Again, Merry Christmas/happy holiday and enjoy the double update

Disclaimer: I am not Suzanne Collins and I do not own the hunger games, I am merely writing this for my own pleasure, and yours I guess.

~Dreaming of far away

Chapter 38

Drake Fairlock's POV (Sector 2 male)

Night before the games begin

I toss over again, staring at the illuminated clock as it changes from 11:59pm to 00:00am. I can't sleep. I'm going into the arena tomorrow and I can't stop thinking about it. I finally give up on trying to sleep and go to the food/drink machine in my room. I press a few buttons and a bar of creamy milk chocolate and a 2l bottle of coke pops out. I grab them and head to the window.

I sit on the floor in front of it and open the coke. It fizzes slightly when I unscrew the lid, but only a little froth spills out. In the dark room it looks like blood oozing out. I look out the window onto the streets below. My view is different to what it would have been for any of games. Before people would have been out partying all night long, tonight the streets are filled with peacekeepers on the watch for any signs of rebellion. Any protests that might get out of hand. They're determined that the games will go ahead.

I take a swig from the coke bottle before placing it back on the floor and sighing. This could be my last night on earth. This time tomorrow I may just be a face in the sky. The only comforting thing about that is that I might see Tanner again. I miss him so much. He was only 5 when he died in the rebellion. So young. So innocent. I hope he's in a better place now.

I unfold the wrapper of the bar of chocolate and break a square off. I let it melt in my mouth as I watch the peacekeepers shining torches around the square, constantly moving around. I feel so claustrophobic. I feel so trapped in this room. It'll only get worse tomorrow, when I'm trapped in the arena.

Scenarios of what might happen tomorrow keep going around in my head. Over and over. What will the arena be like? Will both Lianna and I survive the bloodbath. Who will live for the first day? The only thing I am certain of is that all else is uncertain.

If I could go back to the reaping and change what I did so that I didn't volunteer for Trill, I don't think I would. He's only 12. He's too young. We're all too young. I hope he doesn't watch me. I don't want him or Trilly to see me die. Now I've seen all the other tribute's training scores I know that it's unlikely that I will win. It doesn't mean I'm not going to try though. I will win, or I will die trying, literally.

Kai Baron's POV (Sector 3 male)

Night before the games begin

"Jaimie?" I say softly, knocking on her door. "Jaimie?" I repeat when there's no reply. Maybe she's already asleep. I am about to turn away and head back to my room when there is a squeak of a floorboard and then the door is opened.

"Can't sleep?" She asks. I nod.

"Can we curl up together like we when we were little." In the darkness I see Jaimie's pale face smile briefly at the memory. We used to do it a lot when we were younger. I think it started the night my hamster disappeared. I was so upset, but she was there to comfort me. She steps aside so I can come in.

I am suddenly blinded as Jaimie flicks on the lights. I stumble over to the bed and sit on it. It's cold. I don't think she was trying to sleep. Jaimie sits on the bed next to me and we sit there in silence for a while, neither of us saying anything. We don't need to. We both know what we're thinking. I eventually break the silence.

"I'm scared Jaimie." She wraps her arms around me.

"I know. I think I might be a bit too." Jaimie says. I hug her back. Jaimie never admits when she's scared. She puts up walls and builds a facade around her and doesn't let anyone in. She must be really scared if she's admitting it to me.

"You don't need to be." I tell her. "You got the highest training score, remember." It was quite ironic really. Jaimie got the highest score and I got the lowest.

"And?" She says. "I may have spent hours training, but that doesn't prepare me for what the arena's going to be like."

"You've got a better chance than me." I tell her and we lean back so we are laying on the bed, staring up at the ceiling.

"Maybe." She sighs. "I shouldn't have volunteered."

"You can't change the past." I remind her and we lay in silence for a little while longer. "Jaimie, can you promise me something?"

"What?"

"I-if, if, suppose." I stammer. "If it's just us left in the arena in the end."

"I don't want to kill you."

"I know. I don't want to kill you. But, go to the cornucopia. We can say our goodbyes and then you kill me. Quickly and painlessly. Please."

"I couldn't live knowing that I had killed you." She says. I thought she was going to say that.

"Jaimie, if you don't I will kill myself in the most painful way possible." I lie. I know she would rather have the guilt of my death on her hands than the guilt of my painful death. I don't think I would actually be able to do it. Kill myself. I'd be too scared.

"Don't you dare." She says, she looks me in the eye. "Promise me."

"Only if you promise me first."

"I hate you." She whispers then we bury our heads in each others shoulder. I sob into her shoulder, and I'm pretty sure she does the same for me because I can feel a small wet patch growing.

Ariela Fox's POV (Sector 4 female)

Night before the games begin

I can't sleep, but I can't afford to take sleeping pills. I need to be wide awake tomorrow morning. I need to be on top form to survive the bloodbath. I wonder how Kitty's doing back home. I hope she watched my interview. I need her to know that if I die in that arena tomorrow, it's not her fault. None of this is her fault.

