Worth it | F.O.

IV

Nivea was a stubborn person by nature and other outside reasons. But there was one thing that she could not deny no matter how she wished to. She just had to admit, much to her shame, that the Capitol truly was something else. 

They had everything she could've dreamed of even if she had no wish to gain what they did from mere coincidence. They had it all, from money to throw around on hair and food stolen from her District's hard work to what could only be world class train systems. It was truly magnificent but only if one remembered to ignore the insincerity of everything they claimed as theirs. 

The train before her was grand and a bright silver as it slowed to a stop, its doors crafted by district 6 sliding open smoothly. The wiring weaved by those of District 3 controlled its picture perfect movements, energy siphoned from yet another District powering the whole system. Nivea remained as a witness to all that had been taken in its wonder as she stood outside the very transportation vehicle she was about to board, peacekeepers working as a kind of entourage around her. They stood unbearably close by, flanking every possible escape route she could have taken to prevent such an attempt, making it impossible not to catch a glance of white fabric delicately sewn by those in District 8 with every glance. 

She took no mind nor much of a notice to them for her plans had nothing to do with running away like a coward. It seemed, at least to others, as if she were standing on her own and not surrounded by heavily armed men and women provided so from their most loyal of districts, her stance more relaxed and confident than any tribute District 11 had ever sent off. She even dared to smile, though it easily could have been a smirk if one even gave her the time of day, when the doors clicked to a stop where they hid in the finely crafted walls of metal. 

Walking forward with what could have and would have been right to be mistaken as a glance to the countryside out of the corner of her eye, she began to realize what she was truly getting into. She had known all her life, yes, that was undeniably irrefutable, but only then right as it was actually about to happen did it truly hit her with a ferocity she didn't at all enjoy. This moment was like most of its kind whether it be a young child going into surgery or a teen getting behind the wheel of a car for the first time. It was always scary but the thought did not at all compare to the reality of that very moment. 

The moment spoken of, or written of in this case, was a briefer one than you could have imagined possible. It was suspended in the moment in which her foot hung in the air, not a hesitation in the simple movement but somehow time still stretched on to allow her mind to race as it was. 

Nivea was going into uncharted territory now, she realized, and it was something she did not at all know what to expect from. Sure, she had studied past games and the way they typically seemed to play out, and had even trained illegally like careers tended to ever since she had turned five, but the Capitol was a whole different story. Whilst she knew what to expect of the killing part she had no idea about the Capitol or how they would receive her. 

She had never liked the unknown, seeing as Nivea had always known what was bound to come next, but the people of the Capitol, whilst stupidly predictable, were both that and widely the opposite sometimes. Her life was hanging in the balance on that front and the only way she would survive would be thanks to how they thought of her. That was assuming they would. That was praying to all the goddamned gods above they would. 

Nivea knew, all of Panem knew, of the unspoken deal between those districts known for the tributes referred to most as careers. It was no coincidence that those specific districts were the only to produce careers when they were the first four and by far the biggest supporters of the Capitol and its extensively fucked up ways. It was certain, at least to her, that others had attempted at producing other careers but the Capitol would not stand for it and always found a way to kill them off sooner or later.