Demetria Rhye, District Nine (13)

After the shark took Ashlyn it was just me. I stayed in the basement a long time. There were Careers on the upper floors. They weren't any stores on the bottom floor- just the big aquarium- so they'd only peeked down one time and then gone back to looking for the food stores most Tributes were hiding in.

I would have starved if it wasn't for the sponsors. Once the seaweed in the petting tank ran out they started sending in waves of gifts for me- everything from blankets to cupcakes to a sword I definitely couldn't use. I found out later I was far and away the most popular Tribute for sponsors. Sometimes people like to pick someone to help so they can feel good about themselves. It happens every few Games apparently. It's always someone thirteen or twelve. I was the first one to actually win.

When I saw Jamie he'd snuck almost right up to my pirate ship hideout. I could see in his eyes what he was willing to do to get my food. I stopped him in the best way I could think of.

"Come have some food," I said. I liked friends better than enemies.

There were only five people left when Jamie and I allied. It took a long time before a cannon sounded and we saw Reiner's face in the sky. We spent most of our time in the play area surrounding the pirate ship. Sometimes we would go out and pet the little stingrays and sharks in the pool. I liked the stingrays better because they were smooth and felt like gel. We would have gone into the aquarium but it was full of dead fish that had fallen out when the shark broke the tank lining the left side of the corridor. It smelled worse each day but we were glad for it. The Careers would go everywhere else in the Arena before they came down into our disgusting-smelling haven. More than a week went by of me and Jamie just being friends.

Jamie suggested we lay booby traps for the inevitable moment we'd have to fight someone. We rigged up a few childish little traps that might work but I didn't have any confidence about them. More likely they'd just annoy the Career coming to kill us. Jamie practiced sometimes with my sword. I never stopped him because a secret part of me thought if a Career attacked and Jamie fought back he'd be killed and I'd have a better chance of winning.

We never did end up having to fight anyone. One cannon rang out one day and the other followed a few hours after. Either Emma or Hunter had killed the other and then died of their wounds. Math was never my strong suit but I could count to twenty-four. Jamie and me were the only ones left. We looked at each other sickly.

"What do we do?" I asked.

"I can't kill you," Jamie said. My sword lay forgotten in the far corner of the pirate ship.

"I can't either," I said. We were little kids. We thought about things like homework assignments and finding pennies in couches to buy candy. The day before the cannons sounded we'd spent hours making up a pretend game involving ghost pirates and being able to talk to stingrays.

"They'll send something to kill us if we don't do something," Jamie said.

"Wait," I said. I rummaged around in our supplies and came up with the vial of poison. It was a horrible idea I had in my head. It made me sick that I'd thought of it and even sicker that I understood what it meant. But Jamie agreed.

We walked up the stairs and entered the empty upper floor. It was weird to be the only ones there. We found a candy store and picked out everything we wanted. We sat there for a while just thinking about nothing at all. Then, when the thought of eating more candy made us sick, we opened the cooler and took out two bottles of water.

I broke both bottles open and poured the poison into one. I put them into a cardboard box we found in the back of the store and Jamie and I shook it up for a while. We opened the cardboard panels and each took a bottle.

My stomach churned as I opened my bottle. It felt like there was no other way. I didn't want to dwell on the odds. Either I died or I didn't. Running numbers wouldn't change anything.

The water didn't taste like anything but water. The poison didn't have a taste so that didn't mean anything. I swallowed two mouthfuls just to make sure and set it down. Jamie and I looked at each other for the first sign.

It was his eyes. Dread slowly poured into them as he realized before any real symptom showed. He shoved his hand in his mouth in a panicked attempt to induce vomiting. I screamed as his muscles spasmed all at once and he fell backward like he'd been electrocuted. He gasped for breath twice and died.

It was the only way, I thought as the tiles opened in the ceiling above me. Two friends with one equal chance.