I would like to say to all of my readers out there that I am really grateful for all of your love and support, it really means the world to me. I'm really sad that this story has to come to an end, but everything must, after all. Both the song and the poem are mine. I'm going to be honest with you and say that this isn't the happiest ending. I wrote about what I think would actually happen. Again, thank you all for all of the support. This was the first story I ever posted on Fanfiction and you all really made it worth while. In result, this story really means a lot to me, so I hope you liked it. I love you all and thank you for making this story a success.

-Rose Hunter

Feral sat with her back against a pine tree, trying to pick the dirt out from under her nails. She hadn't noticed until now how hideously dirty she had gotten since she had been launched into the arena.

Suddenly, a hideous sucking sound boomed throughout the entire arena. Panicking, she was up the tree in an instant. At the top she peered through the branches, trying desperately to see what was happening. She watched in horror as the water in the swamp begun to spin and in one terrifying moment, flooded into a hole in the center of the arena. The force was so powerful that it dragged almost all of the trees along with it, leaving the arena to look bear and open.

Gasping, she made her way down from the tree and looked around. It was one of the only ones left. How am I supposed to stand a chance without any cover? Feral thought. There aren't any trees to climb any more… I'm out of my element. Pulling an arrow out of her quiver and loading it into her bow she made her way towards the center of the arena, not wanting to stay in one place any longer. There's only one other tribute left, She said to herself. The Gamemakers would be driving them together.

The smell of smoke told her it was true. She looked around to see that the scent came from the far side of the arena. That must have been where her competitor was. A bird sung in the trees above her head. Figuring that she would need her strength, so raised her bow to shoot the blue jay out of the branches.

That's when a knife sank into her hand.

She shrieked and dropped her bow. Clutching at her hand she looked up to face her attacker. Spark slowly walked towards her wearing a demonic smile and carrying a throwing dagger in each hand. Feral leapt out of the way as one of them whooshed past her head. Ripping the dagger out of her own hand with a screech, she chucked it at Spark, but she nimbly dodged out of the way.

"Oh, how cute," Spark cooed. "The foxy wants to play…" Spark launched two more knives at Feral and she had to hit the deck to avoid them. Spark leapt at her and Feral barely rolled out of the way. She tried to crawl away but Spark was to fast. She pounced on her and the two girls tussled on the ground, each trying to get the upper hand. Feral ended up on bottom, with her foe pinning her to the ground and holding a small dagger gleefully in her hands.

"Get away from me…" Feral hissed as Spark slowly brought the blade closer to Feral's neck.

"But what fun would that be?" The blonde girl giggled. Slowly, she dragged her dagger across Feral's cheek painfully. All the while, much to Feral's horror, she quietly sang something rather nightmarish.

"Hush little baby, don't say a word

You'll die screaming but you won't be heard

I'll cut you open and blood will spill

Oh, it is so fun to kill

I hate you with all my might

You cannot put up a fight

I'll snap your bones like they are sticks

I love the pain my knife inflicts

You will shriek, and I will sing

You will forget everything…"

As she reached the last line, she brought the knife down on Feral's neck. At the last second, Feral worked her leg up under Spark and with a mighty heave, threw her off. Scrambling to her feet, she turned tail and fled, willing herself to travel faster then ever before.

Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain in her shoulder. Tumbling to the ground, she reached her arm around and felt around until she found the dagger. She grimaced as she yanks it out, her scarlet blood staining the blade. She pain was tremendous, seeping into the very fiber of her being and rocking her very core with mind-shattering agony.

Slowly, Spark drew closer, a demented grin alight on her face. She continued singing.

"With great pleasure I'll rip out your eyes…

How I love when the hero dies…" As she reached the final line of her song she whipped out a knife with a wicked curved blade that glinted in the light of the sun. This is it, Feral thought, not able to move. This will be the death of me. Spark stood above her and wielded the dagger above her head.

As she brought the knife down on Feral, she remembered her childhood. How, when she was little, had pretended to be a warrior in the back yard, dueling her siblings with wooden swords and pretending that everything was going to be okay. She remembered the sunsets she had watched with her friends as the crickets sung up to the heavens, how up until now she had lived her life in almost a trance-like state. Nothing was fine. Nothing would ever be fine. The world she thought she knew where heroes would always come out on top and the people could live their lives in peace, didn't exist.

The knife's blade never hit her. As she felt a warm liquid drip onto her face she flashed open her eyes. Zephyr stood facing away from her, Spark crumpled at his feet, blood flowing steadily from where a silver spear penetrated her chest.

