venus₁ [treech]

i v

After dinner, I make the short walk to the zoo. I was supposed to wait for Festus, but his meal went longer than expected, so he said he'd meet me there. Thankfully, my apartment isn't too far; I feel bad making Marion drive me everywhere. A few of the mentors are already there, making sure their tributes have food and water. Notably, Arachne sits right by her tribute a few feet away from us, making her a sandwich and lecturing her about something. The poor tribute. I notice many of the crowd members also hold food and bottles of water. They hang back, as if wondering what they should do next.

I take a seat where I usually do, waiting for Treech to approach me. When he does, I pass him a bag of ham sandwiches and oranges.

"How were the cookies?" I ask.

Treech smiles. "Almost as good as my Ma's," he says.

"I'm glad to hear it," I say. "Because I brought more."

His smile widens, just a little, before he realizes he's talking to me and begins to frown again.

"I don't understand why you hate me so much," I say.

"Because you're here," mutters Treech.

"I could leave," I say. "Then you can go into that arena with absolutely no food and no sponsors. I have a bag of walnuts for you to juggle. You can fend for yourself, try to get sponsors on your own. But you'll fare better with me helping you."

I place the bag on the ground in front of him before pushing myself to my feet.

"Don't go." He says those two words so softly, I almost don't hear them. "Please."

I sit down again, waiting for him to say something else, but he doesn't. I anxiously pick at my fingernails while he eats. When he's finished, he grabs the bag of walnuts, pulling out three.

He stands, brushing the dust off of his pants. The crowd watches in awe as he juggles the walnuts. I'm impressed and a little shocked by the unique skill.

The trick earns him another bread roll and a plum. He gives both to Lamina, who accepts them gratefully. After watching Treech get food for performing, some of the other tributes join in. The girl from District Nine does a graceful back handspring. The two tributes from District Six begin to dance. Pollo and Didi, their mentors, get the audience to clap along. Part of me wonders if Lucy Gray will sing again.

The crowd moves closer to the bars, the tension between the tributes inside and the Capitol citizens outside seems to be broken. A few brave souls even approach the tributes, trying to engage them in conversation. Treech stops juggling and joins me by the bars again.

"How peculiar," he says. "They don't seem to be afraid anymore."

"They shouldn't be," I say. "You're human too. Now, teach me how to juggle."

"What?" asks Treech.

"Are you deaf?" I ask playfully. "Teach me how to juggle."

Treech shrugs. "Fine."

He places the three walnuts into my open palm. His skin barely brushes mine, but it still sends a chill down my spine. He grabs a few more from the bag, placing one walnut in one hand and two in the other. I mimic his hand placement.

"Alright, so you're just going to pass that one in your left hand to your right hand," he explains. "Then, toss the right one and catch the left one."

I stare at him, totally lost. "You're going to need to rephrase that."

Treech sighs, but not in a way that makes him sound annoyed. "Okay, make sure you-"

His directions are interrupted by screams of terror. I turn to see a horrific scene playing out. Arachne is lying at the ground, blood pooling around her, her hands clawing at her bleeding throat.