I heard a cannon go off.
My body was becoming heavier. Clove was gone. She wasn't coming back with me. This whole time I was hoping for someone else to kill her before I had to, but the rules changed. Clove and I would have won together.
I should have gone with her. I should have stayed by her side. I should have been the one to die. She didn't deserve this.
This wasn't a game. We were all being lined up for slaughter. The arena was a way to get some entertainment out of the punishment. We were all dead from the beginning. From the moment their names were picked up. I was stupid enough to volunteer.
I didn't want to go home.
I was back to the meadow.
I walked across. Suddenly the sky turned from orange to navy.
I was hungry and tired. I didn't have a purpose anymore, but I was too weak to kill myself.
Howls grew louder as the sky darkened even more. They created something. A mutated creature to kill us all. In all honesty, I didn't mind much.
I ran towards the meadow, but it was too dark to really know where I was going.
I was going to go up on the cornucopia and hope these things wouldn't be able to reach me.
Another cannon went off. I looked up to the dark sky. Thresh's face looked down on me.
If I still cared, I would be excited to see his face up there, but I don't care anymore.
The two from Twelve were still alive. I needed to kill them. They couldn't just win and be happy. That's not how this works.
Suddenly a dog looking thing came up from the bushes. It was huge. No more than five feet taller than me.
My face stung from its claws skidding across it.
I took another hit to the jaw. The pain was paralyzing.
I felt the pressure of its paw collapsing my chest. My ribs were bending into my lungs. My head was feeling light. I had to go on. I kill the others.
The thing's mouth was open and ready to consume my head.
I took the machete, shaking in my hands, and hit its throat.
The mutated dog fell beside me and my machete was stuck under its large body. I tried to take it out but it wouldn't budge.
It was the only weapon I had. It was gone.
I ran faster to the meadow.
The metallic taste was becoming more intense in my mouth.
I coughed and the blood splattered into my hand.
I kept moving, ignoring the stabbing pain.
I saw it. The cornucopia was already occupied.
Peeta was there. Alive. So was Katniss.
I climbed up onto the cornucopia. She was inches away from me. I could kill her right now.
I slammed her to the ground. She gripped onto my hands, but she wasn't strong enough.
Suddenly he grabs me. I'm thrown across the cornucopia. My broken ribs consume my every thought after their jostled by the throw.
He comes up to punch me, but I hit him first. He goes down.
I walk over to her. I easily pick her up and have her pinned down again. My arm suffocates her. Behind, I see the mutts trying to reach for her head. Her face is turning red. I've almost got her.
Peeta has me again, but I quickly turn and throw him across.
I grab his jaw. I have him in a head lock.
Her arrow is aimed at me.
"Go on," I yell to her, "shoot."
I wanted to die. With all this pain and Clove's death, I wanted it all to end.
I can barely talk with the blood pooling in my mouth, "and we both go down and you win."
My lungs are about to collapse, "go on."
He squirms in my arms, but I still hold tight, "I'm dead anyway."
I'm too young. I'm only sixteen and that's all there will be of me.
Clove appears in my head. She was dead from the start too. Every word I say is a stab to my chest, "I always was, right?"
"I didn't know that 'til now," I'm crying, but I don't know what it's from. Is it the pain or is it because I'm dying? My life is over. I don't know what's going to happen after this.
"How's that? Is that what they want, huh?" I yell to the sky. The people watching must be on the edge of their seats. They want me to die. They want the lovers to have a happy ending, but there are no happy endings. The odds are never in your favor.
She has her arrow now aimed at my head.
"Huh?" I laugh at her. She wants me dead, but her poor Peeta is still struggling in my hands.
He starts pushing harder. My grip tightens even more, " No. I can still do this."
"I can still do this," I manage to say again.
"One more kill," I move my hand onto the back of his head. In a second he'll be dead.
"It's the only thing I know how to do," I tell her.
"Bringing pride to my district," I make fun of my younger, stupid self.
"Not that it matter," I was dead after all. My district will forget about me. I'll be a forgotten tribute. My parents will get nothing. My brothers will only have memories to hold onto, memories that will fade with time.
She lets go. The arrow goes through my hand. He kicks me down.
I lay on the ground unable to get up. My body is shutting down.
Now the mutts are coming towards me.
I try to get up, but it's no use.
I'm dead.
The teeth grab onto my abdomen and rip it open. I've never felt this pain before.
I'm in a nightmare, "Please!"
I want to die. I want to get out of this.
My breaths are getting heavy.
My leg is gone. I can't feel it anymore.
I look down. There's an arrow threw my chest, but I can't feel it.
I can't feel anything.
She's there. Clove's there. She is coming to me.
We can go home.
It's all over.
We can go home together.