"Zephyr…" Feral breathed. Slowly he turned around and she couldn't help but smile at the sight of his face. He collapsed, falling to the ground in a crumpled heap. For the first time she saw the knife stuck in his gut and the blood oozing out of the wound. "Zephyr!" Leaping towards him, she pulled his head into her lap and brushed his wavy blonde hair out of his gorgeous blue eyes brimmed with tears.

"Hey, beautiful," He whispered when he saw her.

"You…" She murmured. "You aren't dead…"

"For the moment," He chuckled.

"But I thought…" She trailed off as Spark's cannon fired.

"Thought?" He asked. "Did anyone tell you that I was dead? Did you… hear my cannon sound?"

"No," She admitted, realizing her mistake. Suddenly, everything made sense. "You've… been watching out for me…?" He nodded. "When Jenn was killed, that wasn't the Careers, was it? It was you." He nodded, his face contorted in pain. "Why did you do it?"

"Because," He said so quietly that she could barely hear him. "I promised you that I wouldn't let anything happen to you…" His voice grew faint and so did his heartbeat. Tears streamed from Feral's eyes as his cannon sounded and the sounds of a cheering Capitol echoed through the arena. It didn't matter, though, she didn't hear it.

She would never fit in with anyone again; she was just another victor for the capitol to parade around. She was truly alone; no one would ever accept her again. And she didn't want them to. She didn't want to go back to a life where everything was a lie, where the truth was just a piece of dishonesty wrapped up in a ball of hatred. She knew the truth now.

XXX

Nothing seemed real to her after the arena. Even in the moments she got off of the train and found her family standing before her on the platform, emotions did not come to her. The arena had become reality. Everything outside it was just an illusion.

On most days she would sit beside the window in her home in the Victor's Village, mindlessly watching the people mill about in the street below her. Often she would stroke the scars the Hunger Games had given her. She had insisted to the prep team that she kept them. She needed to remember what the Capitol had done to her, what they had turned her into. Sometimes Willow would sit in her lap, softly whispering her things in her ear. But Feral heard nothing.

"Feral, please," Willow sobbed one day. "You can't leave us… we need you. Feral, talk to me!" Something had stirred deep inside her, which was true. But as if in a dream she could not respond, could not do anything other then stroke her scars and let her gaze remain outside the window. She'd watch the clouds drift by in the sky, wondering if they felt free, being able to see the world below them or controlled because of the wind choosing their every movement. Sometimes she would sit there for days without moving, not even bathing or eating. Often her family members would have to force things down her throat in an attempt to keep her alive.

Pinn would bring her flowers every day, laying them around her room until it was covered in the wilting things, the smell of the blossoms coating her entire house. He liked roses the best and tried to tell her how he would go around and give them to some of the poorer people in the district, poor people like they had once been. He explained to her how gratefully he was that she had gotten them so much money, how much he loved her for being so brave. But she never spoke back, never responded, never told him that she loved him, too. She never even acknowledged him.

Rowan and Zephyr had left a permanent stain on her heart, one that would not be forgotten. It rocked her to her very soul. She saw the fallen tributes everywhere, in the world outside her window, in the flowers that surrounded her and woven into the soothing, distant words that fell on deaf ears.

"You made a great sacrifice," Her father told her one night as the sun was setting. "No one could ask you to do more."

She had a constant feeling of being trapped in a trance. The life was not her own and her body was not hers to control. Time lost its meaning as she sat there day after day, until Pinn himself had children and Feral's hair grayed. She could hear the children whispering as they walked by her home about the crazy old lady who had once been the Capitol's shining star, had once been beautiful. But her days were long gone and as she lay on her death bed she knew that things would never change, that they may seem to, but all things end the way they began, but yet that nothing happened the same way twice. The world was a complicated place, she knew this now. However, she would much rather stay where it was safe, in the confines of her mind where she could watch the clouds drift overhead. There she was young and beautiful, with wavy red hair that bounced when she ran and playful blue eyes that twinkled in the light. Her bare feet would slap the ground as she raced her family and friends through the forest. She would lie under the stars with Zephyr and duel her siblings in wooden sword matches. Life was simple there, like it had been once. Things were as they were, and pain was a distant fantasy of an adventurous child or an age-old story-teller. It seemed that she had discovered one of life's greatest secrets. When you gain something you will always loose something in return. Because of this, she had won the world… but lost everything in the process.

Although my mark will fade away with time

Life will stay the same

Pain will continue to harm

People will bow their heads in shame

Children will cry all alone in the dark

Beings will still die

The night will rise in the day

Lovers forget to say goodbye

As the sun sinks below the horizon

You must loose everything to gain

What I have learned from my life

Is that there is no room for a fox in a life of such pain