"The fallen angel" and "the devil in disguise"
Two names Ares Aristo was known for, a boy who had more to him than originally met the eye. Charming the capital with his kind facade, it was only in the games did they realized just how far an angel ca...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞.
(hit list )
▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃
It was a short ride from the Justice Building to the train station, especially in one of the shiny Captial cars which Ares, and no doubt the entirety of the District, never had the luxury of experiencing before. Not that they would ever need to, anyway, considering they could've easily walked the ten minutes instead.
As the car pulled up, reporters swarmed the station, their insect-like cameras focused on the two latest tributes. Ares caught a glimpse of himself on the live broadcast on one of the walls and his starry-eyed expression immediately shut down into something calmer. He had to remember that every minuscule reaction would be analyzed by the world now. He'd have to be more careful about controlling them going forward.
Pandora Lancaster, on the other hand, didn't have the same capability. She'd been crying since the very second Ares had greeted her on the stage. The tears couldn't seem to stop. Her hands clutched at her skirt and she kept her face down as they walked, blinking in distress every time a camera's flash would go off and, at first, Ares chose to ignore it. After all, if he was going to be fighting to win, it felt sadistic to comfort a girl he very well may face at the end. But when a camera got a little too close to them and an older man behind it leered right into her face, Ares couldn't hold back his temper.
A the end of the day, she and him were the same. Two children forced to take part in something terrible, their odds of winning equally grim with neither of them trained or happy. What counted was that they were alive now and together now. With that thought in mind, Ares threw an arm around the girl's small shoulders and pushed his way through the congregation, making a show of smiling and greeting people to take the spotlight away from Pandora who was struggling to match his steps. The charade lasted until they reached the train, the doors sealing them off from the cameras and onlookers. As soon as they let go of one another the train began to move, and the speed made both of them falter for a second before they got used to the feeling. But once they did, with the incessant pushing of Velvet further into the carriage, they could do nothing but stare at the room with their eyes wide and mouths parted in awe.
If Ares thought the room back in the Justice Building was impressive, the carriage was something completely out of the realm of reality. It was the epitome of what he imagined a typical place in the Capital must be like. There were platters of food, the amount more than his family could only ever dream of eating in an entire year, just laying out on open display. The furniture looked almost delicate with how expensive they seemed, the fabric all deep hues looking too soft to touch. The lighting screamed luxury, the crystal ornate chandeliers casting a radiant glow across the room. Hell, even the tile looked as if it cost more than District Nine's combined earnings, with the pattern of marble expanding across the compartment.
