The Hunger Games: Foxface

Chapter Five

The elevator reaches the fifth floor, and the number five is pulsing above the door. Sean and I exit the elevator and walk into the rooms. I whip around once I hear the door click closed, my gut is telling me to run, but I fight the urge and stay put: there is no where for me to go. Each district has an entire floor. A robotic female voice says, “Autumn Rosalie Sillens. District 5. Geology Department…” She then begins to say my family’s history. “Mother: Emilie Fair Sillens; deceased in childbirth of Ember Clair Sillens. Father: Nathan Joseph Sillens; occupation: currently the second head chair of the Geology department. Phoebe Isabelle Sillens; –”

“STOP!” I command strongly as if I don’t have the slightest doubt in my mind that it will actually stop. I don’t want to hear a machine explain how my sister died. To my relief, the machine replies with, “Very well.” There is a brief pause before it starts Sean’s family report. “Sean Peter Stacey. District 5. Hydro-Electrics Department. Mother: Shauna Michelle Stacy; occupation: currently a factory worker. Father: Charles Michael Stacy; occupation: currently head of the Hydro-Electrics Department. Sister: Mae Cassidy Stacey; thirteen years of age. Brother: James Raymond Stacey; nine years of age..."

“Stop,” I say. Sean got a strange look on his face once the machine mentioned James. I’m not sure if he has another brother, but Sean and James must be close. “You okay?”

Sean shakes his head. Not to say no in response to my question, but more to clear away the memories I’m sure he’s experiencing. 

“Are you two close?” I ask him, using the same gentle tone he used with me on the train. I’m careful not to use past tense so he doesn’t feel worse. I see his eyes focusing on me as he mumbles his response. “Yeah, but not anymore. Maybe I’ll see him again after the arena.” I don’t dare say more. Suddenly I’m picturing him being slaughtered in the blood bath and never seeing his brother again, unless there is such thing as an afterlife. But then again, the survival instinct is different for all of us so he might have a chance once he’s in a life or death situations.

I turn around from Sean and look at our new home for the next couple of days. It’s gorgeous. To my left there’s a waterfall on the wall around the fireplace. There are several couches in front of the fireplace with a television on the mantel. There’s an upstairs with a large table already full of sugary treats. There are multiple doors which I assume are bedrooms and bathrooms. I turn to my right and am taken away. We have an amazing view with a balcony that as a spiraling staircase upward. I go outside immediately. I can see President Snow’s home on a high hill. I start to taste bile from seeing the size of his house. It’s a mansion paid for by the lives of everyone he’s forced into the Games. I shift my gaze to the staircase. My curiosity takes hold of me and I start to go up.

The stairs lead to a door at the top of the building. I have passed all the districts’ rooms, but didn’t look in. I don’t want to know what they are doing right now. I try the door and it’s locked. Figures. Since I’m from District 5, everyone knows how to pick locks, we all have picked them since we were two. None of us lock our doors because everyone can pick them open.I grab the bobby pins I always have in my hair for this kind of thing and look at the lock. It’s a simple 2050 lock style, pretty old, but not electronic. Easier for me. It takes me under two seconds to unlock it. I crack open the door and a gasp from sheer amazement escapes me as quickly as tracker jacker wasps track their enemy.