"Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering - and it's all over much too soon."

- Woody Allen

Promise Hawk, District Ten (15)

"Promise?"

"Depends on what it is," I say with my eyes still closed. It's the usual way Rory wakes me up, and the usual way I respond.

"Hilarious. Promise, we've got trouble."

Kid probably can't get a water bottle open. "Mmm?"

"Ember is gone."

I'm on my feet and fully awake in about two seconds. "What time is it?"

He looks up at the cloudy sky, taking in the location of the sun. "Seven."

"When did we fall asleep?"

"Ten."

I curse under my breath, scanning the surrounding area for any sign of blood or a fight. "She could be on the other side of the arena by now."

"She isn't dead, at least. We would've heard the cannon."

"Are you sure?" I grab Rory by the shoulders and lean down to look him in the eye. "Are you sure?"

"Well, the cannons are loud, we'd have to have been really deep asleep to not hear-"

"We were! We stayed up all day finding a good place to camp, somewhere that wouldn't be found because everyone would probably go to the forest, and we were exhausted after we stayed up for the deaths in the sky, and we could've slept through a brass band, and I'm hyperventilating right now aren't I Rory?"

"Yes." He pushes me into a sitting position against a tree and feels my pulse. "Okay, calm down. You won't be any use if you panic."

"But-"

"Breathe slowly."

"But she's-"

"Take nice, deep breaths."

"But she's right-"

"In, out. In, out. I'll get the medical kit."

"Ember is right there, Rory!"

"Oh." He turns around. "Hi, Ember."

She looks at us weirdly. "And Promise is panicking...why?"

"You were gone."

I stand up and stalk over to her. I grow a few inches to look down at her. "What were you thinking? You were on watch. I don't care what you were doing, you could have woken me up first!"

"I was going to the bathroom. I only took two minutes. And please don't yell. My power gave me really sensitive ears, and it hurts when you're loud."

"You don't understand! I worried about you, and I thought you could've died, and I'm sick and tired of everything, and I don't want to lose you!"

To mutual astonishment, I begin to cry. I don't cry.

Rory pats me on the shoulder, the highest place he can reach. "It's okay. It's okay. Promise, please stop crying. You're okay."

"I d-don't care," I sob. "I want to go home."

"I'm sorry, Prom," Ember says. She helps me sit down again and leans her head on my shoulder. "I didn't mean to scare you."

"I know. I'm s-sorry if I'm hurting y-your ears."

"It's okay. Don't worry. I won't let anything happen to you. I won't let you die."

"Th-that's supposed to help?! You know that would mean you dying?" I cry harder, and a wave of nausea swells up in me. I turn my head and throw up in the snow.

"Oh no. Oh cripes. That sucks. Here, I'm sorry." Rory scoops up a handful of snow. "You can clean your mouth with this."

"Rory, I'm getting a bad feeling about this," Ember says.

"What else is there to have a bad feeling about?" Rory snaps. "Promise is having some kind of panic attack, and you did a lot of good to start it."

"No, but I don't think it's just a panic attack." She tests my pulse. "Isn't this really, really panicky? Does Promise ever have panic attacks? Does she ever even cry?"

"No." Rory nods. "You're right. She never does."

"She is feeling very sick and left out from your conspiring!" I manage to say without vomiting again.

"Uh, Promise...you've been weird all your time in the Capitol, come to think of it," he says. "Actually, for about a month at home, too. I don't mean to offend, but are you a little bigger than usual?"

"Are you calling me fat?" I feel tears well up in my eyes again.

"No, but he is suggesting something else. Have you thrown up recently besides this?" Ember asks.

"Yeah. In the Capitol I did a few times when I woke up, and a little bit after we ran away from the bloodbath. It was probably just the running and the stress and too much Capitol food." I shrug and fight down another bout of queasiness.

Ember and Rory exchange glances. "Have you felt weird around here?" Rory says, laying a hand below my stomach. "You know, like wiggly or something?"

"Wiggly? I mean, I think so, I think I kind of have been, but wiggly?"

"You've been overemotional for a while too, actually."

