-March 31st, Year of the 75th Hunger Games-

As I make my way down to the mentoring rooms, I can't really remember what happens. A numb stiffness has glazed over me and each second seems to be unfamiliar and distant from its predecessor. My mind is a slideshow fusing the events of now with my imagination of Tyga. What must she be doing now? She's probably underneath the arena.

I swallow back nonexistent saliva. I can't think about this. Not now.

In the swamp of blurred moments, we eventually reach the mentoring room. Annalee by my side, the tension is immediately palpable. No one has been able to prepare themselves for this day, although I'm sure many have tried. Miami and Green are waiting in the room we enter, as are Surge and Vira.

Vira sits, stone-faced, staring at the screen, whilst Surge paces. His face is white and his black curls are already riddled with sweat. His knuckles are clenched into deep red fists. Miami is looking in control of her emotions as always, as she drapes herself over a chair, but her breathing is slow and precise, and her fingers absentmindedly play with each other. Green seems the least fazed by the situation, but he breathes short, sharp breaths through his nose.

We're not welcomed verbally when we enter, but each of the Victors nod in our direction, even Green. I feel a hand squeeze mine.

'She'll be okay,' Annalee says, 'She's smart.'

I can't bring myself to smile and I drop Annalee's hand, but what she says brings me some comfort, albeit of tiny proportions.

Taking our seats, I look up to the scene and immediately my blood turns icy. The arena is a tropical rainforest, and appears to be split into twelve segments, but within each wedge is water. And within the lake are the podiums.

'The arena looks okay,' Annalee comments, 'Should be lots of stuff to hunt.'

'Water,' I murmur in reply, my face cold, 'Tyga...she's scared of water.'

Annalee looks at me, her expression turning horrified.

'In her Games...in her Games, the arena kept getting flooded. In the whole time I've known her, I've never seen her even go near a lake. She doesn't look out the window when we pass over District 4.'

There's silence again as the reality draws in. How can Tyga even stand a chance if she won't touch the water? She can't. Oh god, she can't. And she'll be a sitting target for the Careers. Oh god.

'I saw her at the lake once,' Annalee says.

'What?' I look at her with a start.

'About a month ago. She didn't swim, but she was standing in the water. I spoke to her then.'

'You never said?'

'I didn't want to. I was there because I was crying – I thought I was going back into the arena, so I ran away and sat by the lake. It's lonely there – peaceful,' Annalee says, looking to the ground, 'And Tyga was already there, but I didn't notice her straight away. She saw me first. I joined her in the water – it only lapped just below our knees – she wasn't far in. She talked to me about how we're all going to have to face our fears and get past things if we want to survive. I thought she was talking about me crying, but maybe she was talking about her too?'

For some reason this gives me comfort. A little story of Tyga – one that I never knew. It makes her seem so present, like she could walk through the door right now. But she won't.

'I don't know if she ever practiced swimming or anything,' Annalee continues, 'But she was certainly at least trying to face her fears. That's gotta count for something.'

And I find myself immensely proud of Tyga. That, even now, when so much is going on, she is still managing to make small changes. And this particular change may just save her life.

I hear a hoarse croak. I realise Miami had gone to say something but her throat had dried up. She coughs before repeating herself. 'They're entering the arena.'

It's at this moment that I realise I'm not ready.

I'm not ready to see Tyga – my wife. I'm not ready to see her stood on that podium on the eve of a bloodbath. I'm not ready to see my friends cry around me whilst people I've known for years die in the arena. And suddenly I'm furious. Furious with the Capitol for what they're doing. I feel my blood, that was frozen a moment again, raging through my body. But I can't let it overtake me. I need to focus.

All the tributes arise into the arena at the exact same time this time. And suddenly it all comes crashing home. You hear it in the room too. There are wails and cries as this all suddenly becomes real. In sixty seconds time, our friends are going to start dying. Sixty seconds.

The timer starts.

