"Rise and shine honey!" Finnick chirps, muffled as he's outside my bedroom door. "Today's... the day. Can I come in?" "Yeah," I reply hoarsely. I sit up and hyperventilate as he takes a seat on my bed next to me. "Listen to me," Finnick says softly. "If I were to predict this Game's victor... I would pick you, aqua queen. Not Jazel from District 2 or Verben from District 1. You. Because you've got potential." My breathing slows and I allow a few tears to fall. I quickly wipe them off. "Promise me you'll at least try to win." he says, his voice full of hope. My lips let out the word, "Promise." He smiles and walks to the door. "Come down in 5 minutes." he says. The door slams and just like that, he's gone. I collapse on my bed and think of happy memories. After a while, I get up and enter the bathroom. I splash cold water on my face and close my eyes, the water soaking onto my skin. It feels refreshing. I then leave the bathroom and head downstairs where Hark awaits me. As I walk to him, he puts his hand over my shoulder and we walk to the tubes. He hands me the arena uniform. "Change into this," he says. "I'll be waiting for you at the tubes." I nod and he leaves the room. I change into the outfit, a black t-shirt with a brown fur coat, and black pants with about 4 pockets. I button the coat up and walk to the tubes, breathing in and out. Hark smiles at my presence. I want to say goodbye to him. I step in front of him and take a deep breath. "Goodbye," my voice cracks. We lock foreheads. "I predict you as the victor, too." he whispers. I smile and try my best not to cry. I pull back and he touches my locket. I open it and the image has changed. It's my name in cursive font, Zaryiah Vale, and the second side of the locket is a picture of my family and I. "Hold on to those memories, okay?" he says sweetly. I nod. He hugs me and pulls back shortly after. I tremble as I slowly walk to the tube. I enter it and turn around, facing him. He smiles at me and I force a smile back. Once the image of him disappears, I look up and there's sunlight in my eyes. The tube stops going up and I'm outside. "60... 59... 58... 57..." I block out the noise of the countdown. I look around. The faces of vicious killers are surrounding me, especially the other Careers. My eyes look around in a circle and i stop when I get to Nabil. We lock eyes for a moment. "Help." I mouth to him desperately. He looks at me and I can tell he feels terrible. The noise of the countdown settles back into my ears. "5... 4.... 3.... 2... 1." The buzzer goes off. Run.
