Boom! Crash!
The woman hobbles through the rain with her worried sister, whimpers escaping her clenched mouth. She clutches her swollen stomach as if that will keep her child inside the womb and screams loudly. The contractions are starting up again.
"Gaia, you're going to be okay. Do you need to sit down?" the sister asks, shifting some more of the woman's body weight onto her shoulder. The woman shakes her head tightly, determinedly forging through the storm. "My baby will be born at home, Jen, not in the middle of a thunderstorm. I will not have my first child be born outside, of all places."
Boom! Crash!
The two walk on, the light of their old caravan shining through the darkness of the storm. The rain stings Gaia's face, causing another scream to escape her lips. Jen helps her sister to walk up the folded-out stairs of their home, knocking frantically on the door of the caravan. A plump, anxious woman opens the door, gasping as she saw her daughters standing outside, Gaia's face contorted in pain. "My stars! Jen, help your sister inside. Oh, the baby's so early, it's only 35 weeks! If only the doctor wasn't trapped at home in this storm… Gaia, watch the step there. I don't want you to fall down in your state."
The woman helps her daughter onto the couch, Gaia screaming in pain as another contraction ripped through her body. "Oh, oh, oh, oh!"
"Get scissors and boiling water, Jen. Now!" Jen flies into the kitchen, turning on the kettle in a series of crashes and bangs.
Bang! Boom! Clang! Crash!
The hours tick by, both of the women hurriedly working with Gaia to help deliver her child. It's going slowly, and the storm is still rages on. The little caravan is shaking.
Gaia screams again. "Oh, is she coming, mother? Is she coming?"
The woman gasps, emerging with a wailing mass of pink flesh. "Oh, she's here! Jen, quick, cut the cord. That's a good girl. Shh, shh, you're okay, you're safe, you little thing."
Boom! Crash!
Gaia takes the child in her arms, softly stroking her sobbing infant. Her face softens in the glow of motherhood, gazing in pride at her daughter. "Oh, she's beautiful!"
The mother smiles, watching her granddaughter squirm in her daughter's arms. "She'll be a good lass, that's for sure. She has spirit. She'll need that if she wants to survive in this cruel world."
"Oh, but how could it be a cruel world when it has given me my little Madeleine?" Gaia asks, holding Madeleine Fey tightly to her body. Madeleine has finally started to calm down, her breathing slowing into a rhythmic pattern. She has fallen asleep in the caravan, her family gazing at her in adoration. The storm rages on, pelting the caravan with the rain while lightning strikes once more in the distance.
Boom! Crash!
Maddie picks at the small scab on her knee, gazing at the small trickle of blood escaping from the wound. Her uncle swats her hand away from her knee and swoops her up, causing Maddie to scream in delight. "Are you going to keep picking at that scab, or do you want to learn how to fly?"
"Fly! Fly!" Maddie giggles, pointing at the trapeze hanging from the top of the tent. Her uncle smiles at his niece and runs to the trapeze, helping Maddie to climb up the ladder leading to his destination. "Careful, now. Romani always have to make sure that they don't fall when they fly. Make sure to hold on tight, darling."
Maddie laughs, racing up the ladder with a daring that causes her uncle to smile in pride. "I want to fly!"
Her uncle laughs, gripping the trapeze tightly with his hands. "Hold on tight, darling. Now, get ready, get set, and we will fly!"
The two fall through the air with the trapeze, Maddie holding on as tightly as her small hands are able to grip the trapeze. Just as Maddie believes that they will crash into the ground, the trapeze starts to go up, carrying the two through the air. Maddie sees the yellow and red sides of the tent turn around as she flies through the air, almost as if they are turning with the trapeze. She laughs. "Uncle, the tent is flying too!"
Her uncle smiles, letting one of his hands go to pat Maddie's tousled curls. "Now, we have to let go and fall into the netting. Are you ready, Maddie?"
Maddie watches her uncle fall into the netting, bouncing back up with ease and jumping to the floor of the tent. "Let go, Maddie! Fall into the net!"
Maddie shakes her head stubbornly, not wanting to finish the ride yet. The air feels so calming as her body flies through it, carrying her around the tent. She sees the bandstand in the corner, the ring of the circus that her family brings around Panem, and the poles holding up the tent. Why would she want to come down?
"Maddie, let go! Let-" her uncle stops yelling as Maddie crashes into one of the poles, her tiny body falling through the air as he races towards her. Maddie collapses on the ground with a scream, her body crumpled up on the dirt. Her arm shouldn't be bent like that, should it? Should it?
