Sinister
Prologue
Paylor stood alone in her office, gazing out of the window providing a stunning view of the cityscape. The Training Center loomed in the distance. Paylor glanced behind her as the door to her office swung open revealing one of her aides.
"Just set it on my desk," she said quietly, answering the unspoken question. Twenty-three more children and this nightmare is over, hopefully forever. I can't let this be what I'm remembered for.
She turned apprehensively and stared down at the manila folder stamped with a confidential seal and she flicked it up her eyes darting down the list of tributes already selected.
M: Acanthus Jaeger
F: Karma Crane
M: Caius Ferrum
F: Amelie Glorieux
M: Lucius Ruin
F: Elianne Simoni
M: Nero Finch
F: Adrianna Clementine
M: Remus Ardiel
F: Alice Snow
M: Vergil Fiuery
F: Sophia Dardel
M: Anton Cross
F: Genevieve Collet
M: Garret Krause
F: Cheryl Keller
M: Sakai Soto
F: Claudia Maier
M: Emmet Bauer
F: Elise Cyril
M: Sebastian Bertrand
F: Cynthia Saris
M: Stefan Lacroix
F: Irina Wolf
Paylor flipped the folder shut, letting out a deep sigh. "May the odds be ever in your favor," she whispered. She slid the folder into a drawer as the doors to her office swung open once more. A man of average height with a head of violet hair stepped inside, his bangs draped across the left side of his face.
"Did you receive the list?" asked the man with a precarious smile.
"Of course."
"And?" he asked quietly in anticipation.
"They're perfect. Each one will deliver a crushing blow to our enemies, you've chosen well," said Paylor, "I expect a basic layout for your arena tomorrow at the meeting with the Victors."
"I'm sure you all will be pleased with my design." Without another word, he turned for the door, dismissing himself.
"Marius," called out Paylor, "Don't forget that they're just children."
Marius turned giving her a sad smile, "So were we."
Marius stirred combing his fingers through his unkempt hair. He slid out of bed, and stumbled into his bathroom rubbing at his eyes. The shower turned itself on as he approached, the tiny droplets emitting the husky scent of his usual cologne.
Marius stood beneath the shower letting it cycle itself into different wash cycles. Marius switched it off with a press of a button and stepped out, snatching up a towel neatly folded on the granite counter beside him.
He draped the towel around his waist hearing a knock at the door of his apartment.
"Isabella can you get the door?" he asked.
Silence only greeted him, "Isabella," he called again impatiently, "Have to do everything yourself these days," he grumbled draping a towel around his waist. He opened the door, surprised to find one of the Gamemakers standing there.
"Oh," she squeaked her cheeks flushing slightly, "I must have caught you at a bad time."
"No it's fine," he replied, "What exactly is it that you need?" he asked.
The woman stood frozen her eyes fixated on his muscular frame, "Livia."
"W-What?" she stammered, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear.
"What do you need?" he asked again.
"Oh, right," she sighed, handing him a small metallic Frisbee-like disc with a lens in the center. "It's the arena layout, I had it formatted it from your drawings and notes into holographic imaging."
"Thank you," he said, taking it from her, "Will that be all?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I think so," she mumbled, taking a step back into the lift, "Good luck sir."
Marius nodded shutting the door behind him, chuckling to himself. He laid the holoprojector on a table and headed for his room.
"Wow you had her all worked up," commented a woman from the living space, tidying things up.
"Why didn't you answer the door," hissed Marius impatiently.
"Because I figured you'd rather want me to make sure the apartment was clean in case they needed to come inside," replied Isabella coldly.
Marius waved his hand irritably, "Whatever, you're right."
"Of course I am," laughed Isabella, shuffling a stack of notes on his desk neatly, "By the way, her eyes were all over you sir."
"Like I didn't notice," he replied with a laugh, disappearing into his bedroom. He reemerged a few minutes later. "You better hurry, wouldn't want you to be late for your meeting."
Marius nodded throwing a jacket on before snatching up the holoprojector rushing out of his apartment. He punched the button for the bottom floor and raced out of the high-rise's lobby in a hurry.
A car was already waiting at the bottom steps to take him to the Presidential Manor. Marius nearly leapt inside closing the door himself, his hands caressing the metal disc.
