We split up to hunt. I was more than happy to be away from Cashmere with her cold, accusing glare and Gloss with his inquisitive eyes that made me uncomfortable in a whole different way.

Brutus didn't speak much, which was just perfect with me. We stalked silently through the jungle, keeping each other just in sight. I felt better now that we were out hunting, doing something instead of waiting for the next terror. We weren't helpless out here. I didn't know exactly which segment of the jungle we'd walked in to but we'd made sure it would be hours before anything hit here.

I stopped to dig my knife into the trunk of a small tree nearby, lapping up the water that flowed down the drunk when I dug deep enough. When I'd finished I turned to find Brutus inches from me, nearly giving me a heart attack. For a big man he could move with such stealth!

"What are you doing?!" I hissed angrily at him, tempted to launch my knife into his chest just to teach him a lesson. I was not a person to sneak up on. He held a finger to his lips and motioned with his head that I should follow him.

He led me downhill, back towards the beach. We'd trekked far into the jungle by then. The turquoise water was obscured by thick jungle.

He slowed his pace as we neared a little clearing and I copied him, sensing we were close to whatever he had found. I felt my fingers begin to itch to draw my blade, sensing a kill ahead. This felt so much better. We were in control, we were the ones stalking our prey through the trees. Nothing was going to attack us from the shadows of the trees or our own minds.

Someone was up ahead, crouching among the vines and scrabbling in the dirt. They were filthy, covered in dirt and dried blood. Long, loose auburn hair hung ratty down their back. Even from behind I recognised Hydra, the female victor from District 5. I was impressed that she had survived this long; she never seemed to me to be much of anything.

I looked across at Brutus. He was smiling evilly, his eyes gleaming and I felt that I looked the same at the prospect of a kill.

I waved to catch his attention and pointed around the other side of the clearing. He nodded and I loped off through the trees, coming to stand in front of Hydra who was still scrabbling in the dirt, looking for edible roots most likely. Concealed in the trees I waited for Brutus to emerge behind Hydra and then I stepped forward, smiling down at her.

"Hello Hydra," I said pleasantly, swinging my knife in my hand. Her head snapped up, her body froze. There were leaves sticking out of her mouth but she just stared at me, frozen by the knowledge that she was about to die. I lifted my eyes to smile at Brutus who had come up behind her and she jerked out of her state, half turning to look at him too as she suddenly realized the trap she was in. It was too late. Brutus had closed the distance between them in three large strides and pulled her by the hair to her feet, jerking her off the ground. She spluttered and screamed pitifully, tiny and powerless against Brutus' enormous strength and size. He growled something in her ear and then swung his sword across her neck with surprising delicacy. The enormous blade sliced into her throat, spilling crimson down her front instantly. I watched with satisfaction, feeling my own blood rising at the sight of her dying body. He held her till she stopped struggling and twitching, as if he was savouring the feeling of her life draining away in his arms. When it was clear she was dead he tossed her body down on the ground carelessly and wiped the blade of his sword on his tunic. He looked up and met my eyes with a grin.

"You let me have her?" he said with surprise.

I shrugged. "You found her, seems only fair. Besides," I added with a teasing smile. "You haven't had many kills yet. Thought you might be getting rusty."

He growled playfully at me and waved the sword in my direction. "Cocky little kitten," he warned. I gave him a smug smile and slipped back into the trees.

It was as if the kill had strengthened us. It had reminded us of who we were, confirmed in our minds that we weren't guilt ridden weaklings, but cold-blooded killers.

The tension was gone as we moved back through the trees towards the beach, though we remained in silence. It was one of the reasons I didn't mind Brutus, his silence.

As we moved, I kept my eyes out for animals to hunt. The fish already seemed a long time ago and we had to keep our strength. The final days of this Game could stretch forever if a few highly skilled tributes were left. And I had to make sure I had enough strength to get to Fire Girl and end her miserable life.

Brutus and I heard the voices at the same moment. We were near the beach again now after about an hour moving swiftly back through the trees. I could see flashes of turquoise water sparkling in the sunlight through the trees and glimpses of golden sand. Something moved up ahead on the sand and I froze, dropping down into a crouch. Brutus ran in a crouch up next to me and we both hid in a mess of vines, watching to see what we had found.

There was a large group of people on the sand, some moving about back and forth. They didn't look very wary considering they were out in the open. As one of them paused I recognised the silhouette of Johanna, glaring angrily at someone. I shifted slightly to see what she was looking at and saw with a grim delight that it was none other than Fire Girl herself. They were all there, her Loverboy too, Finnick, Wiress wandering in a circle and someone who looked like Beetee lying on the ground.

I hadn't realized I'd moved forward until I felt Brutus' grip on my arm tugging me back. I looked at him and he shook his head. "Too many of them, with Finnick and Johanna there. Let's follow them, see what they're up to."

He was right of course; the two of us couldn't take on all of them when Johanna and Finnick were perhaps our two biggest rivals in the Arena. And we knew Fire Girl would kill if she was protecting her stupid boyfriend and his fetus in her stomach. The fact that he was right didn't make it any easier to sit and watch silently as they gathered up their few things and began to walk warily along one of the spits of land. They were headed for the Cornucopia, weapons raised, but no one attacked them. I wondered then where Cashmere and Gloss had ended up. Were they watching this too or were they buried deep in the jungle somewhere?

If we could find them again, the four of us could take them easily. And the others knew to leave Fire Girl for me.

