I can see the first apple teetering when I let the third arrow go, catching the torn flap and ripping it from the bag. For a moment, everything seems frozen in time. Then the apples spill to the ground and I'm blown backward into the air.

Okay, maybe I don't go around loving everybody I meet, maybe my smiles are hard to come by, but I do care for some people.

But I don't know what to him about the aftermath of killing a person. About how they never leave you.

Because...because...she came here with me.

Hope, it is the only thing stronger than fear. A little hope is effective, a lot of hope is dangerous.

I roll my eyes. "So when did I become so special? When they carted me off to the Capitol?" "No, about six months before that. Right after New Year's. We were in the Hob, eating some slop of Greasy Sae's. And Darius was teasing you about trading a rabbit for one of his kisses. And I realized...I minded.

If you are not trying to hold on to time, you are not so afraid of losing it.