"I know where we are!" Cressida shouts whilst we run. "I know a place- up those stairs!"

When we get up, I see WANTED billboards switching between Gale, Austin, Katniss, Cressida, Messala, Pollux, Jackson (my heart thuds), Castor (my heart drops), Finnick (tears come to my eyes) and me.

It appears we've made some ground, because these houses appear to be inhabited. But this also means we have to tread carefully. Very carefully.

We reach a house and Cressida knocks on the door then waits. No answer. Knocks again. No answer. Knocks again-

"Someone's coming!"

The lock turns and I don't even get to see the person that stands behind it before Cressida is ushering us in. "Shut the door! Shut the door!"

The house is just what I would expect for someone of the Capitol. Diamond chandeliers, posh everything...

But when I see our host, I see a woman with sallow cheeks, a slim figure, a robe on with a big hood and a face painted with tiger stripes. I raise my axe at her. "No, no, Willow, it's okay," Cressida warns me. She steps out. "Tigris, do you remember me? I'm with Plutarch underground. We need your help."

She doesn't speak but instead leads us over to a rug, when she pulls it aside, a hatch is revealed.

When she looks up again, a memory is triggered within me. "I know you," I say. "You're a stylist in the games."

She takes down her hood to reveal a semi bald head that also has stripes. "Until Snow decided I wasn't pretty enough anymore."

"I'm here to kill him," I tell her. Whether it's of my running away, lying about a mission or doing on the orders of the squad, killing Snow is my ultimate goal.

She gives me the ghost of a smile before allowing us to climb down the hatch into quite a big room with costumes, chairs, cushions and lamps inside it.

The squad sits down and I looks around them. Gale obviously came off the worse with a mutt, as there's a cut on his arm. Katniss is trying to help but isn't much use. But the most heart breaking one of all is Pollux, who's sobbing in the corner.

"I made it up," I say, a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes. "All of it. There is no special mission from Coin there's only my plan. Everyone that's dead is dead because of me. I- I lied."

"We know," Cressida shrugs. "We all knew."

I look at her incredulously. "The soldiers form Thirteen-"

"They did too," Cressida nods. "Do you really think Jackson believed you had orders from Coin? She trusted Boggs and he clearly wanted you to go on."

"I never meant for this to happen," I say, tears taking their usual tracks on my face. "I failed. I kill- I killed them. I killed Finnick. And I- I'm so sorry Pollux I- I never meant to kill y- your brother-"

"Glimmer. Marvel. Mags. Clove. Wiress. Rue."

Everyone looks to Austin in the corner. "What do all those deaths mean? They mean that our lives were never ours. There was no real life, because we didn't have any choice. Our lives belong to Snow and our deaths do, too," he looks to me. "But if you kill him, Willow, and if you end all of this, those deaths, they do mean something.

"Cinna. Boggs. Castor. Jackson. Finnick," he looks straight at me. "They chose this.

"They chose you."

☘︎☘︎☘︎

"We should keep these clean, otherwise they'll get infected."

There's marks on Austin's wrists from the cuffs, and I'm cleaning them up. "You should cuff me," he says as I get up. "It's not safe with me yet. I have moments when I'm here, and my memories are getting better but... other times... it's like I'm sleepwalking.

"You should cuff me," he finishes. And I do. Not for my sake, but for his. I want him to feel in control.

It's not just my conversations with Austin that are interesting. Because when I'm supposed to be sleeping, and everyone else is sleeping, I hear two voices.

"Thanks."

Austin.

"No problem."

Gale.

This is weird. These two aren't friends. Never have been. So I don't know why they're talking.

"I can't sleep," Austin admits.

"Yeah, I haven't slept in days either," Gale sighs.

Then the conversation takes a twist.

"I should've volunteered to take your place in the first games," Gale says. I can tell he's looking at me.

"No, you couldn't've," Austin protests. "You needed to take care of your family, she never would've forgiven you. She couldn't lose you."

"The way she kissed you win the Quarter Quell... she couldn't lose you either," my brother says to him.

