SAGE MADE HIS WAY ALONG THE EDGE OF THE ARENA UNTIL THE ARENA BEGAN TO LIGHTEN. He didn't care to sleep, he didn't want to sit, he didn't care at all for how well he took care of himself. All he could think about was the fact that there were six tributes left, and he was one of them. Every minute he was in the arena, he was one minute closer to either dying or to winning and going home. In a way it felt thrilling to know that he was so close, but he was terrified at the same time. Tributes from Twelve usually never made it this far. Families from Twelve usually knew that once they were reaped, they were dead. But Sage wasn't. And he was terrified of what his family was thinking.

        Did they think he could do it? Did they truly think that he was going to win? What if he came so close just to lose, just for them to have their hope of him coming back to Twelve ripped out from beneath their feet. If he didn't go home, he didn't trust Katniss not to take out more tesserea every year. Starting next year. And he didn't feel like President Snow had been bluffing when he said that Katniss would have been right where he was if she had been old enough. If he didn't win, there was no telling what would come of Katniss or Prim.

      Then again, he had no idea what things would even be like if he managed to win. If he managed to go home, sure he would be living nice in Victor's Village. He'd be home, but would it even feel like home anymore? If you had asked him two weeks earlier if he thought he would have been capable of killing anything besides an animal, he would have said no. But now he had killed people. Sure it was between him and them, but they had their own lives a week ago. They had been a person with goals, regrets, dreams...and it was all gone because of him. Thinking about it that way made him feel sick to his stomach...

"If you didn't, you wouldn't be in the final six." Sage told himself aloud, he had to remind himself that what he was doing in the arena was a good thing. He was surviving, that was what he was supposed to be doing...

         As Sage moved closer to the trees, to stay as far out of the sun as he could, a sound cut the the near silent air in the arena. The sound of a cannon. Then another. Then another, and then silence. But the silence was brief before the sound of growling seemed to surround him. He barely had time to really realize that there was three more tributes; including him. Because over the edge of the arena, the source of the growling revealed itself as a creature that didn't look like anything he was familiar with. It wasn't even close to resembling anything he had ever even seen in a textbook at school. It was covered with black fur that laid flat across its skin. It's eyes were barely visible, but Sage could tell it was scanning the area before it set its sights on him. It's claws were thick and curled perfectly to dig into the stone as it pulled itself onto the rocky level ground and as it stood up straight, it was only a couple feet tall. It's lips rolled back to reveal teeth that were bigger than any other animals' that Sage could think of.

"Attention all tributes, a gift of supplies that each of you require to make it through tonight are now at the Cornucopia." the voice of a game maker boomed over the forest, Sage heard what he said but his eyes were focused on the mutts that were climbing over the edge. One by one they began to inch towards him, Sage felt like he was frozen to the ground. He barely gathered his thoughts before he turned and began running into the forest again.

As soon as he began running, he began hearing the mutts heavy feet thudding against the ground after him. Their growls sounded so strange, Sage couldn't place them. They didn't sound like a wild dog or a wolf, and they didn't sound like a mountain lion either. They just sounded like they were straight out of a nightmare. As Sage ran, the rocky ground slowly began to become softer the further inward he got. He knew that if he even tried to stop to shoot one of them— he'd be a goner. He was barely ahead of them, and he didn't dare to turn and look to see just how close they were to him...

          Katniss was always the center of attention when it came time for lunch at school. Every day during lunch the games played, they usually had the volume down so people really had to try and hear what was being said over the talking of all their classmates. That usually included them asking Katniss if she thought Sage really had a shot of winning. But today, everyone was silent, it was as quiet as it was in the woods outside the fences at sunrise, before the birds really even woke up. Everyone had their eyes turn to the games, it was a split screen. On one half was the girl from District Two, perched on top of the cornucopia. Switching back and fourth between the bread she had taken from another tribute and a water canteen. She had a bruised eye, and her nose was swollen like Prims had been when she fell face first off of the steps at home. But nobody was paying attention to her side of the screen, on the other half was Sage running from a pack of of mutts. Katniss thought they looked like some kind of water creature, their fur looked like it was meant to keep water off of them. But honestly it didn't matter what they were, what mattered was how close they were to Sage.

