Hey! I wanted to post this at the beginning because I didn't want to lose the mood of the ending with this message...Yeah. So I was getting a little bit emotional after writing this, because this project has been about two years running. A lot of rewriting and reworking and the chapter parts are done...It's amazing. I know this fanfiction isn't too long, but it is the longest thing I've ever written.

This is the last chapter, but it's not the last part. Stick around for when I post the epilouge. (So the story isn't over folks, just the chapters are.)

Um...So enjoy :)

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

You're almost there.

Dont shout.

Open your eyes,

to see.

Life is there ahead of you,

pick the lock. Take the key.

Gasping yells

and sleepless nights,

don't matter anymore.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

What could you lose?

Nothing more.

Lottie's POV

I could see it.

That building, we weren't far from it now. On the bottom floor, what looked like a fake tanning salon, butcher, and coffee shop. Above it, about ten floors of what looked like apartments. Silver had said there was a fire escape leading up to the roof on the back. As far as we knew, this was the tallest building in the arena. With a birds-eye view, we might be able to see who was the last one left, or at least see if they were in the area. There looked as if there was a ledge we could hide behind. If so, we could wait in hiding and see the enemy coming, long before they saw us. We would be invisible. For once, I felt like I was going to have the upper hand. For once, I would not be the weakling, I would be the predator. But did I really want it? Did I want to have it with Silver still around, next to me, with as much as an advantage? Did I really want to become a predator, or hunter at all? Should I walk up those steps, and take my chance, or should I just end it all now. Just try to find a way to end it all now. If only I could. If only I had the guts to stop.

If Silver shared any of my thoughts and apprehensions, she didn't show it. A few steps ahead of me, she walked forward silently, her shoulders arched back, her pack swinging against her waist. There seemed to be an air of confidence around her, but based on what I knew about this girl, it seemed to be totally false. Either she was hiding how she felt, or was ignoring it entirely. I could learning from this advice.

Finally, the building was upon us, stretching high, looming over the square of businesses and parking lots surrounding. Far behind the building, right near the edge of yet another forest, was a rather large post office. When we got to the back of building, there indeed was a fire escape, along with a cream door on the bottom floor, presumably for whoever was supposed to live in the apartments above to get into their homes. We knew it would be locked, but we checked anyway, Silver turning the metal doorknob and sighing.

The gate of the fire escape was locked, but easily we both climbed over and started ascending. This was it, the final outcome. We would make it up there, the two of us, watch, and wait. Anything else that could happen would have happened at this point. It was over.

Or so I thought.

We were about halfway up the building, climbing the stairs, when I turned to see her at the edge of the woods, right next to the post office. When Silver noticed I wasn't moving she stopped and saw the girl too. And she was us, and was moving quickly. Her hands and most of her body were covered in a red smur that I could only identify as blood, and an object in her hand glimmered from the light of the beating sun. It was probably a knife. There was no hesitation, there was no strategy. Besides her knife, she had nothing else with her. No pack, no supplies, not even a jacket in the freezing cold weather. There seemed to be a bandage around her shoulder, though. This was the endgame, and she knew it. As she got closer, I could see the red blood dried in what was once beautiful blonde hair.

Jewel.

Silver and I climbed down a floor. At this point, Jewel was almost upon us, and it would be impossible for the two of us to get down and get away. Our advantage was already gone, but we climbed back up the staircase, nowhere else to go. Whatever was going to happen, it was going to happen at the top of the building.

Jewel's POV

Steps.

Feet.

Cracking against the pavement, jumping over patches of grass and dodging telephone poles.

Knife.

Hands.

Grasping for dear life.

My shoulder.

Wounded.

Where Ellia's arrow had pierced me, but not killed me.

Burn.

Arrow.

Where my log had distracted Ellia so that I could pull that arrow right out of my arm and stab her with it. The cloth I had taken, wrapped my shoulder with, screaming terrors into the night.

I don't remember it much. I don't even remember now much. Just running. If I noticed my bandage falling off now I forget about it in a few seconds.

Just cracking.

Just blood.

Just pain.

My mother had always wanted me to do this. She had made some unsuccessful volunteers as a teenager, always beaten out by someone else. Next thing she knew, she was nineteen and all her chances were up. I was the sole child. This was my duty, ever since I was born. She was so proud when I got up there on that stage, so proud.

Lottie's POV

By the time we had reached the seventh floor, she had reached the fire escape and had started climbing up. We could hear her weight clanging on the metal below us, moving much faster than we were. By the time we made it to the rooftop, she was already on the eighth.

I backed up to the ledge, turned around and looked over. Everything seemed so far down, so far down, so far down, so far down-

"Lottie!" yelled Silver, "What are we going to do!"

"I don't know-" I stammered, "So far, so far..down..."

