Everybody Wants Me Dead

Chapter 9

Cinna's version of prepping was much nicer than the first prepping I had. There was much less plucking and pulling, and if there was any at all, it barely hurt. 

"Let's get your makeup and hair styled first." Cinna said, pointing to various things for the stylists to get and place in front of me. 

"Hi, I'm Octavia, I do your nails." It was the same girl who announced the dress was ready. 

"I'm Flavius. I do hair." This was ironic to me, because his hair looked like mud just sitting on top of his head.

"And I'm Venia." The girl had blonde hair with multi-colored feathers in it. "I do waxing." I smiled and nodded at each of them.

"I'm Vanessa. I do... the sitting around getting pampered." They all laughed, and then started working on me. Flavius pulled out various curly things for my hair. He turned on thing on, which I found out got hot very fast the hard way. Octavia surveyed each of my hands.

"Ooh, you're nails are perfect!" She exclaimed. "Katniss's were always stubbed from her chewing them so much!" She pulled out a variety of different colors and started slathering the stuff on. When my eyebrows were perfectly shaped, my nails perfectly painted with little fires, and my hair in an intricate updo that got me dizzy just by looking at it; Cinna started with my face. He took a thick brush and touched it in a pot of pink, and rubbed it over my cheeks. He took another smaller brush, and pressed it into a circle of black, before brushing it over my eyes. I could tell he was going for a dark look, something that made me look powerful. He took a black pencil and outlined around my eyes.

"Can I see yet?" I whined.

"No. Shut up now." He answered before pulling out a stick of red. He smeared it all over my lips while I puckered.

"Okay. Makeup is done, let's get the dress on." He lead me over to stand in front of a three-sided mirror, but angled me so my back was turned away. 

"No looking." He ordered, and pulled a gray bag off of a hook in the closet. 

"Close your eyes." I closed them tight, and felt Cinna help me step into a heap of fabric. The dress felt light, the fabric soft against my skin. It was tight in all the right areas, and it was loose in the right areas too. He help me step into what felt like flat shoes. 

"Open them." He whispered, and I was somewhat shocked by what I saw. My makeup was heavy, but I was right, I looked powerful. My bright red lips and dark eyes made me look intimidating; they made me look bold. My dress is what really shocked me. It was strapless and it flowed down to my feet. It had a hole in the back, so my spine peeked out from the fabric. The dress was plain black, not what I expected.

"This is it?" I was disappointed. I was prepared for something great. Cinna just chuckled at me. 

"Not quite. Follow me." He lead me out of the room and down a small hallway. A double set of metal doors was at the end of the hallways, and as we neared them a fuzzy sound grew louder. I registered it as cheering, and I guessed we were headed towards the chariots. Cinna pushed through the door and I was right, the chariots were in front of us. People were milling around; making last minute fixes to their tribute's outfits, feeding the horses sugar cubes, or just chatting with friends. Cinna lead me over to the last chariot in line, and Lucas was already standing there. He was wearing a black suit, which matched my dress perfectly, no surprises there. He gave me a warm smile. 

"You look good." He said laughing, eyeing me up and down. I could feel my cheeks heat up, which made him laugh more. Katniss and Peeta stood behind the chariot, and they smiled at us. Katniss leaned over and whispered something to Peeta, which he responded with a nod, and they shook hands. I wanted to know what they just shared with one another, but I didn't a chance to ask. A voice filled the ballroom.

"5 minutes left." It spoke, and then shut off. Cinna waved us onto the chariot. Peeta walked up to us. 

"You two are much too intimidating to smile. So straight faces, pretend like you're bored with the whole thing."

"I won't have to pretend." I mumbled, only loud enough for Luke to hear. He grinned at me. I looked around at the rest of the tribute's outfits, and they were all crazy. District 1 looked like they were literally wearing a diamond, the outfits were sticking out at odd angles and light reflected off them and bounced at every angle. District 4 looked like fish; their outfits shimmering green, blue and purple, and hung off them in sections like scales. My favorite was probably District 9. They were wearing storm gray jumpsuits, and blue and yellow streaks of "electricity" would stretch over their bodies.  

"1 minute left." The voice called out again. Cinna pulled a remote out of his pocket and clutched it in his hand. 

"Good luck," he spoke. The enormous doors opened, and the chariots started piling out. It seemed like it took an eternity for us to hit the gateway, but finally our horses trotted out. The crowd was loud, but the minute we made an appearance, they started screaming.

We're wearing plain black, why are they freaking out? 

I looked down at my dress, and found it was not plain black anymore. The fabric turned red, orange and yellow, it flickered whenever I moved. The bottom was letting out gray smoke, which settled around my body, making me look even sexier. I saw Lucas's suit did the same.

Cinna lit us on fire. I am the new girl on fire. 

Lucas grabbed my hand and I looked up at him. 

"Please don't let go, I think I'm going to be sick." My cheeks were on fire, but I did not let go. The crowd threw us roses, and other random trinkets, but we stayed expressionless. Our chariots circled around Snow, and he gave us the usual, "we're-so-happy-to-have-you-here" speech. When he finally finished, we ended in a different ballroom on the opposite side. Cinna immediately greeted us. 

"That was amazing." Peeta and Katniss smiled at us. 

"C'mon, I think that's enough excitement for one night. Lucas and I stepped off the chariots, and headed towards the elevators with the rest. We stood, rising to floor 12 in the tight space. I closed my eyes and almost fell asleep, before stumbling and landing in Lucas's arms.

"Woah there," he caught me. My eyes were still closed, and I only remember snippets. 

~

"This is the penthouse!" Effie squealed. 

~

"We'll see you two tomorrow," Peeta spoke quietly. 

~

I only regained partially conscience when Luke laid my down on a soft bed. He was about to turn around and leave, but I grabbed his arm.

"Don't leave," I murmured sleepily. I felt him lie down next to me and wrap his arm around me.

"Okay."