The Camp

Chapter 20

The next few hours passed faster than I could ever anticipate, the remaining girls who had not been chosen were taken one way and the chosen girls including me were lead to a cabin that looked a little like the ones we'd been staying in except it had a blue door. The celebrities weren't allowed to see us until tomorrow, the day of the wedding. This year there was only four winners, myself and three other girls due to the fact that Jack had quite clearly refused to choose. The beds were much softer in this cabin and there was a spare waiting at the bottom of the room for the girl who would never arrive. They were still bunk beds, but they now had thick, feather quilts and fluffy pillows. We were fed in the cabin, being presented with a brown cardboard box of food was thrilling but besides that I sat and stared straight ahead at the wall while the other girls chatted excitedly about their soon to be husbands. As I ate, a combination of salty noodles and a disgusting fish I wondered if Emily had been watching, if she'd gasped when Finn announced my name not someone else's. I also wondered if Finn would allow me to see Ma and Grandmother after we were married, and I pondered over what would happen to Jack. My heart still ached for him but there was nothing I could do, I had no choice but to accept Finn's proposal, it was the rules and there was no telling what would happen to me if I said no. After I'd eaten, I took myself to bed, curling up beneath the sweltering blanket and falling asleep in my burrito of comfort.

I was woken the next morning by a loud horn, being played directly outside of our door and then the thunder of footsteps as people trailed into our lodge in handfuls. Each person held a different thing, one had a bag of clothing, the next had a hairbrush, the following had makeup and so on. I was swamped from the moment I opened my eyes, someone helped me down the ladder, I had taken the top bunk out of curtesy to the other girls. My feet touched down on the floor and from that moment on people worked on me. Someone tugged at my matted hair, another applied a thin powder across my cheeks and lifted my eyelashes with a kind of black tar-like substance. People worked all around me until they finally came to a stop and stood black, creating a semi-circle around my body. In front of me stood a woman with a large smile on her face, she held a green clothing bag and I knew exactly what it was: My wedding dress...

"Now as you probably already know, Finn has chosen this dress for you." I did in fact not know that, so it was helpful that she had added it in. "Will you try it on?" She asked and I nodded, there wasn't much else to say and as she unzipped the front of the bag my excitement turned to horror. I don't know what I'd expected but that was definitely not it. The dress itself was an off white with long plain sleeves, the bodice was covered in an ugly lace and the skirt was made of a scratchy net-like material. I felt like crying, I'd focused so much on the possibility of being able to wear Ma's wedding dress that I hadn't thought to consider the alternatives.

With everyone around m still smiling I slipped into it, pulling it over my head and grimacing at the itchy material. Today was not going to be easy. "Oh marvellous, you look beautiful!" My helpers cooed, praising me as much as they could but it still didn't help the sinking feeling inside of me or the overall glumness that seemed to be radiating off of me.

The wedding venue was nice, a quaint church with intricate carvings but I couldn't help but noticed that Jack wasn't there, there wasn't even a spot for him should he have changed his mind. The order of brides was set in stone which meant that I was to walk the isle first with the rest of the chosen girls behind me. Cameras watched me as I moved, zooming in and out with beady, black eyes. Finn waited at the alter alongside the other celebrities and we took our places opposite each other. He lit up when I stepped into position, smiling proudly as I looked down at my heeled feel. The ceremony was quick, a little too quick and by the time the vicar had started it was over. They didn't bother with the I do's, as the marriage was pretty much one sided. The majority of the ceremony was placing the rings and saying prewritten vows. That was it, no kisses, no improvising just scripted television and then we gave one final bow to our audience across the world and headed out of the church doors hand in hand.

I knew that was where the broadcast ended, the perfect happily ever after and nothing else. The cameras drifted away, and we were allowed to change from formal wear into something a little more comfortable. I ended up in a cool navy summer dress with lighter court shoes that sparkled in the sun. We were ferried to the closest train station in the bus that had taken us to The Camp in the first place and were to meet our husbands at the correct platform. I wondered as I followed our escort if anyone had tried to escape at that point, make a dahs for the busy crowd and easily slip away but then the abundance of security cameras caught my eyes and I banished the thought from my head.

As promised Finn was waiting for me, sitting cross legged in a seat with a book clasped between his hands. He smiled when he saw me and gestured to the seat in front of him, watching me curiously as I sat down then smoothed out my dress. Once I had finished making myself comfortable, I stared back at him. "For you." He muttered extending the book towards me and I took it elegantly, studying the cover before turning it over and examining the blurb. I could feel his eyes on me as I secretly marvelled over his gift, of course I wasn't going to let him know that I was a little bit impressed. We weren't supposed to speak unless spoken to, but his imploring eyes and gift had sparked a question inside of me. "Why did you choose me?" I questioned, looking very suddenly up from my book and meeting his gaze. He leant back a little, folding his hands together and taking a very long time to answer. "Because you were different, and you surprised me." He said it flatly, with no emotion as though he didn't know the meaning of the word. "How did I surprise you?" I responded, clutching the book as tightly as I could in my lap. "Well, to begin with you surprised me when you broke into our lodge..." I froze, piercing my lips and taking a second to breathe through my nose. "You know about that?" I whispered, trying to keep my complexion of tranquillity even though I was panicking internally. "Of course, I know about that, I was awake when you started talking to Jack, oh and I know about that as well. How you were sneaking out to meet him...but let's not talk about that, its just you and me now and I thought that women didn't speak unless spoken to." I felt myself give in, looking down at the ground obediently. I didn't know what to say, I couldn't speak and yet I had a million thoughts racing around my head. "Oh, and one last thing, those gifts in the trials, the key, the scissors, the girl keeping you afloat, they were all me...your loving husband..." I caught a glimpse of a smile pull onto his face as I examined the tips of my shoes poking from the front of my skirt. He was teasing me, mocking me and I was hopeless, unable to rebel for fear of punishment and so I let myself fall silent, lifting my head and gazing out of the window at the passing meadows, dreaming blissfully of what I could have had...but most importantly of Jack and where he was now...