I think in any other situation it would be creepy to think that I'm literally just sitting here watching someone do what is essentially the equivalent of nothing. Seriously, I'd doubt if she's even on the screens in the Capitol or the Districts for that matter right now. But I can't stop.

Fine, maybe it's a little creepy but I don't think of it like that. I think of it as…guarding. Yeah, let's go with that. After all, I am about fifteen feet up in a tree a generous distance away from her just so she doesn't sense me. She might have been able to if it was a year ago and she was up to par since even with all that water and roots she can't be entirely focused right now, but there's no sign of it at the moment. It bothers me that I'm almost disappointed by that. I don't really know what I thought before I came in here, but it's just…why doesn't she? Clearly she did earlier, but I was pretty close to her and she could have thought she was just being delusional with dehydration. I think I would have sensed her even if it had been years. Clearly I did somehow because I found her in the first place.

Since I have really nothing better to do than watch her and the surroundings these are the thoughts that pop into my head and stay there, lingering for me to feel like a more and more horrible person with every passing moment. I absentmindedly stroke the bow that she gave me once upon a time, one her father crafted so exquisitely with a skill that is entirely lost on me. Katniss and I tried once to make more bows-mine was complete crap and Katniss's was only a bit better. So we agreed to take very good care of the ones we had because we weren't likely to come across another bow maker any time soon.

She doesn't have a bow in here. I was hoping that my small adjustment of the placement of that bow in the Cornucopia would help her, but apparently not. She does seem to have two knives though, which is something. If only I could give her this bow! But…no, not yet. If that wasn't a red flag that someone is blatantly helping her and only her I don't know what would. And if they're suspicious of that, then they would come looking for me (or whoever they suspect is helping her). Or just kill her and get it over with. No…I can't just help her. I need to confuse them. What I need to do is help someone else too.

It can't be a Career. Part of the point of me being here is to eliminate the Careers. But who do I trust I could help of the others? I wouldn't know. And how would I even find them? It's not like I have a map of all the tributes that I can follow, not in the arena. So…maybe just keep that for later. For now I can just make sure Katniss is safe in her little pool of water.

The hours pass in the silence of the woods, no tributes coming by the whole day. Once two rabbits came near enough my tree that I could shoot them. I nocked my arrow without thinking and shot, but I only nicked one and both were frightened away. Sighing I went down to retrieve the arrow but other than that I haven't left the tree. Eventually evening comes and as I chew on one of the power bars in my small backpack and zip up my yellow hood all the way, I look to the sky as the anthem plays. I'll find out which Career I killed this morning. There were only two cannons for today's count, and both of them were for this morning. I guess the Careers were sleeping all day.

And right at the start, it's her. I stare at the face I took life away from albeit indirectly this morning. Pretty emerald eyes, golden locks of curls framing her face with kissable lips and a slight smirk that says she knows what she's worth right above the crest and number for District 1. Glimmer, I remember her name now. I stare at the sky for a long time, even after the girl's face from District 8 comes and goes as the anthem plays again. I stare and try to feel remorse. Guilt. Anything someone normal would. I murdered that girl, a girl in other circumstances I would have rather snared in my arms for a night or two on the slag heap than in the arena.

And there's none of it. Only…satisfaction with a smattering of disappointment for that moment in the slag heap that could have happened. I think it surprises me more that I feel a lack of anything than the fact I killed her. She deserved it anyway. She was a Career and ultimately in Katniss's way. She's a virtual pawn of the Capitol just like all of District 1 and 2. They're the Capitol's lapdogs. And getting through the dog is one step closer to the owner.