The car drove down the main thoroughfare and eased around the City Circle stopping at the gates to the mansion. Marius let himself out of the car passing the soldiers manning the gates impatiently. No one bothered to stop him.
The Head Gamemaker rushed inside, the conference room just around the corner. Marius rounded another corridor and gently eased open one of the double doors. Inside, he found all of the surviving Victors present assembled on one side of the table near Paylor.
The other Gamemakers were filing in after him in small groups taking up the remainder of the chairs beside him. Plutarch beckoned to Marius to begin from beside Paylor, "Well then, shall we get started? Today I have for you, our designs for the arena. These Games were declared to be symbolic and to have an air of finality."
"As we speak, hundreds are hard at work putting this arena together. The arena will be stocked with horrors to remind those of what they did to the Districts for decades. The arena also caters to the true nature of those of the Capitol," said Marius, disregarding the glares of his subordinates.
"Well a picture paints a thousand words so without further ado," finished Marius activating the holoprojector. A massive island flickered into existence; Katniss squinted scrutinizing over every detail quietly.
Her eyes traced over from the unnaturally tall trees on one side of the arena, clustered together into a forest, over towards the center spotting a large town assembled in a neat ring. The place must be loaded with traps. A dense jungle spanned the northwestern part of the island and tall fields of grass and savanna filled the northeastern side.
The southeastern part of the island extended into a grassy peninsula rich with flowers and wildlife as well as great big oak trees for comfort with several ponds and a large lake in the center. Memories of the lake in the 74th Hunger Games returned to her, she shrugged them off immediately.
The island vanished a few moments later. "It's very impressive," reported Paylor.
"I'm glad," said Marius, "We wanted to put as much diversity into the island as possible so we could put on the greatest show possible."
"There's going to be mutts, lots of them, aren't there?" asked Haymitch breaking the Victor's silence. "Unfortunately, we cannot disclose much information to the Mentors, as it could potentially provide an unfair advantage to the tributes," replied Marius.
"Now we have come up with a new system of training since not many Victors survived the rebellion," began Marius, "The few Victors left will run private training sessions for each tribute; I figured we could divide the tributes as equally as possible, on the last few days of training of course. They will get two days to train together in the Training Center with the stations set up and then the final two days will be spent individually, each day spent on twelve of the twenty four tributes," he finished.
"So the Reaping is tomorrow then?" asked Beetee frowning.
"Yes," replied one of the Gamemakers, "Every child in Capitol will be present within the City Circle for the Reaping, all twenty-four have been preselected."
Annie shook her head, "This is wrong," she muttered.
Beetee placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. Johanna laughed simply, "Well it's already been decided."
Katniss stared at the surface of the table calmly, lost among her own thoughts. Peeta gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. Have I done the right thing? I voted only for the desire to avenge Prim's death but there's no going back now since I realized it was on Coin's orders.
Paylor rose her hand for silence as tempers began to flare, "Enough!" she barked, "If there's nothing more that needs to be said?" she said gazing at Marius. He shook his head silently, "Than this meeting is over."
The Gamemakers filed out of the room following Marius. Paylor and Plutarch left next, with the tributes in tow. Only Katniss and Peeta remained, Haymitch deciding to leave them alone.
"Have I done the right thing?" asked Katniss.
"You made your decision," replied Peeta simply.
"I know but was it the right one?" she asked.
"At the moment, yes. In the long run, no."
"This all could have been avoided if I had just said no."
"It's too late for that now Katniss," soothed Peeta, "It will be fine."
"For all we know," said Katniss, "This could end in disaster."
"We'll just have to wait and see. Then we'll have to hope that whoever comes out alive can forgive us."
A/N: I felt like that was the perfect place to end right there. Anyway, I think I'm going to have the readers decide how they would like the Reapings and here are your options: one really long chapter, two parts with twelve tributes each, or three chapters with four tributes each.
The Chariots will all be one chapter, but the Interviews might be divided the same way I'm not sure yet.
Review, follow, favorite, PM me with any feedback or questions. I think for consistent reviewers I will allow them to sponsor a tribute once with something reasonable. I'd also like to know what you guys thought of the arena so far. Trust me, there's a lot more to it than meets the eye. Depending on your guy's answers I will really try to update in between one to two weeks depending on the chapter length, maybe even earlier than that.