Darkness surrounded me and bound me, making me feel as if I was suffocating. My entire body ached and it seemed to be controlled by a source on my neck. I tried to move, but something prevented me from doing so as it felt like my arms and legs were weighted down by lead. Quickly I gave up and focused on breathing as my lungs were beginning to burn from lack of proper air. With each laboured breath I tried to focus on my thoughts, to figure out why I was surrounded by darkness, and to remember where I had been before this had happened. Nothing came to me as my thoughts slipped through my fingers and drifted towards the edges of my mind where I could not reach them.

I'm not sure how long I lied like this, drifting in a state that I could only call my personal nightmare, but I could feel the time passing. I could feel it pass as slowly my limbs began to tingle with the sensation of pins and needles and my breathing became easier. It wasn't long before I realized that my eyes were closed, causing my darkness, but as hard as I tried I could not open them. I didn't force it as I had found out with my arms and legs that only time will allow me to open them. However, it seemed my thoughts were not aware of this as they continued to keep me from reaching anything near a solid conclusion as to what had happened to me. In all honesty, I was just grateful to even remember my name. Emma Price. No matter what, I had to hold on to that as it was the only thing anchoring me to my identity, as fuzzy as it was at the moment.

I heard a soft beep from somewhere to my right and the slight whoosh of something electronic moving, possibly a door opening. Instinctively, I turned my blind head towards the sound, feeling a burst of pins and needles erupt in the back of my neck. I winced, letting the uncomfortable sensation pass as I listened for the sound again. After a moment I could hear a pair of voices speaking, but they seemed distant and faded in and out as if I were hearing them through water.

"Careful with this one, sir. She managed to break Officer Cantron's nose before they sedated her." Female, I noted, pleased that I was able to identify it without too much trouble.

"I understand." replied a second, distinctly male voice that sounded gravelly with age. "However, I am pleased to hear that she fought as it is what I was looking for when I chose her."

Footsteps echoed strangely against the walls surrounding me as no doubt the two speakers entered the room I was in. There was the scrape of metal against the floor and I flinched away as I felt the warm presence of someone sitting close by to me. The person leaned in close and I could feel their moist breath fan over my face. It smelled sickly sweet as if they had eaten a bowl of rotten fruit before coming. Suddenly my hand was taken up by papery fingers that wrapped around me with solid strength and caused me to shiver with disgust.

"They did such a marvellous job, didn't they?" commented the second voice. "She is almost unrecognizable and yet they will know that it is her. They will know, because they will see it in her eyes...You may leave us, Captain."

There was a slight whisper of clothing followed by the whoosh of the door closing and I realized that I was gradually getting my hearing back. A discovery that was soon overshadowed by something thin and cold being clasped around my wrist, the object being so tight that it pinched my skin. I felt a thin hand cup my cheek as the man turned my face towards him so that I received the full effect of his rotten breath.

"I need you to open your eyes now." He ordered softly. "Come now, Emma. I know you are awake so do not play with me. Open your eyes and look at me for I am the one who controls your fate."

As if caught by a trance, I felt my eyes slowly open and I stared at the blurry image of the man sitting before me. He was dressed all in white except for a black tie and a black handkerchief folded neatly in his breast pocket. He was old with thinning, black and white hair and a neatly trimmed moustache that covered his thin upper lip. However, over everything else it was his eyes that caught me as they were deep blue and seemed to hold no life as if they were made of glass.

He smiled slightly when he saw me staring at him and then produced a small device with a lit screen that showed an activation code. Without saying a word, the man pressed enter. My reaction was immediate as my back arched with a current of electricity that suddenly ran through me and I opened my mouth in a silent scream. Through the tears that streamed down my face I could just barely see that he continued to smile and in that moment I hated him with every fiber in my screaming body. It was over almost as soon as it began, even though it felt like an eternity, and I slumped back onto the table, breathless and trembling. I wanted to sob, but it seemed that I was incapable of making anymore sound than a strangled whimper. If anything the electric shock sufficiently woke me up and I remembered everything that had happened, down to the very moment where I was jabbed in the neck.

"Did you feel the pain, Emma?" inquired the man, his voice sounding much clearer.

Quickly I nodded when I saw that his thumb hovered over the device's screen and again he smiled, pleased. With his free hand he lifted one of my twitching arms up and showed me the small, silver bracelet that encircled my wrist. Along its length was a black screen that showed a thin green line which was at this moment jumping frantically. My heart beat, I realized as I tasted blood from where I had bit my tongue earlier.

"I want you to remember that pain, Emma." He told me. "I want you to remember it whenever you feel...tempted to discuss the world you came from. You see, that world no longer exists here as I have gradually removed the memory of it from my people. They only believe that Panem exists now and they only believe in the Hunger Games. Now so must you, Emma as you are my final Tribute."

"You're insane." I whispered as I began to grasp at what he was saying. "I don't belong in Panem. I'm not a-"

The rest was drowned out in a garbled scream as I felt the metal band shock my entire being. It was shorter this time, but the electricity felt like it had doubled to counter it. The smell of burnt hair lingered in the air as the flesh around the bracelet felt like it was on fire. Carelessly the man wrapped both his hands around mine and patted the bright red skin, causing it to hurt even more.

"Shhh." he soothed without any hint of emotion. "Yes, yes I know you are not a part of Panem. Why do you think I chose you and the eleven others like you in the first place? To show the world that it is no longer safe from the Games. If I were to continue using the children here in my Panem, no one else in the world will notice...But if I simply pluck twelve children out of the outside world and face them off against twelve of mine, everyone will notice. However, I can't have my twelve and the rest of my people knowing that there is something else outside of Panem which is why we have our little precaution measure right here." He tapped the band for emphasis and then rose elegantly from his seat. "I would wish you luck, but I am afraid your survival wouldn't serve my purposes as well as your death would."

There was another soft beep and a white, metal door behind him swiftly slid back into the chrome walls that surrounded us. Placing my hand across my chest, he turned to leave as two white and black clad guards came in. They lifted me roughly from the table and held me between them as I sagged from the effect of the shock bracelet and drugs. With some difficulty, I raised my head and stared at his retreating back, afraid to say anything more than a single word.

"Why?"

The man froze just as he stepped past the open doorway and he slightly turned his head back so that I saw a glimmer of hatred reflected deep in his cold eyes.

"Because they, she had told me that it was impossible." He replied. "Because no one will be able stop me and...Because I can."

With that the door closed behind him, bringing with it my previous darkness. Bringing with it my own personal nightmare. Only I was awake now and my eyes were open and what I saw was something far worse than the darkness. What I saw was that the fictional Hunger Games had become very real and I was now a part of it.