~Annie~

I fell asleep at the base of a tree on the bank and woke up to the sound of leaves rustling. My eyes shoot open and I sit up straight. I sit with my back pressed against the tree trunk and I wipe the moist dirt from my face. I look around for the source of the noise but I don't see or hear anything. I swallow hard and look out towards the water. I realize how thirsty I am but I also realize that I don't have a way to sanitize the water. I stand up slowly and all my muscles ache. I glance down at my arms and see they are speckled with dried blood. I close my eyes and try to forget the pain coming from all over my body. I hear the rustling again and open my eyes. I walk away from the tree and the rustling stops. My eyes search the ground and the area around me but I see nothing. I shrug and focus on finding sticks to make a fire to sanitize the water. After a few minutes I find good sticks but then I realize it's not smart to build a fire because I could be spotted by other tributes. I sit back down at the base of the tree and look up at the sky. I let my mind wander off to Finnick. I think about what he could be doing at this very moment.

~Finnick~

I wake up next to Sylvia and I see her head is resting on my chest. We both still have nothing on and I want to get up and change so I can go give Annie her medicine. I sigh softly and kiss Sylvia's forehead gently "Sylvia, I need to go is there any chance that I can get up and get that money?"

Sylvia purrs and sits up "why do you have to go so soon?" She takes one of her hands and gently traces circles on my chest with her long red painted finger nails.

I swallow hard "I told you Sylvia. Annie is hurt and she needs medicine as soon as she can get it."

Sylvia huffs "Finnick why does it sound like you care for this girl? You're usually not in this big of a hurry to leave me." She leans down and kisses my lips. Her lips taste salty and I want to scream and push her off. Small strands of her hair have fallen out of her sloppy bun and they fall down onto my face. She continues to kiss me and her hands run across my chest. I groan and break the kiss.

I whisper "Sylvia please. Please just let me go."

Sylvia sits up and slaps my face hard "fucking idiot choosing some stupid lousy girl from home over time with me." She gets up from the bed and walks over to a dressor. She rummages around until she finds a wad of cash. She throws it at me "get out. I don't ever want you to stop by again and dont think Im not telling Snow." I swallow hard and grab the cash. I sit up and slip on my clothes before dashing out the door. I catch a cab car that will take me back to Mags and the rest of the mentors. I rush into the building and run up to the level where all the tvs are positioned so the mentors can watch the games. I search all the screens until I find the one focused on Annie. She seems to be fine for now just sitting up against the tree. I breathe a sigh of relief before running up the stairs to another level where you can turn the cash into supplies. I rush over to the desk where a small Capitol woman is sitting behind it.

"Hello can I help you?"

"Yes please! I would like to deposit this money into Annie Cresta's account. I want to send her a container of healing medicine by parachute."

the woman takes the money and deposits it into a small box on the desk. Numbers flash on the transparent screen and I see Annie's picture pop up next to the numbers. The woman looks up "alright your order is placed."

I nod "thank you."

I turn to leave and I notice Mags. She looks concerned. I try to walk past her without saying anything but she catches my hand

"FInnick what happened? Why is your face red?"

I try to hold back tears "It's nothing just please let me go. I need to go take a shower."

Mags shakes her head "no Finnick tell me what happened."

I sigh and look around not really wanting to share if any other mentors were around. I don't see anyone so I tell Mags the truth.

"I went to go see one of my clients to get money for Annie and she got upset when I said I needed to leave. She slapped me and told never to come back." I gulp "Mags she also threatened that she would tell Snow on me. I think she figured out that Annie and I love each other." I look around warily before continuing "she told me she could tell I had feelings for her."

Mags closes her eyes and takes her hand from my arm so she could put it on her forehead like she was suffering from a major headache.

I whisper "I'm sorry Mags i've probably just endangered everyone I love." Mags starts to say something but before she could I breeze past her and i'm running down the steps. I leave the building and walk all the way back to the tribute quarters. Once I get in the elevator I let the tears come. The Avox that normally helps me with the elevator doesn't even reach out to help she just lets me do my own thing. I run into the room and strip off my clothes. I turn the shower on and let the water run for a minute. I step into the shower and the warm water rushes over me. The drops sting my face a little and I can tell I will be getting a bruise there by tomorrow. I wince and take my shower as quickly as I can.

