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venom
sweet little baby in a world full of pain.
"I volunteer! I volunteer as tribute!"
His shout was as loud as a gunshot in the deathly silent city circle as Cypress walked forwards, pushing Everett behind him as he watched the stage. His body was trembling, and he could feel Everett grasping the back of his shirt, as if he was begging for Cy to stay. Gardenia, the woman who escorted District Nine's tributes to the Games every year, seemed almost shocked at the fact that someone volunteered for tribute, but her gaudy appearance quickly smoothed over as Peacekeepers rushed around Cy, pulling his brother away from him and bringing Cypress to the stage. Alex, the mentor for all the tributes, seemed almost bored next to her, almost eyeing up Cypress in a way. "We have a volunteer!" Gardenia said, her teeth too white and her entire appearance giving Cy a headache, spreading her arms out as if she was expecting the crowd to applaud for him. "And what's your name?"
Cypress was almost nervous to speak, for reasons he wasn't sure of. He could hear someone crying, maybe it was his mother, but he couldn't look out, didn't want to confirm it in his mind. "Cypress... Ritter." He said, his voice shaky, and Gardenia seemed surprised that he volunteered for his brother.
"Oh! We have a sibling! How sweet. District Nine, give it up for your male tribute, Cypress Ritter!" She said, and Cypress somehow found his way to where he was supposed to be standing, immediately zoning out the rest of the reaping, staring down at the floor, squinting his eyes a little bit as he tried to get used to the sun. District Nine was always hot. The female tribute was chosen, a girl that he had seen in school, but he didn't know her. The two shook hands, and were immediately escorted into the City Hall, Cypress' brain almost struggling to keep up with what just happened.
It didn't really hit him until he was sat down in a room, the chair, love seat, he heard his mother call it once, made of some oddly soft fabric, something that would have never been available to him in the markets located in District Nine. He stroked it, almost entranced, until the door opened and his family rushed in. Everett almost immediately climbed onto him, and Cy clung to his brother, feeling his parents and his little sister sit down next to him on the chair.
"You have to come back. You can't die. You have to win, please, Cy, please tell me you'll win." His brother mumbled, Cy's heart breaking at the words, his eyes falling shut as his shoulders began to shake. Cordelia nodded slowly, tears rolling down her cheeks, agreeing with her twin brother. His mother and father didn't say anything, before his father pulled something out of his pocket, a little pin. It was a star, oddly shaped, and Cypress took it from him with a nod.
"I'll win for you. I promise. I'll come back." Cy promised, his head swimming with all the ways that he wouldn't be able to do that. "And don't- mom, dad, don't leave them again. Okay? Don't- do that to them again." He told his parents, the both of them nodding as they remembered that one year that all the crops died and they all went to bed hungry. They couldn't abandon his siblings again. The door was suddenly pushed open, and a Peacekeeper came in, grabbing his little brother from Cy and telling his parents it was time to leave.
"I love you- I'll come home, I promise- I love you guys-" Cy called out to them, standing up to follow them out the door before having it slammed in his face, the image of his brother reaching out for him ingrained in his mind. He needed to come home. But he knew that he wouldn't, there wasn't a chance of him coming home. He was going to die in these games. There was nothing changing that.
So what now?
Althea
Althea
Lady of the Hoot Birds
[div style="padding: 10px 10px 10px 10px; background: url('https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2015/01/16/08/31/lake-601207_960_720.jpg'); width: 425px; height: 50px; text-align: center;"][div style="opacity: 0.8; margin: 10px 0px 0px 0px; color: #000; font-family: garamond;font-size: 17px; text-transform:lowercase;background:#FFF5EE;"]HEADED FOR THE GRAVE[/div][/div][div style="border-left: solid 1px #4973AB;border-right: solid 1px #4973AB;border-bottom: solid 1px #4973AB;padding-left: 5px; padding-right:5px;padding-bottom: 12px;padding-top:5px;width:433px;font-family:arial; font-size:12px;text-align:justify;line-height:13pt"]"This year, district's eight Male tribute will be... Rush Wilson!"
In the silence you could have heard a pin drop, before the hushed whispers of his name started from the other boys. No one loud enough to be heard and silenced by the Peacekeepers, but they were like the beats of a drum inside his head. It was discordant and sickening all at once. There weren't supposed to be murmurs of his name, because it had to be a mistake. Rush seemed to shrink back into himself. He hunched his shoulders in an effort to make himself seem smaller and lowered his eyes towards the ground. A mad hope bloomed in the forefront of his mind that they would call a different name in his place if he just stayed put, or, or that Satin had misspoken--! That she actually meant to ask for Reed or Ray. Yes, that had to be it. He was only eligible for another year, they couldn't be cruel enough to sacrifice him now! Not when his mother needed him so desperately at him.
