Author Note:

To whoever clicked this story because they thought the summary was interesting, or because they were simply bored: this story is the sequel to the fanfic, Hunger Games: Next Generation. If you haven't read it, I suggest you do, so you can understand this story. If you have, then welcome back to Lanie and Nyal's world!

Money doesn't buy you happiness. Take me for an example.

Chapter One- Nyal POV

"Shut up, Peyton," I muttered into the mouthpiece. I didn't know why she thought it was any of her business. I knew how I felt. I didn't have to tell her. She wasn't my mother or anything.

Half way through her sentence, I realised that I didn't have to listen to her crap. I slammed the phone into its holder. Then, just to make sure, I walked over to the door and clicked the lock shut. It probably wouldn't deter her, seeming that she'd ignored everything I'd said that had the word 'fine' in it. But it would delay her. Long enough for me to wallow for a little while more.

"Avoiding Peyton again?" my mother asked, peering around the corner from the room she was in. Her hands were wet, and she was wearing a white, frilly apron on top of a light blue dress. In one hand, she held a wooden spoon.

We were no longer at our old house- since when did that house have rooms? Or since when did we have dresses? Or aprons, for that matter?

"Obviously."

"You can't avoid her forever," she said.

"I can avoid her until the Victory tours." Whoever chose the names for all the Hunger Games crap obviously wasn't a Victor.

"But that's rude," Julia chimed in as she struggled to stand up from the red sofa. Her feet dangled off the ground when she sat on it.

"So is messing with my business."

I stormed across the lavish hall to the red-carpeted stairs. I climbed them two at a time. Curse this stupid house. Curse the big spaces that make it harder for me to cross on my way to my room.

When I finally made it, I slammed the door shut and turned the lock on the golden knob. The sight of my own bedroom sickened me.

As did the sight of Peyton.

"Get out," I growled.

"You are so moody. Keyann was so much happier when he was alive."

The sound of his name sent blood rushing to my head in waves. "Get the hell out of m-this house." I had been about to say my house, but it wasn't. Curse everything that the Capitol gave.

"Only when you listen to me."

I knew, just by the way that she crossed her arms, that she wasn't going anywhere.

"Stupid-" I muttered. I opened the door and flew down the stairs in three bounds. If she wasn't going to get out of the house, then I was.

Curse this stupid house, I said again, as I flung the door open and headed outside.

"Don't come back too late," my mother called.

Maybe I won't come back at all, I replied bitterly.

The Victor's Village, curse it, was a five minute walk away from the town. I didn't like the seclusion, but the builders probably thought it would be better away from the coal mines and the smoke. I liked the smoke. It reminded me of home.

Home. Was there such a thing?

No. Not since she died.

Lanie.

My throat thickened. I tried to tell myself that the pricking in my eyes was due to the smoke, not the sadness.

It didn't work. Obviously.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. Why did Lanie have to be so damn caring? I would have preferred it if she'd been a bitch to everyone. At least she wouldn't have gone off, searching for bombs and detonating them.

"Hey, Nyal, where are you headed?" Jane asked. It wasn't strange to find her here, away from town. Probably headed to see me again.

I didn't like Jane. Most of the reason was because she seemed joyful about the fact that Lanie wasn't one of the four victors. Too joyful. That and the fact that she liked me.

"Alone," I replied curtly. I hastened my speed. It wasn't a fitting answer, but it fitted enough for me.

When I had woken up in the Capitol building, I wish I hadn't. I knew that Lanie hadn't survived that bomb, tough as she was. I wished I had ripped out the needles that were trying to keep me alive and starved myself to death. But I couldn't. I was restrained and force-fed by an Avox that wasn't too gentle with the spoon.

I avoided the people in the town square. I didn't like the pity they gave. I didn't like anything at all, nowadays. Maybe I didn't know how to like anything anymore.

Depressed? I was an example of the deepest misery.

I turned off and kept walking until I met the electric fence. I cast a brief glance behind me to see if anyone was following. I wanted to be alone, and Manley the Peacekeeper seemed to be paying more attention on my tail- the tail of a famous forbidden child. The fence wasn't humming, so I climbed it to the other side. My shoes landed on the dirt.

Finally. I was home. Or as close to home that I could get.

I kept my march until I was deep enough into the woods to not be followed. Then I let it out. Let the anger, the pain, the tearing, searing, mind-burning agony to the world.

My scream scared all the birds out of their nests.

It took about an hour for me to calm down. That was why it was hard to cry. I couldn't stop.

I climbed back over the fence, my eyes slightly red. I shoved my hands into my pockets to hide the cuts I'd made by punching the trees. Sarah would fuss over them, as always.

Of course, I wasn't the only one suffering. Thomas was, too. Sometimes I'd go with him to place a flower on Lanie's grave, while he laid one on her father's. She was buried next to him.

We avoided her house, though. Neither of us could take it. Sometimes I'd just stand outside, hoping that Lanie would come out, green eyes bright and her red hair being tousled lightly by the breeze. Her smile would be the way it was before the arena. I curled my hands into fists at the memory of her face.

"Nyal! Nice day today, huh?" Ingo asked. He had a sack of flour on his shoulders, on his way to the bakery.

I supposed that it was a good day. I never really noticed 'good' between 'bad' anymore. They had no meaning. Not since she was gone.

I shrugged in response.

Sarah and Thomas now lived in the house with us, taking up all the space that I didn't like. It was the only way I could live with Julia, seeming that she was their 'daughter'.

"Jane was looking for you," Ingo said.

I nodded to acknowledge what he'd said.

I decided that I'd had enough of town, with people greeting me and all. I slouched back toward the Victor's Village.

My steps slowed as I walked past her house. My heart gave a painful squeeze and before I could continue to walk on, I noticed it.

Her window was open.

It's only been a couple of days, but I've missed writing on this website. Finally, the sequel is out! I know, it's only short, and I've promised to explain the last chapter of my previous Hunger Games fanfic, but more will be explained in the next chapter. It's in Lanie's POV!

I'm trying to make the chapters longer, but time flies.

Reviews? :)