A/N: Thanks to Oxenstierna D. Yuki-Rin, mnagesboy01, Klicker'andKash and PrincessLyoka for reviewing the last chapter!

This chapter's been written by PrincessLyoka. I hope that you all enjoy it :)

"Been gone a long time

I kinda lost my way, I can't find it

And I caught a short ride

To the grave and back this season

I can try to get by

But every time I start to panic

I'm a little bit shy

A bit strange and a little bit manic."

-Mark Hoppus, 2011.

The 89th Annual Hunger Games

Stewa Helms (16), District 8 Female

Blink 182 - Wishing Well (2011)

30…29…28…

My legs still shaking, my stomach in knots.

25…24…23…

I can see my 12-year-old district partner, Torre, a desert behind him. His great amber eyes looking right at me. I pity him. Ever since he stepped up on stage. He isn't going to win.

20…19…18…

I have to move quickly. This arena is divided into four sections: desert, forest, snowy forest, and a great flat wheat plain. Hiding in the desert or the plain seems more impossible than ever. Maybe one of the forests, the verdant one, because I hate being cold. It looks warm enough.

15…14…13…

The countdown returns to me, back into the Games. Enough spectating the arena. I'll never be able to see the whole thing if I don't move out of here quickly.

11…10…9…

My heart beats quickly. I see the closest pack to me on the ground, a small dark green one about 20 yards away, perfectly matching the leaves of the trees behind me. I know that if I get it then I'll nearly blend in. But the boy from District 4 is to the right of me, a great lumberjack of a person, his eyes trained on a nearby trident. If he gets that and spins around, I'm dead.

3…2…1…

The gong sounds. I sprint as fast as I can to the backpack in a matter of seconds. It was slightly open and a knife spills out. I grab it up just as the boy from Four picks up his trident and lunges it into the small girl from District 6 who didn't even know he was he sees me and runs straight towards my direction.

Fear spits into my brain. I turn to run but a thought passes through me. A kill gets me sponsors. Even better if it's a Career with a better weapon than me. That's what I'll do.

Just as I turn back around, the boy from Four barrels at me. I jump out the way and give a squeal of fright. The boy turns back to me like one of the Capitol's trains, unstopping just taking a sharp turn, and points the trident at me. I move out the way and shove the knife into the boy's direction but miss.

The worst mistake anyone could make.

Another boy just ran between us, trying to escape the bloodbath, and my knife caught his head. He screams as he loses his footing. Then the twelve-year-old looks up at me with dying amber eyes.

Its Torre.

I pull out the knife and run. I couldn't take it. I was stupid to think I should take part of the bloodbath anyway! So stupid!

I don't stop running as I flee into the forest. I can hear the cries and screams of the bloodbath behind me slowly fade as I get distance. I can only hope no one is behind me. But that is least in my mind if I can only think the awful thought.

I killed Torre.

Finally after what seems like forever, I stop and fall. before slowly crawling to the closest tree. I don't cry or scream or gasp for breath. Instead, I look at the bloody knife in my hands.

I got sucked into the Hunger Games, something I didn't want to do, and look what it caused me! Torre's dead, only a face in the sky now, because I was stupid! To think I could take on a brutal eighteen-year-old! Not to think of anything else! Not even my own safety! Just sponsors!

Torre was nothing to me but a poor reaped twelve-year-old I didn't know! I already pitied him, knew he was going to die, but not in my own hands! District 8 would shame me, reject me, because I murdered my own district partner! Torre's family would be angry at me! Mom and Dad would be scarred!

Not like I'm going to win anyway. I look at the knife and think of a risky idea. I don't want to be part of the Hunger Games anymore. It would be so simple to end it all right here, right now. I turn the knife over and over in my hands. I have complete power, the power to end it all, makes me shake as I raise the blade towards my neck.

Suddenly a close scream echoes through the arena. I open my eyes and see a 15-year-old girl trample over her own feet about a few yards from me. I remember her. She got a six in training, the same as me, and was really small and useless with that twisted foot. I pitied her.

The girl has no weapon, only a few things wrapped in a small sheet of blue plastic. They spill everywhere as she falls: a small water bottle, a loaf of bread, and a rope. The water bottle rolls to my tree. I set my fingers on it, my gaze falling to the bottle.

The girl looks up at me, her gray eyes open with fright. She looks too small to be fifteen, maybe even thirteen at the most, but defiantly fearful. She shakes her head and begs, "Don't kill me, don't kill me, please!"

I set my knife down onto my thigh. I don't want to kill her. I'll be allies. I can't kill anymore.

"Allies?" I asked.

The girl looks confused.

"For real," I said and held out my empty hand.

The girl stands to her knees and holds out a hand. I grasp it and shake. The strange thing is that her hand is strong and firm. I'm thinking a Career District but, its strange…

"I'm Stewa. District 8. Where you from?" I ask.

