Disclaimer: I don't own Hunger Games.

Chapter 9:

Thresh's POV

We can hear the screams all the way from here. Haunting screams that sound oddly feminine. I'd assure Rue, but she seems to have already figured out who that probably was. After the screams, that seem interminable, a cannon fires.

"Don't worry, Rue, it might be District 5," I tell her, but she's already pacing back and forth, her eyes clouded with worry.

After a while, she starts to hiccup, and eventually just sits in place, trying to calm herself, ignoring my suggestions.

At night, we see Katniss's face in the sky. Then Rue goes insane. "She trusted me. She protected me. She loved me!" she says, her voice getting louder each sentence. "Without her I wouldn't be here, she helped me get here. And now she's gone," she sobs, "She's gone." She is hyperventilating now, her eyes glaze over, then focus again, then glaze over, then focus. She looks like she is fighting against insanity.

Nothing I say about her seems to help, so I try a new approach. "You need to win. Katniss would've wanted you to."

Rue keeps blubbering till I repeat it again. She stands still and stares ahead blankly. Then, she tilts her head to the side and looks up at me. She breathes normally now, and doesn't hiccup every second. "Really?" she whispers.

"Really," I say. I take her hand in mine and squeeze it tight. I see a faint trace of a smile on her face.

I roll out her sleeping bag. "Go to sleep now," I tell her.

She nods silently and curls up in the sleeping bag. We take turns sipping from my water container.

When it's my turn to sip, I pass it back to her to find her fast asleep. I sigh and smile, brushing the hair off her face.

I stare up at the stars, twinkling like Rue's eyes. I stay that way until morning.

At dawn, Rue is up and ready to go. She looks so different from the weeping girl from last night.

"Are you alright?" I ask.

"Yeah," she says, looking out in the distance.

Good, then you'll be ready for what I have in store.

"Good," I say with a smile. "'Cause today, we're going to get revenge.

Clove's POV

I smile as the ox tells the tiny fairy the plan. As if he knows anything about revenge. I roll my eyes.

I turn to Cato. "You know they're not going to be able to defeat us."

"Of course not," the edges of his lips curl up. "Because we're going to get there first."

I know this is a pretty poor excuse for a chapter, especially since I've been gone for so long. But, it's still a chapter. And there will be more coming soon.