Disclaimer: I own very little.
Chapter Seven: Arrival
Dinner was delivered to Enobaria's room, later than usual, but we still were able to eat to nearly our fill. Some of the foods I had seen before at a dinner party at one of my parent's friend's homes, but others I had never experienced. Some were sweet and tangy while others were salty and spicy. Needless to say, at the end of the evening, I felt as though I truly wouldn't need any more food for the next couple days as we traveled to the Capitol.
At some point, I think that I was able to push the idea of death from my head and focus more on the current moment. However, I did manage to ask Enobaria a question that had been looming in my head ever since Enobaria dragged me away from the father-son duo.
"How long have you and Brutus known each other?" I asked tentatively looking at her.
She took a swig of a glass of water sitting in front of her," Well, he's been doing this whole mentor thing longer than I have been. But, I've known of him ever since I was a child. Officially, we've known each other for two years-since I won the Hunger Games."
Enobaria won the 62nd Hunger Games, two years ago. I remember watching those Games and remembering when it was her and the other Career tribute from District One left. Anytime there were two Careers left, the finale was sure to be gory and good. To everyone's surprise, she literally ripped the poor boy's throat open with her teeth, making her the victor. Her unorthodox kill was remembered and when she came out of the Games, her teeth appeared to be sharpened and gold accented. She was most certainly the freshest face in the District Two winners and still a recent celebrity amongst her own people and the people of the Capitol supposedly. Brutus, on the other hand, had won the 37th Games and, according to Enobaria, was the same age as Flux when he was Reaped. From watching old footage, Enobaria told me that Brutus and Flux seemed to be almost twins of one another. If a child could be a clone of their father, then he most certainly was that.
She also informed me that Brutus actually enjoyed being in the Games and was delighted that he would see his son go into the Games (a story that clashed with my mother's theory). Though she was quick to add that arrogance could either make or break a person in these Games.
"My opinion of Brutus and my advice to you: stay away from him. Don't answer his questions; don't make eye contact with him. The less he knows about you; the more you can cause trouble for him," Enobaria said to me, shaking a finger and everything as the crew cleaned up the remains of the dinner on the table.
I couldn't help but take this with a grain of salt probably because I still didn't completely trust Enobaria. She and Brutus had known each other for two years and shared one thing: a Hunger Games title. The victors of the Games were said to be the best of friends and I still didn't have the affirmation that she was playing games with me. I would nod my head and take it as though I did completely believe her, but deep down I was still a little wary.
After we had finished for the night, she escorted me to my personal room on the train, where I quickly changed out of my clothes and tried forcing myself to sleep.
The day precluding to the Capitol were my time to do some extra sneaking around the train and find out everything I could about both my mentors and my opponent. Finally, I had come to the conclusion that if I was going to die, then I would at least want to be informed and prepared for it. I would certainly not be the first one killed, not if I had anything to say about it.
Though our ride was rather brief in comparison to the others, I managed in those two nights to sneak out my second night, after a long day of having the rules explained to me, in addition to how the Capitol and its people work: what I would have to do in order to become a favorite, how I would be expected to dress…boring, boring, boring.
The night before we arrived was the evening that I snuck out of my compartment to eavesdrop on the meeting that Brutus and Enobaria seemed to be having in the parlor. I kept my back pinned against the wall so that the door would not sense anyone was there and therefore swing open.
This had been the type of meeting I was waiting for: a private one. Without Flux or me present. If anyone was going to be honest, then this was the most probable place it would be.
"We have to come to an agreement on one," Brutus said, his voice muffled through the thick walls.
"You know we will never be able to do that," Enobaria answered.
"You need to come to the realization that Stone isn't made for their Games. We need to make an investment that is going to benefit the district the best and the truth of the matter is that Flux can do that. Weeks ago, we had come to that agreement, Enobaria. We knew that Flux was the kid; we made a deal," He said, putting the deal out on the table once more.
This was the moment where I needed to hear her answer.
She hesitated for a long time, which made me rather nervous, but eventually she answered.
"That was before I saw her nearly beat your son," She said simply, resulting in a grunt from Brutus.
"That was a fluke," He quickly defended, obviously disgusted at her answer. "Brains can only take you so far in this game and-"
"No, no, no, Brutus. That's not even true," Enobaria immediately cut him off. "They can do things to your physical abilities. Anything can happen to one's strength or ability to wield weapons in the arena, but one's ability to be witty and think quickly never dies. Intelligence such as hers doesn't come around that often and I think it would be foolish for me not to put stock into that. It's something that I didn't have, Brutus. Neither of us had the ability to think like that."
