I watch in slow motion as Sienna falls to the ground, the arrow sticking unnaturally from her chest. Colby drops his knife, and it falls to the ground at my feet. I feel like my feet are stuck in cement, but I barely even try to pull them from the ground. Blood trickles from Sienna's mouth, dripping down her face. In a little corner of my brain, I know that I am about to die, but I can't find enough energy in my body to care. It's over, all of it. I'm finished.

Finally, it comes. I hear the twang of a bowstring behind me, and a searing pain shoots through my back. The pain unfreezes my rigid body, and I collapse to the ground like a ragdoll.

As I lie on the ground, Colby comes into view for the first time. He looks even stronger and taller from down here on the ground. I watch as he rears his sword, frozen in the air like a gilded statue, and then he strikes. His sword plunges through Trent's stomach, and the other boy collapses to the ground.

"No!" I hear another boy scream. It's Midas; I expect Midas to launch himself at Colby and finish him off, but he turns and runs. Colby stares down at Trent, his expression unreadable. His eyes flick down for a moment to meet mine, but he doesn't linger. Making a decision, he turns to the table, plucking the bag labeled '9' from its spot.

And then he's back, leaning over my body. He reaches right in front of me, grabbing his knife from where he dropped it, and then I muster up the strength to speak. My final act.

"Kill me," I whisper. End my suffering, Colby, please.

Colby recoils at my voice, staring into my eyes. He swallows, looking over my body to see where Sienna is lying dead. Two cannon shots fire lazily in the distance.

I watch as Colby takes a deep breath, slips his knife into his pocket, and turns away. Without another word, he sprints away toward the safety of the grove.

Tears spill down my face, mixing into the dirt below my face. I feel myself slip out of this present moment as my mind flashes to the past. Everything I did, every action that led up to this moment. Sienna was right about all of it. Damien never loved me, and all I did was try to gain the approval from him that I was never going to receive. I cared so much about Sienna that I turned her against me, and I was too self-absorbed to even realize that she'd betrayed me after the fact. There hasn't been a single thing I've done right since I was Reaped, even since I was born. It was all one big mistake... and now, as I lay in the dirt, I can't even die like I was supposed to, like I should've done days ago.

I turn my head back to take another look at Sienna. Her face is peaceful despite the blood that pools around it. How could Sienna have chosen Colby over me? How could she have let me believe that we would be together until the very end, only to let me die for her own sake? Did I even mean anything to her this whole time?

What rips me to pieces the most is that even after everything Sienna has done to me, I still care about her. It still pains me to see her body on the ground in front of me, almost as much as it hurt to see Damien stabbed to death. I want to be happy that Sienna's dead after everything she's done to me and my brother, but I'm not. I feel broken.

Casper told us everything... I should've known. Casper wanted to tell me something before the Games even began, and he never had the chance. Even though he couldn't tell me directly, he still tried to warn me, and I ignored the signs completely. I was so confident in my friendship with Sienna that I never thought for an instant that my plan had failed. How long had Sienna been pretending to be my friend just to lead me to this point, dying on the ground?

I hear plodding footsteps approaching behind me, and I know it must be the Careers. There were only two cannon shots earlier. They must be back to finish me off.

A boy steps over my body, approaching Sienna's body. He kneels next to her, pressing his fingers against her neck. After a moment, I recognize him: Russell, the small boy from Four. He turns to face me, raising his eyebrows as his eyes meet mine.

Russell cautiously approaches me, his eyes fixed on the arrow in my back. He prods lightly around the injury with his fingers before kneeling in front of me.

"I think I can work with this," he tells me; I lie silently beneath him.

"Come on," Russell says, burying his fingers under my body and attempting to lift me up. "Let's go."

"No," I moan. "Kill me, please."

Russell stops, clearly surprised by my sudden outburst. He takes a moment to stare at me; my face is soaked from the tears I've shed, and I can't stand it anymore. Someone, just let me go...

Russell shakes his head, dropping me back to the ground. He grabs his bag from the table; it's the only one left. He unzips the bag, pulling out a small bottle. He squints, reading the label, before nodding. He kneels next to me, reaching under my shirt and applying something to my skin. Almost immediately, the pain subsides in my back.

"We need to go," Russell says, more urgently this time. With the pain in my back gone, I muster up enough energy to allow Russell's small arms to lift me to my feet. I groan, collapsing against the boy, and he grunts as he holds me up, taking small steps.

"Faster, or they'll come back and kill us," Russell grunts. Why is he doing this?

The numbness from my back spreads through my body and up to my head, filling my brain with static. As Russell walks me back into the sunshine, I slump lower and lower. The moment we cross the line of trees surrounding the Cornucopia, I have nothing left to give, and I collapse into the boy's arms, slipping away into unconsciousness.

A/N - hope y'all enjoyed this chapter, this one really helped motivate me to write! I'm super excited to introduce Russell as a new focal character in this story - he'll be a driving force in the later part of the story!

~S