Chapter One
The Hanging Tree
District 12 was the smallest district in Panem – the poorest – the least respected – and even though 12 has the smallest population many people would often drop from undernourishment or starvation. Most people worked to the bone just to provide their families. Skin red, raw, and covered in coal dust. The mines on the outside of town caused thick grey clouds of coal dust and ash to cover the district adding to the grey and lifeless quality of 12 – lifeless but still there. Still working.
The Seam – the closest part to the mines – was the dirtiest and poorest part of 12. Rundown houses lined the coal stained dirt roads and closest thing to luxury was the green meadow that separated The Seam from the fence, the forest, the wild – freedom. Dawn was when the men would suit up in their coal stain work clothes, kiss their families goodbye and make their way down the depth of the mines. The people of The Seam worked the hardest but got the least, but in 12… that's the way it is.
Though The Seam was the poorest part of 12, there was a sense of community about it - where everyone knew everyone. Children with dark hair and dark eyes could play on the streets together with the few kids from the Seam that have light hair and light eyes without being judged by Merchant kids. The Merchant kids; though they had a better of chance of survival from things such as starvation – still lived the hard life. Helping their parents run their business, living in small and cramped houses above their stores without the freedom of the meadow and the same sense of danger … because if there was one similarity between the Merchant and Seam kids it was the Hunger Games.
The relationship between The Seam and the Merchant had always been tense – both not interacting with each other much. At the local school, the Seam kids would stick to themselves and that suited the Merchant children just fine. There were some rifts that just couldn't be mended; and this was one of them. Even when the Games were on the Seams would mourn together and the Merchants would do the same - never together.
Katniss Mellark was only 11 years old when one of the mines on the outskirt of town collapse killing a number of Seam men; and yet it was the only time she could remember the whole district of 12 coming together as one to mourn a great loss. The Seam, Merchant, Mayor and even Haymitch Abernathy – the only victory of the Games in 12 – all gather together in the town square and said their goodbye to the own.
It was also the only time Katniss heard a song - a song she called "The Hanging Tree."
When her and her family had gotten to town square – just a short walk from the bakery – she heard it. A young girl walking up the path with the rest of The Seam singing the strange song with two kids clutching her hands.
"Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Where they strung up a man they say murdered three.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree."
She looked quite out of place among all the Seam kids with blonde hair - there were only a few kids in The Seam that had the commonly Merchant trait - but the coal dust still stained her pale skin and clothes as it did for the rest of her seam brothers and sisters.
"Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Where the dead man called out for his love to flee.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree."
Her voice was strong and beautiful; and it reminded her of a boy. A boy from the Seam who she had heard sing on the first day of school. She remember her mother pointing him out and saying that she had wanted to marry his father - who's voice made the birds stop and listen - just like they stopped for the boy and now for this girl - maybe everyone in The Seam had beautiful voices - Katniss wouldn't know.
"Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Where I told you to run, so we'd both be free.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree."
Now the whole Seam community had joined the girl - singing in beautiful harmony in honor of their own. Katniss could see the boy - he too had a younger child clutching to his hand - her blonde curls loose and tears streaming down her cheeks smudging the coal that licked her chin. The boy however walked strong and ridged - no emotion on his hollowed face; he too was singing - and not just the birds stop - all the life had stopped to listen to them sing
"Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Wear a necklace of rope, side by side with me.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree."
For an 11 year old the lyrics didn't have much meaning to Katniss – she was too in awe of the sound – the strong and beautiful voices that echoed throughout the town; not one voice quivered - even though tears still streaked most of their cheeks. Even without music – which Katniss had thought was essential with songs – it was easily the greatest sound she had ever heard. Also the most powerful – but that was probably from the intention sense of community that seemed to radiate off them.
"Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Where I told you to run, so we'd both be free.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree."
Intense silence followed the last verse – The Merchants looked at the Seam with some sort of newfound respect for them – however small. But not Katniss; because from the day she had first heard the boy sing she knew – she was a goner.