Grover blindly stumbled along another hallway, wondering if he should just give up and let the wall of spikes catch up with him. Juniper, he reminded himself. She's back there watching. Other thoughts, too, came to him. Calypso.

Ever since the death of his district partner, Grover had gone partly catatonic. He had collapsed onto the ground a good distance away from the grove and laid there. He hadn't been able to come up with any reason to move. He was trapped in a giant maze. Why should he waste his energy stumbling around? Look where exploration had gotten him! Calypso had died. And she hadn't even been granted a quick death.

A cannon hadn't gone off for more than half an hour after Grover had run away.

The Capitol was sick. The Bloodbath had been just a day earlier. How much blood did they need? Did they get a special kick out of watching the kindest people die horrible deaths?

And then the wall of spikes had started to herd him forward, and Grover had realized that he was never, ever going to be able to escape.

Suddenly, the hallway around him opened up. Grover stopped, panting, and realized that the wall of spikes had stopped and that he was in a large chamber. The ground seemed to be concrete, and the ceiling above—

A shock went through him. He could swear that the roof above was the real sky, blue, with a few clouds. Just like back in 7. Grover forced himself to look down. It wasn't real. Nothing was real.

Except…for the tribute in front of him.

Grover recognized Frank from 10, who looked at him with wide eyes. His chest was heaving. A second wall of spikes emerged from the door behind him, stopping. Grover turned around. There were two more doors. Two more people, Grover realized. And then no exits. He had to get out!

But it was too late, as Nancy Bobofit barreled out of another one of the entrances. She looked around and grinned. "Well, hey, boys," she said.

Neither Grover or Frank responded. If anything, Nancy's smile got wider. "Now, that's just rude, isn't it?" she asked. "I'll kill you, don't worry! But now, let's wait for our fourth member, shall we?"

Fourth?! Grover looked around. Sure enough, there was a fourth door. Tredapidation grew within Grover. What if it was someone dangerous? Someone he couldn't beat? He had to kill Nancy now.

The thought surprised him. When had he become that hardened? That much of, well, a murderer? He had promised himself that he wouldn't let the Games change him! He owed his family that much. He couldn't make the first move here. Still, Grover gripped his new cudgel until his knuckles were white, silently thanking his mentor, Maron. It wasn't an axe, but it still felt balanced in his hands. Grover felt like he stood a fighting chance with his club.

Slowly, the fourth door closed. Nancy laughed again. "Well then. I guess our fourth competitor won't be joining us. A bit of a failure on the Gamemakers' part, but hey! more for me."

Grover's stomach dropped. No one insulted the Gamemakers and got away with it. No one. But the floor didn't move. The room remained silent. Somewhere out there, people were waiting. Waiting for a fight.

Why not give them one? Grover found himself wondering.

Nancy's grin widened. "I can see what you're thinking, Seven," she said. "Maybe you're right. Poor Juniper, though, right? No more boyfriend to come back to her."

Blood roared in Grover's ears. He clenched his free fist. Frank, across the room, looked worried.

Nancy turned to Frank. "Don't worry, Zhang!" she called. "I'll make it quick. Or, you know, not. But I don't think you'll be very effective at fighting me off." She looked Frank up and down. "I mean, have you ever exercised? Ever?" Grover watched Frank go red, guessing that this was a sensitive topic for him. Well, it was a potential weakness—no. He couldn't be the killer that Nancy was.

On the ceiling, about 10 feet above them, fluorescent lights in long, straight bulbs flashed off something in Nancy's hand. Feeling suddenly ill, Grover watched as Nancy threw a knife. He instinctively ducked, but the knife was in Frank and then the boy from 10 collapsed…

Grover felt some vomit come to his mouth, but thankfully, he didn't throw up. He tore his eyes away from Frank, who was screaming, screaming…

Nancy's smile had gotten even wider as she stared at Grover and Grover wondered how much of a fucking psychopath this girl had to be. What was District 1 teaching their kids, anyway?! Hadn't the boy volunteered for the money or something? Who did that! Remembering Ethan, the crazed boy from 8's anger seemed so much more rational. Nancy enjoyed pain. The room swam in front of Grover. No…no…he had to pull himself out of this. He had to fight.

Nancy tossed her curly red hair behind her. "Picked up some new toys at the Cornucopia," she explained. "Quite a few knives, actually. Why don't we have some fun?"

Something registered with Grover. The Cornucopia—she had been back there, sometime after the Bloodbath. So it was possible to get back. He had to remember that. He just had to kill Nancy and go there.

Right. He had to kill Nancy.

The redhead raised an eyebrow at him, and threw her first knife.

