this is the 12th chapter, and i have a suprise! so read on and on, and notice little royals dramatic change over the next chapters or so... will she survive?

"Lets talk strategy then victor, eh?" beetee asked victor as the train barreled down the tracks at high speed on its way to the capitol with me , royal Clearwater, as its victim in its cruel games. I never thought I would be on this train, never, not once…

"okay…as long as royal comes over here and stops looking out the window," suddenly hands were on my waist from behind, but I didn't make a move to get out of them. A head was on my shoulder, but all I did was stare at the rapidly passing plants and trees on the side of the tracks.

"royal, come on, we'll talk strategy, okay? Come on, come on," his breath hit my ear and made me shiver slightly, but I didn't move. Soon enough, he stepped away from me and turned to the rest of our party.

"this will just take a second-" I don't know what he was about to do, but I don't care at all. He could throw me off of the train, and I would just run back to district three again, without a care in the world. but Suddenly, he scooped me up around the waist, and I didn't make a sound, which made most of our crew look slightly unhinged.

He walked out of the room and down the hallway, entering one of the bedrooms, and by the looks of it, I think its his.

He laid me down on the bed, and put his hands on either sides of my head, lowering himself so his face was only a few inches from mine. I didn't smile, laugh, or even try to look surprised at his actions.

"whats up?" only then there was a shift in my attitude, and it wasn't in the happy direction.

"whats up? whats UP! I am headed to my doom! Get OFF me!" I pushed him away and stood, pacing around the room frantically.

"royal! Cam down!" he reached towards me, but I wouldn't let him touch me, I kept pacing around the foot of my bed.

"calm down! CALM DOWN! No I will NOT calm down victor I will NOT be told what to do anymore, I am going to die! Just face it! stop loving me! Stop talking to me! Help dodge win! Forget me!" I screamed at him, feeling tears run down my face in exhasperation. The way his face looked brought me to my knees, I started to sob hardly, shaking and scrunching up into a ball.

There were feet in front of my face, and I continued to cry. I felt victors hands on me suddenly, and he bent down so his mouth was in my ear.

"its okay royal come on, just come towards me, please…let me help you…" I looked up at him, and reached my arms out so he could pick me up.

He walked to the bed, and sat down. was sitting in his lap like I was a tiered five year old sobbing against his chest because I didn't get to eat ice cream before dinner. That's definitely how I felt, disappointment and regret, if a child could feel regret at a time like this.

"shh, its okay, stop crying," he cooed softly, but I continued to wail, feeling the pain and reality of it all come down on me like a bomb.

"no! no-no! no-!" I whined, my body racking with sobs.

"calm down, its okay, I'm going to get you home… I promise royal…" I pulled away from him, but still felt his hands running up and down my back soothingly.

"I'm not going to come home!" I whispered fiercely, wiping my eye with the back of my hand.

"yes, if I have anything to say about it. I control everything, remember last year? Our tributes got extremely well in, both were in the final six!"

"yes! But neither of them made it to the final four…"

"that's because they were allies anyway, they got caught in a tight place and were killed, like I can tell them were to go!" he growled back, making my eyebrows furrow.

"just face it, you-cant-get-me-home!" I was getting irritated, but tears still leaked out of my eyes.

"I WILL GET YOU HOME!" he whispered harshly, grabbing both of my wrists and shaking me with them. I started to cry once more, hanging my head and letting the tears fall onto my lap.

"look at me," he whispered sadly, "LOOK AT ME ROYAL!" I had to, he lifted my head so I looked at him, I felt scared, I was shying away from him and my breath came in short bursts. His eyes shut open, and he touched my face softly, the motion made me flinch, but I didn't leave his lap."I'm sorry," he saw that he hurt me, he probably understood that I wasn't coming home, its just that I grasped the concept earlier, I don't care, he'll just find someone new, he has to.

"i-i…i-.." I stuttered, not daring to look him in the eyes.