"There they are," Brutus breathed in my ear, sending an uncontrollable shiver down my spine that I tried to hide. It was if he'd read my mind. He was pointing to the water where I could see a dark shape under the surface, swimming menacingly closer to the Cornucopia. He pointed to the left more and I saw Cashmere on the edge of the jungle, watching the dark shape of her brother.

Beside me Brutus let out a long, high pitched whistle that sounded like some kind of animal. Cashmere's head snapped up and she looked straight at the jungle where we were. She must have understood because she gave an almost imperceptible nod.

"Let's go hunting, kitten," Brutus said with excitement and then he burst from our hiding place and sprinted down the nearest spit of land in pursuit of Cashmere who had already taken off. It only took me a second to follow but it was enough to place me some distance behind the others, especially with Brutus' long strides.

Gloss was already hauling himself from the water, the sun sparkling off the droplets cascading down his tanned body like a thousand diamonds. I didn't see him kill Wiress but I knew he had when I saw him drop her body to the ground. Cashmere was almost beside him, Brutus only a few feet behind. I tightened my grip around the blade in my hand, my legs pounding along the sand as I tried to catch up to them.

The dark tail of Katniss' braid whipped around as she spotted Gloss and then he had dropped to the ground. I didn't even see her arrow fly. Cashmere's scream, a terrifying twist of anger and pain, was cut short and then she too was on the sand, Johanna standing on her other side with her eyes gleaming manically. Brutus launched himself forwards and everyone was distracted momentarily as I skidded up to the edge of the group.

Both bodies were crumpled on the ground surrounded by halos of gold and crimson. It wasn't until I skidded to a stop on the sand between them that I realized Cashmere was still alive- just.

The wound from Johanna's axe was deep and I could see where it had cut through flesh all the way to bone. The sight made my stomach turn, despite all the atrocities I'd already seen. She was coughing blood, her lips stained crimson, and for a second I was blinded by the sun and it was Allure at my feet as she choked on her own life's blood. Then I blinked and looked around me wildly. Gloss was unmoving and it was obvious he was dead. Brutus had a knife in one hand and a spear in the other, bellowing furiously as he launched himself toward Finnick.

It took me half a second to take it all in and then I glanced back to Cashmere, knowing even as I did that any thought of helping her was useless. The Alliance was over and it was time to fend for myself. Even so, I paused with time I did not have as I realized the gasping noise she was making was a word.

Gloss.

I threw the quickest of glances at his motionless body and then somehow managed to force my features into something that didn't resemble panic.

"He's fine."

I didn't know why I lied to her, almost like I actually cared, but the words were out before I could stop them and there was no time for anything else. It didn't matter anyway because as I turned away from her, the blade in my hand already spinning its way towards Peeta, I heard three canons boom. Wiress, Gloss, Cashmere. There was no time to hesitate because Katniss' arrow was already being loaded and Brutus was already ducking out of the way of Finnick. Seeing my knife had buried itself in Finnick's thigh, the only major injury to anyone, I knew that Brutus and I were outnumbered now. Brutus' spear lay on the ground and although I already had another knife in my hand, Katniss' arrow was pointing in our direction and Johanna was swinging another large blade from her back. Time to disappear. I followed on Brutus' heels as he threw himself around the side of the Cornucopia and felt the brush of an arrow pass within inches of my arm.

Resisting the urge to look back I set my eyes on Brutus' back and followed him, our feet pounding, kicking up a cloud of sand around us.

I made it to the edge of the trees before the ground buckled and sent me flying forward, slamming hard into the base of a tree. It reminded me of the avalanche in my first Arena but there was no snow here to cascade and bury us all. As I pulled myself into a sitting position as fast as I could, feeling rings of fire tightening around my ribs as I breathed, I saw that the centre of the Arena was spinning in a blur. Then, just as suddenly, as it had begun, it stopped and the world was perfectly still once more. The Cornucopia faced the opposite direction and the bodies of Gloss and Cashmere as well as our enemies were hidden from us by its hulk. The Game Makers had changed the Arena. Now, the people stranded on the Cornucopia island had no idea which segments of the jungle contained which threat.

I used the tree's lower branches to drag myself into a standing position.

"I hope you wander into the ghost section," I spat furiously, talking to Fire Girl specifically. I wanted her to see one face in particular in there, though I wished more that I could have seen it. Just like Gloss had been strangely drawn by the fact that I had seen Allure, even if she had been dead, I half wished that I could see Clove.

Though I knew that here and now, that would be the final straw that would send me insane. I had to kill Fire Girl and get this over with before I allowed that to happen.

A branch snapped behind me and I spun, only to realize that I'd lost the blade that I'd had in my hand. I reached for another but it was only Brutus before me, holding a branch out of the way, one side of his sleeve ripped and blood oozing through.

"Alive?" he asked me. I winced as I straightened up but nodded. I eyed his arm.

"You?"

"More so than our allies," was his answer with a grim smile. "It's just you and me now, kitten."

We stared at each other for a moment, letting that sink in. It had been inevitable but, now, I actually felt vulnerable in this Arena. We'd had a lot of safety in our Alliance with the golden siblings. Now with Johanna, Finnick and Katniss all still alive, we were outnumbered. I turned my back on the sea and sand as a Hovercraft appeared to pick up the bodies of the dead.

Somewhere in Panem a mother would be inconsolable. She'd lost two children in the space of a heartbeat today.