This time tomorrow I could be a murderer. Or even dead. Who knows? I have my strategy though, and hopefully that will be enough to get me through the day. I wonder who's face I will be watching in the sky in 24 hours, if I'm alive that is. I think the boy from 12 will, Halliton. And Cherry Paxus from 11. Maybe Icarus and Lilith too. They all got pretty low scores. Kai Baron got a low score as well, but I'm not so sure about him. His sister got an 11. She was the only tribute who beat me on the training scores. I got a 10, she got an 11.

I lay on my bed, staring up at the ceiling, wondering about how many other tributes are laying here like this. I've never come this close to death before, even when I was helping fight with the rebels. I never really thought about the danger. The odds of me coming out of the arena alive should be 1 in 24, but they're a bit better than that. 1 in 18 possibly. Maybe slightly better but not by much.

Knowing the training scores of the other tributes hasn't really changed anything much. There wasn't really any surprises from what I had seen during training. The only person I was slightly surprised about was Nessi Byron. I hadn't seen her do particularly well at anything but she pulled off an 8, so she must have done something impressive. I probably just missed something though.

I think I have a pretty good chance of getting some decent gear at the cornucopia tomorrow. I don't think that many people will go because they'll have food and water for a few days from their water packs. I think maybe people who are allying will go because there's strength in numbers and maybe a couple of the other stronger tributes, but that's it. No one else will want to risk it.

I start to feel myself getting hotter so a fling my blanket off me and try to curl up on my bed and go to sleep. But then I get too cold. When I put the blanket back on I get too warm. I just can't seem to find the right temperature.

I must have dozed off eventually because I have just woken up tangled in my blanket and boiling hot. I go to my water machine and grab a glass of ice cold. I sit on the edge of my best and clink the glass against my teeth as I watch the dark clouds shroud the moon outside, blocking almost all the light coming from my window.

Icarus Behring's POV (Sector 4 male)

Night before the games begin

So, this is it. In 12 hours time I'm going into the arena. I have no idea what the arena's going to be like or if I'm even going to survive the bloodbath. I have almost no hope. My training score was one of the lowest. I got a 3, and there was another tribute that got an 11.

I decide to spend my last night in luxury. I mean, I could be dead in just over 12 hours time, I deserve one last night to myself. I go through to my ensuite and run the huge bath with hot water and add some of the foamy bubbles. I go back to my room and get a large bag of salted peanuts and a can of beer to have with my bath. I need alcohol the alcohol to relax. Even when I crack the can open and take a large swig, the knot in my stomach doesn't go away.

When the bath is run, after a surprisingly short amount of time considering the size of it, I lower myself into it and change the settings for the window so that I can see outside. The glass is tinted slightly so that no one can look in, but I can look out. There are peacekeepers patrolling the streets outside, making sure there aren't any riots. I mean what's more peaceful than stopping people from rioting about the murder of innocent children.

I can't see any protests or riots even in the distance though. People must have given up hope of callingthe games off. Or maybe Paylor's made some law that anyone who protests will be publicly executed or something. I mean if she's willing to murder innocent kids, I wouldn't put it past her to murder anyone who wants to help them.

I stay in the bath until my bag of peanuts is finished and the empty packet is scrunched up by the door where I chucked it and my fingers are wrinkly for being in the water for so long. I pull the plug out and wrap myself in a white fluffy towel before taking the last swig of my beer. It didn't really help to relax in the end. Oh well.

I go back to my room and switch on the TV. It's on the 24 hour news channel. All that's on is re-runs of the interviews. I already watched them. I watched them in the lounge when they first aired with Peeta and Ariela. I think mine went okay. I don't think it really mattered though because with a training score as low as mine, no one will even consider sponsoring me anyway.

Lilith Teacup's POV (Sector 5 female)

Night before the games begin

I go back to my room straight after I finish dinner. I didn't really eat much. I felt too sick. It's probably not a good idea, this time tomorrow if I'm still alive I'll probably be hungry and have to crack open my food and water pack.

I'll get something from the food and drink machine in my room later. My training score ended up being one of the lowest as I thought it would be. It doesn't really matter though. Getting a training score of 11 doesn't make Jaimie Baron invincible. Any of us could win. She just has a higher chance than the rest of us now though because sponsors will be giving her their money.

I don't really have a lot to do in my room. I have a TV sure, but the only channel that it's tuned into is the news channel. All that will be on is stuff on the games and I don't really want to watch that. It'll just remind me of tomorrow, not that I could possibly forget.

Tonight's my last night at the training centre, this time tomorrow, I'll be either a face in the sky or looking up at a face in the sky, thankful that I wasn't up there. I'm going to have to be careful if I'm going to survive tomorrow. There are several alliances between the other tributes. I'm pretty sure that Raven, Nessi and Ethan are allying, and I think Jaimie, Thanatos and Eris are as well. Lianna and Drake might be too. I'm not sure if Arabelle and Victoria are or not. They seemed to train together a lot, but there was some woman there with them all the time. I'm not really sure why.

