"Your father and I are going out to the town for a bit. Are you in your brother going to be okay here alone?" My mother asked me as I stand, waiting for my mother and father to finally leave.
"Yes Mother, Beckett and I will be fine." I told her, smiling slightly. "Go."
My mother smiled and hugged me, "Good. Haymitch is just down the way if you need anything."
"Go." I repeated, with gentle force this time. It was always hard for mother to leave Beckett and I alone, I understand of course. She lost almost everything near and dear to her during the rebellion when she acted as the Mockingjay. Her sister, Primrose, Who I'm named for, was killed in a brutal bomb and she had almost lost my father too. He was kidnapped and tourtured, till his memories of Mother were distorted and wrong. They gave him a horrible image of her, and He even had tried to kill her. Even now he was relapses where He doesn't remember what truely happened, only the distorted versions. Those nights are horrible ones.
"Come on Katniss, Rose is perfectly capable of watching Beckett while we run to town." My father said gently from the doorway.
As I said before, My name is Primrose. Well, Primrose Mellark. I was named for my aunt who died in a brutal bombing during the rebellion when she was almost fourteen years old. My mother could never bare calling me Prim, So I was dubbed Rose instead. I honored the memory of my aunt without bringing up the painful memories of her death to my mother.
"Oh alright, alright." She pecked me on the cheek and turned with my father to leave, her signature brown braid whipping out behind her. I peered through the window, watching them start the walk to town. We didn't have car, They were to expensive and my parents didn't like dipping into our funds when we could just walk. Besides, We live only a few miles from town, It's not that far to walk. When they're out of sight, I dash up the shaky wooden stairs and burst into the room I share with my fourteen year old brother, Beckett.
"Rose!" He cried, jumping at the sudden noise my entrance made. "You scared me."
Beckett looks like a minature version of our father, a kind face with stormy eyes and wavy blond hair. He's constantly hunched over his sketchpad, the place where he draws and expresses himself in anyway possible. It's always hard for strangers for us to tell if were siblings. My hair is longer, darker than our mothers. It falls in loose curls down my back. My eyes the same beautiful bright blue as our father's.
"Come on, Mother and Father went to town, Let's go hunting." I say, my blue eyes sparkling.
"You know Mother doesn't like us doing that Rose." Beckett replied almost immediately. "She says there is no need for either of us getting hurt whist hunting in the woods."
"That never stopped her." I argued. "Come on, I know where Mother hid the bow and arrow from last time, you can do target practice." I knew mentioning the bow and arrow would get Beckett on board. He inherited our mother's love for the weapon and was almost as good with it as she was. I had tried with the weapon, but only managed to hurt myself with it. I prefered making snares and traps. I never kept the meat I catch though, We have more enough food at our house for the four of us, So I usually clean my game and take it to town to sell.
Beckett's face broke into a smile, "We're going to get in so much trouble Rose."
"And I'll take full blame, Come on." I smiled back at him, taking him by the hand and dragging him down the stairs and out into the woods. My mother had hidden the bow and arrow in a fallen tree trunk behind our house. I retrieved it and handed it to Beckett who went straight to work on his target practice. I collected the game from my traps and reset them before going to clean them. I sat with Beckett in the woods, a small smile on my face. I loved the little moments like these between the two of us, Just us and nature.
I turned hearing the crack of a branch getting stepped on, fearing our parents were back on already. My expressioned softened when My eyes met Titus Odair.
"Considering Beckett is shooting a bow and arrows and your skinning a rabbit, I'm going to guess your parents arn't home." He smiled at the siblings, his sea green eyes sparkling.
"Their in town." I told him, "What do you need?"
"Annie just wanted me to pick something up from Katniss." He said casually, sitting down on a rock near Beckett. I frowned, The way Titus adressed his mother always felt odd to me, I could never imagine myself calling my father 'Peeta' or my mother 'Katniss.' I was certainly used to hearing their names. They were talked about all the time at school, They were a huge part of the rebellion and left one of the biggest footprints on Panem. Titus had lost his father during the rebellion, Mother didn't like talking about him, He was one of the many people she had lost during those final fights. But Annie had lost her husband, this was during the early days of her pregnancy, and he never met his son. Titus was eighteen now, two years older than me.
"How is your mother anyway?" I asked finishing my work.
"The same as she always is." He replied blandly, obviously not wanting to talk about his mother. I shrugged, fine with me. I wasn't one for touchy sharey feelings.
