| " H A P P Y . " |

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I wake up the next day to a shuffle in the cornucopia. I immediately shoot up, and grab a knife, throwing it at the person that had dared to enter our base.

"Woah, woah, woah! What the hell, Lana?" Grace questions with wide eyes, staring at the knife lodged into the wall beside of her, before looking back over to me.

"Sorry," I mumble. "I thought you were a tribute."

"Well, I technically am a tribute." She puts her hand on her chin, and looks at the ceiling with a concentrating face.

"Yeah, but I thought you were a tribute that is a threat. I mean- you are a threat, but you're our ally," I ramble, grabbing an apple from our stack of supplies.

"I'll be back, I'm going to wake up the others," She smiles, nodding in the direction of outside the cornucopia.

"Wait, why are they out there?" I ask.

"They all decided to keep watch last night while I stayed in here with you. There were movements from the woods so they thought the best way to protect you was to stay out there."

"I understand . . . but, seriously. All of them? Why would all of them just go out there?" I question, arching an eyebrow.

"I don't know. Now that I think about it, that is suspicious. Maybe they wanted a game plan . . . " She trails off.

"But why would they do it while we're asleep?"

"I have no clue. I'll ask Raley about it later," She shrugs it off, stepping outside without another word.

I sigh, rubbing my forehead. I really want to go home right now. But it's not possible. There are too many tributes at the moment.

"C'mon Lana, we're going tribute hunting," Grace says, reappearing and pulling me up from the ground.

"Okay. Is everyone going?"

"Yes. No one wants to risk you getting lost or slaughtered." I roll my eyes, picking up all of my knives, and putting some in my belt.

"How long do you think we'll be gone?"

"The rest of the day, probably. But hopefully, we'll be back before sunset," She replies, leading me to the other careers.

"Sleep well?" Bane asks once I'm in sight, grabbing a spear.

"It wasn't the best sleep I've had. But it was decent," I shrug.

The group of careers all pile around, walking in the same direction quietly while trying to hear any sounds that could come from other tributes. Much to my relief, we don't find anyone during the first hour.

But as time progresses, noises get closer. They're distant, but still there. I stop walking, like I did yesterday with Jonah.

"Stop," I whisper, holding everyone back. "There's someone here."

After the words leave my mouth, a group of tributes appear in front of us. I stand at the front of the careers, prepared to kill anyone in order to protect the people behind me- even if I knew it would come with a little regret later on.

My eyes widen as I recognize the group as Leane, Chris, Creve, Maria, and Lance.

They found us.

"I knew I'd find you here," Leane smirks. For some reason, no one from either group makes a move to kill anyone. I'm partially relieved, but even more suspicious of their motives.

"And here I am," I speak clearly, my back tense.

"So tell me, Lana. Why haven't you joined us?" She asks, raising an eyebrow.

"I have a better group of allies," I reply smoothly.

"If your allies are oh-so-talented how come they can't stop this?" She questions.

In one swift motion, Maria shoots an arrow into Grace's chest without hesitation. I gape as Grace falls to the ground with a thud, blood immediately staining her clothes.

"Grace!" Raley yells as Grace's cannon fires from above us.

A surge of anger jolts through me, along with guilt.

I could've prevented that, too.

"See? They're not so tough now, are they?" Leane asks, touching the tip of her knife. "One by one, I will kill every one of your allies. That is, until you decide to join us."

"You're a monster," I growl, my eyes narrowed as I clutch my knife.

"Oh, honey, I know." She says with a fake pout. Her group moves to leave, but I have other plans.

There was no way in hell I was going to allow them to walk away after killing both Lily and Grace. I want my revenge.

I nod at Bane once, hoping he gets the message.

"But Leane?" I ask, the girl turning to me as I say her name.

"Life for a life," I breathe.

Bane lodges a spear into Lance's back, and watch him fall to the ground. Dead.

His cannon fires, Leane's group looking to us with fury. I only tilt my head to the side with a grin.

"Lance, no!" Maria screams, falling to the ground in sobs next to his body.

The other careers take off sprinting before any more kills can be made, with me following behind them.

