We take the elevator up to the fourth floor. The tributes from District 9 go with us but I hardly notice them. My head is still full of home. It has only really just hit me that I might not see it again. If the rest of my family is anything to go by I have just five days left to live.

"See, you managed that just fine," Hollis tells me, "almost seems like it came naturally." He turns to Jeannie, "you didn't do badly, either."

"It was the only way I could say goodbye to my dad." She looks how I feel- deflated and sad- her arms droop by her sides and her whole body seems to have fallen into a slump.

"Where's Mags?" I ask

"She'll be along soon."

Without stopping to talk any longer Jeannie heads off to her room and I go to mine. Out the corner of my eye I notice Hollis also disappear into Jeannie's room, no doubt intending to give another gold nugget, five star, awesome piece of Hollis advice. I'm glad he doesn't follow me. I would much rather be alone. Not one of us even entertains the idea of dinner. I certainly couldn't stomach it.

I know I won't be able to sleep so I rummage through the drawers at the desk until I find a piece of paper and a pen. Part of me thinks I ought to write a letter to my parents- something to remind them of me if I don't come back but the words aren't there; nothing I could write could ever console them. Besides, we have fourteen years of shared memories and that's a better legacy than any badly written sap I could come up with tonight.

I still ache for home. As I let my mind float away to the warm beaches and endless blue sea the words begin to slowly form.

Adrift below the darkening clouds

In water deep and true

There they threw the pallid shrouds

Of the young ones hitherto

And many a dark and stormy face

Looked upwards to the sky

For they were taken from this place

And there was no reason why.

These children born of District Four

These spoils of the sea

Fed to the vicious jaws of war

In a costly spending spree

They share their bed with fishes now

Who send them off to sleep

Nestled in their watery boughs

Sweet souls now theirs to keep

Every year the dead tributes are taken out to sea on a small vessel with its sail stooped at half-mast. There the families say their final farewells while the rest of District 4 light candles on the beach and sing them to rest. It can be hauntingly beautiful but at the same time it feels reassuring because for once everyone is together and it's not because anyone made them come, but because they wanted to.

There is a knock on my door. "Come in?"

Mags shuffles in. "Not interrupting anything am I?"

I tuck the poem under my arm so she won't be able to see it. "Just been putting a few thoughts to paper"

She reaches out and puts something onto the desk in front of me.

"What's that?"

"Just a token. You're allowed to take a district token into the arena to remind you of home. I thought this could be yours. "

I turn it over in my hands. It's a brooch with a many headed sea creature on it. I run my fingers over the intricate contours on the design. Then I see that its eyes are green jewels, the kind that no one could ever afford in District 4. I put it back down on the table.

"Where did you get this?"

She shakes her head.

"Mags?"

"I heard once that medieval ladies would give a token to a knight before he entered a tournament. To show her... Support."

"Who gave this to you?"

"Does it matter?"

"A sponsor?"

"Yes, but she'll only support you if you wear this in the arena."

"So she wants to make sure everyone knows she owns me, so I'm branded with her... Trinket"

"At least you'll be able to rely on her to help you. Other tributes won't get that luxury." She sighs, "I thought you had got more used to the idea."

"I have, just this is never going to remind me of home. It's never going to mean anything to me."

"Nobody says it has to."

"And you'll get me a trident?"

She chuckles sadly, "I'll try my best."

I look at the brooch again, it really is quite lovely in some ways but a sea monster with four heads is nothing like my home. If I could have chosen I would have wanted a piece of driftwood from the beach. The kind that is covered in salt and seaweed and looks like it could tell a hundred stories if only it could speak- something calm and natural- not a myth. It is the Capitol which is like a myth. Nothing here is real. Even their thoughts are fake.

"How are you feeling?"

"Like a child"

"You are a child"

"I'm a tribute," I correct her. "Children don't get murdered for entertainment"

Mags looks nervously around as if searching the walls for something, then I realise that the room is probably bugged. "You and your jokes"

"Yes, me and my jokes," I confirm, brushing away my comment.

If there are microphones then they are very well hidden but it would be just like the Capitol to be listening to everything we say.

Awkwardly Mags steps forward, "you're going to do great," she tells me and I am so overwhelmed and so relieved to hear someone say it that I throw my arms around her small shoulders.

