When it was half past three, I was exhausted. I was thirsty, had to use the bathroom, I was wounded and uncomfortable. However, I was still alive. I was keeping the promise I made myself to win. I was still on the right track.

I had used the past hour to over think the things I had seen so far. I was a murderer, but strangely enough I didn't care that much about the kill. I had to look forward to the future now and realizing what I had done would come later. The future. The preliminaries would end in half an hour and there was only a quarter of the original contestants left, so encountering one was rare.

My waist was covered in blood and I had used some tissues I had found on a desk to clean it, but it kept bleeding. I had broken the arrow in two so the point was still in there but the tail not. Doctors in the Head City would take it out once we were freed from this building.

I wanted to cry. Even someone like me, who had been hardened on the streets for so many years, couldn't take the horrors I had seen. How was I going to live on like this?

The thought of morphling made me feel ecstatic.

I looked on my bracelet. Since there was only half an hour left, I only had to move three times more to remain safe. Walking up the stairs was extraordinary painful.

The silence was deadly. I hadn't heard a cannon in maybe twenty minutes. Most of the tributes were probably hiding. Only the most bloodthirsty ones were still moving around. Luckily I didn't see one. If I hadn't had that arrow in my waist, I would have been on the move. I couldn't allow myself to look weak on camera but I had no choice.

I stood up because I had to move to another floor. Carefully holding on to furniture I made my way to a lower floor which seemed to be abandoned. This was not an office, it was a restaurant. The food was all gone, but under a table was a good place to hide.

While I was sitting there, invisible to others, I saw another tribute for the first time in a long while. It was a guy, he was running really fast and he was gone within half a minute.

What if I was the only survivor of our group? I would be so lonely the following week.

Time was ticking and before I knew it the ten minutes on this floor were almost over. I went another floor down and knew that in a quarter I would be safe from all the killing. It felt horrible, not being able to defend myself because I was hurt. I avoided the stairs where I had encountered the sisters and hid again.

And nothing happened during the very last quarter of the preliminaries. At 3:59 PM I was sitting on a chair and staring at a computer monitor that showed the time. When it jumped to 4:00 PM, I noticed that my bracelet timer stopped working. I inhaled and exhaled.

Oh my God. Preliminaries were over. They were over. I had survived.

'Good afternoon, everyone!' said an enthusiastic voice. It was the president. 'I cannot express how proud I am. The nation salutes you. If you are hearing this, you belong to the bravest of all tributes. I can report to you that you have outlived 132 of your fellow tributes, and that you are now in the running to become the second victor of the games, together with 28 others!'

I was trembling from top to toe. The feeling was indescribable. Yes, I was proud, but so many things were going through my head right now. I had to have fresh air, I think. I stood up and opened a window. The sea breeze flew in.

'Please make your way out. Put your weapons down. Any kill or attempt to will be severely punished. Get to the ground floor, which is accessible from now on. You will meet your mentor there.'

Luckily I wasn't on a high floor. The eight floors I had to go down to get to the ground floor were a torture, but I wasn't the only injured. I met others on the stairs. One of them had a deep, long cut in his forehead, causing his head and glasses to be soaked in red.

I could hear noises becoming louder once I approached the ground. I was about to find out who had survived. I heard laughter, conversations, cries of joy and cries of sadness.

The survivors had all lost at least a couple of friends.

I stumbled into the hall. It was crowded, a strange thing after these six hours of loneliness. I looked around if I saw someone familiar, but the only thing I saw was dirty blonde Hayden on the other side of the room. She was talking to a man who was probably her mentor. I had to stop myself from running towards her and ripping her eyes out. I would probably die on the way because of the wound her sister gave me. But when I saw that sister arriving, all I felt was fear and I hid behind some people. They hadn't seen me, though. They were way too busy with being praised for their good performances. With them was also a third girl, a redhead, who might have been the second sister or just another friend they brought here.

While I was trying to find someone I knew, I looked at the other tributes. Most of them were older, at least sixteen, but there were also a few younger ones. Some of them were forgettable, some of them not. A boy with a cap on (thanks to it I couldn't see his face well) was leaning against the wall and his hands were covered in blood. Seeing everything I guessed there were slightly more males than females.

'Abbey!' I heard someone calling me. The voice was too familiar and I almost wanted to jump to the sound. But before I could move I was getting hugged so tightly I couldn't breathe and the arrow was pushed deeper in my flesh.

