A/N: Hello, all! Another chapter for you!

And just a reminder that you can review, even if you are a guest to the site.

In fact, this is a reminder to review, whether you ahve an account or not, at least to tell me what I'm doing wrong that is making you not want to review!

Thank you, and enjoy the chapter! :D

Chapter 5

I come to the Gamemakers' centre tired. Pia gets very focused during the Games, so there isn't much space for me in her life. It worries me. She goes through too much for this job.

The afternoon shift starts in ten minutes, and it can be guaranteed that my co-workers will not stop early, so I have a few minutes to wait.

"Hey!" The drawling voice comes from the seat beside the doorway. "I don't think I introduced myself properly last time we met. I'm Jezzebelle Tylor."

I meet the gaze of the Head Gamemaker's daughter and tell her that I am Adrastus. She giggles and smiles sweetly at me. "Yeah," she simpers. "I've heard of you."

"You have?" I ask, surprised.
"Well, no, but it seemed like a good thing to say." She winks.

"Oh."

"So..." She flutters her extraordinarily long eyelashes at me and looks down. "What are you doing... Tomorrow?

"I'm, um, here in the morning. Then I, um, have the, um, afternoon off." I cringe inwardly at my stuttering. Why can't I just relax?! "Why did you, um, ask?"

"Well, I was wondering if you could come to my house."

"What?!"

"To help with some of my homework. Coursework. From my apprenticeship course."

"Um, ok. What's it about?"

"Oh, stuff. I can't remember." She flashes a sheepish grin and glances down at her feet again. "But can you come?"

"I guess..."

"Oh, thanks! That is so nice of you!"

I can't object because the new shifts starts.

I drop the pot of acid very, very fast, my fingers still screaming out for relief from that stupid Gamemaker trick. The pot lands on its side and empties its contents onto the grass, killing all that stands in its path. Rachel and Alexx look up from their conversation. Alexx frowns and goes back to pacing, but Rachel runs over.

"What's the-" she starts.

"Watch out for the acid puddle!" I cry, and she manages to just step over it.

"Acid puddle?!" she asks, staring at the ground.

"Yeah, I got a tin of acid at the Cornucopia."

"Why?!"

"I just picked it up."

"You strange girl." Rachel shakes her head and turns away, eyebrows raised in disbelief. "I'll warn the others."

"Wait, no," I say, "don't tell them, just leave it."

She gives me another funny look before shrugging and walking back to Alexx and Drew. She doesn't mention the acid, but I bet those two heard us.

The rest of the day is spent gathering up our stuff and moving on to stop us from drowning tomorrow.

It is well into the night by the time we reach a far enough away island - isle seven. It is a maze of dead trees, all piled up, burnt or hacked at. The sight is actually quite chilling, and I would ask to move on, but I don't think I can walk another step.

Alexx is probably the least tired, but Drew is in an arrogant mood (Is he ever in a non-arrogant mood?) so he takes watch instead. I'm not sure I'll sleep easily anyway.
When I wake, it is still dark and Alexx is on watch with Drew. I go back to sleep and try to forget what they were doing.

Dawn comes, waking me again, this time from a nightmare. I can't remember it, only that I had one. Part of me thinks it was induced by this creepy island. The way it looks like the whole thing was just abandoned... I know it can't have been, but it still gives me the creeps.

Reason says I'm being stupid, that everything I see is was made for the entertainment of the Capitol and as a place for my death to take place, but another part of me is still creeped by the those eyes and how they probably followed me here. Which is also illogical.

They're just eyes for goodness' sake!

So why can't I get them out of my head?

I lean over and shake Sarah to wake her. Today we will eat here, then move on. She grins up at me and pecks me on the cheek. I draw her close and we kiss for a few seconds before she breaks off, saying we need a fire to cook on. I start selecting some food while she goes to gather more firewood.

We don't have much left, actually. I could've sworn we had more than this yesterday! Maybe I just haven't been paying attention.

Suddenly, I hear a shriek ringing out through the air. It is definitely Sarah. I leap to my feet and run in the direction of the noise.

