Suuuuper slow update since I'm on day 5 of 6 12-hour shifts in 6 days. I'm only home and not asleep about an hour a day and I've been piecing this together one POV at a time.

Irina Sokolova- District One female (18)

I was dreaming.

I knew I was dreaming because I was in a circus tent, standing with a crowd behind me and a lioness ahead of me. I was wearing my green leotard with yellow fringe, the one I didn't like because I thought the colors were ugly and only wore when all the others were in the wash. I couldn't usually tell I was dreaming but the Games were so overpowering that even in my dreams I couldn't escape them.

"Someone give me a math problem! But not too hard. Catso may be a Very Educated Lioness but she is still a lioness," I heard myself say.

On the stage Catso lay on the ground beside a horn with a clown-style red bulb. Catso wasn't big on moving around. She was born with a hip defect and that was how she ended up with us. Her old Capitolite handlers never bothered to monitor her diet and she was a very very fat kitty when she came to us, a Capitolite animal lover having managed to prevent her from being harvested for her fur. A few months of supervised feedings and she was a healthy perky cat again. I'd already renamed her from Fatso to Catso the day we got her and at last she looked like it. She still wasn't able to do the more mobile acts but she could honk a horn like no other cat I'd known.

"What's seven minus three plus four?" a boy in the audience called out.

"Perfect!" I turned to Catso. "Catso, can you tell us what seven minus three plus four is?"

Catso heaved forward and gently shut her jaws on the horn.

Honk!

To anyone watching it would look like Catso was indeed a Very Educated Lioness. Everyone wanted to see a cat solve an equation and didn't look closely at me to see my thumb and finger curled at my side. Like all muttation performing cats Catso had the intelligence of a three-year-old and she actually could count to five, since she had five toes, but arithmetic was beyond her. She watched me closely as she honked the horn.

Honk! Honk! Honk! Honk! Honk! Honk! Honk!

I uncurled my fingers. Catso let go of the horn and sat back. The crowd erupted into applause.

"Catso! The Very Educated Lioness!"

The dream ended as abruptly as it began. I was lying on the hard ground staring up at the stars peeking through the gap in a teepee roof. Catso was gone. No circus tent. No cats. Just a cold Arena and people in the dark trying to kill us.

I rolled over onto my side and cradled my head in my arm. I'd had a perfect life back home. I could have stayed there forever. It was funny how much parents mean to you. I gave up everything to make them happy but... shouldn't they have been happy I was happy? Aren't parents supposed to support their kids' dreams? I had my dream. I was living the life of my dreams. I gave all of it up to make them proud and as I lay on the ground, two of my friends already dead and knowing I'd lose the rest of them, I was starting to think my parents weren't worth sacrificing for. I'd made the wrong choice, choosing them over myself. But it was too late. I was in the Arena and I'd either die or make them proud. And if I made it home to Catso and everyone else I'd find nothing but a quiet tent empty of the people I should have considered my real family. There was no solution to my mistake. So I lay in the dark and cried.

Tabitha Sparks- District Three female (15)

Richard was a really cool guy. A lot of people assumed he was a dumb strong guy who just took cannonballs to the stomach all day. First of all, that would eventually cause damage, even if he was prepared. Secondly of all, there was a lot more to Richard than that. Yes, he actually wasn't too academically inclined but he still knew a lot about a lot of things. And he had plenty of hobbies and casual interests that were interesting to hear about.

"So yeah, if you use cast iron, make sure to just gently wipe it with a damp cloth and then season it again. But it's worth it because everything tastes better in a cast iron pan." He'd just gone over a recipe for roasted vegetable skillet that sounded amazing after days of canned beans and water.

"Well, nature calls," I said, rising and shrugging out of the blanket we were huddled under together. The Arena was hot as anything during the day but at night it got surprisingly cold, especially now that we were in a teepee instead of a walled house.

Richard sighed. "This call's on the party line," he said, rising with me. "Not trying to be weird but in the Arena bathroom stuff is on a buddy system."

"The only weird thing is saying 'party line'," I said. What does that even mean?

