"Who are you?" I demanded rudely, walking into the apartment. A petite girl with striking magenta hair stood in the middle of the room. She was young, about my own age, and as I surveyed her I almost felt a bit sorry for her. I wondered what she had done to get stuck with me. Despite looking nervous she gave me a small smile that seemed genuine.
"I'm Raven Isebeline," she replied openly. "I'm here to help you adjust to the Capitol."
I sniffed contemptuously and stalked passed her, surveying the apartment critically. Pretending to inspect the view out the enormous window I secretly studied her in the reflection. She was almost exactly my height and build, though somehow I doubted her slimness came from years of relentless training like mine. I'd never seen anyone with hair the deep magenta of hers before, and unlike everyone else in this place it actually looked good on her. The striking colour complemented her smooth, olive skin and surprisingly soft, black eyes. Perhaps it also had something to do with the fact that apart from her hair colour, she carried no other signs of being a Capitolan. Her features looked young and fresh, free from the burden of makeup and plastic surgery, and she wore only a simple black fitted dress with long sleeves. The only jewellery she wore were a pair of dainty pearls in her ears which, as I watched, she fiddled with nervously. To people from the Capitol she probably looked as good as naked, but even those tiny pearls caught my attention as being far more extravagant than anything I'd seen growing up. When I turned back to her I gave a cool smile and was rewarded with a nervous flutter of her eyes as she glanced away. She might be young but she was scared of me, so she couldn't be all bad.
"So what does this adjustment involve?" I asked as I moved forward, watching her eyes widen as I bore down upon her then brushed past roughly as I headed to the bedroom. My brief inspection of the apartment had shown me several rooms not that different to the District 2 Suite I'd stayed in prior to my Games. It was simply smaller. One bedroom stretched off the main room and a bathroom from that. A section of the main room marked off by sleek black benches seemed to me to be the nearest thing to a kitchen, but without further inspection I couldn't identify any appliances or stoves...not even a sink. Knowing the Capitol it would be there, cleverly disguised as something completely unnecessary. To my relief that seemed to be all there was of the apartment. I had been slightly apprehensive of what being a Victor would actually mean but although this was still completely foreign to me, I found that it was easier to get used to than before. Maybe it would get easier each time. Raven followed me through the tall doorway into the bedroom and hovered there as I marched to my bag. I didn't actually need anything but I felt far more in control if she was scurrying after me.
"Well," she began, wringing her hands restlessly. "I'll help you know where to go and what to do, and make sure you get everywhere on time and..." she trailed off, seeming unsure of the next part of her sentence. I thought of how President Snow had looked at me the night of my Victor's party and knew what the rest of her words had been going to be. I turned to her, abandoning my useless rummaging.
"You're here to keep me out of trouble." She nodded glumly at the tone of amusement in my voice. It was amusing. This little girl, no more than my own seventeen years surely, couldn't possibly hope to stand up to me, could she? What were the Capitol people thinking, placing a slip of a thing with one of the fiercest Victors? Again I felt a twinge of pity for her. "What on earth did you do to get landed with that job?" My tone was kinder than before, even though I hadn't necessarily intended it to be, and she seemed to pick up on this, her head flying up and her eyes meeting mine. She gave another small smile of appreciation and shrugged.
"Perhaps all the others were too scared." It took me a moment to realise that she was in fact joking with me, and I started, shocked that she had the courage, despite the way she was still playing with her pearls. The best thing was that perhaps there was actually some truth to her words. I smiled, liking the idea that the old phonies of the Capitol had been too intimidated to deal every day with a seventeen year old girl.
"Perhaps..." I said, swishing passed her in the doorway again and marching back into the main room. I stood in the middle of the vast, barren space and realised that I actually had no idea what to do. At home I would have been training, hiking, foraging in the woods, attempting to cook or clean our decrepit old house, but here I doubted I could do any of those things. Perhaps if I could get my hands on some knives they would let me practice. Raven seemed to sense my hesitation and for the first time seemed to take control. She strode towards me and swung the front door open with a new air of assurance.
"First stop, your prep team."
