The Reaping
District twelve had always been a dingy, bleak place. Evan knew he didn’t belong there. He didn’t belong anywhere. He didn’t mean that in a depressing way, no. He wanted to see the world, all of it, instead of settling down. However, he was stuck in desolate old twelve.
His family had been a part of an organization called The Order. Members of The Order used to explore what are now called districts before they were eventually all rounded up and segregated. Evan’s parents were killed when he was only young, but he still had some family; like his cousin, Pandora.
He and Pandora walked to the center of the district for the tenth annual reaping. Something had been different that year. He felt it deep in his gut, that unsettling sensation. Despite his anxiety, he swallowed thickly and kept composed.
The sound of the microphone rang through his ears, making him— and multiple others— wince in discomfort. “Now, the time has come for us to select one audacious man and woman,” Walburga Black’s voice boomed over the crowd, “for the honor of representing district twelve in the tenth annual Games. As usual, ladies first.”
It annoyed Evan beyond relief how she kept pausing every few words as if they weren’t already on edge, but he compressed his frustration.
Cheerfully, Walburga stuck her hand into the bowl with such elegance nobody would have assumed she originated in the districts. Her and her family had been promoted to live in the Pinnacle— the general governing body in their society.
She cleared her throat and fished around in the bowl until she found one that she deemed suitable. To everyone else, it had just been teasing. Walburga held the card up for everyone to see, then unfolded it and announced the name, “Emmeline Vance!”
The eerie silence only thickened. The air had been so tense Evan even had to hold his breath. Across the grounds, he spotted a head of dark hair moving towards the stage. Emmeline. He knew who she was, but never once took the chance to speak to her.
Maybe, by the end of the week, he would regret that choice.
Walburga didn’t dare touch the girl, even grimacing at the state of her clothes. She didn’t even spare a salutation or blessing. “Now, for the boys!” This time, she didn’t waste any time with the bowl. She merely plucked the first one that brushed her fingertips. “Evan Rosier!”
Evan stood there, unmoving. All the boys around him turned their heads, searching for him, yet Evan couldn’t bring himself to even blink. A hand on his back urged him forward; it was an Auror’s. He made his way through the crowd on autopilot. Not a single thought ran through his head as he ascended the stairs. That moment felt like nothing but a dream. A very bad one. One he desperately needed to wake up from.
When he mentioned he didn’t want to be holed up in district twelve forever, that certainly didn’t mean he wanted to be ‘free’ under such circumstances.