Hi guys. Sorry it took so long to update. New year's got in the way, but now I have and I hope you will like it.
Chapter 2 – Meeting my mentor
The train that Flower took us to was also incredibly luxurious. Every table was black as night and shined, all the chairs had a draping of velvet and every window had chiffon curtains.
Alec looked at it like he'd gone to heaven. The poor guy… His family was one of the poorest in the district, he was the only child and he and both of his parents worked at the power plant, though it was barely enough to support them.
Flower took us into a room full of food and drinks.
"Sit down my darlings" she said and almost pushed us down in to two chairs next to each other. "This year, one mentor will take care of you both. He'll be here soon."
Only minutes later, a man walked in. He was tall and fit with golden blonde hair, though the one thing that got me to recognize him immediately was his eyes. They were golden, brown and somehow still yellow. Like amber. It was James Atom.
He won the game eleven years ago. After that he got the nickname "Amber-Eye" because he was active during the night and spied on his victims while they were sleeping. The only thing you could see in the dark was his yellow eyes, just like an animal. Therefore the name.
"Hello" said James with a very dark voice and sat down across us. "My name is James Atom and I'll be your mentor this year. I would like to talk to you two alone, Flower do you mind?"
"Of course not, darling" answered Flower. "I will just go and get my hat polished." She tiptoed away through an automatic door.
James turned to us and sighed. "First of all I have to say that I'm really sorry for what happened to you two. If I could change it I would, but I'm not President Snow."
Alec nodded but I didn't do anything, I was too paralyzed to really understand anything that happened, I just looked at James. After the reaping I went into a stage of shock. I couldn't understand that this was really happening. That soon, in just a couple of weeks I would be dead.
"When we get to the capitol tomorrow you will meet with your personal prep-team and then there's the tribute parade. You're free to do almost whatever you want to on this train, but I suggest that you rest as much as you can because believe me, you will need it. If you come with me I will show you to your rooms."
James got up and waited for us to do the same. Alec and I got up to and followed him through an automatic door, through a long hallway and into an empty space. In that empty space there was a number of doors around on the walls. They were marked with 1,2,3 and so on.
"Alec, your room is number two and Ginny, your room is number three" said James. "Everything you will need is in there, but you can wander around almost anywhere."
"Okay" said Alec quiet and walked in to his room.
"Thank you" I said.
"Anytime" said James smiling. Then he walked towards door one, went in and closed the door behind him.
I slowly opened the door to room number three and walked in. The first thing I noticed was the giant bed. It looked very modern and the sheets and pillows was of black satin, the two small tables on each side of the bed looked just as modern. The walls were white with a slight hint of very light blue. There was a big, white wardrobe at the end of the room. Beside there was another door. When I went in there I realized that it was a bathroom.
Everything that I could see was either white as snow or golden, though it was most of the details and finishing touches that were of gold, like all the edges of the shower, the sink and patterns in the walls.
Honestly, nothing I could think about helped me to feel calmer, so I decided to take a shower to wash of my makeup that probably looked like a real mess by know and to at least try to calm down.
It didn't work. At all… I tried to sing the song my father always sang to me when I was to go to bed in the night, but my voice cracked too much for it to work.
James told us to rest as much as we could, it seemed like a good idea. Maybe I could wake up late and realize that it was all just a really, really, really bad dream. But when I of course got nightmares when I eventually managed to fall asleep it all seemed hopeless.
In the dream I screamed and screamed out of pure pain. Now I can't even remember why I was screaming or why I felt the pain. It was just there. Like a thousands of knife stabs on my body, only a hundred times worse. Somewhere far away I heard someone scream my name. It was a boy. Then I woke up and realized that I had been screaming for real, in my sleep. The boy who'd been screaming my name to get me to wake up was Alec. Now he was sitting on the knees, facing me and I guess that he'd been shaking my shoulders because they were placed on them. Around him, a lot of avoxes were standing, looking worried.
"Ginny" he said. "It's okay, it was just a dream. You're okay now." I placed my hands over my face and started to sob. Alec told the avoxes to leave so they did. Then sat down next to me on the bed and drew me into his arms and embraced me soothingly. He shushed quietly to me and leaned his cheek on my head.
Normally I would have been embarrassed, but now I was just happy he was there, and honestly how come this guy was an outsider? He was an amazing person.
When I finally took away my hands and just leaned into him a felt that same tingle in my stomach again. Alec released me and walked into the bathroom, then came back with a glass of water.
"Thanks" I said weakly when he gave it to me. I emptied the entire glass in almost one sip.
"Are you alright now?" asked Alec. I nodded. "Okay, I'll see you tomorrow." He gave me one quick tap on the shoulder before he walked out.
I spent the rest of the day wandering around in the train. During the evening I surprisingly got hungry when I tried to rest again. First then I noticed two different remotes. One was for food, so when I turned it on it showed a menu. Eventually I chose chicken-meatloaf with rice and some kind of creamy mushroom sauce. Then it just appeared warm and ready to eat. Even though I was really hungry I couldn't get much down so I put it aside.
After that I went to bed, dreamed nightmares again and when I woke up with a stomach that was growling like crazy, I chose the same kind of food again and ate everything very quickly. Then I fell asleep faster than I had done in days.
I was running through the forest in the arena. The mutts were after me. I could hear them running and growling after me. But no matter how fast I ran I never got away and the way just got harder and harder to get past. Then they were suddenly surrounding me. Giant beasts with claws and teeth like knifes and glowing red eyes. I didn't know how or when but suddenly they had knocked me down and were growling me in the face and a large piece of drool ran down on my face. Its breath was horrible. A scream echoed through the arena and I realized that it was my own, when the mutts started to eat me alive. I screamed and screamed and screamed until…
I woke up! I could barley catch my breath and realized that was lying on the floor, I must have rolled over and fallen out of bed and that's what woke me up. Outside the sun was steaming in so I guessed that it was morning. When I got on the train decided to refuse the capitol clothes so took on my reaping dress. My hair looked like a mess so quickly combed it with my fingers and putted it a high ponytail. Then I went out to the room we were in when we first met James.
James, Flower and Alec were all sitting at a table full of breakfast. Toast, cereal, jam, marmalade, milk, juice, coffee, hot chocolate, butter and ten different kinds of applications.
"Good morning, Ginny" said James when he saw me enter. "Sit." He pointed towards an empty chair beside Alec. He smiled and pulled it out for me. I smiled back when I sat down, but I didn't eat anything. Alec was already drinking a cup of tea and eating and big bowl of cereal.
"Ginny, you have to eat something" said James kindly. "It'll be a very long day, the prep team and the tribute parade."
"We will be arriving in half an hour so you should get started" said Flower. Alec poured a cup of hot chocolate to me. "Here" he said. I only drank from it to be polite, but when I did start the hunger slowly crept up on me so started to eat a piece of toast.
"Rise and shine kids!" called Flower. "We have arrived!"
To be continued in "Preparations". It'll probably be posted in a couple of days if nothing gets in my way of writing. I would really appreciate if you reviewed. It would help me to become a better writer if I could hear/read ;) your thoughts. Thank you!