When I woke up the next day I decided to try and move around and get my body used to working again. Careful to not wake up Sandy, who had taken the entire night shift for me, I practice walking certain distances. Then I jogged them. Finally ran. I eventually tried sprinting a short distance, but found that it hurt too much and would wait till a later time to sprint.

While I was taking a break from my training, I studied Sandy, racking my brain for any information I had about her. I remembered that she was Reaped with her twin brother, Isaac. I remembered that initially I thought she and her brother would have died right away in the Bloodbath. I think her brother did, but Sandy somehow got away. Sandy had some scratches on her arms, and her ankle was wrapped up. I suspected she was running away from something, either a mutt or another tribute, and fell, twisting her ankle. Clever girl for wrapping it up like that.

I wondered why Sandy was sent into the Games. Why the people of her District chose her. Did she do something wrong? Was she incapable of doing anything in her District and therefore unneeded? Was she like me, and rather have someone think that she stood a chance in the Games? I decided to ask her once she had woken up, which turned out to be relatively soon as she started stirring in her sleep.

Sandy blinked a couple times, and brushed her brown hair out of her face. I watched her as she realized I was watching her. She screamed, and jumped backwards, scrambling away.

"What do you want from me?! I promise I'm not a threat! Don't kill me!" she screamed.

I turned around, looking for the Career or other Tribute that was behind me. There was no one there. I pointed to myself, mouthing "me?"

Whimpering, Sandy's eyes unfocused and refocused again. "Wha-what happened? Did I blank out again?"

I was incredibly confused. "Uh..." What did she mean by 'blank out'?

"Oh silly me! You don't know what I mean, do you?" She laughed. It sounded almost like bells tinkling. "It's just a thing I have where I'll momentarily forget what happened. It's okay though, my little blank outs happen only for a few minutes. I remember you. You're Violet Langston, little butterfly girl of the Capitol."

I didn't know what to say.

"Oh! By the way, name's Sandy. Age seventeen, sister of Isaac, who previously died in the Games. These Games to be precise."

I didn't know what to say.

"You're a quiet one, aren't you? No problem. Just wanted to help a fellow female tribute. Possibly go into an alliance with her. So here you are, and here I am!"

I still had no idea what to say. I decided that silence would be my best option here. Sandy just stared at me, and we stayed in awkward silence until a cannon went off. Six left until I win. I can't believe that I've survived this long. Could I actually win this? Could I be the youngest person to ever win the Hunger Games? I would make history! But it's better to not get too cocky. Cockiness is what tends to kill many tributes.

"Well if you're ready to move, let's go!" Sandy seemed to have two personalities. One that was terrified of everything that was happening to her and one that was a thrill-seeking teenage girl.

But I knew I couldn't move. Not yet. My body still hurt like I've never felt before. I didn't want to speak though; too scared of which Sandy I would get. In order to avoid conflict, I decided to try and move to satisfy her. She seemed to notice my pain as I tried to move to my things. She dropped everything in her hands.

"You're still hurt, aren't you?" She whispered. "Let me see it."

I myself haven't seen my cut yet. But I had a feeling that it wouldn't be a pretty one to see. I didn't want her to see it for some reason, so I shook my head no.

She walked over to me. "Let me see it." When I shook my head no again, she pinned my arms down with one arm and with the other, lifted my shirt to see my injury. I gasped, as I looked down and saw that my gash was a very disgusting green color, with liquid stuff oozing out of it. Dried blood still surrounded the wound. It was infected. Sandy's mouth turned into a perfect O shape, and quickly covered it with her hand. "Oh my gosh. You're going to need Capitol medicine to fix that." I looked back down at my wound and sighed. I doubted I had sponsors, and even if I did, the price for medicine would be too expensive at this point in the Games. Any hopes that I had about winning was lost. There was no way I would survive long enough with this infection.

Sandy seemed to sense my thoughts too. "Well... let's not dwell on this. Maybe we can find some sort of herb or plant or something to heal it. You'll be better in no time!"

In my head I thanked her for being so nice, even though I knew she had no clue what she was talking about in terms of healing; for all of her life she had been surrounded by animals and knew how to heal them, not people. I did, however, like how she tried to make me feel better.

"Come along. Try not to carry too much heavy stuff. Don't want to strain your injury too much."

I hated how she was almost patronizing me. I scowled, then realized that all she's trying to do is help me. She could have just left me to die in the middle of the arena, to fend off the Careers by myself and injured. I could have died right then and there, but she chose to save me for some reason. Why would she choose to save me?

