For Starvation August Prompt: Lullaby. Enjoy!
After Rue is murdered, the family of eight falls to pieces. Their number is down to seven, and the eldest child has been killed in a games that should never have been created. Putting it simply, they don't want to live anymore.
A place is set for Rue out of habit, and they all agree no one will sit in her place. They hold their heads down, and cut back on how much they eat. The younger children don't understand why she's gone, and ask for her to sing. Their parents don't have the heart to tell them she's gone for good.
The second oldest, or the oldest now, is named Briar. She sings to the little ones, a haunting melody that fills their dreams and waking hours alike.
"Six little Mockingjays, flying over head
On stopped flapping and fell down dead
Mama called the Doctor and the Doctor said:
One less Mockingjay, flying over head."
The children pick up the song and hum it as they work. No one uses Rue's four note whistle anymore, instead they sing about Mockingjays, and the number is always how much longer they have left.
The Victory Tour is filled with quiet mutters of Rebellion. It sweeps through the crowd like the wind, never pausing. Briar herds her flock into the penned-off section where the family of the dead Tributes stand. Katniss Everdeen reads off some pointless speech about how good Rue and Thresh were, and Briar looks up at Katniss with barely contained anger.
The Victor adds more, speaking about how much she loved Rue, and Briar decides Katniss isn't so bad after all. A man in red overalls starts to whistle Rue's song, and then the Peacekeepers fire.
First is the whistling man, dropping down dead. Then they shoot Briar, once in the head and once in the heart. She's dead before she hits the ground, and the rest of her flock starts to cry.
The third oldest, a boy named Leaf, becomes the unofficial head of the children. That night he sings Briar's song to the little ones, although he's not much of a singer.
"Five little Mockingjays, flying over head
One stopped flapping and fell down dead
Mama called the Doctor and the doctor said:
One less Mockingjay, flying over head."
The four other children sing their sister's song, and a place is left for Briar as well as Rue at their dinner table. They sing the song as they work, but food is scarce and they go to bed hungry nine times out of ten.
Leaf gives his food to his siblings, and never takes a crumb for himself. One day he's picking apples from the trees, when he falls down with a sickening thud. His neck is broken and his spine is fractured in three places. He's most definitely dead, much to the shock of his siblings.
Seven-year-old Tulle becomes the leader, much to her delight. She doesn't understand that three of her siblings are really, honestly gone. Still, she sings a song to her little sister and brother, before they go to sleep.
"Four little Mockingjays, flying over head
One stopped flapping and well down dead
Mama called the Doctor and the Doctor said:
One less Mockingjay flying over head."
The Quarter Quell comes with tears and shock and anger. The Rebellion becomes more outright, and Tulle protects her flock as best as a child can. There's fire in the streets and shouts can be heard echoing at night. The dead count is so high, even a three-year-old can see its bad.
Tulle is killed protecting her five-year-old brother on the night the Quarter Quell starts. She pushes the tiny boy out of the path of a bullet and takes it herself. The shot isn't deadly,but she's trampled by the other townspeople, and is found crushed the next morning.
Root is five when he becomes the leader. He doesn't understand death, but he knows he only has his little sister left. When she cries at night he sings to her, the song Briar created when Rue was gone.
"Three little Mockingjays, flying over head
One stopped flapping and fell down dead
Mama called the Doctor, and the Doctor said:
One less Mockingjay, flying over head."
at the table set for eight, a mother, a father, a sister, and a brother sit with four empty spaces for Rue, Briar, Leaf, and Tulle. Root is the last casualty of the Rebellion, killed by a stray Peacekeeper an hour after Snow is killed. He's stabbed with a rusty kitchen knife, and dies with a smile on his face.
His parents are dead, his brother and three sisters are dead too. All he has left is the now-four-year-old Viola. The little girl is taken to a children;'s home, and the others hear her singing late at night.
"Two little Mockingjays, flying over head
One stopped flapping and fell down dead
Mama called the Doctor and the Doctor said:
One less Mockingjay flying over head."
Viola grows up, and becomes a doctor. She sings a song about Mockingjays to all the children who come into her office, and they all love her. When she's twenty-three she marries a nice guy from District Four. He's nice to all the kids, and loves Viola with all his heart.
Their wedding is filled with smiles and tears of joy. The married couple moves to the inner Capitol, and Viola continues her practice. She's known as one of the best doctors in Panem.
The day she dies she's fifty-eight. Her husband buried her in District Eleven, beside her family. Every day he puts Rue, Briar Roses, Leaves, Tulle, Roots, and Viola flowers on the graves of the flock. He sings Briar's song at Viola's funeral, although his voice is scratchy and rough.
"One little Mockingjay, flying over head
One stopped flapping an fell down dead
Mama called her daughter and her daughter said:
There's no more Mockingjays flying over head."
After he dies, no one sing the song about Mockingjays anymore. But if you ,listen very carefully, at the graves or Rue, Briar, Leaf, Tulle, Root, and Viola, you can hear their voices singing.
No little Mockingjays are flying over head
They've all stopped flapping and fallen down dead
One was a Doctor, and her husband said:
Look at those Mockingjays, they were flying over head.