WREAK HAVOC.
( the train )

" WHEN DID THE FUTURE SWITCH
FROM BEING A PROMISE TO BEING
A THREAT. "

JULY 5TH, THE TRAIN
DISTRICT ONE COMPARTMENT

       "This sucks."

Vervain sighed at his sister, hearing the two worded phrase more times than he could count since she woke up. The girl had been running her mouth all morning, though it was better than the uncharacteristic silence she had when they boarded the train the night before, but it still wasn't ideal. Vervain struggled to keep his eyes open as he sat at the table, not getting any sleep as he waited to hear any noise from his sisters room that proved the inevitable meltdown had finally occurred. The boy did that often, not finding it in him to be able to close his eyes when he knew his sister was battling something inside her that was prone to exploding, but it didn't mean he enjoyed the morning after when his eyelids felt like heavy weights, and his head pounded from Wisteria's nonstop rambling.

"Oh, you think this sucks?" Vervain asked in a bitter voice. "We'll I'll be sure to go to President Quinn and let him know of your complaints. I'm sure he will understand and we will be on our way home."

"Yeah, we will certainly be on our way home, Vain," Wisteria replied, seemingly butchering her piece of toast as she violently spread peanut butter on it with a butter knife. "In body bags!"

"So that's it, then? You're already giving up?" Vervain asked, not even bothering to try and eat anything that would just come right back up.

"No, I am not giving up. I am a Voss, after all. I just so happened to have been cursed with more brain cells than the rest of the family, and am just being realistic. Your brain may not work the right amount, but I know you have perfect eyesight, and even you cannot say that you truly think that the rest of the tributes we saw when we watched the reapings, won't be a problem," Wisteria said, letting out a scream of frustration when the piece of bread in her hands completely fell apart. She was seconds away from losing it, she could feel the grasping pull on her chest, and the spreading of anger traveling to every nerve in her body. It was hard not to feel it, the anger she had. Or the sadness. Or any other emotion that seemed to ravage through her ten times the amount it seemed to effect most other people.

"I'm not saying they won't be a problem," Vervain whispered, his voice holding no more annoyance as he could feel the state she was in. "I'm just saying we have always been able to get through all our problems, no matter the consequences."

The twins made eye contact then, Wisteria's a molten color of pale blue, swimming with unshed tears and unreleased anger, and Vervain's a cold steel grey, hardened with determination and desperation that only his sister could recognize.

"No matter the consequences," Wisteria whispered back. 

The boy was about to say something else, but the compartment door slid open as their mentor, Sapphire, walked through. "Alright, so good news or bad news first?"

Vervain closed his eyes and rubbed at his face in exhaustion. "Good news first, please."

"That's a good choice." Sapphire replied, the tone of her voice hard for the twins to read. "I just spoke to District Two's mentor, and we got an alliance set in place. You can meet them before The Tribute Parade to start talking game plans."

"And what about District Four?" Wisteria questioned.

A grimace settled across the women's face, before she spoke again. "Which brings us into the bad news. District Four doesn't want an alliance with the careers."

The room was silent for a moment as the words settled into the siblings minds, and when it did Vervain just about gave himself a concussion slamming his head onto the hardwood table.

"That's a joke, right?" Wisteria said with a laugh. "Please tell me you're joking."

"Unfortunately, I am not. Which means we have a big problem on our hands that we need to fix," Sapphire announced, moving to sit at the table with her two tributes. "You guys ready to go start searching for two new possible careers within the tributes?"

Vervain's headache continued to pound at this new information, knowing not only are two huge competitors refusing to join the alliance, but now his sister and him had to play watchdog and find two people to replace them.

"This sucks!" The twins groaned at the same time.

･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.

JULY 5TH, THE TRAIN
DISTRICT FIVE COMPARTMENT

       "Vendetta, are you awake?"

The older girl sighed as she heard the voice of her brother drift through the door. Truth was, she had never fallen asleep and she didn't think she would be able to anytime soon.

"Greer is saying we are almost at The Capitol, and you have to get ready," Solstice continued, knowing his sister really didn't care about what their district escort said, but hoped she'd leave the room knowing he was awake. "There's a ton of food out here that I couldn't even begin to try and name, but I don't want to eat without you."

A few stray tears escaped Vendetta's eyes without her permission, she couldn't even bare to listen to her little brother behind the door. How was she going to face him with a strong facade if she couldn't hold in her emotions at the sound of his voice? She refused to be emotional in front of him, not wanting to give him any more reason to be more frightened than he already was, but she also knew she could never lie to him either.