"Sandy?" It was one of the first times I had spoken to her since she blanked out on me. She seemed surprised to hear me speaking to her. It made me mad; I had a reason to not be talking. For one, I had seen almost all of my friends in the Games die brutally, and had one run away and leave me for dead. Two, Sandy had freaked out and made me think I was some sort of monster, even though she's bigger, older and stronger than me. And three, I didn't quite understand her. She's a very strange person, even if she did save me.

"Why didn't you leave me for the Careers to kill? If I had died, wouldn't that have put you one step closer towards winning?"

Sandy slowly turned around, and then screamed. Panicked, I quickly looked behind me, trying to see what was behind us. When I didn't see anything, I realized that she must have been having another black out and thought that I was there to kill her. Turning back around, I was shocked to see Sandy slowly coming closer, knife in hand. I backed away from her, praying that she would remember who I was soon.

"Sandy! It's Violet! Butterfly girl!" I winced as I realized I was moving too fast for my side to handle. As I reopened my eyes I found Sandy looking rather confused at the knife in her hand and how close she was to me. Looking at her facial expression I realized that she truly hated what she does when she blanks out. Only treatment from the Capitol could fix whatever her problem was.

Looking angry, more at her than me, Sandy stomped over to where she dropped her things and picked them up, not saying a word to me. I figured that having whatever problem she had could make a person be at least a little angry after they realized what happened. So I just followed behind her, not trying to make conversation. I had no idea where we were going; I didn't really care either. Just as long as we were safe from the Careers.

We had been walking for what seemed like hours when all of a sudden another cannon went off. Then another. Had the Careers gotten in a fight? Have they officially broken up? It happen every year; there's no doubt about that. I'm honestly surprised they've lasted this long together. Then again, I myself have lasted this long, so who knows what else could happen? We were down to the final five: five survivors against twenty-four. Twenty-four tributes who were voted to their deaths.

"Let's stop and set up camp here." Not bothering to wait for my reply, Sandy dropped her bag and pulled the sleeping bag out of it. Proceeding to ignore me furthermore, she climbed inside of it, turned on her side away from me, and ate a very small amount of nuts for dinner. I guess she was still in anger about what happened earlier.

I'm not sure how long I sat there for, just thinking, when the Capitol Anthem played overhead. I was slightly shocked to see the first face, Brittney, from District Four. It seemed as if the Careers did get in a fight, leaving only two left, therefore no more Career alliance. The next face I saw was Lyla's.

Oh, Lyla.

I was surprised at the grief that overtook me. Lyla, the girl who abandoned me when I needed her most, was dead. Lyla, the girl who I had become close to before the Games had started and in them as well, was dead. And there was nothing I could do about it.

Why did she have to die? She didn't deserve it; she told me that she had a family back home. Two sisters and an older brother. All of them were safe from the Reaping at that point, yet Lyla was taken and slayed inside the Arena. Her family must be overwhelmed by grief at that moment; their baby sister, or baby daughter's life had just been taken before her time. Tears streamed down my face as I remembered how we first met; me scaring her when I painted myself into a bed of flowers and waiting for her to pass by. I smiled at the thought of it, and wiped a glistening tear that was rolling down my face. I remembered when I watched with Rosetta as Lyla went up on the stage for her interview. Even though she is, no, was a year older than me, she still managed to win the crowd over with her cutesy appeal. I remembered the worst part; how she ran away when I was bleeding in the middle of the Arena. I understand now why she did it: she was scared and didn't want to die. If the roles were flipped, there was a strong possibility that I would have done the same thing. Oh Lyla. Tears were still flowing down my face as I laid my head down on my sleeping bag and fell asleep to a dreamless night.

When I awoke the next day I discovered that Sandy was already awake and watching me. I jumped back in my bag, startled by her close proximity to me.

"What the heck are you doing?!" I don't enjoy having anyone stare at me while I'm awake, let alone when I'm asleep.

"Watching you."

"No duh, but why are you watching me?" This chick was weird. Even a twelve year old could sense that. I was slightly okay with it though, because it got my mind off of Lyla. Just thinking her name brought a pang of sadness to my chest.

"You're just so innocent. You don't deserve to be in these Games."

Well. That was unexpected.

"Let's get going now that you're awake. It's time to find the other three tributes."

