The 76th Hunger Games

Chapter Six. Rooms.

I wind my fingers through the sack that still hangs around my body. The elevator makes me feel light headed as we fly up towards the sky. The guard next to me stands expressionless in the faint light of the elevator; he is the same guard that sat next to me in what I suppose was a sort of court room earlier. I feel cold and uncomfortable with him watching over me, he is like the door that keeps me from my freedom. But I know that he is not the only one, and even if I got past him there would be an eternity of doors keeping me trapped in my unquestionable fate of death. I shudder as the elevator bounces to a stop it feels like it is about to plummet down towards the earth before I manage to rest my feet on solid and secure ground. I rush to exit as the doors slide open before me but the guard's grip on the cuffs around my wrists keeps me back. I have to wait for him to step out in front of me before I can escape the dark light of the elevator.

I follow the guard into a light and spacious corridor, my footsteps are muffled by the deep red carpet leaving an icy silence hanging in the atmosphere. I walk through the silence with my eyes glued to the carpet not watching where I am going. When the guard slows to a stop ahead of me I walk into the heels of his feet and a mumbled "sorry." leaves my mouth. I look up to see Johanna Mason leaning against a blue painted wooden door with a smirk plastered on her lips.

"Hello Scarlet, I hear you've been causing trouble?" She was patronizing me, trying to intimidate me. But shes right, I should be afraid of her, or at the very least idolize her; she won her hunger games, she outlived twenty-three other tributes trying to kill her and even after that she managed to survive the rebellion and most of all my grandfather. But I am not afraid of her and I would never look up to her for as long as I live (which considering my circumstances probably wont be very long). But whatever my fate is I will never respect Johanna Mason; she is one of the reasons that these horrible games still exist, and for that I can hardly even bare to look her in the eye. So I focus my eyes on the wooden door behind her and speak.

"Is that so? I still don't think I did anything wrong." I try to sound strong and confident, but I can't, I am small and weak and I have no training. I have no doubts that Johanna would be able to kill me in an instant if she wanted to, but I think that she like many other people would rather see be brutally murdered by my peers, maybe even by my friends in the arena.

Johanna lowers her voice and finds my eyes with hers fixing me in a deadly stare, "This innocent act isn't going to last long Scarlet, you can't just keep acting brave and getting yourself into problems that you know you can't get out of. You can't just cry like a child and wait for someone to have pity on you when you are stuck. Your going to have to grow up Scarlet, and you better do it fast, because the arena is no place for young children." She has lowered herself to my level but her eyes stay locked on mine as a sinister grin stretches over her face before she straightens herself up. I reach to clasp my hands together to stop them from shaking where Johanna can see them, but my wrists are securely locked in the hand cuffs.

"May I please be released?" I say gesturing my eyes towards the metal hanging from my hands. Johanna looks at my hands for a minute and makes a "hmm" sound bringing her fingers to rub her chin in thought before letting out a sweet and simple "Nope" she popped the P as if to aggravate me and then laughed as she turned away from me towards the door she had been leaning against.

I groaned in frustration which just made her smile wider "Do you like to talk to all of the tributes or am I an exception?"

"Don't think your special Scarlet, I am obligated to talk to all of the tributes." She sounded almost exhausted but there was still bursting energy carrying the words out of her lips. I opened my mouth to reply, to tell her that she shouldn't need to fulfill that obligation with me, that I would be much happier if she would just leave me in peace. But her words beat mine. "Mark you can leave her now, I can handle it from here." She was addressing the guard who is still holding the handcuffs that bind my wrists together. He nods and hands my wrists over to Johanna without question. I don't like them treating me like some kind of object that can just be passed around, like some animal that needs constant supervision. I try to pull away, to achieve some sort of freedom, but Johanna's hold on the handcuffs causes the metal to bite into my skin.

"Lets not try anything difficult Scarlet, If you just behave this will all be over a lot faster." She talks to me as if I am a young toddler with behavioural problems.

"What will be over a lot faster?" I spit back in her face, "Me and twenty-two other innocent children dying?"

"Just shut up will you. No one cares what the Capitol thinks any more and people care even less about what you think. They just want to see you die! When are you going to realize that?" The words hit me hard, knocking the air out of my lungs. Of course I know that, I have always known that. But it sounds different coming out of someone else mouth. It sounds more real.

I don't reply as Johanna takes a key from the pocket of her plain black trousers and inserts it into the blue door. She flicks her head around to look at me before reaching out to turn the door nob.

"What?" I ask, slightly confused, "What are you looking at?"

"I just don't want to miss your reaction, that's all." She replies as she pushes open the door with a smile. I look through the doorway to see only a bare room. There is nothing at all beyond the blue door except for wooden floorboards and plain cream coloured walls. Johanna grins again before saying "Welcome to your room Scarlet. This is where you will be staying until you enter the arena." My eyes widen,

"But there is nothing in there; there's no bed, no clothes, no blankets..." I am about to continue with my long list of things people should have to survive, but Johanna cuts me off.

"Exactly. When I came to the Capitol for my Hunger Games all the District tributes lived like rich Capitol people with with whatever we wanted at out finger tips. It therefore seems only fair that you Capitol children should all live like poor district dwellers without even basic things like a bed."

"I don't think that's fair at all."

"May I remind you again Scarlet, no one cares what you think."

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Dedicated to @BlivArmageddon who is always there to support me and reads my books no matter how bad they are. ily babe xxx