The Hunger Games: iPod Shuffle Drabbles

Saturdays – Chevelle

Haymitch Abernathy

They play in the Meadow.

God I feel old.

I look at the children of the two tributes who changed everything. How they frolic in a place the Capitol tried to keep us from. How ignorant they are of the past. Maybe I'm just jealous. Perhaps I envy their freedom. They don't have any baggage. The terrible guilt that follows all the death and destruction a Games victor unleashes.

How perfectly ironic that the Hunger Games, an event solely intended to pit children against each other in bloody combat should have spawned these children. So innocent. I see the sparkle in the little girl's eyes. She has her mother's fire.

In a way I feel shortchanged. These kids have never had to suffer a life under the choking constraints of the Capitol. In an even more prominent sense I feel lost among them. With Katniss and Peeta I feel at least some kinship; we shared the horror of the Capitol's Games.

Well, we must relate somehow.

And that's the clincher: we can't relate. It just makes me sadder for the generations that lived through the Games. We suffered. And I look at these kids and think, we all should belong, in the better days of our youth. At the end of the day, we all have lost, so we shouldn't feel so alien amongst one another.

After all; one day, it might be those who never lived under the Capitol that outnumber us.

Like You Better Dead – In Flames

Katniss Everdeen

I take one look at my cottage in Victor's Village, and I know somewhere deep inside of me that my house is not my home. Not anymore. It seems so curiously out of place in the ashen remains of District 12. It's curious that they left it standing. Was it a reminder from Snow? That it was my fault that so many helpless denizens of my home district perished in the Capitol's flames of retribution? I'm feeling weak at the knees now.

Come on. Gale got out who he could.

I say this to myself and I feel a pang of hatred for Gale. At the hands of his idea, Prim died, and what little was left of my sanity died with her.

And you bury yourself up in District 2. Self-acquitted. You're dead to me, and you know what? I like you better dead.

I know I'm better off alone. I always have been. I'll spite Snow's control of my life and the losses of the rebellion by carrying on. I can be as angry as I want to be.

Regaining my composure and balance, I trudge my way through the ashes to my house.

Once indoors, I know it's a façade. I can't maintain this anymore. I break down there and then, crying and releasing silent screams, gasping for air when I can. I know I need to save myself before I drown, but it's too much for me.

In my head; I wonder. Destiny, will you cure me? Will there ever be an end to the pain? Trust, will you age with me? Will I ever be able to hold trust again?

I take a spare glance around my hallway, knowing one thing: I'll never sleep here anymore. And the worst is, all those who surround me and try to care for what's left of me will ever hear is me screaming as I face tomorrow.

All About Her – New Found Glory

Peeta Mellark

Another lonely night.

I shift uncomfortably beside Katniss' sleeping form. Even though I'm right next to her, I feel distant. I just wish she knew I cared about her so much, but a fat lot of good I'm doing injured and under her care.

I close my eyes and remember her singing a lullaby that silenced even the mockingjays.

And one that captured my heart.

I don't think she appreciates the depth of my affection. Understandably, circumstance tore her away from Gale, but there was nothing between them, right? I think it to sooth my worries, but I really know there's at least something. You don't go through what they've went through without developing a bond.

This thought gives me pause.

What if I'm just showing a lack of character? If that's the case, then it's up to me to follow through.

I barely suppress a laugh at myself.

Look at me! I'm all over her, all about her! I'm the very definition of a hopeless romantic.

I guess it must be the things she does.

I Made It – Dead By April

Katniss Everdeen

I'm pregnant. For real this time.

Now, they say, begins the rest of my life. What's left of it, that is. Peeta finally convinced me it was safe. No more Hunger Games, no more Capitol. No more haunting threats from Snow.

Gone are the flames, tears and pain.

I made it.

I'll admit it, some days I felt I could barely get through. But with the help, the love of the boy with the bread, I made it. I am actually here, alive, a semblance of what I once was.

You didn't have the grip over me you thought you did, Snow.

And at long last, here is my life. My dream.

I clutch Peeta closer to me as we sit by the fireside, wintering out District 12's harsher conditions.

And through it all, I'm glad, proud even, to say I never stood too far from you.

"We're parents now. Real or not real?" I say, in allusion to his hijacking. I see his warm smile spread across his face.

"Real, Katniss. So very, very real," he says, patting my stomach. "We made it."

A/N: I hope you enjoyed it! Please tell me what you think, and it would be appreciated if you could suggest more songs to write about.