Katniss opened her eyes. Instinctively, she reached across the mattress for her sister, only to find that she wasn't there. Her eyes trailed over to their mother's bed, where Prim was curled up next to their mother. A sense of deja vu echoed through her thoughts, and suddenly the memory of the past few days resurfaced.
The books. The people she would meet. The tragedies they foretold. Stories of love and loss. Her future and the fate of countless others, summarized in three paperback novels. The thought sent shivers up her spine.
But it was only a dream, right? It couldn't be real, it just couldn't. The prospect of ending the Games forever was just too hopeful. Katniss sighed, closing her eyes and mentally chiding herself for treating the situation as thought it was reality. It was just a dream- that's all. It had to be, right?
The familiar sound of Gale's fist pounding against the door knocked Katniss out of her thoughts. She sat up in bed and pushed her tangled black hair out of her eyes. Gale knocked on the door again, more furiously this time, waking the rest of her family. Prim's wide blue eyes stared into hers as the space between knocks grew shorter and shorter. The fear in her sister's eyes mimicked her own feelings. Gale was never this impatient, save for one occasion- when Posy had become so sick overnight that she couldn't even move. Whatever was going on, it was clearly an emergency.
In an instant, Katniss jumped out of bed and answered the door. There stood Gale, terrified and out of breath. For a moment, all they could do was stare at each other. Katniss remember their fate, allegedly prophesied in the books, and a heavy sadness weighed on her shoulders. All she wanted to do was tackle him in a hug and never let go, because out of all the horrible things she was foretold to endure, growing apart from her best friend was one of the things she dreaded the most.
At last, Gale spoke.
"Catnip," he stuttered awkwardly, as though their friendship was as fragile as Katniss now knew it to be. "Something's going on."
Her mother and Prim ran to the doorway, and Katniss felt Prim cling to her like a dress from the Capitol. Katniss found herself hoping it would last.
"What is it? What's happening?" her mother asked as the color drained from her face. "I thought the Reaping wasn't for another-"
"I know. President Snow issued an emergency broadcast. Peacekeepers want everyone in the square in half an hour. It… doesn't sound good."
In the distance, a mockingjay began to sing.
…
The Everdeen family was ready for the Reaping in record time. Not that it mattered. Not that anything mattered. A pit of worry had already begun to swallow Katniss whole. Things weren't going by the book, which should have been a relief, but Katniss found it to be a curse. While the ending of the book was terrible and far from ideal, it promised something that reality had yet to give her: hope. And without that hope, she had begun to feel lost. Because while the events foretold in the books were scary, the unknown felt much scarier. And who was to say things wouldn't just get worse? Despite having faced the unknown for her entire life, now that a potential future had been presented to her she was terrified of any alternatives.
Katniss spent the entirety of the walk into town clutching Prim's hand like a lifeline. Gale had waited for them, and walked alongside her mother. While usually stubborn about things like this, Katniss was grateful for Gale's help that day. While he was waiting for them to get ready, Gale had done various things to help out, such as making the beds and feeding Lady and Buttercup, the latter of which spent the majority of the morning clinging to Prim as thought she would vanish. Despite her unexpected desire for everything to go the way it did in that silly dream, the thought of losing Gale still made her sick. While she didn't think of him the same way he apparently thought of her, he was still her best friend. She loved him, albeit in a different yet equal way. She didn't want to give up his friendship, or the life of her sister, even if it did mean the freedom of Panem.
As they entered the crowded town square, she forced herself to stop being a child and face reality. The dream wasn't some omen of the future, nor did it truly promise anything. It was just that- a dream.
She looked across the crowd and saw Haymitch Abernathy standing alone. They locked eyes, and he gestured for her to come closer. Katniss looked between her family and the unusually sober victor of the Hunger Games, unsure of what to do. Finally, she pushed away her more rational train of thought and decided to at the very least figure out what Haymitch wanted.
"I'll be right back," she said, releasing Prim's hand.
Before anyone could ask questions, she escaped into the crowd, elbowing her way through the gaps. Unfortunately, the crowd began to fill the area where Haymitch was standing until he disappeared from sight. Katniss tried to push her way through the crowd in an attempt to at least make it back to her family, but it was no use. As the crowd continued to grow she found it increasingly difficult to navigate. She was soon being pushed closer to the platform where the Reaping would soon take place, despite her efforts to make it back to her loved ones. She was about to give up when she heard a voice that had become all too familiar.
"Katniss!" Peeta yelled over the roar of the crowd.
"Peeta!" she shouted, being pushed away by the frantic citizens of District 12.
Peeta held out his hand, and she managed to stretch her arm far enough to grasp it. Together, they pushed through the crowd and closed the gap between them. She kept her grip on his hand, as awkward as it was, and they managed to stay in one spot.
"Are you okay?" Peeta asked.
Katniss tried not to think about the books. "Yeah, I just got separated from Prim. That's all."
It was somewhat of an oversimplification of things, but it technically wasn't a lie. Telling the whole truth would probably make Peeta think she was crazy, and that wasn't something she needed right now.
Peeta nodded. "Yeah, me too. I mean, not my sister. I don't really have one. My family, I mean. Um… there was this guy, you know, and he was trying to get my attention so I just..."
For once in his life, Peeta seemed to be at loss for words. He stared at her for a moment, neither of them knowing what to say, until Peeta finally spoke up again.
"Look, I know this probably sounds creepy and weird, but… I had this really weird dream last night. I'm not trying to freak you out or anything, it's just- I can't stop thinking about it."
Katniss felt her eyes go wide.
"You mean the one about the books?"
