Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games nor any canon characters. I love Suzanne Collins for what she has given me and would never in my life steal from her.
Risen From the Ashes
"Phoenix Mellark!" a considerably aged Effie Trinket with platinum hair shouts in a more horrified than excited voice. She spins around to give an apologetic look to the mentors… my parents.
"NO!" they cry. My mother, Katniss, the District 12's famous girl on fire and mockingjay of the second rebellion, is caught in the arms of my father, Peeta, who struggles between wanting to comfort my mother and strangle Effie. I can see in their eyes they want someone to volunteer, anyone besides maybe my brother Cole, but he looks just as terrified as my parents and boys can't volunteer for girls anyway.
No, no one volunteers to take my place. I do not have the advantage my aunt Prim had in the 74th Hunger Games, the Games my parents were famous for. I have no older sister, nor am I necessarily a fragile twelve year old… I'm a fragile seventeen year old and I am led, rather forcefully, to the stage by District 12's Peacekeepers under the "reformed" Capitol's President Coin. My parents want to rush toward me, I can see the pain in my mother's eyes, but Peacekeepers block their way. Meanwhile, I know all thirteen districts of Panem, plus the Capitol, is watching - maybe laughing at me, maybe terrified of me. I am, after all, the daughter of not one, but two victors.
Effie walks over to the other bowl and chooses the name of the boy tribute. I have a sudden fear of Cole's name being pulled out and our whole family completely falling apart, but it's not. "Charlton Thread," Effie announces and I breathe a sigh of relief. Not just for my brother and family, but because Char would be an easy kill if it came down to it. Not because he was tiny, far from it, but because he'd bullied me throughout school and I can't say he'd be a hard death to let go of.
Charlton is led onto the stage and my parents search for a reaction on my face but I give them and the cameras nothing to analyze. Effie, with all the pride she can muster, announces, "Let's give a warm round of applause for our brave tributes, Phoenix Mellark and Charlton Thread!"
True to tradition, very little applause was given by the small population of District 12. Our mayor and close family friend, Haymitch Abernathy, reads President Coin's revised Treaty of Treason with little enthusiasm and then Char and I are forced to shake hands. He kind of smirks at me, as if to say "You'll be an easy kill." but his hands are just as sweaty as mine, so I know he's afraid, too.
The anthem of Panem, which is now the former anthem of District 13, plays and we face the crowd and cameras once again, but I can't help thinking about how I will be an easy kill. Mother tried to teach me to hunt, but I was no use with a bow. That was Cole's forte. I'm more like Papa, who taught me to bake and to paint and camouflage. I know about plants, though. Edible and poisonous. There's the katniss plant, for which my mother was named for, that would always provide a meal when food was scarce. Then there's a particular story about Nightlock berries that my parents liked to tell, the berries that began the second rebellion and ended the 74th Hunger Games. I suppose I could forage like my mother's ally from District 11 did. She made it further than anyone expected her to. And I'm good with a knife, but close-range weapons are dangerous in the Games.
Still, I did have one advantage Char didn't. Our mentors were my parents and there was no way they're going to let me die.