"I… flew… " Maddie whispers to her uncle, trying to reach her arm to his worried face. A wave of pain races through her body and she screams, trying to fight a new sensation of tiredness. The tent is moving again, faster than it did when she was flying through the air. Why was the tent… getting so… dark?
Maddie opens her eyes slowly, looking up at the worried face of her mother. "Mama, what's wrong?"
Gaia smiles tenderly at her daughter, helping her to get up from her bed. "The Capitol is trying to stop rebels from trying to take over Panem. Did you hear the bombs falling as you slept?"
Maddie frowned, trying to recall the strange thuds in her dreams. "I think so, Mama-"
Boom!
Gaia's face turns pale as she looks out of the window of the caravan, the air filled with smoke. "Maddie, run! Now!"
Maddie scrambles out of bed and runs to the door, Gaia following behind the girl. Maddie's arm twinges in pain and she clutches it to her body. Ever since her fall from the trapeze, her arm had never been the same. But she had been able to fly again. She was still able to swing through the air on the trapeze, but she was more careful when she did so. She now knew what happened when birds fell from the sky.
The air seemed to scream with the falling bombs, hurting Maddie's ears as she runs through the countryside. A mockingbird flies through the air in panic, smoke trailing from its singed wings as it searches for a place to hide in. It falls to the ground, crying in vain for something, anything, to help the growing flames on its wings stop. Maddie pauses and stopped to pick up the little bird, her head bent over the mockingbird. Gaia screamed at her daughter as she ran towards her through the smoke, vainly trying to get Maddie to keep running. "Run, Madeleine! Go! Don't sto-"
Another wave of explosions ripped through the air, causing Gaia to vanish into the orange flames. Maddie looks behind her, the gully that she had crouched down in having protected her from the bombs. "Mama? Are you okay?"
The mockingbird sings weakly, trying to struggle out of Maddie's hands. Maddie lets it fly away, the growing flames on its wings having been quenched by her burnt hands. "Mama? Where are you?"
She pummels the boy mercilessly, punching him in the eye, the mouth, the nose, anywhere where she thinks that she could hurt him for the insults she had said about her mother. "My mom is not a slut! My mom is dead, you bastard!"
The merchant boy struggles away from Maddie, clutching his bleeding nose. "You - you're a demon, just like all of the gypsy demons that you came from! Go away!"
Maddie screams in rage, attacking the boy once more with her fists. She barely noticed the teachers pulling her away from the boy, trying to take her back into the classroom. "I! Am! A! Romani!"
She quieted as the teachers brought her inside of the school, her lip curling in satisfaction as she noted the merchant boy being swarmed by the rest of his friends. The children of the seam stare at her, some hiding behind the trees in the playground as they watch the triumphant Maddie walk into the school. She's neither of them. She's something else. She is a Romani, a bird, a traveler. She will never be one of them. She will never sink as low as the rest of District 12.
The mockingjay sings in the square of District 12, unaware of the hundreds of boys and girls trembling in rows, ready to watch one be sent to the slaughter of the Hunger Games. They expect another child from the Seam to be reaped, the third girl from District 12 to die in the bloodbath to be reaped, the third girl to come back to District 12 in a coffin. Why should they think otherwise? District 9, District 7, District 2, all create bloodthirsty tributes who seem almost eager to rip out a child's throat. District 12 has only produced, in the words of the announcers, cannon fodder. Tributes from Twelve are only good to turn into ashes as they rot in the ground of the cemetery, their grave seeming to stare into the souls of their grieving family. And, even only in the Third Hunger Games, that seems to be the case forever.
The escort pulls out a slip and opens it slowly, her hands shaking slightly. It's her first year as an escort, and she knows that she'll be drawing the tributes that she will be caring for in the next two weeks. Maybe, just maybe, she will get one who won't vainly try to survive until they die seconds into the Games. She clears her throat and announces the name to the District. "Madeleine Fey!"
Maddie steps away from the rest of the fifteen-year-olds, walking defiantly to the stage with the gleam in her eyes that separates her from the rest of District 12. The mayor's wife pokes him in the side, causing him to watch Maddie stand up on the stage. "She's a fighter, dear. She could come home."
The mayor nods, watching Maddie throw her brown hair behind her shoulders as she marches into the Hall of Justice. She might come home, after all. She just might…
The Capitol excitedly watches the reapings, hoping that there are interesting tributes to cheer for this year. The last two years have produced two dutiful victors, both who had won by chance and skill, but the Capitolites want to see something more this year. The propaganda spread through the Capitol has successfully convinced them that they are superior to the people of the districts, and the Capitolites want to see their tributes play for them once more. They crave excitement this year.