"Sky above...We can't have this." Ember presses her hands to her eyes. "Now of all times. She can't have."

"What are you talking about? How is all this my fault?" The tears run down my cheeks. "I am so very sorry for being worried I'm going to die, and I could just leave if I'm such a bother!"

"Promise." Rory takes a deep breath. "Have you ever, uh, been very close to a boy? Intimate?"

"Yeah. Banteng. He's actually my boyfriend, we hadn't announced it yet. Why?"

"No, he means intimate intimate, like really intimate." Ember buries her head in her hands. "I can't believe it. Twenty six tributes..."

It finally hits me, and I'm almost knocked over by the sheer shock. "NO! NO! NO! Oh Panem, it was that one time! I'm not even the married one in the arena! I'm so stupid!"

"Kind of," Rory admits. "It was not the smartest move of your life."

I press my hands to my 'fat'. "Oh Panem. Oh Panem. No, no, no, no, no."

"I'm sorry, Prommy. You're pregnant," Rory states.

My heart breaks.

Many miles away, back in District Ten, Banteng's heart breaks too.

Tristan Bronx, District Two (18)

"Oh my-!"

Miri stumbles away from Marcus. Wow. I didn't think even he could get in such a scrape.

"Marcus." I throw my arm over his shoulders in a companionable way. "Marcus, Marcus, Marcus. Tell me what happened. Big group of enemy tributes?"

Liz whistles. "Mutts, looks like. Did you really fight them off? Good for you. I didn't think you could do that. That's pretty heroic."

Thalia just rolls her eyes. "Enemy tributes? Mutts? I bet he fell in a hole and got scraped up climbing out. Heroic indeed, Romeo."

"Thanks ever so much," he growls.

"Well, tell us! Otherwise I'll side with Thalia on this," Miri says. She looks torn between skepticism and worry. Of course, it's quite clear why she could worry about him.

His jacket and spear are missing, and his skin is terribly dark blue, especially his lips. There is actually an icicle hanging from his nostril, which is pretty disgusting. He's covered with scrapes, and I think I even see some burns. How does that even happen? Burns, in this arena? There's a bloody and swollen spot on his head, and he looks like he can barely stand.

Miri brushes her hand across his bloodied ginger hair, and bread crumbs fall out. "How in Panem- no, I don't even want to know. Liz, do we have a medical kit?"

"Here's one." Liz tosses over the small box. "Hope it has the right stuff to heal your boyfriend."

Thalia starts laughing, and Liz allows herself a nervous chuckle. I smirk at Miri's and Marcus's cross expressions.

"Why, Lizzy-Liz-Liz! Cutting into your hand to make a map, scouting the whole arena, and now admitting that District One is all fluff and no stuff? I think you've grown a spine!"

I tense up. Thalia has gone too far, and Liz knows it. She takes a few steps back. "Sorry if I offended you, Miri, Marcus."

"Shut up!" Marcus snaps. Despite his weakened condition, he manages to stagger toward Liz and pin her by her throat against the Cornucopia.

"I have had it. I've just had it. If you aren't with me, you're against me, and if you're against me, you're dead!"

"Let's not do anything rash!" I interject, but he's having none of it.

"Marcus! Stop it!" Miri says. "We need Liz. She scored highest of everyone. You mustn't hurt her!"

"Listen to her," Elizabeth gasps, prying Marcus's frozen hands off her neck. "Just leave me alone."

She pushes his hand too hard, and I hear a snap and a shriek. Marcus jerks back, staring at his lopsided frosty finger. "You broke my finger! You broke it! You mangy, phobic, idiotic little fish!"

"You've got a nice soprano, Marky," Thalia says breezily. "You sure there aren't two girls from District Fluff? You should join the glee club."

Normally I'd bite her head off, but I can see she's trying to get Marcus away from Elizabeth, who seems to be in shock. It works. Too well.

Marcus howls, and globs of acid start to drip from his hands. "Thalia Bronx, you are a self-centered, whiny little girl who cries if she doesn't have a halberd and wants to kill her own brother!"

"Don't you dare say that about me!" she howls back. "Peasant!"

