"Let's go," Peeta says and I feel Katniss steer me into the Justice Building. Then I hear a door slamming shut, and Peacekeepers' boots moving back to the crowd. Katniss releases me and I see Haymitch, Effie, Portia, and Cinna. They're under a static filled screen, waiting anxiously.

"What happened?" Effie exclaims as she hurries over.

"Nothing," Katniss replies quickly.

"We watched Prim deliver her speech, then the screen blurred out. Haymitch claims he heard a gun fire, but that's ridiculous."

"Nothing happened. It was just an old truck that backfired," Peeta lies smoothly.

Then I hear two more shots. Who was it? Roy? Thresh's grandmother? Another innocent citizen?

"All three of you, with me," Haymitch grunts and we follow him, leaving everyone else behind.

He takes us into the Justice Building, up a spiralled staircase, to a long hall. Then there are double doors and a room. Haymitch rips off our microphones and stuffs them underneath a couch cushion then waves us on.

I'm pretty sure Haymitch has only been here once, on his Victory Tour, but he seems to know the building awfully well. He leads us through dozens of staircases and narrow halls, knocking down a few doors in between. We arrive at a ladder, leading us to a trap door. I go up first, and find myself in the dome of the Justice Building. There are bits of broken furniture, piles of books that are coated with dust, and windows that barely let any light in. It's dark, dusty, and creepy.

"What happened?" Haymitch asks as he kicks the trap door shut. Katniss relates all the things that happened in the square. The speeches, the whistle, the unisonous gesture, our hesitation on the veranda, up to the sound of the bullet.

"Haymitch, what's happening?"

"It will be better coming from her," Haymitch says, indicating me.

"It'll be a hundred times worse coming from me," I say.

I tell them anyways, them being Katniss and Peeta. I tell them about President Snow, rumbling in the districts, the berries, and the death threats.

"I was suppose to mend things up, but I guess I did so bad that I ended up killing 3 people," I sigh. Peeta looks up at me, Katniss, then Haymitch.

Then suddenly he's yelling in our faces.

"This has to stop, you guys talking amongst yourselves, and not letting me in. Thinking I'm too weak, too inconsequential to handle anything!" Peeta exclaims as he strikes a lamp.

"It's not like that, I didn't know until-"

"It's exactly like that, you guys are leaving me out of everything! I have family too! People I care about back in 12, that could be as dead as yours if we don't pull this thing off. After everything we've been through, don't I deserve the truth?!"

"You do well in front of the cameras as it is, we don't want to add any stress-"

"Well you overestimated me. I really screwed up today, didn't I?! What's going to happen to Thresh and Rue's families? Are they gonna get their share of our winnings? Did I give them a brighter future?! No! They'd be lucky if they make it through the day!" Peeta exclaims as he sends a status flying across the room. I've never seen this side of him, and it makes me queasy.

"He's right," I pip up. "We- I should've told him before."

"Even during the arena, the three of you had something going, didn't you? Something I wasn't a part of," he says in a quieter voice.

"No, there was nothing like that, I just knew what Haymitch wanted from what he sent or didn't sent,"

"Well I didn't get that opportunity, because he never sent me anything, anything until the two of you showed up," Peeta says.

"Look, boy-"

"Don't even bother, Haymitch. I know you had to choose between the two, no, three of us, and it was them. But this isn't the arena, it's all different. People are dying! We know I can speak in front of the cameras, no one needs to coach me on what to say. But I have the right to know what I'm walking into," Peeta finishes.

"We'll make sure to tell you everything," Haymitch promises.

"You better," Peeta mutters as he leaves the room.

"I-I'll go after him," Katniss mumbles as she leaves the room.

"I did real bad," I sigh. I half expected Haymitch to say 'really bad'. But instead he said something unexpected.

"We'll see. Choices are still to be made. If we survive this, that is. You'll learn."

I've only learned one thing today, and it's that District 11 is on a whole different scale.

"C'mon, we gotta go to dinner," Haymitch says as he opens up the trap door.

I take a long shower, and only get out when Effie scolds me. The prep team starts to prep me up. I realize they must be living under a rock, they are completely oblivious to today's events. They're just excited about dinner.

When the prepping ends, I see myself in the mirror. My hair is curled, the locks tumbling down my shoulders. The dress is a pale pink color, and the ends brush my shoes.

I'm admiring the handiwork when I see Cinna through the mirror, and watch as he places a shimmery silver wrap around my shoulders.

"Do you like it?" he asks.

"I do, like always."

"Remember, we're going on camera soon, let's put on a smile," he says, and I give him a smile.

"There we go."

I have no idea if Cinna and Portia know about the things going on now. I bet Cinna has already figured it out, being the observant person he is. Effie is oblivious to the events though. She's as cheerful as ever. The only thing she complains about is a Peacekeeper, who poked her with a gun. We have dinner, and nothing disturbing happens there.

The nights on the train are horrible. The nightmares come every night, more real than they've ever been. I constantly wake up during the nights, screaming or crying.

"Prim, wake up!" Peeta says softly, shaking me awake. I must have been screaming. He crawls in next to me and comforts me, staying by my side until I fall asleep.

We continue through the districts. Trains, speeches with no personal comments, plaques, dinners, back to the train...it's quite tedious. District 3 was hard. Seeing Noah's face on the screen brought tears to my eyes and looking at his family was almost as hard as seeing Rue's. I had to back on what I wanted to say- no personal comments. But tears had streamed down my face the whole visit. I wish I had spent more time with him. I wish he hadn't died. I wish...I wish he could be here with me.

Districts 1 and 2 were the hardest to visit. Cato and Clove could have gone home if it weren't for us, and Glimmer and Marvel...Well, I killed both of them.

"Prim, Katniss," Peeta starts. "I want to apologize for my behavior, back in District 11, I was wrong, can you forgive me?"

"Forgiven."

"Yeah, we could have done better too, we should've seen things from your perspective."

Peeta's apology was genuine, and Katniss and I both accept. Then the two of them go off somewhere, I think they're looking for Haymitch, and I'm left alone.

I head off to my room, and I catch a bit of their conversation.

"He did, just...not like this," Haymitch says.

What could it mean? This time I was being left out of the loop, and it didn't feel so good.

By the time we arrive in the Capitol, the three of us are desperate. Desperate to sell our act, to get everyone to believe us, to show we mean no harm. To convince Snow.

Then came the night we're on stage, going through a long list of questions with Caesar Flickerman.

"What do you think lies in your future?" he asks Peeta, and Peeta gets up. The next thing I know, he pours his heart out in a marriage proposal to Katniss, which she accepts. What else could she do?

Snow makes a surprise visit and congratulates the three of us. A slap on the shoulder for Peeta, and hugs for Katniss and I, bringing the familiar scent of roses and blood.

Then I dare to raise one of my eyebrows, asking what my lips cannot. To my horror, he gives an imperceptible shake of his head.

~A/N~ I promise the real cover is coming soon, so hang-on in there!

Heads up: I'm going back to my regular upload schedule, a new chapter every Monday.

I hope you're enjoying the story so far!! [this is when you click the yellow star]

-Monica