Unable to help myself I groaned, seeing her give a grin at the sound. Subconsciously I trailed my fingers through my hair, which possibly hadn't been brushed in several days. My fingers snagged on knots so bad I just knew they were going to have to cut them out. I had no desire to return to the torture that was my prep team but my experience from after my victory told me that simply because I had walked out of the Arena, didn't mean the Capitol would let me out without a severe treatment first. I could refuse to go, but they would probably just come here and tie me down while they did whatever it was they wanted. I threw another look around the apartment, suddenly thinking that its solitary spaces possibly didn't look so bad after all, and then reluctantly followed Raven out of the building.
Raven, it seemed, was tasked with staying by my side almost every moment of my time in the Capitol. She led me from building to building, always hovering nearby while I was forced to do whatever it was the Capitol people wanted from me. I hadn't known what to expect but I couldn't say the experience was a pleasant surprise. If I had thought the interview after my victory was bad then the dozens that followed were worse, mostly because the interviewers were far more tactless than even Caesar had been, and because I didn't have Domitius' familiar face to look to in the audience when my heartbeat began to pick up in panic. Everywhere I went people kept touching me, and several times I heard startled yelps as I lashed out, almost absent-mindedly striking out at the fingertips that landed on my skin.
When I returned to my apartment on the evening of the first day I was already deathly exhausted and desperate to return home. How was it that I could hike through the wilderness from sunrise to sunset without tiring, and yet a day of scowling at the crowds around me and pulling myself from reaching hands left me almost unable to stand? To my annoyance Raven followed me into the apartment, ignoring the way I tried to shut the door in her face. She was persistent, I'd give her that.
"You have a Ball tomorrow evening-" she said mechanically and I turned to see her reading to me from a small tablet in her hand. My exhaustion made any patience I had set aside for Raven disappear and I stormed towards her, pushing her roughly towards the door. She almost dropped the object in her hand in surprise as I dug my fingers into her arm and bared my teeth. I saw fear flicker in her wide eyes and it gave me the strength I had needed all day.
Playfully I snapped out at her as I shoved her through the door, slamming it shut in her face. Suddenly on my own for the first time that day I exhaled slowly and leant my back against the door, sliding down onto my knees. The beautiful silence pressed in against me and I closed my eyes, counting twenty slow heartbeats before dragging myself back to my feet and making my way to the bedroom. The wall length glass window from the main room extended in here and I collapsed onto the edge of the bed and gazed out over the Capitol landscape before me. A million different coloured lights glittered in the sea of black and on the horizon a pale moon was beginning to rise.
I wasn't sure how long I could do this; the talking, the questions, the touching, the clothes. I was hardly left alone all day and the constant blur of colours and patterns hurt my head. I pressed my fingertips to my temple and willed the aching away, trying to remember why I was here. Clove. It all came down to her, didn't it? Snow's words still slithered into my head at the slightest questioning of what I was doing and, every time, I knew within a second that I would do it over and over again, no matter how much I hated it, as long as his threat hung over her head. The Capitol had made me their property and there was nothing I could do about it.
A small cough pulled me from a dream of Raziel's silent accusations and I sat bolt upright, frantically looking around at the unfamiliar room. It took me a few moments to place the enormous glass wall and the pale blue velvet cover of the bed beneath me. It took me even longer to place the hesitant black eyes that were looking at me.
"Good morning," Raven remarked, taking a step back that told me she wasn't sure what my reaction would be to being woken. I blinked blearily at her, my confusion making my reflexes slow, and then looked around. I was still wearing the clothes I had been in last night and realised from my position that I must have fallen asleep where I sat on the bed. I didn't remember falling asleep but the sunlight streaming through the glass before me told me I must have. My hand lifted to my head as the aching from last night returned.
"What time is it?" I asked Raven, my voice dry and raspy.
She quickly looked at something on her wrist and then back to me, seeming unwilling to take her eyes from me for too long. Maybe after my little display last night she thought that I was so unstable I would unexpectedly lash out at her at any point. If I had had more energy I would have, just to make sure her fear of me stayed firmly in place, but I just climbed wearily to my feet.
