Chapter 2
Mary breaks down on the floor, and Thomas is so shocked that he doesn’t do anything to help his wife up. Evan looks at the little girl, who is only twelve, still goes to school and have the cutest smile on the face, walk on stage. She seems to understand what is happening when she stands beside the other tribut but she holds back her tears as the camera zooms in on her.
Gastor walks to the boy’s jar and picks up a little paper. “Barty Crouch!” He says loudly in the mic and once again, Evan’s heart starts rushing. The crowd makes place for Barty to walk out and they make a small eye contact before Barty turns around to walk up. Gastor smiles at him and picks up another paper, but Evan doesn’t really listen anymore. Until he hears his name echo in the square.
“And our last tribute is Evan Rosier!” At first, Evan isn’t listening, so he only notices after that people are looking at him. They do just as they did for Barty: the crowd parts and makes him a way to the stage where Barty and Evie stands. Then he realises what shit he’s in.
He doesn’t even want to cry, he knew he was going to die. But not while competing in the Hunger Games. He stands beside Barty, who looks disturbed, far away. And he sees Gastor’s lips move while he arbors a smile. Then he turns around and leaves and peacekeepers grab Evan’s arm and tug him along.
He’s put in a room where he is ordered to stay put while they take his family up. If someone had told Evan that at sixteen, he would have to say goodbye to Pandora, Felix and his mother, maybe he wouldn’t have laughed but he surely would have asked how.
He sits down on the couch, his legs giving away and waits calmly for them to come.
The door swings open and Evan’s mother storms in and cups his face. “Oh, love…Please take me back to reality…” She cries as she hugs Evan hard, hard enough to make him wince. Felix notices it, and once again, like he always do, checks Evan temperature with his hand.
His lips become a thin line and Evan knows that he’s feverish because he feels it. He’s so tired it hurts to stand. Felix hand runs through Evan’s hair as he takes him into a hug. “Promise me to take care.” Evan doesn’t respond. There is no need to lie.
Pandora is the last one and Evan’s heart drops in his stomach when he catches the sad look on her face. She approaches him with eyes full of tears, and at some seconds away, she can’t help but hang on him like a sloth. She clings so hard on his body that Evan’s legs give in and they both fall on the floor in a hug.
“Hey” Evan nudges her shoulder with his nose and she looks up. “Hey, it’s going to be okay. Tell Dorcas she’s cool. Tell her she can tell you from me.” Pandora nods and the peacekeepers walk in. Though their family have always been quite quiet, Pandora screams when the peacemakers touch her and drags her away. The door closes behind them and Evan is alone to face death.
The door opens a few minutes after, and Regulus enters the room. His black curls swing in the air as he walks to Evan. It feels like they haven’t talked for ages, and maybe it is. Since Regulus moved to the village of the victors, at the other end of the city, they have seen each other less. Once on the black market where Evan runs errands for his mother, once on his way back from work. It depends, and they always have a small chat, but it’s not like before. Before, Regulus used to wait for Evan to come out of the factory or he would come home and have a chat with Pandora, who he seemed very fond of.
Now, it feels like he’s staring at a stranger, or perhaps at someone he only knows by name. His face is tired, and it looks more than anxious. Evan hates that kind of look on his face, he hates when people are looking or are concerned. He feels pitied, and even though he knows that Regulus doesn’t know -he can’t know- he still has that awful wave of anger in his heart.
“I hate them.” Regulus states as he stands in front of him. “You better win so we can live together at the village of victors.” He grumbles and Evan can’t help but chuckle at that statement because both of them know very well that Evan’s chances to win these games are very, very, immensely slim. “I’m going to be yours and Barty’s mentor, so you better give your best because I’m not watching you die.” He says then and grabs Evan’s wrist to drag him out of the room he was supposed to wait in.
“I’m taking him to the train.” He dismiss’ both of the peacekeepers when they are about to intervene, blocking them outside the door. They let Regulus walk away with Evan in tow and he finds the city hall very cosy for such a polluted and dirty city.
Outside, the crowd has been diluted and people have gone back to work, leaving a deserted square. Regulus and him jumps up in a car and Barty is stepping inside as well a few seconds later. He’s literally pushed inside, as he looks like he has decided to not walk on his legs anymore. Regulus only rolls his eyes, and Evan looks at Barty’s unbothered face which parts into a smile when he sees them.
“Well, well. The hated three are together once again?” He hums. Evan never thought he would hear that name again when he left school. Evan had never been a great friend maker, usually quiet and very observant, he wasn’t the type to get along with much people. Regulus was an untalkative kid, really mean sometimes and most of the time very apathetic. He didn’t enjoy anyone’s presence, and he didn’t care to say it if people bothered him. Barty was the kind of weird guy who had always a grin on his face. That made him unattractive to most of the people, as they thought he was strange. The fact that he was the mayor’s son wasn’t helping.
So it quickly turned out that most of the other kids didn’t want to have anything to deal with any of them three. Which had lead to the three of them starting to be friends. At first, Regulus wasn’t fond of Barty at all, Evan was most of the time quiet, as Barty did his things. But as the years flew by, they became more than acquaintances. They were called the hated three at school, and even though Barty had quite the charms and liked to flirt with every girl in the school, none of them had other friends than each other.
“Trust me, I would have preferred us to never be reunited.” Regulus states, eyeing Barty with a furious look. Okay, maybe they weren’t the bestest friends, but they cared about each other more than it looked like.
