Snippet #1847496

Lira shot straight up in bed, gasping for air as she shook uncontrollably. Sure enough she had another nightmare, the same nightmare that had been occurring for awhile. The nightmare of her running, as if she was running from someone. Her back was burned, hair was matted and dirty, face was covered in dirt, arms and hands were cut up and bloodied, and her eyes were wild and frantically searching for a place to hide. She thought she had found a place when there was a sharp pain in her side. She would look down and see the blade lodged in her side as she stumbled and fell to the ground in pain. A dark human like figure would jump on top of her, eyes blood red and wild, and would pull out the knife slowly as Lira screamed in pain and struggled to get her captor off of her. The dark figure would lick the blood off the blade, making her feel sick and wanting to vomit right before the figure lunged the blade down towards her and shed wake up with a gasp and out of breath.

So much like the times before, Lira shakily got up and walked to the bathroom to get in the shower. That's when she saw her reaping day dress staring her right in the face and her heart sank. She had completely forgotten that today was the reaping day and so she reluctantly got ready for the dreaded day.

Once she was finished dressing, putting some careless makeup on, and finishing off her hair with wavy curls, she walked downstairs to find her father drinking some coffee and staring off into the distance. "Oh Lira, you look gorgeous." He said as he noticed her and forced a smile on her face. He wasn't in a good mood and she could tell and it broke her heart.

"Thank you Papa." She said with a small smile as she walked over and hugged him tightly, hoping it would make him feel a little better. "Papa don't worry, I'll be fine. There's plenty of people to choose from, I very well won't be chosen and I'll be home with you as soon as possible." She said as she kissed his cheek. He forced a smile and nodded, but not before a single tear rolled down his face. This made tears well up in Lira's eyes as she quickly stood up and held her hand out to him. "Come on Papa, walk me there?" She asked him and he nodded, standing and taking her hand.

As they walked, she watched all the other families with their children heading in the same direction, all their faces covered in the same dread as her's and her father's. As they made it to the line of kids, her father looked at her. "I'm so sorry Lira, I'm sorry for bringing this upon you." He said as his eyes filled with tears. Lira sickly threw her arms around him in a big hug.

"Stop it Papa! It's all going to be okay. I love you." She said to him as she gave him one last kiss on the cheek before going and joining the others. They took her fingerprints and everything and she went to join the 18 year old girls.

As things started, she watched the boys and girls being called up onto the stage, a lot of which she recognized and had several conversations with before. A lot of which she would never see again and that saddened her. Then it happened. "Lira Dashwillow!" She heard her name and she felt her stomach churn and her heart drop as she closed her eyes and held back tears.

"No! Lira run! Don't go!" She heard her father's desperate shouts for her to run. He had lost his wife when Snow became paranoid and thought she was a conspirator with the rebels and he executed her. Then he lost the twins, Lira's little 3 year old brother and sister, when running home when the rebels broke through the city. They fell into one of the Capitol's traps to stop the rebels. Now he was going to lose his daughter, the only one of his family left so if one knew this they would understand his desperate cries.

"No Papa, I can't run." She whispered, more to herself than him since she knew he very well couldn't hear her. And with those words, she made her way through the crowd of girls and up onto the stage. She refused to show fear as she was congratulated and joined the others, staring out straight in front of her blankly.