Chapter four: something to be proud of.
(warning cursing is in this chapter)
I wake up with a jolt, more nightmares, all off the games. I look at the time, it's 1:11 not the time I would choose to wake up but I'm awake now so I may as well do something. I go to the door and pull it back, it doesn't open. I punch the door as I remember that they locked the door on me. Guess it's my own fault; I did throw a butter knife at my district partner. I feel warm so I strip of to just my underwear until I wake up. Once again the nightmares return, wake up to someone shaking me. I wake up to see Hazel shaking me.
"Damien you were screaming, are you ok?" She asks looking me up and down like something could be wrong with me.
"I was screaming?" I ask shocked. I never used to scream when I had nightmares, I would always stay silent. I should know a pin drop wakes my sister.
"Yeah but I only knew when I walked in here, these walls are thick." Hazel then lets me go as I fall back on to the bed. "Luna is already up and talking strategy, you should watch out for that girl." Hazel gets up and walks to the edge of the room. "She may just be your downfall."
I get up from my bed and walk over to my wardrobe. I pull on a pair of black shorts and walk out to the food car. Luna looks me up and down in utter shock, I shrug and carry on walking until I get to my seat.
"Hazel." I say as my mentor sits down. "What did you mean about strategy? How can you apply strategy at a time like this."
Hazel nearly bursts into laughter. "In more places than you think young Damien. Like, do you have any skills you may want to hide?"
I shrug. "I never really thought about it, I'm fast I'm really good at acrobatics and stuff like that."
A grin creeps across Hazel's face. "Then you now have a fighting chance."
Hazel doesn't say anything else to me; she just gets up and walks away. I eat in silence as I listen to Luna and her mentor talk to each other; if I know what she will do it will be easier to kill her. I take note as Luna says she plans to avoid the blood bath until the killing is done then get what she needs then. I bite into a muffin to hide my smirk. I'll get my full revenge for the other day then. I'm not usually like this but may as well get used to it, I will be a killer in a few days may as well start thinking like one. I continue to eat breakfast; it consists of mostly pancakes, scrambled egg, orange juice and muffins.
"Alright kids we'll be in the capitol soon and-" Angel catches sight of my shirtless mid speech. "Going for the female sponsors already I see."
I play it off cool and smirk followed quickly by a shrug. Luna then re-acts by glaring at me with a look that can only be described as to say. 'I'm going to kill you the first chance I get.'
"Well as I was saying." The escort continues. "You must look ready for the arena; the sponsor will be watching you from the moment you leave. I should know I was one until six years ago." It's true who better to learn about sponsors than someone who was one herself not so long ago.
Suddenly the train car goes black, it takes a moment for the lights to flicker on. I guess were almost in the capitol. I stand up and walk over to a seat isolated by a window, I prefer to be alone. I look out of the window into the blackness, I can tell we're moving though it is calming me down a lot knowing that we're still moving. I hate being still really, it's annoying and I hate it being still, I need to be moving it's what I've been taught since I was young. I don't want to let that go now.
Suddenly I'm blinded by light. I wince and cover my eyes for a moment, what was that! I remove my hands from my eyes slowly, I can hear screams and cheers from somewhere. When I remove my hands fully I see the huge capitol crowds. They look very odd so many different coloured and styled hairs, weird make up and worst of all what the hell are they wearing! I see a man and woman who look like they belong in the 102nd games. They look like some of the mutts from those games. I stand up in front of the huge window and wave to the crowds, many of the girls around my age start squealing like mad. I see a sea of flashing cameras I'm nearly blinded, I don't let it show though. I decide to play with the hearts of the teenage girls in the capitol, I blow a kiss into the crowd and I hear the squealing get worse. I then walk away to the other end of the car and open the door, I jump back when I see Hazel standing there laughing.
"Good job tree boy." She carries on laughing and smacks her knee with her hand once. "You'll have those girls killing each other to sponsor you!"
I laugh along with her for a moment. "Well as long as they're killing too who cares?" Hazel laughs harder as the train pulls into a stop.
Hazel slowly stops laughing and regains her serious look. "So are you going to stay shirtless or so you want me to call someone to bring you one?"
I shake my head; I had forgotten I was shirtless. "No, putting a shirt on would just waste time and this way the girls know what they're sponsoring." I say doing a fake muscle flex I've seen many 'manly' victors do.
Hazel goes hysterical, I can understand why I hardly have any muscle in my arms to show off. We walk to the door to meet Angel, Luna isn't there yet thankfully. I spoke too soon. The door to the train car on the other side opens and Emily and Luna walk out. When Luna looks at me I clench my fists, I hate this girl now she may as well be a career in the way she acts. I look her up and down and see she is clenching her fists as well. I guess she's thinking the same of me.
"Hey, no killing each other yet." Emily says with a wink.
Me and Luna look away from each other as the doors of the train car open. Once again I'm nearly blinded by the cameras but I'm also nearly deafened by the screams as we are led though the train station. I try to ignore the capitol the best that I can but it doesn't work, the yelling goes to me head it shakes my mind it feels like something screaming in my ear.
'Go on.' Something whispers in my head 'Tell them to shut up, you know you can. So why don't you.'
