Thank you so much for all the new reviews I have got! It means so much to me that you take the time to right to me and share your thoughts. I plan on making the chapters as long as the last one I wrote (chapter 8). Now lets get into the chapter.

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(Katniss's POV)

I wake up in a cold sweat on my bed. I wince as I sit up feeling a large bump on my head. "Good, you're a wake." My head whips to my left and I see Johanna leaning against the wall across from me.

"What happened?" I ask, my question making Johanna sigh.

"You blacked out and hit your head against the counter top." she tells me.

"Oh." I say.

"Would you like something to eat?"

"No," I start shaking my head, "But can I have something for my head?"

"Course, be right back." I hear he fast footsteps as she goes down the stairs. I lay on my back and look up at the ceiling, and close my eyes, letting my thoughts wonder.

I gasp and sit up. Shouldn't Brogan and May be home soon? Well May told me she would be gone all weekend, but what about my son? It's at that moment that I relize what a chaotic week this has been. May's been avoiding this house nearly all week, and for some reason I keep sending Brogan away. I miss Peeta so much, but I know if I call again he will be worried, and I can't do that to him when he already has to deal with poor Annie. I look at the clock on the bedside table, it reads 7:00. I hear Johanna coming up the stairs, and see hear in the room entrance holding an ice pack.

"Jo, have you seen Brogan?" I ask her.

"Don't worry Katniss, Brogan came a few hours ago after you passed out." I let out a sigh of relief.

"He's in his room?" I ask for more information, and she nods to answer my question. I reach for the ice pack pack from her hands and place it on the bump on my head.

"Jo, can I ask you something?"

"You know you can ask me anything Katniss."

"Why do you think Peeta is having all of these flashbacks, and why he feels he can't tell me about them?" I ask her.

"Well Katniss, believe it or not Peeta is just as afraid as you when it comes to May, add that fear to Annie's breakdown so it's kind of obvious why he is having trouble keeping it together. As for why he fells he can't tell you well... when Annie told you, you kind of blacked out." I chuckle and shake my head. My hands have gone cold from the ice and I look out the window and see dark blue. I slowly look back to Johanna.

"Jo?" I say to Johanna.

"Hm?"

"Has May come home?" Johanna's head snaps up and her face reflects worry and fear.

"Jo?" I ask again, now afraid for her answer.

"N-no, sh- she hasn't come home..."

(May's POV)

After we recovered from watching... watching what happened to my dad, we started up the tape again. My mom lays on the ground against a log, multiple leaves on her body. Then I see a small figure creep on to the screen. It's the little girl, Rue I think her name was. My mom comes to and seems confused with where she is, and becomes even more confused when she sees Rue. The chat for a minute and my mom thanks Rue for tending to the tracker-jacker stings. The two grow closer with each passing minute, even though they have just met one another.

We are drawn in as the two discus plans to even the playing field with who they call the careers. "What's a career?" Ali asks looking at me, I at first shrug, then I remember the book. I scurry over to where I hid it under the floor board, and both if my friends give me puzzled looks when I pull it out.

"I got this from the library, it's about the games. It should explain what a career was, well in the games." I say, and their eyes widen. I flip to the index and I smile when I find the word. My smile quickly turns into a grimace when a read the definition of the word. "It says hear that a career was a potential tribute who were from districts 1, 2, and 3 who train from age 5 to be thrown into the games. It also says that most of the time in those districts, all of the 18 volunteer, and it[s actually an honor to go to the games and you are treated with envy to pity like you would expect." I say bitterly. Lars looks at me, disgust deforming his usually beautiful face.

"That's not fair." Ail says quietly.

"No, no it's not..." I say, shaking my head. "Well, why don't we watch the tape, you know, again."

"Okay." Lars says looking at the screen. I turn to screen but am unable to tear my eyes away from Lars's face. He focuses on the screen so intensely I worry he may hurt himself. I look down, blush, shake my head, and crawl over to him. "Hey, you okay?" I ask quiet enough that Ali doesn't hear me. He turns to me, our eyes searching the others.

"I don't know May, I- I have absolutely no idea." He matches my volume when he speaks. I cock my head out of sympathy.