"I'm awake, Sol. Just give me a minute," Vendetta called out, attempting to shake the overwhelming amount of grief that flooded her heart. Because she knew she wouldn't be alive at the end of this, she had made that decision during the night. She would die in that arena, and she would make sure she got her brother as far as she could manage before that happened. For others, that might be a hard decision for one to make, but to her it was as simple as blinking. Without Solstice, she really wouldn't have any sort of life to live at all.

"I've given you an hour," Solstice said. Then without warning, he opened the door to her bedroom she was given on the train, and walked in.

"Dammit, Solstice, what if I was changing?" Vendetta sighed out annoyed, trying her best to make sure there was no leftover tears for him to see. She knew that the second he saw her upset, he would know what was going through her head, and that was a secret she had to keep until her dying moments. Vendetta would not let her brothers compassion stop what she knew she had to do.

"It doesn't take you all morning to change, so don't pull that on me. Why are you still in bed?" The boy asked, and scanned her face for an answer that she had already wiped clean.

"Because I didn't sleep well, alright? I just slept in," the girl replied, running her hands over the silk sheets. "The beds are nice though, yeah? I don't think I have ever felt silk before."

Changing the subject was bound to be because she didn't want to continue the conversation, knowing she wasn't entirely truthful, but Solstice let it slide because she had every right to sleep in however long she liked. He walked over and threw himself onto her bed as well, laying on his back beside his sister.

"Is it okay that I'm scared?" Solstice asked.

Vendetta looked at him confused, wondering how that question could even leave his lips. "Of course it's okay, Sol. How can you even ask that?"

"Because if it's okay to be scared, why are you trying so hard to pretend that you're not, Vee?"

Vendetta felt like an entire hole had carved itself into her body at his words, because he was right. She had no reason to pretend that she wasn't afraid, because there was nothing wrong with that. She just had to pretend that she was afraid of dying, and not of losing him before she had the chance to make sure he lived.

"You're right, I shouldn't be pretending. I'm sorry," Vendetta said, before she laid her head on his chest and just let herself be afraid for that moment.

The Nigh siblings laid like that for another forty minutes, Solstice singing to his sister to try and calm her down, and Vendetta clinging to her brother that had become her whole life.

They stayed like that until they were forced to let go of each other.

･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.

JULY 5TH, THE TRAIN
DISTRICT NINE COMPARTMENT

      The tension hadn't eased at all the entire trip to The Capitol, if anything it had just gotten worse. Paloma, the District Nine escort, had tried to make conversation throughout the morning, but was continuously met with silence from Estrella and a harsh glare from Orion.

Estrella hadn't said a word, absently stabbing at her eggs on the plate set in front of her. She was too angry to eat, too angry to even try and process anything other than the way Orion was acting. Sure, this whole ordeal was more than an inconvenience, and having to be here with him made it that much worse, but she didn't make it her goal of the day to insult her brother in anyway she could manage like he had done to her. She remembered when they were younger, and how many times the boy had made her cry herself to sleep, the amount of times he shoved her to the ground harshly enough for her to bleed. But she always got back up.

Estrella had never let her brother keep her on the ground, and she wasn't about to let him start now. It didn't matter that seven years had passed since they last saw each other, nothing about them had changed.

"Okay, you two," their mentor said when he walked into the room. His name was Canyon, and he had won his games over ten years ago by hiding out in the mountains and watching the other two tributes kill one another. "We are about to arrive at The Capitol. Citizens will be waiting at the platform, my advice is to wave and smile at them. They love the attention."

"I am not waving to them," Orion stated bluntly, picking at a piece of fruit.

"Okay," Canyon said slowly. "Then I think you should leave the train holding hands. The reunited siblings will be sure to gain you guys a bunch of sponsors, might even put you in the top three."

A bitter laugh left the boys throat, before he looked over at the girl who unfortunately shared the same bloodline as him. "I am definitely not holding that things hand, either."

Estrella bit her tongue, wanting to fight back like she hadn't when she was younger, but now wasn't the time. If that's truly what he thought of her, as not even a human being, she would be sure to show him how wrong he was to ignore the threat she posed when it counted.

"Kid, I don't think you're understanding how this relationship works. I am your mentor, which means I am giving you advice that might just end up saving your life," Canyon replied, not caring to keep the nice act that wouldn't work on a tribute like Orion.

Orion smirked, before standing up from the table, making sure to rise to his full height. "You know what, mentor, you're right. You are giving me life saving advice, but if you think I'm going to play house with my little sister to get sponsors, and spend my time in the arena hiding like a coward until everyone else eventually kills themselves off, you are mistaken. I think you're weak, I think Star over there is weak, and if I listen to anything you try to tell me, then I am going to be weak too."

