Hope - Luke Davis // Solo

Hope

Luke Davis - District Eight - Eighteen

The crowd is forced into a clap. Rarely does anybody reject doing so in fear of being punished. I assume it is the same across all Districts, more so with the careers. I stand alone in the solitary room that we have been placed into, awaiting either death or relatives to come through the door.

The room smell old, though it is kept in date by the regular Capitolite visits. This is about the only place they go if they are to visit, and you can tell the moment you look at it that they have done so before. There is no poverty, but you can see the poorness of everything. Some wood is chipped, the curtains are dusty, and the window is about the only shiny thing. Light beams and hits the blue rug on the floor, lighting up the white and brown room. On the walls are paintings. Only now do I realize they are all of the Dark Days. One of them has a battlefield with Capitol loyalists reigning supreme on a hill, crowns on their heads. I privately grimace at it, despising the Capitol. How can they do this to children?. I'm eighteen, I am hardly a child. It is worse for the older ones, because killing children is harder than killing older children, young adults. I slip into a daydream. I think about the training days that we get. Standing in line with all of the tributes, of which I will be forced to talk to, and forced to kill. Or try to. The door interrupts.

Suddenly my mother storms in and collects me in her arms. "Shhh, shhh." I console her. She is definitely more upset than I am. She pulls herself away from me to see my face and my eyes catch a glimpse of her deep hazel eyes, red with pain. She returns to me and I rest her head on my shoulder. There was nothing to say. We couldn't find words. Somebody had stolen them - the Capitol had stolen them. It must have been a few minutes until the door suddenly reopens and a large peacekeeper lurches at my mother and grabs her arm. "Come on, let's go. Time's up!" She yells at him, "No, NO!" I won't hold onto her because I don't want anything to happen to her. In a flash, she is gone. My heart is racing, everything is happening too fast. These are my last moments and they are being wasted thinking about the poverty of curtains. I throw my arm at one, flinging it off of the rail that once held it. It collapses into a bundle in the corner. I grasp the temples of my head.

The door. In comes my father, furious and just as tearful as my mother. He is a large man, somebody you wouldn't expect to be crying at all. His arms wrap around me tight but he has words unlike my mother. "Do us proud." His voice is cracked by his emotions. "Do what you will, but do us proud." I gather a lot from sentences usually, but that one is telling me to die with pride. "You will win." He leaves as he hears the door open. A peacekeeper tries to grasp him by the shoulder but he shrugs it off. The peacekeeper clearly knows not to piss him off.

Some of my friends come in to see me as well. Old friends, new friends. Only a couple of each. The peacekeepers won't allow any more in. I speak to them but it is just the same as the rest, tears and goodbyes.

Finally though, they seem to have given in to my mother who has dug her way into the room once more. In her hand is a small bracelet. It is brown with a string-like texture to it. The two ends meet at an ivory button with the word 'hope' engraved. "I'll be waiting for you." She says. "I love you." I say as she turns and leaves, the same peacekeeper waiting to reenact the earlier scene. He doesn't, as she leaves peacefully.

Soon, they will take me to the train where I will have to endure the company of my mentor... stylists... I can't. I'll just zone out and pretend it is all a nightmare, prick my wrist and just like that I'll be home.

I do it now, but it doesn't work.