Chapter One

I wince as Simon tries to stop my stomach from bleeding.

"This is really bad Treasa."

"Ow, what was that?" I scream, laying on the table while he tries to mend me.

"Sorry. A drop of my sweat fell into your cut."

"Gross Simon! You really need to get that nervous sweating thing under control!"

" And you really need to stop talking. Your voice isn't making anything any easier."

I roll my eyes at my best friend and continue to wince as he works his magic on my sliced open stomach. It felt like an eternity before he was finished cleaning and bandaging me.

"Six inches wide, two inches deep." Simon sighs as he angrily snaps off his gloves and tosses them in the trash. Slowly, I start to raise myself off his kitchen table. Luckily Simon's parents weren't home when I hobbled over here, blood running down my body.

"You care to tell me what happened?" When I don't answer right away he yells, "Treasa!"

"Why are you yelling at me? Do you think I sliced my own stomach or something? Ow!" Simon rushes over to me and helps me steady myself after I casually hopped off the table. I'm such an idiot.

"No of course I don't think you hurt yourself. What I meant was why did he do this to you?" Even without me saying that it was my father who cut me Simon knew.

"Well he's still convinced that I'm starving myself even though I stopped doing that a year ago. So….when I didn't finish my dinner…" Slam!

"I'm sick and fucking tired of him abusing you like you're some worthless…"

"Please don't finish that sentence, because anything you can possibly imagine to say I've been called by my family." My stomach pulsated with pain I couldn't ignore anymore. "Do you have any medicine?"

"Uh, no I don't sorry." Simon got off the table and paced in front of me racking his hands through his shoulder length brown hair. The pain in my stomach must be messing with my mind because I normally wouldn't ask Simon if he had medicine or anything that's fairly important. Everyone in District Two trains for the Hunger Games, well except Simon and his family. It shows in Simon's long gangly build, through his words, and through the fact that everyone in our District goes out of their way to disrupt Simon's family's life. The Games is more than just a game to us. It's honor, prestige, and power over everyone else. At least that's what my father tries to drill into my head.

"Do you want to pray with me?" I say walking over to him.

"I'm tired of calling on God and only getting his answering machine." Simon says. I look up into his honest hazel eyes and take hold of his hands.

"He hears us. I know, I can feel it in my soul when I talk to him. Just, don't loose faith okay?"

"I won't." He says looking down at me with those eyes that scare me into thinking he might like me more than he's supposed to.

"God, I thank you for today, I thank you for Simon, and our friendship that I feel can flatten these mountains that imprison us. We pray that you will keep us strong through these weeks leading up to the reaping. And in Jesus' name we pray, Amen."

"Amen. Do you want to sleep here tonight?" I'll catch hell if I'm not at morning exercise, but I'm not sure I can walk all the way to Victor's Village in the snow tonight.

"No, I better head back." I say as I carefully shrug my white coat, stained with my blood, on.

"Treasa you can't…"

"Miss my morning exercise or my father will do more than cut my stomach open. Yeah I know." I interrupt. "I'll see you tomorrow hopefully." When I make a decision I stick to it and Simon knows that, so instead of arguing with me further Simon watches me leave out the door.

The snow is worse than I thought. I keep tripping, which further injures my stomach, and I can barely see. Fear starts to settle in at the thought of dying out here in this blizzard.

Whip!

"Ah!" I breathe heavily and turn the other way, my hands stretch out trying to feel where I'm going.

Wham!

I pull my hands in quickly after the blow I took to them.

"You're not concentrating Treasa! Stop and take a breath."

"Maybe if I could take off the blindfold…"

"You don't need to see! I know you can find your way. I know you can."

I take a deep breath and remember the lesson my father taught me.

I start to walk.

Every time I feel like I'm going in the wrong direction I feel the sting from my father's whip.

An hour, maybe two.

I open the door as quickly as I could with frozen hands. Relieved to see no one there I sneak up to my room. After changing into the warmest pajamas I own I curl under the covers.

"God, please help all of the people that don't live in Victor's Village stay warm tonight. And please help us to keep our minds off the inevitable reaping coming up soon, Amen." I lie on my back and try not to move so that I don't irritate the stitches Simon gave me. Ignoring the pain as best as I can I let the exhaustion and the thought of walking on Heaven's shores drift me off to sleep.