Satin spoke his name again though, in a faux-accent that made her sound like a screeching cat "Rush? Come on up here, dear." Children parted around him like the opening of a curtain at this second demand. Rush couldn't blame them, not really, they just didn't want to draw attention to themselves. It was a desire that he understood well. Where they had managed to dodge the executioner's axe, however, Rush was left with no way to avoid it. This fact was made perfectly clear when a white-gloved hand grabbed him by the upper arm and yanked him forth from the crowd. The grip felt like cold steel, which chilled him to the core.
All too quickly Rush found himself stumbling up the steps onto the ramshackle podium to stand beside Satin. From there the Reaping became a blur. He was vaguely aware of his face flashing up on one of those silver screens that the Capitol seemed to love so much, in a pantomime of glory. As if he was supposed to be grateful for this? Rush swallowed a lump in his throat and bunched up his hands into fists, finally looking up just in time before he and the female tribute were herded away into the Justice building. He didn't even see who it was, too caught up in his own panic.
"Rush, darling? "The soft voice of his mother snapped him back to his senses, and he realised in a daze that he had been brought into some kind of sitting room. Rush reached out to grasp her outstretched hand, trying to remember ever detail of her face and her kind voice "You're going to be okay. You're a good boy, and you're going to be okay." Was she trying to convince him or herself? Either way, Rush couldn't begrudge her it.
"They'll be tougher than me, you know that ma..." He sucked in a shuddered breath, squeezing her hand firmly like a lifeline.
"But you're a smart boy, Rush, like your Uncle. And you're going to come back to me, you understan--" The coughs wracked her body, making her wheeze. Rush wrapped his arms around her on instict and smoothed his hand down her back. It lasted barely a moment and then they were being pulled apart, Peacekeepers tearing her from the room.
He was alone, all of a sudden. It was too much.
How am I going to survive this ma? [/div][div style="background: url('http://i63.tinypic.com/sw63vp.gif');width:110px; height:110px;margin-left:160px;margin-top:-15px;border-radius:50%;border: solid 2px #4973AB;"][/div]
In the silence you could have heard a pin drop, before the hushed whispers of his name started from the other boys. No one loud enough to be heard and silenced by the Peacekeepers, but they were like the beats of a drum inside his head. It was discordant and sickening all at once. There weren't supposed to be murmurs of his name, because it had to be a mistake. Rush seemed to shrink back into himself. He hunched his shoulders in an effort to make himself seem smaller and lowered his eyes towards the ground. A mad hope bloomed in the forefront of his mind that they would call a different name in his place if he just stayed put, or, or that Satin had misspoken--! That she actually meant to ask for Reed or Ray. Yes, that had to be it. He was only eligible for another year, they couldn't be cruel enough to sacrifice him now! Not when his mother needed him so desperately at him.
Satin spoke his name again though, in a faux-accent that made her sound like a screeching cat "Rush? Come on up here, dear." Children parted around him like the opening of a curtain at this second demand. Rush couldn't blame them, not really, they just didn't want to draw attention to themselves. It was a desire that he understood well. Where they had managed to dodge the executioner's axe, however, Rush was left with no way to avoid it. This fact was made perfectly clear when a white-gloved hand grabbed him by the upper arm and yanked him forth from the crowd. The grip felt like cold steel, which chilled him to the core.
All too quickly Rush found himself stumbling up the steps onto the ramshackle podium to stand beside Satin. From there the Reaping became a blur. He was vaguely aware of his face flashing up on one of those silver screens that the Capitol seemed to love so much, in a pantomime of glory. As if he was supposed to be grateful for this? Rush swallowed a lump in his throat and bunched up his hands into fists, finally looking up just in time before he and the female tribute were herded away into the Justice building. He didn't even see who it was, too caught up in his own panic.
"Rush, darling? "The soft voice of his mother snapped him back to his senses, and he realised in a daze that he had been brought into some kind of sitting room. Rush reached out to grasp her outstretched hand, trying to remember ever detail of her face and her kind voice "You're going to be okay. You're a good boy, and you're going to be okay." Was she trying to convince him or herself? Either way, Rush couldn't begrudge her it.
"They'll be tougher than me, you know that ma..." He sucked in a shuddered breath, squeezing her hand firmly like a lifeline.
"But you're a smart boy, Rush, like your Uncle. And you're going to come back to me, you understan--" The coughs wracked her body, making her wheeze. Rush wrapped his arms around her on instict and smoothed his hand down her back. It lasted barely a moment and then they were being pulled apart, Peacekeepers tearing her from the room.
He was alone, all of a sudden. It was too much.
How am I going to survive this ma? [/div][div style="background: url('http://i63.tinypic.com/sw63vp.gif');width:110px; height:110px;margin-left:160px;margin-top:-15px;border-radius:50%;border: solid 2px #4973AB;"][/div]
venom
