The Spark

Touchy Subjects

The next day of training was different. Everyone was dead quiet as if they were at a funeral. I saw a couple of people crying or sniffling, and my friends were standing in a group together.

I went over to them. "What's going on?" I ask, looking at each of them in turn. Emily is staring at the floor, Ethan has his arms crossed, Carter is looking a little rueful, Nil looks like they've been crying recently, and Livi is uncharacteristically quiet. Her silence is the most off-putting; she's only quiet when she's thinking about something serious.

When no one answers, I ask again. "What happened?"

"Some people died last night," Carter replies quietly.

I feel blood draining from my face. "Who?"

Still, no one answers. Do they even know?

"Who?" I ask, trying not to raise my voice.

"Some stylists," he sighs. "They won't tell us exactly, but there are lots—lots of rumors."

I frown. "Then why is everyone so sad?"

Nil looks over at me. "They were assassinated in their rooms. The Capitol isn't safe anymore."

I scoff. "Maybe we'll all die before we have to kill each other."

Livi narrows her gaze, still staring at the floor. She breaks the silence by leaving and going off to train. I watch her leave.

That had obviously been the wrong thing to say. At least I hadn't lied.

I leave the group as well and go over to learn some basic survival techniques, like First Aid, fire starting, navigation, and lots of others.

I learn and work in a numb, repetitive process. Sometimes I skip a step or mess up, which starts to worry me a little bit. I decided to focus a little harder on my fire and eventually make one.

No time for celebration or smiling. I cup my hands over the little flame and gently blow until the orange fire grows and spreads. When I'm sure that it'll sustain itself, I pull away and watch it.

"Good job," a voice says, startling me.

I stand up quickly to face Terrek. "How long were you watching me?"

"Not long," he says. "But long enough to watch you pull that off."

"Oh." I glance back down at the fire and quickly stomp it out. I brush past him and go to the navigation station.

Terrek follows after me, a little fretful. "Did you hear what happened?" he asked, lowering his voice until only the two of us could hear.

I nod. "I wonder what people want with the stylists."

"They're rather wealthy. They could've just gone to rob them."

"Two less Capitol mutts, if you ask me," I mutter under my breath.

He furrows his brow. "They're people, Mako."

"So are we!" I whisper-shout, whirling on him. "So is every other person the Capitol has thrown into these stupid, deadly games. All for their amusement."

Terrek wasn't fazed. "Then you know that we have to fight back."

"Shush!" I whisper-shouted, waving my hands a little bit. "Not so loud!"

He frowns but lowers his voice. "We'll make it like a show. We'll play their Games, but at the end, we'll rebel."

This is crazy, I think to myself. "Fine. But you need to practice."