Chapter Three- Dreams

I awoke to the sound of screaming, forcing me to sit up and rip the covers off of myself as I got to my feet, looking around. Before my mind could process what was happening, the scenery changed, my feet now against a cool surface as I looked down, seeing that I was on cement.

Looking up, I saw the reaping stage, the large stage had the two bowls on where Sev picked names. Rose was smiling down at me from the stage as she reached out and gave me her hand. As soon as I reached out and my fingertips grazed hers, she disappeared. The stage bursted into a cloud of musky smoke, making me back up.

My back hit something. Turning around, I saw Caleb in front of me, a cheesy smile on his face as he hugged me around my waist. "I missed you," he told me as he looked up at me with his blue eyes. I felt my arms tighten around him as I hugged him tightly.

"I missed you too," I whispered, holding him close to me and closing my eyes to try and savor the moment of my brother being with me. Opening my eyes, I saw that he wasn't there. I put my hands back to my sides as I looked around to see what else was happening, but nothing showed, I was surrounded by a thick smog. Alone.

I awoke with a start, sitting up and gasping for air as I put my hand on my forehead. It was just a dream... I ran my fingers through my hair, trying to clear my head.

Hearing my door open, I looked up to see Rose standing in my doorway. Her cheeks were a light rosy color and her eyes were bloodshot. "Can't sleep?" She asked me. I shook my head, now turning my gaze away from her. The dream was so realistic it was scary.

Rose stepped towards me, sitting down next to me as she leaned against the bedpost. "I can't either," she told me softly, though not meeting my gaze. I could tell Rose had a nightmare was well, she seemed to be shaking and looked uneasy. "It's 5 am, I woke up at 3 and couldn't go back to sleep," Rose admitted, turning her head to look at my state.

Her eyebrows knelt as she reached out and put her hand on my shoulder. "Hey, are you ok?" She asked me in a warm and welcoming tone, almost how my mother spoke. Not wanting to lie to her, I started to shake my head. Rose pressed her lips together tightly as if scrambling to find the right words to comfort me with, such as I did to her when she was having a rough time falling asleep. Instead of talking, she scooted closer to me, looking up at me. "Cole, I know you're scared, so am I trust me, but I think we'll be alright, as long as we stick together," Rose spoke. Was she asking to be my ally?

Still not speaking, I closed my eyes to try and calm myself. "I'm not scared," I told her, catching her attention. "I won't let these games scare me," I muttered bitterly. I readjusted my pillow to make it more comfortable to sit up as I looked down at her, Rose being a smaller height than myself. "It was just a bad dream," I stated, not wanting to show weakness, even though she was my ally now.

"What was it about?" Rose asked me boldly.

"My brother," I said honestly, not scared to show a little emotion to her. "I just miss him," I grumbled, making Rose sigh as she rested her head against the bedpost, taking her hand off my shoulder.

As the night went on, we talked together, sharing stories and joking around until the sun came up. Rose had fallen asleep on me by accident, her head resting on my shoulder. I looked down at her with a small smile, happy that she was here. If I was still thirteen, I would be drooling over her when I had a crush on her, though now I was just happy we were friends. Rose had a lot more to her then I had thought, she was funny and kind, telling me stories of her family and how she worked with mother and her sister around the house.

Slowly, I positioned her against a pillow as I slipped out of the room, wrapping a robe around myself to keep warm as I made my way to the dinning area.

Ember and Cyrus were there, chatting and munching on little biscuits and toast; Sev off to the side with an annoyed look on her face and she sipped her tea silently. Cyrus looked up and smiled when he saw me. "Good morning sleeping beauty," he joked. I rolled my eyes as I sat down, looking at the table, my eyes wide.

The table was littered with food, drinks, and so much more. Oh how my family would've loved this if they were here. I reached over and grabbed an odd looking toasted bread and some jelly, grabbing a knife and started spreading it on the toasted bread. "So, let's talk," Ember said, breaking the silence. "What do you want to know about?"

I tapped my chin in thought before something came to mind. "How about how to get sponsors," I started off, wanting to know this skill, knowing it would help me in the long run.

Ember laughed as she took a drink of her coffee. "Well, you get people to like you, be funny, charming, kind, sweet, you know, basically a suck up," she said with a shrug. Cyrus nodded at that, leaning back in his chair. "If you didn't notice, Cyrus messed that part up for himself-"

"Only because I didn't want to kiss their toes!" He interrupted, making Ember roll her eyes. Cyrus then pointed at me with his butter knife that was in his hand from when he was slabbing jelly on his bread. "If you really want people to like you, you gotta do things," he told me, now a grin on his lips. "Maybe you gotta show some skin, maybe you gotta wink a few times, maybe you gotta strip-"

"You do not do that!" Ember snapped, making Cyrus chuckle. I rubbed my temples as I slowly looked towards Sev, as if pleading for help. She then smirked as she waved her hand, shushing Ember and Cyrus as she looked at me.

It was distracting to keep eye contact with her, her eyelashes had an odd glimmer on them, no doubt some sort of Capitol fashion. Sev smiled warmly at me as she leaned forward. "Like Ember said, you get people to like you," she said simply. "Ember is a perfect example, being a Capitol favorite by far," Sev said with a small giggle as well, getting a nod of gratitude from Ember. "Ember here took it upon herself to join in with the careers, only being twelve helped," Sev admitted, "but of course there is still a possibility for you to join, it'd keep you alive for a portion of the games," she told me as she then sipped her tea, raising her pinky.

