Ripping, tearing, plucking, and poking. Hours of torture with no end in sight. A single Prep team was shared by both of the District 12 girl tributes, so they had their hands full and their work cut out for them. When I was sure I could take no more, the woman with sparkling skin and purple eyes that had introduced herself as Kadya took a step back and looked me up and down.

"I don't believe it!" She trilled in her heavy Capitol accent. The male with blue vines tattooed over his arms and up the sides of his face, into his equally blue hair, who called himself Augusto joined Kadya and gasped appreciatively.

"If I didn't know better, I'd guess she was from District 1. Look at that hair!" He interjected excitedly.

"Those eyes." Kadya inputted.

"Stunning!" They warbled together happily.

"I'll see if she's ready for her." Kadya told Augusto. "You can help Amica with the other one."

The other one, it was like we weren't even human to them. We were simply new toys, and I was the favorite. But they parted ways and I was left in peace for a moment. I stared at my reflection in the mirror. I looked different, but I wouldn't necessarily say that different was good. I reached up and felt my smooth, polished skin. It felt foreign beneath my fingers, like a mask of my face. Not mine, not really.

Kadya came back and pulled me to my feet leading me to another connected room. Two chairs sat facing the window overlooking the breathtaking Capitol. It was breathtaking, but not beautiful, just like the rest of the Capitol's sense of fashion. I could hear the steady drumming of nails on wood as Kadya guided me to the empty chair. The other chair was occupied by one of the strangest people I had ever seen. Black and gold tattooed in stripes on her face, like a tiger. Her eyes were a tawny gold. And she had whiskers. Whiskers!

"Tigris." Kadya said to the catlike woman cautiously, as though afraid she would eat her. "This is Maysilee Donner, one of your tributes."

"Leave." The woman called Tigris hissed at Kadya. Her tawny eyes turned to me as her assistant fled. When she spoke again, her gravelly voice took on a purring quality. "So, you're the girl who thought she could escape the Capitol? Sit."

I obeyed, but I didn't speak, I was to confused by her words. She glanced at my expression and laughed sharply.

"Just be glad they didn't cut out your tongue." She told me.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I whispered.

"I don't suppose you do." She agreed. "You're just a child, how could you be expected to know the ramifications of your actions. Running away causes a ripple, Miss Donner."

"I didn't." I replied shortly.

"No, but you had the audacity to think you could." She explained. "And it's a short hop from thinking to trying, and from trying to succeeding. And imagine that. Imagine if you ran away and succeeded. What would that mean?"

I sat mulling over her words. I had been fairly sure that Haymitch and I had been reaped because of what Melody told the Peacekeepers, but it was another thing to hear it for certain. And if this stylist knew something so seemingly trivial from a District, then who else did? Playing dumb wouldn't help me anymore. I had to get wise and quick, or else it would cost Haymitch's life.

"It would mean that it was possible to undermine the Capitol." I said. Tigris's lips twisted in what I thought might be a smile.

"And it would have given your District hope." Tigris continued. "And hope is a dangerous thing. It is the virus that leads to rebellion."

"Why are you telling me all this?" I asked.

"You're a smart girl." Tigris purred. "You'll figure it out."

Tigris got to her feet and beckoned for me to follow. She led me back to the Prep room and gave Kadya some orders about how to do my makeup before disappearing into her room once again. Kadya started to apply dark colors to my eyes, making them appear dramatic, dangerous. She was quiet for a while, a nice break from her constant chatter, but my mind was racing.

"Tigris." I said suddenly. Kadya jumped and looked around as though expecting to see the stylist. "She looks familiar."

"Of course she does." Kadya said in a hushed whisper. "She used to be the most renowned stylist of the Hunger Games. She used to have District 1."

"What's she doing here then?" I asked in the same whisper Kadya was using. She seemed to swell with importance, since she knew something I knew nothing about. I got the feeling that she didn't get to be the first to dish gossip very often.

"She's getting edged out."

"Edged out?" I asked, confused.

"You saw how freakish she looks, who wants a stylist who acts like an animal? She's like losing it or something. She keeps getting operations; it's so not fashionable anymore. She looks deformed."

"So she's losing her job?" I pressed.

"President Snow is trying to do it quietly, but she's not going out very gracefully, as you can see." Kadya gave me a self-satisfied smile. I smiled back but my mind was elsewhere, it was back with Tigris. That conversation was not that of a woman who was losing her grip of reality, rather a woman who was finally seeing reality clearly. There was something going on, I knew it, but I just didn't know what it was.


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