#janitstrainingday3

Just ten minutes later she was standing at the edge of the pool feeling very uncomfortable. Just as she had feared the swimsuit was skimpy at best. It was very high cut and made out of a material that was neon pink and halfway transparent.  She was certain that he had not picked it by accident. Not particularly happy about the whole set up and sweating profoundly in the palms of her hands she kept a safe distance from the pool where Hunter was already swimming back and forth. For some minutes he continued uninterrupted and she managed to calm herself down enough to admire his technique and toned muscles. She had no idea that he had kept himself in such a good shape after his games. The only lighting was the lights in the pool, and cast an otherworldly blue light over everything.  Mesmerised by the rhythm of his strokes she carefully walked closer to the edge, and in the end she even sat down with her feet in the water.  It was soothing and when she closed her eyes and focused on breathing, her heartbeat slowed down and she managed to feel somewhat relaxed.

“How are you doing, darling?” His voice came from right in front of her, and she was so startled that she almost fell in. His face was no more than five centimetres from hers.  “You frightened me!” She laughed and pushed against his chest with her hand. It was strange of how relaxed she felt, especially while sitting on the edge of a deep pool. Oh no… She should not have thought of that. She could feel her heartbeat pick up its pace again and her muscles tensing.  “Care to join me for a swim?” He smiled his best smile, but on this occasion he would not get what he wanted. She answered his smile with a forced one as she clutched the edges of the pool as hard as she could. “I think I’ll pass, thank you.” It sounded very strange and forced. “I heard what you said to me on the train, and I don’t think it is a coincidence that they’ve put a pool in the training room. Please let me help you Jayne.” The last part he said very sincerely and she knew that he really meant it. “Hunter I don’t think you have any idea of what it is like being afraid of something! I know it is completely irrational, but I can’t help it!” She was desperate for him to understand that this was not just water for her. It was like a bottomless black hole that would swallow her whole if she dared to go close to it. “Don’t you think I know what it is like to be afraid? My greatest fear was heights, and I ended up having to climb a cliff in my games. I just want you to be more prepared than I was. I know you can win this.”  She was about to protest weakly, but suddenly he took hold of her wrist and yanked her in.  Water engulfed her everywhere and she could not see or breathe. She could feel the black hole under her dragging her under, and she struggled to get to the surface. No matter how much she struggled it seemed like the surface was getting farther and farther away. Bubbles of air escaped her mouth as she tried to inhale, but the only thing that came flooding in was water. On the outer corners of her vision she could barely glimpse the shadows crawling, and she was sure that the last thing she would remember would be the shadows that her mother had seen.

When she finally managed to get away from Missy and her lectures of maintaining a hairstyle, she shut herself into her room. After shutting the door behind her she just slid down onto the floor. It was not that she felt like crying, but a wave of exhaustion had hit her in the middle of the conversation and she fled.  It was all so much to take in, getting reaped, the goodbyes and train ride, the parade and now the training. It did not help much that she had absolutely no idea of what to do during her private training session, and the fact that her mentor, that was supposed to guide her through it all, was nowhere to be seen. In fact she had not seen him since day one of training. She punched the wall while screaming with frustration. It was all so unfair! Another girl should be sitting terrified in the same room instead of her. Her knuckles were red after the punch and her hand throbbed painfully. “At least there is a dent in the wall.” She thought with some satisfaction.  She was sick and tired of the polished perfection of the Capitol. How magnificent would it not be to wreck the whole room and what it stood for? She smiled smugly and walked over to the nightstand beside the bed. With a double grip around the foot of the bedside lamp of metal, she swung it down onto the glass table as hard as she could. It broke with a thud and a million small pieces of glass on the carpet was the result. Jayne smiled wickedly from ear to ear as she gracefully swung the lamp at the television screen.

  She jerked awake as her duvet was being yanked forcefully off her. “What the hell did you do to this place?”  She could not place the voice or where she was. It reminded her an awful lot about waking up that first day. “What?” She said sleepily trying to orientate herself. This time there was luckily not any sunlight. “I would like to know why you are sleeping in a pile of feathers, and what happened to that glass table.” Oh… It was Hunter. She sat upright and focused her eyes on him while taking in the sight of the whole room. Wow, it really was a mess. He did not sound angry however, and she just simply responded that she felt like it. “Well if it made you feel better I guess ‘well done’ is the right response. Now princess we have something important to do.” He motioned to her that she should follow him and walked towards the door. “Coming?” Hurriedly she followed him and noticed on her way over that the clock that used to stand on the nightstand showed two in the morning. What in the world was happening, and where was he taking her?