It's a Cruel World
Striding through the corridors of the Head Centre, a large crystalline building next to the Training Centre, is Varys Norbert. His dark blond hair combed and perfectly trimmed, his pinstriped suit crisp, his squeaky black shoes polished. Everything about him is precise and on spot.
But his timing is not on spot today.
He couldn't believe he's missing out on the live recordings of the Reapings, but after President Thorns' visit to his office, he is in a hurry. He has to tell the Head Mutation Gamemaker, Lacey Hammond.
The envelope sits in his hand; the touch of it is as cold as the twist inside it.
Briskly slamming the door open to Lacey's private office, Varys comes face to face with the horrendous, scarred face of the Head Mutation Gamemaker.
Perched behind the gigantic desk—which is currently covered with sheets of paper—is Lacey Hammond. She is entirely focused on her drawing that she jumps in a slight surprise at the loud thud of the door slamming against the white walls. She sharply looks up, and Varys tries very hard to conceal the total look of disgust on his face as his eyes falls onto the jarred and grotesque scar running across her forehead, over her left blind eye and down her cheek. She would be pretty if it isn't for the scar deforming her tan face.
Lacey ignores Varys' stares as she pushes her chair back, the scraping sound of it echoing through the messy room. Her dyed pink hair is pulled up into a ponytail as usual, and she is still dressed in her white coat from the science lab. "Is there something, Varys?" she asks urgently, always eager to help.
Varys reluctantly raises the envelope and sarcastically wags it in the air like it contains prize money. "The lovely President has given us another task to do," he sarcastically says. He trusts sweet, little Lacey with his heart, so when he's only with her he says the truth and doesn't have to worry about her rushing off to report his backstabbing to Thorns. Despite his trust for her, he still doesn't consider her a friend, because he refuses to have friends.
Lacey's hazel eye fall onto the brown envelope. "What is inside it?"
Varys Norbert slowly and leisurely pries the envelope open to pull out the lilac paper with Thorn's neat handwriting on it. "She commands us to put in a twist into the Games." He strolls over to Lacey's side to hand the note over.
She reads it and rereads it until she realises what it means. "She is really clever, but this is going to take all of our time!" she exclaims but with a slight hint of admiration. Varys knows how Lacey must be feeling right now. Lacey is a very creative person, however with a sick mind.
She appears to be a sweet and kind person, but everyone have their dark side, don't they?
Lacey stares off into distance, pondering over the twist idea and slowly putting together strategies on how to do it. "I think we can do it… I'll talk to Eli Cronin about what drugs we should use and such."
"But what about the people she requires for?"
Lacey cranes her neck at Varys and darkly smirks. "I'll sort that out myself. I already have ideas on how to manipulate them. I've already done it before."
Varys nods, content that the issue which he thought would be the most difficult is sorted. He clears his throat, glancing around the room with papers of monstrous drawings strewn over the floor. "Are you going to use these ideas of mutts to create some?"
The petite woman looks with such pride at the drawings and nods in response. "Yes, some are for the future, the later Games. And as you can see, some of them are linked to our theme this year…and I've recruited my team to create the most monstrous of all. You should see it!"
Varys blinks in surprise. He thought she was finished with the mutts, but she has already created a new one. He offers for Lacey to guide the way, and Lacey giggles like a young, overexcited girl. She practically skips the way to the hidden door behind her desk. Pushing on a hidden button, the door smoothly slides open, revealing a white glow inside.
What is inside looks like a hospital. The walls are white and sterile; the floors clean and grey, the lights too bright. But what make it different to a hospital are the large cages and glass boxes inside, all running a parallel line. Varys follows Lacey, intrigued by all of the mutts inside the cages. Many of them are drugged and not awake yet because they're too dangerous and could break the glass cage. Others are awake and furious as they rattled their bars, beady eyes staring out.
Lacey doesn't stop walking down the long rows of cages, making soothing sounds to the mutts like they're her precious pets. She suddenly halts when they come to the last cage. It's the largest of all and consists a very thick, blurry glass.
It seemed the glass is holding back something terrible, but Varys struggles to see what it is. He leans close to the glass, squinting his eyes.
"Be careful," Lacey murmurs excitedly just when a big black figure slams against the glass directly in front of Varys eyes.
Varys screams in fear as he jumps back, staring at the creature, stricken with horror.
"This is my new pet, the minotaur…"
Varys glances at Lacey from the corner of his eye, refusing to turn his attention away from the monster. The mutt is certainly a minotaur without a doubt with its towering and muscled human body and a bull's head on its neck. The bull's beady black eyes glare out at him. The minotaur is only one inch away from the glass, so the heavy, steamy exhales from its nostrils turn the glass misty. It looks horrendous with long, sharp horns, bleeding scars and dirty fur.
Varys could not believe his own eyes. He's seen drawings and pictures of a minotaur, but to see an actual real one is intensely disturbing.
The minotaur howls a long, sorrowful cry. The Head Gamemaker feels a small sense of pity for whoever the human is. He never expected Lacey to go this far and create a real minotaur by mutating a human's life and body.
"He seems to be in pain. What did you do to him?" Varys asks accusingly, concern for the human lacing his voice.
"What do you expect? I tortured him." Lacey smirks at the disgust on Varys' face. "Well, it's a cruel world."
Author's Note: Heya! This is just a short filler to replace the tribute list and it will hopefully get you all excited for the arena! You will find out the twist around the Games' time;) There will be occasional chapters with the Gamemakers or the President to slowly reveal more secrets about the arena to get you all go like 'wow' (well hopefully haha);) You'll see plenty of Varys and Lacey, and yet more.
If you want, you can have a look at the current Tribute List on my profile, it may change though, because I have some people eager to submit tributes and I hate letting people down
The next chapter will be back to the Reapings! I've already written district three female and district six haha, but we'll go in a nice, neat order.
Btw, the sponsor questions will still be on. So for each detailed sponsor question you will get £10, this is to help me keep track of who is following the story and what you guys think of the characters. And for a special sponsor question which I've decided is to give you all a theme for you to write a 200 word story in YOUR tribute POV, and you'll PM them to me:D It'll be interesting to read them. Also, if you're just a reader without a tribute, you can select any Tribute to write a POV about.
Here's one Sponsor Question, there'll usually be two each chapter but for this one there's just one.
Sponsor Question: What do you think of Varys Norbert and Lacey Hammond, and why do you think Lacey is like this?