I headed to the hob and traded in a few squirrels with Katniss for some food. Katniss said goodbye and headed to her home. I was about to as well when I suddenly heard a noise from behind me. I turned around and saw a peacekeeper grabbing a girl's hand.

"You stole it!" the peacekeeper shouted. He had a bread roll in his hand.

"I didn't! I swear!" the girl screamed. Without thinking, I trudged over to the peacekeeper and shoved his hand away from the girl.

"If she said she didn't steal it, she didn't steal it!" I shouted at him. This reminded me so much of my encounter with the peacekeeper.

"Get out of here!" the peacekeeper shouted at me, then turned back to the girl and grabbed her arm. "You're going to die for this!"

"No!" the girl screamed, tugging on her arm.

"I STOLE IT!" I shouted.

Everybody went quiet, even the screaming girl.

"You... stole it?" the peacekeeper said slowly.

"Yeah, I just saw it sitting there and decided to take it," I said. The peacekeeper looked at me unbelieving. "Leave her alone. I stole it."

The peacekeeper stared at me for so long that I thought he wouldn't believe me.

"Fine," he said, letting go of the girl. "You stole it." He nodded his head at the other peacekeepers and they grabbed my arms and started to carry me away to the town square. I looked down at the ground and saw now that the blood from the gash on my knee stained it. They threw me down to the ground and the peacekeeper drew his gun. He put it inbetween my eyes just like the time before and cocked it.

"Just do it," I whispered.

He suddenly lowered his gun slightly and pulled the trigger. Pain shot through my shoulder and I collapsed to the ground. Blood poured out of my shoulder. I put my hand to my shoulder and pressed down hard on it to try and stop the bleeding. I looked up at the peacekeeper who leaned down right above my ear.

"President Snow made me promise to keep you alive," he whispered, his voice cold and unmoving. "Until everything calmed down. You better think twice before you go taking the blame for someone else."

And with that, he walked away, gun in hand. I tried to stand up, but I just fell back down on the cobble. I started to crawl forward, knowing that if I got to Katniss's house that I'd be alright. I'm an idiot, I thought to myself. President Snow said to not give them hope. I just stood up for a girl who didn't steal anything and said I stole it! That's sure to give them hope!

It was getting harder and harder to crawl, and nobody in the crowd dared help me. I soon just collapsed on the ground and waited for death to come. Surely death would be better than having to watch Snow kill my family. I closed my eyes and let the darkness consume me. But very, very far away I felt arms wrap around me. Very, very far away I heard the familiar words "it'll be okay".

I opened my eyes slowly and moaned. My shoulder hurt like heck. And then I realized it: I wasn't dead.

"It'll be okay," Elissa's voice said.

Maybe I was dead. After all, if I was hearing Elissa than I had to be dead.

"How are you feeling?" Elissa asked.

"Pretty bad, considering that this is Heaven," I said, moaning and rolling over. But instead of seeing Elissa, I saw Katniss.

"Heaven?" Katniss said, smiling slightly. "You're far from it, Mel."

"I thought you were Elissa," I said, feeling sad. I wanted it to be Elissa. I wanted to be dead.

"Elissa?" Katniss asked. "That girl in the games?"

"She is- was my sister," I said.

"Your sister?" Katniss said, her voice full of shock. "I didn't know she was your sister..."

"Yeah," I said.

"I didn't now," Katniss said, sounding apologetic. "That's why you were gone for a week. I don't know how you handled it that fast. I mean, you had to watch her-" She abruptly stopped.

"I had to watch her get torn to bits," I finished for her, my teeth clenched and my voice scratchy.

"I'm so sorry," Katniss whispered. "I can't imagine what that must feel like."

"It's okay," I said, but who was I kidding? It wasn't okay that my sister was sent into an arena to kill other kids. It wasn't okay that someone killed my sister. It wasn't okay that all my sister was now was a bloody hunk of bones and meat.

"So how are you feeling?" Katniss said, obviously wanting to change the subject.

"Fine, considering I'm not in Heaven," I said.

Katniss smiled.

"What happened out there?" she asked.

I moaned and started to roll over, but the pain that shot up my shoulder stopped me.

