8.

It starts in my toes made me crinkle my noes, wherever I go the feeling grows.

~ Colbie Calliot (I hope I spelled that right :)

I can't believe this is it, today is the day. Not to make it sound exciting or anticipated at all, more like dreaded or despised. Anyways no matter how I feel, it's today and weather you are happy, excited, scared, or even sad there is no going back. None of us could ever go back from here, only one of us will walk away from this. It most likely will not be me. Lets just say the odds aren't exactly in my favour.

I lie awake in my bed, alone. I'm used to being alone, I've never had someone before. Until now I guess but we haven't had very long together. Not long at all. Maybe an hour last night to feel sorrowful that today would be coming. Then he had to leave, Capitol business. I honestly don't want to know what he went off to do.

So now the day is here. Dread, scared, sad, you would think I would feel anything. Nothing, nothing in the pit of my stomach except what seems to be a permanent flutter of butterflies in my stomach, well thats something I guess. Nervousness. I think of the day to come and another feeling seeps through my toes and up through my bones. There it is, dread, I'm sure all the other emotions will seep through me as the day goes on. As Poppy leads me on to a large hovercraft to take me to the arena. As I'm lifted up the tube and into the arena. As the gong bangs, as the first cannon sounds.

As death looks me right in the face.

The door clicks open and Poppy slips into my room. She gives me a sad smile and sits beside me on the bed. "Todays the day" she says.

"Yes" I reply "Today really is the day".

This time she frowns "I know you can do it!" she tells me.

"I can't" I say.

"It'll only happen when you believe in yourself, stop saying you can't and start saying you can"

I sigh and slip off the end of the bed, and stand up. I lazily pull on some track pants and a t-shirt as Poppy watches me.

"We should go" she tells me sadly.

"Alright" I say sadly in response, there it is, sadness.

I stand beside Poppy near the door and we exit together. I am being escorted down the elevator and out the door of the gold building. I walk with Poppy across a large pavement space where a hovercraft is parked. Peacekeepers surround each entrance and exit.

That's when I see him, Finnick. I catch the sight of his blue eyes and blond hair. He's being pushed away by a peace keeper and he looks angry, really angry. He catches sight of me and begins to push harder, the peacekeeper is joined by another and soon Finnick gives up, not before he calls to me across the yard, just as he is being pushed through an exit.

"You'll be okay" he calls before he is forced to leave.

I feel tears prick at my eyes, we both know I won't make it. At least I know I had him, even if it was only for a small amount of time.

"I love you" I mutter before the latter of the hover craft descends. I stand on the latter and am instantly frozen in place. The latter rises and at the door a Capitol attendant appears with a large needle. She pokes it into my arm and I feel a sharp pain.

Finally I am unfrozen and I am able to be helped into the hover craft. "What was that?" I ask the Capitol attendant, rubbing my arms which tis still stinging.

"Your tracker" she says sharply before leaving the room. I frown, well that wasn't really friendly. You would think she would feel bad that she is about to send me to my death. I glower in her direction and hold my arm in my hand. Great, now the Capitol would know exactly where I am every second I am in the arena. I feel disgusted at them yet again as I take my seat. Poppy sits down beside me and orders me a plate of food.

Soon a plate filled with eggs, bacon, ham, hash browns and a glass of orange juice appears in front of me. I don't feel hungry at all, actually I feel I will throw up if I eat anything. I try to refuse the food but Poppy reminds me that soon I could be starving and would be thankful for the extra food in my stomach. The thought that Finnick would want me to be my strongest fills my mind and I manage to force down some food. Poppy leaves me alone after that.

We soon descend and the butterflys in my stomach seem to wake and flutter around even more. I gulp in air as the door opens and I am being led down onto the platform beside Poppy. A large group of peacekeepers moves around us and marches us down a long grey hall with the guns pointed to our backs. Poppy glares at them but doesn't bother to complain.

We soon arrive outside a large metal door with a large 4 on it. I know that right now we are placed underneath the arena and I look up at the ceiling. I feel a shiver rush down my spine as I am pushed into a large metal room.

The ceiling and floor are both metal and the walls are white brick. There is metal table and on the other end of the room there is a glass circular tube. I know that soon I will have to step into the tube and be lifted into the arena. I quickly look away and back to Poppy who is now sitting on the metal table. Her ocean blue hair flowing out around her. I take a seat beside her and see that she is holding a bag like the ones my dresses came in. I know that there are no dresses in the bag now. My arena outfit is placed inside that bag. The idea scares me, the sooner I put it on the sooner I will be to going in the arena.

"We have to get you dressed" Poppy tells me sadly while stand up. I also stand up as she places the bag on the table and unzips it.

"Undress" she tells me. I quickly oblige until I am wearing no clothes at all. She hands me a sports bra, black tank top and under wear to put on. I throw everything on and wait patiently for Poppy to help me into my outfit. I feel nerves course through me and I try not to think of what is about to happen in the next 10 minutes.

Next she helps me into a jumpsuit made out of a thin material, I'm guessing there is going to be water for swimming because the fabric feels somewhat like the bathing suits from home. Next she helps me me into brown corduroy pants that go over top the suit and fancy leather boots. The boots have soles that feel good for running. I walk around the room for a few minutes before I accept the boots. The leather is so soft that they have already started to mold properly to my foot, which amazes me as mine has taken a few years and I am scared to get new ones because I will have to go another few years before they are comfortable.

Then she pulls a plain white t-shirt over my head. The fabric is soft and comfortable, also light weight and I prepare for warm days. Next she pulls on a brown shell jacket that is lined with fur and reflects body heats. Cold nights maybe, some cold days. I don't know but cold is the only reason I would need such a big jacket and warm pants.