"It's almost eight," she replied, stepping backwards with every step I took forwards. To her chest she clutched the sleek black tablet I had seen her using last night, and she clung to it as if it was a lifeline. "You- you need to be at the Remake Centre in fifteen minutes," she fluttered. I ignored her and moved to the kitchen, beginning a hunt for a glass or a cup. After studying the black surfaces for a moment I decided to try touching the nearest cabinet next to me, not really expecting it to open. Nothing happened. I frowned at the annoying kitchen and went to reach for another, stopping when Raven moved up next to me, pressing neatly on one corner causing a hidden door to pop open. Without thanking her I pulled a cup from the shelf and turned, looking for a source of water. "That surface over there is a sink," said a soft voice in my ear and once again I ignored her, striding across the space and following her prompt to find sparkling, chilled water flood from a hidden tap. I drank two cups full before turning back to her.
"Why do I need to go to the Remake Centre?" I asked. "I was there yesterday."
Her eyes fluttered to the tablet again but I suspected it was purely reflexive. Maybe that tablet was for her what my knives were for me. Despite myself I found being in Raven's presence easier than most of the other Capitolians. Probably if she had appeared in District 2, I would have found her unbearable, but compared to the chaos of the rest of the people here she was relatively pleasant. Today she wore a flawless cream dress that reached to just above her knees and clung to her figure in a way that was beautiful without being too revealing. Just like all the women of the Capitol she wore tall heels, and as always I found myself gazing at them, wondering how they could possibly function in them every day. I had worn them twice- once for my interview and one for my Victory party- and both times I had found them completely unbearable.
She cleared her throat nervously again and I lifted my eyes from her shoes to see her playing with her earrings again. They were exactly the same simple pearls she had word yesterday. "The President wanted to meet you at the Remake Centre," she replied, clearly unsure of her own words.
I suppressed a shudder at the mention of the man who had commanded me here. I had no desire to see him again so soon and I couldn't comprehend why he would want to see me. A moment of panic fluttered in my heart as I wondered if I had done something to warrant his anger. Would he take it out on Clove? Quickly I ran through my previous day in the Capitol, desperately trying to think of anything that could require he meet with me. Raven seemed to share my reluctance to see the President because when I focused on her again she seemed even more nervous. I glanced at her tablet. "Did he...did he say why?" I enquired, trying to sound indifferent. She shook her head and then glanced pointedly at her wrist, which I supposed meant we were already going to be late.
I dropped my cup onto the spotless counter with a loud clunk, enjoying the way water splashed onto the floor and how it made Raven jump slightly, and nodded. "Okay."
I was more nervous than I thought I would be as we walked through the sliding silver doors to the Remake Centre. I knew that the man who had made my skin crawl like no other could, was probably waiting for me within these walls and I had no idea what he was going to say. My dread was that he was going to inform me in that cool voice of his that I had done something terribly wrong, and that Clove was going to pay because of it. For all I knew his men were already in District 2. I pushed that thought aside as I followed Raven into a long glass corridor that led to formal looking offices. Thinking thoughts like that was only going to send me insane. I glanced to my left and saw the wall of glass sealed out a structured garden. Despite its painful neatness it was the closest thing to nature I'd seen since arriving in the Capitol and I longed to escape into it. How cruel to build walls of glass so you could see what was on the other side but were never able to reach it. As I followed Raven through a door, blocking the garden from sight, I thought that it must be something of President Snow's design. He loved illusions of freedom.
He was standing by a small bookcase as we entered the room, and turned to regard me with cool eyes. I held his gaze, determined to face whatever it was head on. After a moment his eyes moved to Raven and she dropped her head respectfully.
"You're late," he snapped and I felt her flinch next to me.
"It was my fault," I replied before I knew what I was doing. As he looked back at me I thought how stupid it had been to let those words escape my mouth. Why was I defending Raven? And I hardly wanted to risk angering him towards me anymore.
