Chapter 53

I don't think the notion of danger scares me anymore, as I think I'm more scared at the notion of being bored in this place, this place that all the excitement is supposedly going on.

The halls are still awash with laughter, and the feeling of danger dragging a knife along my back makes me think I'd be good at this sort of thing. I would be perfectly excellent at manipulation, I would be wonderful at working my way into people's minds, and making them see what I want them to see, instead of what is so clearly going on right before their eyes.

I would be perfect and it seem to marvel at how everyone seems to outdo each other with the intensity of thier looks. I can see Arden is trying her best to school her features which usually look hard as stone, into one of a more pleasant propensity, and I positively marvel at the effort which she is so clearly putting in.

Dropping in and out of character is basically my thing, as I can remember making myself a total strangers to others at times, I did it enough times at the restaurant to make myself sure of this ability.

To me the way everyone in here seems to have that air of arrogance and barely concealed conceit beneath all this charm makes me smile. I seem to have that particular gift of being able to read people so easily, and even if I don't have the opportunity to try it out as much, all my guesses up to this point have been correct.

The guess I had about my aunt being an irrepressible whitch was correct, the guess i had when Lucas seemed to always ask me to do things that I didn't want to do was also correct. It seems I have always been able to deduct exactly what is going on in the mind of others the moment they come within five inches of me and speak.

I seem to wonder if this will come in handy if I was to ever actively participate in this winter games. Adrian has begged me, he has positively begged me to please stay out of it, as he doesn't want me to get hurt, and I don't think I'll be able to keep that promise.

He asked me to promise him to never have anything to do with the manipulation and the betrayals that seems to be going on every five minutes around us, and I had are assented mostly out of fear for what would happen to me if I did participate.

But the bored life I seem to be living at this moment makes me doubt I will actually keep to that decision. Will I actually be able to watch as both him and Arden seem to go round and round with their plans never really coming to any tangible decision. I can look around the hall and make out at least forty people who seem to be unsure of themselves, and who could always hand over thier family crests just after they've had someone to talk to.

Everyone tries to mask their emotions here, and that's what makes the effort even more futile, because it seems the more they try to mask it, the more I see through each and every part of them.

 A plan comes into my head and I decide to test my ability a bit.