Author's Note: Hi Everyone. Long time no see. Sorry about that. My Diploma course took a lot out of me and I didn't feel like writing much. But I'm now I'm finished and on break for a little while, so I can get back to writing and finishing this fanfic. And maybe starting a sequel, don't know yet.
Anyway, enough chatter from me, please enjoy the first chapter of Part Three: THE VICTOR and let me know what you think.

Part Three

THE VICTOR

Part Three's Summary: Annie Cresta is the seventeen year old girl tribute for District Four in the 70th Hunger Games.

In the past seven days she has seen more horrific deaths than she had ever seen before in her whole life. And now death is hunting her. She is no longer a member of the Careers having made an enemy out of Jade who wants nothing more than to give Annie a slow and torturous death. That is, if she can find Annie. And Annie has no wish to be found, least of all by Jade. But fate has never been on Annie's side and with the final days of this terrible Games approaching, Annie is going to find her life getting all the more complicated in her fight to survive. She now not even sure that she wants to.

Chapter Twenty-Three

"District Four?"

Wait that sounded like…

I opened my eyes and looked down from where I was trapped in the net in the treetops to where a tall, dark skinned young man was looking up at me from the forest floor. He looked amused.

"It's not funny!" I snapped at him and his amused smile immediately faded.

"No," he agreed solemnly, "I suppose not." He looked around him thoughtfully, shifting the powerful looking spear from one hand to the other, "where's the rest of you?" he asked.

"I don't know and to tell all truths, I don't want to." I say and then I closed my eyes, "Listen District Eleven can you please just get on with it?" I couldn't help but peek from beneath my eyelids at him.

District Eleven gave me a funny look.

"Get on with what?"

"Ah... killing me." I opened my eyes again as I said this.

Now he actually looked insulted.

"I'm not a killer."

"Isn't this your trap?" I asked, wincing at the word 'killer'.

He hesitated.

"It wasn't meant to be used like this, it wasn't meant for you."

"It wasn't?" I asked not really following him. He shook his dark head.

"It was meant to catch food more than anything else…"

"You made this," I say, interrupting him as I give the fine netting a slight shake, "for catching rabbits?"

"There are deers' in here as well and there are a lot of us to feed… at least there was." he pulled a face before shaking his head, "it's also a means of protection, trap one of you before you got one of us, but I don't think Switches thought this plan all the way through. I mean, we've trapped you but what are we suppose to do with you now?"

"I don't suppose you could just let me go?" I suggest without much hope.

"So that you can tell the rest of you where we are?" he asked though he sounded doubtful.

"I won't. Jade's out to kill me," I say rather blankly. I've never had anyone out to kill me before, not directly at least, "so it'd actually be smarter if you let me go because she's hunting for me and if you don't want her to kill you and the rest along with me, you really should let me go so that I can run as far away from here as I can."

"Or we could just kill her." A whole new voice enters our conversation.

A scrawny boy who looked to be around my age came to stand by District Eleven, his blue eyes were intelligent and calculating, his red hair sticking up everywhere from his head.

District Eleven scowled down at the scrawny red head.

"That's…"

"What?" the scrawny red head demanded, "She's a Career! One of them! This is probably a trap of some kind." Once again I'm being accused of being involved in a nonexistent – to my knowledge at least – trap? Why does this keep happening to me?

"I don't think that she is." District Eleven said and I blinked at him in surprised. Was he defending me?

"You don't know that for sure. You can't trust her.

"Her District partner was killed yesterday and I don't think it was her who killed him." I hunched my shoulders and hung my head; I didn't want to think about him.

"She might have, you don't know."

"Willow trusts her." My head shot up and looked back down at them.

"Willow trusts everybody!" The red headed boy cried waving his arms about him wildly.

"Look, she's been hanging up there for awhile and no one has come to free her," District Eleven held up his hand to keep the other boy from speaking, "and before I started speaking to her, I did a quick walk around this area. No one is here, she's by herself and I'm not leaving her up there to starve and for the birds to eat."

"But what if she goes and gets the others?"

"You're not going to, are you?" District Eleven called up to me. I shook my head.

"I just want to get back to my hiding spot before it gets dark." I say honestly. "Before dusk preferably."

"Why?" the red head asked still looking up at me suspiciously while District Eleven moves to the tree trunk that my trap is hanging from and starts fiddle with something there.

"I want to go fishing."

"Fishing?"

"Um, yes. Dawn and dusk are the best time to catch fish. Though," I suddenly discovered a flaw in my plan, "I don't have a rod or any netting." I pulled a face; making either was going to take time to make, possibly longer than daylight had left in it.

I suddenly noticed both boys were staring up at me.

"What?" I asked feeling uncomfortable under their gaze.

"You can fish?" District Eleven asked slowly.

"Yes…" I say, not sure where this conversation was going to go.

"Even with that thing…"

"The Kraken?" I interrupted the red head and he scowled up at me, before continuing.

"Yes, that… thing. You're going to go fishing even with that thing swimming around in the lake."

"Yes."

Both boys looked at each other than back at me.

"Why?" I asked still feeling uncomfortable, "Why do you care?"

"Because, and maybe you Careers haven't noticed, but food sources are running a little thin at the moment." The red head sneered at me.

"What?"

The red head snorted at me in disgust.

"You know, food sources, like rabbits and deer and…"

"I know what food sources means," I snapped back, irritated by this boy's attitude, "I was just surprised that's all. I saw a rabbit when I entered the forest only a couple of hours ago." But now that I thought about, I hadn't seen many of them or really any other animals around the forest in the last couple of days.

