Thank you for your overwhelming response last chapter.

We were ushered into the Hall of Justice after the ceremony, while Peeta stared holes into the back of my head. I thought for a brief moment that we'd be left alone together, but I was then left alone in a cold room. My mother and sister came first.

"You have to win, Katniss!" Prim's tears were relentless and I stooped to hug her. "Promise me you'll win."

Here was my first choice in a long while, one that really would matter. I could promise Prim I'd return, and return to her and Cray and my mother and continue my life as it was. I could tell her the truth, that I hoped I wouldn't return and she was to carry on without me. Or I could lie and tell her I'd come home, and not.

"Of course I will, Prim."

I stood and turned to my mother. "You can't zone out this time. I won't be here to pick up the tab for our life. You've got to make this work."

Her blue eyes shone. "I- I won't, Katniss. I never had a chance to thank you, I know I should have before, for the things you do. For us. I know it's such a big sacrifice. I'm sorry you had to do that."

I swallowed the urge to scream, Sorry doesn't cut it. Instead I said "I know. I love you."

She opened her mouth to say more, but the door slammed open and there stood Cray. "Get out! Both of you!"

They scuttled and I stepped backwards.

"I forbade you! I forbade you to go and you continue! You'll pay for this!"

"I've been paying for years!" I cried, tears starting as I faced my last trial.

He slapped me and the force made my neck spasm, but I stood my ground. Not for long; he pushed me to the couch and began pulling up my dress.

"No! Stop!"

"All the money I've spent on you! All the chances I gave!" He pushed my underwear aside and plunged into me, tearing something on his way.

"Please!" I begged. I didn't want my last memories of District 12 to be tainted by the man who'd tainted everything else in my life. "No!" I screamed and my throat seared with tears.

"This time, I'm getting my money's worth!"

I screamed and clawed at the arm of the couch, my chin slamming into the wooden piping repeatedly. At first I focused on the small lamp in arm's reach from me. I studied the roses that smattered it, but then the pain became too much and I closed my eyes, scrunched up against the dim light of the room.

"You'll be with your damn baker now, you slut! All you've ever wanted!"

I sobbed loudly and mucus and tears mingled on my upper lip. Each time I'd tried to hold it together. Each time I'd tried not to let him see me cry. My last chance and I'd blown it. I cried for my last shred of dignity. My chin was bruising.

"If you ever come back here, I'll kill you!" He growled into my ear, breathless from the exertion. Almost like the first time, I felt my body rejecting him, the splitting inbetween my legs, the blood lubricating his endeavours. I hated my body.

"I'll skin you alive like the damn animals you poach off the Capitol's land!"

And then he was gone; the intruder seized and torn away from me. I slumped back against the arm, tears streaming down my face. Capitol Peacekeepers pulled me up and righted me, and I felt nothing. Sobs wracked my throat. Either way, I was going to die. If I won, if I lost, he'd have his way.

When we left for the train, Effie put her arm around me.

"Poor dear, you poor, poor dear. Absolutely barbaric, how they let these things happen! In the Hall of Justice! To a potential victor!"

I wiped my nose on my wrist; my dress sleeves too high to be used as a handkerchief. Peeta looked at me as we walked and his hand grazed mine for a millisecond. I cursed the cameras that saw me now, bleeding and crying. They would only see the tears. They would only see the weakness.

"You've been so brave, Katniss," Effie said, squeezing my hand. "So, so, brave."

I was sent straight to my cabin. The Avox in my room turned the shower on for me, and waited in the corner of the bathroom while I collapsed to the floor and cried. She held out a towel for me once I was done.

She combed my knotted hair through her fingers, and tears sprang anew to my eyes as I thought of my mother doing the same when I was a young girl.

When I returned to the main carriage, it was excruciating.

Effie Trinket, birdlike as ever, tweeted about the sacrifice I'd made and how beautiful and moving it was for me to do that for my sister, in her equally chirpy accent. I liked her more, admittedly, after her kindness following my 'ordeal'.

Peeta sat across from me, staring at me intensely. He wanted to talk, that much was obvious, but I had very little to say.

District 12 only had one living victor, and that said victor was currently sleeping off alcohol in his cabin.

Effie disappeared for a moment to check on Haymitch, and Peeta and I were left alone.

"I don't want to talk about it, Peeta."

"I know you don't. I wasn't going to ask you. You're free now, Katniss. It's over."

"It's never going to be over," I muttered. "And now you've been dragged into an even bigger mess."

"I would have volunteered anyway, Katniss. I'm going to bring you home."

"For what, Peeta?" I screeched, slamming my hands on the table. "To come back and pick up where I left off? That's the last thing I want! I want to die in the arena and forget that I ever had to do this."

"Don't say that," he whispered. "I couldn't live without you."

"You won't be alive if I live! You haven't thought this through, Peeta! I go back, you don't, and Cray will kill me anyway!"

"He wouldn't dare. You're not in this alone any more." His hand reached across the expanse of the table to mine. I grasped it.

"When you win, Peeta, don't go home. Please." I hoped my eyes could convey what words could not.

"I won't win, Katniss. Even if I did, I wouldn't go home without you." I nodded, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Thanks for trying, Peeta. Before. Really."

"I'm sorry I couldn't do more." He whispered, thumb running over mine. "I wanted to kill him with my bare hands. I don't care if you don't want to be with me, Katniss. I just want you to be free."

I opened my mouth to reply but Haymitch, supported by Effie, stumbled into the car. Our hands jumped apart.

"Broke up a beautiful reunion did we?" Haymitch chuckled, collapsing into the seat next to me. "Star-crossed lovers and what-not!"

Effie's eyes twinkled. "Are you two-?"

"No!" I exclaimed, while Peeta stared blankly at me. I suppose I'd just answered his question.

"No need to be embarrassed now, Katniss! Ah, a love story! So wonderful!" She chirped. "And after all of your hardship and being kept apart by that evil man," it seemed Haymitch had caught Effie up on the missing parts of her story, "you have to fight to the death! Oh, my dears, the odds certainly aren't in your favour!"

For once, I agreed with Effie Trinket.