The room I've been shoved in is too cold, yet I'm still sweating, shaking, and I can't seem to stop the tears from pouring down my face.

All I want to do is run and find Scott and ask him if this is really happening, and if I am actually trapped in this waking nightmare, to grab his hand, run from this place and never look back.

But I can't. I want to so badly, but even if this is all real, I can't leave little Allie behind to deal with it on her own. She's too young, too innocent to go through this on her own.

We all are, but that's never stopped the Capitol before.

I know the process, I've had to walk it through with many tributes before, I know that this is my five minutes to say goodbye to my family, but I'm still looking around trying to process what is happening. I've been left in this grey room, with only a few scattered chairs, and at least two peacekeepers stationed at every possible entrance (exit), meaning there's no way of me escaping.

I'm completely lost in my own thoughts until I see a door move, and see a peacekeeper set a timer. I look up, thinking maybe they found a way of allowing Scott to spend his five minutes with me and stand up in anticipation, but what I see buckles my knees and I almost go crashing to the floor.

I'ts my dad. My dad has actually come to see me.

 He's crying, and running towards me, and he's actually hugging me...

He's hugging me.

Yes, my father and I have had a very rough relationship, and the last time I saw him was when it walked out to move into the Untouchable's village, and I may have said I'd never been happier than when I was leaving. But that doesn't mean that I lost all of my love for him, I just thought he didn't care enough to give me the time of day.

But he's here now, and it's enough to make me start sobbing all over again. I just about manage to choke out a sentence.

"But dad - thought - didn't - care enough..."

Instantly dad releases me from the hug to look me in the eyes, and I see that he's crying.

"Mitch, of course I care, you're my son! I know I spent too much time in the shop, and I'm so sorry, but I'm so proud of the young man you've grown into. If this is really happening, I want to see you one last time, memorise who you were, commit your touch to memory..."

He looks down, and I follow his gaze, the tears from both of us trickling onto the floor, forming puddles that slowly merge into each other. Dad starts messing around in his pocket, before finally pulling something out of it, but I can't see what yet.

"Erm, I know that you get to take one thing into the arena, and it would mean so much to me if you took this in with you. I had been saving it until your 18th birthday when you would come back to me, but..."

He didn't have to finish his sentence. We both know what he meant.

I look down and see him brandishing a piece of material out at me, and I take it. As I unfold it, I see it is a beautiful bracelet, woven together out of all materials from my dad's shop. When I was younger, I would run down all of the aisles, taking materials to my father and making him promise that, one day, he would make me something from them, a jacket or even a dress. My dad would always say yes, even though he knew he could never afford it, but always agreed because he couldn't stand to see my heart break.

And here were the scraps from those very same materials, carefully preserved over the years, and woven and twisted together in this amazing, beautiful bracelet.

I look up at my dad, and instantly launch into another hug, saying over and over, "It's perfect."

Over my dad's shoulder, I can see a peacekeeper coming towards us, and my dad and before I can do anything, he's ripped from my hands far too soon, and being pulled towards the door. But before he's pulled right out of the room, he stops at the door and looks back to me one last time.

"Please, just remember, do what feels right. I love you."

I try to say back to him,"I love you too,"

But he's already gone. And I'm alone again.

--------------------

It's been half an hour, and I'm finally let out of the cold and empty room, my mind still whirring from the last words of my dad. I look up and see a small figure emerging from a room opposite me, and sniffling. She sees me and instantly runs at me, both elated and angered at my appearance.

Little Allie pulls me into a breathtaking hug but just as quickly pulls away, hitting my chest over and over.

"You promised! You promised nothing would happen to us - you promised we'd be safe!"

She stands in front of me, just a small, helpless 12-year-old, looking every bit as scared as the day I first met her, with her arms wrapped in front of her stomach, shrinking away from a world determined to hurt her. From this moment, I know that I have to protect her at all costs.

Stooping to kneel in front of her, I envelope her into a hug of my own.

"I know Allie, I know I promised. And I'm so sorry. I didn't know that they could do this to us. But we are going to get through this, and I am going to get you back home."

Little Allie looked down, her large brown eyes staring straight into my soul.

"But how can you say that if it means that you will die? And what about Scott, I can't go on without my big brothers!"

"Don't you worry about the two of us, we'll figure something out," a voice was saying from behind me. I turn to see Scott, his hand resting on Allie's shoulder. "All you need to worry about is how you are going to say hi to everyone when you come back home, 'cause you're coming back here."

Allie stares at both Scott and I this time, looking more innocent than she had ever seemed as she shakily sticks out a fist, little finger in the air.

"Pinky promise?"

Scott and I look at each other, both of us still reeling from all of the events of the last five minutes. Then we look back at Allie and, at the same time, link our little fingers with hers, sealing yet another promise that we both know we might not be able to keep, but both knowing we are going to try our hardest to make happen, whatever the cost.

All of a sudden, peacekeepers push us forwards, and we stumble to the front of the building, joining Leo and Kasey, both of whom look as shaken as the rest of us.

We are lead out into the sunlight, past troupes of crying and screaming citizens yelling outcry and uproar at what has happened. I frantically turn, trying to spot someone, anyone that I might possibly know to catch one last glimpse of them. But the next thing I see is a grey metal door and before I know it, I am being shoved into a train and taken away from my home, possibly never to see it again