“Well, me neither. But here we are! You’re the mentor?” Barty asks, still sporting a huge grin on his face.
“I am. And you better listen to me if you want to survive.” He threatens with a dark glare. “And as much as I hate to admit it, I don’t want you to die.” Regulus says, his tone a little more sensitive.
“Yeah, but only one of us can survive, huh?” He looks at Evan, and again, the look in his eyes is strange. He’s not sporting a concerned look, or anything like that, it’s just…something not usual at all on Barty’s face.
“Good you noticed.” Evan says sarcastically as Barty’s finger pokes his cheek again.
“Freckles suits you.” He says, and Evan bats away the finger in a lazy motion.
“Now, listen to the plan. We are taking the train to the capitol, and there you will attend the parade. Then you’ll train and at the end of that training, after receiving a grade, you will be interviewed. This part is the moment you get sponsors, it’s more than important.” Regulus says, his eyes drifting from Barty’s face to Evan’s as he explains the procedure. The car comes to a stop and they walk down to a really high technology designed train.
Evan has never seen a train in his whole life, but he’s quite sure that not all the trains look like that. They follow Regulus inside and it’s hardly believable that the decoration inside is more flabbergasting than the outside. There are leather chair, a long wooden table, bars, tins, glasses, everything they had never the money to afford. Luxury breathes harshly out of the air conditioning by the floor. Evan suddenly feels very unwell. This is completely ridiculous, so much money only for a train.
Regulus shows them the seats and the three of them sit down, waiting for the other tributes to show up. Two seconds after, there a rattle on the door and an old woman with piercing blue eyes walk in. She’s followed by Nollin and Evie, who seems to have cried so hard her eyes couldn’t be more red. When she sees Evan, she rushes to him and whimpers loudly as she falls into a hug. Nollin and the other mentor sits down beside Regulus and they all watch Evie, as small as she can be from bad nutrition and fatigue, cling tightly to Evan’s neck. He doesn’t really know how to deal with that. Most of the time, Pandora is the one who takes care of her, but he tries his best in comforting.
When the sudden attack of twelve year old kid is over she leans onto the other seat beside Evan and looks down on the floor.
“So, first of all…I understand it might be tough for someone, but you should focus on your survival by now and stop worrying.” Regulus talks with a shrilling voice as he looks at Evie, and Evan really does remember why he didn’t have many friends at school. He cruelly misses any form of tact.
The other mentor takes up something that looks like a remote control and an enormous tv illuminates. The screen shines as it shows Caesar Flickerman, the new commentator of the games, talk in the people of the capitol. "Well, well, another summer, and another Hunger Games to entertain us. And not only is it the Hunger Games, but it is also a Quarter Quell, which means all of this is going to be very special. We have a completely new designer for these games, with whom we are going to decripte the many tributes that are going to enterain the capitol. Please make way for the very special, Annie Corolla!" The crowd buzzes with cheers and exited claps as a middle aged woman with pink hair and a pink cat walk upon the stage. Her short dress must cover only a decimeter of her skin as the rest is solemnly shown to the crown. Her shiny white skin reflects under thee projectors and Evan can see Regulus grumble in irrtation.
"So Annie, tell us, what about the reaping this year?" Caesar asks and Annie laughs an irritating little snort that makes her cat jump up in her hands.
"Beautiful. There are so much that I feel that my creativity is going to explode in a million of flowers! I really can't wait to be able to direct such a special game and make you enjoy it!" She talks with a nasal high pitch voice that makes it very hard to understand, and her smile is showing perfect teeth she must have retouched a million times are glowing like diamonds.
"I certainly can't wait either! Shall we take a look at the tributes?" Annie nods in agreement and a big white screem is displayed at the backgroud of Caesar. It then shows the reaping of the first district, where two of four young people -because there is no way anyone could describe these huge beasts as boys and girls- volunteer.
"These two are to keep a close eye on. One of them is Gloss and Cashmere's younger brother and the other is the top student of Lennol!" Caesar lifts his finger in the air as they switch to the second district, where three tributes volunteer. Evan is shocked by their courage but mostly by their stupidity, he would have a hundreds of times prefered working in the second than dying in the Hunger Games. Caesar makes a very pleasant comment about them as one of the guys screams a war cry into the mic. Evan can't help but feel embarassed for him. District three and four have both very young tributes and Evan wonders if they can feel, just as him, as death is breathing down their neck. As he watches the three other districts before his own, he really questions himself how it must be to know that you can survive, but you won't be able too.
When it comes to their district Annie makes a little noise as Barty walks up on the scene and Evan must agree that Barty, despite his weird expression and the sly smile on his face- and perhaps it's because of that- is hot. His black hair is cut short and they really zoom onto him to show off his looks. Then Gastor screams Evan's name in the microphone and he watches himself walk up on the scene. He's obviously not really thinking about anything and he stands besides Barty, who has a frown on his face. When Evan's pale face is shown onto the screen, Annie makes an even louder noise than she did for Barty, and then she snorts. "Really Handsome this year, the tributes. Really beautiful." That makes Evan grimace of disgust, he makes a disgusted noise and stands up on his feet as he feels a wave of coughing is preparing.
"Sorry, can't watch this anymore, makes me want to puke." He leaves before Regulus even tells him to come back.