I watch as the sun sets in the horizon, making the whole sky go ablaze with its faded pinks and oranges. The moon and stars come out eventually and the sky turns inky blue. The stars look like pinpricks of light in the distance, scattered through the sky. There are a few wisps of fluffy white clouds floating around the sky.

I walk over to the window and touch the glass with my hand. It's surprisingly cold. I leave my hand there until it starts to go numb and then pull it away, looking down at the rest of the training centre below me through the window. I can't see a lot, but most people still have their lights out. I don't expect many of us will be getting a good night's sleep.

My stomach starts to rumble after a while so I decide to grab some food from the machine and try and get some sleep. Even if I don't manage to fall asleep, laying down will give me some rest. I look at the selection of food that the machine gives me. There's so much variety that I don't really know what to choose. I end up selecting a jacket potato with cheese and butter. I don't want anything too fancy because I'll probably end up throwing it up anyway, but I need to eat something. I slump back on my bed to eat it. The mattress is soft and sinks down slightly as I do.

Rantipol Snow's POV (Sector 5 male)

Evening before the games begin

"I'm going back to my room." Lilith mumbles standing up and pushing her plate still full of food forwards.

"Good luck." Twill says. "I'll see you at breakfast tomorrow, but then a government official will take you to the hovercraft and prepare you in the launch room." Lilith nods at this and heads off. I take a dish of chicken and mushroom noodles and tip a load onto my plate. I'm not really hungry, but eating distracts me from my thoughts. Twill and I sit there, munching our food in silence until I finally break it out of curiosity.

"Why are you a mentor?" I ask her. "I mean no one had ever heard of you before or after the rebellion." She swallows.

"It's a long story. Basically I escaped from my home in District 8 with one of the girls that I taught at school. We met Katniss in the woods near 12 I think it was just before the victory tour from the 74thgames. She was kind to us and gave us food. Bonnie didn't make the journey and then I decided to go to the Capitol to give myself up but all this had taken so long that the rebels had already taken the outer blocks of the Capitol so they took me in and sent me back to 8 until I could be vouched for by Katniss." She tells me. "She was the one that recommended me as a mentor. Told Paylor that I had been one of the worst hit by the rebellion and I knew how to survive."

"I'm sorry about Bonnie." I say. If they were on the run they must have grown pretty close.

"She had got injured so it was kind of obvious she wasn't going to make it. Besides, I was used to loss by that point anyway. Just before I left District 8 one of the factory's was bombed. It killed all my family."

"That's awful." I reply before adding. "I kind of get these games now. When you hear stories like that, I guess. It's to teach us not to make the same mistakes. It's a reminder of how bad things were." Twill nods.

"I think the age should have been changed so only people between 15 and 18 could have been picked, but yes. I agree with you, as long as there are no more games and Paylor has assured us that this is the last one."

"I think I'll head off to bed now." I say, it's still quite early but I should get some rest. Twill nods.

"Good luck," She says, then when I leave the room she adds. "These games weren't rigged against you because of your surname you know." She already told me this on the car journey here, but then I didn't believe her. Now, now I know what she's been through. She has no reason to lie. I think I believe her, but it doesn't stop me being annoyed that I was chosen.

Calix Pasko's POV (Sector 7 male)

Night before the games begin

I wake up and feel sick rising in my throat. I shove my covers off me and make it to the bathroom just in time. I sit, crouched by the toilet for a little while after, making sure I wasn't going to vomit again. I eventually head back to my room, the taste of sick still lingering in my mouth. I go to the food machine and get a small tub of Pringles and then get a glass of water with ice cubes floating from the water machine. I sit and sip the water slowly.

I'm starting to remember the dream I was having now. I was in the arena. The 60 seconds were the landmines were activated had just finished and I was trying to run away from the cornucopia, but my feet were just glued to the pedestal. I couldn't move. I kept trying to run, but I just couldn't. All the other tributes were closing in on me, all with weapons of some sort. I saw an arrow fly towards my head and then that was when I woke up.

I open the tub of Pringles and munch them slowly one by one, letting the sharp salt and vinegar flavour explode throughout my mouth. This is probably gonna be the last tub of Pringles I'm ever gonna eat. When I've finished them I chuck them at the window in frustration. They bounce back across the room, making a small thud before rolling back to my feet.

This isn't fair. I didn't do anything wrong. This time tomorrow I'm probably not going to be alive. I will just have a cannon going off, symbolising my death and that will be all. I will just be one death among 22 others in the end. No one's going to remember those who will die in these games any more than those who died in all the other 75 games before now.

I wonder who will win these games. And who will be the one to kill me. I think that most tributes won't kill unless they have to. We are all used to a life of luxury and now we are being thrown into an arena where will have to survive in the wild. A few will kill, I know that. If I survive the bloodbath I think I will do alright. I ended up getting a 5 for showing the game makers survival skills, so I should be okay as long as I don't run into over tributes.