Chapter 1
"Katniss." My mother's voice was very calm. "Dear, for a while now, I've been keeping part of your past hidden from you. I've drowned it out for so long but I think you're old enough to know now."
I looked up at her, uncertainly, hoping that she wasn't going to tell me I was adopted. Shutting my journal, I stood from the table and made my way to the couch, nestling in next to her.
"Katniss, you aren't the only one in our family who has been reaped into the games," my mother continued, hesitantly. "Your grandfather...on your father's side. He was reaped at seventeen."
For a moment I was stunned, but I found her story preposterus. If another member of my family was forced to compete in the Capitol's sick games I would have surely known about it. It must have been the house. Now that it was so quiet with Prim gone and me sticking to my journal, trying to forget the memories and wipe away the nightmares.
Silence was enough to make anyone mad. I wouldn't doubt that my mother had turned mental after what's happened to her family: husband dead, daughter reaped twice and the other daughter dead. All that was left was my mother and me. But I could hardly be called a person after what I had done. I had killed people-innocent kids who had their whole lives ahead of them. I watched them die and hoped that someone, somewhere would forgive me. That someone, somewhere would take away the knots in my chest and the nightmares that plagued my sleep. That someone other than Peeta and my mom would comfort me and tell me that everything is alright.
"Mom, are you serious? Wouldn't I know about this? Someone would have told me. Are you okay?" I asked her, staring into her eyes hoping that she would stop the story before it started.
All she does is nods and then continues, "Dear, your father and I tried so hard to keep it from you and besides you wouldn't have found out. He lived in District 5, which back then produced all things electronic-lights, tv's, celluar devices, etc."
"District 5? Back then? How long ago was this?"
She thought for a few moments, began counting on her fingers and then replied, "24 ADD. But even if you wanted to trace him you wouldn't be able to find him. His last name wasn't Everdeen. It was Erinwright. Your grandmother's name was Everdeen."
Erinwright. That name sounded so familiar. Before I could stop myself, my mind drifted into another world. The air was smoky and the room lit up with fire.
I recognized this moment; it was twelve years ago and I was staring into flames that engulfed a book. A book that contained secrets.
"You can't just shut yourself out! Your family needs you! That book...that book is a danger to this family! The things inside it will destroy you!" my mother screamed, furiously at my father who watched one of his only possessions go up in flames.
"Do you understand what you've just done?!" my father yelled back at her and hurriedly put the flames out, taking the burnt book in his hands for seconds.
The book crumbled to ashes in his hands.
"Katniss?" My mother's voice called me back from my flashback.
"Sorry..."
"Anyway, dear, your grandfather's name was Alec Erinwright. He lived in District 5 with your grandmother, Mavis Everdeen. The two of them were childhood friends who fell madly in love. They played together, ate together, read together. Shared secrets with each other. They did everything together. At the age of seventeen, they both began planning their futures. Alec promised her that once they were nineteen and older than the Hunger Games age limit, that they would run away." She paused. "They thought that they could beat the Hunger Games. That the odds were in their favor but they were sorely mistaken."