Highway to hell

06. Train Ride

Cato's POV:

"Well what do have here?" Speaks Brutus.

"A hothead and a very handsome boy is what you have." I respond. Obviously I'm the handsome boy.

"A large ego that is." Replies Mara she has a strong British accent, that's practically impossible not to notice if you're having a conversation with her. I don't know where she got it, since no one speaks British in two, except her. Enobaria chuckles at this. God I hate her so much (Mara, not Enobaria though I'm not quite fond of Enobaria either). I roll my eyes at her as large fake ass smile appears on her face.

"Well, I'm sure I feel the tension." Mocks Enobaria. Now it's Mara's turn to roll her eyes. Enobaria glances at her and continues: "So, what are your strengths?"

"I do knife throwing." Shrugs the brunette. I can tell that's she's admiring the food on display all around the room. She takes an apple and starts biting on it. I am tempted to do the same, all the food in this place looks amazing but I can't rol myself and answer Enobaria's question.

"I'm good with a sword." I say with confidence.

"Alright so we're going to have to work with that." Responds Brutus. "Enjoy yourselves for now, you have your rooms down that hallway with your names written on the doors." He leaves the room, but Enobaria goes to Mara and whispers something to her ear. She then comes to me.

"I'll be Mara's mentor, yours will be Brutus. Though  think that was quite obvious." She walks away and stops at the door. "Try not to kill yourselves while we're gone." She says with a grin, she then winks at Mara and leaves.

"I'll be in my room." She takes another apple from the table and leaves. After a while I do the same and leave the room.

After what seem years, I hear my escort's voice calling for Mara and I, I step out of the room and crash into said girl, she has changed clothes and her long hair is now loose. For the first time, I notice she has dark circles under her eyes, which tell me that she hasn't slept in a while. She shoves me against the wall and makes her way down the hallway.

"Let's see your competition shall we?" Proposes Cyra, our escort turns on the TV and we wait to see the other tributes. The ones from the other career districts seem like good allies. Except the ones from four. More tributes catch my attention, like the ones from eleven and twelve. The males being gigantic, while the females, well I think both are twelve.

Mara's fight scene with Veronica is also televised and Cesar Flickerman declares his opinion about her. "I think the tributes from District Two are the most powerful yet, mostly the girl." Said Cesar. This seemed to please Mara, as a satisfied grin appeared on her face. She may be small, but she's skilled and could kill you faster than light speed.

We go back to our rooms and this time I do take a bite to eat, a small cupcake with chocolate frosting. The snack is delicious but I remember how the Capitol is selfish, because, while they have cupcakes and cookies and chocolate, the other districts (not necessarily Two) are starving to death.

I'm lost in my thoughts when I hear a familiar voice calling out for me. I step out of my room and see the dark haired girl signaling me to come by her side. I sit next to her on the couch facing the window. She points at the window.

And then I see it, the Capitol. Big and mighty as I expected, I get on my feet and head for the views. The buildings and the structures of the city have charm and a way to drag you in. I feel a cold and small hand on my shoulder. We go into a dark tunnel and seconds later we find ourselves surrounded by unknown and colorful faces that appear to be trilled to catch a glimpse of this year's tributes.

"I love how they cheer for others deaths." Comments Mara, not missing the British accent.

"Correct me if I'm wrong but, I think you volunteered to be here." I challenge with a smirk.

"I meant the deaths that I will cause, including yours." She replies, matching my smirk.

"Not if I kill you first." I joke. Making this bet is gonna get me killed for sure. I think.

"Oh, you're on." She hisses back. I nearly forgot about all the people outside the window, cheering for us. I wave at the people and the crowd goes insane, Mara does the same and I can see the multitude goes absolutely wild. I see a smile creeping on her face and I gotta say I like seeing her smile, the genuine smile that is. "There's so many people." She whispers to herself.

"Kids! Why don't come eat dinner with us?!" Yells Cyra. Mara stops waving at the multitude of people and goes to the dining room, shortly afterwards I follow her steps and find her sitting with in a large table next to Enobria, in front of Enobria is sitting Brutus, signaling me to sit next to him. I do as I'm told and sit in between Brutus and Cyra.

"I see that the crowd loves you." Says our escort with a toothy smile. "Im sure you'll get a whole lot of sponsors with that charm."

Mara agrees with a shy smile before adding. "Bet they loved me more." She looks at me and starts laughing to herself, Brutus and Enobria share a look and continue eating their food.

"Oh I'm sure of it." I say sarcastically. She glances at me with a smirk and proceeds to eat the food on her plate.

A while later we stop at the train station also filled with extravagant people cheering and waving at us. A squad of peacekeepers take us to our apartment, where we will stay the next week. My room is next to Mara's, an annoyed sigh came out of her mouth when she discovered this. This is gonna be a long week having her next door. I thought to myself.

"Well you better get to sleep since tomorrow is a big, big, big day!! It's the tribute's parade!!" Cyra's smile was so bright that it was impossible not to notice her excitement for the event. "Oh dear, we're going to need to cover up that scar, aren't we?" Exclaims Cyra, noticing the scar on Mara's cheek.

She nods at her and we both go to bed early knowing that tomorrow we'll meet our stylists, hopefully they won't make us look ridiculous in front of the whole country.

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