"It was just part of the show."

"Nah. I could tell. And I bet you could tell too."

I hear one of them sigh. I can't tell who.

"But I bet, if it came down to it, she'd keep you alive over me," Austin. How could he think that?

"No," I know Gale is shaking his head. "She really loves you, and I know that if it came down to it, even if you still wanted to kill her, she'd want you."

Before Austin can answer back, I hear explosions from overhead. I sit up, suddenly not caring if Gale and Austin knew I heard everything, and get my axes.

"Mortar shells," Gale looks at me. "It's not ours. Peacekeepers must be shelling the rebels outside the city."

"That's not outside the city," Cressida shakes her head.

We all get up and Gale goes to see what's going on. "Sun's coming up, there's some small arms fire. Could be Paylor, maybe Lyme."

"Rebels are close," Holmes nods.

"This is it," Cressida breathes.

Suddenly, an alarm goes off. It's not us, it's a message.

President Snow shows on the projection that's in the room.

"To all Capitol citizens more than a half mile outside the city circle, I am announcing a mandatory evacuation. Come to the mansion. I am promising you shelter and sanctuary. All refugees, come to my home. There you will be provided with food, medicine, safety for your children, and you will have my solemn oath to protect you until my dying breath."

"We should hurry up with that last part," Cressida rolls her eyes. This reminds me so much of Johanna Mason that I can't even look at her for a second.

"Our enemy is not like us," Snow drones on on the projection. "They do not share our values. They have never known our comfort and our sophistication, and they despise us for it. Make no mistake. They are not coming to liberate us. They are coming to destroy our way of life. They are coming to bury us."

Capitol Seal. Black again.

"Is he still in the mansion?" I ask. "Austin?"

"Yeah, I... I recognise the room," he nods.

"Where's that?" Since the holo's been destroyed, we're depending on a paper map. We pour over it now.

"About five blocks away," Cressida shrugs. "We're right here, off the avenues. Mansion's here."

"What about the pods?" I ask.

"Well they'll probably deactivate the pods around here for the resident safety."

"That could work," with no pods, this is my chance.

"But every peacekeeper's gonna be waiting," Gale says reluctantly.

"Next to our faces on every billboard," Cressida nods sarcastically.

"Snow's offering shelter to all the refugees," I shrug. Cressida looks up at me and we both look in sync to the rack of costumes.

Thirty minutes later, Gale and I are dressed in big cloaks, hoods and our faces are hidden. "Head straight north," Cressida instructs us. "There's gonna be thousands of refugees, just get into that stream, and don't look up. We only got one shot."

"Let's make it count," Gale smirks confidently.

"Good luck, Willow," Cressida says. I hug her, for she's become a friend the past few months.

"Thank you," I say. "Pollux," I turn to the avox, who I don't deserve to even be speaking to. But he still likes me, and he hugs me too.

"Tigris thank you for everything you've done," I say to the stylist, who only smiles and nods to me.

"Willow let me come with you," Austin. He's been wanting to protect me for ages now. "I can be a good distraction, okay, they know my face-"

"No," I say firmly. "I'm not losing you again."

"You'll be safer with us," Cressida promises.

"What if peacekeepers are searching houses?" Gale points out. "If he's captured-"

"Give me a nightlock pill, okay? I'm not going back!" Austin cries.

I look to Gale, begging him not to do it, but he does anyway. Taking his from his jacket, he hands the poison pill to Austin.

I hug Katniss, who clings onto me, then go to Gale, who also has the key for Austin's cuffs. I get it from him and unlock them. Then I face him. "Stay alive."

I hug him, holding him like I don't want to let go. "If I see you again it's in a different world," he promises.

I pull back and kiss him. He kisses back and for a few seconds, we just stand there, then he pulls away.

Gale kisses Katniss then we both stand beside each other. "You ready?" He asks me.

No. But instead, I press my lips together and say. "Let's go." We put our massive hoods up and head outside.

