Rising Flames

Chapter 9: the 'penthouse'

Shimmering lights outside the window of my room. They seem to wink at me, tempting me to jump off the 12th floor to them.
Effie had been extremely excited about the living quarters. Apparently they are different every single year, with a whole new building and everything. She showed us our rooms, the elegant velvet of the sheets in my room a lush purple to accent the pale pink walls and starlit blue carpet. All of it was beautiful, in its menacing way. I know we only get these luxuries to weaken us, make us expect more, so that when we are in the games we are more desperate, more pitiful.
"Maysillee! Are you coming out to dinner or not?" Effie shrill tone is so normal, it almost makes me think all of this was a horrible nightmare. Almost.
"Coming," I call, quickly scrubbing off the last of the makeup from my face. I changed about an hour ago, hanging my exquisite dress in the cupboard by my bed. I'm now in simple black clothes; a long-sleeved black top and some black tights to match, my hair wrapped up in a bun behind my head, and some black slippers to warm my feet.
Wandering out to dinner I see the television, still running the reapings and the parade, over and over again, showing me lifting my wings, and, like I'd struck a match, blazing up like a bonfire.
Effie sits at the head of the table, Katniss and Peeta to her right and Haymitch to her left. Then there were the other tributes; James and Samantha sitting side by side, obviously holing hands under the table; Liam comforting Heather from his spot at the other end of the table; and Thomas, sitting calmly two seats away from Katniss. Everyone turns to face me as I enter, then returns to talking about the games as take my place between Katniss and Thomas.
"... So, as I said, if we all take two tributes, one girl and one boy, we could work quicker, and maybe we can switch them round so we can bring out the best in all of them." Haymitch sounds worryingly sober. Something is stressing him, yet he isn't drinking it away. Then I realise. He's trying to persuade my parents that he should mentor me so they don't have to see me learning to kill. He should know better: I already know how to fight and kill, but I won't kill unless I have to.
Peeta spoke up then, sounding more frightened than I think I've ever heard him, "that's a good idea, we should split them up now, so we can start training in the morning, before their group training starts." He looks at me, as if to tell me not to intervene. " I'll take James and Samantha, if that's ok with everyone."
Haymitch spoke up before Katniss had a chance, to make sure she didn't train me probably. "I'll take the younger ones - Thomas and Maysillee. How does that sound?"
Katniss nodded before saying her part, "I guess that just leaves me with Liam and Heather."
As they spoke I ate, quickly, quietly, before leaving the table and sneaking to my room, hearing my mother finish just as I closed the door.

I was woken by a knock at the door, like an inconsistent beating of a drum. Looking at the clock - which read 2 am - let me evaluate the situation; it wouldn't be Effie - she'll only wake me to get ready for training - it most likely wouldn't be Haymitch, Peeta or any of the tributes - probably fast asleep, hoping it was all a dream, a nightmare. That left only one person.
"Hi mum," I mumbled it as I opened the door, still in a half asleep state. "It's 2 in the morning. What's so important?"
I let her in when I saw the look on her face, closing the door behind her. She sat on the bed, and fiddled with something in her hands. "This is something I was given at my first games, and it came to be what I was known for." She passed me a pin. The mockingjay pin she'd showed me once before, when she was drunk with Haymitch. "Keep it. It's something you can take into the games, as something from your district. And this," she pulled another pin out of her pocket, this one a bird, wings lifted high and spread wide, "it's a phoenix. I had someone make it for me after your chariot performance. That's what you reminded me of." She smiled then. "And I think that was what Kafiata was trying to create. A new being, more powerful than ever, rising from the ashes of an old one, burnt out as it is. Wear them with pride."
Katniss stands up then and heads for the door. As she opens the door she turns to me, "make us proud of you."
And with that she walked through the door and closed it behind her.