There was another noise now, a louder one. Beckett lowered his bow and Titus looked up at the sky.
"Holy S-" He started to say, but was drowned out by the noise of a hovercraft passing over. It stopped directly above us and a claw came down, moving towards the three of us.
"Beckett!" I screamed, jumping up, trying to push my brother out of the way of the claw, but I was too late. All three of us were caught. The claw deposited us in a sterile clean room, I stood, confused and disoriented.
"Oh no." I heard Titus say, but I was too disoriented to ask what he had realized. I felt a cold hand on my back, someone jerking my mouth open and a sickly sweet liquid pouring down my throat, and within seconds, I was out.
"Rose?" Katniss called, entering her house. "Beckett?"
Peeta came in behind her, a bag of peppermints, the favorite candy of Beckett and Rose, in his hand. "Go check the woods, You know how Rose likes to climb the trees out there. And I'm almost positive that Rose knows where you hid the bow and arrow so Beckett is going to be working on his target practice." He smiled and kissed her cheek, "You always jump to the worst possible conclusion Katniss."
She nodded, trying to sooth herself and pushed open the door, only to be greeted by Annie Odair, frantic and panting like a man woman.
"Titus, Where...W-where's Titus?" She managed to get out, coughing slightly.
Peeta's eyes widened at the site of her, He immediately pulled out a chair for her and rushed to fix her some water. "What's the matter Annie? Titus isn't here."
She took a sip of water and deep breath, "I sent him here two hours ago and He isn't home yet. He usually is home by now." Her voice was frantic, worried for her son.
"I'm sure he's fine. Maybe he's out in the woods with Rose and Beckett." Peeta suggested, "He just lost track of time, That's all."
Annie took another deep breath, "Your right, Your right. I worry too much, Finnick always said I worried too much." Her voice dropped off, her face consumed with sadness.
"Wait...Do either of you hear that?" Katniss asked.
"Hear what?" Peeta asked, looking at Katniss, slightly confused.
There was a humming sound, a static click and the ancient, unused television in the corner flickered on. A man stood in the shadows, his face concealed, but his voice loud and defiant.
"Attention resident of Panem. Your time of rebellion is over. We have risen, rebuilt our selfs and we will be as we once were. Your rebellion left us with nothing, and now, We have rebuilt ourselfs and will stage our own take over just as you staged yours."
"And how do we start? We bring back the games, and what better way to bring them back then with a special little twist? This year, in the renewal of Panem's Hunger Games, The tributes will be the childern of the ones who were key leaders in the rebellion. To show that we are strong and just as merciless as you."
Katniss gasped and locked eyes with Peeta, She knew where this was going.
'Please, Oh Please, Let me be wrong.' She thought.
"Now let's introduce our tributes to the members of Panem who may not know them." A smiling girl's face flashed on the screen, brown hair toppling over her shoulders and freckles danced across her cheeks, "Daisylynn Hawthorne daughter of wellknown rebel Gale Hawthorne in District Two."Gale's daughter, She was being taken too. She hardly looked twelve in the photo they showed. Katniss had only met her once, but no one deserved to die such a tragic death. But list of tributes went on, One boy and one girl from each district, all sons and daughters of those who led the rebellion.
"Titus Odair, Son of the deceased rebel Finnick Odair from District Four."
At the mention of Titus's name, Annie lost it. She fell to the ground in tears, Peeta was at a loss of how to help her. She was sobbing mess, but his own heart was beating as fast as possible out of fear for his own childern. He held his breath, waiting for District 12 to be called and praying he was wrong.
"And finally, The main reason we are where we are today, We have Primrose & Beckett Mellark, childern of your Mockingjay and her starcrossed lover." A recent picture of Rose and Beckett appeared on the screen. Rose looked beautiful, her dark hair tumbling behind her, She was in the middle of a laugh, most likely some stupid one told by Beckett who was smiling way in the photograph, his stormy blue eyes captivating.
Katniss felt herself sink to the floor beside Annie, but she was in too much shock to cry. She never wanted her childern to go through the same pain and tourture she had, never wanted them to have to live through the games and that was exactly where they were now. Captured by the people she had fought so hard to bring down.
"Staying in the spirit of the games, interviews with the tributes will air in exactly one week."
Happy Hunger Games, And may the odds be ever in your favor.