"So that's why you stole our traps." I sigh. District Eleven looked ashamed while the red headed boy looked smug.

"And a nice feast we had that night too." He sneered at me.

"Don't let Jade hear you say that," I warned him, "I know for a fact that after me, those who stole our traps are next on her 'to kill' list." I was pleased to see his smugness face drop and turn completely white underneath his freckles.

"Come on, we don't have time for this. You know we have more to worry about than just the Careers." District Eleven snapped at us impatiently and suddenly I felt the netting around me loosen before dropping a few feet while I let out a frighten little scream before District Eleven snatched at the wire rope, slowing my fall so that when I hit the ground it was a thud rather than a crash, but still I was left rather winded.

"Garth!" The red head complained, "Why did you do that? She's going to run to them now!" If I had the energy, I would have snorted but as I was still completely winded, I didn't. I could barely get enough air into my lungs at it was.

District Eleven or Garth – last name or first name I wasn't sure – came to kneel next to me, even helped me to my feet.

"Do you have a water bottle?" he asked me and I nodded weakly, "does it have water in it?" he asked and again I nodded.

He pulled it out my pack, careful not to knock any of the wood I had bound to the back of it and handed it to me.

"Thanks," I wheezed and drank heartily.

"Looks like you've been through a rough time." Garth commented as he inspected my beaten, cut-up face and my blood and torn clothes.

I looked away from him, shifting uncomfortably.

"Thanks." I mumbled, "For letting me down. I'm – I'm going to head back to the lake now." I turned to leave but I felt a hand on my shoulder, stopping me from going any further.

"Is there fish in the lake?"

"Ah, there was… I, um, haven't actually fished there for a couple of days." I admit a little sheepishly, as my whole plan of survival was sort of depending on there being fish in the lake "the others, they um, once the Kraken appeared, didn't want anything to do with the lake, and we left it a couple of days ago to try our luck in the forest and around the mountains." I shudder when I think of the dark, creep forests at the roots of the mountains. And I wasn't the only one either. Both Garth and rude red head both looked disturbed when I mention the mountains and their forests.

"But you're hiding out around the lake, right?" The rude red head pressed.

I hesitated before answering, not wanting to give my hiding spot away, even to Garth.

"Yes," I say slowly, "It's the only water source I've been able to find and if you're smart about it, I don't think the Kraken will attack you unless you provoke it in some way. Also," I add as an afterthought, "Jade's scared of it."

"The lake or the Kraken?" Red head asked.

"Both. I don't think she can swim." Actually I'm pretty sure she can't as Cole clearly showed me he couldn't when I saved him from the Kraken.

The boys once again looked at each other and I felt that my peaceful hiding place was about to get a whole lot more crowded.

The lake is a big place, I chided myself firmly. There are lots of other rock caves and coves they can hide in without intruding upon yours.

After this revealment of the Careers weaknesses, the two boys, in particular the rude red headed kid seem to see me less of threat to their survival and in fact let me go, though before they did they did make me swear not to breath a word to the Careers about them.

Though as I pointed out to them, if I did happen to run into the Careers, in particular Jade, there would be very little speaking involve... as well as breathing, on my part.

Even though they did seem to trust me enough to believe that I was no longer a member of the Careers, they still made me be the first one to leave. Not that I minded all that much, but I made a point, even though I really hadn't wanted to as I just wanted to return to my hiding place, zigzag my way back to the beach so as to (hopefully) throw anyone trailing me off before they figured out just where I was hiding.

I return to my little cove, feeling immediately safe, hidden amongst the rocks.

I spent an hour making myself a fishing rod. I was actually quite proud of it when I was done and hoped it wouldn't be lost like the others I had made during the first meeting with the Kraken.

Once I had finished making it, I snuck out the little opening that opened out to the lake. There was a little ledge that I could sit on as I cast my line and waited for a bite. I didn't have to wait very long before I felt a tug on my line and I reeled in a fat fish. As always, I felt bad about taking its life, but hunger was getting the better of me and it wasn't long before I had it cooking over the small fire that I had built.

With greedy fingers, I ripped into the cooked flesh, ignoring when it burnt my fingers and mouth as I ate it. I felt good and full once I was done and sleep was creeping up on me. I was so tired that I didn't even worry about anyone finding me as I crawled into my sleeping bag. I fell asleep all most immediately. And dreamed.

Author's Note: So we've finally met up again with the guy from District Eleven. Told you, he would come back... eventually. The Poor Guy, I've had such a rough time naming him that he's had at least five different names before I settled on Garth - which was originally the name of Rude, Red-head, but I've changed his name to a name I think suits him a bit better.
I'm almost ashamed to admit that I started writing this fanfic when I was still over in America, which was in September and I only just finished it a week or so ago 'hangs head'. I've been really, really busy with my course, you have no idea.
On the different note and a question: The Banquet. How and what do you want to happen with it? Because I completely forgot about it until one of the guys in my class mention it and I had 'ah... what? Oh crap!' moment. So any ideas for what you would like to happen with the banquet would be appreciated. Not that I'm actually up to that bit, though 'hangs head and whispers' I've only just finished the second chapter of this Part. But Í am going to have a serious writing session and finish this thing. It's my baby and I want to finish and go yes, I have accomplished and successfully written a Hunger Games fanfic!

Anyway, bye for now, and I'll hopefully hear from you all soon.