"Lavinia, this is Darryl." Commander places his hand on the boy's shoulder, nodding at me.
The boy flashes me a winning smile, rare in Hidden Stairs. His sandy blonde hair is streaked with dirt and blood. He's tall, taller than me, and bright eyed. He has a certain glow about him, radiance. I'm wary about him immediately. He looks around the same age as I, eighteen.
Ignoring my obvious discontent, Commander continues. "Darryl is a new recruit fresh out of training, ready to join you on your next trip. You will see that he is very able and will be of great partnership to you on this mission. He completed training at the top of his class."
Darryl grins at me again and sticks out his hand. I follow the gesture, reluctantly, and we shake hands, me glaring. Darryl looks amused. "Hey ginger snap, lighten up!" I pull my hand back immediately as though it has been burned. "Lighten up, huh? You want me to lighten up? Do you know what this mission means? Do you know what happened to my last partner? Ripped to shreds by Capitol hounds. I was lucky to escape, but not after seeing the whole bloody mess unfold before my eyes! If you don't want to take this seriously than I would appreciate if you left!" I jab my finger at the exit, the staircase at the back of the room, leading up to the main floor of Lawrie's Candy Emporium.
Darryl purses his lips, speechless. His radiance has faltered, but only for a second. "Sorry, carrot top, didn't mean to get your panties in a bunch!"
I raise my eyebrows, prepared to tirade again, but Commander gives me a look. "Lavinia, quiet down! If someone hears you we're all going to be ripped apart by Capitol dogs or worse" he whispers, eying the staircase. I take a deep breath and stare at the ground, feeling Darryl's eyes burning into my hair.
Commander continues. "Lavinia, if you feel that the impact of Sarah's death will deter you from completing this mission, I will find someone else to go instead."
I shake my head, gory images of the dogs attacking Sarah racing through my mind. "I'm ready, Commander. I'm sorry for my outburst."
Commander turns to Darryl. "Darryl, you must understand that this is an important matter. This mission will not be easy nor will it be fun. Your fate does not rest in my hands. I will not guarantee either of you making it out alive. Lavinia is right in the sense that this is no laughing matter. You are replacing a girl who was brutally murdered by Capitol mutations on a mission very similar to this one. Knowing this, I'm sure that you are rethinking the comments you recently made."
Wise-cracking Darryl has gone silent, staring at his shoes, nodding. For a moment, there is silence, except for the occasional thumps of candy bags hitting the floor and loud laughing from the Capitol citizens upstairs. Commander gives a curt nod, satisfied. "You will set off at closing time, when the store is empty."
…
I had always known the Capitol as a lively place filled with lights, color, and extravagance. When I had lived there as a child, I would marvel at the beautiful lights show they would put on every Christmas that I would watch with my parents and my sister. The Hunger Games were the best. Fireworks would set off every night and there would be free food on every corner to celebrate. I remember sitting on my father's lap in our mansion watching the Games from our private movie theater, a must for any avid Hunger Games fan, with our Avoxes waiting on us hand and foot.
It sickens me now.
But this was not the Capitol I had grown up with. It was hidden away, a stone building in a lonely desert under the Capitol's midair train tracks, windows cracking, walls caving in. The Peacekeepers are lifting me to my feet once we land. They had bound my legs and arms and gagged me while I was asleep. I was in no position to resist. But I am relieved to find the effects of whatever they have drugged me with have worn off, and I can feel my body again, although I can't use it.
The worst part, I think, is waking up and realizing that the memory of Darryl had only been a dream, and that I wasn't dead, but very well alive, and about to be tortured and turned into an Avox. I would do anything be called ginger snap and carrot top again if it meant that Darryl wasn't dead.
No, no that wasn't right- it's better that Darryl is dead. It means that no more pain will come to him. It means he won't get tortured and sucked away of his free will. But I can't help but feel an aching pain for the boy I thought I should not have missed.
As a last resort, I try to scream through my gag, but it's a hopeless attempt, and it only comes out as a muffled murmur. The Peacekeeper to my right stifles a laugh. I would do anything to not be gagged so I could spit on his finely polished shield goggles.
I drag my feet of the ground, but the Peacekeepers have no trouble dragging me across the rubbly sand. Clever, really, putting this building directly under the train tracks. No one looking out the window of a train or a plane could see us. We were completely hidden from the world. The Peacekeepers drag me to the door of the stone building and the one on my left whips out a key from his pocket. He jangles the key into the lock and the door swings open.
As soon as the door opens, I hear the screams. Horrible, animal-like screams. The room is simply a long hallway with doors on either side. I cringe as I hear the scream of what seems like a young girl ring through the hallway, only to be suddenly cut off. The sound echoes throughout the room. This is where they are going to torture me, cut out my tongue, and make me a slave. Maybe I'll get lucky and things will go a little too far and they'll kill me. I can only hope. A female voice sounds from behind me. "Room 617, Bernard. Get her set up and we'll take it from there. The Peacekeeper to my right nods, and they drag me at a swifter pace.
We stop at a door near the end of the room and the Peacekeeper, supposedly named Bernard, raps on it. A few seconds pass and it swings open. Two Peacekeepers escort a young man, dripping wet with half of his hair burned off, out of the room. The boy looks up at me and we make eye contact. He gives me a sympathetic look- don't speak, he mouths, and in a mere second we have crossed paths. We enter a room that's seemingly empty except for a large glace case with what looks like a rubber chair inside of it. Next to the case is a large grey metal box on a stand decorated with an array of buttons. The Peacekeepers drag me to the case and, with another key from his pocket, Bernard opens it. They push me down onto the chair. I try to stand again, fighting the weight of their hands on my shoulder, when suddenly the other Peacekeeper presses a button on the chair and two leathery bands spring out from either arm, attaching together and tightening themselves so I am strapped to the chair. I notice water droplets on the inside of the case and that the chair is damp.
Bernard reaches inside my mouth and removes my gag. As soon as it's out, I'm screaming for help, but my attempts are obviously futile. I begin to think about my family, the ones I had left behind, the ones who are still desperately searching for me, when a tall blonde woman wearing a grey suit enters the room, holding a clipboard. She nods at the Peacekeepers and they exit the room, slamming the door behind them. The lady struts over to where I am strapped to the chair, screaming.
The chill of her voice cuts my screams short.
"Lavinia Jones. We have some questions for you."
