"Mercy is giving people what they need, not what they deserve." (unknown)

Gnaeus Isselhardt (18) – District 1

These extravagant trousers are way more comfortable than expected, and stretchy as well, albeit the golden glitter on them looking like armour. So it's easy to run after my allies as soon as the last interview is done and we are dismissed.

"Hey Talise, Tanzan, wait!"

Tomorrow we go into the arena. Eleanor is right by my side, opening up her updo to let the curls fall down freely. It doesn't fit with her high-neck dress, yet I imagine it must be torture to have your hair so tightly bound all evening. She's looking just as nervous as I feel myself, no wonder with both our greatest dream coming true, but of course this will mark the moment when we become enemies and all the good fun will be with a grain of salt.

"What's the matter?", Tanzan asks as he and Talise turn around. "It's late, we should go and get a good night of sleep."

"If we don't take long, say an hour, you'll still have around nine hours left before wake-up time." Talise teases with a slight eye-roll. So she doesn't care about a sleep schedule?

Well, I know who will keep watch when Eleanor, Tanzan and I are taking our sweet naps. I understand him well, especially since I noted down my sleeping hours for years and years back home, keeping track of my recovery process. Yet I did make exceptions and the last night before the Games seems to me like a worthy occasion.

"So no pre-Games party?", I ask, hearing the disappointment in my own voice. "We could watch an old Games replay or something, I'm honestly itching to get this going. Couldn't sleep anyway right now", I tell them, surprised by my own spontaneous idea. I hadn't realisee I couldn't sleep, but now a TV night seems exactly like what I want, focusing on others, like I did in training, instead of me. Damn that – whatever happens, soon enough videos of me will be shown to trainees back home and they'll comment on what I did right or wrong. How weird is that?

"You could try meditation, I could show you how it works", Tanzan offers in all seriousness.

"What? Only weirdos do that, you know?" Eleanor suppresses her laughter.

"My grandma taught me – so maybe we're both weirdos, but at least it's effective." How can someone look so unaffected and still sound somewhat defensive like that?

"I'm good, thanks", I reject the offer, because my brain surely can't cope with another thing to learn right now. No – this itchyness needs to be fought another way, so I can go in tomorrow with a clear head. Speaking of a clear head: "So if you girls want to, we could still party – I wouldn't be mad at all about having some nice company. But we should do some strategy talk first, since I've been carrying around this for the whole day now. Just needed to show you."

I finally manage to remind myself of what I wanted to talk to them about in the first place. For a weird half-second I fear the letter is gone, but then I get it out of my pocket and show it around. A smooth slip of paper with a message written on it. More a note than a letter, but oh well, who cares about these distinctions?

If you want to do yourself a favour, kill Owen in the bloodbath.

The writing is almost too perfect to be human, as if made with a ruler, so no one would be able to recognise the handwriting. Well, someone is afraid here, yet bold enough to contact us with a request like this? Or is it a well intended warning?

"Who gave that to you?", Eleanor asks.

"No one gave it to me – it pinned to our apartment door and I just happened to find it there."

"And you didn't show me all day?" It sounds like an accusation, a tone she hasn't used before with me, but only with others, so I feel the need to defend myself.

"When should I have shown you? You were already with your mentor this morning and then I needed to prepare for my own interview. Also, it's best if we discuss this all together."

"Owen is the big one from District 6, right?", Talise thinks out loud. She looks for confirmation from one of us, which she gets from both Tanzan and me, since I have of course thought about it the whole day and Tanzan probably even talked to the guy back in training. I still couldn't find out why he was so eager to get to know people.

"Is there anything speaking against it?"

"No, I guess not."

"But is there anything speaking for it?"

"That's exactly the problem, guys. I'd say it's a panic try from an outlier to eliminate strong competition", Eleanor ends the back and forth of Tanzan and Talise as they lean over the note, getting uncomfortably close to me.

"Anyone who is dead will help us, so if we happen to get him tomorrow, why not? And if he's too far out to reach, then we'll get him on another day."

Tanzans suggestions couldn't be more obvious. He doesn't care, or at least not enough to consider options. Might be because he wants to sleep. Might be because he told us his tactic was to just pick off anyone who was slow enough to fall into his hands.

"Well, he's part of a big alliance and they have Amran from District 2 in there. We should do anything we can to diminish them early", I give my own thoughts, despite this angle being just the lastest of many I considered.

"What if it's a trap?", Talise speaks out the worries I had earlier today, damn her. If it was only me who got frightened by this thought it would basically prove me wrong, and this would have been one of them few times I wanted to be proven wrong.

"You think they want to fight it out at the cornucopia already? That would be stupid, everyone knows its a fight the careers always win." Eleanor shakes her head in disbelief, a mocking tone underneath her voice.

