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11

Sirix.

The name rolls off my tongue with ease. I have to repeat it in my head until I comprehend that it's him. Reaching out my hand tentatively, I study his face, like I have so many times, only this time seems different. It seems more like I'm in a dream, like this is all fake. "It's you..."

A mischevious grin is grown on his face as he claims, "You had no idea I was coming, didn't you?" The heat from his body reaches me through the chilling air, cracking the layer of cold I sense on my hands

"You're…you're not here to…kill me…right?" My voice trembles as I fight the chatter in my mouth.

He rolls his eyes at me and grins. "Because obviously after the last week of training, talking," his voice hushes to barely a sound, "and the last night of kissing," he regains his voice, now at above normal tone, "I'm here to slit your throat."

"Oh shut up. This is the Hunger Games, you can't trust anyone." I remind him. I drop my voice to a whisper, so no can pick it up but him. "Especially not devilishly handsome District 6 boys who use arrows. Those are the least trustable kind." I shoot him a playful smile and back up.

Just imagine how annoyed the Captiolites are, how they can't hear our conversations. The thought pleases me, so I smile in the direction of the tree bark. A camera is surely there; trees are perfect hiding spots for cameras.

Sirix hoists himself onto my branch. "So." He beams at me. "I've got a backpack full of mystery, and you have…?"

"An arrow and…um…a violin." Blushing a rosy red, my eyes look around.

Sirix only raises an eybrow. "Well, in my backpack of mystery holds," he opens up the zippered part and digs his hand in there, "a pair of probably fire-resistant gloves, iodine and a water container, a coil of wire, and a few packs of dried fruit."

"Oh, I also have a pack of extra salty crackers, courtesy of our mentor." I mention.

"Well, I found that stream over there. I'll go get some water and we'll sip pleasantly." He says, mimicking the Capitol accent.

"That would be fantastic." I reply similarly.

Creaking of branches is the extent of what I hear when Sirix leaves with the water container, iodine, and arrow. Fatigue sets in, so once he's out of sight, my eyes shut.


A cannon wakes me abruptly from my slumber. Oh god, oh god, I think to myself. He's gone off and gotten himself killed. But I hear running, and see Sirix climbing up the tree like mad.

Dawn has come and gone, and it is mid-morning now. Carefully, I sit up, but pain in my abdomen causes me to collapse again. "Are you...are you coming up here?" My voice is hoarse from dehydration, so I look downwards at him. He nods, and keeps scaling the tree.

"Get a pack of dried fruit out. We'll feast on that and your crackers." He mentions.

"Water," I croak. Sirix chuckles as he hoists himself onto the branch; once on, he hands me the water container. The minute my lips touch the damp opening, my mouth feels a cooling sensation. I gulp a mouthful first, then another after a moment, and on and on until I leave the container three quarters empty. Sirix however, is putting everything back in its place.

"Who do you think it was?" He murmurs. It can't be a career. It's too early for them to be dying. Plus, they have a pyramid of supplies for them. Someone minor, like the girl from District 7 might be out. I can't imagine Tsubasa is out. He's too smart, too much of a survivor, and he has a weapon of choice. There's no way he went down without at fight. Unless…

I can't think about that now. I'll worry myself sick. "We'll find out tonight."

"I know you're worried about him," he says. "I'll make sure we find him soon." He pushes my face into his shoulder. "Relax. Today we'll just stay up here. Maybe we can gather berries or something for dinner, as long as the gamemakers don't have anything planned. They probably don't, because there was a fight this morning."

He has a point. They can't exactly hurt us today because there was enough action already. Hopefully, they'll give us a rest.

The gamemakers are unpredictable.

Its late afternoon when we decide to go gathering, the same time I'd go for a run at Twelve and find some animal for dinner. Humidity in the air is strange, but I realize it means it rained before we arrived here.

