten times. Six entries were from mandatory additions due to his age and the four extra entries stemmed from applying for tesserae which is extra food given for the month to a child for his or her family. The only downside? Their name would be added one more time for the reaping. Ten times might sound daunting but it was actually way less than anyone in the Seam. Some applied for this extra food every month. Hell, his sister dealt with her name in the bowl eighteen times in her final year and survived so the odds might be in Koltons favor. Even with history on his side, Kolton was nervous. Anybody could be chosen at any given time and that was a fact. It only takes one slip of paper and then its game over. However, the majority of his preoccupation did not involve himself. Was he worried about being chosen to represent District Twelve in The Hunger Games? Youre damn right he was but he was more scared about something else. This fear built from loving somebody more than he loved himself or anybody else in the entire world. This somebody was a nobody to most people and her name was Katniss Everdeen. The girl was one year younger than himself and she was also from the Seam. Just last month, this unconventional couple celebrated their year anniversary. Anniversaries in this district never meant much but they made it special buy just spending a couple hours together after school because that was all they could do. Oh, how he wished to give her some gift of some kind but all he could do was pick a few flowers and draw her some pictures with his lackluster artistic skills. It was the effort that counted though, right? A few things really seemed odd about these two people being involved together. For one, it was absolutely unheard of for someone from the Town to date someone from the Seam. Scratch that, it was unheard of for someone from the town to even look or speak to someone from the Seam, much less date or kiss. As expected, this did not sit right with a few of the popular Town girls that had their eyes on the handsome boy that always sat beside of Katniss. At first, everyone honestly thought it was a big joke when Kolton started to hang around Katniss but they soon found it was serious. It confused everyone and maddened a few more. Numerous times a fellow parent had talked to his mother, asking why he was allowed to be involved with Seam trash. Yeah, it was pretty disgusting to see all this hate back and forth but it never got to Kolton. Everyone knew not to talk about Katniss if Kolton was around. The last few guys that did were laying on the ground soon after they talked their trash. He was so protective over her and that was an understatement at least. If this girl were to get chosen, Kolton had already decided he would volunteer in place of whatever guy was chosen for the males. It was not a rash decision but he thought deeply about it every year. On one hand, he could not volunteer and hopefully Katniss could survive and get back to him. However, there was no guarantees she would survive and he could only hope and pray from a couch that she was alright. If he did volunteer to join her, then he could make sure that she lived. However, it would literally cost him his life and that was a bad predicament to be in but it was the sanest decision he could think of. Katniss living was more important than himself not dying. Plus, he worried about her younger sister Primrose Everdeen. Prim turned twelve this year and it meant this would be her first Reaping. Kolton figured the blonde girl would have nightmares and be worried almost every day as this day got closer each year. It was a long road ahead Kolton needed to survive two more Reapings, Katniss needed to survive three more, and then Primrose had to survive all seven of her attempts. Not only do Kolton and Katniss live under dire situations but they met under dire circumstances. Obviously they attended school together but they never had a conversation until one day when they were really young. Katniss was eleven and Kolton was twelve. She had just been through the loss of her father in a mine explosion and her mother had completely shut down and rendered useless. Eleven-year-old Katniss had to feed her mother, herself, and her then seven years old sister Primrose. One winter day, the peacekeeper activity was accelerated because of some possible rebel group stirring up trouble though nothing ever mounted to anything of it. Katniss normal route back through to her home in the Seam was blocked and she had to go around because she had just killed the biggest deer ever. One, the citizens were not allowed to have weapons and two, they were not allowed to go outside the fence. If she was caught with this, there was no telling what could happen to her. The route she ended up taking was the very rock bottom class of the Seam. Looters, murderers, and junkies lived here and everybody tended to avoid the area. As expected, she ran into trouble. Katniss was jumped by three older boys looking to steal her deer and do harm to her in the process. Just then, her knight in shining armor appeared. Kolton just sent a few packages of meat off to be sold and he was walking back home. He saw the event and courageously stepped up and gave a nice little ass whipping to the boys and saved Katniss and the food. Sadly, her ankle had been twisted and she could not walk on her own. Of course she had refused any assistance but Kolton was persistent and would not settle until he helped her home. In essence, Kolton carried both the young girl and her meal home safely. They hardly spoke during the walk but Katniss thanked him and even approached him the next day to thank him again. It was at the cafeteria during lunch and Kolton noticed she was alone and had nothing to eat so he offered to share with her. She