C7 the train journey
As soon as we're on the train it starts for the Capitol; where I will spend my last few days.
"180 miles an hour and you can't feel a thing." Chirps Odessa, she disappears through a sliding door and I intently listen as her footsteps strut away down the corridors.
"Here let me." Occasus opens the palm of my hand and retrieves my mother's necklace and fastens it around my neck.
"Thank you." I reply he walks out the same way as Odessa.
The carriage is full of plush violet furniture the colour of Odessa's hair. A long mahogany table is covered in rich delicacies. Blueberry cream pie, vanilla apple tart, rhubarb on fresh wild rice; I've never seen so much food! Most of the other Districts assume that because I'm from District 2 I am better fed then all of the other Districts. However the Capitol don't tell them that the career tributes are kept on strict diets that exclude any kind of unnatural sugars or salts. Or creams or batters. Or cakes or ice creams. I select a blueberry cream pie; it's on a small plate that has floral carvings around the edge. My teeth puncture the skin of the blueberry flooding my mouth with its sweetness. The cream is tinted a yellowy colour and has a strange flavour that I can't place.
"Banana, long, yellow...only in the capitol though." States Eustacia. She fills her slender glass with a purple liquid from a silver tub using a clear ladle.
"It's good." I reply smiling ever so sweetly. I must make her like me so that I can get some sponsors. I finish off the meringue base and walk out through the door Odessa left via previously taking an elegant bottle of a green liquid that has exotic fruits floating on the surface with me. I'm greeted by Odessa who pushes past me before snapping round and glaring at me. Oh my god what have I done now! She grins and then chuckles. "You can do whatever you please, eat what you want, drink what you want, wear what you want; everything is at your disposal." She smiles then disappears again into the next carriage.
I walk along the metal corridor listening to the faint hum of the train's engine. I find a room that I claim as my own and change out of my reaping clothes and put on blue jeans and a baggy t-shirt that has a wolf printed on the front. I leave my hair in its reaping up-do but take time to scuttle my fingers across Syreni's handwork.
I go back into the carriage with the long mahogany table and find Odessa scampering around shouting things at me that I choose to ignore. Occasus and Eustacia are watching the reapings. I sit down next to them on the white leather sofa. The TV turns on and the Capitol seal is flashed across the screen. This is going to be a tough year. So far everyone is at least 17; well apart from me. The girl from one, Emerald Glisten, wears a skin tight thigh length red dress that has a black panel of floral lace across her stomach and down her cleavage. The District 4 tributes look pretty tough this year as they're both tall, stocky 18 year olds. The boy from 9 looks surprisingly good he's 18 and easily 6"4.
"Get him in with you; he will be valuable and then 1 and 4 as usual." Mumbles Eustacia. But then there's a 12 year old from District 10 she has brown soft shoulder length curls and is tiny compared to the monstrous boy tribute.
"Why would they vote in a 12 year old?" I feel disgusted. Horrified. Why would you vote in someone who is only a child to fight against 23 other tributes!
"Perhaps she has some connection to the rebellion; like you." Occasus suggests.
"Yeah; that would make sense, probably rigged it y'anno so she would definitely go in." Adds Eustacia. The Capitol seal reappears then the screen goes black.
"So; what can you guys do then?" asks Eustacia.
"Swords, Maces. But spears are my choice weapon." Says Occasus confidently. "And I'm good at boxing to."
"Good, good that will definitely be handy once you're in there; what about you vo-n-e-"stammers Eustacia. She sits up from the sofa and refills her glass with the purple liquid.
"It's Veneno and umm I can shoot and I'm pretty fast; and a good climber and I can kinda throw a knife a bit." I reply shyly. She's so good with knives she'll just laugh in my face.
"Go on then." Demands Eustacia. She hands me a 6 inch knife from the black knife block and gestures for me to throw it. I go to put it back but she grabs another one and throws it across the room. The knife blade whistles through the air and penetrates the centre of the grandfather clock on the other side of the carriage. There's so much in this carriage I could hit but what? Tick tock. Tick tock. The pendulum! A moving target is sure to impress her. I twirl the knife around my fingers as Odessa was twirling her pen earlier. I hurl it across the room and it embeds into the golden pendulum of the clock fixing it to the dark oak frame. I stand back and smile cockily. Admiring my perfect hit.
"I think I can work with that." Says Eustacia approvingly.
