My eyes adjusted to the stage lights and I saw the crowds of vibrant Capitolites surge to their feet, cheering madly until they were red in the face. Seated on a raised stage were the tributes' handlers and stylists and I could clearly see Emmet motioning for me to smile. Raised far above the rest was the gamemaker's balcony where they sat without moving, completely solemn in my entrance. The faux President Snow was not with them, but I knew that he would be watching. A tight smile pulled at my lips when a camera zoomed in on me, broadcasting my face all over the mysterious Panem. If Snow wanted a show then I would give him a show.
Taking the edges of my ember dress, I dipped a fluid curtsey towards the crowd, never letting them leave my gaze and earning their loud appreciation. Twin bursts of fire and black smoke erupted on each side of me, giving the curtsey a better effect than I could ever imagine. I could hear the audience's voice crack at the extra pyro and smiled at how incredibly stupid they were. So easy to please. If only they knew the truth. How would they react if they found out that their precious tributes were kidnapped children from another country, a real country? Would they be so willing to cheer them on to their deaths? Something told me that wouldn't be the case.
"Emma Price, everyone!" crowed the imitation Flickerman.
He came towards me and raised me from my curtsey with a hand, spinning me around to the crowd's undying delight. I allowed him to lead me past a row of chairs lining the stage to where the interview was to be conducted, listening as the audience fought to catch their breath. Engle Arons was already seated, watching me with bright eyes like that of a hungry beast eyeing his next meal. My heart skipped a beat at the sight of him and I could feel a sticky perspiration gather across my exposed back. It was a relief when I was allowed to sit as I had begun to feel that my legs would give out at any second.
Flickerman passes a hand over a vibrant purple coiffed hair and gives the cameras a smile that looks almost grotesque. "Now that was an entrance, wasn't it?" he asked exuberantly. It took a moment for him to calm the crowds again, but I could tell that he enjoyed their reactions. When they were quieted once more, he swivelled his chair to face me. "Emma, you seemed very confident coming out. Could you tell us your secret?"
"The dress helps." I replied truthfully. "It gives me a certain amount of confidence." I paused, calculating my next move, knowing that the crowds wanted to fall in love with me. "Plus, it helps that the skirt is long enough to hide my knocking knees. Do you ever feel what it's like to be nervous and excited all at once?"
Flickerman smiled warmly and there was a twittering of chuckles from the crowd. Excellent.
"All the time!" he said. "Especially when I am around food!" He received an acknowledgement of boisterous laughter and I allowed a calculated, shy, smile to trace my lips. "You have nothing to be nervous about, my dear." Flickerman told me, taking up my hand and patting it. "Out of all the tributes you are the only one to be granted a thirteen in evaluations. That has never been done before! Can you tell us anything, anything about it?"
I glance nervously up at the gamemakers' grave stares and swallowed against a dry throat. "Only-Only that I came away with a couple of scars for souvenirs."
"Yes, of course." said Flickerman, his voice lowering dramatically. "You must be very strong to go through that. It sounds like it would have been very painful."
"It was nothing. I barely felt a thing." I hesitated before going on, taking another calculated risk. "I was actually more worried someone else was harmed in the process."
"You have a very protective nature, don't you Emma?" I nodded in response, wary of where this was going. "Could that perhaps be connected to a younger sibling in your family?"
"Is it that obvious?"
"Oh yes." said Flickerman. "Yes it is."
My skin prickled and for a moment I saw the faux President Snow in his eyes. He knew. Flickerman knew all about us and he was willing to be a part of it. The man leaned forward in his chair with his grotesque smile, his thumb lightly grazing the edge of my bracelet.
"Just hypothetically...What would you do if your sibling were ever put in danger?" he asked and a chill ran through me.
The cameras zoomed in even further, probably catching a close up image of my face and the coming reaction. I could almost feel the crowd leaning in, their greedy faces eagerly awaiting my reply. Flickerman was still watching me, his painted face expectant, but I didn't turn to him. My smile faded and I felt my jaw harden as I turned to stare directly into the nearest camera. For the first time I actually felt dangerous and I wanted Snow to see this. I wanted him to know that I hadn't forgotten my threats.
"I would do everything I could to save them." I said. "Then I would kill whoever put them in danger."
