FicWad

Frank shifted awkwardly at the table. He picked up his fork, poked the food sitting on his plate, then set the fork down and sighed. Lindsay was chatting happily with the mentors and Ostrich. There were two mentors for two tributes, and they both had their attention on Lindsay. The one mentor was pretty young, having won only a few years ago. She had a squishy face and a concentrated look in her dark brown eyes. Her name was Justine. The other mentor was a lot older, and a guy, with a scraggly beard and deep wrinkles from frowning too much. His name was Caius. Both seemed extremely interested in whatever Lindsay had to say.
Sighing, Frank wrapped his fingers around his dog tags and tried to remind himself to be positive. He had nothing to lose. There was nowhere to go but up. The only way things could have been worse at that point would have been if his lungs gave out and he died, right there at the table, completely ignored by the others.
“What about you, Frank?” Justine asked. Her voice squeaked and Frank cringed. He hated squeaky voices. “What should we know about you?”
Frank gave a feeble shrug. “I’m nothing special.”
“He’s lazy.” Lindsay piped up, a grin spreading across her face. Frank scowled at her, imagining himself repeatedly stabbing her in the eyes with a butter knife. “He doesn’t even work at the factories. He just sits around all day doing nothing.”
“I’m sick.” Frank snapped, his fingers scuttling closer and closer to that butter knife.
“You seem perfectly healthy to me.” Lindsay stated pretentiously, taking a bite of her dinner.
Frank let out an angry noise that was half of a growl, half of a sigh. “It’s my lungs, dumbshit. The smoke and debris from the factories could kill me. My lungs could collapse and then I would die. Bet that’d make you happy.”
Lindsay smirked and chewed thoughtfully before responding. “You have no idea.”
“Play nice, kiddos.” Caius snapped, tipping his chair back slightly. “Tip number one to surviving the games: don’t make your District Partner your enemy.”
Frank looked up. For a moment, his eyes and Lindsey’s met, and then he dropped the gaze. “It’s too late for that.”
He stared at the table for a long time, or what felt like a long time to him, just thinking. He and Lindsey had been friends once. It was a long time ago, but it had still happened. What had happened to them, Frank wondered soberly. When had they fallen out of each other’s good graces? The thoughts made Frank’s stomach churn.
Officially unable to eat, he pushed his chair out and got up. Ostrich looked at him curiously.
“Where are you going, Frank? We’re supposed to go and watch the rest of the reapings after dinner.” He clucked.
“I’m going to bed.” Frank explained, forcing his chair in too far and effectively slamming it against the table. “Get me up when you need me. But only when you need me.”
Without another word, Frank stalked out of the dining room and wandered through the train until he found his room. As soon as the door locked behind him, he kicked off his shoes and flopped face down on the bed. It was the most comfortable bed he had ever laid in, Frank decided, crawling underneath the covers and curling up in a ball. He didn’t have any trouble falling asleep, but as soon as he did, the nightmare began.
~ ~ ~
Frank was lying on his back, staring up at a starless sky. He could sense the presence of three other people around him, but in the darkness, he couldn’t see them. Somewhere, a canon went off. The person next to him sat straight up, obviously awoken by the sudden booming noise. It had barely registered in Frank’s mind.
“Go back to sleep, hun.” He said quietly, reaching out and touching a spot of the boy’s cool skin.
Obviously satisfied by this response, the unknown boy laid back down and immediately began sleeping. Frank himself settled down against the ground and began dozing. That was when everything went to pieces. The ground beneath them began shaking, throwing Frank into the boy sleeping next to him and awakening the other two.
Then they were all running. Just like that, they were bobbing and weaving through the trees, shouting to each other to keep up. Frank looked behind him, at the two others. They had fallen far behind them but Frank didn’t stop running. A few second later, the two boys were swallowed up by a fast moving black cloud.
“Frank don’t stop moving!” The first boy- the one who had awoken the first time- shouted. “You have to keep moving!”
But his legs were tired and his lungs burned. “Can I stop just for a minute? Please?”
His movements slowed but the boy kept running. “No. Keep going! We’re almost there!” The boy’s words were too late, however, because seconds later, Frank too was swallowed up by the black cloud.
Instantaneously, Frank was lying in a patch of open space. He could hear shouting close by. The voices sounded distorted, though, as if they were underwater. One of the shouters, though, was definitely familiar.
“You killed him!” The first insisted, his voice full of pain and sadness. Frank wished he could see from where he was, but they were too far away.
“It’s not like the both of you could win!” The second voice shouted. A lump formed in Frank’s throat. It was Lindsey. “Did you really think that they would let you and your boyfriend both live? As if. If I hadn’t killed him, you would have! I did you a favor.”
“No!” The first said, louder and more forcefully. Frank wished he knew who the person was. “Frank was never going to die. He was supposed to kill me!”
There was a commotion and then the shot of a single canon. For some reason, Frank felt that it was Lindsey who had died.
And just like that, he was awake. Ostrich was pounding on his door, saying in his high accent that it was time to watch the Reaping.
“I’ll be out in a minute.” Frank called, pushing the covers off of him and swinging his legs over the edge of the bed. He had to refocus, remember where he was and what was going to happen, but all he could think about was how pained the boy had sounded when he said that Frank had died.
All he wanted to know was who that boy was supposed to be.