My eyes widen with fear as I sprint towards the waiting car, a shocked avox opens the door and I go straight to the back of the car shaking. What was that?! That voice in my head then that wasn't me thinking at all, WHAT WAS IT!
Angel bursts into the car. "WHAT WAS THAT THEN!" She yells, her voice seems to shake the car. "YOU HAD THEM EATING OUT OF YOUR HAND!" Her yelling seems to go on, and on, and on.
'Are you going to take that from her?' The voice returns to my mind. ' Are you going to take that from a POSH, CAPITOL BRED BITCH!'
"Shut up!" I yell, I don't know who I was yelling it at though, the voice in my head or Angel.
Angel lets out what sounds like a high pitched squeak and backs off from me. "I-I"
"I'm sorry Angel" I say sadly, you can hear the regret in my voice. "I don't know where that came from."
At this point Angel has started to cry. "Its fine many people re act in different ways to being here, I guess you don't like the attention."
She called a person, not a tribute… I know feel more than guilty about what I had done to Angel, she's not like most Capitol people. She has emotion, much more emotion than I though was possible from people like her.
We spend the rest of the time in silence, actually no we don't. Angel explains we will be spending the rest of the day with our stylists. As they have hired all new stylists this year as the ones from last year were starting to get insufficient it had been decided to have newer stylists to get the job done. I look at the black window trying to pass the time, Emily and Luna have started talking again with Hazel butting in now and again to remind Emily of certain rules that tributes must follow.
"Damien." Hazel says shaking my arm. "You need to take that necklace off."
I raise an eyebrow, what necklace? I reach up to where my neck is and I feel it, my dad's old hunting necklace. I had it gave to me when I was ten, it hasn't left my neck since. Most of the time I forget its even there. I gingerly take it off and hand it over to Hazel, every part of me screams for me to keep it on though. It isn't much, just a rope necklace with a few wolves' teeth on. My dad had the job of protecting those who went into the dangerous parts of the orchard, people trusted him with their lives daily. He was a brave and skilled man, if he had wanted to he could've volunteered at eighteen and took the games by storm. I had heard that once he took at a flock of hawk mutts at once, I'm proud to be his son even if I will never see him. Once the necklace is out of my grip it feels like the last little part of my dad is gone.
"You'll probably have it back." Hazel says trying to reassure me like she knows how important this is to me. "Once they confirm there's no poison on anything in it they'll let you have it back, they don't care if its sharp if you use it as a weapon the head game maker will personally take care of you."
I sigh; I've seen what happens to those who break the few rules of the games. Let's just say it is anything but pretty…
"We're here." Angel says perkily, has she really managed to recover like that already.
Two avoxs open the doors on both sides, we seem to be in a building now. I look back to see a tunnel with no sign of light in it, long tunnel. Me and Luna get out of opposite sides, we both have a full squadron of peacekeepers to escort us where ever we're going.
"We'll see you after the parade." Hazel says first.
"You're going to meet your prep team and your stylist." Angel continues on.
"Let them do whatever they want to you within reason, if you think they're doing something that they shouldn't ask them to stop or change what they're doing. Don't make it sound like you're complaining." Emily says and turns around. "And whatever you do don't make it sound like you're noticing the pain, especially for you Damien. All of the other boys will be in rooms by yours, if you scream they'll know about it."
Me and Luna both nod and we're escorted away. We are walked down hallways for a while, I guess it is so intricate to stop tributes from even trying to run off. Even if they managed to get back to the tunnel they'd be too tired from running all around the place. They'd probably collapse before they made it to the tunnel. I'm escorted to a small room with a bed and three strange looking people. They all turn around with excited faces, like children when they walk into a sweet shop. The first on them I notice is a tall woman who seems fairly tanned with bright pink hair, she doesn't seems to be the boss of the situation, the other two in the room don't seem to rushing around doing things.
"I'm Erika!" The woman with the rainbow hair introduces herself. "This" She says tapping a man on the shoulder who also has rainbow coloured hair. "Is my second in command, Kyle." She finish as the man turns around, he's much shorter than I am. I shrug as the man shakes my hand. "And this fellow right here is Daniel, he and Kyle are well." Both men blush, I grit my teeth. Oh great I'll have two gay men tending to how I look, shoot the fireworks now.
Once my stylists are done I'm in great pain, they've done very odd things but my skin feels raw. My hair has been cut in a way I hate, it is short and spiked up showing where I had acne, there are a lot of scars up there. I look in the mirror, I feel like I've had every bit of my humanity stripped away from me. I go to put my robe on when I notice both of the boys staring at me. I do up , my robe tightly and sit down . I listen to Erika laugh as she leaves the room.
"God, that wasn't fun." I mumble, I felt quite uncomfortable then but really most people would. I heard a lot of guys screaming in pain. I assume they didn't handle it as well as I did.
Suddenly a woman walk in through the door, she is wearing a long rainbow coloured dress that seems to sparkle. She has long golden flowing hair that flows down her back with deep blue eyes. She has an aura about her that seems to fill the room from everything in the room.
"Have I got a surprise for you," She says her heels from her shoes clipping against the floor.
"You'll be something to be proud of."
