I can't remember which day of the Games this is, now. Everything passed by in a haze of anticipation and excitement – Grandpa even let me drink a little the night before it started, even though I had to promise him not to let Mummy know – and now I'm watching Katniss Everdeen and the little girl from District 11… Rue, that is her name… Put together a plan which is very likely going to get the both of them killed.
I'll be disappointed to see Katniss die, I think, I had been rooting for her since the Games started… Besides, I think she and Peeta were kind of cute when they were together.
I am surprised to see that the plan works out perfectly. The Careers' camp explodes, sending supplies and weapons soaring into the sky, and I can't help but giggle.
They look like fireworks. Pretty, deadly fireworks, fireworks made of food and knives and debris, fireworks in the daytime – just think of that!
I bite down on my tongue to prevent myself from shouting out to Katniss, urging her to run just a little faster as she returns to Rue… Ah, but she cannot see what I see.
Rue is going to die.
Anticipation rises to the back of my throat as she stumbles right into the trap set by Marvel.
Katniss is still to far away, Rue has less than a minute left to live.
I start counting down the seconds.
Ten.
Marvel strides forward in his arrogant swagger, his spear in his hand.
Nine. Eight.
He stops a good distance away, watching her as she struggles. It's futile, no-one has ever walked into Marvel's traps and lived to tell the tale.
Seven, six, five, four…
Katniss is closer now, she might – might – make it just in time to save Rue. I lean forwards. Marvel is saying something… I can barely make the words out. 'The little bird is caged at last' I think, but I can't be sure.
The only thing bad about the Games is that they don't provide subtitles.
Three. Two.
He heaves the spear forward with a grunt of effort.
One.
Bull's eye – for both Katniss and Marvel. His spear hits Rue just as her arrow strikes him, and his body slumps forward, suddenly limp and lifeless.
It's too late for Rue though, as I watch Katniss untangle her from the ropes and lower her to the ground. At least she would have died a good death, a noble death.
And that's when Katniss starts singing, "Here it's safe, here it's warm. Here the daisies guard you from every harm. Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true. Here is the place where I love you."
I don't know what does it – is it the flowers covering the tiny body? Or is it the song – but when I look at Rue lying there, suddenly all that I can think about is the fact that she was human.
She had hopes and dreams and a family who loved her and who would now be weeping for their loss… She was, in a way, like me.
And finally I understand why Grandpa says that the Hunger Games are like a punishment to the Districts… Because when they send their children to be Reaped, they know that they are sending them out to… To die.
They know that they will never see them again.
Grandpa sticks his head through the door. "Did I miss anything important?"
"Nothing," I tell him evenly. "Rue died, that's all."
I turn my face back to the screen mounted on the wall, back to the Arena…
The Arena.
Where all the other children go to die.