"Peasant? You're the stupid orphan who lives in the training center and trips over her own feet on Reaping day and breaks her nose!"

"You're the dummy who got jumped and had his jacket and weapon stolen from him! I bet an outer district did it! I bet the eleven-year-old District Nine baby did it!" Her face is purple and furious tears are gathering in her eyes, and I know that means there are seconds before someone dies.

She powers up and her hands start to glow. Liz and Miri scoot away, aware of the imminent violence and definitely not desirous of taking part in it. I don't blame them. Back at home, Thalia got in a fight with a trainer and almost killed him. I had to sit on her. And that was without her power.

"Let's stop right now!" I suggest. "Thalia, apologize to Marcus and we'll-"

She elbows me in the gut, and with her power, I'm pushed back hard enough to make a furrow in the snow.

"Shut up, Tristan!" she shouts. I can swear her blue eyes are turning darker, almost black. It disturbs me inordinately. "I don't care what you have to say! I'm going to kill Romeo the stupid Marky Mark, and if you try to stop me, I promise I will end you."

For the first time in my life, I'm afraid of my little sister.

"You couldn't even kill District Nine! You couldn't kill the germs in your putrid mouth!" Marcus yells. "You couldn't kill the worms in your brain!"
"I killed the District Three boy, and I didn't even use weapons! How many kills do you have? NONE!" Thalia shouts back.

"Stop it, both of you!"

"Shut it, Tristan!" they yell in unison.

Thalia is deadly, but her power doesn't last forever. Marcus, on the other hand, has limitless acid power. If he evades her long enough for her energy to run down, he could melt her.

I form a forcefield around her, but she actually pushes through, something that nobody else could do. "You can't stop me, traitor," she hisses. "When I'm done with Marky-poo, you're next, I swear."

"Don't you mean when I'm done with you? I'm gonna melt you from the inside out and laugh when you try to scream!"

"ENOUGH!"

Miri's voice is powerful enough to stun everyone for a moment, and she takes that time to grab Marcus.

"Enough," she says, and hugs him tight enough to still him. "I'm sorry, Marcus. This is all my fault." She faces Thalia and repositions herself so that Marcus is mostly shielded. "If you want to kill him, you'll have to kill me too."

"Thalia," I entreat. "Please, please stop."

Reluctantly, she powers down and steps back to me. "Hmph. Well, I suppose it would be pretty bad to lose two- I mean one and a half- Careers. Uh, Miri?"

"Yes?"

"You could probably let him go now."

"Oh." She blushes and lets the now scarlet-faced Marcus go. "Right."

"Do you like me?" he asks. His face is radiant with hope. "Do you?"

"I'll think about it," Miri says, and helps Elizabeth to her feet. "C'mon, Liz. Let's go hunting."

That encounter ended rather peculiarly.

I only hope Miri's intervention will be enough next time, for I know without a doubt there will be a next time.

Erica Jones, District Three (16)

Killers.

Killers.

Killers.

Death.

Pain.

Kill them all.

Kill every single one.

Kill them all.

Trudging through the snow, I don't feel the cold. I don't feel hunger or thirst, though my last meal was in the Capitol yesterday. I don't feel tired, though I haven't slept for at least two days. I don't have any supplies at all, but I don't care.

All I feel is numbing, infinitely deep sorrow and a biting need for vengeance.

They're dead. They're dead. Both of them, they're dead. They're never coming back.

"It's all my fault, isn't it?" I ask the unforgiving grey sky. "It's my fault. It's all my fault they're both dead."

I didn't save them. I didn't protect them. I just went invisible like the coward I am and left them. They're both dead. What did I tell Narui? 'There are times when the sun comes out, and everything is just a little bit better. That's what I live for. That's the good part of life'? Well, Narui is dead too. There is never any sunshine, and now I don't live for anything.

They're. Both. Dead.

The laughing boy who could make plants grow and who actually stayed around and wasn't a coward, he died. No more jokes. No more smiles. No more cheering up by the guy who was genuinely happy to be friends with me. Me, of all people, a coward and a runaway. The boy who would never, ever give up his bright nature and always had a grin for me. Jifere Asolki, only fifteen years old, is dead.

