Rebirth
Chapter one; The Mutts and the souls
Rue Averbury had died long ago- since she was gone, Katniss had made a family and was now 27. She did not mind anymore. Except the fact that she had left her friend Katniss and her family behind. She always enjoyed to follow people from when she was alive. She smiled as she walked behind Katniss as she walked across the meadow where her children, Prill and Luca played. Now her new daughter, Ruess, was ten, and they were a very happy family. Rue walked forward to stand near her. Suddenly, Katniss said:
"I miss you Rue. I wish you were here…"
"I am, Katniss, I am." Rue responded quietly. She brushed her hand over Katniss's cheek. She knew that Katniss could not hear or feel her, but she still felt comforted to think that she could still speak and touch Katniss, even if she could not have any idea she was there. Slowly she walked over to a hill in the meadow and sat, criss cross apple-sauce. She sighed, remembering her horrible death.
I sat by the tree, cutting some berries from a bush with thorns. I heard a crack behind me. Spinning around to see what it was, I leapt up to my feet. That was not a good decision. The District one boy was standing there, Panting, spear in hand, fire in his eyes.
"Aaargh!" He shouted his cry of victory and ran towards me. I spun, trying to find the closest tree I could, but the One boy had much longer legs than me.
"Katniss!" I quickly whistled my Mockingjay tune. The Mockingjays joined in.
I was running. My heart thumping in my chest, knowing each beat might be its last. My feet pounded on the ground in their Green Tennis-shoes from my Stylists. I kept running, the horrible boy almost literally at my ankles. I pumped my legs faster. I was smaller than him, I was. But that was good and bad. I cried out and circled around the camp, hoping Katniss could hear me and save me. She would not be able to find me if I left the camp, so I kept circling. Around. And around. And around once again. A circle of death. I knew I could not keep going like this, but if I stopped to climb a tree, he would peg me to it with the spear. Finally, he went inside the center of the circle, taking the position of a Sumo-warrior. He crouched in his Gorilla-like form, slowly circling, following my every step. There on the ground, just a second before I fell, I noticed a red cloth on the ground, and Slipped. A huge net came and caught me up, the ropes scraping my skin. I started bleeding. He came barreling through the trees, ready to kill. I lay there on the ground, disoriented, hurt, confused, and horribly, horribly sad. I lay there, flailing, screaming and begging him,
"Please- no! Please! Please don't! At least, make it fast! Please! I am begging you- I'm only a little girl!" I sob, and flail more, slowly stopping and laying flat on the ground, my lungs stinging, My breath catching in my throat. I vomited on his foot. He shakes his head, and says in a rough, dirty voice:
"No honey, I'm gonna make this exciting for the audience." I cry once more, and whisper good-bye to my siblings and mother and family- and Katniss. I hope she makes it. I give her all my love, I send it to her, touching two fingers to my mouth and blowing a kiss of my good luck wish in the direction she went. He did not like that. He took his heavy foot and kicked my chest, making me cry out and grit my teeth.
"Why Me!?" I scream in pain.
"Cuz I'm gonna get rich, baby." He sneers at me. I try to think of the happiest things I can- me playing in the forest with my siblings, mother Hugging me, daddy holding my hand and teaching me how to speak to the animals and plants…Katniss telling me She'd like to make an Alliance….Posy hugging me, calling me big sissy. But that is over quickly.
He takes out a Knife and stabs my shoulder through the netting of the trap. I scream again.
"Mama!" I shout.
"Calling for your Mommy to come save you, Huh? Well that Ain't gonna happen." He pulls out his Spear. "Surprise. Have some nightmares for me, will ya?" And he plunges the Razor sharp Spear into my stomach. I scream and scream with surprising power, the sound echoing off all the trees and scaring away some birds. They flutter away into the blue sky. The pain almost literally rips apart my abdomen, searing it's way all the way to my fingertips and toes. I cry more, saying I love you to all of my family. He slowly walks backward, admiring his work. I turn my head as I hear an almost inaudible crunch. Behind District one boy- I think he's maybe named Marvel- stands Katniss, golden in the sunlight. She gapes when she sees me, spear in my body, trapped in the net. She hollers and crashes through the trees, shooting Marvel with her Arrows as she goes. She pays him no heed. She heads straight towards me, grabbing the rope net with her fingers. I groan in pain. I can't hold it back. She cries suddenly, yowling in sadness. I cry with her.
"Katniss…Katniss…..it's Okay…Go on, live…before the Careers…come see what happened….to their friend…."I whisper with all my strength, reaching out a trembling, weak hand to brush her hair out of her eyes.
"I'm always going to be with you, Katniss…..Always….Good Luck…Win for me, will you….?" She nods hurriedly, brushing my hair.
"Sing for me, please?" I ask, hoping that the last thing I hear is her wonderfully kind voice singing.
