Dancing With the Devil

"If you're the chosen one, how does it feel to be loved by no one?"

Cedric Ruindel, 27, Gamemaker

Cedric was sure that he must have been quite a sight. It was his first day at his new job, and he had overslept. He hadn't even had time to glance at a mirror before he had to sprint out of his front door to catch the train to Headquarters. Running his fingers through his ratty bed-head hair, he sighed. He hadn't even had a chance to brew himself up a cup of coffee before he had left.

Back when he worked at the Hospital, they had a coffee maker in the waiting room. Did Gamemaker's keep coffee makers around the office? He didn't even know. He hoped so.

Walking into the massive glass building, Cedric gripped his briefcase tighter. There was a woman with blue skin, green hair, and lips larger than his fists sitting at the front desk playing with a stapler. Her eyes scanned the young man up and down.

"Um, I'm here for my first day of work," Cedric said as he approached her. "They said you'd be expecting me? Dr. Ruindel?"

"Ruindel?" the woman muttered. "New Gamemaker?"

"Yes, Dr. Ruindel," Cedric nodded.

She shoved a name tag towards him, and instructed him to go up to the fifth floor. Apparently, the meeting would be starting shortly.

Walking over to the elevator, he pressed the up button and waited. He felt oddly jumpy- his stomach was in knots and his palms were sweating. He felt incredibly out of place, and he hadn't even walked into the room yet. To think he'd spent so much time getting himself through medical school, just to quit his job in the Emergency Room a year and a half after he'd gotten it. This entire experience felt surreal to him.

There was a ping as the elevator arrived, and Cedric stepped in. The doors were just sliding shut when a hand stuck out and caught them. A slim girl with unnaturally pale skin and cherry blossom pink hair stepped in. She looked to be in her mid-twenties, but Cedric could see the faint smooth line just behind underneath her ear- a ever so subtle sign that she'd gotten some sort of face lift. It was the sort of thing only a professional would be able to spot.

"Which floor," he asked her politely.

"Fifth," she told him.

"Ah, me too," he nodded.

That got her attention, her head tilted up, and she gave him a good once over with her eyes. "Are there two meetings on the fifth floor today?" she asked.

"I don't know," he shrugged self consciously. "I'm here for the Gamemaker one."

She stared at him for a moment, her eyes flashing at his name tag, as if she didn't quite believe him. "Alright then Cedric Ruindel," she read off the badge. "Welcome to the dance."

He opened his mouth to respond, but then the elevator arrived. It opened, not into a hallway, but into a room. The woman who had rode the elevator up with him stepped out immediately and walked over to go join a group of three men chatting off to the side. Cedric hesitated then, wondering if he should follow her, or go off and sit with some other group of strangers.

Thankfully he didn't have to really choose because off to the side, he heard someone call his name.

"Doctor Ruindel?"

Cedric spun, a rush of quiet pride washing over him as he heard someone finally use the correct prefix. Being called Doctor never really got old.

"Yes?"

He saw that it was a middle-aged, heavy-set man wearing crescent spectacles was the one who had called him. Walking over to him, Cedric shook the man's hand.

"The name's Lowell Frox," The man said with cheery smile. "I'm in charge of all the new hires."

"It's nice to meet you sir. Is Alma, um, the girl who hired me, your assistant then?" Cedric said politely.

"In a sense," he laughed. "She's not much of a listener that girl- does what she wants when she wants. She tells me that you're going to be a good addition to the team though, and I'd have to be a fool not to trust her."

"Well, hopefully I'll prove her right, Mr. Frox," Cedric smiled.

"Please, just Lowell, we go by first names here, like old friends," he waved at Cedric. "Come over here, you'll sit with me today."

The two men walked off to the side and took a seat in the second row of chairs and chatted for a moment. Cedric found that Lowell seemed especially interested in his previous job, which, of course, Cedric was only too happy to talk about. Meanwhile, more game makers filed in. About a half hour had passed before things really began to start though.

Minerva Callaghan was always fashionably late.

When she entered the room, though, she always made an entrance. Today, when the doors slid open in the back, she walked in flanked by two new very scared looking assistants. She didn't look at any of the other Gamemakers as she walked down the aisle, but the second that they spotted her, every single voice in the room fell silent. When she reached the front of the room, she spun around, without saying a word, and examined her staff. Cedric felt a chill run down his spine as her black eyes passed over him.

"For those of you who don't know the routine," she finally spoke. "Today is the first brainstorm meeting. I make the final decisions on everything. Your opinions only matter if they are good. If they are not, I will kindly ask that you leave and do not come back. I have told Lionell to over hire for this year's Games. Meaning I can afford to fire at least half of you before it becomes a problem. Any questions?"

Cedric swallowed. The room was silent.

"Now, before we do anything else, we have to pick out an arena," Minerva kept going without missing a beat. "I will take all of your ideas first, and then we'll make a decision." She paused. "Well?"

The room still was silent.

"We don't have all day," Minerva tapped her foot impatiently.

Still silence.

Cedric looked around the room, seeing if someone else was going to speak up. When no one did, he slowly raised his hand into the air.

"Yes," Minerva raised an eyebrow at him, her dark eyes focusing on him.

And with that Cedric Ruindel, the former surgeon from the Capitol Emergency room, spoke.

Dancing with the Devil by Wolf Gang

A/N Hello

To any new comers, my name is Tales, I write SYOTs. In the past year, I've completed two stories, Fading to Darkness, and Finding the Light, and I am currently in the process of writing a third (Forever Bound). Its not required that you read any of the previous stories to read this one. The tribute form is on my profile, if you want to submit as well as a list of rules for submitting. I will only accept forms via PM.

If you're unfamiliar with my submission process, here's how it goes. I just posted the first chapter of the new story, and so now I am giving everyone until July 25th to get the forms in. I do not accept reservations, but know that I am not going to accept or reject any characters until the 25th. So you can submit to any district you want within my time parameters without worry of slots filling up. PM me with any questions (I swear I'm friendly) I have a more in depth description of the process on my profile.

Fair warning before you submit- come this fall, I don't know how much writing time I am going to have. It is very possible that I might not have any at all. Therefore updates will probably pretty spaced out once September comes. They might only come around holidays, when I'm on break and don't have school to worry about. However, I love writing, and do intend to finish this story. It just might take a little while to do that. My hopes in starting it now is that I can start it up and get a few chapters out before I have to start prioritizing other things. I do plan on keeping people updated on my profile as to how my writing is going, so that way you will always know that I haven't abandoned this. I just wanted this to be clear to everyone before they submitted.

So yeah, go check out my profile, and submit :D.