How could anyone vote for me? My thoughts have turned into gibberish. I've been in here for thirty minutes, sitting and waiting for visitors. But there are none. Why? The question has haunted me while a good while. I, however, have already come up with a conclusion as to why this has happened: any one of them could have been someone who voted for me to take part in this competition, to take part in this pageant. They did not want to be accused by me. That, or they were one of the people that voted for me. They did not have a place for me in their heart or mind, which is why they voted for me.

When I arrived in this room originally, I could not believe my eyes. This single room is different from my entire district in so many ways. Maybe that's why I still can't believe it. How is this room a part of my district? Fabrics I've never seen before line the couch that I'm sitting on and the pillows that sit on each edge of the couch. The curtains are draped with another type of fabric and seem very flamboyant, but still very... regal and royal in appearance. Everything seems so official. Likely, people from the Capitol come here to stay when they are visiting our district. To be honest, this was probably where our escort stayed during the wait for the reaping. He might've enjoyed the fabrics that the couch, pillows, and curtains had and might have even enjoyed the simple style that our district has to offer. Who knows? I certainly don't. Taking another deep breath, similar to the one that I took when I arrived here thirty minutes ago, I rest my head down on one of the couch pillows and look up at the ceiling and at the chandelier overhead. Everything seems out of place in this room, I can't deny that. Or, it seemed out of place until the door began to creak open a little. I didn't expect any visitors. If anything, I expected the Peacekeepers had come to drag me into the train by now. However, that wasn't the case.

Cradle walks into the room with her hands behind her back. Her usual smile is malformed. While she still has her usual smile, it doesn't seem as genuine. It looks as if she is trying to be strong before I have to leave, "Hello, Auger." You can tell in her voice that she's trying to be something that she's not, a strong girl. Why? I could tell by the way that she appeared to be, with her young body quivering a little. The way that she flickered her eyes also told me that she was nervous, but I didn't pay attention to that. The only thing that I paid attention to was the way that she spoke to me. Formal. She never spoke formally to me. Like any other eleven year old, she spoke like a child and did not pay attention to the way that she said much of anything. Now, though, she was watching what she said to me.

"Cradle," I lower myself a little to were my knees are right in front of me, my arms spreading wide. Cradle walks over and wraps her tiny arms around my body but quickly lets go, "Why did you come?"

"No one else did," She said with a sad expression. Surely, she knows more than just this, but she doesn't seem to be willing to tell me, "I came to ask you if you want your charm."

"Charm? You mean my necklace?"

Cradle quickly nodded. I didn't think about the necklace until now, but that was probably going to be charm, wasn't it? The one thing that made me stand out from the other people in the arena. Each tribute can have a charm to take with them in the arena, something that reminds them of home. I, myself, have a necklace that works a lot like a locket. A little gear on the side is spun once or twice and it opens to show a picture of a baby and its mother and father. That baby? Yeah, that baby is me. And the man and woman in the photo? Those are my parents. It's sad, however. I never knew about them, I've never even met them and now... I'm going to end up dead, aren't I?

"Right," Cradle whispered, her left hand reaching into her pocket and pulling out the locket. It is something that reminds me of the grain next to my home because of its golden color.

I take the locket into my hand and wrap it around my neck. I turn around and sit down on the floor in front of her, "Help me out?"

She smiles childishly, which I pick up from the corner of my eye, and sits behind me, clicking the necklace in place with her tiny fingertips. I whisper a thank you and stare at her, trying to examine her appearance and take it in before I leave. Thoughts enter my mind about what I should say to her, what I could say to make everything alright. However, before I get the chance to say anything, a peacekeeper opens the door and stares at me intently, "It's time to go." Cradle leans over and kisses me on the forehead. Soon, just like this morning, she evaporates from my sight by leaving the room and the justice building to go back to the golden fields she knows so well. I wonder, briefly, if she'll cry that I'm gone or if she'll be worried about me at all.

The peacekeeper gestures me to walk towards her. I raise my body up and stand tall as I walk towards the woman, taking the back exit out of the justice building. I walk a little while with the peacekeeper and the girl I'd only seen for a brief moment, Sheave, on a path that leads outside of the plaza and towards the train station that we have in our district for officials and the like. Today, it will be used to transport Sheave and I to our deaths. As soon as we arrive at the train station, I notice the flamboyant Caligula standing in front of the train. He must have been waiting for us this whole time.

