://The Diary of Jayne//:

The Diary of Jayne Ashbrook-Laws
>Entry 1
>>79th Reaping
>>>Five-hundred twenty-one words

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Dear Diary,

It's Jayne here.

Jayne Ashbrook-Laws, that is. I suppose we haven't really become all that well-acquainted as of yet. There have been many of us lost to the firm grasp of death, and by 'us', I mean the Laws family members. We're torn away and destroyed, incapable of doing anything to stop it all from happening. There's no way to stop impending doom in the Laws family. Very unfortunately, I've had to learn that fact the hard way as our family members have fallen, one by one.

When the reaping occurred this year, I thought we were all safe. Not once did the family name of 'Laws' boom across the District Square this time, and I was able to breathe a sign of relief. At least, I was capable of doing so temporarily. Gabriel Alexander-Laws didn't seem to want to let that relief last very long, however, as he pushed himself forward as a volunteer for the Seventy-Ninth Annual Hunger Games. He'd put himself out there and gone up to the stage. He'd asked for this fight. He didn't get unwillingly chosen for this. No. He'd volunteered to go into a terrible arena and fight to the death.

Personally, I couldn't understand why anyone in their right mind would ever choose to do such a thing. This was when I realized that my cousin, Gabriel Alexander-Laws, most certainly was not in his right mind. There most certainly had to be something in his head that had told him to volunteer for the Games this year, and whatever it was, it wasn't supposed to be there. No one should have such a thought flowing through the cracks and crevices of their brain.

I don't think that, no matter what sorts of things change in my head over the years as I grow older, I could ever, ever have a good enough reason to step up onto that stage and willingly put myself into the line of fire for other tributes in the cruel and terrible televised event known as the Hunger Games. They call it a pageant of 'honor' and 'sacrifice'. If anything, all I can see out of that is the 'sacrifice' portion of things. You're sacrificing your own life to the Capitol. Then again, it's not like said sacrifice is really your choice, unless you volunteer.

Yeah, unless you volunteer, like my cousin Gabriel.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Clearly, Gabriel Alexander-Laws was not in a normal state of mind when he volunteered to fight in the Hunger Games in place of the randomly selected male tribute that was supposed to go into the Games to fight. It wasn't supposed to be Gabriel. It was meant to be that other boy. Why would Gabriel choose to make us worry again? Why would he choose to make it so that we may end up mourning him if he ends up killed in the arena?

Maybe Gabriel is just cruel, not crazy.

Then again, couldn't that make me the cruel one for not visiting him in the Justice Building to say goodbye?

Maybe I'm the one in the wrong, not him.

Love from the always fearful,
Jayne Ashbrook-Laws