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The Girl Who Sparkles

         

 
 I HAD NEVER GIVEN MUCH THOUGHT TO HOW I WOULD DIE. But when you get unfortunate enough-as unfortunate as I was-to be picked from an annual reaping, you would not help but think about a hundred many ways of getting killed. It would give you a great dose of nightmares, you'd dread about  your murderer, you'd think of how much pain would it feel, of how long would it last til you sunk into your own demise.

               "Let the 74th Hunger Games begin!"  proclaimed the legendary announcer Claudius Templesmith, his voice so loud it seemed to be coming off from every side of the universe.

               A cylinder had brought each of us out into the arena. We stood in a circular formation, equidistant to the Cornucopia. I tried looking around to the other tributes, I saw pale white faces, bug eyed, shaking. They were mirrors of my own. The first sight of the arena was a large flat area with hard packed dirt, on the center was the Cornucopia, a gigantic golden horn shaped like a cone with a curved tail, it's mouth spilling out items, such as food, water, medicines and weapons. I knew it wouldn't be longer than sixty seconds that the bloodbath would begin, some tributes would fight it out to get the supplies even when the risk of being bludgeoned immediately by the strong career tributes are too high, and half of us would be down to ground as a cold bloody corpse.

               I knew that the whole Panem was watching, intently attached to their television, many anxiously gnawing their fingernails, breathless, counting down. I was perfectly sure, nothing of how I looked, was earning me any attention. I am Bella Swan, the girl from District 9.

               My heart was pounding in what I thought as an audible rhythm. I knew I looked foolish as I fidgeted on the hem of my black hooded jacket.My odds of surviving is too...shallow. Truth was, I am different, different from all of the tributes. I am a vampire, I had been living for over four hundred years. And I sparkle too. So how could I say that I did not have any chance of winning the games despite of being immortal? It was a long story, but I am making it short. I used to be with a vampire family called the Cullens. Carlisle and Esme, with their adopted children, Emmett, Rosalie, Edward, Jasper and Alice. I married Edward and he turned me into one of them. We had a daughter named Renesmee.

               I had thought that It would last forever. But two hundred years ago, took place a war so brutal and dangerous- a war between the vampires and the vampire killers. The vampire killers are an army of superhuman lead by Blade, Buffy and Van Helsing. The vampires used to be strong, but when the army developed a virus that made us all lose our strength, we lost the battle against them. The Cullens let the three of us, Edward, Renesmee and me escape and go off hide somewhere safe. Carlisle, Esme, Emmett, Rosalie, Alice and Jasper were killed, and the rest of the vampire race was wiped from the face of the planet.

               Although we lost our super vampire strength due to the infection, there were some things the virus left for us. Our immortality. And the Sparkles. So I had seen it all. I had seen the apocalypse and post apocalypse. I had witnessed the collapse of the civilization and how the ruins were rebuild into a new one, into what was now Panem. I also witnessed the uprising that led to today's Hunger Games.

               My family of three settled on the dirt poor District 9, one of the twelve districts of Panem. Our district largely depends on the grain industsry. We lived an unprosperous life, Edward worked as a farmer. Another thing that the virus took away from us is our independence to food. We could feel hunger and we need food and water to survive.

               One day, while working under the sun, a Peacekeeper had seen my Edward sparkle. Suspicious, the Peacekeeper caught him. From then, Edward never came home. I just learned that my dear Edward was sold for large amount of money to District 2, the district that is known for producing luxury items and jewelries. I learned that Edward was imprisoned and was made a human minery. They harvested those diamond dust from him by scraping his skin. Those diamond dusts were turned into a precious stone and sold for a fortune. His agony lasted for a year. His life was ended when nothing was left from him but his bones.

               The event shook me. Broke me to pieces. I loved him more than anything. I grew despondent for the coming years, lifeless like a rock. I spent most of the rest of my life sitting on a chair looking out the window. I saw months, years passed like grains of sands pouring down an hour glass. Renesmee was the one who stayed strong and kept us up, she hunted and worked on the grainery. Wereceived a compensation--a brooch made up of Edward's diamonds. It would give us fortune had I sold it. But I did not, I kept it, that was a piece of my Edward. I still wear it right now.

*****

               The sound of the gong broke my reverie, it  was so loud it reverberated to my ears like a shockwave. The sixty seconds was over, meaning the games have begun for real. The other tributes jumped to their feet and rushed toward the Cornucopia. In a moment one was down, fell bleeding to the ground. My sight was in a hazy, dream like quality. I could feel my heart thumping wildly inside my chest (yes, my heart was beating again, the virus brought changes to our physiology, a lot of changes).

               I was in some sort of paralysis. Move, move, I commanded myself. But I could not bring my sluggish feet to motion. I was frozen. I knew at any moment, I would be stabbed through the heart by someone.

