a fools dare / [ flynn / nan }

N A N E T T E   Ψ   C A R T E R

When I had first seen him I forced myself to look away. He had to be no more than twelve or thirteen. Only just entering adolescence, he would not experience life as a teenager. He still had that softness about him that would have slowly been chipped away as the years took their toll. As he grew into his adult body, the body of a young man- not a child. Sadly for him, the chances of him growing old enough to fit into his limbs that seemed slightly too long, would be slim to none.

From the moment I had seen him, I had wanted to forget him. It is not until you see the face of a child that you remember just how cruel, how twisted and disturbing this game was. I had vowed to myself the day my eyes had landed on his small frame that I would avoid him. I would learn nothing about him. Not his name. Why he was here- was it his choice like so many around them, or was it simply his luck of the draw? I had vowed that I would not speak to him and begged Ripred that I would not have to be the one to cut him down.

But as I had laid in bed last night, my brain unable to settle, my fingers running circles around each other I had found him on my mind and instantly slipped from my room. I had sat crossed legged on the large sofa, reaching for the remote and fiddling with the controls until his face appeared. Clicking confirm I had watched as I was transported to district Six. To the day of the reaping.

It was not his name that was called, but a name that had belonged to an older boy. He had volunteered. My heart had pounded in my chest, my body leaning over slightly, watching each and every detail of the events that unfolded next. Carefully as though if I blinked I might have missed the fundamental reason as to why this child had flung himself into deaths arms.

There is a commotion, something that I couldn't quite make out and then the boy is running for the stage, eyes haunted by a ghost that I could not see. He doesn't say anything, but I could see that he was nervous, that he was scared, and I had wondered if he fully understand the implications of the situation he had forced himself into.

After making my way back to my room I had been left with so many questions, and the next morning I might have made the biggest mistake I could have made so far.

I made it my mission to seek him out, to demand to know why he was so determined to die.

"Flynn Garner, district Six," I stand before him, arms folded across my chest. And in the next breath I broke my vow, demanding to know every reason as to why he stood before me, in the arms of the Capitol being groomed to meet Death. "Why'd you do it?"