And the beautiful, bright, innocent girl who could fly. She loved her power and she loved Jifere and me and the whole world. She was the purest, sweetest person I have ever known, fourteen with the wonder of a child, and she was dead. She should've survived. She went through her sister dying, her mother becoming an Avox, and she didn't lose a drop of her faith in goodness. It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair.

Kill them all.

Kill them all, every one of them.

Kill the killers.

Give them pain.

Kill the people they love, and show them what it feels like.

Show them true pain.

Show them true death.

Death of the heart.

"You wouldn't do that, would you, Flanella?" I ask the snow clouds, hoping she's still somehow flying up there. "You wouldn't turn into a killer if you were still alive and Jifere and I died. You would do the right thing and keep going, you'd keep your love. Well, I can't help it. I'm going to avenge you. I'm not as angelic as you."

I scrape a hole through the snow and ice with my bare hands, not feeling the pricks and pain I should have. The only pain I feel is pain of the heart.

"And Jifere! You wouldn't turn into a killer," I address the small patch of earth, hoping he's a plant growing down there. "You'd laugh and joke with the Gamemakers, with the president, with the killers, and make them feel sorry they killed your friends. You wouldn't kill anyone. You could hold on to your sanity. But guess what? I've lost my marbles!"

I blink my invisibility on and off erratically and start giggling. "Bats in the belfry! Nobody's home! We're all mad here! My pancake is flipped!"

I start to turn cartwheels in the snow, giggling madly. I know this isn't right, I should focus, I must be shaming Jifere and Flanella right now, but I can't stop, and this is fun!

Another cartwheel brings me into a strange cratered area, and I freeze, because only yards away is an igloo. Next to the igloo, there's a snowy solitary tree with a noose at the very top.

Killers.

Whoever is there, they're a killer.

Kill them.

I creep around to the back of the crude construct, my footsteps muffled in the snow, but before I can do anything, a head pokes out.

I go invisible immediately, but my heart is pounding so hard that the girl can surely hear it, and it's not just any girl.

She's the married one. So she's got the boy there too, Killian I believe. They can't see me, but Killian has telepathy and he must know I'm here.

Bianca crawls out of the igloo and looks around. "I don't see anyone, Kyle. You sure you sensed a mind?"

"I'm sure." His head pokes out. "The thoughts are all scattered and weird, so I can't tell who it is. Maybe whoever it is is insane."

Thanks a lot.

"Well, maybe they're far away."

"No, it's like they're really close. Really, really close, like hiding under a bank of snow or something and watching us."

"You're creeping me out, Ky."

"I'll concentrate more."

A strange feeling starts to permeate my brain, and everything goes hazy for a moment. I quickly clear my mind. No, wait! I have a better idea.

"I'm picking up something. Let's see...oh."

Gotcha.

"It's you, Bibi. I really need to work on this telepathy, it's not very accurate. I've been reading your mind."

Apparently, thinking about Killian and love and loving Killian helps. If I got it right, she's so predictable. Now it's my time to strike.

As Killian's head withdraws like a turtle's, and Bianca turns around to crawl back inside, I jump for the slight girl and hit right on target.

Her head crashes to the hardened ice, and her eyes widen in shock and pain. She screams, and I hear a scrabbling as Killian rushes to get back out. I shove Bianca's body up against the the small hole, so he can't get out without hurting her.

"They're dead, and you're not their killers, but you're killers too," I hiss, levering her arm up behind her back. She's bigger and isn't exhausted and starving, but I have the element of surprise, and I will not let Flanella and Jifere go unavenged. "You've got a noose up in that tree! You've killed someone, haven't you?"

She whimpers, trying to get free, and I twist harder, earning a squeal. "Haven't you?"

"Y-yes! I'm sorry! Let me go! KYLE! KYLE!"

"Let go of Bianca! I'm coming, Bibi!"

"Oooh, Bibi and Kyle, sitting in a tree," I mock. "A hanging tree! You're killers! Killers! Killer couple!" I press my knee down on her throat, and she starts to choke. My grip on her arm immobilizes her, even though I'm small and malnourished, because I won't give up. Ever. For Jifere and Flanella. She's in too much pain to use her telekinesis. I know these things. I'm doing this for vengeance, and I will not lose.

