Chapter 6 is here! I'd just like to take a moment to thank all my reviewers: Katrina, Silvia, David, charchi8987, jojo167, Ashes Ashes Ashes, sneezing panda, SweeneyToddRules, Anla'shok, , Lola, Duchess of Night, JoshuaEvans123, allysayz. I wouldn't have made it to Chapter 6 without your lovely support and comments!
Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games.
"What's that, Pa?"
"It's a mockingjay, Vina."
They watch the little bird fly across the sunset across the horizon. The father holds the little girl's soft hand in his rough ones. It was a peaceful Saturday evening at the Capitol Park.
"It's pretty," the little girl says with a giggle. "They have such pretty wings, Pa! And the name is pretty too."
The father smiles lovingly at his daughter. He kneels down, lifts her up and places her on his lap. "Mockingjays are beautiful birds, aren't they? They have beautiful voices too. They sing like little mockingbirds, cooing to their babies. If you sing to them, they might reply to you and if they do, that means you have a pretty voice," he says.
The little girl watches her father in wonder. "Wow, Pa. How do you know so much? You don't go to school anymore! You just sit at home, watching TV and drinking coffee."
The man chuckles and says, "Pa's old, Vina. The older you get, the wiser you get too. Little Vina still has lots to learn." He tickles the little girl's chin gently.
The little girl squeals and burrows her head into the man's chest. "I love you, Pa."
"I love you too, Lavinia."
Instead of feeling the warm cuddle she expected, she's shook awake from her buoyant dream.
"Get up. We're leaving in 10 minutes."
She groans inwardly and gets off her hard mattress. Rufus walks out of her cell and slams the door. She sighs. It makes it worse when her brain sends her a blissful dream and then she has to wake up, alone, in this cold prison cell instead of her warm home. And her father is gone. The father who used to take her to the park is long gone. And it makes it worse when she realizes today is the day when she leaves her cozy prison cell and leaves her velvety bed. Oh, how she'll miss her massive room.
She wasn't in a mood to make herself feel better about what laid ahead of her. There was no nice way to put. After 5 days in confinement underground, she was finally going to be let free into the world, happily serving the cheery Capitol citizens. Even she herself was surprised at the heavy sarcasm that coated her thoughts.
Rufus escorts Lavinia down the corridor that leads to Doctor Dromio's room. Instead of the anxious Doctor Dromio she's been seeing lately, today he was calm and collected. No traces of panic anywhere on his face. So she plopped on her seat and stared at Doctor Dromio until he looked up from his notebook.
"Alas, our final appointment together is here. The second hand of the clock is slowly ticking, reminding us of our last moments together."
She rolls her eyes and scribbles on his notebook, Okay, enough with the figurative language.
Doctor Dromio chuckles, earning another roll of Lavinia's eyes.
"I just want to have a little fun before we say goodbye!" says Doctor Dromio with a sarcastic smile. "You seem a bit moody today. Why the sad face?"
Lavinia shrugs carelessly. Well, there is no reason for me to be happy, is there?
"True. I'm not going to try saying otherwise. There are no nice ways of saying it, I guess."
We sit in complete silence for the next minute. She fidgets with the stray thread that comes out from her shirt while he twirls the pen in his hand. He suddenly stops and slowly slips the pen into his pocket.
"Lavinia," says Doctor Dromio, with uncertainty clear in his voice.
She looks up into his eyes. She sees fear, doubt and reluctance. She tilts her head to her side, motioning for him to carry on.
"Remember to… Remember… The world is never as it seems," says Doctor Dromio carefully, as if one wrong word could result in his death or something. "There could be more to what it seems. There are a lot of things that… the government, or even your loved ones could be hiding from you."
Lavinia raises her eyebrows, confused about what exactly her crazed therapist could be taking about. Was he reading one of those life philosophy books or something, she thought. Besides, what he just did was dangerous, saying that the government was hiding things from us. Everybody knows that the government is corrupted but tries to show everybody that they're perfect and have everything under control. That's their reason for the Hunger Games. And he's really putting his life at risk, openly saying negative things about the government, because that's the opposite of what they want.
"Look, whatever you do, don't give up hope. Hope is the only thing stronger than fear," says Doctor Dromio quickly.
Hope is the only thing stronger than fear. That's what Doctor Prisca told her the other day. Are Doctor Dromio and Doctor Prisca up to something? Whatever it is, Lavinia doesn't want to be involved. Bad enough that if you tried running away, you got your tongue cut off. What would happen if you defied the government?
"It's time for us to bid our farewells," says Doctor Dromio as he gets up from his plush armchair. He opens his arms for me to enter them. I hesitate a second before walking into his arms, hugging him gently.
"Don't let them break you, Lavinia. Don't forget who you are," he whispers in my ear.
She's left with her completely muddled as he walks out of the room with haste. She doesn't know whether Doctor Dromio has been taking the wrong medications or if he was trying to tell her to decipher some secret code. She shakes her head thinking, how weird can this day get?
Before her question could be answered, she feels a sharp needle plunge into her arm while her world slowly whirls into blackness.
-xxx-
Lavinia's POV
"We're here; the Avox Quarters."
I shake my head to wake myself from unconsciousness and look around and take in my surroundings.
So this is the Avox Quarters, according to the 'caretaker', Archaia. Her midnight black hair is tied back in a tight bun with a green hairband, bringing out her emerald eyes. I think her hair is dyed, but her eyes look a natural colour.
"This is the sitting room. This is where all the Avoxes normally hang out when they don't have any duties to tend to," explains Archaia. Her voice is neutral and face expressionless.
I nod in reply, just so she knows I'm listening. She takes me down an empty corridor with doors on both sides. One, two, three… I keep counting until we get to the end of the corridor. 15. So there are 30 rooms altogether, counting the rooms on the other side.
