A/N: Thanks to daydreamer626, beauthg, Kman528, RealFiction, krikanalo, Oxenstierna D. Yuki-Rin, NewbornCrown15, District4girl, QuietConspiracy, Flintlighting, Vykktor, Nevergone4ever and charliesunshine for reviewing!

I hope you enjoy today's chapter :)


"It might get better in the long run

You won't regret it when it's hard won

Just don't sweat it when the end comes

We all go under."

- Colin MacDonald, 2011.


The 70th Annual Hunger Games

Annie Cresta (18), District 4 Female

The Trews - The World I Know (2011)


"No. Let the girl do it."

I stare wide-eyed at Bastian, the boy from District 2, who's ordering me towards the poor boy from Seven, pinned to the tree by my allies.

"She can finish him."

No, I can't.

Bastian thrusts a short, curved knife with a serrated blade into my hands. It looks so alien when I gaze down at it. But deep down, I know that I've always expected this moment to come.

This is the moment where every tribute has to decide whether or not to become a murderer.

I know so many who have had to make this decision personally. From what I've heard, I expected it to be troubling, but words fail to describe the conflicting emotions inside my head. Fear, anger, pity and anxiety, plus something else that I can't describe.

I hate this.

I already know whose fault it is that I'm having to make this decision. The Capitol has seen my school year of District 4 children to be some kind of wonder-group; many great tributes have sprung from it in the last five years. And I'm here, through no fault of my own (I'm almost certain the reapings were rigged against me) like so many of my friends before me.

Ludo Robertson.

Madelaine Harper.

Grace Tyler.

Now, two of us this year.

And all because Finnick made a name for himself in the Games.

Going into the reaping, I know it would be us. Almost everyone else in our school year turned nineteen months ago. Being born in early August, we were the last chance; still in the reaping bowl, three weeks from nineteen.

Only four days left until my birthday. At this rate, I doubt I'll reach it.

I look up to realise that my allies are staring at me, waiting to see what I'm going to do. I haven't killed yet. I'm sure that my allies want to know that I'm capable; that I'm not dead wood. But I don't know if I can do it. If I don't, someone else will do the job, and no doubt I'll go down with the boy from District 7.

I can't do it.

How could anyone ever think of killing another. It's a monstrous thing to do; sadistic, barbaric and a waste, more than anything. I remember watching Finnick's and Ludo's Games on television, and seeing the look in their eyes during their battles. Yes, there was fear, and yes, there was the determination that all victors have, but there was something else, that was far darker. Something akin to enjoyment.

How could anyone become something so monstrous?

Probably because they are making the decision that I am making. It's a Hobson's Choice, really. I have to do it. There is no other way of escaping here.

I take a first nervous step towards the boy, who is still pinned to the tree by the tributes of District 1.

"She doesn't have to do this."

Suddenly Dylan, my twin brother, steps forward and takes the knife out of my hand. I feel saved, and drop to my knees, relieved.

"Any of us can do this," Dylan argues, talking to Bastian. "Why put her through this. It's doing her no good."

"She needs to prove herself," Bastian retorts. "She's useless. She's only here because of your training score. There's ten of us left; we need to filter out the weakest."

I understand Bastian's case. He's right. Sooner or later, I need to kill. Yet my brother still fights my case.

"I'll kill the boy for her," Dylan says. "I'll get the job done." He takes a step towards the boy from Seven, holding up his sword, but Bastian blocks his way.

"No. It must be her."

Dylan turns to face the boy from Two, wearing a cocky smile that I know only too well.

"I'll tell you what," he says, still grinning. "I'll fight you for it. I win, and I kill him. You win, and Annie kills him."

Suddenly I feel my heart drop like a stone. Dylan's made these sort of brash, foolhardy decisions before at home, when he'd pick fights with boys older and stronger than himself to protect his friends. I can remember seeing him get kicked across the school playground with Brandon or Finnick or whoever he'd stepped in to help by older kids regularly when he was just a young child of ten or twelve. For all his merits, his cornered-rat type of courage has never left him. Whether he likes the challenge, or the adrenaline, or he's lusting after honour that he'll never gain, he seems to enjoy these fights. Considering his almost unrivalled intelligence - he's flown through school without an issue, and has a bright career ahead of him - surely he knows that a skinny boy that's barely five and a half feet tall won't win these fights. Picking a fight with a Career is never a wise move, but on the tenth day of the Games, I'm amazed he's resorted to this. I thought these brash challenges were behind him, but apparently not.

On my knees on the ground without a weapon, I'm powerless to intervene as Bastian accepts Dylan's challenge.

"You're on."

This fight may be a trained Career against an overconfident academic, but my brother's courage and determination let's him take the upper hand at first, surprising his opponent. Quickly the tide seems to turn against him, as Bastian comes on the attack with his mace. It only takes Dylan a few more moments to realise that he made a grave mistake by attacking a Career, and he turns to flee, but only runs into Aurelia, Bastian's district partner, who has her sword ready to strike.

I find myself screaming as I flee from the scene, with an after-image of my brother's head on the ground in front of me running round my head.


The 70th Games lasted exactly two weeks.

With Dylan's death, Annie fled from the Careers on the tenth day, hiding for the remainder of the Games in a remote corner of the arena, scared to venture from a small clearing high up the slopes of the wooded valley that made up the arena.

Throughout the Games, there had been earth tremors in the arena, getting progressively stronger throughout the Games. On the thirteenth day, an earthquake led to destruction of much of the woodland, causing an open arena, as the Careers split after winked ing the numbers down to four from seven that day.

The following day (Annie's nineteenth birthday), a second, stronger earthquake shattered a large concrete dam at the higher end of the valley, flooding the entire arena. Two tributes were killed by the initial wave of water, leaving Annie and Aurelia, the girl from District 2, floating in the water. It took six hours, but Annie finally became the victor as the last tribute to keep her head above the water in the 70th Annual Hunger Games.

Annie Cresta also set a record as the oldest victor of all time, being exactly nineteen years old on the day of her victory.


A/N: If you enjoyed Annie's chapter, please review! As ever, I welcome constructive criticism :)

Also, if you're wondering why there's no Finnick/Annie relationship in this chapter, I always imagined that the relationship sprang up as a result of Finnick helping Annie to recover from PTSD after the Games.

P.S. I'm going away on holiday for a week again, so I might not have internet connection for a week :/ I'm just warning now that this might be the last chapter until next Saturday. Hopefully it won't be, but I really don't know, unfortunately.