The Tributes get a full twenty four respite before the gamemakers start trying to drive them together again. It is clear that the gamemakers are setting off traps not to kill but to move. Mutts move in to attack with flashing claws and teeth but at first they don't strike to kill, merely to shepherd.
The girl from District One is being chased by just such a series of mutts, large feral cats with long, vicious looking sabre teeth, driving her towards dad and Yohan who seem to be the closest tributes to her. After running blindly away from them for several minutes, crashing through the jungle until her lungs are on fire, she seems to realise that the mutts' attacks aren't deadly. She slashes out at one of the mutts, slashing its throat and grinning to herself as the mutt drops to the ground. Instead of running she decides to stand her ground. The mutts still aren't attacking to kill and at first she manages to drop one, two, three of them, one after the other.
This is not what the gamemakers intended and they send in more, only this time the mutts strike harder, faster and with much deadlier accuracy. The girl holds her own against them for a while, their bodies dropping around her but she can't keep this going forever. Finally one of the mutts breaks through her defences, sinking a long fang through the flesh of her calf. She stabs down into the top of the mutt's head, screaming in fear and agony as she does. The mutts redouble their efforts, and just as she kills the one that had bitten her, two more attack, one simultaneously plunging its fangs through the top of her arm, while another slashes its claws across her stomach.
To her credit the girl doesn't give up easily, her knife moving with almost as much speed and accuracy as it had when she first began her defence. She manages to kill four more mutts before she is entirely overcome from a mixture of exhaustion and blood loss. When one of the mutts pounces at her, its deadly fangs sinking straight into her jugular, she looks almost surprised before collapsing to the ground. The canon fires and the mutts immediately dissipate leaving her mutilated corpse lying in their wake.
'Just three more to go,' I think, squeezing hold of Katniss' hand and daring to hope that perhaps dad could make it home after all.
Haymitch interrupts my musings as he drops in to a seat next to me. "Look who's back," he says, nodding his head towards the bar. I look over my shoulder and am taken aback by the sight I see. Effie has returned, and she looks terrible. Her wig is askew and unbrushed, her make-up smeared. She looks around and spies us, tottering unsteadily towards us.
"Peeta," she says, and her voice sounds tremulous, "I am so sorry for what happened to you."
"Are you?" Haymitch asks, his eyes narrowing over his glass of whisky. "Are you really? Or are you just sorry you were caught?" Effie doesn't answer immediately and this seems to confirm his suspicions. "Thought as much," he snorted. "What have they done to you anyway?"
She straightens her back and tries to look dignified as she answers. "I've been demoted for now. Until I have repaid my debts you'll have a different escort. So I…. I just came to let you know."
"See ya around sweetheart," says Haymitch, kicking his feet up on the table in front of him and leaning back.
"Effie," I say, standing up to face her. "I didn't want this. You have to know that."
She forces a smile on to her face, but it doesn't cover the sadness in her eyes. "I know Peeta. And anyway, this isn't forever. Once my debts are paid off I'll be back with you."
"How long will that take?" asks Katniss.
"Oh, not too long, I hope," she responds but she doesn't sound convinced. "And I'm sure I'll see you around in the meantime."
"What about Briar? Where is she?" I ask.
Effie doesn't answer straight away again. "I… I'm afraid I don't have any information for you, Peeta."
"Well, don't let us hold you up, princess," says Haymitch, shifting his attention back to the screens.
She smiles tightly and blinks rapidly several times before she turns on her heels and walks away from us.
"You didn't need to be so mean to her, Haymitch," I say, sitting back.
"Have you forgotten what she did to you, Peeta? Everything that you've been through happened because of her. I won't forgive her that easily. More fool you if you do."
It is with a subdued feeling that I sit back down. I run my fingers through my hair and sigh deeply. None of this should have happened at all. It wasn't Effie's fault. It was Briar's. And It was Snow's for forcing us here in the first place.
A loud crashing sound brings me back to reality. Back in the arena firebolts are falling from the sky, in another attempt to bring the tributes closer together. I watch on the edge of my seat. The finale must be coming.
All four remaining tributes duck and weave as the firebolts push them forwards towards each other. Dad physically pushes and pulls Yohan out of the way of incoming firebolts, and I find myself hoping beyond hope that one of those balls of flame hits the young boy, who is as much of a threat to dad's safety as Rafe is.
All of a sudden the flames from above cease. And it is easy to see why. Dad and Yohan crash through a clearing straight in to the path of the woman from Six. She has a pair of small throwing axes tucked in to her belt, and is carrying a third. And she looks positively deranged. She holds one of the axes up high, about to throw it, when dad shouts, "Wait! You can't! He's just a boy!"
"What about my boys back home?" she cries. "My sons! If I don't come home what will happen to them?"
"I… I don't know. But they'll be provided for, surely?"
"By who?" she cries. "Their father is dead! If I don't come home they'll have to fend for themselves! They'll be out on the streets! I have to do this. I have to!"
"I can't let you harm him, I'm sorry. He's just a child himself."
"I don't have a choice," she says, raising the axe.
Dad moves himself in front of Yohan to protect him and I blindly grasp hold of Katniss, preparing for the end to come. But instead of throwing the axe she cries out and drops it by her side. Her reason for this sudden change in behaviour soon becomes apparent as she drops to her knees and Rafe is there behind her, his cleaver protruding from her back.
"I've been waiting for this for quite some time, Mellark," he says, his voice cold and calculating. "Hope you're watching, Peeta."
"Leave my son out of this," says dad and I have never heard his voice sound so hard.
"I'll give him your regards when I see him."
"You won't be. Neither of us will."