Flickerman's eyes grew cold, but he did not lose his fake smile. "Then I'd say it's a good thing you don't have any siblings competing in the this years games." he told me. "Because I can see that nothing will be able to stop you."
He raised me from my seat and turned me towards a subdued audience who all stared at me in awe. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Prema sniffling into a handkerchief and Emmet sitting in stunned silence. For a moment I wondered if I had scared them and if the not so subtle threat would put me in even further danger. Then it happened. One by one the audience members stood up, slowly beginning to cheer and call out to me, chanting my name as if it were an anthem. My name rolled across them like the waves of an ocean, growing stronger as I was led to the seat next to Engle. Before I was allowed to sit down, Flickerman thrust our joined hands into the air and the crowd erupted into a full blown cheering.
"Emma Price!" he cried, his voice barely reaching above the noise. "The district twelve tribute and the girl who cannot be stopped!"
"We'll see how well your name holds up in the arena." whispered Engle in my ear once I was seated. "It would be such a shame if we marked that pretty face of yours."
"A shame for you or for me?" I asked, trying to stay calm.
He grinned, giving me a full view of his teeth. "Let's say both, shall we Darling?"
His teeth clicked when he spoke and I noticed for the first time that they were edged in some sort of metal. I repressed a shiver and turned my attentions towards the centre of the stage where Caitlyn Summers was being introduced. The captured tribute trembled before the roaring crowd, any confidence she might have gained in the past now drained from her. She had regressed back to the first day we had met and she clutched at an arm that had regained its shiny redness from the electric bracelet. She looked at me and I saw hurt in her eyes, a betrayed trust. What had Snow done to break apart the Captured's union within a night? I felt ostracized, thrown out and abandoned by the only ones I thought I could trust.
It was the same with every Captured called forth for their interview. I could hear it in their voices, see it in the way they looked at me. The only one who did not react to who I was, was Justin. He didn't even look at me. He just spoke with Flickerman as if he were always a part of Panem and was playing up the excited tribute ready to enter the arena. I decided then that he was no longer my brother. Justin had changed to fit Panem's views and I could no longer hold onto the hope that he would ever be the same boy I had grown to love. Then again, was I still the same or had I been playing into Snow's games all along? I couldn't tell anymore.
With a flourish of a hand from Flickerman, I stood as one with the other twenty three tributes lined up along the stage and faced the Capitol. An anthem played around us and the cheers thundered across the stage, but I barely heard it. This was it. This was who we were. Twenty four tributes about to enter the Hunger Games and no one was going to stop us. No one was going to come and save us. We stood alone now and nothing could get in our way.
"Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you the tributes of the eight annual Hunger Games!"
Sally stared at the television in stunned silence, her hand shaking around a remote she had been clutching the entire time. The twenty four tributes-No. The twenty four teenagers all bowed in unison and the purple haired man waved them to the crowd who cheered themselves hoarse. David sat beside her, unmoving as if he had been turned to stone. A great weight had settled across them and it was hard to move, hard to even breath in the space that had seemed to tighten around them.
The remote finally fell from her fingers, clattering to the ground where it burst open and released its contained batteries. Their television flickered out to suddenly be replaced by a video of the man who had addressed them earlier when their entire world had begun to fall apart. His cool eyes glared out at them and Sally knew that every screen in the world contained his image.
"The time has come for your tributes to enter the Hunger Games." He said, contempt dripping in his voice. "You have tried and failed to save them. You have tried and failed to find me. Know now that this is the end of your world and the beginning of mine. No one is safe from my reach. Let the Hunger Games begin and may the odds be ever in my favour."
The man's image dissolved away from their television, returning it to the original broadcast of the Secretary of Defence addressing the nation. He appeared visibly shaken, his previous speech having been cut off when the networks were once again taken over by the mysterious man. Roger Wilson glanced down at his notes as if to collect himself and then gripped the edges of his podium. He raised grave eyes that held a steady resolution Alice and David had never seen before.
"This man has captured our children, taken away the safety of our homes, and endangered this nation's freedom." He began, his voice dangerous and cold. "As of this moment the United States of America are at war with the ones who call themselves Panem. God bless America. God Bless the human race."
End of Transmission
End of Part I