He regarded me sternly for a few moments and then placed what he had been holding back onto the opaque class shelf of the bookcase. His fingers pulled away and I saw to my horror that he had been holding a skull. It looked real, not plastic, and it was far too small to be an adult's. I hid my shudder by flicking my hair out of my eyes with a haughty shrug and waited for him to say something. He sauntered around the far side of a desk and gracefully took a seat, motioning for me to do the same. I threw a glance at Raven as she backed up towards the door before moving forward and carefully lowering myself into the seat opposite his.
The door didn't open so I guessed Raven was standing invisibly by it, trying not to be seen or heard. She seemed to hold more than the usual respect for her President. All Capitolians appeared to love this man, and owed him the respect that love deserved, but she seemed to have a healthy amount of fear mixed in. I didn't get the chance to ponder this further as the President placed his elbows on the table, interlocking his fingers, and regarding me over them.
"Miss Reyes," he said with a small smile that didn't reach his eyes. I didn't respond to his non-question but held his gaze defiantly. Suddenly his whole expression changed and he lost the stern mask. He seemed to soften and I felt myself start with alarm that he could change so dramatically so quickly. He had gone from looking like a murderer observing his latest victim, to the kind and grandfatherly persona I knew the Capitolians loved. The change made me even more wary.
"As you know we very much loved your Victory, my dear," he continued, appearing to ignore my silence. "The Doctors and I were thinking that perhaps you should have a reminder of your victory." He gave me another smile, revealing perfect, even teeth, and motioned with his hand to a piece of paper on the desk before him that I hadn't seen before. I followed his motion and saw with shock a sketch of myself. It was quite a neat sketch, in thin charcoal lines and without smudges. Briefly I wondered why he used a sketch and not a photograph, and then I saw the alteration to the almost spitting image of myself. Two teeth revealed themselves as the figure on the paper bared her teeth, their edges gleaming wickedly. I looked back at him in confusion, which he seemed to anticipate, because he smiled again and placed a hand on the drawing. "I know how you appreciate plain speak, Enobaria," he said. I shuddered at the familiar use of my name by this man who had threatened me so openly last time we spoke. "We would like to alter your appearance slightly, as in this drawing."
I looked back at the picture, my mind processing his words. He wanted to make me into that? It wasn't enough that he could control where I lived and what I did? Now he wanted to change how I looked? Before I could think of the consequences I shook my head. "I can't."
Again, he seemed to anticipate my response because he rose from his chair and moved silently around the desk towards me, leaning on the edge so near to me that the edge of his jacket brushed my hand. I moved it back and tucked it under my other arm. The sickly smell of roses and blood reached me as he moved and I had to resist the urge to turn away.
"We are not in the habit of making requests, Enobaria," he said smoothly. Why did he keep using the term 'we'? Who exactly were these people dictating my life? Or was it simply the President's way of dispersing the blame among a faceless group of Capitolians? I swallowed the lump in my throat and glanced down at my hands again. The coldness in his voice had returned and I knew that I did not have a choice in the matter. I could resist, I could protest, but Clove would pay for my pride. Slowly, hating every movement I made, I gave a small, curt nod.
He seemed pleased with my response, clasping his hands together triumphantly and rising into a fully standing position. "Excellent," he declared, already looking over my head. "I've been informed the procedure is quite simple. It can be done this morning and you'll be ready for the ball this very evening." My head flew up at that. Today? I had hoped for time to figure out a way out of this. But before I could say anything more he had placed a hand on my shoulder in a quick touch that was meant to appear affectionate, but I knew was really a reminder, and walked from the room. I stared ahead of me in silent shock as I heard Raven hurriedly open the door for him, scurrying backwards. There was a soft murmur but I couldn't hear the words he said to her, or her reply if there was one.
When I, too, rose to my feet and turned to face her, her face was pale and her expression tense. I imagined I looked somewhat similar and it was slightly comforting to know that I was not alone in my unpleasant experience with the President. "They're waiting for you," she said in a soft voice that shook slightly, motioning me down the corridor. I nodded again and then pulled all my courage and defiance up through my body, straightening my back and lifting my head. President Snow may be able to tell me what to do, but I was damned if any of these Capitol people were going to see me cower before them. I managed to produce a grim smile. "These Doctors don't know what they're in for," I said in a stronger voice than I felt, and saw Raven give me another one of her small smiles.