I have decided to keep writing this story, sorry for the long wait :) Please review if you read it!

May was running between the rocks, between the trees, stumbling every few seconds. She was the fastest for sure. But with a stab wound in your leg, there's not much a tribute can do. She ran and she ran, but the tributes running after her were faster. Like two cats chasing a wounded mouse into a corner. The girl, Jasmin, tackled May and pushed her to the ground. May was lying only inches away from the deep canyon and could feel the breeze glide over her face along with Jasmin's punches, until May couldn't open her left eye anymore and her face was all covered in blood.

"Enough," said Raymond with his deep voice, the other tribute, as he grabbed Jasmin's jacket and pushed her off May.

"Raymond, let me!" Jasmin yelled in anger.

"No," he answered calmly, "You want to hurt her. I want to kill her."

May was trembling, pushing herself up, but Raymond's foot went to her throat and pushed her back on the dusty ground. Her long blonde hair dangled over the sharp cliff. May cried and kicked and begged, but Raymond was cold and unmoved.

"Stop wimping like a child," he said, growing uncomfortable by her display. He wasn't one for slow deaths. Jasmin was.

Raymond grabbed May's collar and pulled her up until her feet didn't touch the ground anymore. She stopped kicking, afraid it would make her fall over the edge. Her eyes grew large and her breath stopped as her hands grabbed Raymond's shirt.

"I'll push you," he said softly, but impassive. "Don't be afraid. It will be like flying."

"Oh, please," Jasmin scoffed. "Raymond, let me-"

"Don't be afraid, May," he said, staring into her eyes, cutting his friend off. "Embrace it. Fly."

His soothing tone amazingly seemed to work and May was hanging over the ground, with tears falling down her cheek in silence. Raymond seemed pleased. He didn't like killing. He didn't like seeing victims fight and cry and beg. May was calm, tired of fighting, tired of pain, and that's just how he liked his victims.

Raymond gently put May down, preparing to push her. Her feet were on the edge of the cliff, and her hands shakily kept holding his shirt even though he was far too strong for her. She breathed deeply, when suddenly Jasmin pushed a dagger into her abdomen. May screamed out in pain, her big eyes staring at the girl with the twisted smile. Blood was coming out of May's mouth and Jasmin twisted the blade again, watching May suffer.

Raymond angrily intervened, pushing Jasmin to the ground with his left hand and May over the cliff with his right hand. He watched her as she fell to her death, eyes large, mouth open, but no sound coming out.

I woke up, covered in sweat. I was breathing heavily and pushed myself out of bed to open the curtains and make reality calm me down.

At the sight of the moving landscape under the moonlight, my heartbeat slowed down. I was in the train, not in last year's arena. The steady pace and the beautiful view all seemed too good to be true. As if the train wasn't leading me to my probable death.

A flicker of light came from my right and I turned towards it, alarmed, only to find it was just the mirror's reflection of the moonlight. I stepped in front of it, observing my reflection. It didn't feel like me. The girl in the mirror looked numb with distant eyes. A dead expression. I shook my head. That face wasn't going to keep me alive. So I forced a smile, but I could see right through it. I knew the Capitol wouldn't. They were all about the superficial, admiring the surface without bothering to look underneath. But the tributes might catch me in my game of innocent smiles and charming twirls every time I would be in the spotlight. I was a born actress, that was true, but I felt drained of all strength of will I ever had and the Games hadn't even started yet.

My hands went up to my face, pushing the auburn hair behind my ears. I swallowed and forced myself to observe the reflection I had always fled from, but that had brought food to my family's table. My teal eyes had dark outer rings. A handful of freckles covered my cheeks and dimples appeared whenever my lips smiled. Every time I touched my hair, I wondered whom I had inherited it from. My mother had dark hair, so did Lily and Gabriel. Ben was blonde, like his father had been. Harold had been nice, but mother had blown it again. He left when Ben turned 1 and the boy had never seen his father again. Lily and Gabriel's fathers had never been revealed to them, like mine. But Lily and Gabriel didn't seem to care much. They weren't reminded of it constantly, like I was. They looked exactly like our mother. They both had her high cheekbones and round hazel eyes and long dark hair. But every time I brushed my hair or passed in front of a mirror, I couldn't help but wonder who he had been and why he had left. Maybe he knew who I was all along, or maybe he was never told and recognized me as his spitting image for the first time when I was reaped for the whole district to see.

I knew building my father up in my mind wasn't doing any good to me. In my thoughts, I put him up on a pedestal. Not knowing him probably made me love him more than he deserved. But I just constantly felt this absence in my life that I couldn't manage to fill.

