Days pass and Jacob's attitude worsens.

Ruby's still not speaking much, whenever she does it's just nonsense anyway.

Zamuel is the only sane one in our group, aside from me and Finnegan. He's the only one I really like.

Jacob's too irritable now and has a constant scary look in his eyes, and Ruby, well, she just isn't herself anymore. Not that her old self was that likeable, though.

'Shut UP!' Jacob shouts for the third time today. It's Ruby he shouts out, of course. She's whimpering again.

We still haven't found out what happened to Thamilia.

'She can't help it,' says Zamuel.

'I don't care, 2.' Jacob never refers to any of us by our names. Perhaps it'll make it easier for him to kill us. Something like that.

We're all by the Cornucopia on guard yet again. We do this day in day out.

Jacob occasionally goes out to hunt for tributes, forcing Zamuel to go with him. They take a couple of hours, Zamuel coming back looking unhappy and Jacob triumphant.

We see the faces of who they, or shall I say Jacob, have killed later in the day.

In the past few days the boy from 12, both from 6, both from 9 and the girl from 10.

Which leaves, if I'm correct, 9 of us. All of us from the Career pack, the boy from 3, the huge boy from 7, the boy from 5 and the boy from 8.

No faces light up the sky this night though, which absolutely enrages Jacob. He's insane.

Me, Zamuel and Finnegan sit talking at camp whilst he goes off on another hunt to find tributes. Nothing kills him. Nothing gets him like it got Thamilia.

'Jacob's going to kill us soon,' Zamuel states simply. It's a fact; he will kill at least one of us soon.

'First Ruby. Then me. You know how I disagree and argue with him all the time,' he continues.

'You should leave.' Finnegan says. 'Get out as soon as possible. He's going to snap within the next day or two if he doesn't kill anyone.'

'Yes. You should probably leave now,' I add.

'But leaving ensures that Ruby dies,' Zamuel says with a frown. 'That's basically like me killing her.'

'No, it's not,' I say and touch his shoulder. He fiddles with the cuff of his trousers for a minute before looking up into my eyes.

'Well, I'm not leaving now anyway. 1 should be on his way back now.'

'1?' I ask, clueless, but then I realise who he means. 'Oh, Zamuel, you're going to refer to him like he refers to us now?'

'Why not?'

'Well–' I begin.

'No.' Finnegan cuts me off. 'It's fine.'

'If you say so, then,' I say quietly.

Silence.

'Wouldn't it be nice if something got 1 while he was out there. I don't know, if a tribute fought back perhaps–' I stop myself with a gasp. Am I wishing death upon someone? That's the worst thing anyone could ever do, in my opinion. Aside from actually killing them, of course.

'That would be best, I hate to say it, though,' says Zamuel. I'm glad someone agrees with me.

'I'm not as bad as them for saying that, am I?' I ask.

'Of course not.' Zamuel speaks again. Finnegan stays quiet, staring down at the ground.

A thudding sound as someone hits the ground. Jacob's back.

I shudder. What will tonight bring?

'NO ONE!' he shouts, his rage bouncing off the walls. 'NOT A SINGLE TRIBUTE.'

'She's in pieces,' Ruby whimpers, the now typical look of shock upon her face. It's constant now, that look is.

Only recently, in the past few hours, has she began to say things like 'she's in pieces', though.

'Who's in pieces?' Jacob says, his voice dangerously quiet.

Finnegan, Zamuel and I look over from our corner we were sat in to the situation unravelling between Jacob and Ruby.

'She's in pieces,' Ruby repeats. 'He cut her up and she's in pieces.'

'Who is in pieces?!' Jacob shouts at her, clearly agitated. 'Thamilia?! Are you talking about Thamilia?'

'She's in pieces, spread in the forest.'

'YOU INSANE LITTLE GIRL!' he yells on the edge of hysterics. I fear so much that this could be the moment he flips. I'd have little chance of protecting Finnegan. I don't think I'd be able to bear seeing Zamuel die, either. I don't doubt that Jacob would draw it out.

Ruby rocks back and forth, covering her ears. She certainly seems to have the mental capacity of a child now. How horrifying for her family back home though. To see her reduced to this.

'She's gone, she's gone, left us all alone, Jacob has no hand to hold–' Ruby sings, only to be cut off by Jacob's fist hitting her.

The look of absolute shock on his face is priceless, I feel the urge to laugh before remembering that this is not a funny matter.

'How dare you?' he can barely get his words out. 'How could you?!'

What? It doesn't make sense what Ruby said. I don't even try to comprehend it either as Jacob balls his hand into a fist again and pulls his arm back.

'No!' Zamuel shouts all of a sudden.

Jacob's eyes tear from Ruby's cowering body to Zamuel, who's glaring at him with an intense loathing.

'Oh, 2.' He walks a couple of steps closer to Zamuel, sliding a knife from his belt. I don't think his specific skill is knives, from what I saw during training and during these Games, but he can't be too bad with a knife. Or it's just the only weapon he has to hand.

Why am I thinking of this? He could be about to kill one of the two people I actually like in these Games.

