Please don't leave quite yet.

Chapter 1.

"Remember darling. You cant let them know how much they're hurting you. Don't give in to them." Those were the last words that Effie Trinkets mother had spoken to her before she died. Of course she was only 6 at the time so she didn't fully understand her words, her mother was always saying things like that. Effie couldn't remember all of it, most of what she said was to complex for her young brain to understand. It was only know when she 38 did she know what her mother had meant.

She had lost count of how many days she had been in the capitol prison, she had a feeling that if she knew how many days she had been here she would feel weak for giving up on hope so quickly. She was facing away from the door, lying down on her side in the dark room wearing nothing but a thin gown that she presumed all the people who had been captured had been given. It was covered in dirt and blood and was far to loose on her bony frame. She wasn't given food all that often unless one of the guards wished to use her for their own pleasure. They fed her up then on rich capitol food that made her want to gag. They had told her that she would need feeding up in order for her not to pass out half way through what they were going to do to her. Her red hair was limp and dry and fell half way down her back, she couldn't see her eyes but she knew her normally bright green eyes would look dark and aged.

She was always quiet when the guards came, at first she would scream out and cry, occasionally begging them to stop but when she figured out no one was going to save her she gave up on begging them to stop and instead remained silent opting to scream internally instead. She heard the heavy foots of 2 or 3 guards behind her and she curled into her self slightly, it was always worse when there was more that 1 guard there.

"So, Miss Trinket. Are you going to speak today?" One of them asked grabbing her bruised shoulder and turned her around so she was facing them. She didn't reply of course, she kept quiet. She wasn't completely sure if she could actually talk any more. Rather than answer the guard she let her eyes wander around the room, she could vaguely make out one of the guards holding a bucket of something...water maybe? Was that why they were here, were they going to wash her? Try and drown her? However when she saw steam rising from the water, she knew what was going to happen. "Well?" The guard snapped "looks they she's not going to speak boys" a sickly smile appeared on the guards face as he was passed the bucket of water "don't say I say I didn't warn you Miss Trinket, you know the rules are simple. Tell us everything you know and if you don't there will be consequences, its only fair" he snarled before carelessly throwing the water over her stomach. She shrieked in pain,she felt as if she was getting stabbed by thousands of knifes. The pain was stopping her breathing from coming out normally and instead she had to gasp for air. They wernt done there apparently. The guard which had thrown the water on her picked her by the neck and slammed her against the wall, his hips were against hers and his mouth was pressed up against her ear. "It really is such a shame Miss Trinket. Such a shame to ruin such a pretty body, his hand travelled down inbetween her thighs, drawing blood there "but you musnt worry, you'll still have your pretty face. That's the problem with you, you're too pretty for your own good." He withdrew his hand and slammed her against the wall again. This time she felt a bone in her back crack as he released her she fell to the floor. "I hope next time you speak Miss Trinket." One of the other guards drawled as the 3 of the left the room. It was only then she let her self cry, she knew they were probably watching from the cameras but she couldn't bring herself to cry when they were there with her.

After her crying had stopped she was left with a familiar dull ache inbetween her legs, and a new burning pain in her stomach. She was to scared to even attempt to touch her stomach, afraid that it would bleed or become more infected. Instead of thinking about the pain she concentrated on her thoughts instead, would anyone recognise her know? She looked like a different woman from the happy, optimistic capitol citizen that everyone knew her as. This Effie Trinket was broken. She let her thoughts wander to happier memories, to times before her mother had died. She remembered when she was young, her mother would read her old stories, written thousands of years ago. The capitol didn't allow many old books, there was 1 shelf in the library that had them. She could remember the name ,Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, she remembered wanting to go to the strange little place underground filled with strange animals and red queens. However as she got older and her mother died she realised it was a childish wish, to go to a make believe land, but as she lay in her cell she couldn't help but wish the book was real and she could go to a faraway land, away from everyone. Thoughts of her mother entered her mind once more, would she be proud of her? Effie very much doubted it, she cant remember much of her mother but she remembered that she never watched the games, Effie never got to see them until she was 9. That was when her father remarried, a pure bread capitol citizen by the name of Albina. She taught Effie manners and how to present herself, buying her new outfits and bright wigs. Then when it was games season she would sit herself down next to Effie and gasp in delight when someone who she liked won or she would laugh when a district 12 tribute died "no wonder they never win, I've heard awful things about that district. No one works, they dont care about it. Instead they choose to live like savages." She said things like that all the time, always putting others down. Effie had brought her up on the issue one day when she was 13 but she shouted at her and told her that it wasn't a young ladies place to speak out of turn.

Effie remembered her 15th birthday, she was made to wear a corset and stockings but had took them of at one point during the day after declaring that she thought they wernt necessary and anyway, the corset made it hard to breathe. However as the years went on and Effie turned into a woman, she'd gotten used to the wigs, the outfits, the make up and even the corsets and stockings. Though back in the present all of that had been stripped bare, not a scrap of anything capitol on her. She felt naked and vulnerable,when she was chosen as an escort the make up was a mask to block the real world out and whilst she had always wanted to be bumped up the a better distict than 12, she knew the pain of sending children away to be killed would always be the same. She would always feel like the monster that came and snatched children away from their families to send them into an arena where they would die.