Killian kicks a hole in the side of the igloo, and before I can react, he's got a large sword to my neck.

"Let her go, now, or you die," he orders.

But I've got my hands wrapped around her neck.

"Hee-hee. I've got her throat. One squish, and bye-bye lovebird."

"I'd kill you."

"But she'd be dead. Hee-hee. We're at a standstill, you and I. I go down and she does too, she goes down and I do too, hee-hee."

I don't notice the branch falling from the tree until it hits me. Right on target. On my side.

I collapse, and she crawls out from my grasp. I failed. I failed.

"You...you didn't...you couldn't...but I was going to kill you…" I slur. Vision foggy. Can't see. Where's Flanella, where's Jifere…? Can't see them anymore.

"You'll never kill my Bibi," Killian says, holding her protectively. Protective, like Jifere was of Flanella. Of me. There's nobody to protect me anymore.

"I already have. Hee-hee." Not so pretty now, huh, lovergirl? Her forehead is bleeding where I struck it to the ice. There are bruises on her neck, and she's swaying dizzily. Bringing down such a heavy branch with her power while being choked probably didn't help. She's wounded, like I am.

But she's going to last a lot longer than I will.

Can't feel...can't feel my legs...can't feel anything.

"Is it bad?" I mutter, then giggle again. No, it's not bad, Jifere would say. You've only got your whole body crushed under a huge branch. Drink lots of water, get some good rest, and you'll be fine!

There's a pool of blood soaking into the snow around me. I've been squished, like I was going to do to her throat. The killer's throat. But I'm not a killer! I'm not! I was only trying to avenge my friends….

"Did I ever tell you about my eyes?" I whisper, feeling the life ebb out of me. "They're not supposed to be yellow. My mother was trying an experiment, trying to make my eyes better so I wouldn't need glasses. We didn't have much money for them. She told seven year old little me to stay calm and sit still while she put in the eye drops." It's hard for me to focus now. But I don't want to just be forgotten. I have to finish.

"She put them in, and I knew something was wrong, because my eyes started to burn. It hurt so very, very much, but she told me to stay still and be calm, so I did." Everything's in slow motion now. I flop my hand into the growing pool of blood, and see droplets spray into the air sluggishly.

"My eyesight got even worse than it was, and there was the side effect...my eyes went yellow. It was a mistake."

I can't move. I can't move anything. I don't think I'm even speaking. I'm just finishing the story in my head.

It was a mistake...just like me…I'm a mistake.

The last thing I see is Bianca Calder crying for me, and my last words are what I've always wanted to say.

"I just wanted to be normal for once in my life…"

One final cough, a small smile, and I'm free.

Jakob Caraway, District Nine (11)

BOOM.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, Jakob. Don't worry about it."

"Miss Ki- Aaliyah, I know it's something bad. You can't hide it from me. Please tell me."

Aaliyah sighs and slowly straightens her jacket. She's trying to not answer. "Somebody just died."

"Oh." I feel dizzy and have to sit down. "Well, there've been a whole lot. Did so many people really die? How many?"

"Eight. But you won't be one of them."

"That means you're gonna die! Millet told me all about everything. Either you're gonna have to die or I will."
I'd cry right now but I don't think I have any more tears.

Everyone's been so sorry for me. Millet said sorry for not telling me before but it was because he wanted me to keep my purity until I died. So he just told me, right like that, I had no chance at all. I can't trust anyone, Millet said. Not even Aaliyah. He said she could pin me down and stab me and I wouldn't be able to stop her.

Well, he's wrong. She can't stab me. She hasn't got any knives right now. But she could still kill me with anything else, because I'm so small and she's not.

I miss my home. I miss Mommy and Daddy and Petey and Ella and Sandy and Rose. Especially Rose. Aaliyah said that if everyone else besides Rose was mean to me, I shouldn't miss them, but I do, because they're my family. Doesn't she have a family to miss? When I asked her, it was like she just closed up. Like a treasure chest with terrible evil gold she wanted to hide from me.