"maybe you should sleep, I'll go tell them that we should talk strategy later. We have about four hours until we get to the capitol, so just rest up okay," he leaned forward and kissed me softly on the side of my face. I wasn't sure how to talk to him, so I let him kiss my face repeatedly. Soon enough, he had had his fill of me and picked me up. I was calmer now that he wasn't yelling at me or trying to tell me a lie that would die with me. False hope isn't something I need right now. He opened the blankets and laid me down. Closing my eyes was a pleasure, the darkness came over me pleasantly, but I wasn't tierd at all, so I opened them again, and found victor absent.

Is he going to come back? I don't know…how much will I be able to see of him over the next few days? What do I do? Will I be able to survive? I cant answer any of these questions, so I just let sleep rush over me…

I saw gizz, but he was laying on the floor, jerking back and forth menacingly. He started to twitch. Then when I turned him over, he was suddenly victor. Blood came out of his mouth, foamy and pink. I screamed, shaking him to try and get the sanity back into him, but instead, he lunged at me, the foam gone, but a knife glinted in the light from god knows where. I screamed as I ran away from him. but suddenly, gizz bared my way, holding an axe. I screamed again as the two boys walked slowly towards me, obviously contemplating my death between the two of them

sping I sat up, and felt as if all the air in my lungs had ran for cover as he burst into the room, scaring me half to death as he did so by the way.

"whats wrong?" he yelled, running over to me and grabbing whatever he could to make me stop thrashing to get away from him. all I saw was foam, the bloody, painful, pink foam that meant he wanted to kill me.

Suddenly I stopped, and realized that he had no foam, just his wide eyes. He was laying on top of me, breathing hard. I started to cry, loudly.

"royal, its okay! What happened?" he shifted around so he was holding me better.

"you!-and-..gizz! you-you-you two….. you were!" I broke down, muttering insane things and rocking back and forth. That was the moment I thought I wasn't going to be the same, ever.

"you know royal," victor whispered when I had finally calmed down an hour or so later.

"what?" I breathed, I had cried all my tears, and screamed my lungs out so I was tiered and dehydrated, I didn't feel well, my heart was broken, and everything else was worn out too.

"your beautiful…" I looked at him sadly, but he wasn't finished, "and smart… so either way…your dangerous," it struck a nerve, it made me think… either way I'm dangerous? How? Being pretty, and having wits isn't something everyone is born with, I think its mostly one or the other. Victor seems to have both of them, so I cant understand why he's the one telling me this.

"why?"

"why?" he rubbed the back of his neck worriedly, "because your gorgeous, and you aren't stupid! Your fast and nimble, I can see you winning the games this year," he smiled at me, which brought out a small smile of mine.

"I still don't think I'm going to win. I'm probably going to get hurt and crawl of into a bush to get sick and infected and die in my sleep. That is if the mutts don't get me…" he laughed, scooting closer so his chest dug into my shoulder and side.

"don't worry…I'll help you the whole time. when you have those few days to train, you just figure out what plants and survival techniques, okay? The first day should be reserved to that, and then, the next day you can do weapons…we have to think logically about this whole thing. You need to be able to provide food for yourself and survive until at least the third day, that's when people get interested and bet more. You can make it, you just have to be allusive, which you could do very easily." Victor threw his arm over me and snuggled a little closer in a hug that warmed me up and soothed me immensely.

"victor?" I whispered, looking at him.

"hm?"

"what if I took on the role of a career?"

huh? how about THEM apples! i had fun writing this chapter, i think she is starting to become unstable. realize victor didnt start all this, yeah he cried once but he was stable and happy before she got reaped. are you still thinkin about the 11 other stories yet? because i think im going to do it! yeah, and thanks for all the reviews... :)... so yeah keep reviewing if you wanna, i really would like some critisism, alot of the time im half asleep and have nothing to do so i write. i look back at it and think, "i LIST TO MUCH STUFF!" yeah im trying to fix that, so sorry...

review :) -jaybayray123 p.s royal isnt royal