aphrodite₂ [treech]

v

Venus comes back the next day. She doesn't stay long. She doesn't seem to want to talk, so I say nothing. She looks sad, a haunted look in her eyes. I wonder if she was friends with her classmate who died. I want to help her, to say something to make her feel better, but I don't know what to say. As soon as I'm finished eating, Venus gets up to leave.

"Don't worry," she says. Her voice is hollow, like she hasn't spoken much in the last day. "My classmate's proposal was passed. People in the Capitol can pay to send food to you in the arena. You won't starve there."

I don't reply to her statement. I can't help but think about the inevitable Bloodbath in the arena. I can't worry too much about food if I don't even survive the initial fight.

...

The next day, the tributes are rounded up and loaded onto a truck bed. Are we being taken to the Academy for more preparations? Is it time for the Games? I would have thought Venus would tell me if she knew.

Each of us is chained to the truck bed. The links of metal are so short, we can't stand up all the way. I save myself the strain and sit on the cool metal. While the other tributes are secured, I take a look at the vehicle, to see if that will give me a clue as to what is going on. I don't know what I was expecting, but it isn't this.

The truck bed supports a large crane attachment. Hanging from the hook is the body of Brandy, blood caked into her dress. I'm lucky Venus didn't bring me breakfast. I think it would have come right back up.

I look down, but I can't get the horrific image out of my head.

"Don't look, Mina," I tell my friend.

That was a mistake. Naturally, Lamina looks up, a strangled gasp leaving her lips as she takes in the scene.

"Oh my god," she says.

"I told you not to look," I say. "It's okay, Lamina. I don't know what's going on, but I think we're safe. At least for now. I know you're scared, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't. But you're brave, Lamina. I know you are."

"Thanks, Treech," mumbles Lamina.

The truck starts, turning onto a large avenue. There are other vehicles around us, but I can't see them well enough to know why they're here. Hundreds of people line the street, all of them wearing black.

Someone is speaking into a microphone. It's difficult to pick up the garbled words, but I catch something about loss and mourning. That's when it hits me.

All of this is a funeral procession. For the student who died. Brandy's body, all of us on display to jeer at, it's our punishment for killing a girl.

The truck drives by a familiar building– the Academy. I know Venus is sitting there with her classmates. I look down. I can't see her. I can't let her see me sitting here uselessly. It's utterly humiliating. None of us did anything wrong. Even Brandy. She was just a scared girl, who was taunted into doing something terrible. But now we're here, the center of attention at a girl's funeral. The laughing stock of the Capitol.

I'm relieved when we're driven back to the zoo. As soon as we're shoved back into our enclosure, I find Lamina.

"Are you alright?" I ask, wrapping my arms around her.

"I'm okay, Treech," she says. "I'm okay." The second time she says it sounds like she's talking to herself more than to me.

...

Later in the afternoon, we're rounded up again and put in the back of another truck. Thankfully, this time, we're not shackled. This truck is more like the one we took when we arrived at the zoo.