"There you are!" Caligula smiles, the corners of his lips shooting upwards. His voice seems a little squeaky all of the sudden. He sure does play off the flamboyant look well, "It's time to go, go, go!" Sheave almost seems disgruntled by the way he speaks and acts, but I, for one, do not mind how he acts at all. After all, the way that he was raised in the Capitol must have been much different from how I was raised. Even though we have cultural differences, though, I can almost feel a tinge of disgust running through me just looking at him. It's not like me to be disgusted, but he's from the Capitol. He is one of the people that controls us and now he's acting as if this is fun, as if this is something that isn't important at all. Still... Maybe he means the best for us.

He taps on the train door after spinning on the heel of his shoes, which look like shoes that someone would wear at a party of some sort. Not a party here, no. We are not like the Capitol. The people of District Nine seem more modest and much less flamboyant. The shoes are tall on both ends. I wonder how he even manages to walk. Another tap on the train door and the metallic door opens from the inside, moving inside of a small crevice inside of the train's wall. "Well, well!" I hear his voice chime out as he walks inside, ushering me and Sheave in. A woman, whom I do not recognize, is already standing inside of the train as the doors close. She must have gotten here first. Just by looking at her a couple of times, I know who she is. The victor of our district. Though we have had another, this woman is the only victor that is still alive, "It's nice to see you again, Amawrath." Amawrath. I remember watching the game that she was in as a child. During her games, she lost a couple of fingers, but her strategy was solid. Using everything that you can as a weapon. Set traps in every known crevice of the arena. She was smart and didn't sustain major injuries minus those fingers that she lost on her left hand.

"Right, Caligula!" Amawrath seems to salute the flamboyant male to his own delight. A large smile has appeared on his face again, larger than the one at the reaping, "And these are my tributes?" Amawrath seems eager as she leads them out of the first room of the train, which is empty, and into the next. I take in each and every detail of this second room, examining it thoroughly. Like the justice building, it has qualities that are taken from the Capitol and placed into an area it does not belong in.

"And who are you?" Amawrath takes an immediate liking to the look on Sheave's face. Dull and expressionless. I wonder what Amawrath had already seen in her that I do not. However, Sheave does not seem to care that Amawrath had just spoke to her. Instead, she shoves past Amawrath, moving over to the window and looking out as the train begins to speed out of the train station. That's when Amawrath sets her focus on me, examining me as I had examined her. Now that she's looking at me, I can tell some things seem to be off with her. First, her complexion is not like mine or anyone else from my district. Her skin is pale, an off-white, which makes me wonder if she's ever been out in the sun harvesting grain like I have. Second, her eyes are a lot like Sheave's. Even though they have a grey tint to them, however, I'm quite sure that they're an off green. She is also a lot taller than me and Sheave are. That might be one of the reasons that she dominated in the arena.

"Auger," I say. Her eyes immediately light up and she gives a gentle smile to me as if she's known me all of her life.

"It's great to meet you, Auger," Her kind personality is very different from the personality that she had when she was in the arena.

"It's an honor to meet a victor," My mouth lets out. The words that I spoke seemed emotionless. I'm not really sure how I feet having to be mentored by someone who murdered other people.

Her expression turns from happy to angry. This is only brief, however, and it twists itself back into place, "Right..." Her voice seems to drift off at the end as she leads more over to a table made of glass. That seems to be the theme in this part of the train. Everything was glass, from the tables, to the forks and spoons, to the plates. Or, it looked like glass. However, I know it's not as fragile as it looks as soon as I sit down on a chair I pull out from the single dining table in the room. As if she expected me to say something, she stares at me blankly until she realizes that I'm not going to speak, "Well?"

"Well...what?"

"Is there anything that you would like to know?" You can sense a tinge of fear in her voice because her voice cracks as soon as she finishes the sentence. I know what she's thinking. She probably thinks that I'm ignorant, that I'm unaware of what to do. Well, I am unaware of what to do in the arena when I do get there. But I know I have to ask questions sometime. I just... I wasn't expecting to need to ask questions just yet, "About how to survive?"

