Sweetest Downfall

I sucked in a deep breath, the girl from District 3 had just walked out, it was her turn to get scored by the Gamemakers. Herring elbowed me softly and motioned to my food, I hadn’t touched it. “There’s hone whole day, then the Games. Eat.”

I nodded and started to eat a piece of ham. The clock was ticking and I counted the hours I had left before they threw me in the arena. There was the rest of today, then all of tomorrow, and then the morning after tomorrow, at six in the morning, was when I’d be getting prepped to be in the arena, then at precisely eleven o’clock I’d be put on death row. I fearfully gulped as a Peacekeeper came over and told Herring it was his turn to go. He squeezed my shoulder and walked with the Peacekeeper down the hall. I looked to Mags for some sort of support.

“Do what you think goes best with your plans. You and I both know that those Careers are after you, but right now you have Herring to protect you and vice versa. You’ve got the innocent look, but that doesn’t fool the Careers, though it wins you big points with sponsors…” Mags let her voice float in the air before she spoke again. “In the end, it’s not me out in the arena, it’s you. So, you need to do what you need to do in order to survive.”

I sucked in a deep breath. “I think I know what I’m going to do.” I pulled my hair up in a ponytail and had Mags tie the ribbon in a perfect bow. I pinched my cheeks and shook my face, trying to wake myself up and face what I had to do. About fifteen minutes later another Peacekeeper came, but this time he came for me. Mags got up and said she was going to talk with Herring and would meet me up there with him.

I waited for a moment in front of the big steel, grey doors. My heart rate started to accelerate as I heard laughter from the other side of it. The Peacekeepers opened the doors and I walked in. The first thing I noticed was the balcony where the Gamemakers were sitting, drinking what looked like red and white wine, eating fruits and meat of all sorts. I looked around, there was a rack full of weapons and some dummies and some targets randomly placed around. I sighed and walked to the center of the room, all of the Gamemakers’ eyes turned to look at me one by one. Some of them raised their eyebrows, some sadly smiled and others were too drunk to make an expression and I held in a laugh as one spilled his white wine on himself.

“Shay Vessa, female tribute of District Four.” One with sweaty brown hair and gleaming grey eyes said, flashing a menacing smile; he was the head Gamemaker and he was drunk beyond memory. His cheeks and nose were flushed pink and his forehead had began sweating at least twenty minutes ago. I took that as signal to begin and, without making any footstep noises, I grabbed hold of two palm-fitted daggers and this seemed to get the attention of some of the Gamemakers.

I focused as I prayed to the sky that my muscles were loose enough to show the Gamemakers what I could really do. I threw one dagger into a dummy a good twenty feet in front of me and simultaneously threw one up and behind me at a rope holding a sandbag hanging high in the air over another dummy. As the second dagger came falling back down to the floor I slid under the legs of the dummy, hit where the backs of where knee caps would be if it were a real tribute, caught my dagger and stabbed his back hard. I pulled it out and ran to get my first dagger; I ran as quickly as I could and cut every dummy on my way. Just as I pulled out the dagger I heard a whooshing noise and untipped arrows started on their way at me. I pulled the dummy down and it covered me like a dead body would, and took a second to breathe. I saw that the arrows were done being shot and so I slid out from under the now unrecognizable dummy and saw that now all of the Gamemakers were watching me with glares to looks of admiration to looks of pain. The head Gamemaker motioned for me to go back to the center and I cautiously kept my guard up, waiting for another arrow to be shot.

“How old are you, Miss Vessa?” He asked me, curiosity was tainting his words.

I kept my face confused and my voice soft, I wanted my appearance and my actions to be polar opposites; I wanted to be an unnoticed threat. “Sixteen, sir.”

He grinned, “How long have you trained with those blades?”

“I let my work answer those kinds of questions, sir.” I smiled sweetly at him and he along with the rest of the Gamemakers chuckled.

“A smart answer from a smart girl,” He said to one of his fellow Gamemakers before turning to me. “Then can you answer this; how long do you plan to last?”

“I don’t plan to ‘last,’ sir. I plan to win.” I let my honey sweet smile seep into him before letting it fade. He nodded his head with his eyebrows raised before he spoke again waving his hand toward a door opposite from the one I came in from.

“You may go,” he said. “May the odds be ever in your favor, Shay.”

I bowed my head in thanks before I walked out, leaving those precious blades where my feet were. The second I was alone on the elevator I smiled so big my cheeks hurt. I had to get a good score! When I got to the room I looked around the corner to see Herring and his stylist, he was being measured for his interview clothes, I felt an m loop itself around my waist and pull me back. “Come, we need to fit you too.”

Lomet spun me around so that I could face him and I smiled, he had changed into comfy looking slacks and I became jealous. “What do you have in store for me?”

“We’re going with the same underwater theme, but it is going to be much less Capitol style and much more District 4.” He said as he measured my legs.

“I haven’t grown in four days, Lomet.” I laughed as he gave me a Look.

“No, you’re legs haven’t gotten taller,” He measured my waistline. “You’ve gotten… well fatter for lack of a better word.”

“Really?!” I screamed in excitement and clapped my hands together. “Oh my gosh! Mags, Herring! I’m fat!” Lomet chuckled as I heard Mags and Herring laugh loudly from different rooms. Good, laugh, I thought. The cuter everyone thinks I am, the nicer I seem to sponsors, the more likable I am to the public. I’ve got this.