Grace is dead because of me.

"How many are dead?" Seth asks to no one in particular as we run alongside each other.

"Twelve. Half of the tributes," I answer flatly.

Most of them are because of me . . .

"Lana, don't blame yourself for Grace's death," Seth says softly as we slow to a walk, placing his hand on my lower back in comfort.

"I hate it when you guys say that," I stop walking, all of them turning look at me. "Because it is my fault that they're dead. Telling myself that I'm not guilty isn't helping anything."

I sigh, and move ahead of all of them.

These games are getting the best of me. It's hard for me to think about the rest of my friends mad at me. But what hurts me the most is thinking about winning. In order for me to win, Bane, Triton, Laila, Raley, Seth, and Jonah would all have to die. I don't want that to happen.

I look to the ground, and keep walking until we get to a new part of the woods. I glance around, making sure there are no people around me.

"Lana, look out!" Seth yells, shoving me to the ground. I groan as my head hits a rock, but I bounce back up to see the careers in a fighting stance. Less than two feet away from me stands a huge- and I mean huge- tribute.

He is well built, and holds a sword tightly in his hand. Behind me, a knife is stuck in a tree. Seth just saved my life. This tribute threw a knife at me.

"It's your mistake thinking that you can win," The tribute spits, making me wince at his harsh tone.

"No." I state. "It's your mistake, thinking that you could kill me."

I slice his arm, and Triton takes advantage of his pain, stabbing his shoulder. But it doesn't seem to faze the tribute.

He smashes me to a tree, and wraps his hands around my throat, squeezing tighter than I could possibly imagine. I try to breathe, to only fail as he blocks my airways. I claw at his hands, but he still doesn't budge.

Suddenly, the tribute is shoved off of me, and tackled by Bane. I fall to the ground, breathing heavily as black dots blurr my vision.

Triton, Bane, and Seth hover over him, but I can't seem to see what is happening.

"Lana, c'mon, breathe. Take deep breaths," Jonah soothes.

As a cannon goes off, I wince, bracing myself against Raley.

Thirteen are dead.

"It's okay, just calm down," Raley helps me up, rubbing my back.

"He's dead?" I ask Bane. He nods with a sympathetic smile. "Good."

"We need to get back to camp. Hopefully Leane hasn't gotten to the cornucopia. I've had enough excitement for one day."

___♕___

To our luck, Leane's group hadn't made it to the cornucopia. I slump to the ground as everyone else lays their weapons in the corner. I stuff my knife in my pocket, making sure I can grab it easily if a tribute decides to attack at any given time during the night.

"You okay?" Bane asks. I shake my head, leaning on his shoulder. He wraps his arm around me just as the Capitol Seal comes into vision. Grace's picture is shown, followed by an unknown tribute, and the boy we fought earlier. A few other pictures are shown, but I close my eyes before I can see them.

Thirteen people are dead. Eleven are alive.

That means it's just Triton, Bane, Seth, Raley, Laila, Leane, Creve, Chris, Maria, the boy from yesterday, and I are still alive.

All of this has happened too fast.

"You know I'll always be there for you, right?" Bane asks, leaning closer to me.

"Yes," I say softly.

The fire behind us lights up his face from the dark, and I stare into his brown eyes. Snores sound from Triton, and I let out a small chuckle. All of the other careers have fallen asleep.

"He really does love you," Bane whispers. "He looks at you like I look at you."

"You love me?" I ask above a whisper.

"I loved you before we came here." He places his forehead on mine. "And I always will."

"No matter what?" I question, holding out my pinkie.

"No matter what." He confirms with a smile, wrapping his pinkie with my own.

And in that moment, I get lost in his eyes. How could I lose Bane?

The answer is simple- I can't.

I lean in, closing the small distance between us, and brush my lips against his. He grabs my waist, and holds onto me tightly as he kisses me, not holding back. My lips more in sync with his, and I mentally slap myself.

If I'm going to die, and let Bane win, it would hurt him if we were as close as we are now. But I know- deep down inside- that he would make it through. That he would find another girl to be happy with.

And he would live his life happily.

Without me by his side.

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