Now it was Peeta's turn to be shocked. "The one about the Games?"
Katniss nodded frantically. Peeta's face turned red, probably from embarrassment.
"You don't think-" he began, but he was cut off by the sound of the Capitol anthem.
"Citizens of Panem," President Snow began as his face appeared on the large screen which formed the back of the platform. "As you know, today is Reaping Day. Although many of you are excited for the coming days, I have had an epiphany in the form of a dream. It is because of this dream that I stand before you today."
Katniss and Peeta exchanged a worried glance and tightened their grip on each other's hands.
"You see, I realized something last night. While the Games have become an important part of our culture, for the past 73 years we have used the same formula. We have been stuck in our ways, in fear of creating something far greater. In fact, this formula is not only becoming tiring, but it is also a waste of resources. Therefore, I have decided to redesign the Hunger Games from the ground up."
Fearful gasps filled the air, and Peacekeepers aimed their guns at the crowd to keep them from rioting.
"These new Games will be an exciting, non-lethal way to remind us of our past, and most importantly to entertain the citizens of the Capitol, whose ancestors chose their side correctly."
"Wait," Katniss said. "Did he just say..."
"Non-lethal?" Peeta asked.
President Snow continued. "While the graphic nature of the old Games limited their potential, these new Games will be designed to serve the same purpose without sacrificing the lives of our tributes- the young men and women who will one day go on to provide us with the luxuries our lives require. In addition to this, we will be postponing the Reaping and increasing tesserae rations in order to build the strength of our next tributes, to ensure that the first tributes in these new Games are able to give us a show we will never forget!"
The mixture of terrified and angry shouts began to morph into those of confusion and joy. Even the Peacekeepers were puzzled, and they lowered their guns to better watch Snow's bizarre announcement.
"In the coming months we will be looking for input as to how we can continue to improve the Games, and make this upcoming year the best yet. But for today, the citizens of our proud nation are to spend this day with their families."
Family.
Everything made sense now.
All throughout the books, even after they confirmed that he was to die, Snow had remained stony-faced. On occasion he expressed annoyance or slight anger, but it wasn't much of a change and never lasted. That is, until Coin targeted his granddaughter. For the rest of their time together, Snow was different. He didn't have some miraculous moment of rebirth where he promised to donate his life savings to starving kittens and travel the world spreading goodwill and charity, but he was still different. He grew quiet, not even commenting on his own execution, and seemed lost in thought. And while their little group had, over time, became accustomed to realizing when something bothered someone and doing their best to help them, no one had any sympathy to give the man who ruined the lives of everyone in the room. Perhaps he realized the weight of this. Maybe he was even trying to repent. Or maybe he was just trying to save his granddaughter. But regardless of the reasoning behind the president's actions, things were about to change. And despite her earlier fears, Katniss felt oddly at peace.
As President Snow concluded his speech, people began leaving the square. Emotions ranged from excitement to fear, and perhaps even a mix of the two. Katniss and Peeta remained glued to their places, until Haymitch came up behind them and clapped them both on the shoulder.
"Congratulations Sweetheart, we did it. Come on, let's go see who else knows what's going on."
Haymitch and Peeta started to leave, but Katniss still couldn't believe what just happened.
"Katniss?" Peeta asked. "Aren't you coming?"
Her lips curled into a smile as she caught up to the men who would've become her fellow victors. Perhaps the unknown was scarier than anything she read in those books, but maybe this was merely the beginning of a new story with a better ending.
…
Well, here we are. About two or three years ago, I posted Reading The Hunger Games, not expecting it to get all the love and attention it did. It very quickly became my most popular fanfiction of all time, and it seems like every day I was getting a notification that I had a new follower. Unfortunately when I posted it, I didn't realize it was against site rules. I misinterpreted the rule against stories of this variety as not being allowed to do it with other fanfictions on the site (such as copying My Immortal and making snarky comments about it or something like that). Looking back on it, I'm not sure how I came to this conclusion, but had I interpreted the rules correctly I never would've posted the story. In a way, I'm almost relieved that it got taken down. For whatever reason it was always a difficult fic for me to write, and the amount of support it received made me feel guilty for not being able to update as much as you guys deserved. Over all, it wasn't too great for my mental health, and I'm kind of glad it's over.
That being said, writing this fic has been an amazing experience, and I'm so happy that so many people enjoyed it. Thank you everyone who followed, added the story to your favorites, reviewed, or even just read it. Seeing everyone gush about how much they loved it made it all worth it in the end, and I'm really sorry I couldn't finish it. I considered moving it to another site, but I didn't feel right about doing that. It seemed a bit like trying to dodge around the rules to me, and I can definitely see why the rule exists now that I've stepped back and thought about it. I still wanted to give you guys (and myself) some closure, so in the end I decided to go ahead and write this oneshot.
(Personally I think it turned out a little corny, but in a way I'm kind of proud of it. It's been years since I wrote a oneshot!)
Anyways, I hope this tied up loose ends. I wanted to give it an ending that was both realistic and happy, so this was the closest balance I could get. I think the Capitol would've thrown a fit if Snow were to outright cancel the Games, but if he were to reinvent them into something he promised to be better (yet still managed to be more kind to the tributes) the Capitolites would probably respond better. Since the aforementioned jerk has been shown to be pretty good at strategy, I think in the event of a change of heart he would think things through like that. I kind of like the concept too. I might play around with it in the future.
Quote of the day!
"All I need is some rest... and a weeks supply of anti-humiliation pills." -Ronnie Raymond, Firestorm
God bless, and may the odds be ever in your favor,
~Spectrobes Princess