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Naia had returned from her Victory Tour a month ago. She ensured she did everything right. She stuck to the cards, she put on the adoring smile, anything to keep what was left of her family from any harm. She played the part of the grateful Victor perfectly.
There were lavish dresses that she couldn't walk in, buffets with enough food to keep nearly fifteen families going for about a week back in the Seam. There were Capitol citizens that stared at her body a bit too long for a girl who was freshly sixteen, and Naia found it sickening.
Even though it only lasted two weeks it felt like a lifetime, an extremely draining lifetime. She just wanted to get back to her brothers and Tai and Lilith and District Eleven.
Every time Snow sent her one of his sickening smiles it burnt her to her core. A wave of flaming anger that couldn't be quelled. Because she knew that he loved seeing her like that. Playing along with his little game, he didn't give her a choice.
Naia wasn't daft, she knew there was a reason her brothers were still alive. Why they weren't slaughtered with the rest of her family. And when she walked out of the study in her house after accepting a deal she couldn't refuse, she finally knew why. Two brothers, one more chance.
Ever since President Snow's visit the door to the study had been kept firmly shut, the scent of roses and blood still contaminating the room. Naia doubted she could ever enter it again.
Thankfully, Isaac had been out in the backyard during the President's surprise visit meaning he was oblivious to the offer and his threat. The same goes for Tai and Lilith, and although Naia knew they would show nothing but support she couldn't burden them with something like that.
Ace had been in the kitchen, patiently waiting for the President to leave so he could talk with his twin. When the man left, his Peacekeepers trailing after him, Ace entered the study. Naia had collapsed against the desk, laboured breaths escaping her mouth as she scratched at her throat desperately.
He ran towards her, confused as to what to do. "T-the smell, the smell, Ace," she stuttered. When Ace smelt the air he could only smell roses and a hint of something metallic.
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Snow had informed her she would be required to attend a party he was hosting in a month. After the party, she would be meeting her first 'client'. Naia already felt sick to her stomach imagining what was going to happen. But if it would keep Isaac and Ace safe then she supposed she had to, no matter the task.
Naia wasn't the only Victor who was offered this deal, now that she thought about it the people she previously judged for their actions most likely had little choice in the matter. Naia had believed these Victors were using it as a coping mechanism of some type but now realised it was most likely another frequent visitor in their nightmares.