~Annie~

I am inspecting the water when I hear the noise. The small ping that can only be from a parachute. I jump up and to my delight I see a small parachute falling down from the sky. It lands next to the tree and I struggle to open it as quickly as I can. I crack open the container and the message falls to the ground but I don't care because I want to see what i've been given. I open the lid and give it a sniff. I smile and whisper "healing medicine." I look up toward the sky and mouth "thank you" to Finnick. I quickly dip my hand into the container and get some of the medicine. I spread it on my arms and I immediately feel the burn. I grit my teeth and bite my lip as the pain travels up my arms. I start to cry out but I remember where I am and I force myself to stop. I wait a minute and the pain died down a good amount. I am about to splash some water on my face when I remember the note. I lean down and set the medicine on the base of the trunk before I start looking for the small slip of paper. I find it tucked underneath a leaf and I pick it up. I read it and to my surprise it doesn't say anything that would hint it's from Finnick. All it says is "healing medicine use it well." I frown and let the paper fall from my hands and back to the ground. I was about to pick up the rest of the medicine when I hear screaming coming from the trees that are close to me. I don't bother picking up the medicine and instead hide behind the tree. My foot accidentally hits the medicine bottle and it plops into the water. I gasp "NO!" I clasp my hand over my mouth and I watch as my only hope is washed down the river. I was about to jump in the water after it when I feel someone grab me and pull me back. I scream and thrash around. I know whoever it is must want me alive because if it was someone who wanted me dead they would have done so already. The voice suddenly says "shhhh!" I recognize the voice as being female and I stop. Suddenly I'm dropped to the ground and I recognize the face looking down at me.

"Marley!? What are you doing? What happened to Daniel?"

She smirks "I killed him I hope you don't mind."

Even though Daniel had tried to kill me and I hated him part of me did feel sorrow because he was the only other person in the arena that was from home. I shake my head and whisper "no." I swallow hard "what are you doing here?"

She sits looks around as if to check for other tributes and then whispers "after I killed Daniel I ran back to the stone center to see if I could get more supplies and I was able to eavesdrop on the careers that are camped out there."

I nods "and?"

"I heard they are planning a major tribute kill fest tomorrow. They already know the locations of all the other tributes including you so once I heard your location I came to get you."

I whisper "that makes sense. I heard a noise earlier and it must have been one of them that I heard earlier making that rattling noise in the bushes."

Marley nods "probably." She looks around for a moment and then looks back at me "we need to get moving. I suggest we go further into the woods and look for food. Do you have a weapon?" I shake my head and Marley nods "I figured." She hands me a knife from her pack and helps me stand up. We start to walk deeper into the woods and she sighs. "This would be a nice walk if only we weren't walking for the sake of saving our lives." I want to laugh at her joke but I can't. She notices my arms and frowns "what happened?"

I sigh "when I was running from Daniel I got cuts on my arms from the trees hitting me. I did have medicine but when you grabbed me I accidentally kicked it into the water and it washed away."

Marley gasps "oh Annie i'm sorry."

I shake my head "no it's alright don't feel guilty." We continue for a little ways in silence. I listen to the sound of our footsteps hitting the leaves and it soothes me a little to know I have an ally in these games. Finally after we have walked for about an hour we stop.

Marley looks around "I think we have gone far enough and I am afraid if we go much further we will hit the edge of the forcefield."

I shiver at the thought of getting killed because I ran into a invisible wall.

Marley slings her bag down against the trunk of a tree and sits down. I sit down next to her and my stomach grumbles. "I hate to ask but do you have any food?"

Marley shakes her head "sorry but I don't. We will just have to be on the lookout for something."

I nod and yawn. Marley yawns too and jokingly punches my arm "hey don't you know yawns are contagious."

I laugh softly "sorry."

She smiles "it's okay I was joking." I looked up into the sky and noticed the sky was changing quickly. "I guess the game makers are ready for night time."

Marley shrugs "when are they not? Im sure they know what the careers have planned for tomorrow."

After about five minutes the sky is pitch black and the anthem starts playing. All the tributes faces are projected into the sky and when Daniels face appears I feel slightly doesnt take long to move on to the next tribute and my sadness is lost. I count 14 tributes in all. So that means 10 are left. I look over and see that Marley has already fallen asleep so I relax and it doesn't take me long to do the same thing.

