"Of course Taeyeon's right. The whole country adores Tiffany's little sister. If they really killed her like this, they'd probably have an uprising on their hands," says Sooyoung flatly. "Don't want that, do they?" She throws back her head and shouts, "Whole country in rebellion? Wouldn't want anything like that!"

My mouth drops open in shock. No one, ever, says anything like this in the Games. Absolutely, they've cut away from Sooyoung, are editing her out. But I have heard her and can never think about her again in the same way. She'll never win any awards for kindness, but she certainly is gutsy. Or crazy. She picks up some shells and heads toward the jungle. "I'm getting water," she says.

I can't help catching her hand as she passes me. "Don't go in there. The birds - " I remember the birds must be gone, but I still don't want anyone in there. Not even her.

"They can't hurt me. I'm not like the rest of you. There's no one left I love," Sooyoung says, and frees her hand with an impatient shake. When she brings me back a shell of water, I take it with a silent nod of thanks, knowing how much she would despise the pity in my voice.

While Sooyoung collects water and my arrows, Moonbyul fiddles with his wire, and Hyoyeon takes to the water. I need to clean up, too, but I stay in Taeyeon's arms, still too shaken to move.

"Who did they use against Hyoyeon?" he asks.

"Somebody named Nicole," I say.

"Must be Nicole Jung," he says.

"Who?" I ask.

"Nicole Jung. She was the girl Momo volunteered for. She won about five years ago," says Taeyeon.

That would have been the summer after my father died, when I first began feeding my family, when my whole being was occupied with battling starvation. "I don't remember those Games much," I say. "Was that the earthquake year?"

"Yeah. Nicole's the one who went mad when her district partner got beheaded. Ran off by herself and hid. But an earthquake broke a dam and most of the arena got flooded. She won because she was the best swimmer," says Taeyeon.

"Did she get better after?" I ask. "I mean, her mind?"

"I don't know. I don't remember ever seeing her at the Games again. But she didn't look too stable during the reaping this year," says Taeyeon.

So that's who Hyoyeon loves, I think. Not his string of fancy lovers in the Capitol. But a poor, mad girl back home.

A cannon blast brings us all together on the beach. A hovercraft appears in what we estimate to be the six-to-seven-o'clock zone. We watch as the claw dips down five different times to retrieve the pieces of one body, torn apart. It's impossible to tell who it was. Whatever happens at six o'clock, I never want to know.

Taeyeon draws a new map on a leaf, adding a JJ for jabberjays in the four-to-five-o'clock section and simply writing beast in the one where we saw the tribute collected in pieces. We now have a good idea of what seven of the hours will bring. And if there's any positive to the jabberjay attack, it's that it let us know where we are on the clock face again.

Hyoyeon weaves yet another water basket and a net for fishing. I take a quick swim and put more ointment on my skin. Then I sit at the edge of the water, cleaning the fish Hyoyeon catches and watching the sun drop below the horizon. The bright moon is already on the rise, filling the arena with that strange twilight. We're about to settle down to our meal of raw fish when the anthem begins. And then the faces ...

Bom. Taeyang. Solar. Momo. The woman from District 5. The morphling who gave her life for Taeyeon. Blight. The man from 10.

Eight dead. Plus eight from the first night. Two-thirds of us gone in a day and a half. That must be some kind of record.

"They're really burning through us," says Sooyoung. "Who's left? Besides us five and District Two?" asks Hyoyeon.

"Jin," says Taeyeon, without needing to think about it. Perhaps he's been keeping an eye out for him because of Soonkyu.

A parachute comes down with a pile of bite-sized square-shaped rolls. "These are from your district, right, Moonbyul?" Taeyeon asks.

"Yes, from District Three," he says. "How many are there?"

Hyoyeon counts them, turning each one over in his hands before he sets it in a neat configuration. I don't know what it is with Hyoyeon and bread, but he seems obsessed with handling it. "Twenty-four," he says.

"An even two dozen, then?" says Moonbyul.

"Twenty-four on the nose," says Hyoyeon. "How should we divide them?"

"Let's each have three, and whoever is still alive at breakfast can take a vote on the rest," says Sooyoung. I don't know why this makes me laugh a little. I guess because it's true. When I do, Sooyoung gives me a look that's almost approving. No, not approving. But maybe slightly pleased.

We wait until the giant wave has flooded out of the ten-to-eleven-o'clock section, wait for the water to recede, and then go to that beach to make camp. Theoretically, we should have a full twelve hours of safety from the jungle. There's an unpleasant chorus of clicking, probably from some evil type of insect, coming from the eleven-to-twelve-o'clock wedge. But whatever is making the sound stays within the confines of the jungle and we keep off that part of the beach in case they're just waiting for a carelessly placed footfall to swarm out.

