You know how when you drop a rock in a still pond, it'll make one ripple, and then that sets off a whole chain of other ripples that just keep branching out from the original one? Well, that's what blowing up the supplies did to the Hunger Games.

First was the condition of the instigator. Katniss is staggering around and won't quit messing with her ears. That tells me that she's sustained some kind of head damage, and most likely can't hear very well, if at all.

Thankfully, she does manage to crawl back to the little copse that she'd been hiding in before. I urge her to go faster as I watch the Careers rushing back through the forest upon hearing the explosions. This is the second wave. Cato is, for lack of a better work, pissed. He has a look in his eyes that I've only ever seen in Titus. I doubt he's going to eat anyone, but at that moment, he is very deadly.

Katniss gets into the copse the second that the Careers burst into the clearing. Cato is first, and he starts pounding the ground and cussing when he sees what happened. Then that second wave, his anger, breaks into a third. He stomps over to the boy from Three and breaks his neck. With his hands.

The other Careers tell Cato to calm down, they remind him that anyone who did that has to be dead. That calms him down, for a while anyway. That is, until later that night, when the anthem plays and there are only two faces in the sky.

"He's going to eat her," I say worriedly, truly concerned. "He's going to take her heart out and eat it."

"After your Games, everyone came to a mutual understanding on that particular practice," Felix assures me. By now, the mentors from ten and nine are in the room as well. They wave of my suggestion as easily as Felix, but I'm not so sure.

"I've seen what an insane person looks like," I try. "And he isn't stable."

"None of us were," the woman from Ten says.

"But-"

"Just pay attention," Haymitch snaps. I can see that he's watching Peeta's screen worriedly. He'd woken up during the cannon fires, grabbed a drink from the pond, and is now out cold again. It's obvious that he's going to die soon, but I can't make myself care. It's clear that Katniss isn't worrying too much about him, so if it doesn't affect her, it doesn't affect me.

But really, I have to keep looking at his screen too, just because absolutely nothing is happening on any of the others. Rue sleeps. Katniss starts heading back to their rendezvous point. The Careers hunt. No one is close to each other, there's no fighting, no strategizing. So I go to sleep.

I'm shaken awake again not two hours later. Haymitch's face is etched with worrying, and a low murmur is coursing through the room.

"She didn't-" I start to ask, but then I realize that no one would still be here is Katniss had gotten herself killed.

"Rue is treed," Haymitch said. "And Katniss is looking for her." I look up at the screen, then pale as I watch the boy from One searching through the trees for her.

"He'll miss her," I say, willing it to happen. "He'll pass by without even knowing she's there."

Then a twig falls. Just a twig. It wasn't even Rue's fault. I think the wind blew it down. But for whatever reason, it was on the ground, right at the feet of the Boy from District 1. He looks up and locks eyes with Rue. In an instant, the girl is down from the tree and sprinting through the forest, with Katniss searching for her just a few hundred feet away.

Rue is fast, but she's a twelve year old girl. The race isn't fair, not at all. The boy from One tosses a net and throws it at her, and Rue lets off a bloodcurdling scream. I turn around, unable to watch.

I don't know why. I should have become desensitized to death a long time ago. Maybe it's the net. No one else has used one since my Games, and just seeing someone die like that makes me realize how unfair and cruel it was. Seeing Rue under it, terrified and helpless, knowing that death it imminent, makes me realize just how bad it really is to capture someone like that. It doesn't give them a fighting chance at all. It's horrible.

Or maybe I can't watch because of how small and sweet she is. Maybe it's because she looks almost just like my sister, who barely missed being old enough to participate in these Games. It could have been my sister.

But for whatever reason, when I try to block out the whole thing. I try to block out her screaming for Katniss, and I try to block it out when I hear Katniss Everdeen cry out for her. Then, Rue tries to yell one more time, but it's cut off by a horrible noise.

I force myself to turn around, but I can barely look at the screen. She's still alive, but just by a thread. This is the next ripple from the stone. Cato was angry. They all went hunting. Rue was found, and now she's dead.

In the next ripple, the boy from One is killed as well. Katniss hits him with an arrow directly in the throat, and he drowns in his own blood. I don't feel bad for him.

