Disclaimer: I (still) don't own Glee or The Hunger Games.

Note: Well it's two-on-one now, so this can only end well, I feel…or will it? Oh, the suspense of this story must (not) be killing you by now since I'm obviously not going to kill off our narrator. And to the anon reviewer (Liz), I am not writing a sequel.

Eliminated: Kurt.

Chapter 25

"What day is it?" I ponder aloud.

"Twelve," Cameron says with certainty.

"Oh wow." I never thought I'd live twelve minutes, let alone twelve days. "I still can't believe I'm here. Not just here, alive, but here, with you."

"I know," he murmurs. "But we are not safe until Puck is dead. You have not seen all that he can do. When you were hiding those first few days, I saw him snap the neck of one of the girl tributes with his bare hands. He killed her, Damian, just like that. And I do not think he will stop until we are both dead."

"I'll take him down," I say fiercely. "I'll take him down for you. I won't let him get to you, Cameron, to us."

He puts a hand on my shoulder, and all the rage that had been pent-up inside of me subsides. "No," he says. "I will not allow you to do this by yourself. We will both take him down, together."

I take in a deep breath and let it out. "Okay. Okay. When?"

"Tonight," Cameron narrows his eyes in determination.

I gulp. Tonight? That's too soon! I'm not ready! What if I die trying to destroy him?

What if Cameron dies?

What if I have a direct hand in Puck's murder, and then I continue to live? I would have to live with that for the rest of my life, that I killed a man.

Even if it is for my survival.

Even if it is to save the man I love.

I am not ready for Death to beckon me yet. I want to run away with Cameron, to try to find this District Thirteen, to live with him for the rest of our lives. I know this is improbable, but I don't care. Improbable is not the same as impossible.

"I love you," I tell him. "And I don't…I can't…watch you die."

"And you think I can watch you die? No. I would rather die a thousand deaths than have you die one."

I turn away from him. "What do you think happens…you know?"

"After one dies?" I nod, not wanting to look at his face. "I do not know. Nobody knows. Perhaps our souls fly away from our bodies and attach themselves elsewhere. Perhaps when one person dies, another person is born, and the deceased is, in turn, reborn. When Lindsay died, did you notice anything?"

"It was as if the…the fight…it just…left her eyes," I mumble. "She looked so…peaceful. I can't really describe it."

"You told me she died in your arms." I flinch; does he really have to bring this up right now, right here? "Did she feel any…lighter?"

I shrug. "I wasn't really focused on that, to be honest."

"I don't blame you," he says. He wraps his arms around my waist. "But I promise, I am not going anywhere without you."

My breath hitches in my throat. "You promise me this?"

He kisses the back of my neck, the top of my head, the top of my thin collarbone. "Yes," he murmurs in my ear. "I promise this to you." A low sob escapes my throat before I can stop it, and he hears. "What is the matter?"

"I'm scared," I choke out.

"Of what?" He strokes my hair soothingly. "Of dying?"

Do I dare tell him the truth? "Of…living without you."

He pauses. "You will not have to," he says softly.

I whirl around. "Even if—by some miracle—we get out of here alive, both of us, you will return to Seven and I to Ten. We may never get to see each other again."

"This is so," he reasons. "But I'd rather die tonight or tomorrow than live a hundred years without having known you." He looks over my shoulder. "It is getting dark. We best be going now."

I take one last look around our cave. At the spot we first kissed. At the spot where I knew I loved him. My home for past eight days. "Let's go."

I follow him silently down the mountain trail, making absolutely sure to not be seen or heard. Cameron holds up a finger to warn me to keep still, and I do, the both of us listening intently. We wander out into the meadow.

What was that? I'm positive I heard a noise. Cameron cocks his head to the side, his eyes focused and alert. I don't know if he, too, has heard what I heard, but he sure is looking and listening for something.

I smell the smoke before I see the flames.

Cameron says something unrepeatable, and I instinctively move closer to him for protection. "Cameron…how are we gonna get out?"

He sniffs the air. "It is spreading away from us, which is the good news."

I hold my breath. "What's the bad news, then?"

"So we meet at last." I spin around to see Puck advancing on us. "I was wondering when I'd meet you, Damian McGinty. I've wanted you dead since the beginning, and when you kept escaping, I got more and more frustrated. But now, I have you just where I want you." He eyes Cameron, hungry for blood. "And you've brought a friend along! How fun for me." He sneers at us. I don't immediately spot any weapons on him, which is a good sign.

The bad sign is that the fire seems to have changed directions, and it's crawling towards us. The Game-Makers must want to wrap this up. It's obvious that this is all their doing, that they created this fire in hopes of getting rid of at least one of us, if not two.

Me and Cameron, I'll bet.

Puck circles us, and Cameron grabs hold of me without thinking of it. "Oh, what do we have here? You, loser from Ten, have fallen in love with him?" His laugh is cruel and cold. "Your precious Cameron isn't all who you think he is. He killed Kurt, you know."

"I know, and I don't care," I spit.

"So I see you don't keep secrets," he continues circling. "Go on, tell me. You were bold enough to tell Panem that you hate the Games. Surely you're bold enough to tell me where you've been hiding this whole time."

The flames are getting closer. Maybe if I can just reason with him… "In the forest at first," I tell him, "And then in the mountains."

Realization flickers in his eyes. "You're the one who killed Quinn," he says slowly.

"Yes…I mean, no! I mean, yes I was there when she died, but I didn't kill her!"

His dark brown eyes are dangerous. "You killed her!" He lunges towards me, and Cameron shields me with his body.

"If you intend on hurting him, you are going to have to hurt me first."

Puck looks at me, then at Cameron, and then back at me. "Alright," he shrugs. He lunges for us again.

"Damian, run!" Cameron yells, shoving me away from him. I am frozen, paralyzed. I see the fire coming closer and closer. One of them will surely die. I can't let Cameron die. I really just can't. "Damian, please, save yourself," he insists.

And, because I love him, I run.

And, because I care about him more than I care about myself, I run.

Into the flames, I run.

"Damian, NO!" Cameron screeches, throwing his body over mine. Puck leaps over both of us. How is he not getting burned alive?

"It all ends here," he says. "It all…ends…here."

I close my eyes. Oh, Death, rock me to sleep now and take me in your arms.

Cameron, fueled by the task of keeping me alive, the promise he made to me, kicks Puck in the stomach, hard, propelling him backwards into the flames, which surround him.

He screams as they burn his skin, taking no mercy on their prisoner.

Boom.

Cameron drags me away from there, far away. I am exhausted and am half-asleep as he carries me in his arms up the mountain trail and back to our cave.

"I promised you I would not let you die," he whispers as I drift to sleep. "And I never, ever break a promise."

To be continued…