There was one day a few months ago when it poured outside, so everyone was confined to their homes. Of course, my family needed food, so we broke into our tesserae grain to make some bread. When I heard sharp pounding on the front door, I tentatively opened it, only to see a familiar drenched friend standing in the rain. He had a gigantic grin on his face and held a rabbit in his hand. "I had to make sure you guys had something to eat" he remarked. I must have looked hilarious, because he laughed loudly when I stared at the meat.

"Aren't you cold out there?" I asked. He was wearing a long sleeved shirt and pants, but not a coat or anything. His hair was drenched, but it had dried a hint in the time it was standing there. "You want to come in?"

"Maybe, for a minute." Stepping into the warmth and light of our house, he shook some water off and looked around. I took the rabbit, placed it in the kitchen with mom, and came back. "So what are you doing here? Pondering life? Boring yourself to death?"

"What do you want me to do?" I snapped, jokingly.

"Come." He said, and he pulled me out, into the rain. Against our house was his sword-he placed it there for the time being. Grabbing the weapon, he led me to the fence that separated the forest from the district. A break in the wire is the perfect place for us to jump over and experience freedom. I started to run with him, into the great unknown of the trees.

"What are we doing?" I didn't know what was going on.

"I, your best friend, am teaching you how to have some fun." Stopping right by a large apple tree, he started to climb it, and I followed.


Sirix finds a patch of berries for us to snack on. After I make sure they're not poisonous, we nibble on a few slowly. "We've been hanging on pretty well," he remarks.

I laugh. "It's only been around two days."

"Well, there's still a lot of tributes dead already." He reminds me.

"We're never going to get anywhere if we don't get a weapon soon, though."

"We'll get one. Don't worry."

"But when, is the question. The careers could burst through here and kill us and we'd have nothing to fight back with!"

"First we have to find Tsubasa, and then we look at the prospects of getting weapons."

I sigh. "I just worry about us. We can't exactly hide up in a tree for the whole games." He grins, as I remembered what he told me.

"Well, we're at least picking berries now. Soon we'll be less evasive."

The birds tweet, the wind rustles leaves in the trees, and the world is fairly serene. It's awful that this is what our hell looks like. It's not some blood drenched forest with no end. It's serene as our home forests.

"What's that noise?" Sirix asks.

I listen hard, using all the power within me to sense what's around me. The mockingjays fall silent and the wind slows. Buzzing is what I hear, in the distance, far away. It rattles my bones as it comes closer.

Bees.

Wasps.

No, these are tracker jackers. The muttations of the capitol, created for the rebellion, to create fear. When you're stung, there are harsher mental side effects than physical. Usually, people can only tolerate a few stings.

"Tracker Jackers!" I scream, forcing myself upwards. "Run!" Grabbing our supplies in one hand, and his wrist in the other, we sprint as fast as possible. The trackers are making speed on us though.

The Gamemakers want more out of us—specifically more out of me. I haven't been giving them a good show, and now they're showing me I have to, or I'll end up getting killed. They're engineering the wasps to chase me; they're egging me on to find a way to get out of the hive's reach and keep Sirix and me safe. Sure as hell, I'll be giving them a good show.

My muscles are starting to ache. Never have I kept full speed this long. Up ahead though, I see a figure, a human; I assume it's a male. Closely cropped black hair, extremely tall—it's only when he looks back that I notice it's the boy from District 3.

I don't remember anything about him except when he did not laugh in his interview at a joke Caesar made. He was stoic throughout the whole thing. He is now picking up speed, as is the trackers. I have to think. Hard. Quickly, it hits me. I yell to Sirix "When I say go, you jump to the left, and I jump to the right." I have to pant between words; I'm running out of steam. He is nodding. I hear behind me the obnoxious hum of the trackers. At the last second, I will scream, and the bees will all lunge forward and sting the District 3 boy.

It kills me a little inside to know that it will mean his demise.

Soon, the trackers will be at my neck, and it will be over. I wait for the perfect moment.

Three. Now the trackers are raging, about to meet us, their victims.

Two. The District 3 tribute isn't running as fast. He's getting closer to us and the bees.