"I bet this is it," Parker Grayson said looking over his shoulder at Katniss. Offering her a small smirk, and earning a sharp kick under his desk from his friend who sat across from him.

"Shut up, Parker."

          Katniss shrugged them off, her eyes were focused on the screen. She felt her heart racing in her chest so much that she felt like she could throw up. She wished she could just up and leave— you'd think they'd give siblings the option to not watch. But at the same time, she didn't want to look away. The moment she looked away, could be the moment that Sage died. And as much at Katniss didn't want to see that, she felt like whatever happened she had to watch.

Sage ran through the trees, the second half of the screen had changed to Marena digging through her backpack before leaving it in the mess of the two tributes that she had killed and the one they had been hunting. Marena didn't seem like much of a threat when she was in the alliance, but on her own— she was brutal. She easily could have been in the career alliance. She easily could win.

"This is just remarkable, don't you think?" Caesar's voice appeared before his face did, at the desk sat Caesar, Haymitch Abernathy, Finnick Odair, and the mentor for the girl from District Two. "This years games have gone smoothly, have really reminded us all about what they're about." he beamed, looking across the desk at the mentors. "These games have gone so smoothly, don't you think?"

"As smooth as the games could go." the mentor from Two spoke, her razor teeth were new. During her last interview her teeth were perfect— from shape to color. Now, they looked like something from a nightmare.

"Opal is up against two of the nations favorite tributes, do you think she's got a chance to win today?"

The young woman was quiet for a second, getting glances from both Finnick Odair and Haymitch Abernathy. "Today? If the mutts take care of Sage, I think so. But she doesn't if both Sage and Marena get to the Cornucopia at the same time, I don't believe she does."

        Suddenly the screen flicked black, only to swiftly come back with Sage as the main focus. Only this time he wasn't running...

        Sage immediately felt his head throbbing. His leg was burning. For a brief second, Sage was frozen there on the ground. He felt everything, and he heard screaming. Screaming filled with both pain and absolute fear. The pain that stabbed through his leg dulled the throbbing on his forehead from where his head had landed against a root popping out of the ground.

This is it, he thought. It had to be. The mutt's claws were dug into his calf so deep that it pulled him across the ground to completely close the distance. All he could think of was what was coming. The biting, slashing— all of it. And all of it no doubt broadcasted on the games for everyone to watch.

Everyone— including Katniss, Prim— his parents who had told him to not take a chance and enter his name extra times. Ella who he told he wasn't going to enter more than he had to...

          That thought alone terrified him more than the mutts. And without even thinking twice, Sage propped himself up enough that he could yank his knee up to his chest. Causing the mutts claws to shred through his leg even more. He reached for his satchel of arrows and gripped one of the arrows and spun around— hoping to sink the tail of the arrow into whatever he could. And luckily, it stabbed through the mutts neck causing it to screech in the same way that Sage had only moments earlier. When it fell to the ground, gargling for a split second— that was when Sage noticed the other mutts that had been standing around him. They had stood back as if the one that had grabbed a hold of him had been their leader. Or had claimed him, and sat there like a sitting duck. Watching them for any movement— but it never came. Instead they stood still— unmoving. Their eyes were watching him, but it was almost like they didn't see him. So Sage took that as a blessing and forced himself  to stand up— nearly falling thanks to his leg that was still gushing from the claws of the mutt.

            Sage slowly began to limp backwards, away from the frozen mutts. As he moved, they didn't. Their eyes trained on the place he had been. So Sage turned to hurry in the other direction again, but glancing over his shoulder nearly every step.

            He couldn't move that fast— his leg was threatening to give out from beneath him. But finally, Sage felt as if his entire body was a million pounds as he stepped out of the forest, and stepping into the opening where the cornucopia was. He felt sick to his stomach as the growling of the mutts still echoed in his head. They had just rounded him up to the center of the arena so the games could end. That was all just a literal game in the arena. To everyone watching that, this, his leg— everything was just part of the game.

