Edited 4/18/15

Prologue

It has all come down to them. Now is the time to fight to the death and give the Capitolites the sick entertainment they both signed up to give, but neither move from their spot on the top of the cornucopia. They gaze into the eyes of which secret affections have grown towards.

Is it wrong to have any sort of romantic feelings for a brutal, killing machine who has trained their entire life to defeat and take her life?

Can it be possible to even remotely like a girl who from District 12, outnumbered him in training and stole his sponsors? A girl he used to have so much hate for just because she was a better person mentally?

The wolf-like mutts with the fallen tributes' eyes circle the cornucopia tauntingly; their agonizing howls pierce the air, dripping with the sound of blood lust. Neither Cato nor Katniss pays much attention the gamemakers' creation down below.

Cato takes a small step towards her, raising his arms. His face is impassive as to what he is feeling, but Katniss' shows immediately that she is furious with his actions. Her eyes go wide, aiming her arrow to shoot into his skull.

The end of the Hunger Games is almost here.

Chapter 1

There are camera crews up on the roofs of the businesses around the towns square. Katniss watches them as she and Prim walk hand in hand to the Reaping. Prim's hand is clenched tightly around hers, her nail digging into her calloused flesh. Katniss gives a comforting squeeze back. Many of the other candidates for the Hunger games surround them. Some don't bother trying to hide how scared they are while others keep a strong, straight face. Katniss is among the latter group. If she was going to be on TV, there was no reason for anyone to get the wrong impression of her. Besides, she has to be strong for Prim's sake. It's her first year, and Katniss can remember the terror sinking into her bones, rattling and detreating apart her strength.

Prim is suddenly paralyzed with fright when she sees the stage and the glass bowls holding the names. Katniss pulls her aside, tells her not to cry, that everything will be all right and she wouldn't let anything bad happen to her. This calms her down some, but Prim still shakes slightly, not one-hundred percent ready to be strong. She isn't very adept with words, but that's the thing, the trust that runs through the two sisters makes up for the lack of comfort Katniss's words give. Prim knows that her older sister would never let anything bad happen to her. The two sister's embrace in a quick, tight, half- hug, arms wrapped reassuringly around each other's waist. They walk like that the rest of the way there.

After about five minutes of waiting for the Reaping to begin, the mayor and his wife, Mr. Undersee and Mrs. Undersee, and Effie Trinket, the District 12 escort, all come out on the stage, creating a greater tension in the air, everyone knowing the names of the unlucky kids that will fight to the death will be announced soon. The mayor starts the speech that he says every year, that no one ever really ever listens to (except maybe Effie).

While he makes his useless speech about the importance of the Hunger Games, Katniss feels a stare boring into the back of her head. She glances over her shoulder toward the eighteen-year-olds and sees Gale staring at her. He mouths that it will be okay, but Katniss still worries, he does have forty-two slips with his name on it. He must have read her mind because his face darkens and he turns away.

She watches him for a few more seconds before turning her attention back to the stage just as Haymitch Abernathy swaggers drunkenly to his seat next to Effie. Late as per usual. He whispers something in Effie's ear, making her squeal in disgust. Haymitch laughs hard and puts his arm around Effie's front to give her a hug. Whether it's an attempt to stay in his chair or on purpose, Katniss is unsure. During Effie's attempts to escape, her ugly pink wig turns askew, hanging crookedly on the top of her head. The mayor finishes his dull speech and goes back to his seat, tapping Effie on her shoulder, wordlessly telling her to go talk now. Haymitch finally manages to gets off of her, and Effie stands, smoothing her clothing out. She makes her way to the microphone, oblivious to the way her wig is still set.

"YOU ARE SO UUUUUUUUGLY, EEEEEEEEFFIIIIEEEEEEEEE," sings the drunken Haymitch in the background. "UUUUUUUUUUGGLYYYY AS POOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO... IN ALL YOUR MAKEUPPPPP, YOU ARE DEADLY-ETHLY LOOKINGGGGGG, OHHHHHH EFFFFFFFFFFIEEEEEEEEEE..."

Effie grimaces but otherwise ignoring the slurred singing and gives a forced smile at the camera.

"Happy Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favor," she says with more of a Capitol accent than Katniss or Gale have ever come close to. "Ladies first," she says, as usual. Everyone around Katniss as well as herself tense to point that pain throbs in her clenched muscles. They all hold their breath; their eyes shut tight, a silent prayer playing on their lips. She walks over to the glass bowl with the girls' names in it (twenty slips with Katniss' name and one with Prim's). She joins in with the other's prayers, hoping Effie doesn't call her name. Apparently, though, she wishes for the wrong name not to be called.

"Primrose Everdeen!"

What? Did she just say Prim's name? No! That's impossible! One slip! One asinine slip out of thousands! How did her name get picked? ONE STUPID SLIP!

All this runs through Katniss' head as Prim cautiously steps forward, and the other twelve-year-olds step aside to make a path.

NO, YOU IDIOTS! Don't make a path for her, and don't you dare let her go!

Katniss starts to feel lightheaded. Her vision starts to go hazy.

Prim is about to climb the steps to the stage, her shirt tail hanging out again. Her face is a ghostly white.

All this brings Katniss back to reality. The fog is pushed away when she starts to make her way forward, people making a path, just like they did for Prim. She breaks into a run.

Just as Prim was about to put her right foot on the first step to the stage, Katniss screeched, "PRIM!"