"Back like forever ago- they had phones but all the houses were connected so everyone could hear when someone got called," Richard said.

"No way. What about all the nosey people?" I asked.

"They loved it!" Richard said. He folded the blanket up under his arm so I could use it as a shield once we got a bit away from camp.

One good thing about the Arena was the stars. In Three I never really saw them. Unless there was a power outage most of us went our whole lives seeing only a faded echo of the stars. I hadn't known the sky could be an endless pitch-black carpet with stars just everywhere. It was like an ocean but above me instead of below me.

On the ground the Arena was dark as well. The ground was mostly flat but I still had to look at my feet to make sure I didn't stumble. That's why I didn't see the black wolf approaching. I had no idea it was there until my collar yanked tight around my neck and wrenched me to the ground on my side. Then I saw the yellow eyes inches from my face.

Richard Franklin, District Five male (18)

It looked like Tabitha suddenly had a seizure. Her upper half jerked sideways and she fell awkwardly to the dirt. There was something weird about the space next to her head and it was only after an instant that I could make out the shadowy form of a wolf so black it was almost invisible in the night. It hefted Tabitha closer so it could bite her face instead of her shirt as she slapped at its face and tried to scoot backwards.

I was on the wolf before I knew what was happening. I heard Tabitha's shrieks and thought left my mind. The wolf was trying to drag her away and the only thing I was aware of was my fear that it would get her into the darkness before I could reach them. I ran like I'd never run before. When I reached them I wrapped an arm around the wolf's neck and started punching it in the eyes and nose. It opened its mouth to adjust its grip and I shoved my arm in its mouth before it could bite down on Tabitha. Its teeth gouged into my skin but the angle meant it couldn't bite down too hard. It moved sideways and its sheer bulk pushed me back- I'd had no idea wolves were that heavy. It felt like fighting a mountain lion. Its feet tangled with mine and I fell on my backside, still punching the wolf.

Not ten seconds had passed since the wolf attacked. I laced my fingers together and pulled the wolf's head with both arms, forcing it away from Tabitha. She got to her feet to help me and screamed again just as another set of jaws clamped down on my side. The second wolf saw her and let go of me to attack her. I grabbed its ear and yanked with all I had. It yelped and turned back to me, biting my arm to make me let go. At the same time the first wolf tossed its head and backed up to get my arm out of its mouth. It stepped on my chest, its claws digging into my skin, and started to gnaw at my shoulders and throat.

"IRINA!" Tabitha screamed. She turned to run for help as I dug my fingers into the second wolf's ear so it couldn't run after her. Once she had gotten some distance the wolf lost interest and turned back to me. That was when I knew and made peace with my death.

But not Tabitha. You didn't get Tabitha. You never will.

Lester Browning, District Three male (16)

I was sound asleep. Tabitha screamed. I'd never been more awake.

I stumbled out of the tent, staring out at the dark night. Irina was already ahead of me with a knife in her hand. Tabitha's form materialized out of the darkness- it was uncanny how dark it got so close to the edge of the tent- and I ran to her.

"Wolves!" Tabitha screamed, pushing away from me and running to Irina.

"Where?" Irina asked, sounding more like a Career than I'd ever heard. Even in the darkness I could sense her tension and the calculations in her head. Beside us Nene was rifling through our supplies trying to find a light we knew we didn't have.

Tabitha looked out into the silent darkness. Wherever the wolves were, they weren't howling. They hadn't made a single sound. And neither had Richard. I didn't need to see to know what was happening. The wolves were dragging Richard and one of them had him by the throat.

"Where?!" Irina shouted.

Our panic started with the jarring sound of Tabitha's scream. It ended a second later with the jarring boom of a cannon.

12th place: Richard Franklin- killed by wolves

Richard was pretty popular with the voters all throughout. The margins right now are a lot thinner and he died with only -1 vote. I planned this death and then when I looked back at his form I saw it was the requested death. What are the odds? Richard was a cool guy and I like that someone actually sent a strong guy when most people think that's basic. Strong guys are people too and Richard was more than people thought. And he went out like an absolute savage. Thanks Evan and FWIW he would have lasted longer in a non-voting Games.