Disclaimer: Suzanne Collins continues not to accept my continuing requests to please, please let me possess her soul and write some more stories.

My morning wasn't really the best. Or most of my day, really. Well, I'm in the Hunger Games, I shouldn't have expected this to be easy. Karma woke up earlier than me, so when I wake, her warmth, which I've become accustomed to, was gone. I start to panic and scramble outside.

"Karma!" I yell. "Where are y-" Karma comes up from behind me and covers my mouth.

"Shh!" she yells. "The Career camp isn't too far from here! Only Tay knows we're here! You know you've been asleep for two days?"

I move her hand away from my mouth, not surprised at how long I've been asleep. "You know his name?" I ask.

"Yeah." she says flatly. "Why?"

"Oh, no reason." I say, turning around. "Do we have any more of the berries left?"

Karma gives me a sheepish look, staring at the ground and drawing circles with her foot in the dirt. "…No… I ate them…" she says.

"That's fine, we can get some more today." I say.

"Okay." she replies. Unexpectedly, she runs away. I have no idea why, but she just dashes to the water.

"Um, Karma?" I say. "What're you doing?"

"Do you feel that?" she asks. "It's- it's burning hot!"

When she mentions it, I notice how much the temperature has risen. Sweat breaks out on my forehead and runs down my face. Karma's face is shining with sweat and we're both fanning our faces. After a few minutes, I can't take it anymore; I pull the string on my suit and jump into the water.

"Aah," I moan. Karma pulls the string on her suit as well and comes in after me. She closes her eyes and floats in the water. She smiles in relief. She pulls out the tie in her hair and dunks her head underwater. I follow.

The water isn't clear, but I can see Karma just fine. She looks at me and laughs, bubbles coming out of her mouth. I smile too; not only because this is nice, but because she's looking me in the eyes. Sure, the blurry water makes it hard to actually see her eyes clearly, but it's better than nothing.

But apparently, in this arena, relief isn't tolerated here.

The water is suddenly boiling hot. Karma screams, still underwater, before we both pull ourselves out. Karma yanks at the string on her jumpsuit, cursing under her breath. I shake my hair out and push it out of my face with my fingers. I pull at my string and take deep breaths when I feel my clothes loosen.

Karma picks up her spear but drops it right after. "Ow!" she yells, swearing again. "Hey, it looks like we're going to have to go without weapons… would that be okay?" she asks, examining her hand, which has turned red.

"Yeah." I say. "Let's go!" I grab her hand, the one that wasn't burned, and we walk into the trees. The shade of the leaves hides us from the sun, which I've decided is the source of the burning heat. Every few minutes, Karma lets out a groan, as do I.

"Casey, should we split up? Try and find food and meet up in fifteen minutes or so?" Karma asks me.

As much as I don't want to, I know it's the best plan we've got, and I'm starving. "Okay." I say. She nods to the ground and runs off into another direction.

I keep moving forward, checking everywhere for food. After ten minutes, I'm disappointed that I haven't found anything; but then I realize I have much bigger things to worry about. A muscular arm wraps itself around my neck and drags me to a clearing. Tay. He lets go of my neck and pushes me on the ground, and I land on my left arm, painfully.

"Get up." He snarls. I stand, wincing when I push myself up.

"What do you want?" I ask.

"Funny you should ask," he replies. "I have a deal for you."

"What is it?" I ask, even though I'm pretty sure it has something to do with "Pretty." It's funny how I'm always right when I don't want to be.

"I'm going to give you two options-" he says, but I cut him off.

"Which are?" I ask rudely.

"You know your friend, Pretty?" he says.

"Yes. Just get on with it!" I yell. "I don't have much time."

"Actually, starting now, you have all the time in the world." he says. "For your first option, I'll set the scene; You go up to Pretty and tell her you don't want to stay with her. You don't give her a chance to reply, just gather your crap and leave. Pretty will be heartbroken that her friend abandoned her, and that's when I come in. 'Oh, Pretty, I'm so sorry'" He says, acting out what he's going to say, "'Why don't you come with me?' Then, she'll be too upset to say no."

I grit my teeth, angry that he believes I'd be thick enough to say yes. "And my other option?" I say through my teeth.

"Or I kill you here and now, then take her with me anyway. You're call." He takes out a knife and checks his reflection in it, baring his teeth.

I guess I am thick enough. I think it through. If I say okay, I can still follow them and make sure she's safe, but if I die, it's all in fate's hands. "Okay." I say. He gives me a devilish grin and raises his knife to my cheek, cutting a line through it. I don't wipe away the blood that dribbles down my face.

"That's what I thought." he says. "You know, it's only too bad that when we're the last two standing, she'll have to die a worse death than the others. Last kill needs to be a show."

You know, I may have been in the arena for only three days- and asleep for two of them- but I've been through a lot more than it seems. With the burning hot, the constant reminder of death, I need a sense of relief. Something to make me feel good. And that's exactly what I got, because after the reaping, my mind had been set mostly on dying; what it would feel like, why it would happen.

But let me tell you, nothing has been able to get my mind off death than what just happened.

