Clocks tick.

Blood drips.

Screams echo.

Body rips.

I scream. And I keep screaming. My nails dig into my skin drawing fresh blood. My mouth tastes of the copper flavour. My hair is dishevelled. My eyes are wild with rage. I am psychotic. I am crazy. I am insane. I am Katniss Everdeen.

Images flash across the endless abyss of my broken mind, their screams, their pleads for mercy, their eyes that were filled with dread. My heart twitches and tightens; I must not let them get to me.

I walk across the dark room and open the door, everybody's asleep and it's dead silent. Silence will drive me mad, more so than I already am.

Years of nightmares had left me vulnerable in my sleep. If someone was able to enter my mind during those dreadful film shorts, they'd find out what my greatest weaknesses are. Prim. Gale. Haymitch. Rory. Vick. Posy. Hazelle. Madge. My mother. The boy with the bread.

I must've fallen asleep but I wake up in my room instead of the dining room. I see Haymitch's Seam eyes staring at me weirdly when I wake up. I ask him what happened, and he shrugged it off saying that he found me asleep sitting down on the chair and he woke up Peeta to carry me to my room. The thought of him carrying me makes a shiver go down my spine and goosebumps appear on my arms.

I shower and I'm so drowsy that I accidently choose the 'rose scent.' It makes me gag to even hear the word. Then I remember, I remember last night. I remember his cold snake like eyes watching me like he was going to sink his fangs into my skull. I know I've done something wrong. Was it my confession to finding Peeta attractive? That was hardly a revelation, any human being who saw the reaping would have guessed that I had a history with that boy, but the Capitol being…the Capitol, they were as oblivious as ever. But President Snow isn't stupid. He's cunning, sly and manipulative.

If looks could kill, I'd have been dead a couple of days ago.

I knew my job was to keep District Twelve on the down low, to keep them as the underdogs, but with the opening ceremonies and the scores, my confession had not helped to cease the fire.

Did I really mean it?

Am I attracted to him? What was that feeling that I always got when he entered the room, whenever he would sneak into my mind, when I imagined being curled up in his arms while he carried me to my room? What is it?

I get dressed in a simple green shirt and black pants and do my hair in my signature braid.

Then Effie bursts in the room, "Katniss! Up, up, up! It's a big, big, big day! The interviews!"

Oh no.

How could I have forgotten? Of course! It completely slipped my mind.

I sit along with Haymitch, Peeta, Vailea and Effie at the dining table and listen to Effie ramble on and on about the schedule and how we have to keep up with it and the same usual and unimportant chatter.

"-Vailea will train with Katniss to figure out her angle."

I nearly spit out my food and I end up coughing. I see Vailea smirking from the corner of my eye while everyone else either looks at me worriedly or weirdly.

"Yes, I just forgot, that's all."

I zone out for the rest of breakfast, my mind keeps thinking about how I'm going to handle Vailea and her dislike, no, hatred for me. But I'm sure as hell determined to find out what she has against me, and I will die trying, literally.

Peeta won't have a problem with thinking of an angle, everyone already worships him, he can play so many angles with this new found 'respect,' but honestly, in my eyes, I think that they view him as a cow being taken to the slaughter. I figure that the angle he'll play is likable.

But something bothers me, last year Haymitch and I shared the tributes, and he told me that the other mentors do that too, so what makes this year any different?

I twiddle my thumbs while anxiously waiting for Vailea's arrival. I bite my lips, scratch my arms, tug my hair, bite my gum, all to ease the anxiety that I am feeling.

One hour. Just one hour and I'll be free until my prep team begins to work on me.

And so the clock ticks away.

Fifty-nine minutes left.

My throat closes up, how am I going to do this? How will I ask her for an explanation of why she hates me so much with getting out of this room alive?

The door creaks and she slides in, my heart seems to have stopped beating and the room appears to have fallen into an uneasy and eerie silence.

She sits down opposite me and stares with her piercing blue eyes, hatred clouds over them, and she is no longer than beautiful girl that was at the reaping.

"Okay, so tell m-," I begin.

"Shut up, Katniss. Shut up. I know how to handle myself. So why don't you just mind your own business and worry about Peeta, because I know that you'd rather be stuck with him."

My mouth is slightly parted and my eyebrows formed in confusion, "Now, that's not true, you deserve to win as much as he does!"

"According to everyone else, except you."

"Tell me, what have I ever done to you?" I shout at her, she turns away and punches the wall.

When she turns back I can see tears streaming down her face.

"You killed him!"

She stares at me, for the first time in her vulnerable state. Flashbacks plague my memory, but I seem to have been supressing one in particular.

I'm running through the thick forest, branches and thorns cutting open my face, I stumble and fall numerous times, but I always get back on my feet.

