She has walked this route one thousand times, yet this time it has changed. There is no bustling of the street, nor the comforting silence of the Victor Village.
No.
This time, this one thousand and first time, it has changed; changed for the absolute worst. She smells the burning of both home and human, the smell of flesh clinging to her nostrils and the once comforting smell of burning wood will forever remind her of the remnants of District 12. Her home. The smoke rises into the darkening sky reminding her of her first games when she ran from fire. When it was simpler. Kill or be killed. Get out alive. Go home. But it was never that easy, God no! In Panem it was never quite what it seemed, never quite real. But this, her burning home, the smell of corpses, once her neighbours, friends and classmates, the mangled remains of District 12, this was real.
Too real.