Snakes and Bracelets

My heart is pounding. I'm running and quickly. The big, burly girl from District 1 is chasing me because when I'm dead, she will be one step closer to victory. I can't let that happen. I have to show the people of my district why they chose me, even though I resent them now.

The reaping was the worst day of my life. Instead of being chosen at random, the people of the districts choose who will go into the Games because of the Quarter Quell this year. I was the boy who was chosen for my district, my home. Some tributes were proud of being chosen, but I'm not, not at all.

So now, I keep running. I'm starting to get tired and I know I can't go on much longer. One of us is going to die. It has to be her.

At that point, I remember the snake pit, which we are headed straight for.

My old ally, who was the girl from my district, and I were walking. She stopped and said she heard something. She ran to see what it was, but fell into a well-hidden poisonous snake pit. From the size of the fangs, the way they surrounded and then all at once attacked my ally, they were clearly mutations. I wonder what, if anything they'll bring back to my district in that dreaded wooden box.

I have just a big enough lead on her that I can trick her into the pit. I know it when I see it and quickly go around it.

I'm so quick and pumped with adrenaline; I don't see one of the scraggly trees with the weird branches that is all around this deserty arena until it hits me in the face. I'm knocked to the ground and soon she jumps on me. I slap the knife out of her hand before it can reach my neck.

Now we are both weaponless and start wrestling each other, searching for a way to end the other one's life. I find mine before she does.

This wrestling match is going on right next to the snake pit. If I can push her in there, I'll be in the top three. I kick her in the stomach and then push her into the deadly pit. I think that that's it, but I'm wrong. She's held on to the edge.

Right before I step on her fingers he yells, "Stop!"

I naturally do stop my foot, but then ask, "Why?"

"I have to tell you something," she replies. She then lets go one of her hands and uses her teeth to pull off a gorgeous bracelet with red jewels that I've never noticed before. "If you win, on your Victory Tour, please give this to my family. They're in District 1."

"They'll send it back with your body," I say.

"Tokens of dead tributes have been lost before. Just please take it and give it to my family."

I take the bracelet out of her hand. All of a sudden, I have sympathy for this girl who was, 30 seconds ago, trying to kill me. She just wants her family to know that she loves them and cares about them. I quickly shake this feeling off.

"Just do it now," the Career girl from District 1 says. I stomp on her hand and she falls, screaming, into the pit with the mutt snakes.

I pick up her knife and I now finally have a way to protect myself.

As her cannon fires, I think, one down, two to go. I then run off into the desert forest with her bracelet clutched in my hand.