Grover almost hadn't seen it coming, but he had seen her wrist slowly flicking and he hit the ground. His lungs felt painful, but he forced himself to inhale, scrambling up as the next knife slammed into the area where his right hand had just been. Another knife came hurtling his way. Grover threw himself to the left, hitting the wall, pushing himself off of it and somehow managing to somersault off the ground into a standing position.

And then the next knife came and Grover's eyes crossed as he bent down and it missed him by an inch, cutting a tiny cut into his nose. Nancy wasn't letting up, though. Grover fell again, pushing up, not sure where he was going. There was no cover! He propelled himself into a strange jump, letting the next knife fly past him.

There was one of Nancy's knives on the ground. Not sure what he was doing, he picked it up, and let it fly. Nancy laughed as she dodged. "Fighting back, huh, Seven? Whatever, it's all the same to me."

Feeling another burst of adrenaline, Grover grabbed a knife and charged Nancy. He didn't know why he did it. He believed in himself for once. And he was fed up with Nancy. He just wanted this to be over.

And then Nancy's knife cut—no, it burned through the flesh in his left arm as Nancy threw it. Grover screamed out but kept going. He slammed into the girl and sent them both tumbling over, stabbing blindly, but despite his large build from working in 7, Nancy gained the upper hand. They rolled over and over and Grover pummeled at her but Nancy was keeping her muscles tight and then her hand was over Grover's and she ripped the knife away from him, driving it

through

his

flesh

And into the ground and Grover didn't know that anything in the world could ever hurt so much because it hurt and Juniper wasn't there and no one was there except for another dying boy and the girl who was killing them both and he'd die right now if it meant that it would be over because it hurt!

Nancy's smile was only wider and the red in Grover's vision from the pain multiplied with the anger and the shame that she was beating him, that she was stronger than his dream of Juniper and just living back home. She pulled out another knife and gently traced a pattern up his other arm, cutting through the fabric of his orange tribute bodysuit. "Oh, Grover. Did you plan on beating me or something?"

Grover gritted his teeth, refusing to answer.

This time the knife bit deeper, into his skin, and it still hurt but not as much as his arm which seemed to be multiplying…

"You were never going to win, you know," Nancy confided to him. "You knew it when you talked about protecting your stupid District partner up on Interview Night. You weren't planning on coming home, were you? But then she turned up dead on the second day and I just have to wonder, did you kill her? Did she not look enough like your girlfriend? Or maybe too much?" Nancy laughed. Grover wanted to scream at her, to scream that she was wrong and that someone would kill her and that she wasn't going to win but if he opened his mouth he would scream and that was what she wanted…

The knife tore even deeper this time, and Grover cried out. Nancy laughed. "From that moment, neither of you were going to win, you know? The Capitol doesn't like it when people act good and stuff during the Games."

Even deeper and Nancy traced something on his face and was that his own blood?

"The Games aren't supposed to show how good you are. The Capitol wants to see you at your lowest. They want to watch you break. They like to watch nice little boys like you turn into killers because that means that they can believe that they're above the Districts. You were an idiot for forgetting that.

"Oh, sorry, did you not know that? That's why I'm going to win. I never had any dreams. I'm a terrible person, pretty much, but that makes me interesting to watch but you get to be dragged down by the Gamemakers. I doubt that they were very happy for you. They deal in kids killing each other, not protecting each other—"

And then Nancy's weight flew off of him and her knife clattered to the ground and Grover registered what seemed to be a wolf standing above her, biting her arm.

Grover passed out.

Frank was in considerable pain, and he thought that maybe he shouldn't have pulled the knife out of his stomach, but he was at least able to dimly watch Nancy being mauled by a wolf. "No!" she screamed. "It wasn't—it wasn't supposed to be me!"

I doubt that the Gamemakers were very happy with your monologue, Frank thought to himself, feeling sick and wanting to go dark like District 7 had…

But…

No.

That wolf could go after him next. He couldn't die. He wasn't going to let himself die. Hazel was counting on him to come back. Grandmother was watching. He wasn't going to let himself be a disappointment again. Maybe somewhere, his father was watching, too, whoever he was.

Slowly, slowly, Frank stepped forward. Each step felt like it was jarring his inner organs, like he was falling apart. But still…Frank was from 10. He knew how to deal with animals, especially demented wolves that thought they could eat the livestock. Frank plunged the knife into the wolf's throat. The beast collapsed.

Frank collapsed with it

Nancy could barely think through all of her wounds, but she could dimly feel that something had gone horribly wrong. No. She was a winner. No. No!

Tributes:

D1: Nancy Bobofit

D2: Reyna Ramirez-Arellano

D3: Annabeth Chase

D4: Percy Jackson; Clarisse La Rue

D5: Jason Grace

D7: Grover Underwood

D8: Ethan Nakamura

D9: Will Solace

D10: Frank Zhang; Hazel Levesque

D11: Katie Gardner

D12: Nico di Angelo; Zoe Nightshade