I heard the explosion. A loud, spine chilling 'boom'. I half smiled to myself knowing that the careers wouldn't last long, now all their supplies had perished. Excellent. I turned my head up to the trees, where the Mockingjay's nested peacefully. I sang my four note melody to them, knowing they would pass it amongst themselves, until Katniss heard it. I do hope she's okay, she's so brave. I began to wander my way back to the site where Katniss and I shared our first meal together, about a week into the Hunger Games. Games. No- 'games' is not a word to describe what goes on inside here. There is no word alone to describe what goes on inside the arena.

I felt it then. The weight, the drag, the painful position my limbs tangled up in, as they hit the ground with a blanket of net covering me from head to toe.

I screamed. I screamed the way I did when I broke my arm, when I was seven. I screamed the way I did when the Peacekeepers killed my friend, who stole the night sunglasses, back home. I screamed now, with a sea of despair and fear washing over me with a heavy current. "Katniss! Katniss!" I cried in desperation, wiggling and squirming in the heavy rope that had restricted my movements to a minimum. "Rue!" I hear Katniss's voice calling me. "Rue, I'm coming!" I heard Katniss yell. My breathing was heavy, my heart pounding, my temperature rising. I was terrified. I was smarting and aching all over, waiting for something to happen. Then I heard a deep grunt a couple of feet away from me. I managed to squeeze my hand through the netting, desperately wanting my mother. I want her presence; I want her to tell me everything's going to be alright. Tears welled in my eyes as I realised that I would never see her again. There can only be one victor of these games; and I had a feeling that the twelve year old, caught up in a net, wasn't going to be it. I wanted the next- best thing to my mother. "Katniss" I whispered whilst reaching into the air, somehow hoping that I could magically pull her to my side…

Then my stomach, oh my stomach. The skin has been pierced; I felt something inside of me. A knife? No it's too big to be a knife. It doesn't matter anyway. I felt fire climbing inside of me. It felt like I had been bitten by a venomous snake. The fires of pain spread all over me, curling up my ribs, swimming around my heart, licking at my lungs. I rolled to my side, my body curved around the weapon that had invaded my body. It's agony, complete and utter agony. "Are there any more? Are there more?" Katniss's voice shouted at me. "No… no… no" I whispered. I heard her footsteps come over, and the slight movements of a knife cutting though the ghastly net that contained me. I held out my hand to her, now relieved that she has been pulled to my side. "You blew up the food?" I winced in pain. The fires had not decreased one little bit. They were streaming down my veins, kicking at my arteries, burning my brain. I didn't know that being stabbed was this painful…

"Every last bit of it" Katniss says.

"You have to win" I croak.

"I'm going to. Going to win for both of us now" she promised. I vaguely heard a snap noise. Maybe the cannon of the person who hurt me. Or maybe it was my cannon. Maybe I was already dead and this was some weird repeat of my death that the game makers had inflicted on me. I doubt it, but I don't know what's real or not anymore. Coming back to sanity; I'm guessing it's the person who stabbed me, unless they had run away. I don't care anymore. All I need to know is that I'm dying, and I'm afraid. I tightened my grip on Katniss's hand as she pulled my head up onto her lap, smoothing my hair behind my ears. "Don't go" I whimpered. I didn't want to die alone, not like this. "Course not. Staying right here" she cooed.

"Sing" I mutter. I know it's a silly last request, but music is the only thing that can now remind me of home… of my family. I need to hear it. I winced in pain as Katniss coughs and then sings:

Deep in the meadow, under the willow

A bed of grass, a soft green pillow

Lay down your head, and close your sleepy eyes

And when again they open, the sun will rise

Here it' safe, here it is warm

Here the daises guard you from every harm

Here your dreams are sweet an tomorrow beings them true

Here is the place where I love you…

My eyes unwillingly close. Her song is beautiful. I know it isn't finished yet, but I felt death coming. To my delight, the fires inside me decreased completely, and my breathing turns short and sharp. I felt numb now, as the darkness of inside my eyelids began to turn white. Katniss's voice turned into a drone in the background. I gurgled, I gasped as I took my last breath. Then I was blissfully pulled from my body, from the arena, and from this world…