I dropped the dish I was carrying and it shattered on the ground. Screams sounded from everywhere but I barely heard them.

I stared at the TV screen in absolute horror. The District 2 girl, Clove I think was her name, had pinned Katniss to the ground and had taken out a knife. Images of Elissa bloodied and broken popped into my head and I shoved them away immediately. I couldn't tear my eyes away from the screen, just like when Elissa had been tortured to death.

There had been a rule change; two tributes from the same District could win. Katniss had gone to the feast to get medicine for Peeta, but now her plan had backfired.

I heard voices around me but didn't pay any attention to what they were saying. I watched in horror as Clove lowered the knife down and started to cut Katniss's lips. That's where the District 2 girl had begun with Elissa, too. The lips. Just as I was sure that Katniss was done for, the boy from 11, Thresh, scooped up Clove. She started screaming for Cato, but Thresh threw her to the ground, picked up a rock, and threw it at her head. A large dent immediately appeared on her head where the rock had hit it, and I knew she was done for.

"You better run now, Fire Girl," Thresh said to Katniss, who was still staring at Clove in awe.

Katniss quickly got up, grabbed her bow, and ran away. I breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe if she and Peeta were the last ones, maybe then Cato wouldn't torture her to death like Elissa had been. Maybe Katniss would die a peaceful death. And maybe, just maybe, she could actually win.

Katniss and Peeta and Cato. Who would have thought that the two tributes from District 12 would be alive in the final battle?

Mutts had chased them up a cornucopia. The mutts snarled and tried to jump onto the cornucopia, but couldn't.

Cato had Peeta in a headlock and Katniss had an arrow loaded, pointed at them.

"Go ahead," Cato said, smiling insanely. "Shoot me and he goes down with me."

I saw Peeta slightly pointing to Cato's hand, and I prayed that Katniss saw what he's trying to say. She could shoot Cato's hand and maybe Peeta could escape the headlock he was in. And Katniss did see it. She let go of the bowstring and the arrow pierced Cato's hand. He shouted and Cato kicked him backward. Cato fell to the mutts, who snarled and bit into him. His screams were agonizing. Even though he was from the same District as the girl who'd tortured my sister to death, I felt bad for him. But a smile slowly spread across my face, none the less. They'd done it. They'd won. I stared up at the TV screen. I quickly had to look away, though, because I had to do my work. My job as an Avox was the serve; not to watch.

I picked up dirty dishes, but kept my eyes fixed on the screen as often as I could. A voice rang out, suddenly, saying that there could only be one victor. That would mean that one of them would have to die...

Peeta insisted that Katniss kill him, but Katniss wouldn't. A tragic end for the lovers of District 12. Though I didn't quite believe that they were in love, I knew that Katniss wouldn't kill him. I saw her suddenly pull out berries and put some in Peeta's hand. I knew those berries; nightlock. The girl from 5 had eaten them and died, and Peeta had almost eaten them.

Just as the berries touched their lips, a voice rang out in and said to stop. Then the voice dubbed them the victors of the 74th Hunger Games. Katniss and Peeta threw the berries to the ground. I saw a hovercraft come down and carry Katniss and Peeta up, and I smiled a large smile. They'd done it. Both of them. They'd won the games.

I slowly opened the door to the room Katniss was in and carried in a tray of food. I knew she would be starving and wish I could have given her more food. I laid the tray on her legs and grabbed a remote and pressed the up button on it. Her bed slowly raised and she stared at me. I fluffed her pillows and started to leave. I wanted to tell her congratulations. No, more than that; I wanted to tell her that she was a great friend. I wanted to tell her that I was Melany, the girl she had saved countless times. I wanted to tell her everything that Snow had done. I wanted to tell her that I was more than just a redheaded Avox girl that had been taken by the Capitol.

"Did Peeta make it?" Katniss said, her voice scratchy. I slowly walked back over to her bed and nodded my head. I took a spoon from the tray and fed her some of the applesauce. Then I left her to her food and leave the room, the door closing loudly behind me. She would be alright. She and Peeta were alive, and would stay alive.

It had been a year since Katniss and Peeta had won the games. I could tell from overhearing conversations that Snow wasn't happy about the trick they'd pulled off in the arena. And now he'd decreed that for the 75th Hunger Games, the third Quarter Quell, the victors would have to compete. Katniss and Haymitch had been reaped, but Peeta had volunteered. It was sweet of him to do so. I believed that he truly did love Katniss, but I wasn't quite sure about Katniss loving him yet.

I turned around, laundry in my hands, and ran straight into a man. My laundry flew everywhere, and I quickly knelt down and picked it up. I saw a hand reach down and quickly looked up, wondering who on earth would help an Avox. And then I see the way that he swallows and know immediately; he's an Avox like me. I stare at him for a while. I never remembered seeing him before, and yet there he was. He helped me up and laid the laundry in my hands. I took out a pad of paper that I carried with me now at all times. Nobody knew I had it; technically I wasn't even supposed to have it. But if I couldn't speak through my mouth, then I would speak through writing. I slowly wrote down a sentence and handed it to him.

"My name is Lavinia," it said. He scribbled something down and handed it back to me.

"I'm Darius," it read.

"I think I remember you," I wrote. "From District 12?"

"Yeah," Darius wrote back. "Though I don't remember you."

"I changed my hair," I wrote. "It used to be brown. I changed my name too. My actual name is actually Melany."

Though I never wanted to tell anybody my real name, I figured I could trust Darius. After all, he was in the same situation as me, practically. Why shouldn't we be friends?

"Ah, Melany," he wrote. "I remember you now. You sold quite a few squirrels, didn't you?"

"Yeah," I wrote back. I wondered how he'd gotten here; after all, he wasn't really known for doing anything wrong.

"I know you're wondering how I got here," Darius wrote. "Snow found out that I'd known about people hunting outside of the District, and he got pretty mad that I didn't do anything about it. So, here I am now."

He'd written "other people hunting outside the District", but I knew he meant me.

"I'm sorry," I wrote.

"It's not your fault," Darius wrote.

"Yes it is," I wrote back. Then, not wanting to talk about it anymore, I started to write my story. I wrote about how I'd caused too much hope and how I'd been running away with the boy from the Capitol and how he'd been killed and how I'd ended up here.

"Wow," Darius wrote. "I'm sorry."

"There's nothing else to really say, is there?" I wrote back. "We're sorry for each other, right? How about we just call each other friends and leave it at that?"

"Sure," Darius wrote back, smiling slightly. "It'll be good to have somebody to write to around here."

I smiled and took the pad of paper and pen from him. I stuck them in my pocket and put out my hand. He put out his and we shook. It would be good to have a friend. Maybe I wouldn't feel so alone and so useless.