The Quarter Quell

Chapter 1:

Katniss's POV:

It's been 10 months since I became a Victor, a survivor, fought against the odds an saved my fellow tribute, Peeta. Everything's different now. I live in big house with air conditioning, bathtubs, queen beds and everything I need. It looks so Capitol like to me, that's why I hate it. I don't even have to go hunting anymore, since I have all the food I need in just a few steps. I haven't seen Gale since me and Peeta came back to District 12. He's a miner now, and has to go deep into the earth to mine our mountains from dawn to night. Not everything has changed. My younger sister, Prim, still goes to school and gets treated the same, and my mother still works as a nurse, curing the injured and the sick, which are mostly the miners. The citizens of District 12 have gone back to normal now. Everyone was enjoying the shower of gifts that the Capitol gives to the District which the Victor is from. The gifts is just a little bit of food and anything else we need. The Capitol is the true winner. The citizens of my home work like a regular day now, but really, there waiting just like everybody else for the next day, the old train warehouse in our district, that's now our town square, turned into a studio with lights, cameras and screens for the reaping once a year. This year is the 3rd Annual Quarter Quell. A Quarter Quell is a Hunger Games, but different. Every 25 years, the Capitol does something different in the games. They can multiply the amount of Tributes, or make an insane arena, or anything that comes up into there minds, but there always has to be 1 Victor. Haymitch won the 2nd Annual Quarter Quell (The 50th Annual Huner Games) of 48 Tributes, meaning that there were 4 Tributes from each District. I don't know how Haymitch won, but the odds must've been in his favor. I also don't know what happened to his family, did the Capitol do something? Did he ever know love? I don't know. I must have been so young to remember. Prim couldn't possibly remember since she was a baby. Now that the parties are over and the cameras have left, all I do is cuddle up in a chair, drink tea, even though in just a few minutes the warmth from it disappears. I can't sleep at night since the nightmares from the games always wakes me up. It starts with me rising into the arena and all the tributes looking at each other; then we all start running and I see Peeta run in the opposite direction. I turn back around and see Tributes killing each other and fighting. Then I see the girl from District 4, Tara, run off with a bag. I run to a bag that I spotted and I trip. The boy from 9, Imanol, almost gets me with an axe, but Clove, the girl from 2, throws a knife and he dies. She almost gets me but I cover myself with the bag and run off. I skip to the Tracker Jackers; I see Glimmer screaming and trying to shoot some of the Tracker Jackers down but it's hopeless and she collapse on the ground. I change to another scene. I look down and I see Rue. I start singing her the llullabay my father taught me, the "District 12 Llullabay", as tears stream down my face and she dies. I skip to the mutts devouring Cato. Then I stare into Peeta's blue eyes, thinking of the kiss we had in the cave. I pour some nightlock berries, the ones that killed Foxface, the girl from 5, into his hand and as we are about to eat them, a voice rings through the whole arena saying that we've won and that's when I wake up screaming and sweating. As the tears go down my face, my door opens and Prim walks in and gives me a big hug to calm me down, which it works just a bit, while my mother gets me a drink and medicine to help me sleep. But nothing helps me. I try to forget it, like it never happened, but the memory haunts me. As I sit with my knees up to my chest, while holding my cup of tea, I see dawn peering through the woods and bringing me to a day I wanted to avoid but can't. The Victory tour starts tomorrow and today we have to get ready and take off. I slowly put both my feet in the ground and stretch my muscles. I walk up the stairs to my room. I put on some hunting pants and a shirt, fix my braid from the mess it is and go downstairs without even thinking of brushing my teeth. I walk up to the door, I touch the door knob and it's cold as ice. I twist it open and go outside to the cold breeze that hits me directly. I hear the mockingjays whistle from a distance, like there singing a beautiful morning llullabay. I go down the front steps, the little rays of the sun shooting above. I haven't gone outside in such a long time! I start walking through the Seam, where I used to live and stop dead in my tracks. It's my house. My old house I use to live in. It brings a smile to my face remembering the good memories I had there and dreading the bad ones. I slowly walk inside, as the floor creaks every time I move. I look around, knowing the big difference between this house and then one I live in now. I walk upstairs into the room I used to share with Prim. Our beds are still there; I sit on Prim's old bed, remembering the day before the reaping that Prim had a terrible nightmare and I was calming her down, and we both sang the "District 12 Llullabay". I get up and walk to my closet, where my father's hunting jacket still hangs there. I take it out and shake all the dust from it and it makes me cough. I put the jacket on and I look at myself in the mirror, and what I see is a 16-year-old girl. I look the same, just like I did before the games, but just a few inches taller. I have my brown hair and gray seam eyes from my father. I walk out of the house and jog over to the woods. I see the electric fence. Never fully on, I go through it and into the woods. I find the tree where I keep my arrows and then the trunk where I keep my bow and take away the little cobwebs. As I go running through the woods and try to find something to shoot, I instead find rue flowers. I stare down at them. My eyes fill with tears. The image of Rue dying in my arms makes the tears escape. I wipe them away and go on. When I'm about to give up, I see a tree filled with groosling birds. The birds that me and Rue shared in the arena. I shake my head to let the memory go away before I start crying in the middle of the woods. I quietly walk into an angle I can shoot a bird down. I pick a rock and throw it at the tree's branches, just like Gale did the day before the reaping. It feels lonely here without him by my side. I make the birds fly away and I quickly take an arrow and shoot, making a bird fall to the ground. By my surprise, the arrow landed in its eye. I walk over to it and pick it up. It's a bit heavy and that's good because it means it's got a lot of meat. I pull the arrow from its eye slowly and throw it away. I walk to the tree and trunk where I had my arrows and bow and leave them there again. I go out of the woods with the bird in my arms. I go through the Seam again, some people have already awaken and stare at me as I pass. I ignore them and make my way to Gale's house. He might not be there, probably down in the mines already. He only has Sunday off and today is Saturday. As I reach closer, I see a small figure, very much like Prim but with brown hair and hazel eyes; it's Posy, Gale's little sister. She's 12 years old. Posy jumps up and down trying to clean a shelve that's too high for her. The floor creaks from each jump.