Apart from Karma, nothing has made me feel better than hearing the crunch of Tay's bones as my fist collides with his face and watching him sprawled out on the ground when the connection between us is broken.

But the feeling is gone in a heartbeat, because when he gets up- using swear words I didn't even know existed- he grabs hold of his knife and raises it, ready for it to plunge in my heart. He's about to bring it down when I hear something in the trees.

"Casey did you find- holy-" (She swears)- "No!" she screeches.

"Just a second, Pretty, I need to teach this guy over here how to behave." Tay says.

"Oh, no you won't!" She screams. The look in her eyes could kill, but I don't think that would be necessary, because she looks murderous enough.

Karma takes a running start and jumps up, like she did the first time she saw all the food. Her legs wrap around his neck, and she pushes his face back. She lets go of his face and swings her arms back so that they'll both fall. When they're on the ground, she jerks her legs up and flips him over. At first, I think she broke his neck, but I see him struggling to get up.

She grabs the knife from where Tay dropped it and walks over to sit by him.

"You- you- you-" Tay struggles to find a word that is foul enough to hurt her, but that's not very likely.

"I think I know what you're trying to say. You know, Tanner, karma's a bitch. It's really quite sad that I have to live up to my name." Karma says.

I replay that in my head. Clever wordplay.

"Now I can't trust you." she continues. "Sorry."

I know what's coming, and I look away before she does it, but I still hear him gasp for breath as she stabs him.

I look back at her. The murderous look in her eyes stays for a few seconds, then vanishes. Replacing it is something I didn't expect; some sort of weakness. She grabs onto her stomach and runs off, a sob escaping her lips.

I chase after her, but have trouble because she seems to be purposely avoiding me. After running for what feels like an hour, I find Karma sitting on the ground, leaning on a tree trunk, crying with no tears.

"Karma," I start, "I'll never know how to thank you. You saved my life!"

"I just- just ki-killed somebody." Karma says between sobs.

"If it weren't for you then I'd be dead on a Capitol helicopter by now." I reply. "Don't cry."

"Casey! I'm a damn murderer!" She screams. "There's no going back anymore! I'm going to burn in Hell!"

"That's not true." I say. "We're forced into this, you didn't choose to kill him."

"Yes I did!" She yells. "I could have chosen to grab you and run! I didn't though. Instead I decided to murder a boy who hasn't even had the chance to live yet!" She breaks into hysterical sobs and hides her face in her hands. I can't bear seeing her like this.

"Oh, Karma, please don't cry." I say. "Oh please, please don't cry." I run over to where she's sitting and wrap my arms around her. "Listen; if we weren't in this arena, would you have killed Tay if you had any other options?" I ask.

"I h-had oth-" she starts, but I cut her off.

"Answer my question." I whisper.

"I- I g-guess not." she says. "But that doesn't matter. I did what I did."

"Karma, you may see what you did as murder, but anyone would have done that. This doesn't make you any worse than me or…" I trail off. Without warning, Karma flings her arms around my neck and cries into my shoulder.

"I have- have no idea if your right or- or not, but I'm going to believe you." Karma says. "We need to get back to our camp, it's dark."

We get up and walk to our camp and straight into our shelter. I'm surprised when I see cooked meat and fresh berries inside.

"Did you get this earlier?" I ask.

"Yeah, that's why I went looking for you instead of waiting for fifteen minutes to be over." Karma replies.

"I'm glad you did." I say, my stomach turning slightly. "You know, you really did save my life back there."

"Casey, you wouldn't even need saving if it weren't for me." She says back.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"Casey, do your really expect me to believe that you volunteered because you wanted to see the Capitol?" She asks, careful to be quiet so that sponsors won't hear her.

I did.

"No…" I say, making Karma chuckle.

After we eat our food, we go outside to see the faces in the sky. When Tay's face appears, I see Karma flinch and grab her stomach.

"Come on," I say. "We should get some sleep, it's been a long day."

"Okay." She replies.

Without another word, Karma climbs into our shelter after me and sits in my lap. I cross my legs and she does the same.

"Well, good night, Casey." Karma murmurs. Instead of going straight to sleep, she kisses me on the cheek then hides her face in my shirt. Even with her face hidden, I can see the fierce red color that has flooded her face.

I've decided that I'm never washing this cheek again.

Ever.

A/N: I can't wait for Summer vacation. When it comes up, I'll be able to post more frequently and get on to the second book of this series! Well, The Hunger Games movie is coming more and more near and I'm super happy I could explode! I don't care if the premier is on a school night, I'm going, and dressing up as Katniss. Yeah… some of my friends got creeped out by that because I said I was going to draw Peeta's face on a balloon and tie it to my wrist. Is that creepy? Okay er- I am still trying to remember what I was forgetting; seriously, it's been like two months and I still can't remember! This is making me very angry. Humph. If I remember- which isn't likely- then I will say it, and I will say it happily. Just thought you should know that. Okay, happy Hunger Games I guess! Bye for now! And reviews would be appreciated!

~Telling Time Backwards

P.S. Just thought you should know, there's this shooting game called G.H.O.S.T. Team or something like that, it is so FUN! I played it for like ten minutes before I ran out of tokens at that one place.