I locate Tyga. She's stood on the pedestal next to Mags, and her face is the picture of fear. As she flicks her head from side to side, I can tell her mind is blanking out everything except the lapping water, which must seem endless to her.

I watch as her eyes glide from wave to wave, barely registering the rest of the arena. There's about thirty seconds to go when she finally looks up. I see her take it in – the lush rainforest, the sandy beaches, the rocky paths that look like spokes on the wheel-like arena. She locks her view onto the closest spoke and shakes her limbs, readying herself. She knows she has to try to swim. I don't know if she'll succeed. I don't know if even she knows. But she's going to try.

When the timer hits 15, I start scanning the other tributes and spot Vice. He is taking deep breaths and it pains me like an actual wound that I know these will be some of his last. I can't spend more than a few seconds looking at him before I have to revert back to Tyga – I can't take my eyes off of my wife.

The timer hits 5.

Oh god.

4...

I feel a bead of sweat drip from my forehead.

3...

Surge murmurs some kind of prayer.

2...

Annalee cries out.

1...

The Games begin.

The screens explode in action, and I feel my heart stop. Tyga is staring at the water. She hasn't left her podium yet, but her eyes are closed and I can see she is about to. She dives in.

When she hits the water, she lets out a shriek. Thrashing around in the water, she cries out before focusing and starting to swim to the spoke. She can swim! Her technique is poor and she's not making progress at anywhere near the speed of the others and I can see her face is white, but she's doing it!

My eyes flash to the cornucopia where Finnick and Katniss have already arrived. Her arrow is pointed at his face, ready to impale his handsome good looks at any second. And there's Vice, already climbing onto the island – a stronger swimmer than I gave him credit for. And he runs towards Katniss. Finnick tells Katniss to duck. I look away. And a cannon sounds.

Annalee wails out and when I open my eyes, I catch a glimpse of Vice's body before I can turn away. He lies there, as if asleep, as if passed out from too much drink. But I guess this time he won't wake up.

I look back to Tyga.

She reaches the spoke just as my eyes are on her, clambering onto the rocky surface. I can see her eyes are wild, but she takes a deep breath and suddenly she's the Tyga I know again. And the Tyga I know is good. She sprints off down the spoke, as agile as she was when I first met her.

Vice is dead. The flash of thought sends anger and fear and hurt flooding through me, cutting into me, raging through my veins. He's dead.

I can't focus on this now, I need to focus on Tyga. I need to.

Another cannon goes off and I hear Vira cry out. I don't know who it is and I daren't shift my focus from my wife. She darts along the rocky surface, and reaches the cornucopia, already thick with tributes. I feel my breath catch as Enobaria slashes a sword across the man from 6's back, not far from Tyga. His body rolls into the water, dying it red, and I think the worst thing is the fact that a cannon still doesn't sound.

Tyga dodges a battle that wages between Seeder from 11 and Cashmere from 1, trying to ignore the blood splattering everywhere. She dives into the metal horn, her eyes darting from one weapon to another. Nothing else, just weapons. She finds a pack of knives and grabs four, with one in each hand and attaching the others round her waist. It's at this point that the District 6 Victor's cannon finally sounds. She turns to leave and suddenly she's face to face with another tribute, who looks just as shocked as she does.

'Cecelia!' she gasps.

'Allies?' Cecelia says.

Tyga nods.

And it's that simple. The pair, Cecelia with a sword, head out of the horn together. Another cannon sounds and suddenly a knife hurtles past Tyga, just missing her head. I cry out unconsciously. Tyga turns to the direction the knife came from and launches herself at Cashmere with a knife. The District 1 Victor grapples away from her and dives into the water. Tyga doesn't dare follow.

'Come on!' Tyga cries to Cecelia, who is slashing her sword towards the man from 9 – a brutish figure with a knife and an impressive ability to dodge swords.

