AN: Guys! Thank you for the reviews and hello to new followers! So this has been a successful story so far! And thank you all again. I really appreciate it. I would also like to apologise for not updating sooner. But I have been so run off my feet with assignments and decorating! I hope you guys understand! I'm a student nurse and time is quite tight. Even more so after next week as I will be on placement for two or three days a week. And I just started a new job as a receptionist at a local Chinese. Pay is fair and it's enough to fund my car and other travels! Anyway! Enjoy and I will try and get another up soon!

Catching Fire: Chapter 20

I wake in the morning when Peeta's prep team opens the curtains. I guess this is a more subtle approach to waking us. No nightmares came last night, although I wasn't expecting them to since I was sleeping in Peeta's arms. I don't know how long Peeta has been awake for but his hand is soothing my tiny swell under the cover. This makes me smile. And then I lose the smile. Don't get attached, Katniss. I tell myself harshly, which is secretly breaking me. Last night, I allowed both of us to comfort our baby. It makes it all the harder to leave his arms.

Today, the seventy fifth annual Hunger Games begin. Today, I will continue to fight for Peeta Mellark.

Flavius grips my wrist and pulls me to my feet and out of Peeta's grasp. I scramble to hold the robe around my body and Peeta starts a protest but then Effie is standing in the door way, her voice chirpy booming – too much for the time I reckon it must be. "Up! Up! Up! We have a big, big, big day ahead." We both groan in unison. It saddens me to know that it will be the last time that we will be together in a bed.

Flavius leads me from the room, leaving Peeta to his prep team. I have to wipe away my tears away. I have to save my Peeta. But then I have the niggling voice in my head that is screaming at me to save our child, like I know Peeta wants. But save them for what? To watch them grow up in the world that I am experiencing right now? A world that causes innocent child death? I can't help but think of Rue whilst I am on this subject. She was so innocent and the image of her last moments stabs at me.

As Flavius leads me to my room, there is a tense silence. I know that I won't be able to take this like I should. They know that I am going to die.

Octavia greets me where she just breaks down in tears. It sets me off and soon, the two of us are in each other's arms, sobbing and apologising. Most of the morning is spent like this as my team try and get me ready for Cinna. We all cry and no one speaks. Although Venia does a great job of staying strong, even though I catch a glimpse of tears a few times.

At one point, Octavia puts a hand on my stomach. Really, I just have a bit of meat on me. It couldn't be passed for as being pregnant. This is how Cinna finds us, me sobbing as Octavia coos to my foetus. I must not think of it otherwise. Cinna scowls at the trio and sends them on their way.

"Katniss," says Cinna, his voice velvet soft. "I'm so sorry if they have upset you."

I shake my head and he wraps me in a hug. My arms tighten around his body. I don't want to lose this moment. In an instant, I start spluttering things about my plan to save Peeta to him. I know the trust will never be broken with Cinna. My sobs break up my words but I know that he understands the most part of what I'm saying. He just listens and that is all that I want. I am grateful that he doesn't try and talk me out of it.

I get dressed in thick but a seemingly light pair of grey combats. They have those huge pouch pockets at the knees and for a moment, I find this amusing. Next, I slip into a white thermal polo shirt. I let Cinna put my jacket on and he zips it over my small bump. He doesn't react, and certainly not in the way Octavia had. I try and push those memories to the back of my head. I check that my Mockingjay pin is in place and smile approvingly at Cinna. I don't mind this year's uniform but, it's comfortable.

Cinna takes my hand and I let him lead me through the quiet corridors of the Training Centre and up to the roof where the hovercraft is waiting. Neither of us speaks a word as we head towards the craft. I step on and am frozen in the beam as the careless nurse injects the tracker into my arm.

"I will see you soon. And sleep if you can." Cinna tells me.

Of course, I don't sleep. I'm too busy thinking about my suicide and my husband's pain. I know that he can't bear to live without him but he has no choice.

I think about the good times that Peeta and I have shared since the Victory tour. Being the first paired victors, everything was bigger than any other year had been. Every night since, we would fall asleep arm in arm. In fact, we had been with each other so much that now, I had an odd feeling. I was feeling alone.

I miss him.

Tears begin to fall in rapid progression. My emotions are everywhere but, I have to admit, crying does feel good. Unfortunately though, crying will not solve any of my problems. It doesn't even get me what I want. I want Peeta but instead, I find an Avox trying to console me. I send the girl away after a short time of her useless comforts.

I find myself thinking about President Snow and how coincidental this whole situation is. He wants me dead and what better way to kill me than to drop me, vulnerable, into the area. This Quarter Quell has to be a fix. No way was it already written, not after my humiliation to the Capitol a year ago. Sometimes, I find myself wishing that Peeta and I had just taken the Nightlock and ended it all there.

"Katniss," the voice behind me startles me into real time. "We're approaching the arena now." says Cinna.

I stand up, knowing what this means. I walk to the launch room with Cinna. Once we stop, he stands to face me and takes hold of both of my hands. "Show them what you have, Girl on Fire." He says and I reply with a half-hearted smile.

Thirty seconds.

Cinna smoothes out the jacket and hands me a belt which seems to have some sort of buoyancy features. This must be a joke that is on Snow. Fire and water. He wants to make a fool of me. And I just know that Caesar Flickerman will comment on the apparent dilemma. But I can swim. My father taught me in the small spring on our summer hunting trips.

Ten seconds

Cinna wraps me in a hug once again. "Stay alive." He whispers in my ear and I pull away without crying.

I step into the tube that swallows me and I am left to think about what Cinna has said to me. How can he say that after what I told him earlier? How can I stay alive if Peeta is to stay alive? Why doesn't he understand? The phrase does sound vaguely familiar and it isn't until the final count of the countdown that I remember these were Haymitch's words to me in my first Games. It is either a coincidence or a message. And I know that there are no coincidences when the Capitol is involved. It is a message.

Just like the message I find when I turn to Cinna to acknowledge him as I start to move up. In the eight or so seconds that I took to think, Cinna has been killed. And one of my own arrows harbours from his chest. Just like Rue. I scream and bang on the glass but I can't see anymore. Instead, I'm faced with a scorching sunlight. My podium is surrounded in water. Sea water to be exact.

I know that my ultimate punishment awaits me out there.