Prim whips around at the sound of her older sister's voice like she was waiting for an excuse to stay away from the platform. Katniss pulls Prim behind her, and says the words she could never imagine herself saying in her life (even in her wildest dreams), "I volunteer!" Her voice is loud and protective. Resolute. "I volunteer as tribute!"

Dead silence.

That is all there is after Katniss' selfless act to take her younger sister's place. When she had first said the words, everyone had gasped, but then, they seemed to hold their breath, no one daring enough to make a sound.

Prim is the first to break the silence, not willing to let her one and only sister go. Prim is too perfect, too full of light to go bathe in the darkness creeping and sneaking underneath the shiny and bright colors of the Capitol. However, Prim feels the same way about Katniss. She wraps her fragile, little arms around her sister's waist and screams over and over that she can't go, that it was her name that was called.

Katniss stands statue-still, only vaguely aware of her sister's actions. Her eyes are fixed on the excited woman who is unaware that she just called the only person she has truly loved to give up her very life for those damn games.

Prim's arms are soon taken away from around her slim figure. As they disappear, Prim's nails scrape into her sides, trying to cling to her, most likely leaving dark red lines on the lower half of her torso.

To see where her sister went, Katniss spins around slightly dazed, her eyes falling on the boy she had been with this exact morning. He has Prim thrown over his shoulder, both arms circling around her sister's kicking legs.

Was that really this morning? She can't remember anymore.

That morning they had spent together seemed like a lifetime ago. A lifetime away from all the starving people in the Seam and its trashy area; a lifetime that's calm and without a worry. A lifetime where it was only the two of them doing the thing they love to do most - hunt.

"Up you go, Catnip," he says with a strained voice. She nods mutely, turning her shocked countenance back into her stony one, trying her hardest to control her malign thoughts. Slowly facing back towards the stage, she makes her way up the steps. Three steps across the stage, but that isn't fast enough for Effie apparently because she comes over and places a hurrying hand on the small of her back. It takes all Katniss' self-control not to cringe away from the unwelcome and delicately evasive touch.

They come to a stop in front of the microphone.

"Well, what's your name, dear?" A huge smile is plastered on her face.

"Katniss Everdeen." Her voice is low, dangerous almost. Katniss watches Gale carrying her crying sister to their mother. Prim flings her arms around their mom's neck. Her mother ensconces her in her arms immediately, tears streaming down her pain-stricken face. She rubs her sisters back and runs her fingers through her sister's long, blonde hair. Katniss can just make out her mother whispering words of comfort into her little sister's ears. She suddenly wishes her mom could hold her then, too.

"I bet my buttons that was your sister?" She doesn't say anything just stares at the woods where everything was perfect for those short few hours she's there every day. Her second home.

"Well, well, well... Let's give a nice, warm round of applause for our very first District 12 volunteer!" The feigned enthusiasm is sickening. She begins to clap but stops abruptly after she realizes that no one else is following suit. Instead, almost simultaneously, as if it is rehearsed, the people of the crowd each lift three fingers to their lips, then raise them in honored farewell to Katniss.

Katniss's stony face falters. She is in great danger of crying in front of the entire country (Which would be very bad for her reputation). For one, she had not cried since her father's death when she was eleven. So many times over the last few years, bad things had happened and she had held her head high and willed herself not to cry. After everything she had been through she refused to cry at a time like this. And for another she would be considered weak and wouldn't get many sponsors later on. If she will even get any sponsors.

She is saved when her soon-to-be mentor wraps a surprisingly strong arm around her shoulder. She stumbles a little from the pungent stench of alcohol radiating off his breath, but his grip keeps her standing upright.

"I like this one," he slurs, his breath brushing across her face, and she scrunches her nose up in disgust. His eyes blink repeatedly. "Got a lot of...Spunk." He begins to laugh as if there was something actually funny. He lets go of her shoulders and leans over, hands on his knees. He begins to laugh harder and harder to where he's swaying, even though he already was from the alcohol. He points a shaky finger at the camera before falling off the stage and onto the ground unconscious in a heap of limbs.

While the cameras is still trained on the drunkard that lies before her, Katniss is able to regain her impassive face without the whole country seeing her face change and letting them know what she was feeling at that exact moment. The cameras turn their attention back towards the stage once Effie announces that it is time for the 'lucky' boy tribute to be chosen.

Effie walks over to the bowl full of boys' names, her heels clacking loudly all the way. She sticks her long nimble fingers into the bowl and digs around for a random slip. After a few long, heart-stopping moments she pulls out the slip thought holds the boy tribute for District 12 of the 74th Hunger Games that Katniss will train and compete with. She barely has time to hope it isn't Gale called up to the stage.

"Peeta Mellark," she says, giving an all-too-big smile at the end.

Peeta makes his way through the crowd towards the stage, his face is pale white. His teeth sink into his bottom lip and his eyes well up with big, fat tears that he refuses to release down his cheeks. His eyes stay trained on the ground, making sure to not make a fool of himself by either tripping or showing his all-too-noticeable tears.

When he's on the last step of the stage, he takes even smaller step than he did to get to the stage. Slowly he makes his way to his spot next to Katniss. Effie smiles, but it's forced. Her eyes clearly show that she is irritated.

The mayor makes yet another speech to which no one pays attention. Katniss surely doesn't, she's too busy wondering what exactly she has gotten herself into, wondering if she's ever see her woods, her home, her family's faces, Gale.

When he's done, the District 12 tributes shake one another's hands, locking eyes for a brief moment before they are whisked off into the Justice Building.