'You think you can stop me from killing her? You can try.' He pauses, a lunatic smile spreading across his face. 'Why do you care anyway? That's what interests me. She's completely useless. Mental.'

'She's still human,' Zamuel spits his words out at him. 'Why do you treat her as if she's some kind of animal?'

'She certainly acts like one.'

At this, Zamuel lurches toward him, grabbing at him, but Finnegan is up in a flash, holding Zamuel's arm in a tight grip. 'No,' he says in a low voice. 'Don't.'

'Well, I hope you enjoy watching your friend die, 2,' Jacob says, his twisted smile remaining on his features as he bends down to Ruby's level.

He's sure to make her death long and painful, much to my horror. She's annoyed him that much. He doesn't even care that she's from his district. That her family will have to watch this. That his family will have to watch him murder yet again. That if he does somehow manage to return home, he'll be treated with hostility wherever he goes.

Does he care about anything anymore?

I doubt it.

He's unfeeling. Full of anger and hatred.

He pulls Ruby to her feet and pushes her against the wall. Knife in his hand, he raises it up to her face and gets ready to give her blinding pain.

I want to do something, but every time I try to move, I can't. It's impossible.

I think Jacob wants to leave his mark though. A bit like Thamilia when she gave Finnegan the wound on his cheek.

Jacob digs the knife into Ruby's cheek and she begins to make little noises of pain, growing louder and louder by the second.

I feel like throwing up.

Zamuel goes for Jacob again, but Finnegan pulls him back again. 'You'll get yourself killed, don't. She was bound to die anyway,' he tries to reassure Zamuel, but he still tries. It seems Finnegan is stronger though, thank god.

Minutes later Jacob seems nearly done mutilating Ruby's face. Nausea swills about inside me, rising up then disappearing. I want everything to go away.

He pulls back his knife before slitting her throat, and Ruby drops to the floor. Her strangled yelps finally end. Her cannon fires.

'Well,' Jacob looks Zamuel in the eyes and speaks tauntingly. 'Want to come and take a peek?'

He steps back from Ruby and I tear my eyes away from the scene. If I look I'll never be able to unsee. It'll haunt my nightmares for as long as I live.

'You're so much crazier than Ruby ever was!' Zamuel shouts with disgust. 'Why can't you see that?'

'For the exact same reason you can't keep your mouth shut so you don't make foolish remarks, 2.'

My eyes want to see, but I don't want to. I keep them closed for as long as possible before they force themselves open.

The sight is horrific. I know that Jacob has gone insane as soon as I see the state Ruby's face is in.

A smile has been carved into a face, despite the fact that one hasn't graced her face for quite a while now, I'm sure. Jacob's also added the number 1 multiple times over her face in varying sizes. His idea of pity, I'm sure. Letting her die with a bit of home with her. It's sick.

'Ooh, 4 likes it.' Jacob targets the look of revulsion on my face. 'I'm sure she specifically loves the 1 touch, eh? After all, I've heard how much 4 loves her home.'

'Shut up,' Zamuel says. He's just playing along unknowingly with Jacob. Jacob's entertaining the Capitol quite a lot right now, I'm sure. Every camera will be on this scenario.

'You want to die too?' Jacob grins.

No no no no no.

I can't see this.

Jacob walks slowly towards Zamuel, then in a sudden movement grabs him by the neck. It's over for him now.

'I intend to make this awful for you, you fool.'

Finnegan steps back instinctively. He knows to try and save Zamuel will be like suicide. Zamuel will not live.

Tears leak down my face.

There goes my resolve to not be weak, but I can't care less.

Finnegan grabs our backpacks as Jacob begins to kick Zamuel with horrendous force. He intends to beat him to death. The tears flow faster.

Zamuel begins to cry out in pain, and it takes all my being not to try to pull Jacob off him.

'Come on,' Finnegan whispers hurriedly to me. 'We have to leave.'

No words come from my mouth, I can't speak. I gesture to Zamuel.

'We have to. We can't stay here Absidee, I can't let him do the same to you, I can't. We must go. We must.'

I nod silently and we move soundlessly to underneath the exit.

But Jacob sees us and throws Zamuel to the ground. I look back; Zamuel's battered and bruised to the point of being unrecognisable. Where his face was before handsome, it's now swollen up.

He doesn't plead with me. He knows he's a goner.

But this just breaks my heart even more.

'Where do you two think you're going? I don't mind killing another two tonight.'

Of course you don't, Jacob. Of course you don't.

He grabs me by the arm and I grit my teeth to hold back a scream. Finnegan whirls around and growls at Jacob. 'Get off her.'

Jacob doesn't listen and picks up a sword which is beside his feet. That must be his speciality.

In the few seconds that Jacob's unfocused, Finnegan pulls me away from him and to the exit. We both get away and out in the seconds it takes Jacob to notice and we're away.

Ish.

Jacob swings for my back with the sword as I climb up and ends up giving me a cut along the bottom of my back.

He yells out in rage as me and Finnegan run away into the forest. I can hear him.

I'm sure he'll be taking out his rage on Zamuel.

Poor Zamuel. I hope it ends as soon as possible for him. I really do.