** A/N: So, this is one of the scenes I have been waiting for! I am so excited to get this part started. Now the real fun starts. It is a shorter chapter, sorry about that. Things are going to move pretty quickly, so stay tuned. Thank you, and may the odds be ever in your favour**

Chapter 9: Off To an Early Start

That night, no one slept. Finnick paced nervously up and down the hall, Malick stayed alone in his room, and I sat alone in mine. I stared straight ahead, but not at anything in particular. There wasn't someone or something I was expecting. Eventually, my eyes began to feel heavy, which signaled me that sleep was near. Still in my clothes from the day I laid my head on the pillow and gently closed my eyes. Sleep came sooner than I expected, but so did the morning. Crestius burst into my room, panicking about how he had let me sleep in. They brought breakfast to me on a trey and I ate slowly and methodically while Willow and her team buzzed around me. My entire body was waiting for my brain to hear the news it already knew; amidst the chaos I was calm. My brain hadn't registered that I was going to my death in just a few hours. It wasn't until we were leaving the main doors of our building and going to find our designated cars that it really hit me. When the moment of realization occurred, I pulled Malick back into the hotel by the arm. I hauled him away from the prying eyes of the Capitol cameras and into private.

"I love you." I said quickly, and then began to kiss him passionately. We wrapped our arms around one another and he tangled his fingers in my hair.

"I love you to." His breaths were coming as short and as quick as mine. We were caught up in the moment. The hallway I had ducked into was small, but that made it all the easier for us to get closer. I jumped up, wrapping my legs around his hips and he pushed me against the wall. Before we progressed any, he pulled away. "No, we can't. Not now."

"What do you mean?" I asked, still sitting on his hips, pressed against the wall. Malick pushed me off.

"There is no way I can do this and then go out there and hate you. I love you, Annie, I truly do. But you need to understand that I can't do this." He kissed me gently on the forehead and left the small hallway. A few seconds passed before I fallowed him. Finnick was waiting by the doors for us.

"Way to hold up the show." He was angry. Malick gave me one last smile and mouthed an I love you to me. I mouthed one back, and then we walked out into the Capitol sunshine.

I'm not too sure how long it was until I was arena bound, but it didn't feel like long. Willow ran into my holding room to check me one last time. She adjusted my hair quickly; a braid in front of my hair holding it back, and then a puny tail down my back. She handed me a top like the ones we wore back home when we would go swimming. I could recognize the stretchy material anywhere. This shirt was black with turquoise lines at the bottom of the short sleeves. Then she handed me a bikini top and bottom and a pair of swimming shorts.

"Why am I going to need these?" I asked, thinking I was already dressed for the arena.

"They change the location of the Games every year and dress you to meet the needs of the climate. This is what you need to survive in the climate you are being placed in. Now hurry, get changed." She smiled and walked over to a small table in the corner where her kit was. I stripped down and put the bikini on. Against my tan skin, it looked brilliantly turquoise. I slipped the swim shirt on and swim trunks. Willow hustled over and did some last second makeup touches.

"How do I look?" I asked.

"Beautiful. The turquoise really brings your eyes out. You are going to win, Annie, don't you worry." Willow kissed my cheek gently. "Knock them dead." She smiled at me and hugged me. We hugged until the Peacekeepers came to get me. They lead me out of the room and down a long hallway. There was a glass tube which was an elevator to the surface. Without fear, I stepped into it. I didn't look behind me at where I had come from. I looked dead ahead, determined to win now. Before I knew it, the elevator was rising up. I stumbled a little when it shuttered to a go, but regained my balance. When I emerged from the ground I resisted shielding my eyes. The sun was extremely bright, but my eyes focused quickly. We were on a beach, all 24 of us in a semicircle around what was to be out cornucopia. Like there always was, there were weapons laid out everywhere. I looked to my left and saw the other Careers. Catia waved at me, Hammer grunted at me, Shimmer smiled sweetly at me, and Fluff didn't look at me but looked instead at the glorious amount of deadly weapons laid out in front of us. Then, before I could finish taking in my surroundings, the countdown started.

20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15; I looked over at Malick and glared like I was supposed to. He mouthed 'you're dead' at me.

14, 13, 12, 11, 10; now I stared at the shiny weapons. I spotted a nice, gold trident. It was mine.

9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1; a shrill bell rang, and we all ran off our platforms. The District 12 tributes ran as fast as they could into the blood bath and were killed almost imideiatly. Catia slit open both their throats with ease and continued to grab different knifes. The girl from District 8 met a quick death at the hands of Hammer; they were fighting over the same weapon so he grabbed her head and twisted it, snapping her neck. Other Tributes met early deaths at the hands of my fellow careers. I tried to avoid killing the other Tributes and concentrated on grabbing weapons. Malick and I both reached the golden trident at the same time. Our eyes met, and for a panicked moment, we let our masks slip. His eyes pleaded with me, asking for something I couldn't identify. Finally, Shimmer's voice broke me of his gaze.

"What are you waiting for?" She asked me, and I grabbed the trident and ran off. I slipped a quiver of arrows onto my back along with a bow. I tucked three different knives into my waistband, and then grabbed a bag which looked like it could be full of supplies. Then, while the other tributes ran off into the jungle, I felt safe enough to walk and not run. Malick was long gone, and I hoped he had weapons. By the time all of us got back together, all the Tributes were either dead or off and running. Shimmer smiled and wiped blood splatter off her face.

"That was a good time, wasn't it?" She asked and laughed in the sadistic way she normally did. I threw all my supplies down in front of them.

"I saved as much as I could." I panted. Catia smiled, panting as well.

"Good job Annie. More for us, less for them." She sighed and then turned to face the jungle which was now full of children. Our arena looked to be a vast tropical island filled with all sorts of dangers. The cornucopia faced the jungle, the ocean at its back. I walked around and waded into the clear water. It was warmer than the water back home, the sand was whiter, and the sky had less clouds. This was a place I could get used to.

"So, why don't we all quickly wash up and get back to it?" Fluff asked, seeming all too eager to kill more tributes.

"Relax, Fluff. We can clean up, but why have all the fun today? Let's wait it out. Then, they'll feel safe." Glimmer paused to take off her pink shirt, revealing a shimmery, skin colored bathing suit top. "That's when we want to get them." She paused again to remove her pink shorts, which revealed an equally shimmery and skin colored bikini bottom. Her skin wasn't tanned but it wasn't pale. It suited her golden hair, which was glossy in the sunlight.

"Why do we want to get them then?" Asked Catia, who also stripped down to her bathing suit which was like a red bikini but had a strip of fabric joining the top and bottoms in the middle. Fluff and Hammer also removed their shirts. Fluff was muscular, but not nearly as much as Hammer. Hammer and Catia were more tanned and more muscular than Shimmer and Fluff. I waded back to shore and took off my shorts and top, feeling extremely tanned next to them.

"We want to get them when they feel safe," Shimmer waded into the water and looked seductively back at us. But the passion in her eyes was for blood, and nothing else. "Because that's when the target on their back is even bigger."