I glance over to the tree Katniss had climbed about an hour ago, already in a thin sleeping bag I dearly hope is warm enough for this weather. I can't see her well in this light, but the moon helps. She seems…puzzled. Well I suppose that would be a normal reaction. I wonder if she thought the District 8 girl had a companion that was the second cannon. Is she wondering if the girl actually killed a Career? Clearly I don't know anyone's scores on the private sessions for training since I was in here before that occurred, but it's not unheard of for people to purposefully get a low score. Granted that strategy got a lot less effective after Johanna Mason showed all of Panem a few years back just how trusting tributes can be of scores. Now it seems everyone…well not exactly disregards the scores once they're in the arena, but watch for the true colors to come out of the ones they deem to be could-be liars.

I wonder what Katniss got. She probably didn't try to get a low score, especially considering she'd want to go home for Prim at any cost. And being from District 12, she'd think she needs all the sponsors she could get. I know with a bow in her hands the Gamemakers would be impressed. Who wouldn't be? I mean, I see it all the time and I'm still amazed by it.

Saw it. I keep forgetting somehow that I left her and this is the first I've seen her in a year. Strange how even though I'm well aware we're in the arena and I can't talk to her it's like nothing has changed. So I watch her eventually drift off to sleep, and wonder why that is. I can't sleep anyway, I still feel a little strange after taking that sleeping pill yesterday. It's like my body doesn't know what to do with sleep. Must be a side effect or something.

And nothing happens all night…until it does, and it has me scrambling down the tree wishing for not the first time that I could reveal myself right now.


I'm dead asleep until something in me senses something. It's a feeling as if I'm being watched, or that something is off. Well that's stupid, of course I'm being watched and everything in this forest is off. It's the arena. But it still makes me wake up and at least look around. What if it's the Careers? I look around and I don't hear anything more, but I squint and see something before a deer whizzes past my tree, completely ignoring the pool of water and sprinting west. My eyes widen when I see a sort of orange glow in the distance before it hits me what it is.

A fire. A great wall of fire coming at me. The Girl on Fire.

Somehow that nickname isn't sounding too good now. I know Cinna wouldn't have wished for this to come out of him deeming me that with his outfits, but I can't help but wish for the first time that he did dress me as a literal coal miner just like every other year. The Gamemakers must be getting a kick out of the irony of it, but I don't intend for that name to be literal.

So I sprint, just barely ahead of the wall of fire. The smoke is catching up to me and I try holding my breath, but it's hard when I'm running for my life in every sense of the word, and I end up choking. But I don't stop because I can't stop. Not until I'm away from this. They can't win this way. Even if they're messing with me-and if I didn't know they were before I certainly do now- just because I still hunt and poach outside the district even with my hunting partner gone this past year, they can't win. Think of Prim. Think of her and mother, and how they are probably starving. I can't let them be dead before I get home, which means I have to get home. And quickly. So no, get out of this wall of fire, just turn at that tree up ahead and go right.

It's like they're mocking me. Can they listen to my thoughts now too? No sooner than I turn that bend than the wall of fire sort of caves in, coming now from that direction too. Right, guess I'll have to turn around and go straight. It's the only way I can go.

So I run and choke. Run and choke. Trying to stay ahead of the wall. Suddenly I'm gaining-slowly, but I am. It must be the adrenaline. It drives me further and further ahead and I think I see a river up ahead.

And then I stumble and trip. A sound of surprise and gasping comes out of my mouth as I hit the ground almost face first. I'm about to get up when I hear a whizzing past my ear and not ten feet to my left and diagonal is a flaming ball that hits the ground, instantly engulfing the leaves of the nearest bush on fire.

Had I not tripped just then I know that thing would have hit my head. It's like some branch or whatever I tripped over was looking out for me. But I can't think about my good luck now, I have to run and get away from this new attack meant just for me. So I sprint for the river, and when I make it I go in if only to escape any fire ball that may come my way.

I came out of it unscathed save for a few scratches, bruises, and an unfortunate case of smoky lungs. But the water is clean and cool and soothes my throat as I swish it around before spitting it back out, and I look behind me to see the wall has disappeared as well as the mysterious fire balls, all that's left was what has been damaged in its warpath.