'Er – you are hurting me' I stumbled, and Kara let go. I looked her in the eyes. She seemed unharmed. Then she embraced me again, less tightly this time.

'I'm so glad you made it! I'm just so glad!' she cried. I was indescribably happy too. I had someone with me. There was someone for me. I wasn't going to be alone. We were in this together.

'Wait. What about the others?' I asked.

'Rose is dead. I saw her portrait on those computers, maybe around half past twelve? And I don't know about the others.'

It felt like I had a rock in my stomach. I knew there were going to be deaths in our group, but it was still hard. Rose wasn't here anymore.

'I don't think the other two are still to come' Kara continued 'but we got each other'

'Yes' I said, and we sat down.

'Jeez, that thing is not pretty' she said, while pointing at the arrow 'why didn't you pull it out? Here, let me help you-' she reached out for it, but I smashed her hand away.

'No, don't. I read somewhere it's better if you don't pull it out.' I said.

'Oh, ok'

'How many kills did you make?' I asked.

'Two' she said without blushing 'I don't want to talk about it'

'There you are!' We saw Laika coming towards us. We stood up and he embraced us as well. He pressed us close to him and said it took a while before he had convinced the guards our mentor wasn't well, so the escort had to be there to pick up District 1.

'You two made it. District 1 has two tributes. Extraordinary. Well done, girls.'

'So there are no others?' I asked.

'No' Laika said with a guilty face 'Flora was already dead within ten minutes, she wasn't fast enough after waking up, she didn't make it to another floor on time. Jess wasn't trying to hide or anything when she encountered someone on the 67th floor and she wasn't even trying to win the fight that followed. And Rose was driven in a corner by someone from East, luckily she was dead after just one stab. And both killers, Jess' and Roses, are dead, so you don't have to get revenge or something.'

'So it's really just us' Kara whispered.

'Yes. It's over for now. We need to get you back to the apartment and you, Abbey, you need to go to the medics in an instant. They'll take you home.'

We had to stay there for a while, until the president appeared with the head Gamemaker who had whispered in my ear at the train station. Were they going to continue the investigation on Jess' injuries, although she was dead? I hoped not.

'Tributes, mentors, well done everyone. I'm honored to announce the location of this year's first arena. It will be…District 6!'

I saw many people frowning. My topographic knowledge wasn't that good, I roughly knew where District 6 was, I believe it was below District 2, in the very south of the continent, but I had no idea what its previous name was.

'What can we expect?' I asked Laika.

'Hard to say, but I guess heat. It's a very warm climate there'`

I bit my lip. I wasn't good with heat, but I also disliked cold. However, these were the New Games, and I could have known this was coming.

The idea of Rose, Flora and Jess being dead was weird and it still hadn't got through. I hoped it wouldn't until after the Games. There would be more losses. The only one that was going to be important was Kara, but maybe we were going to meet some other nice people. Oh wait, I wasn't going to trust anyone anymore. Not after what happened at the preliminaries at the staircase. That was all I could think about while laying on a bed at a medical clinic.

There were roughly twelve others here, all survivors but all injured. On the bed next to me laid the boy with the cut in his forehead. It needed stitches.

After leaving the 'tower of terror', Laika took Kara home and sent me to some sort of highly advanced technological clinic. Those doctors had given me a weird pill and somehow I couldn't feel my whole waist after that. It was such a strange feeling and I couldn't look while they were taking out the arrow and healing the wound. Blood from others was fine, but not mine.

When I got home, it was around four PM. The television was turned on and broadcasting stuff from earlier today. I was indescribably happy to be alive and breathing. Seeing that stuff gave me goose bumps. I didn't want to look at it, so I went upstairs to take a very hot shower.

The water was really hot. I was hopping on one foot while I tried to change the temperature. Finally I gave up and got out of the shower cabin. I didn't dare to sleep because I was afraid of nightmares about skeleton-like creatures shooting arrows and big guys with axes in their backs. I sat down in front of the window and stared at the view. The city was partying.

When we were called for dinner, I was happy I was able to at least do something. Now there was only three of us at the dinner table. The food was extra nice this evening. They'd better done that last evening, when there were still six people.

'Well, to you and to the following week' said Laika and he raised his glass. I hated toasting and refused to, but Kara did. Laika ignored my rudeness and put his fork down.