refused, speaking about how she already owed him a debt but again Kolton insisted and ended up sitting beside of her and sharing a sandwich. Kolton ended up bribing Katniss in a way. In return for saving her, he wanted Katniss to be his friend. It was a slow process but over time they actually became quite close until they did consider each other best friends. Well, Kolton was one of Katniss only friends but he still saw Katniss as his best friend. Soon, their lunchtime talks turned into after school chats. Then, those chats turned into sneaking outside the fence and spending all day in a glorious meadow outside of the fences where they could spend hours talking and getting to know each other. By the time Kolton asked her to officially be his girlfriend, they had gotten to know one another on the deepest levels possible and something beautiful was taking place. Over a year later, here they are still going strong. The male obviously knew how lucky he was for all of this. Katniss was so cold and hard emotionally after her fathers demise. Somehow he broke that wall and was able to gain her trust and love. It had to be because he always put Katniss and her family before himself. First of all, Primrose loved him to death. Even before Katniss and Kolton were a couple, Prim liked to call him a brother, always running to greet him and hug him when he spent time at their house. Additionally, she constantly teased Katniss about him almost every day and even Katniss had her teenage, girly moments. Second of all, he made sure that Katniss was fed and her family was too. Countless times, Kolton would sneak meat from the shop for Katniss family to have and thankfully he was never caught doing so. Thirdly, he also refused to let Katniss apply for any tesserae after finding out how often she did. Those four times he applied for his tesserae were all for Katniss and her family, to keep them fed if they were barely making it. Among all else, he was not embarrassed by her. Even in public or at school, Kolton would hold her hand and show her off to everyone else no matter that she was from the Seam. Plus, Kolton was definitely handsome and had an excellent personality. The blonde man was always the center of attention and a colorful character. Charming, funny, and intelligent though he did have quite the temper at times. Even Katniss got it once in a while. One day he found out that she went behind his back and got tesserae for her family, not wanting him to do it again and he was fuming but that settled quickly. Essentially, this couple had such a deep connection and a deep love that it seemed impossible for this area and situation, but it was more than possible indeed. Just like they planned a day earlier, Kolton met Katniss outside her home early in the morning of the Reaping. He had already said his goodbyes to his parents and sister before heading out. He stood in front of the door wearing a long-sleeved navy blue dress shirt with tan dress pants and some brown shoes that his father let him use for this day. Other than this one day out of the year, no one ever had the need to dress up or could even afford to dress up like this. Kolton had already showered and fixed his hair, ready to go. While Katniss got herself and Prim ready, he just simply waited outside on the steps and then walked with the sisters to the Hall of Justice. Everyone's attention is focused to the Justice Building holding three chairs, a podium, and two large glass balls with names of the boys and girls in their own respective bowl. There, they had to check in with the tables that were set up to be accounted for. They dropped Prim off at the twelve-year-old females and then Kolton walked Katniss over to her proper section before taking his stand at the seventeen-year-old males. Departing from Katniss was pure misery but he could only hope that this would soon be over and they would be returning back to their normal, daily lives after today but that would certainly not be the case. The chairs are filled with the Mayor, the escort Effie Trinket, and the only living winner from District Twelve, Haymitch Abernathy. Just as the clock struck two, the Mayor stepped up. Every year it was the same story. He spoke about the history of Panem, the disasters, the war, the Capitol upbringing of the districts, and then the uprising of war again- known as the Dark Days. The Treaty of Treason gave the new laws to guarantee peace and ensure that every year, The Hunger Games would commence. It was a spectacle to those living in the Capitol. They did not care the effect it had on the Districts and the families. After the little spill was over, bright and bubbly Effie Trinket stepped up to her podium. Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor! After another little speech about how happy she is to be here, she begins the drawing. Ladies first! She crossed over to the glass ball with the girls' names. She reached in, digging her hand deep into the ball and pulled out a slip of paper. Kolton drew in a collective breath with every single person in the square or watching from a screen on the adjacent street. You could hear a pin drop. Even if this wasn't the boys' bowl, Kolton still felt nauseous and desperately hoped it wasn't any of the Everdeen girls. It would have to be someone. But not them. Anyone but them. Effie crossed back to the podium, smoothed out the slip of paper so properly and then read out the name in a clear voice. It wasn't Katniss. It was.... No ! Primrose Everdeen! Just then, Kolton felt like all the air had been knocked out his lungs. It was Prim. In her first reaping ever. Only having her name in the bowl once... How unlucky! How tragic! Kolton was both sad and furious trying to keep all of his emotions in check because it felt like he had been destroyed by a freight train.