They can't possibly be happy I escaped that. I know they'll probably throw something else at me soon, but what can I do? I have to sleep and I don't have any allies to take a shift. Trying to find Peeta…wherever he may be, is out of the question. Besides, where would I find him anyway? And if I was with him people would expect the whole 'star-crossed lovers' thing to unfold, which I'm certainly not going for. And I don't need an ally anyway. It's not like there's anyone I can trust. I can't trust anyone ever again. It's just not pos-

BOOM!

A cannon? Someone must have gotten caught in that fire wall. Someone died in a trap meant for me. Suddenly guilt takes over because that was meant to be my cannon. But that also must mean someone was far closer to me than I thought last night. I mean…I knew it was a possibility. Could it have been whatever I sensed when I was looking for water? Granted I was a bit delusional with thirst but I still felt something. I didn't just randomly decide to look up in that tree for a sign of the pond I spent the night at.

Could it have been Peeta coming to find me? No, probably not. Peeta wouldn't have hidden from me, but whoever it could have been didn't hurt me either. So…Rue maybe? She's so tiny, maybe she was intimidated by me. Ha, what a load. I was about the least intimidating person you could find at that point, with nothing but two knives and one dulled at that. But if it was Rue and she's the one that cannon was for…no, not her. That would be awful. I don't think my conscience could handle that.

I duck down in the water to clean my face and try and get all these thoughts out of my head, getting out of the water and untangling my braid, wringing out as much water as I can. I'm about to rebraid it when I'm thinking I wish I didn't jump in the river with my backpack on when I hear a whoop and a holler from across the river. Crap.

The Careers.

That must have been why the Gamemakers used that fire wall to get me to this direction! To them. I'm such a fool. They didn't want to kill me with the fire though it was ironic. No, they want my death to be painful and drawn out as well as dramatic. Me against five Careers with a single good knife. I've never been happier Glimmer died yesterday however she happened to if only if it's because it's one less person for me to face.

I don't think they've seen me yet. Or at least not enough to know it's me. Silently going into the bushes, I wait until I'm sure they're not looking right at my bush before running for it. I'm slower now that the adrenaline has worn off and the fact that it's still hard for me to breath from the smoke that's still rising from the forest, but they're way behind me now. I can tell that they're still running for me though so I quickly dive in a different direction and climb a tree, hoping to elude them. I scramble up quickly and I've never been happier that apparently I'm part squirrel.

The Careers race past me in pursue of another target, one I'm assuming was also near me. I'm sorry for that person but not sorry enough to wish our roles were reversed. I swear I saw six people pass when they ran but I couldn't tell who the other person was. Did someone else join the Careers? Thresh maybe? It seems unlikely, but you never know.

"Well, well, well, looks like we've caught ourselves a little baby bird!" I hear a voice shout no more than thirty yards from here that could only belong to Cato, the monstrous boy from District 2. "And she's only a little roasted."

Laughs echo after the taunt, but I freeze in place. A little baby bird?

Rue.

Suddenly I groan out loud, wishing that I didn't actually care. But I do. Rue reminds me of Prim, and Prim is the reason I'm here. And while trying to help Rue won't help Prim, I can't just sit here while she's in danger-and apparently burned because of a trap meant for me. Prim wouldn't want me to die, but she also would want me to help Rue.

I should be a whole lot more conflicted than I am. But it doesn't even feel wrong when I search in the direction that the laughter is coming from before climbing down the tree, holding both knives once I get down and quietly going in their direction as only a hunter could. I'm almost within sight of them when something hard hits me in the back of my head and when I turn around I see nothing, but I swear there's something there.

My vision is going and I'm seeing three of everything before my eyes close and I feel myself fall to the ground, a ringing in my ears. The last thing I remember before blacking out is that it feels like I'm being dragged across the ground, but I can't tell what's happening. All that I feel is the stone hard blackness that takes me in its arms and all the pain subsides, a welcome change.