She glanced around. "You go over there, to the right ledge, and you to the left one. She cant get both of us at once...She only has one knife."

I nodded, stalking my way over to the right while Silver rushed to the left. I turned back around to look at Silver. I didn't want to look at the dropoff anymore.

"Just hold on, it's going to be okay," assured Silver.

As soon as she had uttered those words, Jewel had reached the top. I could see her more clearly now, how unkempt her appearance had gotten even since the last time I had seen her. Her hair was mattered with blood, her brown eyes both dazed and menacing. Her right arm was out and bent, clenching onto the knife. Her left arm sat unmoving, and it was then that I saw the wound in her shoulder, not far above her heart, how most of the blood was collected there. I wasn't sure how much of the blood was hers, and how much of the blood could be someone else's. What had she done to kill Ellia? How?

Jewel

One step forward, two steps back.

Where did my bandage go? The blood is started to leave again, won't be long now.

I'm sick mommy, oh so sick, save me mother will you?

I can see them barely, the girl from ten, picked on her last year eligible, and the girl from four, volunteered on her first. How could I do this to either of them, mother? You never had to kill anyone.

One knife, mother. I'm sorry. I'm running.

Lottie

It takes a couple of seconds before I remember I have my makeshift spear in my hand. I prepare myself, and she sees me. She also sees Silver on the other side, completely defenseless. All of her weapons are in her pack, and she doesn't have time to dig them out.

If she goes after Silver first, I can throw this when her back is turned, and that would be it. I'm surprised at how easily the thought comes to my head, how easily the idea of killing is able to sit with me. How prepared I am to murder.

But Silver doesn't do that, as I suspect she wouldn't. She turns toward me, and charges. I'm surprised why she doesn't just throw her knife, and I throw my spear a bit prematurely. It flies past her, but she is disoriented. I run toward Jewel, with a quick glance to the side to see Silver rummaging through her pack, looking for her own knives. By the time I get to Jewel, she's at the corner between the front and right ledges. At this point, she seems to be in a better frame of mind, and she throws her knife. However, I am anticipating this, and I dodge to the left, though a little too late. The knife finds itself in my right arm.

One.

Two.

Three.

I want to scream, cry out, or maybe even cry, but I can do anything. I hear Silver screaming on the other side of the building. There's only a moment left to react when Jewel glances down at her wound. Her bandage had fallen off at some point, and she started losing a lot more blood, I could see it running down her shirt. She stumbles, and then falls backward over the side of the building. Instinctively, I run after her. I'm able to catch her outstretched right arm, but her weight pulls me over, and at the last minute I grab onto the ledge with my free left hand. I'm hanging over the side of the building, the ground a hundred feet below.

I scream into the day. I'm holding onto Jewel's dead weight with my hurt arm. I can't see over the ledge and see Silver, but I know she's running toward us now.

I know everything is happening so fast, but it feels so slow.

Jewel

Why did I run, why didn't I just throw?

Why did I condemn myself, why not try?

Maybe it's because I really did want to die.

Life is fluid, continuous, until it's not.

And right now, it's almost-

gone.

Lottie

When Jewel's cannon goes off, signifying her death, her weight simultaneously becomes heavier in my hand. It's just me and Silver now, no more enemies one the outside. I could easily just let go of Jewel's dead body, let Silver help me up, treat my wound, and I would be okay. I would still be alive. There's no time left to save anybody, heck, there's nobody left to save, but I would be alive.

But what after? It's just me and Silver left after all. Just me and Silver.

I feel my legs drift over the free air, and I look down at the ground below me, so far away. For some reason, it doesn't seem as scary anymore. Just a few minutes ago, probably even less than that, I had gotten sick at the sight, and now, it didn't even bother me, as I hung above it, weighted down by a dead teenager and hanging on only by my left hand. Almost...Calming.

I make the choice when I hear Silver's footsteps on the roof getting closer to me, presumably to pull me back up and save me. It is possible she would just push my fingers off, let me fall and let me die, but I know she won't do that. It would be so much more complicated. I make the choice when I continue to hold onto the weight in my hand, of the girl now dead. I make the choice because Silver never had to kill anyone, and she certainly wasn't going to kill me. And I wasn't going to kill her.

I'm not letting go of you Jewel. It doesn't matter where you are.

I release my left hand from the ledge, and my body starts to fall toward the ground.. I can still save somebody. I can save Silver. There is still so much pain in my body, but so much is gone now that my body is in free air, which I'm happy for. The less, the better.

Falling never feels good, not even when you know you're about to die. The churn in your stomach still stays, as if you are just on a ride.I see Silver's face peer over the ledge, filled with anguish, and I can't help but start helplessly back at her. Do good things, promise me that.

Ten stories of falling, and my last thought before hitting the ground is of my father and my mother, and how happy I am that I'm about to see them again, after all these years.