"Katniss isn't going to pull an Annie Cresta, is she?" the man from Ten asks, and I roughly shove him to the ground.

"Would you just shut up," I hiss, then lock my eyes on the screen, mostly just to keep myself from pounding the man into mush.

"You blew up the food?" I hear Rue whisper softly, in a voice that sounds far too much like the one Arowana was using after she got hit by a spear, exactly like Rue had. I swallow hard.

"Every last bit," Katniss says gently, still very much in control.

"You have to win," she says.

"I'm going to. Going to win for both of us now," she promises.

"Don't go," Rue pleads, getting a vice grip on Katniss' hand. I feel tears welling up in my eyes, and I wipe them away quickly. I'm a Victor for crying out loud. There's no need for me to cry.

"Course not. Staying right here." She holds Rue closer to her, putting the dying girl's head in her lap.

"Sing," Rue says, her voice now almost nonexistent.

And to my surprise, Katniss does start singing. Singing in the most beautiful voice that I've ever heard.

Deep in the meadow, under the willow.

A bed of grass, a soft green pillow.

Lay down your head, and close your sleepy eyes

And when again they open, the sun will rise.

Here it's safe, here it's warm.

Here the daisies guard you from every harm.

Here your dream are sweet and tomorrow brings them true

Here is the place where I love you.

Rue is almost dead by that point, and every person in the room is crying, except for Haymitch and I. But I can feel the tears welling in my eyes, and I'm not sure that I'll be able to hold them in much longer.

Deep in the meadow, hidden far away,

A cloak of leaves, a moonbeam ray,

Forget your woes and let your troubles lay

And when again it's morning, they'll wash away

Here it's safe, here it's warm

Here the daisies guard you from every harm.

Rue's breath rises one more time, and Katniss's voice drops to the point where the words are hard to make out.

Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true.

Here is the place where I love you.

I take a shaky breath to keep the tears from falling. Rue's cannon fires. The woman from Ten lets a sob escape her throat. Katniss steps back and kisses Rue on the forehead, and I let out a sigh of relief, thankful that it's done, thankful that now the Games can start again and become something easy instead of something that's just so wrenchingly hard.

Except Katniss isn't finished. Instead, she starts gathering flowers. When she returns to the body, she covers the wound and wreathes her face with the brightly colored blossoms. She's being foolish, and I know that the Capitol will not be happy with her stunt, but I can't help but commend her. It truly is the most beautiful moment I've ever seen in the Games. The tears quit threatening, and a small smile takes their place as I watch Katniss finish decorating her body with the flowers.

"Bye Rue," she whispers, then, in the gesture that District 12 used when she was sent of, Katniss presses the three middle fingers of her left hand against her lips and holds them out in Rue's direction. When she's finished, she walks away without another look back. The hovercraft comes and Rue's body is gone.

That leaves six, and it is immediately obvious that Katniss wants to cut down the numbers even further. She takes her arrow and starts prowling through the forest in search of people to kill. I know that this is part of the next ripple.

Just like I did after Arowana died, Katniss now wants to throw herself into the Games. It makes it hurt less. I know that. I just hope that this ripple doesn't turn out to be a stupid one, because acting irrationally can cause as many problems as hiding out in the back corner of the arena would.

Luckily, or maybe unluckily, no one finds her. She keeps wandering until she climbs up a tree for the night. At first, she sits and thinks. I don't know if it's about shooting the boy, or Rue's death, or what, but I can see that it's something that's bothering her.

As the Games wind down for the day, I relax and start to head back to the District 4 room to get some actual sleep as the anthem starts playing. I'm about to open the door when Claudius Templesmith's voice echoes through the room.

At first I figure that it's just a feast, but almost immediately he announces that there has been a rule change. I stop and listen as carefully as I can.

"Under this new rule, both tributes from the same district will be declared winners if they are the last two alive." I stand there, running the words through my head in confusion. Then he repeats them, and they sink in.

While Katniss screams Peeta's name, I kick Haymitch's bed hard enough to send it toppling over. Everyone turns to look at me and I stalk out of the room, cussing as I tear through the hallways.

The next ripple has started.

And let's just say that it doesn't make me very happy.