When We Drown~Finnick Odair {Book 1}

Chapter One

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She walked along with the large group of people towards the city hall where the reaping would be held and had been held for the last seventy years. As the mass of people got closer and closer to the hall, the group grew smaller. The citizens of district four that were under the age of twelve or over the age of eighteen were ushered away from the long line of children waiting to get their finger's pricked.

Autumn was one of these children. Although by law she wasn't seen as a child, in the Hunger Games aspect she was. She was eighteen years old. Old enough to marry and buy a house, but not old enough to get out of the Games, it was her last year, and for that she was thankful.

But it might not be. She had been highly encouraged by her trainer to volunteer this year as she was so old and wouldn't be able to next year. Autumn's trainer talked about the Games as if fighting in them is a privilege, but Autumn knows better.

The Games mean death. The Games mean loss. The Games take children away from their families to either burry them, or turn them into a shell of a human being if they were lucky enough to survive. But the survivors were the most unlucky of all.

There was no such thing as winning the Games. There was money and riches, but there was also death and trauma. Autumn knows this as her mother had told her about it. How Autumn's grandmother would wake up in the middle of the night, screaming. And after Autumn's grandfather died, her grandmother lost it completely and killed herself.

Autumn had never met her grandmother as she committed suicide when Autumn's mother was seventeen, but Autumn was proud to be named after her. She had survived the fourteenth Hunger Games, but it was those games that forced her to kill herself.

It's my last reaping. Autumn thought. But what comes next? Autumn's family is dead. She had nothing but herself and the house her father left her. After this day was over, she would have nothing left to fear. But she would also have nothing left to look forward to. Her training as a career would be over and she would have to get a job. She would probably end up marrying a merchant or fisherman she didn't really love, so long as she could keep her parent's house.

This is not the future I want. Autumn spoke to herself. But neither are the Games. At least here in District Four there would be a guaranteed future.

Autumn shook her head as if shaking her thoughts away as she walked up to the table where a stone faced woman sat. She said nothing as she knew Autumn was old enough to know what to do. Autumn handed the woman her hand. The woman didn't look up as she took it and stuck the needle on Autumn's finger pad. To speed up the process by a single second, the woman squeezed Autumn's finger as she touched the wound to the paper. When Autumn's finger left the paper, her blood was now stained in a little box, proving that she had showed up today for her final reaping.

"Next," the woman spoke, looking the next girl in the eye. Autumn didn't feel confusion as the girl behind her was twelve, meaning she had no idea what she was doing. This is why the lady at the table would give her instruction.