I have killed. I am not the only one. But that doesn't make it right.

"You okay?" Mike asks.

"How can I be okay?" I ask. "Seventeen children are dead!"

Two more cannons had sounded, marking that seventeen are dead. Another cannon suddenly goes off. "Make that eighteen."

"It's how it is," Mike says. "You have to get home."

"Why me?" I ask him, surprised that he doesn't say himself.

"You have a family to take care of," Mike says.

"But you have a family too," I say.

"Yeah, but..." Mike says, trailing off.

"But... what?" I ask.

"Listen, it's hard to explain," Mike says abruptly. "Just forget about it."

"I don't want to forget," I say. It sounds much more dramatic than I mean for it to. Mike rolls his eyes and lays down on the ground. The sun is quickly fading. I place my backpack on the ground and lay my head on it. Mike and I don't speak for the rest of the night. We both fall asleep in the darkness.

My eyes burst open as I hear a twig snap. I'm on my feet with a knife in my hands before Mike is even fully awake.

"Mike!" I hiss. "Someone's here!"

"Wha?" he mumbles, his eyes opening slightly.

"Get up!" I whisper in an urgent voice.

"Whatisit?" he asks groggily, his words slurring together."

"Shush!" I hiss. Why am I so on edge? Before I can even answer my own question, I hear the familiar sound of something bending.

"Duck!" I shout at Mike. He's immediately on the ground, as am I. Something whooshes past our heads. I'm quickly on my feet and running in the direction that the noise had come from. I immediately am tackled to the ground, a knife above my head. It was dark out when I'd awoken, but now the sun is shining. The gamemakers must not want our fight to be masked by the darkness.

"Mike!" I scream as the knife is about to come down hard into my chest. The tribute is tackled off me, and I watch the familiar sight as Mike throws his spear into the tribute. A cannon sounds. I breathe heavily and stare at the tribute. I don't recognize her from training, but then again I didn't memorize a lot of the tribute's faces.

"Where'd she come from?" I whisper.

Mike is fully awake now, his chest heaving and his eyes large.

"I don't know," he said, looking down at her dead body. I see that she has a bow and arrow, which were my suspicions. The bending noise had been the bowstring, and the whooshing noise had been the arrow flying toward our heads.

"How'd you know that she was going to hit us?" Mike asks.

"I recognized the sound from training," I reply.

Mike nods but says nothing. We both head back to where our packs were, but they're gone.

"What the-" Mike starts to say just as he's tackled to the ground, his spear flung away from his hand.

"Mike!" I scream as I start to run toward him. An arm grabs me from behind and I feel something sharp against my neck.

"Don't move," a boy's voice hisses in my ear.

He doesn't have to worry about me moving. I'm dead still, knowing that a knife is what's against my neck. The knife is suddenly removed and I'm thrust against a tree. Immediately, rope is tied around me. I pull against the tight knots and immediately know that there's no way to escape them.

"You killed her," the boy's voice says again. He appears out of the darkness and I immediately remember his face; he's the one from District 2. He thinks I killed his District partner. Technically, Mike had, but I'd still been a part of it.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I say, wondering how he knows it was me.

"Don't play that game with me," he says. "I saw you kill her. And I almost killed you, too. But only one thing held me back; revenge."

"What?" I ask, confused. Revenge would be to kill me, so why didn't he? He pulls out a knife and comes toward me with it. It's a small knife, so I wonder how on earth he'll stab me with it and kill me.

But as he comes closer and closer to me with the knife, I realize he doesn't intend on killing me. At least, not right away. He thinks I killed his partner; maybe even his friend. Probably his friend. Maybe something more than his friend. And for that he wants to make my pay.

The word revenge suddenly makes much more sense. Revenge isn't necessarily giving someone back what they did to you, but usually making it ten times worse.

The District 2 boy digs the tip of the blade into my arm and I bite my lip to stop from crying out.

"Do it," he mutters, digging the knife deeper and deeper in. "Scream!"

Tears fill my eyes, but I fight them back. I clench my teeth and close my eyes, hoping to escape this horrifying pain. I hope that the gamemakers have pity and will stop this madness. The blade is lifted from my skin and relief washes over me. Perhaps he is done. I open my eyes slightly to see that he isn't done, but rather just getting started. He pulls out an even smaller knife and lifts it to my eye, making me look at it's silver, shining blade. I gulp and try not to look as pathetic as I feel.

He starts to dig the knife into my cheek and pain washes over me again. I clench my teeth and close my eyes, wanting it to just end. Wanting him to just kill me.

Just as a scream is about to escape, the knife is removed from my bloodied cheek and I hear a thud. I open my eyes and look down at the ground to see the District 2 boy bleeding. A spear is sticking out of his chest and blood is running out of his mouth. He slowly crawls toward me, small knife still grasped in his hand. I struggle against the ropes. He is so persistent that I know what he has in store for me is not good. He's bleeding to death, and the more he struggles the shorter amount of time it will take for him to die. He lifts himself up on the tree that I'm tied to and reaches for me.

"Seffie!" Mike shouts somewhere close. He sounds far away, which means he must have not thrown the spear at the District 2 boy. It must have been someone else.

"Mike!" I shout back, hoping that he'll find me. The District to boy leans against my shoulders to steady himself. I close my eyes and await the pain I know will come. Light suddenly fills my left eye as it is forced open. I stare into a small, silver blade. The District 2 boy shoves it into my eye and I can't hold back; I scream. Though he's dying, the District 2 boy smiles approvingly.

"There it is," he says, blood running out of his mouth. "I was waiting for that scream."

My vision in my left eye is gone and I feel blood dripping down my cheek. Pain courses through me as the District 2 boy digs the knife deeper in and I scream even more. He's suddenly thrust off me and I see another spear land in his stomach.

"Seffie," I hear Mike whisper. The knife is suddenly released from my eye and I gasp. "What did he do?"

Tears are spilling out my right eye and I'm trying to hold back sobs. I feel so pathetic, and I know I look like it.

Mike cuts the ropes off of me. As soon as they are removed I collapse to the ground, unable to stand. Mike wraps his arms around me and carries me away. Two cannons sound, and I add up the fallen tributes in my head. Twenty-one dead. That means only three are left; Mike and I being two of them.

"Mike," I mutter. "There's only one more left besides us."

"Shh, don't think about it," Mike says. "Just go to sleep."

I close my eyes and gratefully let the darkness take me.