"Thank you. Any last advice?"

"Just to follow your instincts. You'll know what to do."


The next morning it is Hollis who comes to wake me. "I think you've had enough beauty sleep." He prods my shoulder and shakes me until I move but I don't want to. I want to stay curled up in bed forever. It doesn't help that it is still dark outside. "Come on!"

"Oh my!" I turn and see Marius has come into my room as well, a strange smock thing hung across his arm. "I don't have enough time to deal with that awful bed hair!" he moans.

I'm still barely awake but Hollis pushes me again and I slide onto my feet. "Can I at least have a shower?"

"There's no time."

"Uh- Where are we going?"

"To the arena," Hollis tells me.

Without any further explanation I'm led to the elevator which we take to the very top. Up and up and right onto the roof. No one else is there, I turn back to Hollis.

"Where is Jeannie?"

"She has her own ride," he tells me, "They stagger the journeys through a couple of hours. You're lucky you didn't miss yours."

A hovercraft appears, as if from nowhere, and a ladder falls just in front of me. "Is this it?"

"I'll be coming with you."

This doesn't make me feel any better. My stomach gives a lurch and I think I might throw up. Soon I'm going to see the arena. Soon I am going to be fighting for my life. The nervousness runs through me like electricity. This is it. I take hold of the ladder and am whisked upward, frozen by some sort of current. When I'm inside the hovercraft a man in a white coat kneels at my side with a syringe.

"What's that?"

"It's a tracker so we can follow your whereabouts in the arena."

I am released from the ladder and it is sent back to the roof to collect Hollis and Marius. The three of us are taken into a breakfast area. I sit at the table, my stomach still doing backflips. I might throw up.

Marius flourishes his napkin, tucks it into his collar then fussily begins slicing into a fried egg, cutting it into dainty bites. Hollis just grabs at the food, not even bothering to use a knife and fork.

Come on, I tell myself. Eat something. This might be the last decent meal you get. I force myself to chew on a bread roll but it feels like I'm eating cardboard. It takes a lot of effort to swallow it and when I do my stomach tightens a little.

Outside the window the Capitol looks miniature as it slowly disappears into the distance. I'm surprised to find that I am sad to see it go. At least I knew what horrors to expect there, unlike in the arena.


The journey feels impossibly long. I don't know how much time passes before the windows black out. I try to eat as much as I can but after a while it gets too much. Hollis and Marius ignore me for the most part. I wish Mags was with me instead.

My mind is elsewhere as the three of us are lowered into the Launch room.

Between Marius and Hollis they make sure that I am showered and tidy. Marius spends a great deal of time adjusting my hair so it lies flat.

I pay a little more attention to the clothes they dress me in- the first clue to what the arena might hold. A pair of thick trousers, a padded jacket and sturdy boots. As soon as I have them on I feel too warm, roasting. Wherever I am going it must be very cold. A barren wasteland? A snow-capped mountain?

Marius tuts disapprovingly at it, "This is not what I would have chosen for you at all," he tells me.

"At least it looks practical," Hollis says and for once I agree with him.

He fits a headband round my head. On it is a headlamp, the kind that the tributes from District Twelve are often seen wearing at the opening ceremonies.

"What-?"

"It means it's going to be dark," Hollis says patronisingly.

Once the sea monster is pinned to my lapel there is nothing left to do. Marius fusses over a few final details but even he begins to run out of things to adjust.

I sit down on the bench, my hands wedged nervously between my knees. Hollis sits down next to me. There is an uncomfortable silence. Both of us know that we would rather experience this moment with anyone but each other. The only positive is that if Mags were here to give me another hug I think I would cry and that's not the way I want to enter the arena.

"I guess this is goodbye," Hollis says, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," I say.

"Who knows, maybe you'll prove me wrong."

"Here's hoping."

"Please prepare for launching," a female voice announces.

I walk over to the metal plate and stand, waiting. "Any last pieces of advice?"

He looks down at the pin on my jacket. "If you get any gifts try to keep them secret from the rest of the pack. It won't help you if they think you are too popular."

I nod. At least the advice is practical.

A glass cylinder is lowered over me. I stand up as best as I can, hoping to make an impressive entrance but as the plate begins to rise I feel nothing but nausea. This is it. This. Is it.