"Hi." I say. I must have scared her because she shrieks.

"Sorry," I say giggilig "Did I scare you?"

"No I shriek all the time." Posy says sarcastically.

"Sorry, my bad." I say staring into her hazel eyes, who aren't clearly her mother's, but her father's. Gale and his younger twin brothers, Rory and Vick, (Rory is older than Vick for only 2 minutes) have the eyes of there mother. Gray seem like me. His father died in the same mining accident that killed my father. Posy never met his father because she was a baby just like Prim, and Vick and Rory were little kids. Gale was old enough to remember. Posy smiles at me and then speaks.

"So how have you been? I haven't seen you in a while." Posy says while she goes in for a hug. We hug and I stroke her hair just like I do to Prim when I hug her.

"I've been fine." I say as we let go. "How are you?"

"Fine, I'm just helping my mom clean."

"Where's Vick and Rory?"

"The bakery. So what brings you here?"

"I wanted to give you this." I say handing her the bird carefuly.

"Thank you!" Posy says. "I'll call mom to take it in, and she's dying to see you." Posy calls for her mom and Hazelle comes out and takes the bird. When she sees me she runs over to me and hugs me.

"What a surprise! Aren't you suppose to be getting ready for the tour today?" Hazelle asks me.

"Yeah, but I wanted to drop that off first." I answer.

"Thank You so much! This will make a great dinner!" Hazelle says "Should I tell Gale you came over?"

"No it's ok, mabey I'll meet him in the woods tomorrow." I say.

"Gale hasn't taken me there in a long time." Posy protests.

"Mabey he'll take you soon, honey." Says Hazelle and kisses her at the top of her head. Vick and Rory arrive with bread.

"And here's the bread!" says Rory

"Katniss!" Vick says excitedly.

"Hi!" I say.

"Where have you been? You've missed all of our new inventions!"

"I've been at home, and I'll check them out soon when I can!"

"Awesome!" they both say and go inside the house.

"And then soon the house explodes and it's all there fault." Posy says and goes inside.

"There so grown up. How old are they again?" I say after I laugh at Posy's joke.

"Vick and Rory are 14." Hazelle says.

"They're taller than I remembered." I say.

"They grow up real quick." Hazelle says.

"Yeah, well, I gotta get going." I say.

"Of course, thanks for the game, Katniss!" Hazelle says.

"Your Welcome, tell'em I said bye!" I say.

"Sure, and enjoy the food!" Hazelle says.

"I will, bye!" I say and take off to my house. I get a negative feeling as I get nearer. When I go inside, I find 2 peacekeepers in the kitchen with my mom and Prim.

"What's going on?" I ask starting to get worried.

"Katniss, It—" but she's cut off by a peacekeeper.

"Just come with us, Ms. Everdeen." He says. We go inside our dining room and in a chair, sits President Snow.