Cold liquid needles injected themselves into my body, dragging me underwater. Sharp currents rung my neck as I was pulled further and further downwards. My lungs burned for air and I took a quick gasp. It tasted of blood. I screamed with fear and two people seemed to step over me. One had multiple cut wounds over their body with now blood soaked orange pigtails and cold black eyes.

Speck.

The other had its head under its arm with its own eyes black and unforgiving.

"You killed me." Speck snarled.

I furiously shook my head. My vision began to blur

No…

"I saved you Annie. Why didn't you help me?" Rio asked, blood pouring from the lips of his severed head that he held in his arms as he spoke.

No. No. No. No.

I tried to fight against the water but the more I struggled the more I sank.

"Accept it Annie."

I gasped awake, covered in sweat and completely disorientated. Everything suddenly came back to me and coughed up more bile into my cut hands. It burned. I wiped the tears away with my arm and tried to take tiny sips of water from my bota bag, one of the only things that I had after the ambush. I finished it off and rested my back against the cramped cave wall and twisted my neck into a weird position. I gazed out and the leaves from my shrubbery door allowed only small fractures of light in. I had no idea how long I had been asleep for, but a part of me didn't want to wake up.

"Accept it Annie."

I trembled and blocked my hands over my ears and started to rock back and forth. It was my fault. My fault they were dead. I killed them. I killed them.

It was hours before I heard a sound outside of the cave. I froze in place and tried so hard to not to make a noise by biting down on my knee. Yet, the sound was brief and too light to be a footstep. It took a few long moments before I gathered enough confidence and breath to peer through the bush. I saw a large picnic basket and my eyes brightened with delight when I saw the angel white parachute attached to it. I snatched the basket into my hovel and eagerly began to root through it, inside was: Cheese, District Four bread, three large bottles of water, a sleeping bag, medical wipes and…sleeping medication. I pulled the basket into my trembling arms and I muttered over and over again:

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you."

I was surprised that I wasn't crying again.

After I cleaned and covered my scrapes I slowly began to eat the seaweed bread and cheese, having no idea how hungry I was until I took the first bite into it. My brain told me to savour it but my stomach growled with anticipation and I consumed more than half of each, as well as a full bottle of water. It completely baffled me how I was able to get sponsors after the pathetic show that I had been putting on for them. Rio must have gotten them early on and Finnick and Mags must have saved them for a specific time for-

The blast of a cannon interrupted my thoughts and pushed my mind back to the thought Rio and Pyronn falling from the ledge. Again and again it played in my head. No matter how hard I blocked my ears, scraped my nails into my skin or the number of tears I shed I couldn't get the images to stop. I knew I couldn't survive and I didn't want to spend my final moments reeling in pain. At that moment I prayed to just close my eyes and have everything be over and done with.

I was struck with an idea.

I reached for the sleeping pills and took the daily guideline of two and a warning of what would happen if I consumed too many. The label said that I had to wait three minutes before it took affect but my eyes were so drawn to the bright orange capsules. Would it be so bad? I'm sure my parents would miss me but how I died wouldn't make a difference. And it's better to die like this rather than as a messy spectacle for them to see me. Would people call me a coward? I would be dead so why would It matter to me?

I took a deep breath and grabbed a handful. What was the point of last words? They mean nothing in the games.

"Fight, Annie."

It was the voice of Finnick that stopped me from taking the seven capsules in my hand. And I thought about my parents and how I could see them again after the Games. I would see Mags' smiling face and Finnick's deep eyes.

I had to fight. The possibility of winning was as far away as reaching the stars but I knew that I couldn't go down like this. I snapped out of it and threw them on the ground and crushed them under my boots. I only took one. I just had to.

I looked around the cave for any cameras; they were all probably watching me right now, or wasn't. The Careers were most definitely doing something more interesting or murderous than I was. Maybe Finnick wasn't watching at all as he was currently with another Capitol woman. All the negative thoughts slowly dissolved away as my eyelids grew heavier. I wrapped myself in the sleeping bag and dreamt an empty nightmare.

It had been three days and not a single cannon fired. The audience must have started to become bored, and there were only five tributes left - me, the Careers and another. Could it have been Relay? Was he waiting for Speck? Did he know that I had left her for dead? The thoughts swamped my mind again and the that cowardly moment replayed in my mind for the fiftieth time. I had been slipping in and out of consciousness still huddled in my small sanctuary, and I had gotten two more baskets of supplies. The gifts must have gotten really expensive and I had no idea how people where still interested in me.

The times that I didn't eat or have pill sleeps; were the times that my hands stayed firmly against my ears in an attempt to block out the constant noises with thoughts of my life before I was Reaped. How could one slip of paper be such a cruel life changing sentence? I gave up on tying knots a while ago as my shaky hands could barely hold the rope. It was my only physical reminder of the outside world. My fingernails and the hair by my ears were coated in dry blood from all of the scratching. From what I could see of myself in reflection of the water bottle, my eyes were puffy red and the colour was dying. I wiped the dirt off my face a few days ago but I could still see patches that I wasn't bothered to clean. Appearances and impressing people didn't matter to me anymore; I had given up on everything but my small fraction of will to live.

A few hours went by of sobbing before a few pebbles fell on my head. There was a deep shudder and growl from the cave and I scrambled to my knees. I bolted out of the opening and immediately collapsed to the ground. It didn't surprise me that my legs were just as less useless as I was. My heart was racing and I covered my head from a few propelled rock shards. The foreign brightness of the sun almost blinded me and I slowly I opened my eyes to get them to adjust, but I was completely taken back by my surroundings. Everything was bare; there was no longer and trees and the entire landscape was just flat rock. The Gamemakers must have changed everything. My heart constricted and I felt like I was drowning on land. I had seen the Games before. They must have been planning a grand finale. Everyone was tired of waiting so they should give one last show to see what the Tributes were made of and to determine the winner. I frantically twisted and turned around to get any indication of what their plan could be. No mutts or wild animals. What were they planning?

But I did find something. At first it was quite hard to see from where I lying but I saw the cracks. Then the crumbling wall. Then the water.

The dam was breaking and I had nowhere to hide.