A/N: Hi all, sorry I took a week to write this. I could tell you about every single second of my busy and exceedingly hectic life since the last update, but I honestly don't have the time since it's eleven in the evening and I desperately want to get some sleep since I won't get some until about two in the morning tomorrow (long story - can't be bothered to explain it). Anyway, we have an epic chapter today. So much happens in it. It starts with Kara in bed, then she walks down a corridor and then she enters a room. That is all that happens in this chapter. But hey, it's still a good chapter. And yes, I have still managed to put a reasonably good cliffhanger on the end (I call that skill). I hope you enjoy it, and that I get at least 12 reviews this chapter (I got 12 last chapter and 13 before, so that's a wonderful goal to aim at which I probably won't get) so please go on and read!
I lie awake in bed, unable to get to sleep. Every time my eyelids droop I am suddenly presented with a rapid succession of haunting images – President Snow brandishing a picture of me and Alder when I leaned over his shoulder as if it looks like we're together; Zen and Indi getting mutilated on screen as I stand by in district eight Cets, powerless to help them; Lumina scrunched in a foetal position on my bed, sobs racking through her body as I stare gormlessly by, unable to help her as she goes through a traumatic breakdown. I breathe in heavily again and try once more to seal my eyes tightly shut but instead this time I'm presented with an image of the metallic claw of a hovercraft reaching down and gripping Zen, plucking him from the arena as a child would to daisies and then crushing him slowly in the machine's hand. Squeezing him until his bones crack and his limp body lies senseless in the callous arms of the hovercraft that, even then, refuses to let him go and toys with him, tossing him around lightly as if his dead body means less than dirt to them. The Capitol. The ones that he insulted.
My eyes fly open once more and a searing pain stabs through my head. No, no I can't bear this any longer. I'll just have to get up and fight exhaustion on my feet. It's better than the alternative, I know that for certain. Lying in the pitch black and letting my emotions swell inside me isn't going to help anyone, let alone Indi and Zen, so I groggily sit up in bed and try to banish the flash of Whitney dragging her impossibly sharp nails down my cheek as my eyes flutter shut and then almost immediately after open once more.
I decide, knowing that my nightie is too skimpy for my liking, to sling something over the top to keep myself both modest and sane. With a dressing gown wrapped around me I feel both warmer and more comfortable, let alone a lot more covered. Reluctantly I drag my weary body out of the room which seems to have been smeared in purple when glancing at it in the barely lit light. The hallway appears impossibly long at this hour, and seems to stretch out almost like an aisle in the way it is constantly expanding and elongating.
But somehow I manage to struggle through it and find myself by Lumina's door. Just as I'm about to knock my hand wavers reluctantly in the air. Would she really want me to just burst into her room like that? Especially at this hour? Especially with the knowledge that I've only recently obtained? The answer is both blunt and simple – no.
But then who do I go to, if anyone at all? The thought of lying down on my bed while images flash before my eyes pushes me on again to wade even deeper down into the depths of the corridor and thoughts whir around my mind as I continue to plod along the never-ending row of doors. Then who could I go and talk to? Not Alder, that's for certain. I've always found him an attentive listener, with him not being able to talk and all, but with the rumours Debbie's already fixed into her mind I think that knocking at his door in the middle of the night might be stretching it too far; anyway, I don't even know where his door is. That accounts for Zap too. And even though Ally's won back some of my trust I'm still not knocking on his door at any hour if I can help it.
Hercules and Lumina are best left alone tonight, that's decided. If I were to go to see Finnick, the guy who seems intent on stalking me, I think that the two best looking victors meeting up in the middle of the night wouldn't exactly go without any notice; we'd be the centre of the gossip mill for weeks on end. Basically, as far as I can work out, I can't see anyone of the male gender whatsoever at this hour. Debbie would blow a fuse if she knew I'm still up at this hour and I'm pretty sure Alas would burst into tears if I turned up in the stylist's area anyway. I thought I was surrounded by friends but at a time like this I find myself terribly alone; and it really is quite frightening.
Who is there left then? Dizzy? Even the mere shadow of a thought about meeting up with her in the middle of the night disappears when I remember the grand finale of her hunger games and the terrifying way she chanted those words, forcing her opponent to drive a knife into her own chest. No, maybe I won't be seeing Dizzy. She creeps me out enough, and seeing her at night sounds even worse when I play the idea back to myself. Johanna? No, she'd probably kill me, same goes for Whitney. In fact, same goes for over half of the victors here with me. They truly would kill me if I interrupted their beauty sleep, or at least take a good shot at it. I can successfully say I'm less liked than Dizzy here. At least everyone keeps out of her way for fear of her making a voodoo doll of them and savagely attacking it with a sharp knife, but with me they just thing I'm stupid and full of myself, which I probably am when I think about it. But hey, who wants to think about it?
Before I know what I'm doing I find myself pressed against a wall, the lack of temperature seeping into my skin and the slightly coarse texture rubbing against my hand, causing it to itch slightly. I prise myself off it and look around dizzily. That's great, that's just great. I always wanted this to happen – to walk into a wall in the pitch black. Well one thing's now for certain and that's that this corridor isn't getting any longer. Just as I'm about to turn back around and skulk to my bed in total reluctance and defeat I notice a noise. Nothing much, just a brief murmuring noise, almost like a humming. I freeze and strain my ears to pick it up and there it is again. A kind of whispering noise, like a hurried and muttered conversation is going on. But where? I clench my jaw tightly as my ears desperately try to pick up some noise, any noise.
Eventually I pinpoint the location with a hurriedly covered up coughing fit. Whoever this is they clearly don't want to be caught. It's coming from the room next to where I'm standing but while I squint at the name plaque on the door I can't quite make out who it belongs to. I pause for a second, uncertain, then curiosity gets the better of me and I find myself pushing the door open a crack. Immediately the hushed tones cease and I hear an urgent scrambling noise accompanied with the sounds of several sets of feet diving for cover as if they were being bombed.
"Err... hello?" I ask as I push the door open a tiny chink more, squinting into the darkness that seems to envelope me.
"Hello?" I repeat, my eyes darting around in the darkness, searching for any movement. Until I find it. In a flash of a mere second or so from total black there's the rather handsome and currently pretty scary figure of Finnick Odair standing metres away from me. And he's got a trident aimed straight at my throat. All in a blink of an eye.