"Where did they go? Where did they go, you fiend?!" Katniss looked left and right for another arrow that she might be able to use against him, seeing one or possibly two off in the distance, half hidden behind a tangle of roots.

"They're with us," he cryptically replied, "and now you will join them."

"What do you mean?" The woman replied with terror in her wide doe's eyes, backing away.

"It's your choice now, Katniss: misery or rage? The man in the suit or the mindless beast? You have the privilege to become a part of either." Snow chuckled, thoroughly enjoying the torment of his nemesis.

"But…I redeemed myself! I passed you little test!" Katniss bared her teeth like a dog resisting a beating.

"Oh, but you still don't understand, dear Miss Everdeen," Snow teased. "A glimmer of hope just makes a crushing death all the more sweet to the one who deals it."

"And that's what you did to Finnick, isn't it?" The voice was that of Annie Odair, who stepped out from behind a tree trunk and glided toward her friend and foe with a determination that only added to her grace.

"Silence," came Snow's one-word reply.

"You don't have as much power over me as you might think. I'm not like one of those puppets just yet. I was only…confused, at first."

"He didn't kill you?" Snow's expression turned downright villainous.

"I'm just as alive as she is," Annie proclaimed, lifting a hand in Katniss's direction.

"That bastard spared your life!" The black branches surrounding them shuddered with a sudden gust of wind.

"Of course he did. Just when I was immobilized by the branches, he found the will to let me go. He said he was sorry and ran away. I tried to follow him, and it was then that I saw Katniss about to attack him. But I suppose that none of it matters to a dead, heartless man like you. You'll be far more interested by the fact that I am here to offer my life."

"Annie?" Katniss looked at her with an open mouth.

"And why, exactly, would you choose to sacrifice yourself?" Snow asked, the smile beginning to return to his face.

"Because I'd rather let you have a poor, mad girl than the Girl on Fire. I'd rather let you have the one who's pitiful screams are imprisoned in a Jabberjay's throat than the Mockingjay herself." Annie stared her enemy down with defiant eyes that burned with a hatred overpowered only by her iron resolve.

"Well said, District Four," Snow patronizingly remarked. "It's understandable that you would have such little will to live."

The three of them stared at one another in silence. Each felt that the others may somehow be deceiving them.

"Annie…" Katniss said, barely above a whisper, "you should get out of here…."

The woman only shook her head in reply. Her eyes remained fixed on Snow.

"I'll take your offer," Snow at last concluded. "Your friend's soul may be broken, but yours is in absolute tatters; simply irresistible. It would make a fine addition to this form."

"No! Annie, run!" Katniss ran to her friend, giving her a push for a head start. Annie barely flinched, remaining in place.

"I'm not backing down any more, Katniss," she growled. Then her voice grew softer and she said, "Just remember me. Remember us all, and know that we all love you, Katniss."

Katniss stepped back, almost as much in confusion as she was in despair. The branches all around them began to close in on Annie's dainty frame, beginning to form a tangled wall between the two of them.

"Annie!" Katniss couldn't find any words that had a hope of convincing her friend and fellow Victor to run.

"Come on, Snow," Annie called, ignoring Katniss's pleas. "I'm ready for the nightmares to become reality. I…always knew…that they would one day."

Through the ever thickening tentacles closing in around her, Katniss made out a smile on Annie's lovely face. Her sea green eyes twinkled like stars.

Then she was engulfed and both she and Snow and the mass of hideous tentacles dissolved in a flash.

"Oh, Annie!" Katniss crumpled to a kneel on the forest floor, holding her twisted, miserable face in her hands.

Through the darkness, a voice called to her.

You've had good fortune… The voice was Clove's, a harsh whisper.

The fortune to see your own future. Cato murmured along.

Someone began to laugh. It was in Finnick's voice.

A future that will play out much like my dear Annie's.

"Stop!" Katniss held her hands over her ears in terror. "Stop!"

One day, maybe when you are veeery old…Rue called in an almost innocent tone.

Far older than we had ever been…Prim giggled, as if in pure joy.

You are going to join us! Katniss could almost see Madge smiling at her as she gave her friend the news.

"Stop!"

You'll become a piece… Cinna calmly droned along.

Of our great misery…The voice was none other than that of Alma Coin herself.

And a part of the creature known as Slender Man.

President Snow's deep, cruel laugh was the final straw for Katniss. Screaming, she struggled her way out of the forest, half blinded with tears and the darkness of night. The trunks and branches surrounding her blurred into an unidentifiable mess and she quickly became completely lost, at last collapsing onto the roots of an ash tree and blacking out in a fit of despair.

"Katniss? Katniss?"

Someone was calling her.

"No! What do you want?" Katniss was certain it would be another ghost trying to torment her. Panicking, she struggled to her feet and opened her eyes to the dim morning light.

A figure stood before her. Recoiling, she looked up to find not a dead Tribute or an old friend, but her husband Peeta, looking just as human as she remembered him to be.

"P-peet…" her voice faltered as she began to cry.

"What happened, Katniss?" Peeta knelt down and hugged her, explaining that he had woken up back at the house to find that his wounds had healed and that she was missing. "I've been out here looking for you for an hour, at least," he said, stroking her hair as she cried onto the bloody front of his tattered shirt.

"I…couldn't save Annie. They took her. Peeta, i-it wasn't Finnick, it was…all of them. Snow controlled them all. I know I sound crazy, but…" Katniss broke into another fit of sobbing; only managing to cling to Peeta's shirt and breathe as slowly as she could make herself.

"It's okay, Katniss," Peeta consoled, "I…saw some crazy things myself."

Katniss savored the moment, unable to bring herself to tell Peeta about the exact nature of Annie's death. She couldn't make herself share such miserable things with the kindest, most optimistic person she knew.

But I'll always know what waits for me at the end of this life.

The end!

I hope you guys enjoyed it! I spent a lot of time getting it just right (a lot of time that should have been spent on my homework...oh, well.)

Thank you guys sooo much for reading! ;)