Katerina crawled along the branch again, her eyes glowing with emerald fire, rivaling the moonlight. It was only the second time Katerina had vistited Klara in her dreams, but it was already more vivid. Katerina stroked mountain lions silken fur, cooing softly. Klara was parylised, frozen in her nightmare, fully aware of what would happen next.

But this time, before Katerina raised her knife, Kyah's joshing voice sailed out.

"I'm going to kill you now."

Klara tried to scream, run, do anything, but it was futile. She was trapped, succumbed to the horror of her nightmare. There was no escape, no escape from her dream, no escape from the arena.

Katerina lifted her knife, holding it up for her and the cat to admire. As she brought it down, Klara readied herself for the inevitable crunch of her bone and flesh but instead was met with the sound of a cannon.

A cannon?

Katerina vanished, evaporated as Klara rejoined the waking world. Yes, that was definitely a cannon and it was close by.

Klara jolted, sprinting for the carreer's camp, God forbid they kill Aven without her. Her arm throbbed with its familiar pain, but Klara pushed away any thoughts.

She reached the clearing, panting with the effort of running through the thick snow. Kyah's once beautiful body lay crumpled over, scored with slices from what could only be a sword. Blood poured from every extent of her, she was dead, the cannon was for her.

Klara's eyes fully adjusted just as another cannon went off. A figure stood by the corner of the clearing, overtop of another.

The standing boy pulled his curved, snake-tongue blade out of Jaxton's lifeless chest.

Aven.

Klara stopped, hatred welling up inside of her. This was her chance, if Aven had been so arrogant to think that he didn't need Kyah and Jaxton to help him win the games, she would prove him wrong. Klara pulled out her knife, poised, and took careful, silent steps towards the boy, who just stood, facing the other way, watching the sun rise.

Halfway there, halfway towards Aven. She kept walking, careful not to shuffle her steps or snap any twigs.

All of a sudden Klara tripped, falling towards the ground, an originating from where her feet previously stood. Kyah's spear, she had tripped over Kyah's spear.

Klara kicked over herself, she just completely ruined her chances of sneaking up on Aven, he had already turned around and was squinting to make out who had been approaching him.

Then he figured it out. "Klara…? Klara!"

Klara stood up, this was her only chance, either she kill him or he kill her. She ran over, forgetting her knife on the ground and punched Aven directly in the nose, sending him falling backwards into the snow.

At that moment, she saw the arrow lodged in his chest.

"Klara…" Aven mumbled, there were tears in his eyes.

Klara felt no sympathy. "I was going to kill you, but now… I think I'm just going to watch."

Aven's breathing was starting to falter, the arrow had punctured his lung. "Klara, I'm so, so sorry."

"Save it."

"I'm sorry for Sahara, and Kyah and everything."

"Stop! You don't get to say sorry!" Klara yelled. "Not after what you did."

"I lied to you," Aven was full out crying now.

Klara laughed. "That's not all you did."

"My father, I told you he died in a work accident, but he wasn't the only one who died. My mother, my baby sister, they were both killed too," It was almost impossible to hear what he was saying, but Klara was listening intently, waiting for her chance to smash down his apology.

Aven continued. "They sent me away to the career training center, I had no one left. I wanted to go into the games to… protect someone… it was going to be Katerina, I had nothing to live for so I thought I'd help someone else, then… Then… I met you."

Klara paused, he was being honest, he knew he was going to die and now he was getting everything off his chest.

"At the academy, there's a lot of girls, bloodthirsty, killing girls. All they care about is the games, winning, being the best. They spend so much of their lives turning themselves into the perfect weapons that they never have a chance to live, do anything important."

Klara's own eyes were starting to well, but still she couldn't find any words.

"I had never met a girl like you. So honest, smart, innocent, trapped in a world of horror like a butterfly in an upturned glass. I wanted to protect you, save you, because I… I loved you… I killed them for you, Kyah and Jaxton, there's only one left now, you can get her, you can win," he was bawling, his strong chest shaking and wracked with sobs.

Klara couldn't move, all of his words were so sincere, so loving, and how did she repay him? Punching him in the face and confessing her hatred? It was all so wrong on her part; there was no way she could ever fix it.

"And… and… and…" Aven could barely breathe now, his seconds were numbered. "And… Sahara… she… I… I had to choose…"

"Shhh," Klara knelt down beside him, putting a finger to his lips, "I know, I understand, you're not a monster, you're… you're… perfect."

She kissed him, their lips connecting with an uncontrollable electricity. Aven's warm skin on hers one last time, one last kiss, one last breath.

And Aven was gone.

Klara's whole body shook with silent tears. Everything she had thought had been wrong, or was it right? Klara didn't know how she felt, it was all twisted, so twisted.

The games were so twisted, and it was about time they were over.

With all her remaining strength she left Aven's body, taking small, pained steps. She reached Kyah's spear and picked it up with her good arm, this weapon would be her best shot at her life. Today was the day she went home, whether it be District 7 or somewhere totally different.

Step.

I will win for you.

Step.

I will win for you.

Step.

I will win for Aven.

There was only one place that where she could find the girl from 11, the only place where she had ever seen her before and it was the water pipe. Klara had a vague idea of where she was going, but it didn't really matter, she would walk until she found it, or something else found her.

Finally the trees broke way to another clearing, Klara squinted, the sun in her eyes, but there was the pump, shining and polished, identical to how it had been before.

Just a few more steps. Klara walked, limping on her left side, her broken arm swollen and puffy from all her activity the past few days.

Klara scanned the trees, but found no sign of the girl in purple, so she lifted her hand and slammed her spear against the pipe, making a noise that would echo throughout the whole arena. Over and over, she hit the pipe, until the sound had no meaning, just another noise, just another day.

Before she had a chance to turn around to check behind her, the girl's knife lodged itself in Klara's back. Klara sucked in a breath of pain and turned slowly to face her assailant. There stood the girl in purple, unarmed and scared. She had thrown her knife, now it would come down to using her hands to kill Klara.

Klara just looked at the girl, she was small, about her size, with tanned skin and tanned hair. She was unnaturally thin, certainly because of the games and had sunken eyes the colour of amber. Innocent eyes.

Klara thought back to what Aven had said to her a few days prior, "So innocent, you don't deserve this."

He was right, she didn't deserve this. Neither did Aven, or Sahara. Katerina Bennet didn't deserve it, even Kyah and Jaxton had something to live for, their brutality was just sprung from their upbringing. The helpless little boy from her District had died before his time, completely undeserving of his wretched fate.

The girl from 11 didn't deserve the pain and suffering, she didn't deserve to die.

But it was the Hunger Games after all, fair was never a qualification.

Klara pulled together all of her might, lifted the spear like she had seen Kyah do only once before and threw it, using the momentum from her remaining body weight in her toss.

Mistake. Klara lost her balance and fell forwards towards the water pump.

Her head connected with the metal, making a noise just as loud as the spear had.

She blacked out before she saw where the spear landed.

Woah.

Yeah, just woah.

Don't worry, I'm not done yet :p

There will be one more chapter... in about a week :D

Enjoy the waiting ;D