So basically, this is just a drabble of what Rue's younger sister, the second-eldest, might have thought when she watched Rue die onscreen. I've been obsessively thinking about it since the first time I read Catching Fire, which was obviously a WHILE ago, and we actually met Rue's sister for a bit, and she inspired Katniss to make that speech. But it's more in the movie-version of the Hunger Games, because that's where District 11 had the uprising after Rue's death. R&R please!
There she is, on the screen.
She looks beautiful, as always. Rue is shy and small and pretty, and I like to think that I take after her. Everyone says we look alike.
I miss her so much – her singing, her smiling, her laughing, when she'd teach us how to do something so we could be useful. I always liked that I was the second-eldest – old enough, but not the one with the most responsibilities.
But then Rue got reaped and taken to the Capitol, and then the arena. Mom and Dad try to be optimistic, but I've seen enough of these Games (after all, I'm eleven and old enough to be scared of next year) to know that only one person ever comes back.
And it's rarely ever a District 11 tribute. And it's never yet been a twelve-year-old.
Now, except for when we see her onscreen, it's as though Rue never existed. All of her jobs were silently transferred to me as though they'd always been mine. Mom and Dad don't talk about her, but I've heard Dad cry. Dad never cries.
As I watch Rue light a fire onscreen, the beginnings of her fifth fire, I wonder if she's tired. If she misses us. If she believes, even for a second, that she'll come home and be the youngest, first-ever twelve-year-old victor of the Hunger Games.
I do.
Seconds ago, we saw Katniss Everdeen, the sixteen-year-old District 12 tribute and Rue's only ally, destroy the Career Pack's food supply. Katniss is dangerous – she got an eleven when they rated her – and I'm glad she's on Rue's side.
Eventually she has to die, so that Rue can come home. That's sad. But it has to happen.
My youngest sister, Pansy, reaches over and slips her hand into mine. I squeeze it reassuringly, like Rue used to do with me. Without Rue, we are a group of only five children.
And then I see it, the net. But Rue doesn't. She steps right on the trigger and suddenly she's up in the air, flailing in an attempt to get herself out of the trap.
"Katniss!" I hear her yell. "Katniss!" This is the first real danger that she's been in for the entire Games so far.
Rue tears at the ropes, trying to rip them apart, but they hold fast. I will Katniss to hurry up, before the maker of the snare notices that they've caught something. My hand tightens around Pansy's smaller one.
It's as though Katniss hears me, because she bursts out of the trees, running at breakneck speed. The sheath her arrows reside in bounces around wildly as she screams, "Rue! Rue!"
My heart beats normally again. If Katniss is here, she can kill whoever set up this trap. Rue will be just fine.
Katniss frees Rue. They are side by side now, about to leave. And then out of nowhere, nothing but a blur on the screen, something knocks Rue to the ground.
In a second, Katniss aims an arrow and shoots, killing some male tribute I don't remember seeing before. But none of that matters because all I can think now is Rue, Rue, Rue.
The camera zooms in on her, lying on the ground. She's alive, she's breathing. But there is a spear in her stomach, making a hole straight through her.
My heart shatters. Silent tears roll down my cheeks onto my lips, where I can taste the saltiness through the cuts on them. It stings. My lips are too dry, my tears too wet.
Hazily, I watch Katniss fall to her knees, telling Rue she'll be okay, that everything's fine. I may be elven, but even I know it's a lie.
They pull out the spear together, and Katniss cradles Rue in her arms.
"You have to win," Rue says softly, as though she knows she's not coming home ever again. That she can't win because it's all over for her. These are Rue's last words.
Her eyes close, and suddenly I am the eldest child out of five. My mother screams from somewhere beside me, my father throws something at the screen. It reaches its mark, making a large crack down the middle.
Other people start to throw things now, and soon you can't see anything through all the cracks in the glass. It doesn't stop me from hearing every word of the song Katniss sings to my sister, though.
And then the Peacekeepers come. I hear them hitting and hurting everyone in their way. I know who they're coming for – my father. The starter of this defiance of the Capitol, for refusing to watch my sister's 'funeral' in silence.
Mom herds us together, slipping us through the crowd. We are all small enough to do so, and everyone parts to make way for us. We all know each other in cramped District 11, as kind and loving as grandmothers.
Except for the Peacekeepers, of course. We have left my father there for them to find, because otherwise they might kill us all, even Pansy. None of them would think twice about leaving her there to die in a pool of her own blood. Cruel irony to call them Peacekeepers.
Will my father die tonight? I know my mother will stay up all night for him, and if he comes home she will cry tears of joy. But she will cry regardless, because Rue died today.
Rue died today.
It hits me so much harder all of a sudden. Rue died today. She was murdered today, and in turn, her murderer was murdered as well. And we had to watch.
I stop. Me, in the middle of the fighting and the chaos and the bloodshed, standing still. I turn around to face the screen again, though I know I won't be heard. Not over the crowd and anyway, no one in the arena can hear you from here.
But I say it anyway. As loud as I can to support Rue and my father. To support Katniss Everdeen, the girl who sang to my sister. The girl who loved my sister as much as I did, though her time with Rue was short.
I echo my sister's dying wishes. "You have to win, Girl on Fire!" I scream out. "For Rue!"
Then I turn and chase after my mother, as the eldest child, the responsible one.
Loved it? Hated it? Constructive criticism? Anything is appreciated! Thanks so much 3