"Go, Raine, go!" Pascal hissed quietly.

"I-I don't know where to go-!" Raine whimpered. Pascal grabbed her hand and took off running down a hallway. Raine was quick and easily kept up with him, which was good.

The careers were after them. Or, after someone anyways. Pascal had woken from a light sleep to the voices of the boys from one and two. They were cocky and they were not at all quiet, so it wasn't hard for him to locate them standing outside what would've been the front door of the building. They were planning on coming in once their district partners and the kids from 4 arrived.

If it hadn't been for Raine, he would've shimmied down the air vents again, but Raine didn't know her way around a vent system like he did and he didn't want her to fall, get stuck, or make too much noise. They had to take the stairs.

That meant they were practically out in the open. They had to be fast and quiet and find some place to hide. Luckily for them, the building was meant to be an old office building. There would be plenty of places to hide, if they managed to get to a room before they were slaughtered.

They were 3 floors down from the top when they could hear the career's voices on the inside of the building through the stairwell. That's when Pascal had snagged Raine's hand and dashed down the hallway.

The voices grew closer as the careers tramped up the stairs.

"I know someone's in here," said a female voice teasingly from somewhere on the stairs. It echoed through the building and made Pascal's heart leap into his throat.

Many of the rooms had open doors and Pascal pulled Raine into one on the left side of the hallway, the second room before the dead end. The room had a table overturned in front of a closet. Without thinking much, he dove behind the overturned table. He hadn't let go of Raine and she was dragged along, but she wasn't ready. Her leg caught on a table leg as she collapsed to the ground. She cried out in surprise as she fell face first onto the floor.

"Hmm, scared are we? Come out now and I'll make this as painless as possible." Said the girl's voice from before. Another voice snickered.

Pascal yanked Raine the rest of the way behind the table and into the little alcove of the open closet and clamped a hand over her mouth before pulling her tightly to his side. She was trembling. She had just made it that much easier for them to be caught, but it wasn't her fault, not really.

"Sh, it's okay." He whispered into her ear, even though his brain kept repeating that this was how he was going to die.

He had kept a close eye on the careers during training. They were physically strong, but not all that intelligent from the looks of things. He knew he had to outsmart them if he had any chance of getting home, but it might already be too late for that. If they could smell fear, they would find them any second. They were already going through different rooms

At the sound of approaching footsteps, he hunched over even lower and squeezed his eyes shut. Please, he thought, make it fast.

Suddenly, a door slammed somewhere below them.

"There's one down here!" cried a deep voice and the approaching footsteps went running in the other direction and down the steps.

Another tribute was in the building. Pascal was just asking himself how long the other person was in there and how stupid they must have been to slam a door when a sharp scream filled the air.

Raine pressed her hands to her ears, but Pascal still heard another scream and the shattering of glass that followed. A shiver ran down his spine as the careers laughed about their newest kill.

They had pushed someone out a window from at least three stories up. Whether they were already dead or not, it still seemed extra cruel. But if they hadn't, someone from the Capitol would have had to come in to retrieve the body. Hovercrafts couldn't get into buildings as far as Pascal knew.

The laughter subsided and was replaced by voices and the occasional chuckle, but Pascal was relieved to hear that the voices trailed farther away until he could no longer hear them. The rumble of the hovercraft soon came and went, and only once it was gone did he release his grip on Raine.

As the adrenaline subsided, he realized he had gotten rug burn on the hand that hadn't been holding Raine's from diving. It stung, but he could live with it. Raine had knocked her head into the ground, but other than a sore nose and a small bump on her temple as well as a newly forming bruise on her leg, she seemed okay except for the tears welling up in her eyes.

"Sorry, I'm sorry! My mama says I'm clumsy sometimes."

"You have nothing to apologize for. I shouldn't have pulled you down like that." Pascal replied with a kind, sad smile as he brushed a loose lock of hair off her forehead, carefully avoiding the bump. Her ponytail was already falling out.

"I almost," she sniffled. "I almost let them get us 'cause I made a noise!"

"It's really okay, Raine. I promise. You and I are still here."

"They pushed someone out a window. That could've been us."

Pascal sighed. She was right, it could have been. They sat in silence for a few moments before Pascal adjusted his glasses and stood up. He offered a hand to Raine, who took it. "It's not safe here any more. We have to get moving."

Raine nodded and dutifully followed after him. Thankfully, they wouldn't have to walk past the room the other tribute was murdered in because of the stair placement, but if he was correct and they went the way he wanted to go, they would walk past the place where the tribute landed outside the building. When they got out of the building, he walked on Raine's right on purpose to block the sight of the fall from her. He, however, stole a glance in the direction and was hit with a wave of nausea when he saw they shattered glass and a small pool of blood. He turned away quickly, took Raine by the hand once more, and they hurried on. There was a house-looking building in the distance and they way there was through the forested area. Perhaps they would be safe there.

"So, you have a daughter?" Beetee asked Pascal after the arrival to the Training Center. Agnes had gone off to her room and Wiress was wandering about. The escort, a blue haired, bespectacled young woman, had gone off to do something she considered important.

"I… yes." Pascal replied. Most of the tributes wouldn't arrive until the next day, so he didn't need to worry about anything at the moment.

Beetee rested his hands on the table in front of him.

"How old is she?"

"Almost two,"

"And your… girlfriend I'd imagine, unless you've married her, has her now?"

"My parents do actually, Row- my, my girlfriend… she's… dead."

He had been lying since Ada's birth to everyone but his immediate family. The store was he and Rowena were secretly dating and Rowena was too embarrassed to admit Pascal, her childhood best friend, was Ada's father while she was alive so her parents wouldn't hate him. None of that was true, as even Pascal didn't know who Ada's father was other than the fact that it certainly wasn't him. As Ada grew, his mother said maybe they'd find out based on her looks, but so far, Ada looked like her mother.

"Ah, my sincerest apologies, young man. So much has happened to you at your young age already."

Pascal could only nod his head a little in response.

"So Ada is your daughter, and your girlfriend was… Row?"

"Rowena, actually." Pascal corrected, fidgeting with the bracelet made of wire and other spare parts on his wrist. It had been Rowena's, she had given it to him to hold onto the day she died and he had worn it every day since. He looked down at the carefully braided piece of jewelry. "I called her Row."

"Now, I know this seems a little… distasteful, but in a few weeks, when you do your interview, I think it'd be in your best interest if you brought up Ada and Rowena. I don't want you to talk about how smart you are if you can help it."

Pascal looked back up to his mentor. "How did you-?"

"You graduated top of your class, Mister Fierwel. I've heard a lot about you."