Alternative Part- 35

Sleeping that night is rough. I find my special sleeping place- a bush with a hole dug under it for coverage. It's not brilliant, but I didn't want to be in the woods. Rue would see me and try to help me, I could do that, I couldn't take from her even if she wanted to help me, I couldn't ever take what I though she needed.

There are no trees around, so Rue wouldn't have been able to find me, it's a huge field with lots of different, strange foods that look like corn and grain. I only eat what I recognise, like grain and there are plenty of wild animals. I got ill from eating raw meat on my 3rd day but my pack has a first aid kit in it, containing pills that made me feel better.

I've been eating plenty, I can't help but think that each meal will be my last and that makes me eat more, encase I get into trouble and have to leave my hide out some time soon. For now, I don't have a plan. I need to figure out where Katniss might be from all I know about her.

I saw Rue by her several time during training but she never spoke to her directly I don't think. I kept an eye on Rue, she was great with a sling shot. It hurts to think that a week ago I was with her, promising to protect her in the arena. I didn't. I lied.

Katniss ignored her most of the time, I'm positive she wouldn't have even notice Rue if Peeta hadn't pointed her out, she was rude and asked what they could do about her. Nastily. It was me who used to think like that, me who ignored the tiny girl. Now she means everything to me, if she isn't here, I have nothing.

Now, I don't care who wins. Me, a Career, Lia, the red-haired girl from five who I didn't like. Far too bossy and smart for my liking. She beat me at the plants test and teased me that I was from agriculture and should know them. So I rudely informed her that I only got passed a bag and loaded it, I didn't care what it contained.

She can win. I'm sure she could, intelligent, very un-noticable compared to everyone else. I think she even got a seven in training but no one really noticed. She wasn't loud or quiet so nobody though there was something more to her.

Rue likes Peeta. Liked Peeta, so I want him to win the most. She smiled at him occasionally and judging by something she said, Rue knew more about Peeta and Katniss then she was letting on.

He wasn't lying though, that man was seriously in love with Katniss. Any idiot could see it which is why the careers couldn't and recruited him, they are idiots.

I try to navigate my way out of the corn fields, ending up in my grain field. I haven't got any idea where I am so I sit and drink some water. I've found very little water recently, the Capitol are trying to force me out to do some fighting. I'm thirsty but can't waste precious water.

It's hot in the day, I haven't got sunburn though, which is a good thing. The Capitol must have covered me in something to protect me from the sun, wouldn't look all that great if a tribute was bright run and hurting just to move.

To make sure I have some idea where I am, I find a decent stick and draw lines in the dirt with it, making a path to find my way.

I can't think about what they're telling me, it's too much. My family...gone? They can't be gone, I miss them so much. I know no body here, in my strange white room. I haven't been here for long, a week? A few days? It's hard to count days when you are passed out. I have tubes stuck into my arms and body that hurt.

I don't like them all, they don't let me feel. That's why I can't cry for my family, tears involve feeling pain. I want them back. Where are they? No one will tell me. They say they're in a better place but where exactly?

I pull out a tube from my wrist and watch the red liquid run down my arm, warm blood. I take my finger and cover it in blood, before turning and writing on the wall above my bed.

HELP

I hope someone sees it, I really need some help.

More grass and food that I have no clue about, it's getting dark now. I've never liked the dark like Bell did. She craved the dark, she said it stopped her seeing the bad things. To me that sounding ridiculous, if you know they are there why bother trying to cover it up?

Bell just laughed to me. Like always.

By dark, I am still lost but feel nearer to my destination.

The sky shows no deaths. No more deaths at all, I was rather hoping that I would be up there.

Soon, soon I will be.

Then trumpets starts to blow. This is new, trumpets show a announcement to the tributes that is usually a feast. That would be brilliant, I think brightly. A feast, what better place to die?

Claudius Templesmith's voice booms through the arena, giving us congratulations of making to the final six and then...then he says that two people from the same districts can win. My mind won't leave Rue, if she had lasted just one more day, we could have been together and gone home as one. We could have both survived.

It's too late now, for both of us.

This is good news for Clove and Cato, bad for Lia, I actually feel happy that there's a chance Peeta and Katniss can go home together. I may dislike Katniss but Rue was so sure that Peeta loves Katniss, so desperate to prove that he did that I want Rue to be right. She would have liked that.

Surely the districts will be celebrating in 2 and 12, for both children can come home to them. It's lonely in the arena, they now have a trusting ally and a partner to work with too, I wish I could have spoken to Rue one last time.

Bell had Melissa in the arena, Bell even died for her. That part of Bell didn't surprise me, she always would give anything to others no matter what the cost was to herself. I haven't seen Melissa since her Victory Tour.

It was really cold, snow fell to the ground and so many people had trampled on it that it had turned into slippery ice. She had a fluffy, fur coat on, the colour of the sky. I couldn't help look at it and think that it should be Bell's dress, Bell's spot to stand on the stage, her words that were stolen from her.

Not stolen, I remind myself, given. Bell gave her the win, the chance to escape.

Melissa stood proudly at the front of the stage and started her speak,

"I can't tell you how happy I am to be here, in 11. It is so wonderfully beautiful here, but cold! Well, I wouldn't be here, if it wasn't for my ally and friend, Bell. I know she was many of your friends too, you must have known her far better than I did, especially her family."

She gives me a soft look with her cool blue eyes.

"One of the things I know about Bell was that she was kind, caring and so lovely. She clean up my tears in the arena and always gave me the last of the food and I took them.. But I never should have let her take my knife, the one that should have killed me. For that, I can never forgive myself. I'm very sorry for all of your losses. I trusted her and I couldn't have asked for a better friend in the arena, I wish I had been a better friend to her and died in my own place. I wish I hadn't ran away and left her on her own or I wish I had stayed and died with her. Thank you Bell."

She looks up at the sky.

"You were far to perfect for this evil world."

A Peacekeeper forces it's way to the stage, and I watch him pull Melissa away. She gives me one last look, her eyes never leaving mine, as a knife slices through her throat.

That look of fear I had seen in her in the arena was gone, Melissa was no longer scared to die, she excepted it as she feel to knees, her hands pulled together. Then she falls to the stage's floor, and there is nothing behind her blue eyes.

As I stare at the Peacekeepers and the pool of blood surrounding her, all I can think is, that should have been Bell.

Later, it was broadcast that recently Melissa's family, her parents and two sisters had all perished in a tragic fire and had gone mad with grief that she had taken her life. Melissa had nothing. But she still choose to came and say thank you to Bell's family and friends, she must have wanted us to see how much she regrets living while Bell died. No one in 11 was allowed to speak of it, or dared to with panic of being overheard.

So no one ever spoke about the Victor again.