No one else said anything, watching as the boy shoulder checked the man as he walked toward the door leading to the area of the train they'd be getting off on.

"You can take your advice, and shove it," Orion told the man, before fully leaving the room.

Paloma seemed to sigh in absolute distress, but Estrella didn't expect anything different from him, and she was at least happy their mentor and escort got to find out how he was quickly, instead of him attempting to draw it out.

"Well," Estrella began. Both the adults turned to look at her, as this was the first time she had uttered a single word to them. They had worried she might be mute. "At least you guys understand why we don't get along."

"Yeah, kid," Canyon said. He sat in the chair next to her, hands rubbing down his face trying to relieve the stress. "But, good news for you, he seems to have forgotten something."

Estrella gave him a questioning look, not understanding what he meant.

"He seems to have forgotten that I'm the one that controls all of your sponsors, and I think it's safe to say I have a favorite out of you two," Canyon told her, before giving a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

"With the amount of sponsors you already have, I do believe I'll be able to get you everything you need in that arena, kid."

Estrella smiled at that, because maybe, just maybe, someone finally believed in her.

･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.

JULY 5TH, THE TRAIN
DISTRICT TWELVE COMPARTMENT

     Zuri, the District Twelve escort, looked at the two siblings in apparent disgust. The food on their plates kept disappearing as they shoveled it into their mouths with their forks.

"Didn't your parents ever teach you both any manners?" Zuri asked, taking her time to lay her napkin out on her lap.

"Oh yeah, they did. Until they died," Hari said to the woman with a glare.

She went quiet at that, and Aurelia took the time to look at her. She knew they were most likely not the best eaters when it came to food etiquette, but her and her brother had been going hungry for so long they forgot what it was like to have the mindset to remember to put a napkin in your lap before eating. "I have a question, Zuri," the girl asked the woman sitting across the room.

"What is it?" Zuri said, collecting herself.

"Have you ever been starving?" Aurelia asked. "Like, your stomach is eating itself, and you can barely manage to stand up, not knowing if you would eat ever again, starving?"

Hari stole a glance at his sister, before giving her leg a reassuring squeeze to try and calm her down. Aurelia had never been one to hide her thoughts, and he would never want her to, but if they were to make it through the Games she had to try and keep a level head.

"No," Zuri answered, voice wavering in shame. "I have not."

"Then you'll have to forgive the way my sister and I are acting, then. We truly cannot help it sometimes," Hari stated, before taking another bite of something he didn't know could ever taste that good.

Hari hated anyone talking down to his sister. They may not be blood related, but they grew up together, and the second his parents had brought her home, he had been protecting her ever since. He never allowed anyone to make fun of her, getting into fights in school when anyone ever dared to. It wasn't because he didn't think she could take care of herself, because she could. She had been taking care of them both after their parents died, but he couldn't break the habit of being her human shield whenever he was able to be. His sister was his entire life, and he would be and do anything she needed him to.

The siblings made eye contact, both clearly frustrated with the person who couldn't even fathom what they had been through since the death of their parents. The starvation, the loneliness, the hopelessness of ever being okay some days. But they had each other, even now on their way to the arena of death.

The train door slid open as their mentor, Imogen, had walked through. There wasn't many victors alive from District Twelve, and the women was starting to grey from the stress of having to continuously be a mentor to children she would later watch die. But she never gave up trying to get one of them out, and overhearing the conversation they just had with the escort, the women's empathy grew ten fold. She would do everything in her power to help these two kids.

"You guys ready to start making a game plan?" Imogen asked, holding up a box full of tapes from the previous Hunger Games over the last seventy years.

Hari and Aurelia looked at one another, they could see their mentor wasn't disgusted by them, and that she was ready to help them in the arena. Putting their trust in anyone other than them was practically foreign territory, they only had each other for so long, but Imogen looked determined, and they would do anything to live, so they both nodded at the women in appreciation, and started to watch one of the tapes as they began writing down different strategies they could use.

But turning their back on one another obviously was something completely off the table, right?

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hello! i wanted to introduce some of
the tributes, of course i only managed to
get some of them, but the rest will be
introduced within the next three
chapters. i adore writing all of your
characters and i hope i'm doing them
all justice!

next chapter out will be the tribute
parade, and then we will be moving
into part two of this book which will
be training. i'm super excited, i have
ideas for the arena already!! <33

if any of you wants to make graphics
for your character feel free, i would
love to see them and would make a
chapter to post them all on. i'm planning
on making couples and alliance gifs
soon!

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