The Bloodbath

Aneesa Warden, Introduction

She stares at herself and finds it hard to believe it's her own self looking back. She looks... frail enough, sure, maybe like she's seen some stuff but. But... She doesn't look...

Broken.

She's so swallowed up inside- that's the only way she can describe it, like she's been swallowed down, down, down so far that she cannot find herself. She can remember what it was like to be happy but she knows she'll never experience it again. Especially not now. And when she looks at this girl staring back at her, she doesn't see that.

She sees clever eyes which search for the truth, and dark hair pulled back into a ponytail. It isn't quite long enough to be functional, so there are several barrettes and pins holding up the various fallen strands. She wears an over-sized raincoat, which is actually probably good news because she's come to love the rain like the sweetest of friends. The clothing beneath the raincoat is simple: a white button up tucked in to a pair of high-waisted carpenter jeans. The cuffs are rolled up, perhaps because they're too big, or perhaps because her stylist wants to show off the brand new Romeo Ford- whoever that is- combat boots on her feet. She sees hope. And that doesn't seem fair.

"It's starting soon?"

Her stylist looked shocked that she was speaking. She always does.

"Three minutes," she says. Her voice sounds altered to make her sound more... robotic? Or, hell, as far as Aneesa knew, she may have been a robot of some kind. There was empathy in her voice too, though. Or something like it.

Aneesa thought she started crying but the girl in the mirror has no tears. She sighs. No one roots for a girl who only wins the wars in her head.

"Okay."

The last of her stray hairs is pinned up and she stands. Each step feels hollow, but she knows not to run. There's nowhere she'd be able to hide. There's nowhere the Capitol would not find her. She heard that the girl from Five was starved and beaten for trying to escape, kept in a room with a ringing fire alarm and three different strobe lights. She supposes she'll see just how true that is eventually.

"Good luck."

She folds her hands in front of her in a way that is possibly casual or possibly mechanical, and Aneesa presses her lips together before she allows herself to ask the question that'd otherwise escape. No matter how possible it might have been, and how crazy she might have been, she just couldn't bring herself to ask someone if they were a robot. Didn't seem like the type of thing that could ever be taken as complimentary, you know?

Aneesa, instead, says nothing. Again.

A tube encircles her and she's on the rise, clock tick, tick, ticking even before it clicks into place. The air is hot and thick with humidity. The atmosphere is loud with the chirping of insects and birds and, in the distance, horrible and awful things she is terrified to encounter. The tributes make a perfectly round shape around a perfectly round island. There are huge, massive gates in every direction, each opening a new circle of hell, she's sure. And there, amidst the tributes, is the wealth. Shiny metallic weapons, life-sustaining medical supplies, water. Avriel would want her to run. She should.

She doesn't.

[ aneesa enters bloodbath ]