Brutus was silent for several moments and I was able to take a slight sigh of relief. She wasn't in my presence; she was defending me on her own accord which was a step in the right direction. Perhaps, now I could take a little more trust in her.
"You're assuming that the Gamemakers will like her?" Brutus asked, more out of aggravation more than anything.
"They like people who can give the people a good show. She can give them a good show. In fact, she can give them more than a good show," She continued. "They'll take that into consideration."
"You can get sponsors to support her? On paper, we can both agree she doesn't compare," Brutus added.
"They'll support her when the Gamemakers do," She said, her voice so confident. "Having younger Gamemakers will work in her advantage, as well."
He chuckled," Having younger Gamemakers should theoretically work in all of their advantages."
This elicited laughter from Enobaria and I smirked slightly at the sound of this. I found that listening to any further of their conversation may be a little over the top; therefore, I stood up slowly and carefully. Just as I walked to turned the corner to the hallway, where our rooms were, I was meet by an iron grip, pinning me gruffly against the wall. Before I could scream, Flux's hand covered my mouth. I examined my options, but saw that unless I inherited an incredible amount of strength in the next couple seconds, then I wasn't going anywhere.
"Listen to me, Stone," He growled right in my ear. "If you do anything, anything at all to try and screw me over for this title, I will be sure that you suffer for it. If you think that just because Enobaria likes you, that you-you suddenly have this power, then you're wrong! You're still just the speck at the bottom of the-"
I wriggled to no avail in his grasp, but before I could move another muscle, we heard the door slide open. Nearly instantly, his grip loosened as I held my, now sore neck. Enobaria's eyes widened as she assumed what had happened while Brutus followed behind her.
"What's going on out here?" She asked, her eyes immediately laying on Flux.
He looked at me, patting me delicately on the shoulder before looking back to Enobaria," Only wishing her good luck since it'll be one of our last nights before training."
I bit down hard on my lip, hating him even more. Enobaria furrowed her brows, obviously not sold on this, but Brutus stepped forward before any doubt could be raised saying," What a nice thing of you to do, but I think it's time for bed, son."
Brutus placed his hand on his son's shoulder, turning him back toward the hallway," Goodnight all!"
Within moments, they disappeared down the hallway and as soon as they were out of earshot, Enobaria stepped closer to me, shaking her head all the while," For some reason, I don't think he was being as good a spirit as he claims."
"Yeah, my neck doesn't seem to think so either," I muttered, rolling my head to try to loosen the tension.
She merely laughed before guiding me back down the hall," Looks like we're going to have fun this year."
Deep in the mountains, there was a city.
A city in which many desired to live in.
A city where the power of the country of Panem lived.
The Capitol.
We lived not far from the lush city with technologies so modern that the rest of felt as though we were living centuries behind. Not only was the architecture and beauty advanced, but the fashion of its citizens was even more advanced. All sorts of crazy hair styles varying in color from brown to fire red to turquoise to black in nearly every way, shape or form.
The clothing appeared to have far too many frills and thrills for my liking, but it was quite the visual when our train came to a stop to see the sea of colors flocking to get a glimpse of Flux and myself.
We were told before the public eye to be well behaved and pretend as though we did not hate one another entirely. Appealing to a group of people was something that I had no experience doing, but I knew that in order to stand a chance, then I needed to make a lasting impression on these people. I learned later that they had loved my brother, Titus and thought that if I could imitate some of the things he did, then perhaps their love for me would grow as well.
When we were presented on the platform for the first time, my eyes were nearly blinded with all of the flashing of photos and wild hair colors. It took several seconds upon leaving the train for both my eyes and ears to adjust to all of the noise and people cheering for the both of us and not just Flux.
My name was all over, just as Flux's was. I watched him first as he waved to the crowd, bearing that famous smile. I then turned my head to wave just as big as he did, putting a smile on my face unlike any I had ever worn before. There were kids down in the front, squealing and jumping for my attention. I turned my eyes down to them, waving to them sincerely before turning to their parents and giving them a smile, as well. Strength may not have been my forte, but if I could manipulate a crowd…it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. They didn't even know me…they just needed to think that they knew me.
A/N: Hey guys! Thanks for reading :D Let me know what you think. I'm debating which of my stories I'm going to continue; I've got a lot of ideas running around right now so if you all could let me know then that'd be awesome! Thanks again for all the support thus far. :D
