A House is Not a Home
A/N: This is the first fan fiction I have written in years and I'm still getting warmed up. I hope you enjoy! Please review! -K
Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games. I am only borrowing from Suzanne Collins.
The new house is awful. Awful is the best way I can describe it. It's beautiful inside and out but the minute you look closer you can see the walls caving in. My family is in town, in our home above the bakery. No, their home above the bakery. I live here now, next door to Katniss, across the street from Haymitch. But I wish I was at my home- their home.
I stand from my seat at the kitchen table - my kitchen table because it doesn't feel right. This table is not mine, it has no marks from brothers running too quick through the kitchen. There are no burn marks from the stale bread we ate, reheated too long over the fire. There are only four chairs, not five like there should be. Worst of all, they are empty.
I walk out of the kitchen into the furniture stuffed living room that looks empty to me. I think what bothers me most is the eerie quietness of the house. My home was never quiet between my brothers and I wrestling anywhere we could find space, the voices in the bakery downstairs, and the ever present visitors in our tight living room. In this house there are no voices except for my own when I muttered to myself. I began to feel crazy so I stopped last week. There has been no voices since then.
The rooms are all filled with brand new furniture from the Capitol, so unlike the furniture in my - their home that had been passed down through District 12. Ours was well worn and welcoming. These new pieces are stiff and uncomfortable. I'm afraid to sit in my own home in case I break something.
I wander up the stairs, slower than I ever would at their home. We always ran at their home. We didn't have time to waste if we were working and we would chase each other and play when we were done. With my new leg, I have to walking slowly and as lightly as possible. I can't even act normally.
I sigh when I finally reach my bedroom and sit on the bed. My window points straight towards Katniss', I assume, bedroom. I can see Katniss' shadow sitting on her bed with a smaller shadow. The smaller, I'm guessing Prim, hugs Katniss. The two grab each other closer, both happy to be back together. I wish I could be holding Katniss, comforting each other after the horrors we've been put through. She's made it obvious that she doesn't feel the same way about me as I do her. I don't want her time with her family to be brought down by the boy she will never love back, the boy she doesn't want to see. I wish my family was here to hug or at least talk with. I turn away from the Everdeen's house, feeling bad for intruding on their special moment together.
I can vaguely see into town and spot the smoke coming out of the bakery chimney. I want to be My mother told me to get some rest, that I needed it after the time I had spent in the Capitol and arena. She told my brothers to give me space. She told my friends to clear out and respect my need for some well deserved solitude. She doesn't understand that what I need is normalcy. I need work. I need company. I need my friends. I need my family. I need to be out of this place that reminds me of the Capitol and the evil residing there. I need my home.