           He hadn't expected to see what he did in front of him at the cornucopia. Standing over Opal was Marena, her face was bloodied and swollen from whatever happened there before he arrived. And deep in Opal's chest was her own spear, that had been used against her.

Sage felt sick to his stomach as Marena pulled the spear from Opal, and a cannon sounded. Confirming that she and Sage were the final two.

"No...dammit..." Sage muttered, literally breathlessly as he still struggled to catch his breath from his run from the mutts, and nearly holding his breath every step after he killed their leader. "this wasn't supposed to happen."

Marena looked up finally, getting a clear view at Sage standing just meters away from her. Her eyes, even though swollen, widened and her shoulders slumped. But her grip tightened on the spear, but Sage's bow felt heavy in his hand. For a second, he felt like he was about to drop it.

He couldn't kill Marena. He would have rather taken on the career's on his own and died almost winning than having to kill Marena, in that moment he wished he would have let the mutt shred him to pieces. He knew that she wasn't supposed to be his friend, he wanted to tell himself that she wasn't. But she was, she was the only ally that he had to trust from the start to the finish of their alliance. And they even had told each other they wouldn't let it come between the two of them. Which had been stupid, that was basically saying they'd let themselves die before it came down to the two of them. And as much as they didn't want to kill each other, they didn't want to die either.

         Sage felt panic beginning to boil inside him as she began to move her feet. Her hands were tight on the spear, and as she moved to raise it– it was like he was hearing what he said to Prim. To Katniss. That he promised he would win. As he remembered that, it was almost like instinct, like he was hunting and saw an unexpected deer that he knew would get him something for everyone in his family if he was able to take it down.

Sage reached over his shoulder with his free hand and pulled out an arrow and swiftly pulled up his bow and drew it back. Everything was in slow motion, even his hearing seemed different. He focused on his breathing, calming himself as much as he could, as if any sudden movements were to scare off the deer that could keep his family comfortable for a month.

The deer in the forest around Twelve could keep his family well off for a month. But Marena could keep his family comfortable for the rest of their lives.

           With that thought in mind, Sage let go of the string just as Marena rose the spear as if she was going to throw it. But before the metal rod could even leave her hand, the arrow struck her right in the middle of her torso. Causing her to stop and stumble backwards, and for a brief moment her eyes looked back at Sage in shock before she fell to the ground.

         Instantly, Sage dropped the bow from his hand and ran towards her. But like that morning in the forest, it was like everything was slowed down. And also like that morning, just like how he couldn't stop the Capitol ship from seeing Katniss, he couldn't get to Marena before her shirt was covered with blood and she was coughing, and struggling to breathe.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!" Sage said quickly, as he lowered himself down beside her. As his eyes saw her up close– the swelling around her eyes from whatever happened between her and Opal, and a decent gash on her forehead that looked fresh too, and the worst of it was the blood that was beginning to spurt out from her mouth as she tried to breathe. "I-I...I'm sorry, Marena..." he stammered as his eyes began to burn and tears began to blur his vision.

          But although she was clearly just moments away from dying she shook her head, letting go of the base of the arrow where it was and she groped at the ground until she found where his hand was and took a tight hold of it. "D-don't..." she stammered, but her voice was almost foreign to him. "I'm g-gl-glad it-it's y-you," she stammered before trying to take another deep breath before her entire body went completely limp on the ground and the last inhale she took was pushed out through the blood in her mouth, leaving her eerily still.

Sage stared at her for a second, and as he did the final two cannons sounded for Opal and Marena, and Sage felt the tears that had been rolling down his cheeks only grow in quantity.

"The Victor of the sixty-eighth Hunger Games, Sage Everdeen!" the voice filled the arena, announcing Sage as the Victor for everyone watching.

But in no way did Sage feel like he had won anything.