#thg chapter two

The trip to the Capitol was rather short, and while she and Adam chatted on occasion, she never gathered the courage to ask him why he had volunteered for Stanley. Most of her time was spent with the Victor who had won a few years back, a girl named Marina with haunted eyes but an easy smile. She had greeted Ella with a comment of her brother, and with a shock, Ella realized that this was the girl who had trained him when he was riding the same train to his death years ago. Her hopes sank, realizing that if she hadn’t been able to save John, how would she ever be able to save Ella?

“You’re small and cute, and while crying on your brother definitely hurt your chances of being seen as merciless, it also helped you gain the audiences sympathies. Play that up at your interview. As for the training room…” Marina’s advice seemed endless and Ella committed it all to heart, and when the girl finally gave up and went to bed, Ella retreated to her own bedroom and cried soundlessly. She missed Stanley and her home, her dead brother and parents – these stupid Games had taken them all from her, and now they were going to take her life. She had reasons to return home, her brother especially but the few friends she had made as well – even Pete, the slightly annoying boy that wrote her poetry and brought her strawberries before he was chased away by Stanley, who visited her before she boarded the train and kissed her cheek and said he would be waiting for the return – but it seemed hopeless. Hell, she couldn’t even beat her own District partner – it was obvious he could overpower her easily, with his strength and height – how could she expect to outsmart, out run, outmatch twenty two other kids? Maybe she should’ve tried again to end it all, even after her first failed attempt. Suicide. The coward’s way out, but it would have saved Stanley the trouble of watching her die.

If only Adam hadn’t stopped her.

The thought barely entered her mind, memories replaying like a film reel of that night, when she heard a hesitant knock on her door. Her mouth opened but she had no need to speak, for Adam opened the door without waiting for her invitation in. She bristled slightly at the intrusion, watching him close the door behind him and make his way into her room, his eyes scanning the view that she had of the capitol outside, partying their lives away. He became motionless and she could feel her nerves stretching, reaching for the remote and changing the screen so a relaxing image of a cloudy sky filled the windows rather than the despicable Capitol citizens. The look that Adam gave her, as if she had walked straight into his room without a word, made her scowl, her eyebrows knitting together as she opened her mouth to spit sour words at him, but her foul mood lifted quickly when she heard the small chuckle from him.

“Everyone at the orphanage was terrified of that look. It meant you were about to either cry or punch someone in the face or yell for Stanley… or all three. And all three of those things are rather… terrifying,” Finally he spoke but she didn’t see the point to it; she wasn’t exactly a fan of reminiscing of the old days where she was spit on and outcasted because her father stood up to the Capital and died because of it. She ran her tongue over her lips, her gaze dropping to the ground as she silently prayed that he wouldn’t mention the thing that had brought them together once – and she wasn’t too fond of that day either.

“Ella.” His voice was soft and she looked up at him, surprised to see how earnest his blue eyes were. “I’m not your enemy here. I want you to go home. I really do. I’ll do everything to get you home.”

              “Why should I believe you?” She rose to her feet, arms crossed over her chest in an attempt to look tough. “My success means your death.”

“Because I don’t want to live.” His answer was quick, like he had rehearsed this; she was taken aback immediately, looking at him in shock. “I have nothing back home. I’m eighteen now, I was kicked out of the orphanage two months ago – I’m starving on the streets, I can’t get work, I’m going to die anyway. I have no family, no friends. Nothing to live for.”

It was rare that Ella was actually rendered speechless. Normally the blonde girl couldn’t shut up, even if she was upset. But her mouth made no sound, her lips forming no words as she stared at him, and he stared back. A heavy silence fell around them and she felt once more like she was suffocating, like she had tied a noose around her neck and was dangling, waiting for her death only for it to never come.

“Is that why you volunteered for my brother?” Her voice cracked as she asked, but she knew the answer before Adam nodded.

“I wasn’t going to do it at first. I didn’t want to die on TV as apart of the Capital’s games. But then your name was called and… I want you safe, Ella. Ever since I saw you-“

“Don’t say it.” She snapped, surprising herself, but she didn’t want another reminder of the debt she owed him. The terrible misfortune that he brought into her life, because now Stanley would get to watch her suffer.

“…There’s something about you that… You remind me of a girl I used to know. She was blonde too, a tiny little thing just like you are.”

Ella snorted, rolling her eyes at him as she flopped back on her bed, her arms spread out above her head. “Lots of girls are blonde and thin. Especially in District 5. Way to go on details.” Maybe if she closed her eyes and pretended like she fell asleep, he would go away…

“She was sassy like you too. And smart and sweet and kind…” Apparently he couldn’t take a hint. “Haley was her name.”

That got Ella’s attention and her eyes opened, the white ceiling meeting her gaze. “…Haley. What, uh, happened to her?” There was no immediate answer so Ella lifted her head to see Adam staring at the window, his gaze glossy. “Adam. She died in the Games, didn’t she?”

“Good ol’ Sixty-Fourth. Seventh place. She made it far, but not far enough.” His head turned to her and she felt pinned beneath his gaze despite the seven feet of distance that separated them.

“I remember her. She was a good fighter. Killed by her district partner,”

“Ivan Sutton.” Adam finished the sentence for her and she felt a shiver run down her spine at the clear pain in his gaze. That year had been awful for District 5. Haley and her mother, Hilda, had been well loved in the community for taking care of the many orphans at the orphanage, running the center and caring for the kids as best as she could. And when the fourteen year old was drawn into the games alongside Adam’s brother, one of the many orphan kids in the District, no one expected either to last long. Ella vaguely knew what was happening in the Games, that District 5 had two kids who were suddenly expected to make it far only the two District mates to turn on each other in the midst of their strong alliance, leaving the younger and weaker Haley dead and Ivan with no look out, allowing a girl from Two to sneak up on him in his sleep and slit his throat. But Ella had not been paying a lot of attention to the Games despite it being the law to watch, for she and Stanley were suffering through the third family death in their lives – the death of their father, who had refused to go to the reaping earlier that week and was put to death not even an hour later, to the shock of both Ella and Stanley.  They watched the games with blurry eyes because it was law, but they paid little attention to them; it wasn’t a high priority to watch more people die while they were helpless against the capitol.

“Leave.” The word shocked Ella but she said it firmly, despite the small crack in her voice. “Please. I don’t want to reminisce on dead relatives or my impending death or anything. Just please get out.”