"Grannabey, District Fourteen," the girl says. "Or Two. I was…"

"I heard something about some people in District Two being relocated to the new coal-mining District."

Grannabey nods. "I was nine then. My parents wanted to redeem Two so I was secretly trained. But we moved. Besides, my mom said I grew too small and my foot twisted. Never healed right."

I stand up. Grannabey stands too. She's actually a few inches under me, but she still seems short. A bit muscular, meaning I should keep my eye out.

"Then you can help me with some things," I say. "But we should be moving."

Grannabey agrees and we walk away. We haven't gotten far when we heard the cannons.

"Seven…eight…nine…ten…eleven," Grannabey counts. "Eleven dead, thirteen left."

I don't tell her that I killed my own District Partner. I never want to bring it up again.

Grannabey seems really smart. She uses my knife to whittle a tiny spear for herself out of one of the trees and dig deeper in for the soft, inner bark for food. I know she is originally from Two, a Career district, the district responsible for the most brutal tributes of them all. I'm not sure whether trust her. I decide that I'll be keeping a close watch on her for now.

Night settles in. Under the canopy of leaves, it gets very dark. My ally and I lean on different sides of the same tree, share the little bit of food we have, and watch the death recap. The girl from District 2, both from Districts 3 and 5, the boy from Six, the girl from Seven , Torre, both from District 9 and the boy from District 11.

"I'll keep watch," Grannabey offers as I grow tired.

"No, I will," I say. I had a feeling she would murder me in my sleep. I'm seriously thinking that I've picked up an untrustworthy ally.

"Alright," Grannabey huffs. She leans against the tree and closes her eyes.

The world around me becomes eerie in the surrounding darkness. I think of Torre and the reactions back in District 8 but switch my mindset to the decision of if I should live or not. If it wasn't for Grannabey I'd most likely be dead by now, but I still can't decide whether to end it all or not. For now, I'm in limbo.

I watch the night for a while, all night, keeping myself awake by chewing on blades of grass. I can't trust this girl. I won't let myself doze off and her to get up to kill me. I deserve it, for killing Torre. But Grannabey would have to be punished if she killed me. But whoever kills her need to be punished… and everyone else...

My mind is fuzzy when I realize sunlight is here. Grannabey is just about to wake when I've made up my mind.

I should not die. Not yet. Its the Hunger Games. People die, unpunished, usually.

I grab my knife, exhausted from staying up all night. After I'm finished with my untrustworthy ally, I'll sleep in a tree. Refreshed I'll be the tribute I was reaped to me.

I turn to Grannabey, whom's eyes has just opened. She screams when I shove her into the tree and press the blade of my knife to her throat.

"I should not die yet," I mutter.

Grannabey, caught off guard and simply overpowered, is dead in a matter of seconds, a bloody gash across her throat.

The same day, the boy from District 7 killed the girl from Six. However he soon found himself confronted by the Careers. He killed the girl from District 4, but ultimately fell due to a sword wound to his chest, bringing the field down to to nine.

On the third day, Stewa had a run in with the allies of the girls from Districts 10 and 11 in the desert. She killed the girl from Eleven before the girls knew she was there. After the girl from District 10 begged for mercy, Stewa made another temporary alliance with the girl as the number of players was reduced to eight.

The fourth day featured no deaths, but the Career Alliance split. Although there were no deaths, two of the surviving Careers were injured; the girl from District 1 and the boy from Two.

On day five, the Gamemakers drove the majority of the tributes in the desert section of the arena into a chase with their sand-colored, alligator-like mutts, only killing the slow-moving girl from District 10 and the injured boy from District 2.

A feast was called for nightfall on the sixth day, where the Gamemakers deceived tributes into arriving for a sole, rather worthless prize - a watermelon. Only Stewa and the boys from Districts 1 and 4 attended. Due to the lack of tributes, the Gamemakers sent in their mutts. The boy from Four and Stewa retreated as the boy from District 1 became a feast for the hungry mutts. Stewa chased down the boy from District 4 and killed him before he got any closer to where the girl from 1 (who was now allied with Stewa in place of the girl from 10) was guarding their supplies, bring filed down to four.

On the seventh day, the Gamemakers drove all the tributes together to the cornucopia. Mutts guarded the outside circle, making escape impossible. The boy from District 14 killed the girl from District 1 early on in the final battle and Stewa killed the boy from Ten. The final two fought it out until Stewa was able to shove the boy from 14 into the perimeter of mutts, crowning her the victor of the 89th Annual Hunger Games.

A/N: If you enjoyed this chapter, please review for PrincessLyoka! :)

P.S. I've already gathered quite a bit of support for the idea of all of us writers becoming tributes in the Quell. Anyone else willing to volunteer themselves as a tribute for the Fourth Quarter Quell? :)