The forest thins out and I reach the foot of the snowy mountain. The sun shines so brightly and it beats down on my skin. I gather a couple of berries and fill up my bottle at the small stream that separates the mountain from the woods.

I set out climbing, I know that it'll be easier to see where the remaining tributes are if I'm high up, but I can't stay up in the trees for the rest of my time here, I know that someone will catch me up there and kill me with no hesitation.

I trek up the side of the mountain, it's the easiest way up, when I was camping out in the trees, I've seen tributes walking along this path, but most of the time, I hear screams as they fall to their deaths.

I carefully pace my steps and take caution with every one I take. But today there is a blizzard, and the wind is strong, so strong that it lifts me off my feet and pushes me off of the side of the cliff. I am no better than the others were. I will not die at the hands of a human, I will die at the hands of myself.

I tumble and tumble and tumble down the sharp glacier rocks, cuts form in various parts of my body and it burns. I black out before my body comes into contact with the ground.

My head is throbbing as I fall back into the state of consciousness. I see a familiar figure sitting beside me.

"Tristan? What are you doing here?"

Tristan Thornwell is my district partner, he has blue eyes with specks of green, almost like he's from District Four. He also has platinum blonde hair. He's a merchant, the grocer's son. Tristan's fairly good looking, just not my type, his hair is too blonde that I think it looks fake, but there's a sort of realness to him that you can see in his eyes, he's genuinely a good person. He scored a nine in training.

"I? I am helping you get back on your feet. You had a pretty bad fall there, lucky you snagged a couple of branches to soften the blow of hitting the ground, or else there would have been a cannon dedicated to you two days ago."

"Two days ago?" I scrambled, looking around frantically for my bow and arrow and my small backpack.

"Calm down Katniss! Nothing much has happened lately, and anyway, this place is safe."

"Did anyone…you know?"

"The boy from Ten, the girl from Four and the boy from Six."

I turn silent for a minute, doing the math in my head, we had nine tributes left before I fell, three are now dead, six of us left.

"I should go, I don't want to intrude on you," I begin to assemble my belongings but Tristan stops me with hand.

"No, it's okay, trust me, you're not intruding. What do you say? Allies until the final five?"

I contemplate this choice for a moment, I can gather more food if I'm with him and get more things done, at least we can split the work, so it would be a good thing to be as healthy as I can be if I'm faced with an opponent. Plus, I can trust Tristan, we can take turns watching each other's backs at night, this means more sleep.

"Deal."

It's been two days and nothing has happened, I bet the Gamemakers are getting bored, all the remaining tributes are laying low until someone has the guts to strike, who knows, maybe one of them is watching us now.

We're scavenging for food and we agreed for me to pick off the animals while he goes off to look for vegetables and fruit.

I meet him in our spot on the foot of the mountain that is covered by a wall of ice rocks.

He smiles at me when I hold up two rabbits and three squirrels, these are good enough to last us a couple more days.

I can see his array of gatherings in front of him, there are assortments of parsley, spring onions and berries.

After skinning a rabbit and cooking it, we settle down for the night and figure out what we're going to eat. We make a nice stew using the rabbit meat and chopped spring onions with a dash of parsley, this is certainly the best meal that I've had in the arena.

After we eat we decide to have the berries as a dessert, we take about five each but before I can toss them in my mouth I observe something peculiar about them.

Nightlock.

But before I can warn Tristan he pops the berries in his mouth and slumps to the ground.

Then a cannon breaks the silence.

I did the unthinkable.

I did the unhonorable.

I killed my district partner.

I bring my hands to my face as I lose balance and fall on the chair, only then do I realize that I had been crying.

"I am so sorry Vailea. I-I didn't mean it! I was going to warn him, I swear I was! But…it was too late," I hang my head down in shame, unable to look at her in the eye, she has reminded me of my dishonour to our District, she has reminded me of why I was a step closer to winning, why it was a partial reason of why I am here now, alive, with her.

"I loved him. We…we were engaged. We planned to get married once I turned eighteen, he was a year older than me, and I wanted to focus on school first. But he was reaped, and he died, because of you! You deserved to die! Not him! He didn't do anything wrong, he didn't kill anyone! You became a murderer Katniss! So I guess what they say is true huh? Only the good die young. Well no wonder you lived, and it's the reason why I will."

"Is that why you hate me so much?"

"Yes. That is exactly why. Also, years ago, I was jealous of you, did you know that? How every boy liked you, how you were so skilled with a bow and arrow, how you were so brave. But when you let him eat that berry you lost all of my respect, from then to now, I viewed you as a traitor, as a liar and as a cold-blooded killer."

That stung, because I didn't want to kill him, evidently he became my friend. But Vailea wasn't done yet.