The crowd crowds around the station, clapping in the trains that fly into the station one by one. There are the usual whimpering children, walking with their escorts and mentors out of the train with tears on their faces, and there are the older working tributes, muscles from their professions bulging from their shoulders. But there are none that have caught the Capitol's attention yet. There are none who have shone the way the Capitol wants to see. But that all changes when District 12's train pulls up at the station.
Right away, the crowd can sense something that sets Maddie apart from the rest. It's not the juxtaposition of her vibrant, glowing self and the tiny little boy from the Seam that catches their attention, nor is it the way she glares at the crowd as if they were responsible for her impending death. The crowd cannot place it into words, but it is the feeling that Maddie was somehow… different than the rest. She seemed to be as free as the bird that she had drawn on her arm, flying up into the sky. And when the crowd sees her stare down President Ember, they know that she is special. The Capitol wants to know more about the girl with the glare in her eyes.
Maddie sails through training, making friends with the slight girl from Eight and the solid boy from Ten. The three seem to bond over a connection that they cannot place, something that drew them close to one another. They teach each other their skills; the boy shows the girls how to trap animals in the arena, and the girl from Eight demonstrates how to hold a knife, but Maddie's allies enjoy watching her soar through the air on a rope, free from the Games.
Maddie spends her private session flying through the air on the top of the center, only coming down to throw a customary knife for the game makers. It hits the center of the target, quite by accident, and the game makers are very impressed with the girl with the gleam in her eyes. Somehow, she reminds them of a bird, her free spirit keeping her up in the air.
Maddie receives a nine for her performance, and the Capitol instantly demands to be allowed to bet on the tributes. After a fierce debate between the sponsoring companies and the government, the Capitolites are allowed to bet on the tributes: with 40% of the proceeds going to the government, and 60% to the sponsors of the Hunger Games. Maddie is the most bet-upon tribute by far, with millions of dollars being stacked under her name. The Capitol waits with bated breath, hoping that the tributes will give them a good show. After all, that's all the districts are good for; for panem et circenses.
When Maddie rises into the arena, she sees the rest of the tributes standing around the golden Cornucopia. She sees the sun shine onto the metal and gasps, the spot where she broke her arm so many years ago starting to tingle. Past the Cornucopia is a ruined city, filled with shattered glass and broken doors, waiting for the barefooted tributes to hide in the destitute buildings. Crows circle around the city like vultures, just waiting for the tributes to let their cannons boom. To the crows, carrion is carrion, and dead tributes are no different than rabbits.
Maddie silently counts down the seconds, waiting for the numbers above the Cornucopia to flash to zero. The instant that they reach the awaited number, Maddie sprints off, grabbing a small backpack and shoes for her bare feet. The rest she leaves for her allies and the rest of the tributes to fight over, not bothering to pause for more. She's lucky. The girl from Six finds a grenade moments later and throws it into the group of fighting tributes, killing the strong boy from Ten, along with four others.
Maddie runs into the city, not pausing until she reaches a building to put on the shoes that she had found in the Cornucopia. The girl from Eight follows suit, and the two silently put their shoes onto their bloody feet, pulling out pieces of glass from their heels. Glass won't kill the two, not when they're fighting for their lives in an arena. They wait for the cannons to boom and count them all to themselves; one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. The girls nod to one another and climb into the building, finding refuge on the top of the building. They pull out the sleeping bags that they had found in their bags and fall asleep under the stars, unaware of the cannon that booms seconds after the two concede to slumber.
The crows wait to attack the two until early morning.
Maddie's woken up and is walking around the rooftop, looking to see if she can see any tributes around the building that she is upon. She knows that the girl from Six is still out there, she never liked the way that Six had grinned in training, but she doesn't know where the others are. As she looks at the other buildings around her own, the crows start to swarm. The attack has started.
The first one plows into Maddie's back, nearly knocking her off of her balance. She yells in pain and regains her balance, smashing the crow into the cement roof. More keep coming, pecking at her eyes and causing red welts to appear all over Maddie's face. A cannon booms; the girl from Eight has succumbed to the crow mutts, but Maddie refuses to stop fighting. She bats them away with her backpack, searching for a way out. Suddenly, she spots it in the corner of her eye; a flagpole hangs from the side of the building, inviting Maddie to jump onto it. She looks back one more time and leaps, falling through the air like she did so many years ago. The Capitol holds their breath, some vainly trying to rescind their bets on the girl from Twelve, and Panem watches the girl fly through the air. Closer, closer, closer…
Maddie's hands close on the pole, she's remembered her lessons from her uncle, and she holds on tightly before leaping to the ground. The crows fly away, their hunger satisfied by the corpse of Maddie's ally, and Maddie walks off, one of only twelve tributes left. She's ready to win.
