CHARADE | Glimmer

Chapter Eight

Trigger warnings: Heights, Emotional manipulation, Threats

We stare at each other frozen. She lies languidly on my bed, her dark hair spread around her, twisting a small kitchen knife over in her hands. Her golden armour is gone, replaced with simple black and white top and bottoms. Her dark eyes are fixed on me, filled with animosity.

I swallow and then smile, "Clove! How lovely to see you! What are you doing here?"

"To talk," She growls.

She moves off the bed, quick and graceful like a cat, and stalks towards me, gesturing the knife at me. She's smaller than me, but I can already tell that she's faster. And armed.

"And do you normally talk to people whilst threatening them?" I say sweetly, "Or is this your way of flirting with me?"

"Yes," Then she flushes, "No. Shut up. Climb out of that window."

My eyes narrow, "You want me to run away? Do I scare you that much?"

I shift slightly to the side. If I can just grab her right wrist, I could twist that knife out of her grip...

"I'm not scared of anything!" She growls, stepping closer. The knife point is centimetres from me now, "But Cato wants to talk to you. And he can't climb as well as I can."

Can't he? How interesting.

"So we're going to him," She gestures to the window, "Climb."

I move over to the window, feeling the point of her knife at my back. The window's half open, admitting cold and drafty air, and I slide it further open with ease.

I frown and reach out. District One is on the bottom floor. If the window opens this easily, then what's to stop me...

"Don't." Clove says suddenly, and I jerk my hand back, "There's some kind of forcefield."

I peer at the air but don't see anything other than the empty Capitol street.

"How far away is it?" I ask.

"There's enough space for us to climb. My window's the one above."

I clamber onto the windowsill, and glance carefully upwards. Huh. I now see how Clove knew which room was mine. Plastered above certain windows are massive posters of our faces from the Reaping. I see Clove's above an open window, scowling. I feel the wall. Metal and completely smooth.

"This is stupid," I hiss, "Anyone could walk past and see us. What are people going to think when they see two people scaling the walls of the Tribute Centre?"

"No one saw me."

Of course they didn't. I stare at the metal wall. How did she climb down? The gap's too big for her to have easily dropped herself from one window to another.

"Hurry up!"

I press my hand to the metal surface and run it slowly up and down. It's not as smooth as it first seemed. Little grooves run along the side of the building. Taking another look at the Capitol street, I dig my fingers into the grooves and swing round, forcing myself to climb.

The wall is an unforgiving angle and there isn't much to hold onto. My fingers complain as I push them into tiny groove after tiny groove. It isn't far but I'm not a natural climber and though there isn't far to fall, I don't particularly want to be sizzled and scorched by an invisible forcefield.

I reach the window ledge and pull myself up, sliding over it and falling in an ungainly heap on the floor.

"So you can climb...somewhat." A voice sneers as I pick myself up from the carpet.