She suddenly presses a finger to my mouth and crouches under the little branch fort she built. "Come under here," she whispers. "Don't make a sound. I heard something."

"I could telly- teleport out to see what it was," I whisper back. "I'd be quick. Nobody could catch me."

"Jakey, no. Don't. Do not do that."

"I'll be back in a moment."

For a second I feel very strange and can't move, and I think she's possessing me, but then I manage to teleport away.

I land two steps away from a tall boy.

"Ack!" He brings out a spear and tries to stab me, but I teleport away in time.

"Aaliyah, there's a boy! He's really tall and I think he's from District Eight and he has a spear and he tried to kill me! We hafta run now."

"I told you not to go out there," she hisses, furious. "Now he knows you're here, and he'll find both of us. I didn't get any weapons at the Cornucopia."

"Possess him!"

"Possess who? Me? I don't think so, love."

Aaliyah and I know who we're going to see before we look around.

It's the District Eight boy with the spear. He's leaning lazily against the slope that was supposed to hide our fort. He blows a strand of black hair out of his eye and takes a second spear out of his belt. "There will be no possessing of me. You'd immolate if you even tried to approach my splendor. And my reflexes are good enough so that I could put a spear through you if you tried anything."

"You conceited brat, Ashely Downing," Aaliyah says, as her hand stealthily creeps over to mine. She's getting ready for us to run. "How do you have two spears? I only saw you get one in the Cornucopia. Second one a sponsor gift?"

"Actually, I lost the one I got at the Cornucopia, Aaliyah Kingsport. One of mine here is from a sponsor, yes, and one is from a Career I knocked out."

"Knocked out? Too scared to kill the Career? Too much of a wimp?" Aaliyah says. I feel her heart beating hard as she hugs me close to her, protecting me.

"No, sweetie, not really too scared, considering I lost the spear in the Cornucopia in a body," Ashely smirks. "I just didn't kill the Career because now the other Careers will ridicule him and they'll turn against each other, taking out multiple dangerous contestants. Besides, I didn't want to get blood on his jacket I took. But don't worry your pretty head about him."

"So y-you did kill him," I say, wishing my voice would stop shaking. "If you d-don't have a jacket in this snow, you're gonna d-die. And the other Careers might k-kill him."

Ashely notices me for the first time. "Who's the runt?" he asks Aaliyah. "Distraction? Bait? Food? I'm definitely one for cute cannibal chicks."

"Excuse me?" Aaliyah says. She clenches her teeth and squeezes my hand so hard her fingernails pierce my palm. "One, don't you dare call me chick. And two, he's my ally. My friend. You may have heard the term."

"Oh, devastating. A friend, hmm? He seems too little. Too weak. You may have heard of that."

"Jakob is eleven years old, about half your size, and has ten times more courage than you will ever have. Why don't you go jump in a lake and save me the trouble of pushing you?"

"Why don't you just stick your stubborn, piggish head up your own- Zeus! You'd think this was the district square!" A spear leaves his hand and is replaced by the other so quickly Aaliyah and I barely see his hand move.

There's a thunk and a thick gasp, then a body falls down the slope next to me. I almost shriek.

It's the District Twelve boy, Sam. The spear is stuck in his chest up to the beginning of the pole, and he isn't moving. His eyes and mouth are wide open.

"Is he dead?" I ask, clutching Aaliyah's hand hard. "Oh no. Aaliyah, did Mr. Downing- I mean Ashely- did he kill him?"

"No, I didn't, runt," Ashely says. "There wasn't a cannon. Which means-" He yanks the spear out and waves it around. No blood. "-He's shamming. Which means-"

"I have good sponsors, that's what it means," the 'dead' boy says, suddenly very much alive and on his feet. "I've gotten this heavy armor and some medicine good enough to heal me if the spear had struck me."

"Sure. Run away, little boy, before I get you in the head. No armor there." Ashely twirls a spear.

"You sure?" Sam reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls out a knife. "I got this too. You sure you want to kill me...now?"

