Electrify- Chapter Two: Visitors

Chapter Two- Visitors

  In the Justice Building, which seemed to lack justice most of all, few people came to visit. My mother was escorted into the room carefully, then sat on the red, velvety couch parallel to mine. Not that she needed to see me, anyway. My mother had lost her sight in an accidental explosion at the electrical plant she worked. With her eyesight, some mental abilities also fled, so she hasn't been right in the head since. Still, she can understand most concepts.

"Katia." she whispers softly, outstretching her arms. This is a nickname only she calls me, which makes it all the more special. I stand up and rush into her embrace, tears beginning to roll down both our cheeks. "Win for us. Please." she says in broken English, the missing fragments lost forever in the explosion.

"I will," I promised. I began to wonder how my mother's mental state would deteriorate from now through the Games. Would she be all right?

We continued to hug until the Peacekeepers escorted her out. As it took an extra amount of time due to her blindness, the thing was a long, dragged out process, and made things all the more painful.

I dried my eyes for my next visit, which turned out to be a girl from school. Dew Moony was a quiet, geeky sort of girl with golden blonde hair with jagged ends and thin, light orange glasses. She adjusted her white jacket nervously and stood awkwardly, too anxious to sit.

"My stepfather made me come here…I mean-" she struggled to fix a potentially offensive statement. "Perkins is against Cavan, so he's forcing me to support you- not that it's a bad thing!" Dew obviously lacked confidence in her ability to say the right thing.

"It's okay, just relax. But what's the deal with Cavan?" I knew Howard Perkins was a very disagreeable man, and had personally felt sorry for Dew when he and her mother had announced their engagement the previous year.

"He and Mr. Cutler have had a few falling-outs lately. Neither one of them really have decent social skills."

I expected her to defensively ease any harshness from the latter statement, but she did not. Good, so she wasn't a total pansy.

"So, to radically display his disdain, he's trying to convince us all to help you out as much as we can. Not that we really have a choice." She looks down to the ground, sadness surely brimming in her eyes. It's true, pushy old Mr. Perkins always gets his way.

"Well," I try to word this in a not-so-selfish way, "I guess it's good someone may actually be sponsoring me." I sprinkle a touch of my low self-confidence so that the sadness would soften any edge.

"Yeah, but I would sponsor you anyway. Cavan has never really been nice to me. You're one of the few people who are, actually."

I look up, surprise shimmering a bit too obviously in my eyes. Sure, I don't makes puns out of her name or flat out put her down, but those are some pretty low expectations. Nevertheless, I accept the compliment. Dew Moony may be a reticent outcast sort of girl, but in that way she resembles me. My only real friend was Flynn Caster. Well, she wasn't my real friend, anymore. My anger began to rush back, but I hold it in.

Dew holds something out to me. Something shiny and beautiful. "Here, I want you to take this."

I peer into her cupped palm at the golden puddle. It's a necklace. A golden chain with a dazzling charm in the shape of a lightning bolt. "It's beautiful." I say, carefully accepting the chain.

"Will you wear it? As your district token?"

I had forgotten all about that. Each tribute could bring one item from home. "Of course. Thank you." It was all I could manage to say. It really was beautiful. District 5's industry was electricity, and would be well represented.

"You'll electrify, Katelyn. Electrify." I can see a spark in her blue eyes, shining brighter than the glint of her glasses. "Wear it as a reminder."

"Electrify." I whisper. "I will."

I feel hope as Dew leaves. I feel like more than a tall, yet skinny girl without a chance. What if Dew was my true friend all along? In that moment, she was certainly a better friend than Fynn. Fynn. Anger from her betrayal rushed back. Would she even come to visit me? She didn't.


  Other visitors included a couple of other girls from my school, Vena Janson and Jenna Decker, who only came for a brief time to wish me luck. Still, it meant a lot to me. When it was time to leave for the Capitol, I suppressed what could amount to be a long bout of crying, sobbing, rather. I knew that once I stepped outside, cameras would be fixed on my face in an attempt to catch any emotion. I was escorted to the train, I didn't need to try to lie. My emotion had gone numb from the shock when I had suddenly realized that I was basically, inevitably going to die.