The air outside is cool and crisp. We head north just like Cressida told us and soon find the stream of refugees. They aren't hard to miss to be honest. And neither's the repeating message that's getting told through intercoms

"By order of President Snow, all residents must proceed to the Presidential Estate. Please continue to move forward in a calm and orderly fashion. Additional food, medicine and clothing will be provided upon arrival."

Gale and I go into the middle so that if peacekeepers are on the edge they won't see us. We keep our heads down and don't speak to each other.

The mansion soon appears in front of us and we eagerly walk towards it. But then I see it. Peacekeepers on trucks all around us. Watching. Most likely for people just like my brother and me.

As we continue to walk, I see a little girl on her mother's hip. She reminds me irresistibly of Posy the way that Rue did Prim. And the way she clings to her mother...

And then the next problem comes. At the gates, which are about a hundred metres away, peacekeepers are checking people. They're looking in bags, scanning faces and lifting hoods.

Gale looks at me and nods, and we instantly turn back- but no- peacekeepers are coming in there as well, making the process go quicker-

We have no choice. Turning back towards the mansion, we grit our teeth and try to work out our cover without speaking to each other. I see Gale put a hand on the gun hidden under his cloak. I also put my hand down to my axes. If trouble arises, I know what to do.

Then everything changes.

Just as I see a peacekeeper put a hand on my shoulder and my body tenses up, an explosion blasts people away. Gale and I duck down to avoid it, however

"IT'S THE REBELS!"

And sure enough, once the explosion's smoke had cleared, a group of rebels start firing at all the refugees. And then another bomb's fired and it blasts almost all the peacekeepers up in the air.

Then I see that little girl- the one who looks like Posy- her mother's dead on the ground- she's crying- just like Posy did when mother was sick and cried every day over father...

Amongst all the chaos, Gale picks me up and I stand, running with him throughout dead peacekeepers and refugees. We jump all of the barricades and hide behind them, hearing more cries and gunshots.

Gale wrenches a gun off a peacekeeper (this will be better than his little gun he got from Cressida) and kicks him in the chest, making him lie still. "Come on!" He shouts to me, and we jump another barricade.

We run to the mansion, where a crowd is forming at the gates.

We try to make it, but a flaming tank that's just been exploded comes our way, and we duck to avoid it. By the time I get up, two peacekeepers have Gale by the arms and are dragging him away to the mansion. To Snow.

"SHOOT ME!" Gale yells and I do raise an axe- "Shoot me!"

But I just can't. He's my brother. And I can't lose him. And by the time I've started to make up my mind, he's already gone.

Even though my brother's going to get tortured and killed, I need to get undercover. I hide behind an overturned truck and breathe slowly.

I stand up and run towards the crowd forming at the mansion gates. I shove through it, trying to get to the front, but everyone's so eager so I can't.

I decide to climb a tank and see what's going on.

"Stay still. Bring your children forward. Gates will open momentarily. The children will be collected first. Stay calm."

All over the crowd, people were lifting their babies and children up. Peacekeepers were collecting them and bringing them through the gates... people were screaming and crying...

It was this kind of behaviour that made me think that maybe the Capitol and the districts aren't so different at all.

But still.

And then, just to join the fun, a hovercraft drops in. It floats across the sky, a Capitol seal on each wing. Everyone looks at it, mesmerised.

Behind it, it drops throusands of parachutes. The refugees recognise these as the parachutes that tributes receive in the games. The gifts from sponsors.

As the parachutes near the ground, everyone reaches their hands up and tries to catch them.

That's when the explosives in them go off.

I'm blown off the tank and onto the ground, but I'm still alive. Others aren't so lucky. I see plenty of still bodies across the group that used to be a crowd.

And then a bunch of people in grey outfits with white badges on their arms rush in. A red square with a matching red M inside it.

But then I see- I see her.

Her hair is in one blonde plait. Her face is unsure and brave at the same time. Her shirt is slightly untucked at the back. It looks like a duck tail.

"Prim?" I ask, kicking over dead bodies to reach her. I must get to her- tell her to get out. "Prim? PRIM! PRIMROSE!"

And then the rest of the parachutes go off.