𝙵𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚜 || 𝙰 𝙷𝚞𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚛 𝙶𝚊𝚖𝚎𝚜 𝙵𝚊𝚗𝚏𝚒𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗

𝟸|| 𝚂𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚐𝚢, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚊 𝚂𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚎 𝙿𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚗𝚎𝚛

A door clicking shut behind me jerks my face from its pitiful position on my palms. Mags stands there leaning on the door, her face flushed from the heat. She sighs and smiles at me, and I take a closer look at the aging victor. 

She's wearing an outfit that consists of an emerald green blouse and gray pants that look light, and airy. Her hair is long and a bit shaggy, a pale ginger flecked through with silver, that brings out the blue in her eyes. She's a quiet woman, speaking only when spoken to at interviews, and keeping to herself in the Victory Village in a larger city in District 4. She visits whatever town is being reaped in person every year.

Without a word, she sits down across from me in a plush black chair with silver trim. I quickly swipe my hands across my face to get rid of the streaks and press my thumbs into the corners of my eyes to keep tears at bay. She watches me, almost studying me for a few heartbeats.

"Are you alright, Whimsey?" She asks softly. I stare at the silver bracelet still clenched in my hands.

"Yeah. Fine."

"It's natural for tributes to be scared when they first get reaped. The shock will wear off in a little while. We've got some time before we get to the next stop to pick up your new teammate, so I'd say we get to know each other."

I shrug, staring at the intricately patterned ceiling. Everything's still a blur, and I feel sick to my stomach. My new mentor's still waiting for some sort of response from me, so I pull random information out of my brain to fill the void.

"Well... my family works in the fishing industry, I live near the beach, and I like to draw."

She nods slowly. "Alright, that's a start." Suddenly the train lurches, and slowly starts to move. Amaralie and anyone else who's supposed to be along for the ride must be in a different one of the cars. And judging by the high-pitched voice radiating from the second one over, she's definitely in there.

I glance out the window, and my heart sinks at just how quickly the only home I've ever known is disappearing. The speed at which the train is moving is shocking- It's all a blur in a matter of seconds. Cars and other vehicles besides boats or carts are rare in all of the Districts, so suddenly speeding along at over two hundred miles an hour is astounding. The houses at the far edge of town that I've only ever wandered past a handful of times melt away over the horizon, and the sea is only a blue-gray smudge in the distance.

If I'd known that the last time I'd ever see my bedroom would be this morning, I wouldn't have left it. If I'd realized that that was the last morning I'd spend drawing on the docks, I'd have painted everything I could see in my nicest watercolours, and not whatever crappy pencil I'd picked out of my drawer. 

I feel my eyes sting again, and I blink hard. If I show up to the capitol a snivelling mess, I'll just make a fool out of myself; and besides losing any self-respect, I'll be targeted as weak. When I go out, I want to have my dignity. And having a few sponsors on my side can't hurt either. 

I start to zone out again, still processing. Mags stands up with slight difficulty and heads toward the door of the connecting car. "I have to talk to Amaralie. Stay here, I'll be back," She disappears, and I let my head fall against the window. It's cold, and I'm so overwhelmed by all that's happened in the last hour that I close my eyes. 

I don't think sleep will come, but I manage to doze off into some half-lucid state while the dizzyingly swift train carries me further and further away from my family, and my home forever. 

                                                      ─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

I awake to voices. Three, to be exact. When I open my eyes, a tall boy with fiery red hair and fierce pale eyes is standing in the center of the room, observing everything with his hands in the pockets of his pressed black pants. He looks strong, and his skin is tanned and littered with sunspots. He notices that I'm no longer asleep, and stares at me for a second before giving me a tiny nod, barely acknowledging my existence in the train car.