Stargazer • The Hunger Games

FIVE

CHAPTER FIVE
❝Freak Show❞

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"Where did the sun go?!" Eric's voice woke me from my rest. All the district four representatives were in the lounge car doing what will soon become a luxury for me, resting. I must have nodded off to sleep as when I woke the light outside the train was gone.

"Don't worry it's just a tunnel," Dolly giggled halfway through applying another layer of blue powder to her face.

"That means that we are in a mountain doesn't it?" My question was laced with sleep.

"Of course Alice," Millie replied, "You really didn't expect the Capitol to be out in the middle of grassland did you? Being in the middle of the mountains helps aid their protection."

A chill travelled down my spine. The very thought of being in a small tunnel in the bottom of tall and heavy mountains scared me. The idea of being buried under all the earth was like a fisher's worst nightmare.

We sat in silence for another minute or two, just staring out at the endless black. Our eyes had just become adjusted to the light that we all flinched when the train shot out of the mountains and into the Capitol itself.

"Alice come look!" Eric beckoned me to join him at the window. I joined him when the train slowed to a stop. In front of me lay a scene that I never thought could be real. The place in front may only be a train station but it felt like another world. It was a world where Dolly looked normal. "Reminds me of a coral reef don't you think?" He asks me when the train stops fully.

"If coral reef translates to circus then we have a deal," I laughed at my reply as I watch the ridiculous looking people outside. They were waving at us, cheering our names and some even held flags with the district four seal on them. A few individuals caught my eye when I waved at the thousands before me. A lady who looked like she was dressed in a cloud, a boy close to the platform edge with rainbow hair and a curious looking old woman who reminded me of a dragon. It was a freak show in the Capitol and I was one of the 24 new toys at the freaks disposal.

"Oh come along you two. We have people to see and places to be!" Dolly sung from behind us. She had to drag us away from the window and push us off the train before either Eric or myself snapped back to the reality of where we were. Peacekeepers ushered us through the crowd and to a car with heavily tinted windows. The ride in the car was short and when we got to the destination Eric, Dolly and I parted ways with Millie and Aiden. The three of us remaining entered a steel building shaped like a box. It was ugly but obviously held a purpose.

"Beauty time," Dolly giggled, pushing Eric and myself through the doors of the box. The inside was sterile and a cool grey just like the outside. The bare décor made it easy to pick out what would soon become our prep teams. They were a bundle of sunshine among the doom and gloom. "I'll leave you in the hands of these lovelies." Dolly gestured to the six faces before us. Dolly then directed her speech to the prep teams, "Remember, beauty base zero." Dolly then left us alone in the building. Two rugged district kids with six freaks.

"Alice! Alice! Alice!" Three of the faces each came running towards me, yipping my name like puppies.

"We get the privilege of beautifying you," The short, plump lady giggled, taking my hand in the process.

"Great," I mouthed. The plump one then pulled me towards a corridor. I flicked my head around to find an amused expression plastered on Eric's face.

"Good luck," He mouthed before I was dragged around a corner.

  • • •

The three enthusiastic prep team members sat at me in wonder for a few moments. They were just studying my face and it was making me uncomfortable. I wanted to break the silence but I did not know how until I realised that I did not know their names. "Um I don't think we have been properly introduced," I addressed the three curious faces before me.