"We know Thresh took off, Cato's gonna be by the cornucopia, he's not gonna go some place he doesn't know. Foxface, she could be anywhere, watching and listening."

That morning, Austin had taken a liking to food again, which meant we had to go hunting because we didn't have much left. All the sponsor's food was long gone.

So right then, we were trekking through the woods, trying to find somewhere good to start. I was so happy to see Austin doing better, because now, he could walk and he only had a slight limp.

"We better hunt round here," I say, taking out my weapons.

"Okay, I'll take the axes," Austin says. It's only when he chuckles that I realise he's joking. "I'm only kidding, I'll just pick some stuff over here."

He and I split up as I go out into the woods, reminded irresistibly of the morning before the reaping. I shut this down immediately, though. I can't afford to think of home now.

I quietly tip toe through the woods with my axe hand outstretched, weapon, of course, clasped in it. I try to get the boy from One out of my mind, but I can't. It rips your soul apart to kill people.

Suddenly, the boom of the cannon jolts me to life and I turn. "Austin!"

I'm so terrified that he's dead, that Cato or Thresh has him. Oh, I've been so stupid- why did we split up?

"Austin!" I shout louder, tears coming to my eyes. Suddenly, I see some berries lying on his jacket in the clearing. At first glance, this is fine, but not when I see what type they are. My father's voice comes back to me.

"Not these, Willow, never these. They're nightlock. You'll be dead before they hit your stomach."

"Austin! Austin!"

I sprint towards nothing just as I crash into him. "Woah, are you okay?"

"I heard the cannon-" I cry. Then I notice the berries in his hands. "That's nightlock, Austin! You'll be dead in a minute!" I bat the berries out his hands and hug him tightly. "You're so stupid, god damn you," I whisper to him.

"I didn't know," he whispers back.

However, I soon find out who's cannon it was that went off.

Personally, I was hoping for Cato, or even Thresh, but no. It's her. She's just lying there, so peaceful, her eyes big and glassy and her mouth slightly stained by nightlock Berry juice.

Nina.

☘︎☘︎☘︎

"I never even knew she was following me," I'm dimly aware of Austin saying behind me.

"She's clever," I say, tears starting to sting in my eyes. "Cleverer than any of us- she's...amazing."

Austin frowns at me, and I sigh, briefly explaining Nina and my brief alliance with her.

"So, in the end, it was her wits that killed her," I say slowly. "She must've assumes that if you were going to eat them, they were safe."

I nod to the berries in his hand.

He sighs. "Shows how much I know, right?"

I nod.

"Though, we'd be dead too if we'd tried them," Austin begins, but I shake my head. "Oh, of course, you recognised them. What did you say they were called again?"

"Nightlock," I answer.

"Even the name sounds deadly," Austin comments as I lean down towards Nina.

"I'm sorry," I whisper. "I'm sorry that you didn't make it... and I'm sorry... for being such a shit best friend."

I hope Austin can't hear me, because I'm being an idiot, but I can't help but feel like I had some part in killing her.

My last move, after saying goodbye, is to scoop the nightlock from her hand.

Austin frowns. "What are you doing?"

"Maybe Cato likes berries, too," I say slyly.

"What about Thresh?" Austin asks.

"I can't kill him," I say immediately. "Not after he let me go."

Austin nods. He seems to understand, but if it was a choice between killing Thresh and going home, I know what he'd chose. Me, I have no idea.

As we walk back, the sky darkens. "What time is it?" Austin turns to me.

"A little after noon," I answer unsurely.

"So why's it getting dark so early?"

"Must be in a hurry to end it."

We walk on as the sky goes pitch black. I have my axes at the ready as Austin is virtually powerless. I don't know what the finale is going to be, but it normally involves a lot of blood.

Suddenly, we hear a snarl, not so different from one of a dog, and then a wail and a scream. Cato. "What was that?" Austin asks me in a shaky voice.

"It's the finale," I answer drily. "They just forgot the confetti."