Cyrus snorted in laughter as he leaned back. "Oh please, if he joined the career's they'd kill him almost instantly," he muttered, looking at me up and down. "Then again, you'd be one of the first they'd pick off," Cyrus sighed.

Feeling a confused emotion, I looked at Ember. She rolled her eyes, being clearly annoyed with me. "It's because of your build," she explained. "You worked with your father right? With lumber?" Ember asked me, making me nod at her and she grunted. "You have muscle, and that's a threat for the career's if you're strong and they're not," she told me.

I felt a chill go down my spine. "The only reason they let me in was because I played little ms. innocent," Ember growled, twirling a knife in between her fingers. "As soon as it was down to the three of us," without another word, she slammed the knife down onto the table, making Sev jump at the sudden act. Ember looked up at me with a grin, yanking the knife out of the table as she leaned back in her chair. "There you have it, the victor of the 61st Annual Hunger Games," she said with a bitter laugh.

"What do you do if you don't want to kill anyone?" Said a soft voice, making me turn in my chair to see Rose walking towards us, taking a seat next to me as she looked at our mentors who seemed to be holding back laughter.

"Not killing in the games? That's highly impossible," Cyrus told her. Rose glared at Cyrus, making me tense up as I cleared my throat, trying to make her snap out of it, luckily it worked as she looked at the food, beginning to pile up her plate.

There was an uncomfortable tension in the air as we ate silently. Suddenly Rose let out a sigh, seeming to get Cyrus's attention. He muttered something inaudible as he pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "I'm sorry," Cyrus grumbled. "You can try not killing, but it won't get you very far, that's the cold truth," he told Rose in more of a warmer tone.

Rose bit her lip. "I know, well at least I know now," she whispered.

The room suddenly went dark, lights flashing every now and then signaling that we were in some sort of tunnel. "We're almost there," Ember spoke, making Rose and I stand up and walk towards the windows.

As soon as we were out of the tunnel, a bright light lit the room back up, that was when cheer's and hoots could be heard as I looked out the window. Capitol people were screaming and cheering with pure bliss and joy as our train passed them. My jaw clenched tightly, not knowing how to react to this. 'Cyrus said get people to like me,' I told myself in my head, guessing this was a good start.

Rose backed away from the window as I smiled at the Capitol people, sometimes waving and making them cheer louder as our train reached the station, signaling we were getting off.

I took in a much needed deep breath as Sev lead Cyrus, Ember, Rose, and myself off of the train. Capitol citizens swarmed, calling our names and smiling brightly. Each one looked so differently odd it was a bit unpleasing. Neon hair, tight clothing, weird make-up, it was so alien to me.

Being lead into a large building, I noticed other tributes there as well. A girl looked at me up and down, a glint in her eye. I didn't know if she was being friendly or not, that was definitely up for debate.

The girl had light blonde hair and was wearing a worn rugged black tank top and some shorts with it, golden studded earrings as well, my guess was that it was her District token, though yet again that was up for debate.

"Come come, since you are from District 7, you get the seventh floor, one of my favorites," Sev told us as she ushered us into an elevator. Ember and Cyrus didn't join us, they said that they wanted to catch up with the other mentors and talk; Rose and I didn't argue.

Before the elevator door's closed, three people slipped in, the girl who had looked at me before being among them. Sev glared at a man that was in the elevator, and he glared right back. The man had neon blue hair and was wearing a sparkly blue tux as well, no doubt a District Representative.

"Scott," Sev grumbled a greeting, making a sly smile appear on the blue haired man's lips.

"Sev," he replied, hitting a button with the elevator that was marked with the number four on it; Sev hitting our floor button as well.

There was an odd feeling in the air before the elevator made a 'ding' sound, signaling that we were at floor four. Scott and the other two guided out of the elevator, him winking at Sev before the door's closed again.

I saw Sev's fists clench as she let out a huff. "Those are tributes from District 4," she explained. "I think their names were Silver and Thorn, the man with the blue hair is named Scott, their District Representative," Sev mumbled. "An arrogant piece of work he is," she added, making me cast an amused glance at Rose. It was funny to watch Sev get angry, it never seemed to happen often so whenever it did, I took a note not to miss it.

When we reached our floor, we stepped out of the elevator. Sev smiled brightly as she walked in front of us, giving us a tour of where we were staying until the games begun. "This is your room," she told me when we reached it.

My room here wasn't far off from the one I had when I was on the train. It had light grey walls with a large king sized bed, posters of the Capitol's logo and the Hunger Game's logo were scattered everywhere, some pictures of memorable victor's from our District were on the wall as well, Ember being one of them. As I turned my head, I saw a large window that looked over the Capitol, seeing landmarks and such from when I watched tv at home.

Home. How I missed it.

Not wanting to get upset, I followed Sev for the rest of the tour of our little hotel room (I guess you could call it.) When the tour was over, I went back to my room, deciding to get some more rest, or at least try to.

Laying down, I rested my head against the fluffy pillow, not being used to this type of comfort that came from the Capitol. Closing my eyes, I started remembering good things that happened in my life, trying to at least bring myself something that reminded me of home. Before I knew it, those memories became dreams as I fell asleep.