Tyga looks down to her wrist, making sure the grip on her knife is secure and hurls it towards the District 9 Victor. It buries into his shoulder, knocking him to the ground in a plume of crimson.

'COME ON!' Tyga cries, and this time Cecelia runs towards her.

The pair hurtle down the spoke, their legs slipping on the wet rocks, and into the jungle. As another cannon fires, the pair move quickly through the treeline, before Cecelia has to stop, and the pair begin nursing a bleeding leg injury I didn't realise the District 8 Victor had.

'He got me with a spear,' she says, 'Brutus. It's not too bad – I can walk, just not too far.'

Tyga nods and rips off the sleeve of her wetsuit, wrapping it around Cecelia's leg to stop the bleeding.

There's quiet. The pair must have travelled further than I thought because they can't appear to see the cornucopia battle anymore.

'Who's already...y'know?' Tyga asks eventually, her face turning sour, not wanting to ask this but feeling it's necessary. 'I saw the man from 6 go down, but that's all.'

Cecelia nods solemnly.

'Woof,' she says, 'I knew he wasn't going to make it – so did he. Still hurts though. There was someone else too – I heard a cannon but I don't know who it was. And-' Another cannon interrupts her. 'And...I'm so sorry, Tyga.'

She doesn't need to say anymore.

'Vice?' asks Tyga, 'The man from my District?'

She nods and there's quiet for several minutes, only interrupted by another cannon.

'They're still fighting out there,' Cecelia says, 'It's been a long time.'

Again, silence follows. After a while, Tyga finally speaks.

'I'm going to see if I can find some fresh water about,' she says, 'It's boiling.'

'Mm-hm,' Cecelia says, wincing as she moves her injured leg.

Tyga sets off through the jungle. She doesn't travel far enough to not be able to see Cecelia at least through some trees. She searches underneath shrubs and turns aside rocks. She slashes through the undergrowth with a knife and it's pure luck that her knife gets wedged in a thick branch.

She tugs onto it to try and set it free, the blade stuck in the wood. But, as she does water starts to drip from around the cut in the wood. When Tyga eventually frees the knife, a small trickle of water flows from the branch before drying up.

'It's in the trees,' Tyga murmurs.

She turns back and heads towards Cecelia. 'Cecelia, can I borrow your sword? There's water in the-'

A cannon interrupts Tyga, whose face turns white. She cries out as she turns to see Cecelia's limp and bloody body roll onto the ground. A spear is lodged into her back and pulling the weapon out of her flesh is Brutus, flanked by Gloss.

Brutus roars and the pair launch after Tyga. Like a fox, Tyga is on her feet and darting past trees. I feel my heart race, each beat like thunder. She can't die. Not now. She can't. She can't.

The two men speed after her. She turns her head, fear washing over her expression and quickly sends a knife flying behind her. It catches a piece of Brutus' wetsuit, and the knife stabs into a tree, pulling him backwards as the fabric rips. It won't do any damage, but at the speed she's running, it's enough to lose one of the two Careers.

Gloss sends a knife soaring through the air and Tyga screams as it lodges in the trunk of a tree right by her. She uses her agility, swerving in and out of the ominous trunks. She hops over roots and rocks, but one root appears too hefty. Her foot catches on it and she goes sprawling out on the rainforest floor.

Suddenly Gloss is on her. He launches at her on the ground, and pulls out his knife.

And as Tyga screams, the knife plunges towards her.


A/N: So, the Games have begun! Sorry this is a week late - I knew I wasn't going to be able to upload last week but I forgot to mention it. However, this is (I think) the longest chapter I've done so hopefully that makes up for it :) So, I hope you enjoyed it - please, please, PLEASE let me know in the reviews all your opinions! They really mean a lot. Someone commented last time saying they thought Connor wasn't showing emotion in the right places and this kind of feedback, along with positive feedback, really helps me improve (unfortunately I couldn't reply because they were a guest). So, yes, PLEASE review and I'll see you next week :)