Sorry its been so long. Was stuck on what to write, but here you go. What do you think? Please let me know in PM's or reviews.

Chapter 14

I stay ridged still, shaking uncontrollably, my eyes wide with fear. "Where is that boyfriend of yours? Shame he isn't here to save you," the voice snarls. "Haydon will be so pleased."

His fingers slips and I snarls as best I can. "Let me go. He's on his way right now, so you better get out of here."

"Is he now? Perfect. Just what we want. You see, we were hoping that he would show up along with your other career friends. You see, it's a trap, and you're the bate."

A chill runs down my spine and I almost choke. "You can't win against the Careers."

"Really? Not even if all the other tributes gang up for a mass slaughter?"

I feel a swirling in the pit of my stomach and I swallow hard. The phrase 'butterflies in my stomach,' doesn't begin to cover it; more like a nest of killer bees.

"Clearly you haven't met Marla," is all I manage to say. Suddenly a knife is to my throat, pressing hard but not hard enough to choke me.

"The team is going to be so pleased. Let's get you over there."

He helps me to my feet, tying a rope around my wrists so tight I feel blood beginning to trickle down my fingertips. The boy dips his fingers in and writes a place name of a bare bit of bark. Then he turns me round and I see for the first time the cruel, malicious smile.

I recognise him vaguely as the boy from district seven. I scowl at him as he grins, wiping blood across my face. "Pretty little thing you are. Shame you won't survive to show the world."

Show the world? You don't get more publicised than this event. I can almost guarantee we are both on the big screens all over the country right this minute. More to the point, I can almost guarantee that the thousands of Capital Citizens are chanting at the screens for him to kill me.

"Who is your team?" I growl through gritted teeth.

He shrugs vaguely. "Different tributes who thought it was time to show the Careers a taste of their own medicine. You'll get what's coming to you."

"Have you lost many so far?" I ask.

He pauses, his silence speaking a thousand words. "My district partner was the first to go you know? My friend at school," he says.

I nod. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"Doesn't sound very Career-ish," he grunts.

"It's not. I'm not. I trained yes, but that doesn't make me selfish and heartless. The only heartless people in these games are Marla and Tigre. They're the ones you should want to kill, not me and Chris, not even Vine or Butch. Mind you, they'd probably kill you before you got within five miles of them."

He growls. "We're stronger than them. We haven't trained, but we have numbers, and we have one thing in common. We have hearts."

"No one's stronger than Jaden when she wants to kill," I say, trying to keep a composed face. "I've seen it."

"Pah. You couldn't hurt a fly. I doubt you've seen a dead body in your life before, not even in these games. Well, that's all about to change."

"Maybe, but which bodies will the dead ones? Are you willing to risk your life for a bunch of kids that have to die for you to win, and a rebellion against the Careers that you can't win anyway. Your hate for us will get you nowhere."

"Shut it, District 4. Nobody want to know what you think, you're a blooming Career," he snaps as if here is someone else nearby. Maybe there is.

I shrug. "Fair enough. If you insist. But don't say I didn't warn you."

He places a knife into the small of my back in answer and I take the hint. I keep my eyes wide only, trying to seem calm and collective when inside I'm panicked to hell and back. If it was really that easy to catch me, without a fight or a chase or anything, Chris must be in danger. And I'm no use to him like this.

I inhale sharply what a thought so despicable crosses my mind. 'If he's in danger, at least his death will be over with sooner rather than later.' I almost scream when I realise what I've thought. I don't want it in the slightest, but even the fleeting thought is damaging. How horrible I am. I don't deserve either Finnick or Chris. How can someone love someone but wish him dead rather than themself? Maybe because I know that when it comes to it, Chris will be the one to go, not me. Because Chris will die for me.

"What if I promise to help?" I ask, my voice shaking. I no longer try to hide my fear, instead I focus on the idea that I deserve to die after that thought. Why not let him think I'm weak? "If I were to co-operate, would you spare Chris and Vine… even Butch? Focus your aim on Jaden and Tigre."

"You said yourself that they would be the most deadly, and we want to wipe out every opposition we can in one go. Saves time and effort you see."

"I could tell you their secrets," I offer.

"Like? What is there that I don't know?" he says, and I see in a moment that this is purely a selfish thing, his actions stemming from his rage and need for revenge. The rest of them are just his helpers, merely lead to believe that they will find justice. To give themselves more chance. In reality, he hopes most of them will be wiped out in the fight. He thinks he's the victor.

Not if the games makers can help it, I think to myself, or else the Capital will have a very short game. They'll want it to last longer. Maybe if I help make them last that little bit longer, they'll turn the games in my favour.

Never, I remind myself, do the games makers turn the games in anyone's favour. They don't understand debt or loyalty or anything of the sort, just entertainment and the need to kill. They don't even understand love. I very much doubt they care that they have blood of many children all over their hands. 1,587 children so far, excluding the children so far of my games.

