The Dead Games

"Merrilin! Wake up!"

As I slowly looked up I saw my littler sister, Seana. She was only one year younger than me, but I enjoyed to call her a baby because it got on her nerves.

"Merrilin! Dad called for you!" She screamed in my face. When I finally got up and dressed Seana was sitting in the brick red chair in the corner of my room. She had her legs crossed revealing her cyan ugly dress. The weird thing about ugly dresses was that some of them weren't ugly. I wasn't describing the dress. We just always called it that. Her hair was put in a braid with multiple flowers tangled in it. My sister's hair was blond at the top and a light brown at the bottom just like mine.

"Merrilin Abether Earlin! Your father has been calling for you!" My mother called. Of course my mother used my full name. To be honest she just loved when she got to do that. I knew I was actually in trouble when she'd use only my first name.

I walked down the hall into 'dad's study' to be honest, it was really just a dark brown tent that he put into the backyard.

We were poor, you see so it was surprising that we even had a house at all. Dad had boughten us a house about 5 miles from the castle so that we could see the royals. He thought that maybe he could get a business opportunity with them. We quickly realized that only the prince and princess came out, and they were really annoying as well as stupid.

I sat down onto my mother's weird beanbag thing.

My father just stared at his work for about 20 minutes until he finally sighed and said, "They are bringing back the games."

—Kara—

I breathed steadily. The wind was blowing to the North, opposite direction of where my arrow was going to shoot. My crimson red hair flowed with the wind.

The deer slowly wondered out. With that I let go. It flew into it's heart. It lay dead.

It never got easier. Every death I knew I would remember.

Fifteen. I have killed fifteen so far and I won't ever let myself forget. I thought. I got put my log and wrote down my fifteenth kill ever.

Then, I put my makeshift crappy bow around my neck and arrows in my backpack.

Afterwards, I went to pick up my deer. It was only about 15 feet away, so pretty close. As, I walked up to it. I took my rope from my backpack and tied up its legs. I then stuck a sturdy branch between its legs hoisted it up onto my shoulders and walked back to my house.

I could feel the blood rolling down the back of my shirt. Slowly going from my neck to my back. My hair had fallen down and now the tips that got into the blood were a different shade then the rest. A few drops hit my legs. It's always weird doing this but I got used to it.

Ever since somebody stole our main amount of food and dad fell ill, I have been hunting for food. As I neared the path clearing, an arrow wizzed right past me and hit the ground about 10 feet in front of me. It just barely didn't touch my face.

"Hey! Look you jack! That almost hit me! Whoever you are come out and admit what you did! There wasn't even an animal near me! How bad of aim are you? Hello? Come out here!" I yelled.

I carefully removed the branch from my shoulders and set it and the deer on the ground.

Well, if that jack isn't taking that arrow than I will. Doesn't he know that you only have a limited amount of arrows? Obviously, not. This isn't some stupid movie where they somehow seem to never run out even when it showed that they only had like two arrows.

I bent down and slowly grabbed it to make sure that I didn't break it in two pieces (trust me I have done that a lot)

Once I tugged it out of the ground, I noticed a white piece of paper wrapped around it.

How did I not notice this? Am I that dumb? My hand was physically right next to it and I didn't notice? What the hell?

When I unrolled it, even though I thought that I truthfully shouldn't read it because it wasn't mine. I read:

Dear Kara Verne,

You will now be participating in The Dead Games. Congratulations! You are one of three tributes in Lee to fight! This year people from Cotera, Kama, Kilt, MaiHang, Naromi, Setin, Spetai, Tara, and Xaya will be participating.

This is not optional. You will meet in the castle common room tomorrow morning at 7 am. If you do not show, your friends and family will be killed and you will still participate. We do not like people who show up late. If the guards don't immediately let you in, show them this letter and they will. Also, don't go murdering your teammates when the competition begins that would hurt our points. When you get home you will simply tell your parents that you are going somewhere the next day. I trust that you will do what we say, correct Kara?

What the hell?

I just shoved the letter in my backpack. After, I grabbed the branch swung it over my shoulder and continued to walk home. My day had just gotten ruined.