A/N: Thank you to MsMKT86 and HungerGamesOwl for reviewing! :)

You guys should check out The Victors of Panem! It's up on my profile already!

I won't let nobody hurt you, won't let no one break your heart
And no one will desert you
Just try to never grow up, never grow up

- Never Grow Up, Taylor Swift

VI.

I despise the Games. I always have but now, this hatred has gone to such an extent that I want to scream and rip my hair out. There have been several previous Hunger Games with drastic weather changes. It was bad, yes, people died of intense and incurable fevers, but this was torture.

Well, I should have expected that. The first night was freezing as hell and if it weren't for the sponsors, I'm sure we would have gotten frostbite. The second night on the other hand, was incredibly hot. It wasn't just District Four's usual thirty-something degrees Celsius weather. It was an overwhelming forty-something to fifty-something degrees. Even in our skimpy undergarments, Maya and I were drenched with sweat.

Now, it's the afternoon of the third day. Four o'clock or something like that, I think. We left out cozy cave, because we have had too many close encounters that we just manage to slip away from. I guess it's a great hiding place for everyone. We've been walking around for hours looking for anything remotely interesting, whilst carrying all our extra baggage around, but to no avail. My patience is running thin and with Maya's huffs of frustration, I'm almost certain she's just as impatient as I am.

It has nothing to do with the fact that nobody's dying; or maybe it is. It's not that we want people dying, unlike District One this year; we want to go home.

If I could, I would have frozen time before the Reaping, so Maya, Rhea, Annie and I would be able to keep our innocence. So that Rhea and Annie wouldn't have to grow up, so that they would feel loved. As pathetic as it sounds, I don't have any other friends. Maybe Ryan, the boy who sits next to me in maths class could be classified as my acquaintance. But other than that, it's just the girls who I hang out with and I honestly don't mind.

"Holy mother of God!"

Maya's screaming pulls me out of my thoughts as she clumsily stumbles over her own feet and latches her hand on my own. "Come on, Finnick!"

I only just notice where she's looking at - the ground. I look down in horror at the vines that slither around us, coming in closer and closer towards us, threatening to wrap around our legs and make their way to the rest of our bodies to suffocate us. They must be double the size of my bicep - if not, larger.

We have no choice but to run. I lead the way, dragging Maya behind me and scream, "Ditch a pack!" Now we only carry one backpack each, but that's not our main issue right now. I take the sword from Maya, allowing her to carry all her spears along with her pack. The vines are gaining on us now and I know it's only a matter before we have to hack away at the vines to defend ourselves.

I contemplate scaling up a tree but decide against it. With the supplies we have, we'll end up losing them and these vines are obviously designed to push the tributes towards each other. There's no point in doing so.

An ear-piercing shriek erupts from behind us and we take the risk to stop and look. It's the girl from Twelve and the vines have stopped coming for Maya and I. She looks even worse than she did during training, thinner, if that's even possible. We can only watch in horror as the vines eagerly entangle themselves around the tiny girl, trapping her against a large tree. One thick vine snakes across her throat, successfully cutting off her air supply. The cracking of her bones make me wince and we watch as she chokes. Her face turns a sickly green and her body falls limp, though the vines are still active.

The cannon doesn't go off for another few minutes and all I find myself doing, is stare at her body, which is now free of vines. Maya tugs on my jacket and urgently says, "Come on, Finn. We have to go. Someone's probably around here."

I hear a rustle behind us and instantaneously whip around to the direction we were running off to and right at that moment, the boy from Ten leaps out at us from the mass of ferns beside us. He waves a bludgeon, I think, around carelessly and lands straight onto the sword I had held up.

We stare at each other with wide eyes, light brown meeting sea green, as he coughs out blood, choking violently on it in the process. The look in his eyes haunts me. His dazed eyes seem to be empty voids of nothing. For a second, I flicker my eyes down to the sword I wield and notice that it's struck him right next to where his heart should be. Gulping, I yank my hand back and run backwards. I laugh hysterically for a few moments and I let out a shaky breath, gazing at the bloody sword in front of me.

I need to get away from him.

The sword clatters on the ground with a loud clang and I'm full on sprinting away. Maya is at the back of my mind, despite the fact that she's chasing after me with her sword and screaming my name, repetitively. Forget the uncomfortable feeling of the belt of knives rubbing against my torso and never mind the fact that I'm running into the middle of nowhere. I run. A scream emits somewhere around me and it takes me a few seconds to realise that I was the one who screamed.

I'm out of my mind.

I stop and gasp for air, back hunched over with my hands on my knees. "Finnick!" Maya exclaims, finally catching up with me. She's in a worst state than me, having to carry her spears and sword, along with her backpack.

"Sorry," I apologise. "I just had to get away…"

She nods and waves me off. "I know. Are you ok- RUN!"

This time, she's the one dragging me as she bolts down whatever path there is. The hissing of sounds almost makes me freeze in my tracks. Snakes.

Mutt snakes to make it even worse. I shuddered. I absolutely hated snakes. They had nearly caused Rhea's death when we were little and it took months for her to recover from one snake bite. She's deathly afraid of them now and I can't imagine how she must be feeling right now.

One, two, three, four, five… there's not just one snake that pursues us, there are six.

The sounds of their hissing roars in my ears, blocking out every other audible sound, and I so desperately want to cover my ears and cower in a corner somewhere, hoping to die. I close my eyes. I'm met with the brown eyes of the boy from Ten and he stares back at me, lifelessly, yet again. I run forward blindly, feeling the adrenaline rush through my veins and I take large running steps.

Then, I trip.

Where's the ground? I question myself but then I feel the sudden rush of air whipping my jacket. I'm falling.

The wind roars in my ears and I feel like I'm becoming deaf. My right hand holds Maya's, I realise. I flail my left arm around wildly, grasping at nothing but air and I release a loud shout. The wind rips through my vocals and my throat instantly hurts from the effort of screaming. A young, feminine body collides into mine and we tumble through air.

It feels like eons that we fall and we finally land with a sickening thump. I feel my head smack painfully onto the ground beneath me - sandstone or a rock of some sort. I keep my eyes closed. They feel impossibly heavy right now and even when closed, my head throbs. There's a heavy weight on top of me that I recognise to be Maya's body.

Thank God she wasn't underneath me.

I attempt lifting my head up but end up smacking it against the rock again and I weakly let out a low, guttural moan. I see stars dance across my closed eyelids and my entire body feels numb now.

"Finn?"

Brown eyes. Even now, they haunt me.

They stare back, lifelessly, at me for the third time and I want to cringe and scream but I can't find the effort or energy to.

"… nick?"

Black.

A/N: This is the shortest chapter in this story yet but I feel like this is the best spot to stop. Hope you like it! :)