"Jaden is excellent with an axe. She chases you until you're too tired to run and then slowly kills you. Unless you hide. She's blind in her left eye," I lie. "If you stay out of her left eye view, you could probably catch her off-guard."

"Really?" he asks, stopping abruptly. "How do I know you're telling the truth?"

"Because I have a lot to lose," I explain. "More than you know." I try to sound as sad as possible, allowing my voice to waver, and my hands to shake, my eyes to drop to the ground.

"Oh yer? We all have a lot to lose. What do you have that the rest of us don't that could make everything about you so much more tragic than the rest of us?"

My hands are so numb I can barely feel them behind my back, but I still feel the urge to wrap them round my stomach. "I can't tell you."

The knife digs harder into the small of my back, drawing blood from the small yet painful cut. I give a small yelp. "Tell me."

"A baby." He freezes again, this time staring shell shocked into the distance. "I know how you feel," I murmur. I was shell shocked too, once.

Yet unlike me he manages to pull himself together quicker, beginning to walk faster. "Really?"

I nod sadly.

"So who's the father then?" I recognise the tone of voice; he doesn't believe me. He thinks I'm lieing, just to gain sympathy. Hardly.

"Another slight problem. Chris. You know, the boy from my district?"

"The other Career?"

"That's the one," I say. I have a bad feeling that confessing all this will get me nowhere, if not in a worse situation than I'm already in, but I continue anyway. "Just my luck isn't it, to get picked whilst pregnant, my district partner the father of my child. I guess the odds were never in my favour."

Yes, Capital, I remember. I know you've picked me before, I know you killed my grandfather, I know you took my grandmother away every year too. I know that my boyfriend is forced to sleep with hundreds of strangers every year for your gain. And I know what you have in store for me. But I'm fighting back. I WILL survive.

"Never are when your parents or grandparents were previous victors," he grumbles.

I frown slightly. "Are you referring to anyone specifically?"

"My mother was a tribute at the age of fourteen years ago, then my father at age sixteen two years later. They fell in love and married. They had my big brother, who was picked last year. He was one of the first to go. Then they had me. And here I am. Fate? Or was it done on purpose?"

I gasp. He won't survive long if he keeps talking like this. But he has a good question. I don't think any of these games are down to fate. I think he is in the games as punishment, for his parent's marrage. Maybe Snow planned the same fate for them as he did for Finnick, but since they married, he couldn't. Maybe I'm here as punishment to my grandmother, for the same damn reason. Or maybe as punishment to my grandfather, for saving me when he shouldn't have. To prove that no one can escape. The Capital concurs all.

"Fate," I say. Because I want the Capital to think I don't know. That unlike this boy, I will never question the motives or courses of my life. So that they know I could still win.

"Suit yourself. I know what I think," he says. We keep walking further into the woods, though he seems completely comfortable. Not a single worry about who could be hiding. At least, I know where Jaden and Tigre are. It won't be long now until Chris discovers I'm missing.

"Please let me go. I'll bring Jaden to you, I promise. Just, let me go to Chris." But my begging is useless.

"This is the plan, now we stick to it."

As if he's heard, a cry of pain echoes round the forest. "Annie!" it yells, the heart ache and sorrow enough to break me, to kill me.

"Chris!" I yell back.

"Annie!"

"I'm okay!"

"Where are you?"

The knife presses hard into my back and I wince. "I can't tell you. But I'm okay."

"Tell him to come find you. Tell him to bring Jaden and Tigre and all the others. That there are lots of weak tributes," District Seven demands.

He is stupid if he belives that Chris won't realise that I'm being forced to say all this. He will guess as soon as I say weak. I would never tell him that way. He'll understand it's the exact opposite. But I will tell him, just as a warning anyway. And with one word, I will let him know I don't want him to come for me. I want him to stay safe.

"Tell him!" District Seven demands, shaking my violently.

I pretend to be pained, left with no choice but to do as he says. Tilting my head back, squeezing my eyes shut, I let a tear fall, but not for the reason he thinks. Because I will be killed when they don't come. My child and I. But Chris will be safe, and that's all that matters.

"Come find me Christiaan! I need you. There are so many tributes, but you're strong, you could beat them. They're weak Christiaan!"

There's is a silence. "We'll come for you," returns the heartbroken call. He knows the truth behind my message. He's caught on. He knows by the way I call him Christiaan. He knows that I would never call him by his full name. Never. And he understands that that is my warning.

"I love you!" I yell back, for District Sevens benefit and my own. Because I will never see him again, and I want him to know everything. To know that he must win for me.

"I love you too Annie, remember that."

"I will," I whisper through silent tears. "I will."

"No more," District Seven demands. "Keep walking. You'll see him again soon enough." I can almost hear the cruel smile on his lips.

"I hate you," I say. "And when we die, we will haunt you until the day you die, Chris, myself, our child. Our blood will be on your hands, and we will never leave you, not once, not ever."

He hits me round the head. "Shut up! No one wants to hear that. All's fair in this game. We are all chosen, we must all die. You included. And only one can survive, for the rest of us. And this year, it's going to be me."