'Right, I might as well explain the programme for this week. Tonight they'll announce the preliminaries' winners. Chariot Rides are tomorrow, we will go there early because your stylists demanded that. After tomorrow evening, the gambling stations will open, so it's important to behave well. Then there's a few days of training, but I can't help you there. I'm afraid you'll have to hope that Charlotte will be able to give you some advice, but I wouldn't count on it, so in training, it will be just you. On the last day they will decide your training score and then interviews will be held. Questions?'

I shook my head. Kara didn't say anything.

'Good. Finish your meal, then we'll watch the special broadcast on the victors of the preliminaries.'

Halfway through dinner Charlotte joined us. 'Well done' she said, almost incomprehensibly 'I knew it would be you two'

'How would you know? You are never sober' I answered.

'Do you think that affects my sight?' she threatened.

Yes, I thought, but I didn't say it out loud.

Ceasar Flickerman was again one year older, but it was invisible. I had no idea how old he was in reality. He'd been a celebrity for so long, here and in Panem, so he couldn't be younger than at least seventy-five. However, he was still an energetic man.

'And welcome back to the New Games, where the whole world has been looking forward to for eleven months! Hello everyone here and at home!'

Now that three people were gone, we all fitted on the same couch.

'There's no doubt about the fact that you all know what took place earlier today: our nerve-wrecking preliminaries. This year they were just as epic as last year, with an innovative arena and more. This year we have 28 contestants competing in District 6, 15 males and 13 females. With me in the studio I have head Gamemaker Pillano, who returns as Head Gamemaker this year. Give him a warm applause!'

I didn't understand how the people in the studio were able to clap for that skinny, pale man sitting there on the stage, arrogantly frowning.

'So, Franq, you know there's a huge weight resting on your shoulders after the first games, people are wondering how you will make Games that are even more fantastic this year. Let us start with the preliminaries. Of course we have winners, a boy and a girl with the highest score. I remember last year, our wonderful couple Mason and Poppy, God, I miss them; did these winners deserve it?' asked Ceasar.

'Yes, undoubtedly' said the Head Gamemaker.

'If I'm not mistaken, each kill is awarded one or more points – one point for an average kill, two points for a good kill and three points for an excellent kill.' Ceasar remarked.

'And fifteen if you finish someone from your own District.' Added Pillano.

'Yes, yes. Well, the winners. Were there good results for them?'

I poked Kara. 'I think I know the female winner.' It could be no one else than bony Alexandria. Considering the blood on the floor and the guy shot with all the arrows behind the desk…

'Yes, excellent scores.' Said Pillano.

'Very good. Ok, for everyone who doesn't know, the winners get five minutes extra interview time, a crown during the chariot rides and something that will protect them during the first three days of the Games. Well, don't let us wait anymore. Who is the male victor?'

'He amazed everyone, and impressed us hugely. It is Fabio Cornelli from District 31.'

The Head Gamemaker said it in such a way as if he were extremely bored, but the crowd in the studio applauded and cheered. I saw Laika writing down Fabio's name.

'He had an astounding twenty-eight points.'

'Oh my God' said Ceasar, but it was impossible to catch it. If you listened closely, you could hear the City outside make noise and scream Fabio's name. The people in the studio seemed to go crazy with joy.

Twenty-eight points. How the hell could I ever think I had a chance? This guy had twenty-eight points! How many kills were that? Last year's male victor only had, what was it, nineteen?

Fabio's picture appeared on the television. He didn't look like a ruthless killer. Just an ordinary, healthy, dark haired seventeen year old from West.

'We are pleased to announce that Fabio is the first one in these Games yet to obtain the fifteen points rewarded for eliminating one of your own District partners. His total of twenty-eight was built up from a fifteen-point kill, one three-point kill, three two-point kills and six one-point kills.'

'This guy is someone to look out for' said Laika, scribbling even more stuff on his paper.

'Fantastic' said Ceasar 'Mason can learn something from that. And the female?'

'There was some more competition here but the winner still deserved to win. It is Alexandria from District 18.'

Applause. Cheers. Hurray. When her portrait came on screen, I was ashamed when I felt my heartbeat speeding up. God, why was I so afraid of her? I didn't want to, but I knew I had plenty of reasons to. Especially after hearing about tributes with dazzling scores competing in the Games.

'She had a total of seventeen points, just like last year's female victor. Five times three points and one time two points. All thanks to the smart tactic she participated in.'

'But you escaped, Abbey' Laika smiled at me 'the Head City likes you for that'