~Finnick~

I get out of the shower and rather than go back to watch the games I just decide to stay in bed. I slip into comfortable pajamas and slip under the covers of the large comfy mattress. Part of me hopes that Mags will come looking for me so I can cry on her shoulder and tell her all of my problems. Millions of things race through my head.

I think about how Annie is going to survive and how I love her more than anything. I think about how i'm terrified that Sylvia truly will go to Snow and Annie or I will be punished for loving each other. Sometimes I really hated myself for being able to get into these situations. I close my eyes tight and try to block out the voices telling me i've failed Annie and i've failed myself.

~Annie~

I wake up the next morning to see that Marley is awake and is searching the leaves intensely.

"What are you doing?"

She puts a finger to her lips and moves some leaves with her foot.

I watch closely and before I could blink I see a knife that she had hidden in her hand trust towards the ground. I hear a small squeal and then a triumphant "yes" from Marley.

She looks up at me "I caught something!"

I smile and walk over half expecting to see a rabbit or a squirrel. To my surprise it's nothing more than a tiny mouse. I wrinkle my nose "you're going to eat a mouse?"

Marley nods "i'm starving don't you want some?"

I shake my head "no thanks I would rather starve then eat a mouse."

Marley frowns "okay then."

I sit back down by the tree "how do you plan to eat it?"

"I found wood to make a fire."

"No you can't make a fire! It would send out smoke that would give away our location!"

Marley frowns "damn I didn't think about that."

I open my mouth to say something else when Marley's face suddenly loses the color and she shouts "Annie look out!"

I turn and duck just in time to see Carrie the female tribute from 2 loading her bow and shooting directly at me. She grunts when it misses me and hits the tree behind me. Suddenly I remember the knife that Marley gave me and I pull it out from the pocket in my pants.

I hear a scream and I look up and see Marley running at Carrie with a knife in hand. Carrie drops her bow and pulls out a knife as well. The two seem to do a dance and occasionally throw a swipe at each other. I was too busy watching them to see the mae tribute, Leo, from district 2 creeping up behind me. He grabs me and I scream. My knife falls to the ground and I try to bite his arm so he will release me. As i'm struggling to get away I hear the cannon go off and I look over to see if Carrie or Marley are dead. I hear the cannon again and again totalling 3 in a row. I turn my head enough to see marley and Carrie are still fighting. Carrie appears to have a new wound across her face and I can see Marley is holding her upper thigh with her free hand. Leo growls "stop struggling little girl." I stomp on his feet and he howls and lets me go. I scramble and grab the knife that I dropped and before I had time to rethink my actions I stand up and launch myself at him. The knife sinks into his flesh and I hear a scream from Carrie.

"ANNIE YOU EVIL B-" her words are cut off by Marley who takes advantage of her distracted gaze and stabs her in the back. She falls over and the cannon sounds twice. Marley and I look at each other not sure what to do next. We are both shaken up beyond repair and the mouse is forgotten about. Marley whispers "let's go we can't stay here." She starts to run down through the woods back towards the river. I follow her my mind racing the entire time. We run as fast as we can and I could see the river ahead when it happened. Out of nowhere a trap snapped up Marley's ankle. She collapses to the ground and screams out in pain. "Annie help me! Please help me!" I don't know what to do but I lean down next to her and inspect her ankle. It looks like the poisonous barbs are dug in deep and I shake my head. "Marley I don't know what to do i'm sorry." I sniffle "I don't know how to help! I'm so useless!" Marley grits her teeth and shakes her head "no Annie you're not useless. Here take my backpack and get out of here. If you cant help me then I won't survive."

She groans and tears start to fall down her cheeks "just go please. Go!" I grab her backpack and sling it over my shoulders. I whisper "thank your Marley for everything." I see the lost look in her eyes and I know the poison in the barbs of the trap is already almost done killing her. I get up and run towards the river. Once I get there I step on a rock and loose my balance. I fall in the water and for a minute I struggle to get my footing but when I do I run as fast as I can in the clearing. My mind is set on getting to the stone center. I need food and I need it fast and the only place that I know where to get it is the stone center.

I realize how dangerous this mission for food is but I don't care. I need to win so I can be reunited with Finnick. That is when I hear the cannon. The cannon that means my friend is dead and only 4 tributes remain.