burn for sport | {Ingrid/Gavin}

gavin {♔} barker

My blood had boiled, and my heart had already stopped beating too many times to count, and the fact that the actual games themselves hadn't even started yet terrified me. Why had I ever considered this a pass of freedom? If anything, I felt more trapped than I did back at home. At least there I was free enough to sneak out of my window and disappear into the forests at night. (Screaming into the open air until my throat was raw shouldn't have been my first argument, but it was one of the few things I still could do.)

I stood in a sea of grey, waves of silvery, shining weapons all around me, and sounds of weapons clashing together like thunder. This was my temporary home. This was where I was supposed to rest my head until the morning when I was going to be thrown into an arena to fight for my life. But I had wanted this, and now that I had finally gotten it, I wasn't going to convince myself it was the wrong decision. After all, choices like these were not ones I could just take back.

Most of the tributes looked as ridiculous as I felt, trying their hand and failing with weapons and other stations, but I knew that I was competent at the things they couldn't do. Every time I picked up an ax, I told myself it was practice for the day that was fast approaching, and being from a district filled with lumber meant a lot of practice. I had pushed myself so hard that my hands bled, even my callouses growing too raw to handle the stress, and now it was going to pay off. It was going to pay off for me.

One girl, short with dark hair and scary eyes stood all alone, and I could see why. She intimidated the hell out of me, but I decided it was probably a good thing that she did, and since I was still without a single ally, I decided that she was a good potential candidate. I walked over so that I was standing directly in front of her, then lifted a knife from the table next to us. "See the barb in the blade here?" Then I held it up. "That alone can royally screw up a person. One good stab and they'd be finished." A bit more morbid than I had meant for it to be, but I hoped it was enough to get the job done.

"Gavin Barker, District Seven."