               Then, there he was. I waited for this to happen again for ages. Edward materialized in front of me, like some sort of a phantom. The same occurence happened so many times when he moved out of Forks, that was a lifetime ago. Whether it was real, or just a mind-induced illusion, I did not care, as long as I could feel his presence. He was there, his topaz eyes looked into mine, he was as beautiful as I knew him. "Run, Bella," he muttered. "Run."

               I was out of breath, wishing that he would stay. But I trusted him. I started trying to broke off my paralysis, moving every inch of muscles in my legs. I stepped, left foot, right foot. I did it, I conquered my paralysis. But still I had to run, run for my life. Then it dawned on me that I had to get one of the supplies in order to live. I looked around for a second, spotted a copper brown Jansport bagpack lying on the ground few footsteps away. No one was after it. It could contain anything, or even nothing, but I decided to take the gamble. I darted to it. I snatched it up immediately when I reached the spot.

               It was time to run, take off to the woods, hide. But just when I was ready I halted. Someone was looking at me, standing just maybe 10 meters away. I turned around and looked. It was one of the guy districts, carrying a spear. I looked into his face. In my life I had thought that no one could be as beautiful as my Ed. I had been wrong.

               His hair was golden as rays of sun struck his face lightening his handsome statuesque features. For a moment, I was frozen, again. But unlike before, it was not paralysis of fear. I was in a paralysis of bedazzlement, succumbed in the velvet pit of a trance.

               He smiled at me in an almost friendly way. I stared at him sheepishly as he sauntered forward to kill me.

               "Wake up!" It was Edward's phantom. "Wake up, Bella!" His calling stirred me up from my hypnotized state. I saw the guy tribute raising the spear up in his back. With his gait and pose, it was hard not to think of him as a Greek God throwing javelin.

               He was about to kill me, shoot the spear straight through my heart. I knew I had to run away. So I turned around, with the bagpack in my hands, and darted fast to the woods, in vampire swiftness. As I ran I could still see the guy tribute's image in my head, his face embedded in my memory. He woke something inside of me that lay frigid and unconscious for ages. I was perfectly sure that Jacob's pack would have called it an "imprint".

********

               I continued running full-speed until I knew I was far enough to be seen by any of the other tributes. I decreased my speed to normal pacing. I walked for a long time through the forest trail of pines and a variety of trees, I could hear the sounds of crackling twigs and branches as a stepped on them. The smell the ground and the decomposing leaves was the earthy,  telling the story of beginnings and endings.

               It was maybe an hour of walking when exhaustion settled on me, it was hot and perspiration was trickling down my face I had to wipe it with the back of my hand. I slumped down to the ground under a tree, feeling thirsty my throat felt dry. Mouth hanging open as I was breathing in and out, I unzipped the bag I was carrying all along and looked inside it. I only hoped that it had water in it. It did not fail me, I got a bottle of water just when I needed it. But I knew I should not be greedy to gulped it at a single drinking, for I may not find a water source immediately. Aside from the water, I found two other things inside the bag: a paperback copy of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and an iPod.

               What am I supposed to do with this, I asked myself. I had read Pride and Prejudice for about two hundred times, and, thinking that it was not a nice time for another reread, I tossed the two things back to the bag. I just focused on what I really had, the bottle of water. I uncapped it then poured some water to my mouth.

               What happened next was out of my expectations. I knew that everything in this game could either help you or kill you. As I swallowed the water, it started with some weird feeling, then turned into a hot, burning, painful sensation. It felt like gulping a lava from a volcanic eruption. I instictively grasped at my neck as I coughed violently. I knew, I was being poisoned.

               I grabbed the bottle which was the source of my agony, tried looking for any markings that could indicate that it was some sort of a poison. I flipped the bottle horizontally. And then there it was: a crucifix was printed on the other side of the bottle, beneath it was a bold incription in capital letters: HOLY WATER.

(to be continued....)

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New Year Book Giveaway!

      

    Happy New Year! I am now starting with this new blog, and as my first post, let me share to you an awesome book giveaway courtesy of Life is Like a Bookpage (a multiply bookshop). Here are the prizes at stake:

1.  THE LORD OF THE RINGS - J.R.R. TOLKIEN

(The Complete Best-Selling Classic 50th Anniversary One-Volume Soft cover Edition)

2.  THE HOBBIT - J.R.R. TOLKIEN

OR, a set of books which are:

1. Hellbound Hearts - Neil Gaiman, Kelley Armstrong

 2. The Merlin Conspiracy - Diana Wynne Jones

3. The Tail of Emily Windsnap - Liz Kessler

4.  Be Careful What you Wish For - Gail Carson Levine and others

 5. Six Haunted Hairdos - Gregory Maguire

 6. The Haunting of Granite Falls - Eva Ibbotson

 7. Dave at Night - Gail Carson Levine

 8. The Penderwicks - Jeanne Birdsall

For mechanics, see here http://lifeislikeabookpage.multiply.com/journal/item/148

Goodluck!

-Patrick