"Lars..." I slowly shake my head and hesitantly grab his hand and squeeze. "I'm sorry you have to go through this, but I am so grateful that you are here with me .and Ali." He smiles at my statement and opens his mouth to respond when we hear Ali grunt. We look over to the other side of the room and see Ali looking confused at whet ever is being shown on the screen.

After Rue and my mom split up she creeps into the bushes by the valley I remember from he beginning of the games. The camera changes and reveals that this is where the uh, careers have set up camp. I notice very quickly that they have stacked nearly all of the supplies that was offered in the first place in a pyramid like shape that is surrounded by the platforms that the tributes stood on as the timer to start the games was counting down. I clearly have a confused look on my face when I notice the piles of dirt next to each platform, and Lars gives a small chuckle at my confusion. "What?" I ask sounding slightly more irritated than I intended to.

"That kid, I think he's from district 3." Lars points to a thin blond boy who is out of place when surrounded by muscular and lean kids.

"So?" He rolls his eyes and my annoyance grows.

"People from district 3 are pretty much geniuses, at least back then. Sooo, that kid dug out the bomb from under the platforms and somehow wired them to go off if someone got near the supplies."

"If that's true, then how would they get to the supplies?" Ali asks, trying to irritate Lars, instead her words get him all flustered.

"Well, um, they, maybe he, um, maybe he somehow figured a way to turn it on and off when needed?" He says, obviously coming up with his answer as he spoke.

"It's a question?" I say, me and Ali know just what to say to get Lars to rethink his cocky answers.

"No"

"Then why'd you say it as one." Ali says, not even trying to hide her smile. Lars sighs.

"Can we just see what happens?" I give him a pass for trying to change the subject simply because I want to find out what will happen as well.

The career's attention is taken by a huge cloud of smoke that must have been set by Rue. They set out to kill who ever set it, leaving the thin kid behind as a guard.

My mom hesitates trying to figure out what kind of trap is set. I sense she is about to run out , but just as she is about to go, a girl with red hair beats her too it. The girl skips around the areas where the dirt isn't flat, and I gasp when she trips and let's out a squeal of horror. She exhales when nothing happens, runs to the pile, grab some food, and takes off before the careers even hear her. My moms mouth is dropped in awe of what she just witnessed. By now I'm pretty sure Lars was right about the whole bomb thing, but now I'm concerned with how my mom will get to it. But my mom isn't concerned with getting to it. My mom takes an arrow and load it in the bow and I can't help but chuckle.

"What's she doing, my mom can't shoot an arrow?" I say to my friends.

"Maybe she could when she was younger?" Ali says.

"No way if she could, she would have talked about it."

"Like how she did about the Hunger Games?" Lars says sarcastically. I scoff and turn my attention back to the screen in time to see a arrow slice open the side of a bag of apple. I refuse to say anything as I watch my mom load her bow once again and send a perfect arrow at the bag, opening the whole wider, and sending the apple down the stack of supplies. The apples trigger the bombs to go off, which makes all three of us cover our ears. My mom is thrown back from the explosion and the camera pans over head showing the dumbfounded careers return to their camp. The thin boy looks so confused and scared when Cata come marching up to him, his face red with rage. In one swift motion Cato's arms wrap around the neck of the boy and twist, breaking his neck and killing him.

"Jeez." Lars says and I nod in agreement. Our shock turns disbelief when Cato has a tantrum due too his supplies being destroyed.

"He's acting like a child when they are told they can't have dessert."Ali says.

My mom doesn't find it as amusing and she is focused on escaping the scene in order not to end up like that thin blond boy. My mom escapes the area and tries to call out to Rue by whistling to the Mockingjays. The longer Rue doesn't reply, the more worried all four of us become. Then we hear it. The horrific screech of a little girl: Rue. My mom follows the scream and finds little Rue tangled in a net. My mom gets straight to work sawing away at the rope, but then a rusting is heard in the leaves. A spear comes hurtling towards them and my mom dodges it, and shoots a perfect arrow into the boys neck. We let out a horrified sobs when we see the damage the spear has done. Rue lays in the net, the spear stinking out of her. I hung my shoulders, afraid I may throw up. Lars rubs my back to comfort me though Ali is more of a mess than I am. Her sobbing masks the audio on the screen as we see my mom crying and singing to little Rue as she dies.

The cannon goes off.

My mom pulls herself together long enough to surround Rue with flowers and kiss her forehead as she says goodbye.