Suddenly, just to join in the fun, a cannon goes off and Thresh's picture appears in the sky. My heart drops into my stomach as I realise that we'll be facing Cato completely alone.

We walk on, and I can't stop thinking about hearing Cato's wail earlier. What caused it?

Soon, I find out. Suddenly, I hear a growl and turn to Austin, but he's not there, he's on the ground, a big thing that looks like a bear is on top of him, but I know better. It's a mutt that the Capitol has made. This is the finale. This is how we're going to die.

Panicking, I send an axe straight into this beast's neck. This hinders it, and I manage to get Austin out from underneath it, but then I see the reality.

Another two mutts have been released into the arena, and they're chasing towards us. I can't fight off the millions that they're going to set on us. So we run.

"Go to the cornucopia!" I yell to Austin, and soon we're legging it through the woods.

In about fifteen minutes, we reach the plain that the cornucopia lies on and we run to it. Austin gives me a leg up and then I pull him on to it.

For a second, the mutts just look upwards, all growling angrily at us, before something else comes to join in the fun. Cato, with blood running down one side of his face, jumps onto the cornucopia and shoves me down.

I try to get back up, but he throttles me and sends me flying again. I vaguely see him and Austin fighting, trying to knock each other off the edge, but for the most part, I'm just lying there.

But suddenly, I get back up, and raise my axe. But what I see horrifies me.

Cato is standing right on the edge, with Austin in a headlock. Then he starts rambling on. "Go on, shoot. Then we both go down and you win." He smiles at me and it's crazy. He's so bloody and bruised that he's barely recognisable. "Go on, I'm dead anyway. I always was, right? Just didn't know it until now."

He raises his voice. "How is that? Is that what they want, huh?"

This is it. He's officially gone crazy. "I can still do this." When he smiles this time, I can see blood on his teeth. "I could still do this. One more kill. It's the only thing I know how to do. Bring pride to my District. Not that it matters."

Suddenly, I see Austin, lightly tapping on Cato's hand. I know immediately what that means, and I throw. The axe lodges in his hand and he makes a terrible scream, then falls backwards off the cornucopia into the sea off mutts below.

He screams as the mutts tear him apart, yelling. "Please!"

With a stone cold face, I pull another axe out, and throw it into the pile. There are no more screams.

Gradually, all the mutts disappear, until it's finally okay for Austin and me to jump down off the cornucopia. The sky has lightened considerably, though, by the time we do.

"We won," Austin says in disbelief when I hug him. "I can't believe it, we won-"

"Attention, tributes, attention."

My heart drops at the sound of Claudius Templesmith. "There has been a slight rule change. The previous revision, allowing for two victors from the same District has been revoked. Only one victor may be crowned. Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favour."

I should have known. I curse myself for the stupidity I have had. They were never going to let us win, they couldn't. They just decided to trick is into it.

My head turns to Austin as he turns to me. "Go ahead," he says, pointing to the axe in my hand. "One of us should go home. One of us has to die, they have to have their victor."

They have to have their victor.

"No," I say, slamming my axe to the ground. "They don't."

And from my pocket I reveal the nightlock berries. "No!" Austin shouts, trying to take them away. He thinks I'm going to kill myself. No, this plan runs far deeper than that.

"Trust me," I say, transferring some of the berries into his hand. "We're going home together, or not at all."

I know that the Capitol will be outraged, and that the Districts will be torn between annoyance and smugness, but I don't care. I can't kill Austin, and he can't kill me.

"Together?" Austin asks me.

"Together," I nod.

"Okay," he says, and we raise the berries to our mouths. "One..."

"Two..."

Maybe they're happy if we die after all. Maybe they don't care.

"Three."

"No! Stop! STOP!" Our good old pal Claudius is back. "Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present the winners of the seventy fourth annual Hunger Games! Willow Hawthorne and Austin Thatcher!"

We stare at each other in shock as the hovercraft flies in. I fall into Austin's arms and rest my head on his chest as it picks us up.

I don't know how they let us do that, or why they didn't just send more mutts in to kill one of us. I don't know.

But what I do know, is that I just started something. Something big.