The Hunger Games: Retold

Chapter 5

I step cautiously into a wide, tiled white room and look around. There's nothing in here except a table holding instruments I couldn't identify even with a gun to my head, a high cot, and what I can only call a trough. It looks as though they expect to hose me down at some point? Aside from the inherent insult, nothing looks too bad. As I'm wondering what to expect, a door I hadn't noticed opens and in walk three of the most bizarre human beings I have ever seen.

Two are men and one a very small, slender woman whose hair is a color purple I have only seen in the meadow behind the town. It curls backward away from her face in waves, and then shoots straight up at the back into three triangular cones. Her skin is the smoothest I have ever seen, and a beautiful cinnamon color. She has swirls of auburn tattoos all along her arms and along her neck, disappearing into her disarmingly violet hair. The tattoos continue, though more faintly around her face and seem to give the effect of light dancing across her features at any point. Once I get over how strange it looks, I realize it's really quite beautiful. I've never seen anything like this before.

The two men are equally unusual. One man is very tall and carries himself so lightly it seems as though he barely touches the ground. His skin is polished and shines with a blush that seems like it should only be found on a newborn baby. He has little makeup, but piercings like I have never seen. Loops travel up both of his ears, and he has a bar through his eyebrows, his nose, and his lip. The bar through his nose connects by a fine silver chain to one of the loops on his ears. His shock of startling white hair stands up, giving him a slightly surprised look. His eyebrows and even his lashes match the bleached white hair.

The last man is small and round and his hands move constantly as he speaks. Black stripes across his dyed orange skin add to the effect of a tiger he is clearly going for, as his hair sweeps into triangular tufts above his temples. I'm not sure the cub impression is as desired, but his wide, friendly face refuses to project ferocity.

The three circle me, staring as if they are as amazed by my appearance as I am by theirs. They touch my hair, my clothes, and my skin, while making small cooing noises interspersed with little clucks of disapproval.

The tall man holds up my arm and gives a low whistle. "Definitely sleeveless," he says. "Look at these arms!"

"Maybe no pants?" the woman offers. "You could make some side money with that ass." She looks at me kindly, as though waiting for me to accept some kind of offer.

"Oh, uh, no. No, thank you." I stammer and she shrugs disappointedly.

"Ok, let's get going," the small man claps his hands together. "I'm Junius. This is Selt," indicating the tall man, "and Lyra," the woman. "We're going to get you all cleaned up, okay?"

I wonder what he means, I just showered last night on the train. I nod and try to subtly sniff myself. Unfortunately, it wasn't as simple as that. I was not prepared at all for what was to come. Selt stripped me naked and did, indeed, hose me off in the trough, but first, the three scrubbed my skin with a coarse, black paste that smelled of coal tar and pine needles. It had a pleasant chill at first, but then burned with a painful sting as they continued to massage it roughly into more layers of flesh than really needed it. After the rinse, they applied a softer, sweet and fluffy scrub that smelled like the filling in my brother's favorite cakes. Just as I started to relax and enjoy this part, Lyra turned on a small, motorized instrument that reminded me of the tools Jax used at home to repair mine equipment. She went after my feet, my hands, my elbows and knees and I'm sure I smelled smoke. When she'd finished I felt as smooth as marble. It was odd, I felt like I would slide off of anything I touched.

"That wasn't so bad?" asked Junius. But before I could answer he continued, "Now, this one will sting a bit." This one? He had two flat paddle-like tools in his hands and they hummed and crackled as he brought them toward my face.