Then, in my most careful handwriting, come all the details it would be a crime to forget. Lady licking Prim's cheek. My father's laugh. Peeta's father with the cookies. The colour of Finnick's eyes. What Cinna could do with a length of silk. Boggs reprogramming the Holo. Rue poised on her toes, arms slightly extended, like a bird about to take flight. On and on. We seal the pages with salt water and promises to live well to make their death count.

And here I am, strapped into a tree, a stone's throw from the biggest idiot in the games.

So instead of acknowledging applause, I stand there unmoving while they take part in the boldest form of dissent they can manage. Silence. Which says we do not agree. We do not condone. All of this is wrong.

Peeta" I said "Stay with me" I heard him say one word before the drigs pulled me under, I realised later that what he said was 'always

No, it happened. And right when your song ended, I knew - just like your mother - I was a goner,' Peeta says.

Because it doesn't matter anymore, and because I'm so desperately lonely I can't stand it.

Let them go, I tell myself. Say good-bye and forget them. I do my best, thinking of them one by one, releasing them like birds from the protective cages inside me, locking the doors against their return.