KPOV

Oh my God, I was expecting just the three of us having to go back in, not having to choose someone else! Of course I know who I'm going to choose, but I would probably have to explain to the whole district why I did so. But they should know what he did, even if he doesn't know why he did it.

I feel Peeta's arm around my waist, he thinks that I'm going to faint, when in fact I feel like jumping for joy. Gale is going to go into that arena, but will I really let Peeta and Haymitch choose someone too? How can all of us doom someone else's fate with this evil of all evils? I pass people and they look scared and become a blur as Peeta guides me through the crowd. It only takes us minutes to get home, where all three of us sit down at the kitchen table. Within minutes of that, Prim, my mother, Cinna, and Effie are all in the kitchen as well. Prim looks shaken, though I can't figure out why, it's not like any of us would send her in. We all just kind of sit quietly, looking at one another. It's Haymitch who finally breaks that silence.

"So, who gets to put in Gale's name?" He asks, with a devilish smile on his face. Effie looks at him and then to me,

"Your cousin? Why would you want your cousin to go in?" She's so clueless and the fact that she bought the whole story of him being my cousin is ludicrous. My mother looks at her and in a serious tone replies,

"He is not her cousin, Effie, and he has done something truly horrible, so he deserves it." My mother walks out after that, leaving Prim to stand awkwardly in the kitchen.

She comes up to me, puts her small hand on my shoulder, kisses the top of my head, and says, "He should go in. He may survive, but at least he'll maybe understand what you two went through. I'm going to go home and sit with Mama, make her some tea I think."

I nod and watch her go too. I didn't think my mother would stick around long. Effie is still confused and Cinna cocks his head to me. "I think you should tell her."

"I think I'm going to have to tell everyone what he did, just so they understand why he's going in. My real problem is would there be anyone else that we would send in?" I look at Peeta and Haymitch.

"I'll go back in, kill him myself if I have to." Haymitch volunteers quickly.

Peeta shakes his head, "No, I want to go in. There's no one you would choose, Haymitch? There are a lot of kids you don't like."

"That may be, but I wouldn't send them to their death either. I'm a drunk, not an idiot." He looks at me. "So, we know Gale's going in for sure and probably me and Peeta…"

"No, I want to go in too. Haymitch, you pick Gale and I will go in with Peeta. I can hunt and protect Peeta." I announce. I didn't know until just now that I would do so.

"No way, Katniss! Let Haymitch and me go in! We may not even have to be the ones who kill Gale; there will be so many others in there too. The people here wouldn't hate us as much for picking him." Peeta declares as I knew he would when I said I would go in. I put my hand over his and look him in the eye.

"The people here will understand why he's being sent in and wonder why I didn't turn him in while I had the chance. But I think that Haymitch should still be our mentor and we should go in. Haymitch doesn't know how to hunt and neither do you. You can't honestly say that you would ally with Gale just to get food, so this is the best way to do it. We go in with Gale and Haymitch gets us sponsors and parachutes. I won't argue with you about it. Either of you." I look at both of them an equally long time and they finally nod their heads.

Peeta gets up and says, "Well, then, we better start training. We need to be in the best shape possible and you need to start letting people know what happened to you. Don't hide here anymore and let your bruises show."

Effie starts to tap her high heeled foot on the tile. I forgot about her, as I tend to do often. In her oh-so-annoying voice, she reminds us, "I still don't know what's going on. What did Gale do that was so horrible?"

"He raped me, Effie, that's what is so horrible." I tell her and get up to go upstairs. I hear her choke back an apology as I get to the staircase and hear Cinna telling her to calm down. I also hear someone going into the cabinets and glasses being filled with something. No doubt Haymitch decided it was time to give everyone a shot of some liquor.

I'm not sleepy, but lay down across our bed when I hear Peeta come in. He sits down next to me and starts to rub my back. "Are you sure you want to go in? Haymitch could probably be better if he trained a little."

I turn my head to him, leaning my chin on my hands, "No, I want to go back in. It makes sense, we're young and we just did it. We'll probably have a ton of sponsors too just because they liked us so much during the first Games. Haymitch is too old and he never even told us how he won his set of Games."

"I don't think he likes to talk about it at all. I do know that his whole family was killed not long after he came back and his girlfriend too. Apparently, all the victors from District 12 have a way of pissing off the Capitol." He says with a small smile playing on his lips. "Effie said she's sorry. She seems really upset by the whole thing and thinks that Gale should be castrated for it."

"Well, we could make that happen, I'm sure." Not really, I don't want to get anywhere near that area of his body. Doesn't mean we can't plant the idea into someone else's head though. "How many victors do you think are still alive? None from the first few Games, I'm sure."

"I don't know, Haymitch and Cinna were trying to figure that out when I came up here. They were thinking at least fifty people. Could be more, or less, Haymitch says a lot of mentors end up doing worse than just drinking." He ponders this for a moment and then adds, "Course, even the older ones who are still alive are probably not in the best shape of their lives. Who knows, we may just get lucky that the older ones will die quickly without us having to do anything."

I don't like the idea of more dying for the Capitol, but he's right. Some of the older ones may not survive the first hour at all. I get up off of the bed and tell him, "I'm going to go back downstairs, let Effie know that I am doing a lot better and she shouldn't worry. Besides, I'm going to need her help in spreading the gossip in the Capitol."

"What gossip?"

"About what Gale did. She can let it get out quicker than we ever could and I'm more than sure that the other victors will hear about within the week." I wink at him and go back downstairs.