The girl on fire won't get away from me. But I'm not going to give her a fast or painless death. No, I will torture her. Not for my sake, it doesn't bother me how she goes as long as she is gone. No, for the audience. I need them to like me. You see, if I give them a good show then I'll likely win Cato and I sponsors.
I pin her down and carve her face, taunting her about lover boy. I see the pained expression in her eyes and I actually feel a bit sad for her. But this moment isn't about her. It's about me, and my survival. Survival is all that I can hope for now.
I remember how Marvel had gone to kill the girl we thought to be her ally, the little one from District 11. She was named Rue, I believe. So I mention it, but twist it so it sounds like it is Cato and I who helped with the killing, even if it was only Marvel.
I wish I didn't. There is a rough hand on my shoulder and the giant from District 11 is shouting at me. I admit the truth, that I didn't kill her - I wasn't even an accomplice. But he doesn't believe me. And he is angry with me - very angry with me.
As the rock hits my skull I drop to the ground. I'm motionless, but I'm not emotionless. My head hurts, make it stop, MAKE IT STOP!
I call and he comes running but he is far too late to save me. Once the rock made contact with my head I was already gone. Physically, that is. Emotionally, I'm still here. I can still hear Cato's desperate pleas, how he begs me not to go, to stay with him.
But I can't. My time here is over, as much as I wish it wasn't. I have to leave my life and everything in it behind. Times like this make me wish that I had never volunteered. It's too late for wishing now.
As the light slips out of my eyes the last thing I see is not Cato, the boy who is actually in front of me, but my brother, who died in the games two years ago. He's reaching out, beckoning me to join him. I want to refuse to take his hand but I know that some time within the next few minutes the grim reaper will take me anyway. So I grab his had and he pulls me up from the ground. I feel weightless and I turn around to see my body on the floor and I hear a cannon. Now I am free, gone from this place forever.
Except, I don't feel as free as I should do, not while he is still sobbing over my body. I shake my head. I can't think about the people who I am leaving behind right now. To be honest, I suppose that I am not really leaving that many people behind - I don't care about many people. Nobody was ever there for me, I was on my own back home most of the time. When father was drunk, nobody would stick up for me.
I turn back to face my smiling brother and I walk with him up the stairs to heaven (God only knows how I am still allowed in there).
It's time for me to move on.