ashes to dust [cinder, top 8 interview]

The Games were already always such a tough thing for me to watch, especially since Ping died back in the seventy-ninth. Now, I was watching another friend fight her way through. Sure, Belle was doing significantly better than Ping had, but it didn't make it any less difficult. Ping had died when a boy sent his spear through her throat. Belle, on the other hand, was still alive.

She'd reached the top eight.

That's why someone from the Capitol was here today to interview me. They wanted my thoughts. My feelings. My general input on the whole situation. Of course, they didn't want the raw, uncut version of it all. It'd obviously be edited and 'fixed' to the Capitol's liking before they put it out.

The world had been hard on me recently. Things were falling down at home, so I finally convinced my father to let me move out on my own. He had to argue pretty much incessantly with my step-mother to allow me to do so. When they finally came to an agreement, I was told I could move out, but the only things I was allowed to take with me were my clothes, my shoes, whatever money I'd earned on my own, and my pet mouse, Gus Gus. I ended up moving in with Schnee and her family because I couldn't afford anything else. Schnee's still relatively young, but we bonded after Ping died, as Ping used to help look after her before everything that happened.

The day I moved out, I begged my father to tell me my real name. For some reason, he'd kept it from me. As a really young kid, before my father married my stepmother, my nickname was E, and after married her, I got called Cinder. I hated it for a while, but eventually grew used to it. Nevertheless, I wanted to know what I was really called. I begged and begged, and eventually, he caved.

I was called Ella Blue. When he married my step-mom, for some reason, perhaps due to my young age, they changed my name to Ella Blue-Tremaine, so as to hyphenate it with her surname. That's my legal name. It's what they would've called at the reaping, and I never would've known to come to the stage. Luckily, I'm too old for that now.

Nowadays, I still go by Cinder. It's what I tell everyone that my name is. It's what I'm used to, and I don't think I'll ever change to going by my legal name. I own it now. It's no longer an insult. It's a name that I've actually grown to like.

----

The man who approached me for my interview referred to me as Ella, and I corrected him politely.

"Are you Ella Blue-Tremaine?" he asked when I answered the door.

"Yes," I answered politely, "but I go by Cinder. Please call me Cinder."

He nodded in response.

Then, he proceeded to ask if he could interview me in regards to Belle's current standing in the Games.

I agreed, despite not really wanting to talk to the man who so obviously was from the Capitol. The way he dressed made it glaringly obvious. He honestly didn't even need to tell me why he was here. I would've known.

"So," he began. "Why don't you tell everyone your connection to Miss Belle Jaune?" the man asked.

"She's my best friend," I said without missing a beat.

He nodded.

"and did you think that she had what I took to make it to the Top Eight? Are you surprised that she's gotten as far as she has?" he asked of me.

I looked at the man, honestly surprised at his question despite it being what was likely a routine question to ask in these sort of interviews. It just seemed... offensive.

"Obviously I knew that she had what it takes," I explained. "She's strong. She's smart. I'm not surprised by any means."

He nodded again.

"Now," he kept going. "I have a couple more questions for you that I'm sure everyone would love to know the answer to."

"Alright," I said to him, urging him to continue, mostly because I was standing in the doorway of Schnee's home and really wanted this over with as quickly as possible.

"What do you think it is about Belle that can cause her to be so calm and collected outside of a fight, but as soon as she's up against someone, she turns into a monster that wants to rip them to shreds?" he asked. Another rude question. This time, I wasn't going to let it slide?

"Excuse me?" I asked of him. "Belle's no monster. How about you move onto the next question or get out of here?"

I was refraining from cussing the man out.

"Er- of course," he responded, stumbling over his words. "One last question, then," he said to me. "If Belle should return home a victor, would that change anything between the two of you? She'd have to kill at least someone to get to that point, after all."

Instead of answering his question, I glared at him. I should have answered with how I felt, which was, of course not. It couldn't change a thing between us. I'd just be happy to have her home. Instead, I stepped back inside and slammed the door shut. I was done with this interview.