Violet's POV
I come awake slowly, not wanting to pry open my eyelids and let the harsh morning light in. I barely got any sleep last night. Most of the night was spent staring out the window and eating myself sick with dumplings.
I'm so paranoid about starving the arena and yet, I don't want to be too full because it will slow me down.
Instead of opening my eyes, I let my mind wander. Today is the first day of real horror for Rose. For Mother and Father. Today could very well be the last day of my life.
Funny how I'm so calm about that. Maybe the truth hasn't sunk in yet. My brain doesn't really believe I could actually die.
And then there's Aidan. I know he's hiding something about his feelings for Eddy. But I couldn't confront him outright last night. It seemed wrong, even if we do hate each other.
That's another thing. We're getting along better now. To the point where I'm really hoping he at least does well. I want him to see his family again. Hell, I want him to help Eddy. For the first time in my life, I'm concerned about Eddy.
But of course that would mean I would die and never see my family again. I don't really think they could take that.
I open my eyes. Sighing, my breath hitches. The nervousness is sinking in. I get up and force myself to order a glass of milk from the food dispenser. I walk around, sipping it slowly as my stomach twists uncomfortably.
I really shouldn't let my mind wander this much. Who knows what could happen. Maybe it would get lost.
Previous night…
This is the last one, Marcella Luna thought to herself, pushing wisps of her black hair out of her blue eyes. Then I can go to bed. The gamemaker sighed.
Screening the district tokens was tedious work. If any item gave a tribute any advantage, it had to be confiscated. A few had been too. The boy from four and the girl from two.
The boy had tried to bring a shark tooth necklace. That could be used as a knife.
The girl had brought a bracelet. If you twisted the gem on the bracelet, it popped off, revealing poison inside.
She had just finished the boy from thirteen. He had a simple gold ring. No sharp, pointy edges. No poison. Just an engraving. E.W. It had been found in a pocket in his set of clothes that he'd left on the train.
Now it was the girl's turn. She had some sort of silver necklace with a heavyish ball on the end. She used a scanner on the ball. Nothing came up. She twisted it, banged on it, tested it in every way possible. It passed every test.
"Still working, Marce?" a voice asked. It was Kitty. The blonde sat down next to her, tossing her immaculate curls off her shoulder. She took a sip of her coffee.
"Always," sighed Marcella, turning back to her work.
"C'mon, Marce, that's the last one. You need sleep. I'm sure it's fine."
"I don't know," Marcella frowned, rubbing the ball between her fingers. "Something about it isn't right. You remember her don't you? Tiny little thing with purple eyes. She was good. Really good."
"Uh, yeah." Kitty rolled her eyes. "Marce, it's nothing, trust me. C'mon have some coffee, you need it."
"Are you sure it's nothing? Something about her made Jax feel off," Marcella argued, referring to the Head Gamemaker.
"I think that was the wine," Kitty commented. "He drank a lot of it."
"You're probably right," Marcella sighed. She placed the necklace in a box and scribbled Cleared on top of it.
It was nothing. It had to be.
Aidan's POV
Violet is deadly quiet all through breakfast. I must be too, I guess. I can't eat and I couldn't sleep. But I don't feel tired. I feel unnaturally awake.
We're brought onto a ship that will take us to the arena. They inject us with the trackers and I stare at the lump in my skin, prodding it occasionally.
Of course, we can't actually see the arena yet. I'm brought into a small room underneath where Valerie will help me get dressed in whatever they decide to have me wear.
Valerie is the last person I'm going to be seeing before I do into the arena. I could puke.
The outfit is fairly simple. Black shirt. Tan pants. Grippy shoes good for running. A jacket that can be worn two ways.
"If you need to be warm, face the black side up. It reflects heat. The white side reflects cold," Valerie tells me.
I nod, barely listening.
"Oh, and I almost forgot," Valerie pipes. "Your district token was cleared."
"District token?" I raise my head slightly. "I wasn't given one."
"Don't be silly," she squeaks, pulling a gold ring from her tiny silver bag. "It's right here."
My breath catches when I see the ring. I snatch it out of Valerie's hands, recognizing it immediately. Searching the inside of the band, I find the engraving. E.W.
"Eddy," I whisper. He must have put it in my pocket somehow when he came to visit me without me noticing. "How the hell…?"
"All tributes, please enter capsules now," a robotic voice announces.
Trembling violently, I slide the ring on my finger, stepping shakily into my capsule of death.
The glass door closes and it starts to rise.
Violet's POV
"You alright, honey?" Maybelle asks in her warm voice as she helps me put on my arena clothes.
I nod, perhaps a little too rapidly. I stroke my braid absentmindedly. IT's so perfect. So familiar. It calms me a little.
"Violet," Maybelle says, bending down to reach my gaze. I look up. "I'm betting on you."
"Hope you don't lose your money," I blurt out.
She looks genuinely sad when she whispers, "Me too." She pulls me into a hug and we stay like that for a while.
"All tributes, please enter capsules now."
"Might want to take this." Maybelle holds out my necklace.
"Thanks," I say, voice wavering. I'm relieved they didn't take it. But I don't even know how to use it or if it will help at all.
I step up into the capsule and the door closes. I wave to Maybelle as I go up and she offers a comforting smile.
My heart is in my throat, my mouth dry. My breath comes in gasps. I force myself to calm down as I rise up into the arena.
Immediately, I take in the walls around me. Hedges. Miles of green hedges and concrete floors. All surrounding the golden Cornucopia, supplies spilling out of it. Knives shine and bags and boxes of food can be seen.
But I can only focus on one thing.
The arena is a maze.
