Today is the Reaping. I walk onstage, and sit in my plastic folding chair next to Johanna and Marin, last year's victor. Johanna squeezes my hand. She knows how hard this is for me. One person I can share my suffering with. Zoee walks up to the microphone and announces the Dark Days video. We watch. The mayor comes up and makes a speech. Then Zoee walks over to the girl's Reaping Ball. She takes out a slip of paper. I shiver. Flashbacks of twenty years ago, today. My Reaping. My Games.

"Lakelyn Miguel!"

A scrawny, terrified girl wobbles onto the stage. I guess that's how I must've looked. Or maybe brave, or maybe in a trance. Yes, the last one. A trance. I bring myself back to reality as I search the crowd for my children. Blue, just fourteen. She looks relived.
I am too. Only a little bit- my son is still in the balance. Blight, on the other side in the 16 sector. Willow isn't there, she got by all her Reapings unscathed. I don't regret having children. The risk is worth the joy.

Zoee tiptoes over to the boy's ball. I squeeze Johanna's hand. Not Blight, not Blight. I will Zoee not to choose him. One slip in thousands.

The odds are definitely in his favor.

Zoee takes out that one fateful piece of paper and walks to the microphone. I see his face. He's nervous. So am I. She slowly holds the name in front of her eyes. I see her eyes widen from back here. In that instant, I know what is on the paper.

"Blight Midnight."

My heart shatters, suspicions confirmed. I start sobbing. I cry into Johanna's shoulder. I can feel her heart harden. I hate Snow. I guess I must've blacked out, because the next thing I remember is waking up on the couch in the Tribute Train. My world has completely collapsed.

The odds are never in my favor.