It's the third day, and the girl from Six is soaring up the betting charts of the Capitol. She's just killed Maddie's district partner with a knife, stabbing him over and over until the blood stops leaching from his wounds, and now she's heading towards Maddie, still holding the blood-covered knife. There's only eight of them left.
Maddie is nursing a wound from the glass on the road when the girl from Six stumbles on her with a twisted grin on her face. She thinks that she's found another person to kill off. But Maddie won't give up as easily as the little boy from Twelve did.
When the girl from Six stabs Maddie in the arm, Maddie roars in rage, her face reminiscent of the anger she had shown in the playground when the boy had called her mother a slut. She punches the girl square in the face, biting and tackling and punching and screaming and getting stabbed in the arm and grabbing a piece of glass and fighting and, and, and…
Maddie stands up and vomits, the girl from Six lying still on the ground, involuntarily twitching every few seconds. Her cannon booms throughout the arena, causing the other six tributes to perk up from their hiding spots in the arena. Only six more need to die before one of them can go home.
Maddie walks off in a daze, her arm still bleeding from the stab wounds. She's holding the knife that she had pried from the girl's cold, dead hands, and she's weeping openly. "Mama, could I go home? Could I go home and fly? Could I… "
Maddie's mother, unsurprisingly, doesn't descend from the heavens to retrieve her child, and Maddie cries herself to sleep in an alley. Even as she falls asleep, her name starts to move back up the charts. She had fallen the instant that she had lost her ally, but this fight reminds the Capitol why they had noticed her in the first place. They want to bring back the same girl that they had seen at the start of the Games.
When Maddie sees the very first sponsor gift in the history of the Hunger Games descending from the sky towards her, she pinches herself to make sure that she isn't sleeping. The Capitol doesn't blame her. When her mentor had suggested to support her by sending her a gift to cheer her up, they were as surprised as Maddie is now. But they easily found the funds necessary to help her, and Maddie now walks towards the fallen parachute.
She opens it slowly, almost as if she still is unsure if it's a dream or not, and looks inside slowly. In the parachute is charcoal and matches to make a fire, but Maddie only seems to notice the paper lining the sides of the box. She takes it out and grabs a piece of charcoal, sketching something on the paper. She easily draws the bold lines on the paper, and after one last line, the image becomes clear to the Capitol. It's a mockingbird, no, a mockingjay, surrounded by a bold circle that makes it look even more fierce, and the Capitol instantly convinces to send mockingjays into the arena to comfort Maddie. They sing her to sleep the night of the fifth day, leaving a slumbering Maddie with only four other tributes in the arena. The finale is approaching.
On the sixth day, Maddie wakes up with a renewed purpose. She's going to head to the Cornucopia and wait out the rest of the tributes. It's an easy decision. The Cornucopia is stocked with weapons, it's safe to defend, and it's free from the mutts inside of the arena. She just needs to find her way to it.
She walks quickly, her sturdy shoes crunching against the broken glass on the streets of the arena. A cannon booms in the distance, but Maddie doesn't jump. She's all too used to hearing that signal of another's death.
The walk is quick, and Maddie soon settles inside of the Cornucopia, finding a stash of knives and arrows. She stocks up on the weapons, lining her body with knives and swords, and buries the rest in a hole that she digs in the back of the Cornucopia. The last thing that Maddie wants is that she's killed by another because they got one of the remaining weapons in the Cornucopia.
She waits, sitting on the top of the Cornucopia and swinging her legs idly in the air. To pass the time, Maddie does backflips on the top of the Cornucopia, grinning madly in the spirit that the Capitol had learned to love so. She is herself once more.
A cannon rings once more in the distance, catching Maddie's attention this time. It's almost evening, but the distant screams in the city are worrying. The finale has arrived.
The boys from Seven and Four come running out of the city, bleeding from wounds caused by the collapsing of the city. A crack in the ground chases them both, threatening to swallow them into the ground. The boy from Seven stumbles and the crack swallows him up, sending him falling into an eternal abyss. His cannon booms a minute later.
