Chapter Ten

Darkest Day

I had moved to sit on my bed, wondering if Blye would actually come. Were we allies? Did he want to be allies? I didn't blame him if he didn't want to be, after all, I didn't have much to bring to the table other than my magic and he didn't know that I was able to do magic. I shook my head, looking out of the window as the scenery passed us by. I wondered how easy it would be to try to break open the window and jump out. It wasn't that I was actively trying to find ways to kill myself before the Games, it was just, now that I was confronted with the fact that I would die very soon, the opportunities seemed endless. I could die during the bloodbath or right after, I could die on the last night or on the first night. I could cause my own death by accident or someone could kill me. My thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. I looked up, figuring it was Briar, telling me that Blye didn't want to talk to me. "Yes?" I asked, figuring that I wouldn't blame Blye if he didn't want to talk. It wasn't like we had anything to talk about.

It definitely shocked me when I saw Blye come into my room. If he had looked good before, he looked even better now. His stylist had somehow had given his hair a few highlights, some of his hair a few shades lighter than the rest. "Hi," I said softly, surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"Briar-" He said, a perplexed looking coming to his face. "Was I not supposed to come?" He gestured behind him, where Briar probably was now.

"No," I said, shaking my head. I opened my mouth and then closed it, "I mean, no as in it's ok that you're here." I gave him a small smile, gesturing for him to sit in one of the seats. "Briar thought it would be a good idea for me to stay awake so I didn't mess any of my make up before we got into the Capital."

Blye nodded slowly, a smirk coming to his face, "If it's any conciliation," He murmured, "I think I liked you without the make-up."

"Thanks," I said, looking down at my lap with a small smile, "I doubt the rest of the Capital will say the same though."

Briar shook his head, "The only reason that they did some of our stuff here is because they wanted us to look nice for the other stylists who will do even more work on us later." He sighed, looking out the window. "We're going to arrive early in the morning, have more work done on us and then be able to sleep for a few hours. Then we're going to our interviews and then we get to train for two days. We'll be able to catch up on some sleep and be able to gather our strength before we have to fight."

"Great," I murmured, wondering if I would be able to sleep at all when I was in the arena. "Do we know what the place is going to look like?"

Blye glanced over at me with a chuckle. "Why would we get to know that?"

I shrugged, "Maybe the news got leaked?"

He shook his head, "Nothing gets leaked in the Hunger Games, that stuff is kept perfectly locked up until the Games start."

"Really?" I questioned, arching my eyebrow. "How come the video for the tributes was leaked to us then, a night before the rest of Panem got to see it?" A smile came to my lips, realizing that maybe the Capital wasn't perfectly locking all of its stuff.

"That's probably just for us so we can get prepared," He told him, looking as if I was an idiot for suggesting it.

I shook my head, toying with the idea that the reason we were allowed to see it was because the video had been leaked to tributes a long time ago and it gave them an unfair advantage. "You know," I said, not exactly sure why I was saying it, "My stylist's sister was in the Games."

Blye looked up, looking interested, "Really?" He asked, "How old was she?"

"Eleven," I answered, "It was her birthday the day before the Reaping."

"That's harsh," Blye said, absently scratching his wrist. "I can't even imagine how that would feel, thinking with childish innocence that you were safe because you were young."

I nodded, knowing what he meant, "I mean, I thought I was safe because I was careful, I didn't try to do any spells in public and when I did try, I did it in secret."

Blye looked over at me, as if he wanted to say something. He just nodded though, "I didn't try to practice," He told me, "Not after I became a Peacekeeper."

"Why did you become one?" I asked, "Wasn't that even more dangerous than just fitting in?"

"It was a job," He said, shrugging, "I had to take care of myself. My parents had magic and my dad was killed off when the Games first started, since my mother was pregnant they waited until she had me, in case I was a muggle."

"And they thought you were a muggle?" I asked, surprised. Usually they had a blood test, to detect if there was any sort of magic running through you. With my parents, they gave my father's blood. They Tester's didn't really check to make sure whose blood it was, they figured that people were too scared to try and cheat the system.

"Yeah, I had a non-identical twin who died," He said, "Somehow my blood got messed up with his, someone labeled it wrong, and I was the muggle, my twin was the wizard."

I couldn't help but wonder what this meant about the system of the Capital, if it was so easy to mess stuff up, was the Capital really all that powerful? "I'm sorry," I told him, "About your twin."

He shrugged, "It wasn't like I knew him, he died right after he was born." He looked back over at me before looking back out the window. "Look," He murmured, pointing outside.

I leaned forward, looking out of the window. I could see the sunrise starting to make the sky a light pink, the colors bleeding together across the sky. I looked towards the horizon, seeing the tops of the Capital buildings. I sighed softly, how could something so beautiful be so deadly? We would die there, our bodies shipped back to our District and then buried in the local cemetery. The only victor would never be heard from ever again. I sighed, looking back up at Blye, wondering how long he would last in the Games.

"It's pretty, right?" He asked with a smile, "The sunrise I mean."

"Yeah," I agreed, "It is." Our minds were on two different things. "How long till we get there do you think?"

"Maybe ten minutes?" He estimated, craning his head to look at the Capital came even more into view.

"We're going to have to talk," I said after a second, knowing that if I was going to survive the bloodbath, I had to have an ally. "You and I, even though we're supposed to be enemies in the Games-"

"I was hoping we could be allies," He said, cutting me off, "Is that what you were about to ask?"

I nodded my head, "Yeah," I said softly. "That's what I was thinking."

"So is that a yes then?" He asked, arching his eyebrow.

"Yeah," I said, nodding my head. I paused, a smile coming to my lips. "What happens I all of the tributes become allies with the others and they refuse to try and kill each other off? What would the Gamemakers do?"

"They'd kill us with some sort of forest fire or give us some sort of reason to scatter and run in terror." He shrugged as if he had thought about it already. I wondered if he had, it was an interesting concept. He stood up suddenly and offered me his hand. "Come on," He murmured. It was then that I realized the train was starting to slow. My eyes widened and I took his hand, letting him help me up. We walked like that, hand in hand as we came out of my room. It wasn't a romantic gesture; I didn't feel anything when I was holding his hand. It was more for comfort, we were the only people from our District here and we knew what the other was like. Besides Aqua, who would soon be leaving us, we were the only familiar things from our past.

I saw Aquamarine walking down the hallway towards our room, stopping when she saw both of us there. "I was just about to get you two," She said, looking a bit surprised that we were holding hands.

I squeezed Blye's hand gently just as the train came to a stop. I looked up at him and he smiled down at me as if he was trying to reassure me that everything was going to be ok.

Aquamarine gestured for us to follow her as she opened up the door to lead us off the train. I stepped off onto the platform with Blye, looking around. It looked like we weren't the only ones there though, there were other trains starting to pull into the station. I froze, wondering if we would be able to see the tributes. I noticed that the doors to the train weren't on our side though, so we wouldn't see them as they came onto their own platform.

Aquamarine called us, gesturing for us to follow her. We followed after her and I wondered what would happen if we didn't, of course there had to be some sort of Peacemakers along the area to make sure that we would stay in line.