"Sarah!" I scream at the top of my lungs. "Sarah, where are you?"

"Help!" she screams. "There's a snake! Help!"

"Sarah!" I know she's terrified of snakes. One time back home, we were out in the woods and she saw a snake. I found her back in her house - she had run all the way home. I'd killed it and gone to find her and she asked me out. That was how we met, actually.
She screams again, louder. "Andrew! Your trap! Help!"

No, she can't be caught in one of my traps, can she? No. I run faster, ignoring the bramble and vines that get in my way.

When I finally find her after what seems like hours, Sarah is hanging upside down in one of my net traps, sobbing and calling out for me to help her.

"Andrew..." she mumbles. "Andrew, the snake... It bit..."

I pull out my small knife and start sawing at the rope to release her. She falls into my arms, gasping. I pull her to me.

"Sarah..."

"Tell Dad I love him. Tell him I'll miss him. And tell Andrew... Tell him I love him more than anything and that we should never have been put into this awful situation. Tell him he means so much to me, and he has to win... Make him win. Make him go home, so I don't die in vain."

"Sarah, I'm here. I'm going to get you home, I promise. Just hang on, we'll make it."
"We won't. Not us, but you can, Andrew. I know you're destined to win, and your siblings need you... Your whole family needs you." She chokes back a sob. "Oh, Andrew, it hurts. It hurts, Andrew."

"The pain will go away. I'll make it go away. We can do this, Sarah. Come on, we can do this together. Look at me, keep your eyes open, and we can do this. Trust me."

"I do trust you." The words are no more than mumbles, whispers so quiet I can barely hear them. Hot, wet tears run down my cheeks and mix with her's. But they taint my vision, so I blink them away and focus on Sarah's face.

"Stay with me, Sarah, please. Please."

She does not answer.

She does not answer because she is dead.

Sobs wrack my body, yanking themselves from my chest and ripping into the air. I think of her gorgeous eyes staring into me with such fearlessness when she told me she loved for the first time. I think of how my seven little brothers and sisters got on with her so well, hating when she had to go home almost as much as me. I think of the little things that made her: her hair falling on her back, her positive attitude, her fear of disease, her blind trust in everyone. I think of how much I wanted her - needed her - to live. Of how much I loved her.

And I curl up and cry.

One of my sisters is bullied at school. Every night, I hear her sobbing her heart out in the bed next to mine. I am crying harder than she ever has.

My younger brother gets terrifying nightmares. He cries out and screams loud enough to wake the dead in his sleep. I am screaming louder than that (But it isn't waking the dead, no matter how much I want it to).

The oldest girl in our family, my sister Aida, is abused at work. She carves scratches into herself to make herself less appealing to her boss. The scratches I have in my heart now are far more painful than her scratches, and will last longer than any injuries she has ever given herself before.

My oldest brother was lost to the Games just two years ago. His twin screams awful things about the Capitol every time he thinks of him, so loud even my mother can't shut him up. I am yelling now, and I am yelling worse things, and louder.

Meghan, another sister of mine, lost all her hair in a fight with another girl at school a few months ago. It still hasn't recovered. I pull so much hair out to try and counter the pain in my chest, I don't think it will ever grow back.

Another of my four sisters believes deeply that there is a place where evil people burn for all eternity after they die. I think I would rather go through that than what I'm going through now.

Nothing can make anything better again. Except Sarah.

My mother lost her first husband - my father - to the Capitol during the Dark Days. She won't say anything about him except that my step-father - my siblings' father - only just filled the whole he left behind. Back when she said it, I was only seven, and I didn't understand her.

Now I do.

Well, I understand how she felt when her husband was blown up. I'm surprised she's still here, actually. Then again, she was always a survivor.

I think of Sarah's words - the ones she said just before she died. She told me to make myself win so she didn't die in vain. Only now do the words' meanings strike home; her plan was the same as mine. She intended to die for me. Not this soon, but that was her plan.

She wanted me to win.

I have to now.