I don't know how Sooyoung's still on her feet. She's only had about an hour of sleep since the Games started. Taeyeon and I volunteer for the first watch because we're better rested, and because we want some time alone. The others go out immediately, although Hyoyeon's sleep is restless. Every now and then I hear him murmuring Nicole's name.

Taeyeon and I sit on the damp sand, facing away from each other, my right shoulder and hip pressed against his. I watch the water as he watches the jungle, which is better for me. I'm still haunted by the voices of the jabberjays, which unfortunately the insects can't drown out. After a while I rest my head against his shoulder. Feel his hand caress my hair.

"Tiffany," he says softly, "it's no use pretending we don't know what the other one is trying to do." No, I guess there isn't, but it's no fun discussing it, either. Well, not for us, anyway. The Capitol viewers will be glued to their sets so they don't miss one wretched word.

"I don't know what kind of deal you think you've made with Soonkyu, but you should know he made me promises as well." Of course, I know this, too. He told Taeyeon they could keep me alive so that he wouldn't be suspicious. "So I think we can assume he was lying to one of us."

This gets my attention. A double deal. A double promise. With only Soonkyu knowing which one is real. I raise my head, meet Taeyeon’s eyes. "Why are you saying this now?"

"Because I don't want you forgetting how different our circumstances are. If you die, and I live, there's no life for me at all back in District Twelve. You're my whole life," he says. "I would never be happy again." I start to object but he puts a finger to my lips. "It's different for you. I'm not saying it wouldn't be hard. But there are other people who'd make your life worth living."

Taeyeon pulls the chain with the gold disk from around his neck. He holds it in the moonlight so I can clearly see the mockingjay. Then his thumb slides along a catch I didn't notice before and the disk pops open. It's not solid, as I had thought, but a locket. And within the locket are photos. On the right side, my mother and Seohyun, laughing. And on the left, Yuri. Actually smiling.

There is nothing in the world that could break me faster at this moment than these three faces. After what I heard this afternoon ... it is the perfect weapon.

"Your family needs you, Tiffany," Taeyeon says.

My family. My mother. My sister. And my pretend cousin Yuri. But Taeyeon's intention is clear. That Yuri really is my family, or will be one day, if I live. That I'll marry him. So Taeyeon's giving me his life and Yuri at the same time. To let me know I shouldn't ever have doubts about it.

Everything. That's what Taeyeon wants me to take from him.

I wait for him to mention the baby, to play to the cameras, but he doesn't. And that's how I know that none of this is part of the Games. That he is telling me the truth about what he feels.

"No one really needs me," he says, and there's no self-pity in his voice. It's true his family doesn't need him. They will mourn him, as will a handful of friends. But they will get on. Even Soonkyu, with the help of a lot of white liquor, will get on. I realize only one person will be damaged beyond repair if Taeyeon dies. Me.

"I do," I say. "I need you." He looks upset, takes a deep breath as if to begin a long argument, and that's no good, no good at all, because he'll start going on about Seohyun and my mother and everything and I'll just get confused. So before he can talk, I stop his lips with a kiss.

I feel that thing again. The thing I only felt once before. In the cave last year, when I was trying to get Soonkyu to send us food. I kissed Taeyeon about a thousand times during those Games and after. But there was only one kiss that made me feel something stir deep inside. Only one that made me want more. But my head wound started bleeding and he made me lie down.

This time, there is nothing but us to interrupt us. And after a few attempts, Taeyeon gives up on talking. The sensation inside me grows warmer and spreads out from my chest, down through my body, out along my arms and legs, to the tips of my being. Instead of satisfying me, the kisses have the opposite effect, of making my need greater. I thought I was something of an expert on hunger, but this is an entirely new kind.

It's the first crack of the lightning storm - the bolt hitting the tree at midnight - that brings us to our senses. It rouses Hyoyeon as well. He sits up with a sharp cry. I see his fingers digging into the sand as he reassures himself that whatever nightmare he inhabited wasn't real.

"I can't sleep anymore," he says. "One of you should rest." Only then does he seem to notice our expressions, the way we're wrapped around each other. "Or both of you. I can watch alone."

Taeyeon won't let him, though. "It's too dangerous," he says. "I'm not tired. You lie down, Tiffany." I don't object because I do need to sleep if I'm to be of any use keeping him alive. I let him lead me over to where the others are. He puts the chain with the locket around my neck, then rests his hand over the spot where our baby would be. "You're going to make a great mother, you know," he says. He kisses me one last time and goes back to Hyoyeon.

His reference to the baby signals that our time-out from the Games is over. That he knows the audience will be wondering why he hasn't used the most persuasive argumen