I stare blankly ahead for a few moments before walking to the platform. Seven slips out of thousands. One last time, and I would have been free. It didn't work that way.

Silence forms around me as I climbed the steps, feeling like chains were wrapped around my ankles as I move, then stood completly still infront of everyone. Effie speaks, bring me out of my trance. "Come on everybody! Let's give a big round of applause to our newest tribute!" No one claps. Silence. That's all I need. Silence. Sweet, sweet silence saying one thing.

All of this is wrong.

I squirm a bit as Haymitch wraps his arm around my shoulder. His breath reeks of liquor, and once again I have trouble keeping back the contains of my stomach. It has been months since he's bathed. The man starts saying something, but I am lost. That is, until he falls off the platform. With the cameras on him, I have just enough time to look to me parents, whom press their three middle fingers of their left hand to their lips.

I close my eyes for a few moments and listen. Don't cry..do not cry. Haymitch is wheeled away and Effie is speaking again. "It's time to choose our boy tribute!" She shifts her wig a bit then goes to the boy's ball and pulls out the first paper she gets hold of and reads it before I even can wonder who it will be. "Peeta Mellark!"

My eyes instantly fix on him, a slight frown crossing over my face. Even as he was two years younger then myself, his stocky build from being a baker's son could easily take me down. I'd go over an talk to him once and a while, and now I had to try to kill him. Peeta climbs up the stairs and takes his place. No one. Not a single soul volunteers for him. Not his two older brothers, partly because one was too old and the other just...wouldn't.

The mayor reads the dull Treaty of Treason as he does every year as required, but I don't listen. Instead, I glance over to Peeta. No matter what, I had to live. Even it it mean killing him. Slow down, the games have yet to begin. A voice whispers deep within my mind. I don't hear it.

I'm glad Katniss hadn't been called. She had her sister and mother to look after. The few times I had traveled to visit Prim in the Seam I had learned of her mother's sickness. Of course, I didn't say anything.

I could tell she didn't like me. Didn't like that I had enough to eat, that I had never known what it was like to be hungry. And nothing in my soul could find myself to be angry with her. It was true.

The mayor finishes the treaty and motions for me and Peeta to shake hands. His is the same size as mine, all but my long, narrow fingers. Something told me to watch out for the baker's son. We turn back to face the crowd as the anthem of Panem plays.

As soon as it ends, we're taken away, only to be left alone in a room. Even as my parents had a nice house, it was nothing compared to this.

My father and mother comes first, nearly crushing me with hugs. "Be strong." They keep whispering as my mother strokes my cheek. My father kisses my forehead then places his cap ontop of my head before their whisked away from me. How long would it be before I saw them again?

My next guest I can't say suprizes me. Madge. She hugs me for a few moments pulls back. "Find a sword, knife if you can. You've always been good at that." She smiles softly then kisses my cheek before leaving.

I sat down on the couch in silence as I lean back a bit, closing my eyes. Then, a knock on the door startles me.

It's time to go.

From the Justice building to the train station, it's a short ride that seems to drag on forever in silence. Crowded with people, I notice a few cameras and was glad I hadn't cried. Be strong kept running though my head. Looking over to Peeta, I noticed the redness of his eyes.

I move quick to the train in which begins to move, and I can't help but stare out a window counting random things we were going much to fast to see before taking a look around. This train is so much more...nicer then all the one's I've been on..because it's a capital train.

Knowing this sparks another flame of hate in my stomach.

Later, Effie leads me to my car, telling me I can do what I want, wear what I want as long as I'm ready for dinner in an hour.

Does that mean I can tear up the room and show up in my dirties cloths?

That single thought causes me to laugh a bit as I looked though the drawers, once again blinded by the bright colors. Bright dresses, bright shoes. Too much. I shake my head a bit then slip out of my mother's dress and go to shower. A very..long shower.

Quickly, I dried my hair a bit. In a few hours, it'd be a curly mess. Pulling on a pair of light-made trousers and a shirt, I headed to the dining room. Never before had I seen so much food in my life.