"Yes, of course Rue." She then starts to sing the most beautiful song ever.
"Deep in the meadow, under the willow
A bed of grass, a soft green pillow
Lay down your head, and close your sleepy eyes
And when again they open, the sun will rise.
Here it's safe, here it's warm
Here the daisies guard you from every harm
Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true
Here is the place where I love you.
Deep in the meadow, hidden far away
A cloak of leaves, a moonbeam ray
Forget your woes and let your troubles lay
And when again it's morning, they'll wash away.
Here it's safe, here it's warm
Here the daisies guard you from every harm
Here your dreams are sweet And tomorrow brings them true
Here is the place where I love you." She sings softly.
"Thank you, Katniss…I love you like you are my big sister."
"And I love you like you are my little sister. In fact, you are." She whimpers and sits with me, singing the song again and again. Slowly, my sight starts becoming tube-like. Like I'm looking through a Toilet paper telescope that is slowly getting smaller, smaller, until my last living sight is a Mockingjay flying across the Blue sky. Katniss's Golden Mockingjay.
Tears still come to her eyes when she thinks of that. She looks into the sky sadly.
"Huh?!" She says, confusedly staring at the bright lights in the blue sky that move down to the ground like a stairway that glows with every step you take.
"Oh. Prim." The form of a girl- no, three girls- slowly float down. The redhead and Prim hold hands and the black haired one follows. They walk down in the sky like it is a stairwell. Finally, they hop down onto the ground in front of Rue, smiling.
"Hi, Rue! How's the Afterlife going for you?"
"Hey there, Prim, Akiko, Teagan. Everythings fine enough. Remembered My death a minute ago, so not everything is perfect, but, oh well." She shrugs. The Japanese girl, Akiko, smiles and watches Katniss walk away. She wasn't from Panem before she died- she died in a horrible bombing in the land called Sheng-hei-lour. The redhead named Teagan is from the land that used to be Ireland, but is now Graonlainn, which means The Green lands- but she had lived here in Panem near the end of her life since her father wanted to fight for the Mockingjay cause, and her mother would not let him go all alone.
"Still so sad about your death? I'm sorry." Prim says sweetly. "I'm going to go visit Buttercup." She raises a finger in the air and turns around, walking towards the Victors neighborhood.
"Cool. See you later." Akiko waves and says "I think I'll go take a walk over there." She points to the woods beyond the crushed metal fence. Rue nodded. After Akiko was halfway across the meadow, Teagan and Rue still stood and sat there awkwardly for a moment.
"Can I sit?" She gestured towards the ground.
"Sure." Rue patted the spot next to her.
"Kay'. Thanks." She settled in beside her, accidentally touching her. Her skin and clothing glowed like the northern lights, turned transparent and sunk halfway into Rue's leg. "Oops," She scooted away an inch or two. "That Ghost skin stuff is weird, huh? I'm always accidentally falling through stuff. Always gotta want not to fall through. It's so annoying." She shook her head, agitated.
"Yeah." They sat there awkwardly quiet for a long while. When Rue turned her head, Teagan was staring at her admiringly, but quickly turned her face away.
"This is awesome." Teagan said loudly into the foggy silence, making Rue jump.
"What? That we're dead? That our families will never see us again and think we are dead, floating in nothingness? Our bodies are in the Forever Slumber house!"Rue stood up angrily, shouting mostly at the sky. " We are being preserved in Panem's floating chambers, our skin cold, our family and friends weeping for us! So what. Is. So. Awesome. About. This? We're 'at peace'? What? Really, what is it?!" She shouted, and fell down to the ground, sobbing. Teagan crawled over calmly, rubbing her back soothingly.
"That we are at least together with other new friends here. You have something very close to Katniss with you, Prim. I have my sister, Nevaeh here. You have your sister, the one who died as a baby, Keira here. We have ourselves, Prim, Akiko, Nevaeh, Keira, and Seneca!"
"Don't forget Claudia, Revel and Balthazar." Rue said. She never was one to forget a friend.
"Never on earth would I forget Claudia- oh wait, you forgot to mention her much worse friend, Araminta!" Araminta and Claudia were very eccentric. They had bright beads in their tangled hair, raggedy baggy wool dresses with strange mystical signs printed on them in berry juice, billions of unusual necklaces, arm bracelets, and many, many leg hoops. Araminta had red colored skin with golden tattoos from the capitol, and Claudia had orange skin, cat's eyes, cat ears and a tiger tail. Araminta had a Bright red hat that said "Go Wierdos" on it. They were always barefoot, too.
"You know what? We haven't visited those guys in a while. Want to go to Claudia and Araminta's place and pick up the others on the way?"