Ashely pulls back his spear, but before he can throw it, Sam turns into a woman. Literally, he morphs into a woman who looks somewhat like Ashely.

Ashely drops the spear and starts to shake. He's actually afraid. "Mother? How are you here?"

"It's your fault. I'm here and I'm going to die because of you. You hated me."

"No! I'm sorry!"

"It's a trick, for cripes sake, you yellow-belly," says Aaliyah contemptuously. Her body goes limp, and I catch her before she falls. Sam, possessed by Aaliyah, turns back into Sam, and makes a rude gesture at Ashely. "Hello there. I can make Ashely Downing the tough guy into a mewling baby, and I can't directly make someone commit suicide, but this pretty much does it. Ooo, nice body, but I can't stay." Aaliyah steers Sam into a tree. Unconscious, the body falls backward into a snowbank, and Aaliyah returns to her own body.

"That should take care of him for a while," she says, raising an eyebrow. "We don't need to kill him, he could stay knocked out long enough for the cold to do that. A pig, am I?"

"Okay, you got me," he admits. "I was looking for you, love. I suppose you would be acceptable as an ally. Good power, good training score and all."

"What about me?" I whisper to Aaliyah.

"Yes, what about Jakob?" Aaliyah says. She eyes Ashely's lazy position propped up against a tree distastefully. "If Jakob isn't 'acceptable', we're out of here."

"The runt? I suppose he can stay. He can teleport, yes? That could be useful. And as long as he doesn't cry, I'm fine with him."

"What do you say, Jake? Should we ditch Ashely or are you okay with him?"

"He's okay." I huddle close to Aaliyah. "But don't let him kill me."

"I won't kill you, kid. I don't kill babies."

"That's another thing, sweetie," Aaliyah says. "If you want to be our ally, why are you so rude? You call Jakob a runt and a baby. You call me chick, love, and sweetie, told me to not worry my pretty head, and it's annoying."

"Sorry, sweetness. It's my way of saying I care." He grins, resembling a crocodile. "And if I didn't have my way of dealing with people, I would kill you instead. You have no idea what kinds of things have happened to me that I'm trying really hard to not remember, and trust me, it isn't a picnic."

"I've lost my parents."

"Funny, so have I."

"Mine are dead."

"Hating me and being gone for good are as bad as dead, love."

"And you're surprised they hate you?"

A spear thunks into a tree inches from Aaliyah's head. In a split second, the other is in Ashely's hand. "Don't you dare. Just don't. Don't you dare tell me that." His face is livid. "The next one goes in your eye, cute cannibal or not. You do not say anything about my family."

"Please stop!" I say as loudly as I can without drawing Ashely's wrath. "You're allies, not enemies! Don't fight each other. I d-don't want anyone else to die."

"Fine then," Ashely says, his temper gone as soon as it came. He steps forward to Aaliyah, and I flinch, thinking he's going to kill her, but he simply shakes her hand. "Nice to meet you, sweetie."

"Somewhat nice to meet you, dear."

He shakes my hand as well. "Hope you'll be good, kiddie."

"H-hope so too, Mr. Downing."

He's just a bomb waiting to go off. Why, why am I here? What did I ever do?

Erica Jones. Hmm. You were hard to write, the truth is, and I'm sorry but I could never imagine you getting far. It is admittedly tragic that all three members of Flajiferi are dead so soon, but that's the Hunger Games, they never pity the good. I didn't really know what to do with you. You had your nice alliance and that profound insight right before the bloodbath, but I suppose it was inevitable that you'd lose it a bit (more than just a bit, really). You were just not built for the Games. Rest in peace, Erica, it was nice to have an unremarkable girl I might see just walking down the street. You'll be with Flanella and Jifere again now.

Recap: A few days ago it was the anniversary of this story's start (wow), this is my longest chapter by far, Promise is pregnant (yikes), the Careers are being split apart, Erica went mad then dead, and there's a new alliance (Aaliyah, Jakob, and Ashely). Whew. When it hits 2014, this story will have been spread apart over three years...holy cow. I'll finish it up soon though! Happy Thanksgivicamas!

Sunshine out!