Sana woke up abruptly and sprang out of the bed as though there was shadow lying beside her, haunting her with sharp nails and snarky comments and nightmares. She was drenched in sweat, she was well aware of that, as she saw, from her peripheral vision, how her forearm glistened along with those stars-like skyscrapers light, adorning the indigo night sky to compensate the absence of the stars themselves.

Sana pressed her hand to her forehead shakily, controlling her shallow breath to regain its normal place and shut her eyes, sitting heavily on the comfy bed that ironically provided anything less than a comfort right now.

She had a bad dream, a really bad one that sent her whole body trembling out of fear. It was about her mother, being swallowed by fire and screamed out for her name, withering in pain. Then there was Tzuyu, ending with the same outcome, only that Sana got to watch the process of her being dragged forcefully by three peacekeepers. She was struggling to break free but her effort was fruitless. Sana scream was stuck in the base of when Tzuyu was tossed to the flame. And Sana could only watch in horror, her limbs refused to follow her order and her brain hazy, as Tzuyu gradually disappeared, her ashes floating around Sana like she was the sun and they were planets.

Sana sniffed, whimpering as dread filled her inside like liquid to its container. She was terrified. It was so vivid she couldn't distinguish between what was real and what was not.

She buried her face to her thighs but still had the decency to lower her volume down as to disturb neither Akira nor Momo; the latter was probably resting in the living room after pulling another all-nighter to watch her favorite show (the mentor was practically living together with them right now, to check their improvement and wellbeing).

She missed her mother, she missed the way her delicate fingers braided her hair, she missed the way she kissed her goodnight and she missed her warm smile and warm hug and assurance that everything's going to be okay, even as peacekeepers barged into their house and tore her away from her tiny arms. She was barely nine years old when they were separated.

And then, despite her reluctance and stubborn pride, she missed Tzuyu as well. The girl was literally closer than ever compared to the past few years in term of distance but she was as good as gone, and it might or might not be Sana's fault who had driven her out of the way, because in spite of Tzuyu's attempts to reach out for her again, to apologize for her wrongs, Sana still refused to talk to her, turning mute whenever Tzuyu was nearby and pretending that the way the despair in the slightly younger girl's face did not faze her at all.

Sana crawled back inside the duvet and hugged her pillow as though it was her mother's same-old embrace. She let the tears wet her face because the exhaustion from today's training was back looming over her all over again, as she recognized the numb pain on her aching back that was left forgotten for a split of second. It had only been a week since she was in the Capitol but she wasn't sure whether she could go for it any longer. There was this thought that Sana feared the most; that she actually couldn't wait until the game started so that she could be killed and had everything ended once for all.

She hummed a song brokenly, a song that her father liked to whistle before he too was caught by the peacekeeper forming a rebellion group and was sentenced to death. It brought her a sense of calmness, like a knitted blanket was draped over her shivering body. And she snuggled deeper to her pillow as fatigue got a grasp of her, remembering what color of boots her parents had given her for her eleventh birthday and whether her grandmother had sold it to someone else despite her, probably, last request to not to.

And it was in the middle of that when sleep fetched her.

And maybe Tzuyu popped out once or twice in her monologue of dream for the rest of the night, but smile was left unforgettable, and her clothes were back to her usual grey leather jacket with frayed threads and stitches (some were from Sana since Tzuyu at knitting) because it was just too old to be used and was a miracle it hadn't turn into dust, along with her baggy pants and her worn out shoes, completed with her signature rusty crossbow.

The nightmare never come back until she was woken up by the sun, scent of coffee that wafted through her nose and clanking noise of utensils as breakfast was being prepared downstairs.

~*~

"Oh Sana, come join us." Momo called her over the dining room. Akira, who was sitting in the seat opposite the mentor, glared at her, and Sana took it as a sign to sit on the vacant chair beside Momo instead, quietly thanking the helper who brought over a plate of toasts, sausages and scramble eggs.

“Salt?" Momo asked and Sana smiled, taking the salt gingerly as to not show she was still having a hard time to just barely moving her arms because of yesterday's training activity.

The soreness had swarmed through her entire muscles yesterday and she could barely move, going straight to her bedroom and skipping dinner because she just had no energy left to host herself up. But thankfully she had recovered fast, leaving only a couple of spots to heal. And on the bright side, at least she had mastered some advance archery techniques she could definitely use during the game (it'd be an understatement to say Momo was impressed with her ability she even said that Sana was gifted) and learnt to never try to move a ten kg sphere without warming up first.

"Have a good sleep?" Momo started up a conversation as she swallowed her cereal. Akira was eating her breakfast quietly, scooping a spoonful of mash potato, but Sana realized he was listening when she saw his eyes darting between her and Momo from time to time.

"It was okay." Sana lied through her teeth and bit a mouthful of toast as to cover her awkwardness. She was never good at lying and didn't plan to disclose her dreams either.

"Good." Momo pushed her now-empty bowl and signaled one of the helper to bring it to the sink, before she angled her torso in such a way she could face both Sana and Akira equally. "Because today was going to be the day of the parade, and you don't want to mess this one up."

~*~

After taking a quick shower, Momo led them outside. They dropped Akira off to the second floor before they went up to the tenth floor, where Momo had insisted to take her to somewhere Sana wasn't exactly sure where because these two floors weren't included in the list of floor they could just suddenly visit whenever they want.

The hall was deserted, each meter was represented by a bizarre paint or photograph (some were quite eerie they were goosebumps-inducing) and the curtains were all rolled up to greet the day. It was so quiet here, excluding a couple of robot cleaner vacuuming the brown-carpeted floor from time to time. Come to think of it, Sana never really see other people throughout her whole week here, except during the training of course, the sponsors still kept their eye on them, and Tzuyu too, occasionally. She had only seen the helper in the penthouse. Even Argus had rarely stopped by these days. It made her think that they were in some kind of isolation or something.

"You had a nightmare last night, did you?"

Sana snapped her head toward her mentor, taken aback, but Momo never left her gaze from the front. It was as though she had just casually accused Sana that she preferred an orange rather than an apple, and not the fact that Sana was caught lying. Sana squeaked out an answer, facepalming when what came out was an undesirable splutter.

"N- No..."

Momo chuckled, like what she had just say was an utter joke, which it may as well be one, thought Sana embarrassedly. "Don't be silly, Akira isn't here, you can tell me anything." The mentor glanced at her briefly, offering her a smile in reassurance and Sana was contemplating whether to tell her or not.