"So when he died, I made sure that I would avenge his death. I was going to make sure that I was going to do something that he couldn't. Win," she started to pace around the room, "I trained after that, with knives and slingshots. I worked on my climbing skills, I studied edible plants. I was ready to volunteer."

"Then why didn't you last year?"

"Do you really think that a year of training is sufficient enough? I would be going against tributes who had prepared for their entire lives! So that year, I didn't volunteer. But this year I took tesserae for every month of the year, I put my name in as many times as possible, it didn't hurt receiving extra food, it was a win-win for me."

"Why didn't you take this year off to then? To train more?"

"Because next year is the Quarter Quell, and who knows what's going to happen. And I couldn't volunteer for the 76th Games, because I wouldn't be eligible anymore. So getting reaped for me was a real piece of luck, I didn't even have to volunteer! So that gave me an advantage to act all scared at the reaping, while inside I was jumping for joy."

I'm rendered speechless, the only thing I can choke out is, "Please Vailea, please, you know how it's like to lose someone you love in these Games, please let Peeta live, please. I know this is selfish for me to ask, but you've gone through the same thing."

"Incorrect, I loved Tristan, you don't love Peeta. The only reason that you want him to live is because of a debt that you owe him."

"It's a life for a life."

"And it's a life for a life for me as well," Vailea smirks at me and opens the door, "this doesn't change anything Katniss, he will be killed, and I'll be doing it myself," then she shuts the door behind her.

Cinna has dressed me in a long, strapless, elegant gown that is charcoal black, and my hair is half up while the rest lie in ringlets which frame my face, I almost look healthy.

Haymitch and I make our way down to the second row seats in the auditorium where Caesar Flickerman holds his interviews. I was not able to see Peeta or Vailea before we left and when I asked Haymitch about what Peeta's angle was he just answered with a gruff.

The lights dim and Glimmer from District One is called up to the stage, honestly, names in One are so irritating, who would name their child Glimmer? She is dressed in a provocative see-through dress and it's obvious that the angle that she is playing is the sexy one. The crowd is taken with her, and I can see a couple of men swooning and hollering just to get her attention.

Cato and Clove from District Two seem brutal, I know that Clove is good with knives, because I remember that Haymitch told me that Vailea told him that she got in a fight with her to see who's better.

I zone out for the rest of the interviews, even for Finnick and Johanna's tributes, the next time I pay attention is when Rue flutters on the stage, the crowd is in a hush as this angelic and fragile young girl makes conversation with Caesar.

"How did you get such a good score?" Caesar asks with genuine interest.

Rue just simply smiles up at him and says, "I'm fast. They can't kill me if they can't catch me."

I smile to myself, I hope she makes it far, if Peeta doesn't win, I hope that she does. But the thought of Peeta not coming back makes guilt wash over me.

Then it's Vailea's turn. She is dressed in a simple crimson dress with her hair tied up in an updo, as much as I hate to say it, she looks gorgeous.

Caesar and her make small talk about her score and about how she felt during the chariot rides and how it felt to be able to put District Twelve in the running.

"It feels amazing. I feel as if I was able to do something that would honor my District.

I know that this is meant to be directed at me.

"Is there anything else that you would like to say?"

"Everyone better watch out, because I'm going to win."

Soon enough the buzzer sounds and she bids farewell to Caesar. Peeta makes his way up on the stage with a confident stride. He is dressed in a black suit, the colour much like my own dress, with flames accented on the sleeves. I can't help but notice that we are matching.

"So, Peeta, how are you finding the Capitol?"

Peeta smiles widely and I can hear the girls and women in the crowd giggle, "It's different, the showers are weird."

"The showers?" Caesar laughs loudly.

"Tell me Caesar, do I smell like roses to you?"

They take turns sniffing each other until Caesar asks him a question concerning the Capitol, "Are you aware that you have stolen the hearts of many Capitol women?"

Peeta blushes and says, "No, I believe not, I don't know of anyone who's heart I have stolen. But I am extremely flattered."

"Well I know of one woman who is taken by you."

Me, he means me!

Peeta looks baffled, "Who?"

Caesar takes his hand and seals his lips shut, I silently thank him for this.

"Tell me Peeta, is there a special someone out there? I am sure many of us want to know who has stolen your heart."

"No, there's no one," Peeta laughs. I smile to myself, now I know that no one has laid their hands on him in a romantic way, I can't help but feel protective over him.

"Are you sure?"

Peeta hesitates and seems to be thinking, "Well, there is this one girl that I've had a crush on forever, but I don't think she knew that I was alive until the reaping."

Caesar smiles at him, "Well Peeta, what you do it you go out there, and win this thing."

"I wish it were that simple, but she's not like other girls, and I'm pretty sure that it isn't appropriate."

"Why ever not?"

Peeta blushes beet red and stammers out, "Because…because I don't think I'm supposed to be in love with my mentor."