"Cold nights maybe, rainy days possibly" Poppy confirms "water source for swimming and most likely hot days". I nod, she just confirmed what I had thought. Finally all my clothes are on and my hair has been clipped back from my forehead.

"I have your necklace for you" Poppy tells me and I gasp. I had forgotten all about it with everything that has been going on. Im grateful that I will have it in the arena though. Something from home and my family, the best thing I could ask for. She comes around behind me and softly clasp the necklace onto my neck.

"Thank you" I breath, I hold the locket in my hand and instantly feel better, safer almost, even though that is the most insane thing I could be feeling at this moment. Even though its insane I open it with open arms, anything to help me get through this, however long it lasts.

"Open it" she instructs with a hint of a smile. I begin to like Poppy even more, shes not going on about how lucky I am to be here. Instead she seems to feel sorry for me. I open the locket and my eyes quickly find my family. Tears threaten to spill as I take in their smiling faces, my carefree smiling face. Then I see it and I gasp the tears spilling over. Falling silently down my cheeks. Instead of an open space another picture had been added. In this photo Finnick has his arms around Lynn's shoulders and they are both smiling at the camera. In the photo Lynn looks taken aback and is looking at Finnick in awe out of the corner of her eyes. I laugh through my tears, just like Lynn.

I silently thank Finnick for the picture, I am so happy I have something to remember the both of them by when I am in the arena. Even though I can see the strain and worry for me behind their smiling faces it still makes me feel happy. I'm happy because I know they are rooting for me back home, I know they will support me no matter what. And its the thought that counts isnt it.

"10 seconds to launch" a voice booms over the speaker. I give a little squeak of fear and feel my insides turn to jelly, this is it.

"9, 8" Poppy takes my hand and leads me over to the glass tube. She helps me inside before giving me a reassuring smile.

"I'm so sorry" she tells me "you deserve so much better" than the glass door slides shut with a bang. I feel her words warm my heart, even though my inside have turned to nervous jelly. The butterflies in my stomach fluttering like mad, and my heart thumping wildly against my chest. At least I know there are people in the Capitol who care, my image of them changes in that moment as the tube rises slowly into darkness.

Snow, he did this. Snow, Snow, Snow. I chant his name in hatred as I am lifted through a piercing darkness.

'Snow did this' I think as I am pushed up into a blinding light. For a moment I blink furiously trying to see before my vision slowly adjusts and I can see around me once more. I feel slightly awed by the sight of the arena.

The tributes are placed on tall pedestals in a semicircle around the cornucopia. The cornucopia resembles a tall golden tail with an opening at one end facing the tributes. The opening is littered with supplies of all kinds, food, water, gleaming weapons and backpacks. Other supplies also litter the ground but the farther away they get the less you get. A few feet from me there is a single water bottle, something but not a lot. I look behind me and am so shocked I almost fall off my plate. I save myself quickly and give a sigh of relief, that was close.

Behind me rising up from the ground like a wall is a stack of bamboo, I look up and it rises to the sky, at the top I can faintly see waves, its a dam, a very large dam holding back tons and tons of water. Lining either side of the dam are two mountains that also raise to the sky, only then do I realize that we are cast in shadow where we are standing. I would only have to run at least a mile before I reach the dam. I turn back towards the cornucopia and see that stretching for miles is a forest. A forest made of all pine trees, I can smell the sap and needles from here.

At the bottom of the dam there is a small river that leads away and into the forest, at least if I follow the river into the forest I will have fresh water. Mag's and Finnick's advice swims around in my brain as I survey the supplies in front of me. In no means am I going to get into the bloodbath, but it would be good if I could at least grab a backpack before following the stream into the forest. I know that my alliances plan is to follow a source of water if there is one and the only one is the stream so I know we will meet up eventually.

Ceaser Flickerman starts to count down in a booming voice. "60, 59, 58, 57, 56, 55, 54, 53, 52, 51, 50…" he continues when I survey what I should do. I try my best to ignore the butterflies in my stomach when I spot a brown backpack near the tree line. I could sprint and grab the bag before taking off into the forest. There are other supplies along the way that I could grab too.

"39, 38, 37, 36, 35, 34, 33, 32, 31, 30…" I gulp and glance around at the other tributes to see whos near me. At the end of the row I see the boy from 12, and a couple over from him Coal. Beside me on my right is Eddie, and on my left is the boy from 5. He appears to be shivering in fear and I sympathize with him. If the sun wasnt beating down on me so hard I probably would be too. I feel myself start to heaten up from my jacket and I wish I could take it off. It would probably hold me down when I am running so I decide to keep it on until I am safe. Unless of course I am dead. I ignore the negative thought and soon find Alyssa. She is placed beside the boy from 12 and she has her feet angled towards the forest. Smart girl. Both Oak and Alec are to my right.

"19, 18, 17, 16.."

'BOOM' a huge explosion jolts the arena and I feel my petastle shudder. I look to my right to see smoke coming from where the boy from 12 was standing. Blood and other stuff litters the floor and tributes around the area. I can see that Alyssa is covered in blood and I put a shaking hand to my mouth. He must have stepped off his pedestal early. The cannon sounds through the air along with a cry of "nooooo". Coal is now screaming in agony.

She too steps off her pedestal to run in his direction and I close my eyes as another explosion sounds. I can't believe this is happening, I can't believe I just saw that. I feel like my heart has ripped in two, I knew both of them. I was listening to them speak just last night. I talked to them, I touched them and now they are gone. And they are never coming back. Another cannon sounds.

I choke back my tears as the last numbers are being counted down "5, 4, 3, 2, 1". The gong sounds.

"Let the 70th annual Hunger Games begin".

A/N: Thank so much for the beautiful reviews and support you guys are the best. Sorry for the cliff hanger hehe :)