"I stood up for a girl," I said, looking her straight in the eye. And then something suddenly occurred to me. I shot straight up despite the pain in my shoulder. "My family!"

"What about them?" Katniss asked, standing up.

"My family!" I shouted, starting to slide off the table I'd been laid on. "Where are they?!"

"I don't know," Katniss said. "You should really not walk. You're in too much pain."

"To heck with pain," I said, starting to wobble toward the door. "My family is more important."

But were they even still alive? I thought. I swung open the door and a cold blast of air blew my back.

"Wait!" Katniss shouted behind me. She caught up with me pretty fast, considering I was hobbling. "Melany, what's going on?"

"My family," was the only thing I could say. My heart pounded so hard and I was so terrified for my family that I didn't even feel the jarring pain in my shoulder. I soon stopped hobbling and just started running, no matter if my legs were tired or not. Katniss ran beside me, ever now and then looking worriedly over at me. It seemed to take hours to reach my house when it was really only five minutes. But when I got there, I swung open the door and stared into my house.

"Melany!" Manda exclaimed, running toward me. I breathed a sigh of relief and hugged her tight, tears streaming down my cheeks.

"Your arm!" my mom exclaimed.

I did a headcount and saw that everybody was still there. Everybody was still alive. I hugged Manda even tighter and I'm sure I soaked her shirt with tears.

"Melany," Manda said, lightly pulling away from me. "What's wrong?"

"You're all here," I whispered, pulling Becky and Lance in a tight hug. "You're all alright."

"Melany," my mom said worriedly. "What's wrong?"

"I'll explain later," I said, not at all wanting to tell her about my talk with Snow. I didn't want to tell anybody. I pulled away from Becky and Lance and looked up at Katniss.

"Thank you," I said. "Thank you so much for taking care of me."

"Anytime," Katniss said calmly, sounding not at all confused by my actions. "Your arm is bleeding again, though. We have to get you back to my mother."

"Melany, what is going on?" my mom asked sternly.

"Can they come along?" I asked Katniss, realizing that my mom would never stop questioning me. "I can explain it to everyone as your mom is working on my arm."

"Sure," Katniss said, nodding.

Miss Everdeen started to stick the needle into my arm and I grimaced. I started to tell the story from the beginning of when I'd been whipped and kept on telling them everything since then; even that I'd been hunting illegally. I stopped when I reached the part about being shot in the arm.

"And you've been keeping this inside you for this long?" my mom asked me. I nodded.

"How did you bear it?" Katniss asked. "The weight of everything?"

I shrugged, not really knowing the answer.

"Don't worry about us, Melany," my mom said. "We'll be okay. Just worry about yourself."

"But I can't do that, Mom," I said. "I've already lost Dad and Elissa. I can't lose you guys, too."

"We'll be okay," my mom said.

"Okay?" I repeated. "Nothing is ever okay."

I opened my eyes. Everybody else was asleep, which was odd. Katniss had sent me home with some pain killers and we'd all gone home and crawled into bed for the night.

I moaned slightly as I sat up and looked around the room. Everybody was there... except Becky. I crawled out of bed and looked around the house for her, but didn't find her anywhere. I slipped on my jacket and quickly put on my shoes and headed outside. Where was she? My arm hurt like heck but I tried my best to ignore it.

"Becky?" I whispered, hoping that she was near. There was no reply. I looked all around her house, but she wasn't anywhere in sight. I slowly headed toward the town square, careful not to be spotted by the peacekeepers. And there, to my horror, I saw a peacekeeper shove a little girl to the ground and pull out a gun.

"No!" I screamed, realizing that the girl was Becky. I started to run toward the peacekeeper, no longer worried about being seen.

"NO!" I screamed again, louder.

The peacekeeper raised his gun and aimed it at Becky.

"Please, no!" I screamed.

Becky looked up at me with her tear-soaked cheeks just as the peacekeeper pulled the trigger.

"NO!" I screamed, my heart dropping. Becky limply fell to the ground, blood pouring out of her head. I fell beside her and laid her lifeless body on my lap.

"No," I whispered.

The bullet had gone completely through her head. There was no way to save her. She was gone.

"This is what happens when you give people hope," the peacekeeper said, putting his gun away. He turned around and walked away, leaving me alone with the dead body of my little sister.