The boy from Four continues to run, with Maddie secretly hoping to watch him fall into the abyss. It would make for a rather dull finale, but Maddie doesn't care. She just wants it to end.
The boy from Four refuses to die, sprinting towards the cornucopia with a spear in his hands. He scrambles up the side in a spirit of blind faith, believing that it is safe at the top, and he's right, the ground settling down as soon as his hand reaches the top of the Cornucopia.
Maddie doesn't let him get any closer without a fight. She stabs him in the hand with a knife and the boy howls in pain, almost letting go of the Cornucopia. But he holds on, hoisting himself up and swinging at Maddie with his spear. She dances out of the way, letting the boy wrench the knife out of his hand. She screams wildly as she charges at him with a sword, stabbing him in the side of the arm. But she fails to hit him in the heart and he stabs her in the leg, causing her to yell in pain. The boy tackles Maddie, holding his spear and preparing to stab her in the heart. He smiles slightly, finally relaxing after these six days of hell. He's going to go home. But he doesn't factor in the arrow in Maddie's hand.
She stabs him in the heart, sending the arrow through his back with the force of her stab. The boy slumps to the ground and his cannon booms instantly, causing Maddie to stand up and weep. But her tears are of joy, and she smiles as she's lifted into the helicraft. She is free. She can finally be free of the Capitol, free to fly through the air once more. Nothing can stop her.
A goldsmith in One dusts his counter idly, waiting for more customers to come into his shop. It's been a slow day, and he's waiting to go back home and have dinner with his family. His son's celebrating his admittance into the Academy, and the goldsmith is in charge of getting a cake for the big day. Only a few more minutes, and he can close up shop. Until then, he waits, mentally preparing to get the 'Closed' sign and hang it on the door.
A woman pushes through the door, her brown hair spilling out of the hat she's wearing. The goldsmith gasps, pushing his glasses back up to his nose to take a good look at the woman. "Madeleine Fey?"
The victor nods wearily, digging in her pocket for something. She had taken a break from mentoring the tributes for Twelve to take a vacation, one of the only mentors to have not brought a child back from Twelve. From what the goldsmith knew, she was both hated and loved her in her district, but she wasn't forgotten. No one could ever forget Madeleine Fey once they saw the gleam in her eyes that separated her from the rest of District 12's weary population.
Madeleine brings out a piece of paper, showing a charcoal sketch of a mockingbird, no, the goldsmith realizes, the bird is a mockingjay. It holds an arrow in its talons, and the bird is encircled by a crisp, smooth circle. She brings out a bag of sesterces, pushing them all onto the counter. "Can you make this in the next day?"
The victor walks through Twelve, the sun bringing some warmth to her bones. It's been so long since she has last walked through Twelve. The doctors say that Maddie's cancer will overtake her in months, but she's accepted it. She had accepted her death the moment she was unable to grip the trapeze with her trembling hands.
She drops the faded pin of her mockingjay onto the ground, fumbling for it on the muddy ground. A girl stops to help her, handing her the faded pin. "Here you go, Miss Fey."
Maddie smiles, patting the girl's head. "Thank you, young lady! What's your name, dear?"
"My name is Maysilee Donner." The girl's eyes don't move from the pin, entranced by the luster it has in the sun. "I love the pin. Is that a mockingjay? I love how they sing in the night."
Maddie smiles once more, handing Maysilee the pin. "Would you like to have it? I've no need of it anymore."
Maysilee's eyes widen as she grips the pin firmly, looking at it with awe. "Thank you!"
Maddie laughs a crystal laugh that rings with the youth still in her heart. "Have a fine day, young Maysilee."
Maysilee bows to Maddie, running off into her home with the pin firmly clutched in her hands. Maddie smiles once more, walking on. She finds a piece of clean grass to lie upon, untouched from the coal dust that coated the district. Her lungs are starting to clench up once more, the tumors flaring up again. Maddie lies on the grass, her eyes closing as she lets the sun soak into her skin. Maybe a small rest will help her feel a bit better.
And she's young again, flying through the air on the trapeze with her uncle. Mama claps for them, dabbing at her eyes with her apron. Maddie can't smile any wider, and she lets go of the trapeze, falling into the netting.
But now she's in the sky, flying through the clouds with the mockingjays that she loves so. She keeps flying, closing her eyes once more.
And the mockingjays fly on, on into the sunset. She'll never touch the ground again.
What did you guys think? I loved to write this so much, and hope that you guys like it as well. Did you enjoy my background to the pin? Well, read and review this piece! Tell me what you think! Until next time, TheAmazingJAJ