I can still do this

chapter 1

We're so close, running across the open grass to the Cornucopia, those hellhounds right behind us. We're going to be okay, Peeta and me. We're going to win together and go home together and survive.

But then Peeta stumbles. The leg that he injured gives out and he falls onto his face. I stop once I realize he's no longer right next to me; by then, he's already several yards behind. "Go, Katniss!" he shouts, working his way to his feet. Several hounds burst out of the woods behind him and run towards us with frightening speed.

"Peeta, no!" I yell, but my feet betray me, already moving fast, carrying me towards the Cornucopia as I look over my shoulder at him. "Peeta!" I can't stop myself from running away as fast as I can. My survival instinct is too strong.

"I'm right behind you!" he calls, and a quick glance shows he's back on his feet and running, but still really far behind. "Don't stop!"

I don't stop. I run, heart pounding in my ears, and climb up to the side of the Cornucopia until I'm on the flat roof. Instinctively, I draw my bow and scan the roof, training my arrow at the first thing I see. It's Cato sitting down, bloody, weakened, and looking at me hungrily. "Peeta! Hurry!" I shout over my shoulder, then say to Cato, "Don't move."

He sneers at me, but obeys like I knew he would. Cato doesn't have a death wish; he wants to win. He'll bide his time.

"PEETA!" I scream frantically, risking a look over my shoulder at him. Peeta's running, and the dogs are right behind him, growling and snarling. He makes a flying leap at the side of the building and gets halfway up. If he had something helping him, like my hand pulling him up, he might've made it farther, but I can't turn my back to Cato for more than a few seconds. Grimly, Peeta tries again - I can hear him scrabbling at the smooth metal, and then he isn't trying any more. "PEETA!"

"Katniss, I'm not going to make it," he shouts back. "Win. For me. And tell my parents-"

"No, no Peeta!" I say, voice catching in my throat. "You can't do that! We're going to win together!"

"No, you're going to win. Shoot me, before they get here."

One look down into his eyes and I know he's completely serious. "Peeta," I say again, and I feel something fracturing inside me. This is not happening. There is no way I'm seriously considering shooting him. No. But already, I'm considering how long it would take to turn and plant one right between his eyes. "Get up here!"

"I love you," he says loudly. "Shoot me. And win. Please."

The hounds are closer, only feet from him. I close my eyes briefly, clench my jaw, and then I spin and let the arrow fly. I don't have to watch it go in, don't want to, and maybe even can't, so I turn back to Cato, another arrow on the string, ready to go. But he isn't making any move toward me. He's staring down at the dogs, shocked. "Clove?" he says softly, looking at one of them in particular.

This is my chance. I could kill him right here, while he's distracted, and I'd win. But then I accidentally look down, and catch a glimpse of the hound with Rue's face, and I freeze.

A cannon booms in the distance.

Then I'm angry, more than I've ever been, because Rue is dead and it's all the fault of that blonde Career across the roof from me. Three swift steps, and I'm kneeling next to him, my knife at his throat. "Move an inch, and I'll cut your head off," I hiss. In my anger, I've completely forgotten how scared I was to face him.

"Go on," he says, breathing hard. "Do it." He isn't taunting me, I'm surprised to realize. He's serious. "I was dead anyway, right? Didn't know until now." He takes several deep, rasping breaths - something's broken inside of him. The bloody claw marks on his face shine wet in the night, and blood is dripping from the corner of his mouth. By all accounts, he should've been the victor, but there he is, on the ground, at my mercy. "Kill me," he urges, brows drawn together fiercely, but something in his face is desperate.