I curl up, make myself smaller, try to disappear entirely. Wrapped in silence, I slide my bracelet that reads 'mentally disoriented' around and around my wrist.

I never see these things coming. They happen too fast. One second you're proposing an escape plan and the next...

That was the one thing I had going for me. Taking care of your family.

My sleep wasn't peaceful, though. I have the sense of emerging from a world of dark, haunted places where I traveled alone.

Something keeps me moving forward, though. A lifetime of watching the Hunger Games lets me know that certain areas of the arena are rigged for certain attacks. And that if I can just get away from this section, I might be able to move out of reach of the launchers. I might also then fall straight into a pit of vipers, but I can't worry about that now.

Telling a story in a futuristic world gives you this freedom to explore things that bother you in contemporary times.

He became my confidante, someone with whom I could share thoughts I could never voice...In exchange, he trusted me with his.