I had to think long and hard about whom else was left. There were the two Careers, Hazel and Daniel, but other than that who was the other person? Was it a girl? Was it a boy? It came to me all too quickly. It was Cassandra, girl from District Three, the girl who looked almost giddy with excitement when she killed a person in the Bloodbath. I didn't want to face her, even having Sandy with me. She was too deadly; too unstable for my liking. If I had wanted to get out of the Games though, I would have eventually had to meet her.

It seemed that the moment I had been dreading- coming face to face with Cassandra- came all too soon.

Sandy and I were just walking through the maze, randomly choosing which way to go, when Sandy suddenly stopped, causing me to run into her.

"Hey! What are you-"

"Shush."

So I shushed. It seemed as if Sandy had seen or heard something, or possibly was beginning to change personalities again.

"Sandy? What's goi-" I was shushed again. In my mind I knew that something awful was about to happen, the only thing being that I wasn't sure what. Would it be a mutt? Another tribute? A dead end?

Okay, the last one was stupid. If it was a dead end, she wouldn't be shushing me. So it's either another tribute or some sort of mutt that a Gamemaker created to torture us.

I heard a scream coming from behind me, and as I turned around I was face to face with Cassandra, her serpent green eyes staring right into mine. She couldn't have been more than a foot away, and she was holding a wicked looking sword in her right hand, and a jumble of things in the other.

"Well, look at what I found! I found myself more kills. Wonderful." The black square rimmed glasses that she wore on Reaping day were still on her face, except broken from possibly fights that she had in the past, whether with other tributes or with mutts. Her once beautiful black hair was now tainted brown, from mud it looked like. Cassandra didn't look like she had before; now she looked like some sort of wild person, eager to kill.

"Step away from her." Sandy's voice came out as a growl as she pulled me back behind her. I still didn't understand why she tried so hard to protect me. Yes, I was twelve, but that didn't mean anything.

"Why should I? Out of the two of you I'd like to kill the butterfly chick first." Her voice was laced with disgust and hatred.

"Why do you want to kill me? What have I ever done to you?" I had hoped that my voice would come out angry, full of defiance, but in actuality it came out sounding like a frightened little girl.

"Because everyone loves you. Poor, innocent little Butterfly girl. 'Oh no, look, it's a little girl in the Hunger Games this year! Let's all ignore the other tributes and focus on little innocent her!' Her imitation voice sounded creepy; it was incredibly high pitched, making her sound insane. I shrunk back behind Sandy, trying to figure out a way to get rid of Cassandra. It would be impossible to run away from her, mainly because she could easily follow us, so the only way to get rid of her would be to fight.

Looking down at my belt, I saw my lone knife. I can't exactly remember what happened to the other knives that I got from sponsors. Did I lose them in my fight against Astrita? I guess that's what happened. I would now have only one chance to throw my knife at Cassandra and kill her.

All while I was calculating my plan, she and Sandy were in a heated argument, circling each other. They seemed to have forgotten about me, which was exactly what I needed.

I only had this one chance.

One chance to kill Cassandra.

One chance or I would die, most likely a very painful death at her hands.

Taking a deep breath, I carefully pulled my hand back and threw it. I watched it soar through the air, landing with a soft thud into the place I had wanted it to go. Her neck. That way it wouldn't be a long and painful death; rather, a quick one. Sandy and I watched as her body fell to the ground, yet the sound of a cannon signifying her death had yet to ring out throughout the Arena. How was she not dead? Had I somehow miscalculated where on her neck it would kill her?

My thoughts were put to a halt as I heard her whisper a very faint, "Jasper" as her cannon rang.

All was silent.

Who was Jasper? A sibling? A parent? A friend? A boyfriend? It was then that the fact that I had killed people truly hit me. A deep feeling of dread and regret felt like a boulder in my stomach as I realized that there were people out in Panem that cared about each person in these Games, me included. Whoever Jasper was, whether he was a friend or family, just lost Cassandra at my hands. I sunk to my knees and began to cry. I couldn't take it anymore. These Games had officially ruined me; I would never be the same again, no matter how hard I tried. Whether I made it out of the Games or not, I wouldn't be the same Violet Langston that I had been when I first opened my eyes in the Arena.

No, I was not that Violet Langston.

These Games had turned me into something different.

They had turned me into what I wish I hadn't become.

They turned me into some sort of monster suited for the Capitol.

And I can't live with myself being like that.

It was time for these Games to be over, once and for all.