Avery awoke in an unknown room, he looked around in confusion. His leg felt weirdly heavy and his ribs felt really tight.

"Hey, there he is?" Cammie grinned at him.

"What? Where am I?" He asked with a frown.

"Hospital, you have an interview with Ceasar later." She replied.

"I don't understand..." Avery trailed off.

"You won." She told him, he frowned at her.

"I won?" He parroted.

"Yeah." She told him. He sighed.

"I can go home?" He asked, he nodded again. "I won." He didn't beleive it, he just did not beleive it.

"Avery! I'm so glad I get to style you again." Marka swept into the room.

"Hey Marka." Avery greeted him wearily.

"What have they done to You? Don't worry, you'll look right as rain when I'm finished with you." Marka messed with his hair, trying a few hairstyles.

"I just want to go home." Avery mumbled.

"Oh come on! Caesar is dying to see You!" Marka told him.

"I want to go home, please?" Avery begged.

"You will, you will. But first you have to give them what they want." Cammie told him. "They own you now."

"There he is! My victor!" Mila ran into the room, taking Avery in her arms and holding him tightly to her. "Oh my Avery, my victor. I'm so proud."

It took him a minute to realise she was crying. "Mila when can I go home?" He asked her, she let go of him, examining his face and the cuts and bruises on it.

"Home?" She mused, rubbing some blood from his face. "I'll take you home soon, don't worry." She huffed him again. "Oh Avery."

"Cammie I can't do this."  Avery muttered to the woman, as Mila gripped his hand tightly to stop herself from crying again. She needed a constant reminder that he was really alive, he felt the same way.

"You have to." Cammie answered calmly. Marka passed him his crutches, taking Avery from Mila and helping him up.

"Come on, let's get you cleaned up for your interview." Marka helped him get used to his crutches, before leading him out of the hospital, followed by Mila and Cammie. Immediately, Avery noticed the cameras filming him, he tried not to look at them, as Marka led him into the remake centre.

Sitting down, Avery allowed Marka to get to work on his hair and face, not really bothered anymore. He just wanted to go home, to show his family he had really done it. He has survived the hunger games, but the feeling in the pit of his stomach was eating away at him, he could envision life outside of the arena anymore.

He had been dressed in another suit, this one jet black with a white shirt. He looked at himself in the mirror and sighed, yes he looked great, but he hated it.

Mila walked in and gasped. "Oh my! Don't you look dashing." She circled him before pressing a small metallic object on a chain into his hand. He looked at it, it was a pendant, flicking it open he saw a photo of himself and Patricia. He couldn't hold it in, he burst into tears. Mila took it from him and put it around his neck, before pulling him into her arms. "Oh Avery, it's okay."

Once he had finished crying, Marka covered his face in powders and other strange things that Avery hadn't even known existed, not covering the bruises, but making it look like he had not been crying.

"Alright, if you don't want to answer a question, just change the subject." Cammie told him. He just nodded and grabbed his crutches, pulling himself up and hobbling out of the room.

^^^
When Avery crossed the stage to sit beside Ceaser, he was painfully aware of everyone watching him.

"Congratulations Avery, I have to say none of us were expecting you to make it." Ceaser told him, he laughed lightly, trying not to show the pain that laughing held.

"Neither was I." He replied.

"So your first kill, in the bloodbath, what was going through your mind?" Ceaser asked, he leaned forward expectantly.

"He's going to stab me, and then I don't want to die here." Avery answered. "I wasn't really thinking about it."

"Interesting, and when Patricia was killed and you hid in that cave, what was that like?" Caesar asked, Avery froze, there was only one answer in his mind.

"I wanted to die." His voice was just above a whisper. Caesar raised a brow at him.

"We saw you with a bottle, how did you get your hands on that? And what was it?" He questioned.

"Poison. I made it, just in case." He replied. "I'd never thought about using it on myself before then."

"An interesting thing you know how to do." Caesar was digging and it made Avery nervous.

"I know many things Caesar." Avery avoided the question well. Caesar laughed.

"So it seems. May I ask how your injuries are doing?" He continued.

Avery nodded. "It would be easier if I hadn't been stabbed in the ribs."

"And is your nose still broken? And your leg seems to be." Caesar continued.

Avery nodded again, hoping the interview would soon be over. "Both broken." He agreed.

^^^
Finally the interview was over, and Avery was sat on the train with Mila and Cammie, on his way back to district ten.

"Are you ready to go home Avery?" Mila asked, Avery glanced at Cammie, who seemed to understand what was bothering him.

"I... I don't know... I'm not sure I remember home." He replied, he was absentmindedly playing with the pendant at his neck.

"I felt the same Avery." Cammie said as a sad attempt at comfort.

"Things will be different once you're home, you'll feel better." Mila told him confidently. He sighed and turned hid gaze to the window.

"What will they think of me?" He mused sadly. He was a killer now.

"They will think you are a victor. You have brought victory to your district."  Mila told him, he stared at her, how would she know, she hadn't taken a life, he had. He could still see the blood like it stained the back of his mind.

Cammie watched him, remembering it all too well, she had been the same.