One. There's a moment where everything is still.

"Go!" I screech.

Sirix and I soar to the sides. Expecting the hard earth, it's a pleasant surprise to feel brushy leaves around me. Unfortunately, three tracker jackers found me, so a painful sting in my leg, arm and collarbone comes. Ripping out the stingers, I feel putrid goo exploding on my hands as the gold trackers detonate in my hands. My thoughts seem to fly away as I study the liquid gel emptily. Suddenly, I remember Sirix and the boy and I jump up. Sirix is already running towards me. He has a small sting on his arm. "Rin!" The world seems swirly. "Rin! Are you okay?" Sirix is chasing me.

I walk over to the boy from District 3. About fifty trackers have mutilated his face, arms, and legs. Swelling up to five times their normal size, I notice a coil of wire and a battery compartment attached. He was going to sneak up and electrocute tributes like us. It's a good strategy, but this ruined him.

These games ruin us all.

Ringing is in my ears. I feel dizzy. The trees around me are turning to a gray stone, the birds' songs turn to screaming of people I know. I think I hear a guy I know, asking me if I'm alright. Maybe. Maybe I'm dying. Someone else is screaming along with the birds. I think it might be me. Oh well. The boy next to me has perfectly bronze hair. I think his name is…Sirix. I think I like him. He's asking me what's wrong, why I'm screaming.

I'm now running. The ground has turned to quicksand. Trees turn to dust. I fall down, hit my head on a bush, and pull myself to a pile of the same goo that came out of the trackers.

The last thing I see is a pair of blue eyes staring into mine. Then the nightmares begin.


For a strange, unknown reason, my memories come back. But, that's the least of my worries. The first nightmare tricks me into thinking I'm awake.

I'm standing on the cournicoupia. Next to me is Tsubasa. He's bleeding, yet he's telling me, "It's okay. I want to die; it'll save you." I'm paralyzed and cannot do anything about it.

"No, NO!" I scream for the life of me. "You can't die,"

"But you can't get out of this hell unless I die. Please, I want to save you." He reassures me.

Before I can yell for him to stop, he's already gone, and I'm falling down into another place. I'm running through the training center, and it's so chilling inside, my hair stands on its end. The mirrors reflect back, and I see I'm wearing a nightgown that hems at mid-thigh. Wondering what fear I will face, I notice Sirix walks in. He's wearing a thin, short-sleeved, white shirt and gym pants. He smiles sexily; then his body morphs into Tsubasa's. Now he walks over and smells my hair-it feels nice to have someone I can trust so well in these nightmares. Then, he's kissing my neck and my heart races faster than I ran away from the bees. Every cell in my body is turning on as I feel his lips touching my body. He breaks away and takes his thin shirt off, revealing lean yet toned muscles. Eventually starts to kiss me, and everything I sense seems right. If only this wasn't a dream.

When he breaks away, "Tsubasa" turns into Copper, his thin figure gaining muscular weight and growing a few inches in height. He's ramming me against the wall. He tries to pull off my nightgown and I scream in pure terror. "Let's go all the way, miss electric," he says seductively, and I kick his knees, his foot, and I scrape his shins.

Everything goes black when he smiles into my soul, telling me I'm a goner.

Now I see Livia. Or at least, I see her corpse. She's dead, she died, and we're at her funeral. Whenever I see a picture of her, I feel guilt and regret for leaving. When people reassure me it's not my fault, someone says, "Didn't you know? Her sickness devoured her."

The darkness blinks for an instant, and then I'm at Tsubasa's funeral.

It was Copper who killed him, and I let him die on top of the cornucopia.

Darkness ensues.

DOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO SO NOW I LEAVE YOU WITH NO IDEA OF WHAT HAPPENS

NEXT WEEK SOMETHING AWESOME HAPPENS.

AAAAAWWWWWEEEESSSOOMMME.

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I'll update with a death list soon, probably on the next chapter because it's a spoiler who that cannon was for earlier.

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