Quelling the Flames

Electra Niktes Aven, District 3, Task 1

I stand impatiently as the door opens. A girl/woman probably not much older than twenty steps inside the room. She has a mass of frizzy red hair, with electric blue eyes. Surprisingly, she's not so over the top like the other capitol members.

"Good afternoon, how are you doing? My name is Rachel, I'll be your stylist." she says with a musical lilt. There's something about her that's very familiar, something in the way she moves, something in her eyes maybe.

"Hi," I say.

Her arms are filled with a gold material along with some black lace poking out. It clinks strangely as she walks like there's something metal in it.

I watch anxiously as she unfolds it. I had watched too many District 3 tributes dressed horridly as machines, or other technology pieces. But I shouldn't have worried. When she unfolds it, I gasp.

I had seen the fashion before in the rare magazines I had managed to scrounge from the border between District 2 and 3. I recall the name now, steampunk. It's a dark gold dress flowing from a laced corset top. Lace designs decorate the whole thing along with chains, and small gears and clocks that had been sewn artfully onto it.

"I...I love it!" I exclaim.

She smiles. "Good! I always love to hear that. Now come here dear and try this on."

I slip into it and ogle at myself it the mirror. It fits me perfectly. Rachel nods approvingly before hurrying around me pinning a little bit here and a little bit there.

"So, Electra, isn't it?"

I nod.

"I was looking at your file and do you mind me asking how you got your middle name? I know District 3 pretty well, and let me just say, NikTes is not a common name."

"My parents named me after Nikola Tesla. They mashed the name together to create NikTes"

"That's awesome! I used to know a boy from District 3 named after Thomas Edison," her tone is sad and I stare up at her suspiciously.

"I know a boy named that too," I say.

Her head flicks up and her gaze is hopeful, but her voice is hesitant as if she doesn't dare to believe it.

"I guessed as much. You come from the same part of District 3. How is he? Is he ok?"

"Yes, he's fine, but how do YOU know him?!" I ask, but I already know the answer. I see the way he walks in hers, the way she leans against the wall is the same thing I had seen him do so many times.

"I'm his sister. Some couple wanted to adopt a kid from the districts and they ended up taking me. I worked in the fashion industry striving for the day when I could work as a stylist for the District 3 tributes and maybe I would get news of him, and now I have." She breathes a sigh of relief. "Thank you."

I nod briefly in acknowledgment and she moves around me again continuing to pin.

"Tell me about him," she commands. I can see that she wants to know every piece of her brother that she had lost, so I start at the very beginning. She drinks in every word, holding them close and I do too. I never realized how close we actually were until I started talking about our friendship and a sharp pain swells in my chest. I cut off abruptly as tears threaten my vision. She glances up at the sudden lack of speech and concern clouds her expression.
"You miss him don't you." I nod not trusting my voice. She pulls me into her arms and doesn't say anything for a while. "I'm glad you were there for him, even when I couldn't be. I know you miss him, but there's only one thing you can do about that. You have to fight. You have to beat them all, and then you'll be home again with your family and with Tom, and your beloved experiments." I nod wiping away my tears.
She sits me down in front of a mirrored desk and begins to apply my make-up when she's done, she pulls out delicate clockwork armbands, and a beautiful old-fashioned watch. I slip them on speechless at their beauty. When look at her however, I see that she's become nervous.

"What's wrong?" I ask. She jumps startled, and her expression darkens until her mouth is a grim line.

"Have you noticed the rebellions in the districts?"

"Rebellions?" I think back to the way everyone seemed on edge in District 3, at the way we hated the Capitol with a burning passion, at the pranks we would play on the peacekeepers. I let out a breath. I had thought that was just normal district behavior, but now I have reason to think it's something more. "No. There's haven't been rebellions...yet," I say. She nods.

"Do you hate the Capitol?"

My answer is immediate and unhesitating. "Yes."

"I've been working on this for a long time now." she touches the watch. "When you press this button here, a huge hologram of you will project from it so that you rise above everybody. It will move in the same way you do, so make sure you don't look nervous. Look, regal, look haughty."
I nod quickly in understanding.
She takes a deep breath and faces me squarely. "Now here's my plan. We can record something and it will play hundreds of times louder from the hologram. What do you want to say?"

I furrow my eyebrows thinking. At last I face her. "You steal our children, our friends, our family, so know this. When I'm out there fighting, I'm fighting for them." She stares at me concerned.

"That will get you killed!!!"

"I was already going to get killed. That's the point of the Hunger Games."

"This will get you killed a LOT quicker and probably more painfully too."

I shrug. I didn't care at this point. "Think about Tom!" she says pleadingly. I hesitate, thinking about his easy grin, floppy black hair and hazel green eyes, but I shake my head. "I'm fighting for him too, and for you."

She stares at me for a moment longer then nods. "Alright."
She tells me to speak the lines again and soon I'm at the door giving her one last hug.
"Good luck,"she whispers.
I smile exhilarated. I'm shocked to find that I'm not even a little bit nervous at the prospect of angering the Capitol. Instead, I'm excited that I've finally been given a chance to do something...to not just stand around and trampled on by President Snow