"Sure!" Teagan hopped up happily. "I'll get Revel, Prim and Akiko. You go get the others." Rue agreed and went on her way, simply running up into the sky until she was high enough to get flying. There she went over the golden fields, Green lush forests, abandoned cities, towns, Lakes and so much more. The ghost buildings were Very hidden. After a few minutes, Rue slowed at a pine tree and shoved herself inside of it. She was at first bonked around by the heavy wooden sides, but then a small machine came out with a face on it- the checker's face.
"Name?" The face asked.
"Rue Cybele Averbury."
"Adress?" The machine asked, cocking its head to one side.
"umbra lane domus numerus 34" She Answered.
"Alright…..trick question. What does it look like when ghost skin touches something solid?"
"It becomes Transluscent and looks sort of like the northern lights."
"Correct. Welcome, Soul Averbury." A part of the bark opened up into a door like form. Instead of seeing the regular outside, Rue saw the beauty of the Afterlife-lands. The sunlight glinted in a golden light, even into the log. She clambered out, viewing her new world. The trees were tall oaks, beautiful spirits of the ones that humans had cut down. They pulsed with life, rebirth, Refreshment, and Joy. The entire place was like that. Dogs and children, Parents and grandparents, pranced around the fields of swaying daisies and flowers in the gorgeous sunlight of the meadows. All sorts of animals played and danced around. Rue smiled. It was like a much better, improved, perfect version of the living planet Earth. This was the soul of its mother: Pentatula. Everything here was alive but dead, spirits and sweet wonderful people of the past. Characters from books even lived here since they could only live in written words. It was funny, she could have sworn she had just seen Harry Potter tackling a My Little Pony behind a bush. After just watching for a moment, she remembered what she came here for and headed off, scanning around and inspecting every person, seeing if it was one of her friends. Suddenly, she spotted Octavia and Balthazar sitting in a meadow below her. She swooped down to them and told them her plans.
"Ooh, that sounds fun!" Octavia exclaimed happily, clapping her hands and flipping her long golden blond hair behind her shoulder.
"Wonderful. I think I'll join you." Balthazar said, smiling. His ruffled black hair blew wildly in the wind. He was from district 7 when he died fighting in the 62nd Hunger Games. He had been in the Arena with Octavia, his little sister, and when she died, he killed himself while killing the boy who had killed her. Rue honored him.
"Let's get Keira next!" Octavia said, grinning and lifting off of the ground. They chattered away on their flight to Keira and Seneca's tree house. Soon, they arrived on their front porch, grinning and laughing.
"Rue!" Keira shouted happily, throwing her little frail arms around Rue's neck. Rue giggled and held her close, telling her and Seneca (after he had strode out, smiling) their plans.
"Let's go!" And once again, they lifted off, flying across the meadows to Claudia and Araminta's tree house, picking up red-haired Nevaeh on the way. Finally, they touched down on the front porch of Araminta and Claudia's tree house. A giggling group of souls collected behind them. "We're here!" Shouts Teagan happily, Prim jumping up and down on her toes. From inside the tree house comes a thumping and a crashing of glass as Araminta makes her way to the door, Claudia following at her heels.
"Oh! Rue! Prim! Teagan! Revel! Seneca! Keira! Nevaeh! Balthaza-"Claudia exclaims, but squeals and wheezes when Araminta hits her in the ribs. "They know their own names, doofus." She grins at them, pulling them inside the cluttered, colorful tree house. Rue trips over the books strewn on the ground, falling on top of Teagan. She giggles nervously and pulls herself upright again, minding the books this time. They reach the porch soon, having Seneca almost fall through a window after stumbling on a crystal ball. They seat themselves on the bright red couches, Claudia brushing off magazines from the capitol and random trash. She smiles nervously. Everyone is chatting happily, having a wonderful time.
"Hey, Rue, Prim, have you guys heard of those things….uuh….Mutts? The capitol makes them for the games. I heard that Finnick Odair was brough back to life in Mutt form when his wife asked the Panem circle of leaders, and Paylor accepted her request!" Revel said, awed.
"Oh heck yes I know what Mutts are- the mean part of me became one once, remember? They tried to make me kill Katniss." Rue said grimly.
"Woah….do you think that we could possibly be requested as Mutts? Wouldn't that be great! Like rebirth….." Octavia whispered dreamily.
"Yeah! That would be so cool to be back…" Araminta exclaimed.
"And to be back with Clara….that would be my dream!"Balthazar said sadly.
"Belle would be so happy!"
"Jenna and Glossey would be too!"
"Yes, Saebel would be happy too." Seneca said softly.
"Oh, Buttercup and Mommy would be so happy!" Prim whimpered.
"Katniss. I would be with Katniss again. And Katniss would have Prim back." Rue whispered under her breath, her eyes glazing with tears.
Whadd'ya think? Did you like? :) Please Review! No flames preffered, but I do appreciate constructive critisism.
Thanks
Trekka