The train abruptly slowed down, and I curiously creeped towards the window. We were approaching some enormous waterfall, and the tracks seemed to be leading right towards it.

I heard a noise coming from the dining room, and I couldn't help but follow it. I didn't know why I cared so much, but I just felt like I needed something to do. The tip of my toes and the expensive carpet kept me from being heard, and when I appeared from behind the door I heard a gasp.

"Oh my fu- What the hell is your problem, Naomi?" Finn said, looking flushed. He had grabbed a knife.

I chuckled at the sight of him. "Relax, Finn, we're on a moving train with approximately 10 people on board. These aren't the slums anymore."

Finn sighed and shoved a piece of cake in his mouth. He looked worn out, like he hadn't managed to sleep yet. "Old habits die hard."

I sat down next to him. In the faint moonlight, he looked different. "You're still hungry after that dinner?"

He shrugged. "Well, I'm not full."

I grabbed an orange from the fruit bowl and started peeling it. The gentle rocking of the train made me calm, and suddenly the sound of water grew stronger.

Finn grinned and his eyes went towards the window. "I've never seen a waterfall before. Only in pictures. And now we're under one."

I smiled. Obviously, neither had I. "It's so... strong," I whispered, admiritavely, looking through the same window at the water flowing down as if the train wasn't even disturbing it.

The noise of the water stopped, and we lost the moonlight. We were inside a tunnel. The quiet was a heavy one.

"Do you think there are free people?" I asked.

"What?" Finn asked, not quite looking up from the drink he was pouring himself.

"Do you think there are people who don't live in districts or in the Capitol?"

Finn looked up at me, then away. "I never thought about that." His eyes kept staring through the window, but the tunnel cut off every view. "I suppose... I suppose there are always individuals."

He squinted his eyes. "It's hard to imagine, though."

I nodded, vaguely staring out the window as well. Maybe people were watching our train without us knowing. Maybe we were living in a cage, without truly realizing it. Like fish in a bowl.

"You ask strange questions at night," Finn remarked.

"So many questions arise at nighttime."

"Like what?" Finn asked, seemingly intrigued.

"Like... What lies beyond Panem."

Finn scoffed. "There's nothing beyond Panem. The whole world was flooded."

"You believe that?" I asked, not waiting for an answer. I used to talk about it with Raphael every night. "I find it hard to believe there are no lands on earth higher than ours. They said there were once seven continents and hundreds of countries." I didn't know why I was suddenly voicing my most curious thoughts, the thoughts I tended to play with regularly when insomnia hit, but something was pushing me to speak my mind. The silence the tunnel had brought had to be broken, for it was far too heavy. As if it was preparing us for worse.

Finn didn't look like much of a thinker, at night at least. He squinted his eyes, confused. "I'm tired."

I smiled and shook my head. "You can't sleep?"

"I can always sleep. But the movement... It's unsettling."

The train barely rocked. The movement was swift. But I nodded. He was feeling it too.

"I fell asleep, but not for long. Nightmare."

Finn stared ahead. He'd stopped eating. "Thinking ahead?"

I winced. "Not quite."

When the train emerged from the tunnel into the sun that bathed the glistering Capitol in light, my breath stopped. I had to squint my eyes; I had never seen this much light. The sun came from the sky, from the lake around the city, from the glass buildings. It was coming from every possible direction, as if meant to blind the incoming tributes.

I heard Finn, next to me, gasping, and he stood in awe in front of the window, his face stripped of emotion. Jenna stood next to him, her eyes blank, but her expression couldn't hide her distaste for the place. Bob, on the other hand, looked up from the couch he was sitting in, and glanced through the distant window. He smiled at me. "Breathtaking, isn't it?"

I managed to rip my eyes off the sight and walked back towards the couch. I sat next to Bob.

"You know," he started, "23 years ago, when I first saw it, from the train, like you, I thought I was dreaming. So beautiful." Bob glanced out the window, smiling as though you'd smile at a familiar piece of art. "In all these years, I've never seen anyone swim in that water."

"Maybe it's dirty."

"It can't be – it's a wonderful blue."

"The surface is."

Bob looked at me with a curious look on his face.

Jenna joined us in the living area, and eventually, Finn did too. "When we roll into the station, there'll be a lot of people trying to catch a glimpse of you."

Finn painted a cocky smile on his face. "The game has begun."

I looked at him, and he looked right back. His eyes weren't familiar anymore, but hard and distant. So I knew it was true. The game had begun.