The Hunger Games: The Crankiplier Story

Mentoring

The women who escorted us, who's name happens to be Winifred, showed us into a room on the train.
It felt like a first class section.
Mark and I sat down on soft chairs in the middle of the room.

Suddenly the train jetted forward. I looked out the window, watching how fast we were going.
Winifred sat in the chair in front of us.
She patted on her lap excitedly. None of us were amused.

In the silence of the room, I asked a question just to break it.
"How fast are we going?"

It sounded so random, but she respond as if she was waiting for me to say it.
"200 Miles per hour. It's it crazy how little you feel from it?"

I didn't respond back to that.

"Aren't we supposed to be meeting our mentor?" Mark asked.

"Yep. He should be here any minute." She responded.
A little while later, the door behind us open. I was expecting our mentor, but it was a guard.
Winifred perked up in concerned.

"May we speak with you privately?" The guard asked her.
"Of course." She responded. "I'll be back."

The door behind us closed, leaving Mark and I alone in the room.
Neither of us wanted to be social at the minute.
The silence between us became more and more awkward. We tried our best to ignore each other with little luck.

Eventually Mark gave in and faced me, I stilled tried to face away from him.
Eventually I zoned out about Sadie. I was wondering what she was thinking about all of this.

"You work at the blacksmith shop, right?"

Mark's question snapped me out of my daze.
"Huh?"

"Do you work at the blacksmith shop? The forge?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I belongs to my father." I told him.
"Why do you ask?"

He shrugged. "Just thought I recognized you."

We went silent again,
But this time I faced him. He would eventually stare back.
"I feel like you're gonna do well, in the games." I told him.

"How do you know?"

"Something that I know about you is that you're pretty good at wielding an axe." I admitted.
"I've seen you outside the shop a couple of times, swinging blades at a tree. Better than I could ever do."

Mark let out a fake chuckle.
"Thanks."

Shortly after the door behind us opened. We faced it to see our mentor, but instead it was two guards.
They stood in front of Mark.
"Let's go!" They told him.

"What? why?" Mark stood up.
One of the guards gripped Mark's arm and pulled him aggressively out of the room.
"Hey!" I called out.

I ran after him, only for the other guard to block my path. The guard gripped Mark's arm and pushed him out the door, sliding it closed.

"Your mentor wants to speak to you two separately."
The guard in front of me told me.

"Why did you do that? Did you have to be so aggressive?"
I said, motioning to the door.

"She wants to speak to you first."
With that, the guard left the room, closing the door.

I tried to open it myself with no luck.
Why did they have to force Mark out so roughly, I'm sure he could've left voluntarily.
There was nothing I could do so I sat back down, alone and quiet.

After what felt like hours, the door opened again. I jumped expecting Mark to come back, but it wasn't.
It was a women who I didn't recognize. She walked over to me, picking up a cigarette and lighting it.
It felt odd just allowing her to walk in and do this but I was too afraid to speak.