Nis Inferna {D5}

Nis Inferna

She is dressed in black from head to toe. Her mother smiles at her empty dinner plate and says, "Don't worry, your father's got the dishes today." Her father looks up with a quirked brow, and Nis smiles.

"Thank you."

She excuses herself and runs to the bathroom for a last minute freshening up. Her hair is tied back neatly, her eyebrows plucked, her blemishes cleaned, and her uniform free of stains. Tonight she helps serve food and wine at a dinner party in one of the wealthiest houses of the district. Some of her coworkers will be there too, no doubt. Especially Nestor.

When she leaves, she kisses her mother's cheek and bids her father goodbye for the evening. When she returns, it will be past curfew, but despite a few lost hours of sleep she will wake up at her proper time and attend her classes. Tomorrow she is not scheduled for a cleaning, which means free time to hang out with her friends and visit her cousin. A few of those hours will be spent reading.

Upon arrival she helps set the table. When the guests flood in and take their designated seats, she fills their glasses and stands in the corner to observe the interactions. She smiles at their chatter and their trivial worries. She smiles when they snap their fingers to summon her. She smiles as they breathe alcohol on her and drop food on the floor to their dogs. It never occurs to her that Avoxes in the Capitol do the same, only without the freedom of choice and speech.

She waits until the gathering ends. The hosts tell her that she may leave as soon as everything is "back the way it was". She pays no heed to the other servants and their chit chat as she cleans dishes and wipes down chairs. Together they vacuum, wash the tablecloth, wipe the table, wipe the chairs, discard the leftover food (a few of them stealing a few bites themselves), and make sure the room is spotless. When they're finished, the host hums in satisfaction and pays her. She earns a little extra today for her efforts, and the wife leaves her a tip. The wife calls her a pretty thing with a sweet face.

She smiles.


-----


I'm the most selfish person you will ever meet.

There's no shame in it. Selfishness is an evolutionary trait. Who is there to live for if not yourself? Your parents? Don't be silly. Once you have a child, you have to live for that child. My parents live for me, and that's why I'm never having children.

What about friends? The people I care about?

I actually don't care about anyone. My friends just feed my ego and satisfy my need for conformity. I know I'm not like the rest of District Five, but I have to act like it. Everyone knows that the girl with no friends is at the bottom of the food chain. I don't belong there, so I surround myself with people and pretend to care about their problems. They're pretty boring most of the time, but every once in a while they impress me. Just a little.

I think the closest "friend" I have is my cousin Natas. She's such a bitter thing, and I didn't even realize it. My parents would take me to visit once a month, and we'd have dinner with her parents. The entire time they'd talk about how wonderful and polite Natas was. They were training her for the "family business," which isn't really a family business at all. They don't own anything. They just pass down the same job skills from mother to daughter and end up with the same career. They're just like me; servants, except I wasn't a servant back then. Only Natas was.

Learning the truth about her was a happy accident. It's suspicious to leave an attic door cracked open in the hallway, so while the adults chatted and Natas used the bathroom I decided to give it a climb and see what kind of trinkets they might have in storage. I didn't expect to find carvings all over the walls and a knife on the floor. It was an interesting twist that changed my perspective of her. I could use it as blackmail, I realized. But as soon as I told Natas about my discovery she spilled everything.

Turns out, she's not the angel her parents make her out to be. She's a bitter witch who would rather be a political leader than a rich man's servant.

We have similar goal, but my quest for power lies on a lower, more realistic level. I want to start my own business - perhaps in the exotic breeding industry - and sit at the very top of the food chain. I want people working for me, listening to me, being controlled by me. It's a dying industry, but it still pays well and it's still a necessity. I've also considered becoming the Mayor of Five. I've got the promising face, the ability to fabricate lies - I fit the position perfectly, but it's a harder goal to achieve.

My last resort was always to become a Peacekeeper. They recruit every so often. That is one trade where my appearance doesn't quite fit in. People say I'm pretty and delicate. My blues eyes are "innocent" and my pretty face is "fragile" and I remind people of a hummingbird.

I'm not a hummingbird.

In the meantime, I save money by working in the same trade as Natas. I asked her to teach me everything she knew because it pays better than I expected. Most people our age won't make half as much as we do. She also told me about her coworkers and their quirks. Honestly, Natas is one of the most interesting people I've ever met, so of course her coworkers intrigued me. Now I've met each and every one of them. My school friends pale in comparison to their unique personalities, but they're all still inferior to me one way or another.

The one I see most often is Wren. The only thing you need to know about him is that he's a slut. I refuse to sleep with him though. There isn't a single soul worthy enough to deflower me.

Beezlebub is as much of a slut as Wren is. It's a shame how their lives seem to revolve around such a primitive act, but since Beezle is a "collector" he always has a fun story to tell.

Nestor is a simpleton dressed as a merchant. He's too high maintenance to survive in a world like ours, but I do admire some of his desires. Like I said before, selfishness is an evolutionary trait.

Minx is the newest employee. I have yet to speak a word to him, although from what I've gathered he's shy and reserved. A weakling, is what that means. A little bird tells me that he's an innocent flower, but it's only a matter of time before one of the others corrupts him.

Then of course, there's Natas, who is polite and pleasant until the owners leave their home. She always scowls as she cleans. It really isn't so miserable. Sure, we're all working for someone with higher privilege, but we won't be here forever. If there's any sort of abuse to the workers, it has never been toward me, so I don't care.

I just do my job and pride myself in how well I can lie to them about who I am.