Chapter One

The Games

"Ashby Grier," Effie says, calling the name of the young girl. Small for her age; Ashby is fourteen but looks as though she could be as young as ten. Her gray eyes are wide with shock and fear as she runs a hand over her dark, braided hair before she starts slowly towards the stage.

"Ash!" A young boy of about sixteen calls after her, to no avail. Ashby continues walking, blocking out everything as she draws nearer to the stage and the women in the powder blue dress and wig. The woman smiles at her but is ignored, as she climbs the steps. Walking over to the other bowl, Effie reaches in again and pulls out a small slip of paper. Unwrapping it she reads out the name of the boy that will accompany Ashby.

"Damien Grier." He steps forward, the same sixteen year old who had called out moments before to the girl Effie realized must be his sister.

Damien looks down at his little sister, they are safe for the moment but he knows it won't last. It's time to split up. "Ash, I know this is hard but I'm going to be brutally honest here, best case scenario, one of us goes home, and the odds of that even...they're not good. We can't stay together anymore. It can't come down to just us, I'd kill myself before I would you."

"Damien..." Ashby's words trailed off as she fought back tears in her eyes. She nodded.

Damien and his sister Ashby had parted ways, he was alone now, or so he thought. Alia, the girl from District two, came running in his direction and, not looking where she was going, almost runs into him. Thinking quickly Damien grabs the only weapon he has, a tree branch he has been using as a staff, and sweeps her feet out from under her before pinning her. Alia screams, hitting the ground and looks up at Damien with wide, sad eyes. She doesn't try to push him off, knowing he's stronger than her and that her ax is still strapped to her back, if she moved the blade could dig into her shoulder. "Let me up," she pleads the the fear in her voice surprising him. "Please..." It's the please that does it, he slowly moves to let her up, watching her closely as he does so. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me, I didn't know what I was going to do anyways. My weapon is a stick." He says, surprising himself by laughing. She smiles at him. He sits on the ground next to her expecting her to run off again and the cameras cut away from them.

The next time they're shown they are surprisingly still together, perched on the branches of a large tree, hidden from the view of those below, laughing and sharing a piece of it's fruit while discussing the best way to eliminate her district partner and the other tributes of the powerhouse districts such as one and two, the careers.

"Our best bet is to trick them to turn against each other. They would eventually anyways but the longer they stay together the longer they'll last." Alia says as Damian just nods and mumbles agreement. "Hey, you okay?" She reaches over, touching his shoulder and he looks at her. "You're worried about her, aren't you? Your sister, Ashby. That's her name right?"

"Yeah, that's her name. Of course I'm worried Lia, how could I not be? I have no idea where she is, or how she's doing." Damien say's closing his eyes to fight back tears.

"We haven't seen her face in the sky yet, and you said you split up two days ago, take comfort in the fact that you know she's still alive." Alia does her best to comfort her ally and friend but it does little good and ultimately the decide to part ways.

Ashby never hunted like some of the kids back home but she knew her plants and had learned to fight years ago, frequently having to defend herself at school where she was often picked on for her size. It never ceased to amaze her that such people could exist in a land like theirs, where everyone is starving, and more people dying daily. Distracted by her thought, she doesn't hear at first, the rustling of the trees above her or the bushes on the other side of the small, shallow stream where she has set up camp. Suddenly Damian drops in front of her from above as an ax flies towards her. "No!" Ashby and Alia both scream as the latter comes running from the bushes, a hand cover her mouth. "Damian!" On the ground, he coughs, blood coming from his mouth, he still alive, but barely. The eyes of the two girls meet as they both fight back tears ,and then they both look towards the ax. Ashby reaches for it as Alia runs forward, the smaller girl gets to it first but is not strong enough to raise it and in one moment Damian lives long enough to see his sister fall beside him as Alia drops to her knees in tears...

"AAhhhh!" Effie screams, waking from the nightmare. The same nightmare she has had nearly ever night since the death of the children. She is shaking, covered in a cold sweat as tears roll down her cheeks. The door to her room bursts open and he comes in, Haymitch, a bottle in his hand as he half stumbles towards her, an Avox close behind.

"Everything alright in here? Heard you scream." He asks as he comes closer, shooing the mute servant away as their eyes meet, both bloodshot, hers from tears, his from the drink. "It was the kids again, wasn't it?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Effie states firmly, whipping her eyes quickly and pulling the blanket to cover herself as she sits up straight.

"Yea right, Sweetheart. You don't fool me. You cared about those kids, you care about all of them." If she didn't know better Effie might think he was actually concerned, that he cared about her but she did know, if the past years of working with him had taught her anything it was that. So why then did she continue to feel this way? Why was she in love with him?

A/N I'm sorry this chapter was more Damien and Alia then Heffie, I promise that won't be the case in the future. I'm already working on chapter two and hope to have it posted soon.