She unlocks the wooden door with a key and it swings open. I step in and the smell of Windex hits me. There are three beds pushed against the wall to the left and a table by the wall, near the door. There are three desks of drawers next to the beds. Directly opposite the door is the bathroom. Next to the bathroom is a huge window with a thin blue curtain covering it. It's big enough for me to jump out of.
"There's a force field outside the window which will fling you back up if you try jumping off," says Archaia, as if reading my mind.
I nod my head again. I understand. They don't want us jumping off buildings, killing ourselves. Then if all the Avoxes die, who would do all the dirty work? That's the Capitol for you: always worrying about your safety.
"Your roommates should be here soon. Here's a rulebook for you: you should use the time you have now to memorize every word in here. It'll come in handy," says Archaia while handing me a book that is about an inch thick. "If you need anything, I'll be in the sitting room."
The moment she leaves, I walk towards the window, curious to see where in Panem we are.
I pull back the curtains and look outside. My heart sinks when I look at the 'view'. It's just a plain grey wall. A wall. I don't even get to see the outside world or anything. I didn't even know we were underground. I didn't wake up until just now. And then by the time I was awake, I was at the doors of the sitting room Avox Quarters. Just when I thought I would be able to live above ground again.
I plop down on the bed that is nearest to the window and still perfectly made. The other two are done too, but there are slight wrinkles here and there. I sigh heavily and open the first page of the rulebook.
The Avox Rulebook
Rule 1: Always do the best in your job. Always give 100 percent. If you're making a bed, make it until there isn't a single wrinkle on the bed sheets. Fluff the pillows.
And then it goes on about how to do other jobs and I quickly get bored, so I flip the page to the second rule.
Rule 2: Never make eye contact with the customers.
I sigh as I flip to the next page. I know the rest: Capitol citizens feel offended when an Avox make eye contact with them; Avoxes are not worthy to look at them. This could result in severe punishment or possibly execution.
I skim through the rest of the rulebook in a few minutes. They're all basically a more detailed version of what Doctor Prisca told me in Avox training. There was only one rule that I didn't know about: Avoxes must not attempt to change the colour of the hair. Weird rule, but I'll try to keep that in mind if I ever consider dyeing my hair pink.
Just as I shut the book close, the door swings open. There are two girls standing at the door, both wearing a crimson red blazer, crisp white shirt and black pants. Probably their work clothing. I slowly wave at them and smile hesitantly.
They do something in sign language and the only 'word' I understand is hi, what and I. I shake my head slowly, hoping that they get the message.
One of them pauses before nodding. She walks over to the drawers and fumbles around before pulling out a thick pad of paper and a blunt pencil. She scribbles something and passes it to me with a small smile.
Hi, I'm Estella and my friend is Hermia. We're both 16.
I look up and smile at them. Estella has startling silver eyes and a slender figure. Hermia's soft hazel eyes bring out her sharp cheekbones. Both Estella and Hermia are about my height. They both have genuine smiles on their faces and I relax, thinking that maybe I'd actually make some friends here other than the therapist and trainer.
I'm Lavinia. I'm 16 too.
Estella and Hermia nod their heads. Hermia writes, Pretty name. Is it from an ancient play or book?
Yeah, it is, I write. My dad had a thing for ancient literature.
She nods and lies on her bed. Estella reaches for the pad and writes: We're going to the dining hall now. You coming?
I nod and follow them out of the room. Archaia didn't get to show me the dining room. I guess I'll find out now.
Estella and Hermia take me deeper underground, down a flight of stairs and a few corridors. When we finally arrive, I see a big room and a lot of Avoxes. It looks like a normal cafeteria, except this one is quiet. Apart from the clinking of spoons and plates, there are no other sounds. I mentally kick myself. Of course it's quiet. All or us here have had our tongues cut off!
I follow Estella and Hermia and while lining up for our mush, I do some math. If there are 30 rooms and approximately 3 people in each room, there are about 90 Avoxes. That's a lot of red- haired criminals. Estella and Hermia sit at a table with 2 other male Avoxes and another female Avox. I stand there awkwardly, wondering whether I'm welcomed to sit down here or not. Hermia smiles and motions for me to sit down. The female Avox smiles warmly at me and I return it with what I hope is a genuine smile too. Estella does some crazily fast sign language but I manage to catch the word Lavinia. I wave awkwardly at them, but they all smile at me and nod their heads. One of the guys signs to Estella and she takes out a small pad of paper out of her pocket and scribbles something on it. When she's done, she passes it to me and I look at it. Nero, Thurio and Val. They're very happy to see you. I smile again and write, Nice to meet you guys too.
For the rest of dinner, we just sit in silence, swallowing our mush. After we're done, I wave goodbye to Nero and Thurio while they walk off to the kitchen. I cock my head to the side, wondering why they were headed that way. Hermia writes while walking, Oh, all the Avoxes take turns doing the dishes. It'll be our turn in a few days. I nod my head. That'll be a lot of dishes for two people to do.
-xxx-
Curfew at 9. I lie in bed that night, thinking about how even though these people have gone through so much pain and hardship, yet they still make newcomers feel welcome. And Nero, Thurio were Val were genuinely friendly. They're nice people.
I also thought about how much I needed to learn. I can't keep using a pen and pad to communicate for the rest of my life. I tell myself that from tomorrow onwards, I'll be working my hardest to be able to learn what every other Avox can do as soon as possible.
And maybe, with the help of the right people and friends, I'll be able to get through this in one piece.
Hoped you liked it! It was a bit hard, having to come up with new characters and the books don't give you many details about Avox life, so I had to come up with this from scratch. If you have any suggestions or ideas, I'm just a PM or review away (: Please review, favourite and alert!