"We can definetly be first at the weapons. They're a big alliance, they need to go for supplies as well – so that's when we'll kill that Owen guy. We'll be expecting him and any trap they might have planned. They don't know what the cornucopia will be like anyway", Talise say, clearly with the intention to make a decision. I'll have to give her that, it sounds like a good plan.

"So can I go to sleep now? My head is buzzing." Tanzan doesn't wait for an answer and instead turns, leaving us three alone.

"So what Games do you want to watch?", Talise asks before she continues. "I'd like something old, there are some cool moments in them."

*Trigger Warning: Suicidal thoughts

Halexa Caraudi (13) – District 6

They have given it back to me, right after the Interviews. The clown man of an Escort approaching with his clown-smile, waving his way too long arms. Stupid. Stupid fuckers. As if a little girl couldn't do them any harm. She wouldn't cheat. She wouldn't have a vengeance. Just a poor little girl clinging to an electronic key.

Of course, I already new it would seem harmless in others' eyes.

I won't let go of it now. It's between the rough fabric of my underwear, my very own, which I demand them to give back to me, and my bare skin. Luciana probably loved to wear the fine clothes, nightgowns that make people feel like they are dressed in clouds, but I long ago found I don't need that to sleep like a rock.

The Interview was honestly fun and the aftermath of that high still lingers in my blood, which is why I roll around on the floor from side to side, trying to find the tiredness I succumbed to since last year around that time. Echoes from tonight are still in my head as loud as reality. While I thought I would stare in confused faces by having an essay about pancakes, all they did was cheer. Cheer, scream, "pancakes, pancakes!".

I went off the stage snorting with laughter. The Capitolites love me. Boom. All their dreams crushed right in the beginning. Despite it never being part of my plan. Just a good addition.

A sudden wave of need washes over me. Is it still one more night and half a day to live through? Not that I couldn't do it...I just don't want to. Whatever comes next, if there comes anything, it will be better than this reality. Nothing would be fine as well. I know Luciana would disagree, but of course this isn't her choice anymore.

Almost a whole year now since I was last plagued with nightmares. Tiberius and Marcella from District two tearing apart my sunshine sister. She was the only person to ever make an honest connection with me. We survived the streets together. I thought we'd survive anything together. If my last night of sleep is a nightmare, would I care? Yes.

So I won't have that happen. I think I should tell Luciana. That I have everything under control, that I even have a story I want to tell her. She'd like a story from me, because usually it was her who made them up, as we sat in a street corner, keeping ourselves warm.

I close my eyes and finally drift off to sleep. Calm.

We made a bed out of dirty straw, back when we had just been thrown out. Adjusting to the streets was hard. But the straw, thrown away by someone on the outside of the District, someone rich enough to have animals in an urban District, was comfortable like few other things, still. Albeit a bit dirty, we had picked out the good bits to make ourselves a bed with.

"You know, I wanted to ask Mom for a cat. I knew we were in trouble, but I thought a cat might help us get better", Luciana starts, her arm wrapped around me and she smiles.

"A cat wouldn't have helped. They hated to care for us and they'd have hated to have to care for the cat on top of us."

"I know." She sighs. "Once I saw one on the streets at the car factory. It was pitch black like smoke, and I think it was a good colour to have. You know, a good way to hide in the shadows, so the humans wouldn't find it and the mice wouldn't either. I followed the cat, and it had kittens."

Luciana shows me on her fingers, putting out one, two, three. "They were all white, and I thought they probably wouldn't survive long. And then when I came around the corner to take a closer look, they all peaked up their noses, they were so curious. I took some dirt off of the ground, and I made the white kittens black."

I shake my head at her, only Luciana would have such a terrible idea. "You know that the mother will lick the dirt away, right?"

"Yeah, but I can imagine she wouldn't. Maybe she has learned from my trick and makes her kitten roll in the dirt everytime the train hunting mice." Luciana giggles and I join her in it. Giggles keep us warm.

The scene changes, as I decide to get back into the now. I imagine myself sitting in that same place with her, but now we are both our actual ages. It's in the air that we've gotten older.

"You know, Luciana, I once held a presentation about pancakes. I don't think I told the people anything new, because I only told them what I new and I'm not a good cook. But it was ridiculous how they loved me for it. Maybe sometime in the future, they'll make an actual arena after my ideas. I don't know if we'll be able to watch from above, but I think tributes fighting over pancakes would be way better than them fighting for their lives."

"You've got a strange humor, dear sister. I always feel like when you try to be funny, it ends up not being funny at all."

"Well, I didn't try to be funny, actually. At least not for other people, but only for myself."

"That's good."

"Do you remember the first time we dropped a bomb on one of the old warehouses? I made it way too strong and the explosion burned up all the food."

"What about it?"

"I'll be able to tell you tomorrow how much my bomb burned away from the cornucopia. I just hope that I'm really close to the careers."