Rafe snorts loudly. "Oh really? You think that boy's gonna win? When I kill you who's gonna protect him? It's just the two of you standing between me and victory. And really, that's as good as nothing at all."
He moves so fast it takes us all by surprise. Katniss puts her arm around me but all I am aware of is the fight on screen. Rafe moves with a flurry of blows that dad manages to side step. He tries to get him in a hold but Rafe twists out of his grasp and headbutts dad to the ground. He raises the cleaver high above his head and brings it down with all his might, but thankfully dad recovers and is able to roll to one side just at the last moment. He kicks out to the side, tripping Rafe up and he throws himself on top of the younger man, trying to wrestle control of the cleaver.
The two of them are a blur of movement, throwing punches at each other, while both keeping a tight grip on the cleaver. The body of the woman from Six hasn't been collected yet, and while dad and Rafe fight, Yohan runs to her and picks up one of her throwing axes. With dad and Rafe tumbling on the ground so much he seems unwilling to throw it; perhaps he is aware that he is not strong enough to throw it with enough force to kill, and doesn't want to offer Rafe another weapon. He creeps closer and when it looks like Rafe is about to win control he brings the axe down on his arm.
Rafe howls in pain and withdraws his arm and in the second that he does, dad throws the cleaver to one side, well out of Rafe's reach. He quickly spins Rafe around in his arms, bringing his arm around his neck and to one side of his head. "I'm sorry," he whispers. "I don't want to do this." Rafe's eyes widen for just a split second before he realises what dad is about to do. In one quick, sudden movement, he snaps Rafe's head around to the side, his body falling limp on the jungle floor.
Dad sits for a moment catching his breath as the cannon fires once more. Yohan looks at him, clearly unsure of what to do next.
"Steffan?" his voice is quiet and frightened.
"It's ok," says dad, and I feel the tears welling up in my eyes as I am unable to breathe. To have made it this far, only to be denied at the last moment… "You have to do what you have to do."
Yohan looks at the axe in his tiny hands. "I can't," he says, dropping the axe to the floor.
"You have to," answers dad. "So you can go home."
"I can't!" he repeats, more urgent than before.
Dad looks at him, sadness in his eyes. "Here," he says. "I'll make sure you get back to the middle safely. I'll stay out here. They'll be bound to set off one of these infernal traps eventually. You won't have to do anything but wait for them to come and pick you up."
Yohan nods but I can see the tears in his eyes. "Thank you," he says to my dad. "I'd have died on the first night if you hadn't helped me."
"Just… make sure you live after this. Do you understand me?"
Yohan clearly can't understand the full implications of what dad means but he nods as the two of them make their way through the jungle. I feel Katniss next to me, I feel her gentle touch as her arm slides across my shoulders but she doesn't seem real right now. Nothing does. I'm vaguely aware of a glass being pressed in to my hands and of Haymitch's voice. "For the pain," he says. I look down at the amber coloured liquid, at the ripples created on the surface by my shaking hands and I know that Haymitch is right; the oblivion it offers will surely be better than the pain I'm in….
It is becoming increasingly obvious that the sponsors are becoming more and more annoyed with such an anti-climactic ending to the Quell. I hear whispers around the bar about how this isn't in the spirit of the games. Haymitch voices a worrying opinion. "His refusal to play is an act of rebellion. Snow won't allow it."
I turn my focus back to the screens, fear clouding my eyes, as I wait for goodness only knows what.
It doesn't take long. They have just made it as far as the beach when a fine red mist descends over the entire arena. Both dad and Yohan look up at the sky. "What the…." Dad's voice is low and worried. After a moment or two he shakes his head jerkily, as if trying to dislodge a fly. His eyes fly open and he shouts through gritted teeth, "Run! Get away from me!"
But Yohan is also behaving strangely; his hands ball up in to fists, his face contorted in what looks like agony. When his eyes fly open his pupils are so wide that his eyes look almost entirely black and he throws himself at my father in a blind rage. But it looks as though the red mist is having the same effect on dad; his face is so full of hate that he is entirely unrecognisable. He picks Yohan up and throws him to the ground, then brings his foot down as if to stamp on the boy's head. Yohan rolls out of the way, but immediately is back on my dad, sinking his teeth into dad's leg. In response dad brings his fist down hard on the side of the boy's face, knocking him back again.
Watching the monsters that the Capitol has created is almost as bad as watching dad sacrifice himself would have been. It feels like I'm watching something shameful and private. Dad would never want this, never in a million years, but for a moment I selfishly begin to dare to hope that he will come back to me. Whatever drug they have pumped in to the arena that has made them turn on each other has made them strong with fury, but there is no way that Yohan will be a match for my father's strength, especially without a weapon.
Yohan grabs a rock from the shoreline, and my heart stops as he slams it in to the side of dad's face, slicing a gash just below his eye from which blood pours steadily. In retaliation dad throws a punch which catches Yohan on the temple, dazing him. He grabs a fistful of Yohan's hair and slams his head to the ground again and again and again, not stopping when dark red liquid begins to pool around him, not even stopping when the cannon fires for one last time, and for a terrifying moment I have the impression of dad attacking me or one of my brothers, and the hatred I feel towards the Capitol for turning my kind, gentle father into a child murderer outweighs the relief of knowing that finally, at long last, the Seventy-fifth Hunger Games are at an end.
A/N – I debated long and hard with myself over who I was going to let live – and in the end I decided that Steffan sacrificing himself would reek of too much rebellion for the Capitol's tastes (especially after allowing both Katniss and Peeta to live the year before), and that they simply wouldn't allow it to happen. Hence the red mist descending. And a twelve year old boy isn't going to be able to win against a full grown man in a fist fight…
Anyway, I'd like to thank everyone who has been following this story. There is only one more chapter to go!