Chapter Seven

A/N: Why no reviews? *sighs*

As the night finally arrived and the moon rose in the sky, the young brunette from District Twelve was utterly lost in thought. The final training day had passed. It was strange for Abby to think that this time in two days, she had not the slightest idea where she would be. She could be in a desert, a forest or an arctic wasteland, for all she knew. There was no telling where the Tributes would end up.

She had been training for this for four days, though in truth, she didn't know what she was training for, as no one else did either, bar the Gamemakers, of course. Especially as, just a few hours earlier, it had dawned on Abby that, even though her parents had given her advice on how to survive in the Games, their time in the tournament would be utterly different to hers. She was completely alone.

Abby had always tried to put any thoughts of the Games to the back of her mind, just as her parents did, but it had never been easy. The Games, as unfortunate as it may be, had been a part of Abby's life ever since she had been born.

She could never escape them. Her parents were Victors, their friends as well, and their District had been the beginning of the uprising, of which her mother was the Mockingjay. Her aunt had died at such a young age, killed in the taking of the Capitol, something which Katniss had never truly gotten over, though Abby was not surprised at this. And now, she herself was going to be in the Games, she was preparing to fight for her life. Preparing to live. Preparing to die.

Shaking her head in an attempt to clear it a little, Abby gazed out at the shimmering skyline of the Capitol, the moonlight causing the steel of the buildings to sparkle like the stars above them. It would have been beautiful, had the girl not been there for the purpose she was.

'I wonder how the people of the Capitol feel when they watch the Tributes Parade.' the young girl thought, as she watched the fluorescent lights flickering from colour to colour through the windows of the city's nightclubs. 'When they see the training scores, and the Games themselves. Over all that time, were they really betting against each other on the lives of unfortunate children? Did they really even care which ones would die?'

The truth entered the young girl's mind even as she thought the words, though she did not want to face it at all. The truth was, of course, that the Games were just that to most of those rich people. Games.

But to the outskirt Districts, to all of them really, the Games were far more than that. They were the nightmares that plagued their children's youth, the memories that haunted the twilight. The screams that never truly left the air.

'I wonder…' Abby thought, leaning her head firmly against the pane of glass. 'Are my parents thinking about me now? Are they lying awake in bed, wondering whether I'm alright? Maybe even wondering whether I'm thinking of them, too. Will they be alright? Will they cope without me?'

No sooner had she thought the words than Abby realised it. She had finally done it. She was giving up.

Right from the very beginning, the one thing the young brunette had wanted to retain, had needed to retain, was her belief in herself. Without that, there was nothing in the Games to keep her alive. Without that, she was completely on her own.

Suddenly, a click came from behind her, like that of a closing door. Upon turning, the girl saw a figure cast in shadow, approaching the window she was sat beside. Only when he came into the light did she finally recognise him. Alex.

"You're up quite late, aren't you?" he questioned, not bothering to say anything in the way of a greeting. The pair had grown, in the past week, to reach the point of being almost friends and no longer saw the point in acting formal.

"I couldn't sleep." Abby simply replied, shrugging her shoulders slightly.

"Me neither." he responded, crossing the room in five long strides to come to sit opposite the girl beside the window, his head turned towards it. "I can't stop thinking about tomorrow, about what's going to happen in the arena."

"I'm the same." she admitted, not wanting to turn to face the boy, in case he could the tears in her eyes reflected in the skylights. "I don't know what it's going to be. It could be a desert, a forest, a ruined city… anything. I don't even know if I'm going to live through the first day."

"You will!" Alex exclaimed suddenly, turning his face to face the girl, who subconsciously did the same. "Abby, you are going to live through this. You're going to live through the first day, and the second, and the third, and every day until the end of your life. Because that isn't going to be in the Games."

"Alex, you can't be sure of that. The Games are violent. My mum barely survived, and she was far braver than I am. You can't win the Games if you're scared, and I am terrified. So tell me, how am I possibly going to survive this?" By this point, tears were streaming endlessly from her eyes, marring her face as she let out a sob.

Before she knew what was happening, she was encircled in Alex's arms, crying quietly over his shoulder while he stroked her back in soothing circles. In any normal circumstances, had any male other than her father tried to comfort her, she would have broken away immediately, but there was just something about Alex's embrace that made her want to stay in it forever.

Whether forever would come, she would soon find out.

A/N: Thanks for reading, please review!