Mira Gesby (14) – District 10

If I had just gotten that window open faster, I wouldn't be here. Mom, Alicia, Keith, Sorcha and I would sit in front of our TV, or maybe I would be out outside, because many people watch the start of the Hunger Games in the public viewing place. Empty houses, good to make a quick run through and get some small goodies.

It is weird in the Capitol, where I have everything I want and more. I just need to tell one of these Avox people and they bring it to me, even funny requests like a Hoola Hoop, or plastic food to mix under the real food for my Escort. I hate it. Maybe that's the only good thing about going into the arena in a few hours, that at least I will have to care for myself again, and I can know exactly what I want.

Otherwise, the prospect doesn't look so nice. I'd rather not be here. I could have sneaked away before the reaping and not volunteered, and they wouldn't have found me, I'm sure of it. The peacekeepers would have looked for a few weeks, but then forgotten me thinking about another thief – there are so many in District 10 it's basically impossible to have control over all of them.

"Where's your optimisim, Mira?", I ask myself and try to grin at the bathroom mirror. It's a huge thing, twice as high as me. It doesn't work. With so many things going wrong, it just doesn't work. At least the Interview went okay.

But I couldn't find an ally. Twenty-four tributes is the size of a school class, so you'd bet it's possible to find at least one among them who would want to be your friend. It's always like this, yet what had been true back home has come true here as well. No one wants to be my friend. Well, pretended friend, because the original plan was to find someone I could kill.

Turnes out, it's too foreign for me to approach someone and straight up lie to them. I was fine all my life with just myself and my family, and here I would have needed to talk, make someone trust me. The ones where I thought I could do it weren't as easy to make friends with. Haru from District 11 told me I wasn't useful enough. A twelve-year-old! She told me I wasn't useful!

Maybe I can still just hide and kill a lone tribute once they are asleep? It wouldn't be as impressive – I basically choke myself thinking that, making an impressive kill – like murdering an ally, but it would be something. Still an opponent less.

I'm about to make my way out of the bathroom, having stood here for some minutes doing nothing, but as soon as I unlock the door, I stop. I lock it again. What a fool am I?! It's not too late to at least do something, if I have to go sneaking around alone, I at least can be as effective as possible with that. I walk close to the mirror, the arena will probably have at least some kind of woods. That's what most of them are, right?

So how am I hoping to sneak around in the woods with hair looking like fire? Sure, it doesn't smoke, but the orange is not a colour that blends into nature so well. The trainer said there are certain colours which hide you better or make you visible.

With a tight grip around a small strand of hair I pull at them. It's not so bad. Like needles, but smaller, and it gives me a headache after the tird time I pull them out. In the mirror, nothing has changed.

Spinning around, I search for scissors. They have everything, so there are bound to be some. I rummage through several drawers, the fifth one finally a success. How am I going to cut away right from the hairline? Well, no other way than to experiment with it. So I start to move the blades, which feel awkward in my hands, made for people who use their right, probably. It's astonishing – just few seconds later, I look like a plucked chicken on mom's kitchen table. In truth, I'm not so chicken.

Now the grin is working again. "Mira, you've truly outdone yourself with that idea", I tell my reflection and stick my tongue out at it. If it helps, it helps.

There are still some single hairs left, and this time I make the cuts more carefully. This one isn't a joke, but just the imagination of my Escorts' shocked face when she sees what I've done...I'll need to come up with a cool joke quickly.

Hi there...after fighting a strange error, I still found a way to upload this. I have to say, I'm super insecure with this chapter, especially with the POV of Halexa. I wanted to get it exactly right, but I guess with a character like her, that's super difficult. I hope it turned out well, since I realise the topic is a very serious one.

Now, on to several points I need to check.

First of all, thank you so much for all the reviews, I'm always super happy to hear from all of you guys! Glad you like the story so far and going forward, I hope you will like the arena as well. If you have any issues or helpful advice, feel free to adress them in the reviews as well :)

Second, the poll on my profile is still open, so if you haven't done so already, go there to vote for your favourites.

Third, I have updated my profile with the Sponsor points everyone has available, and since it turned out my math has been wrong for how many points people would achieve, I've also adjusted prices – like, adjusted them by a lot. I'm sorry if this whole things is confusing to you, I have to admit, I miscalculeted, so that's all my fault.

There is one last bet before the fighting starts, and of course it's about the bloodbath. You can send your answers in via PM until January 22nd. Questions are as follows:

1. How many will die in the bloodbath? (20 points for the right answer)

2. Who will die in the bloodbath? (Name only as many as you guessed would die – 10 points for each correct name)

That's it, guys. That's all from the Capitol and next week we go directly into the arena. I want to give a warning in advance, that the bloodbath will be the longest chapter yet. There is so much ground to cover and I don't want to cut it short – it's the beginning of the Games afterall.

Next time, there will be tributes dying...