Not again. That's the first thought that goes through her head when she hears the mentor announce her name. Not again.

Not after Junze and Junjie and Renying. Not her. Not again.

She makes her way to the stage, slowly, and hears the sighs of pity around her, both from the other candidates and the crowd surrounding them. The Liu family curse, everyone calls it, and it does seem like one. The chances of one person getting picked was one in thousands, given District 10's population, yet just within a few years, three Liu siblings had gone off to die in the Hunger Games.

Well, four now.

She knows her brother would volunteer for her, if only he wasn't too old, but honestly, even if he could, she wouldn't want him to. It's better that she goes than him, since he's the only person keeping the family alive. Well, really only her parents, now that she's gone. If Junhao had been the one picked, Renyu wouldn't have known what to do.

But she doesn't know what to do now, either. Her mentor -- she had introduced herself as Amber -- led her to an empty room and told her to wait. What she's waiting for, Renyu knows. She's seen her siblings off before, remembers the procedure followed. And so, when Junhao enters the room, all she does is clutch onto his shoulders and cry.

"It's okay, you'll be okay." Junhao tries to stem the flow of tears from his eyes, but he can't. "You... you're smart. You just need some allies, okay?"

Renyu nods. She doesn't think she could ever kill anyone, and Junhao must know that, must know that she can't possibly win the Games. "You need allies," he repeats, fingers digging into her arms. "You need to find some allies during training, okay? Promise me, promise me you'll try."

"I'll try." There's nothing else to say. "Take care of Mom and Dad."

Their parents had fallen into insanity soon after Junjie and Renying died, unable to bear the harshness of the real world any longer. Junhao nods, holding her close again.

"I will. You need to try." Junhao digs in his pocket and comes up with a simple leather bracelet. "Take it, take it with you. You have to try."

"I'll try."

Renyu runs her fingers over the rough leather. She knows that if she doesn't try, she'll never be able to make it up to her siblings. Her siblings had died to protect her, the youngest of five, and she isn't going to let their deaths be in vain. She'll show them, show the entire country, that she can do it.

But as soon as Junhao leaves, she's suddenly not sure anymore. She's never had any training, never even worked in the cattle fields -- Junhao had seen to that -- and now she's going to be fighting with some of the most skilled killers in the entire country? No wonder her siblings never made it back; they didn't even have a chance.

"Hey, I think we might be related," Amber jokes as they ride the elevator down. Renyu starts.

"What?"

"We have the same last name!"

"Liu?"

Despite Renyu's irritation at the cruel joke, she doesn't think Amber's trying to be mean. In fact, it looks like she's just trying to crack a joke and get Renyu to lighten up and relax. She seems like an easy person to be around, and Renyu doubts that she's ever heard of their family's curse.

"Yep." Amber holds out a hand. "I'll be mentoring you, so feel free to treat me like your older sister, 'kay?"

No one will replace Renying, but Renyu has to remind herself that Amber's just trying to be nice. She doesn't know about her family history.

"Sure." 

They ride in a car to the train station. It's the first time Renyu's ever been in a car, and she can't help but wonder how the machine even moves without oxen to pull it. Maybe it's the same concept as the train, which her teacher says runs on something called 'Maglev', whatever that is.

A thought strikes her that she could just ask Amber. She's made it clear that she's willing to help Renyu through this ordeal, and she probably knows enough about the Capitol stuff anyway.

It takes a while to get the words out of , but when she does manage to ask, Amber answers immediately. "It's called a motor," she explains, trying to draw an image in the air. "It turns gasoline into hot air, or something, and that pushes the wheels to turn."

In the end, Renyu gives up trying to understand, and they board the train in silence. It's long, painted silver, and as soon as Renyu steps on, the doors slide shut, closing her off from the rest of the world.

She runs to the window, trying desperately to take one last look of her home. The next time she comes back to the dusty red plains, she'll likely be in a black metal box, ready to be buried into the ground.

heyheyyyyy i actually have no clue how to write this gorl so i did my best? lmao the references to the modern technology tho ayyyyyyy. i'm so tired i went to sleep at like 1:30 and i woke up at 8:45 which sounds decent but it's actually not that much i'm cry. hee hee i'm so tired but i made a new friend?? and all we did was talk about chinese stuff lmao.