The realization that I will be dead soon runs through me in the form of a pang. I feel my heart beating quickly for just a couple of minutes before it slows down. Averting my attention away from the question, I begin to speak, "What about her?" I nod my head towards Sheave as she stares out of the window, glancing at all of the vegetation that we pass before it disappears behind us.

"She doesn't seem interested."

"Right... But, I'm not sure what to ask," I say honestly. So many questions form in my mind as another pang runs through me, causing me a bit of distress on the inside. It's a good skill of mine, though, the fact that I can hide my emotions so easily even though I have so many, "In fact, I don't even know what the arena is going to be. How can I ask you for advice if I'm not even sure if I'm going to be in a place that suits me-"

"Don't say that, darling!" Caligula, who has apparently mixed a drink while I wasn't looking, walks over and moves a glass seat out from under the table, sitting down and staring at me and my mentor, "Don't be so negative, lighten up!"

Amawrath stares at Caligula with an unamused expression, but I stare at him in complete and utter disbelief. What? How could I lighten up? I'm going to die soon and he expects me to lighten up? As if that were possible. "How?" I don't say anything else besides that one word to Caligula and he stares at me with the exact same expression that I stared at him with. While he stares, I now notice the make up that he wears. You can tell that he wears a lot more make up when you see him up close compared to seeing him stand on the stage every year at the reaping.

"How? What do you mean... how?" His voice lets out a clamor and his jaw drops open. He raises his hand and waggles his finger around a little bit in front of my face, "Look at everything that we're giving you, mister! Look at everything that you're receiving! Be happy that you've even been chosen for this opportunity!" For a second, I almost forgot that the Capitol citizens seem to be more brainwashed than everyone in my district. For that, I simply smile and act as if I'm not offended.

"Sorry, I wasn't thinking clearly."

"No, no you weren't! But I forgive you."

It takes all that I am not to give him a contorted face as he takes a sip of his drink. I turn back to look at Amawrath who is staring at me intently instead of Caligula. She seems impressed with the way I just handled him. Me and her begin to start a lengthy conversation about hunting, about surviving, and about the other tributes that were voted to take part in the first Quarter Quell. She tells me everything she knows. However, she doesn't talk about combat for one reason or another. Sheave stays at the window for about two hours through our conversation before she moves over to the table where we all have been sitting since the train ride began, "Where are the beds?"

Caligula gets up. His glass, full again for the third time, is set down on the table. Caligula walks over to the girl, placing his gloved hand on her back and walking towards the door opposite to us that leads to another train cart, "Come here, child, this way." Out of instinct, I smile. Sheave and Caligula are gone and I am left alone with my mentor, Amawrath.

"What's up with her, do you think?" I finally obtained the courage to ask what might have been wrong with her. Amawrath seems to know immediately and almost seems hesitant to talk about it, but she speaks her mind anyway after a minute of thought.

"She's the mayor's daughter. I think she assumed she had... immunity."

"What?" That must've been why she was so quiet and why I did not recognize her. While she was probably a prominent figure to others, she was nothing to me. I never paid attention to the mayor and his family. Now that I think about it, that's probably why she was here, because she is the mayor's daughter. Were people that eager to call her off just because she has a better life than everyone else? Apparently so. To be honest, I actually feel quite bad for her now. When I first looked at her, I saw a future enemy in her because of the way that she acted. Could her personality actually be a facade of hurt and pain? Looking at her will never be the same because of what I now think. She's not the stone cold girl that I thought she was. Instead, she's a living, breathing human being who has it worse off than I have it. She might have a loving family, but an entire district turned against her with reason.

Looking back on it now, I didn't hear any apologies as she walked through the crowd of people. Friends, strangers, enemies... They all turned on her because she has a better life than the rest of us have. Knowing that, guilt builds up inside of me. I'm proud that I did not vote. That doesn't mean I don't feel sorry for the girl that I was going to have to try and make an effort to get to know before the games begin. Like me, she's likely to soon become a memory. As my thoughts progressed, so did our conversation about Sheave and about how to survive continued. Eventually, Sheave, waking up from an hour long nap, takes the time to sit down, get some food, and listen to what we have to say even though it was obvious that she had nothing to say what so ever. Our escort, Caligula, was likely taking some time to sleep to enhance his 'beauty' as the train traveled into the Capitol.