They are in the crowded district square of District 12, on a day that passes into memory so many years ago.

All across Panem, people gather to wait in the hope that they or their loved ones are not the ones chosen for probable death.

Little children fumble with the hands of their older siblings, hoping they are not reaped.

Adults watch in earnest and undisguised fear, listening to see if the child being named is their own.

Anyone with a religious faith (one that they secretly kept within their heart's confines so as to avoid martyrdom) already offered up their morning prayers to plead for protection.

In districts, names are chosen and many are reaped.

This year, there are seven volunteers.

Gale and the Peacekeeper Shade watched from the platform as the events unfolded. The former was beginning to grimace because he remembered what happened this day.

The latter nudged him on the shoulder. "Today's not about you. Quit being a self-obsessed prick and pay attention to the different reactions."

Gale, while wanting to come up with a retort of some type, was not able to in time. The reaping had already began.

The person pulling the names out of the raffle tubs did so in a mood that did not have the solemness of such an event.

"Primrose Everdeen."

As the name was selected, Peacekeepers marched over to collect the tribute.

Doing as the Peacekeeper Shade told him to, Gale Hawthorne looked at the reaction of these peacekeepers; he was surprised by what he saw. He expected the peacekeepers to be cold and callous, or to be gleeful at sending a child t her death. However, he saw that many peacekeepers were either desperately trying to hide their emotions or were not hiding the deep sympathy on their faces. Gale never even considered that Darius and Purnia were not the only peacekeepers who lived and laughed and loved. In essence, Gale never considered that the others were humans who probably were not born with malice in their hearts.

In any case, he hears next what he expects to hear and yet is still surprised by.

"Stop! I volunteer! I volunteer as tribute."

Gale and the Peacekeeper Shade watched as Katniss Everdeen walked up to the platform. Despite the fact that they both know how this will end, Gale still flinches as he watches the events unfold.

"Why are you showing me this?"

The Shade did not answer, at least not in a vocal way. Instead, with his long strides, he pulled Gale through the doors of the Justice Building just before it was closing shut. They were able to slip into the visitors rooms.

However, the shade was not leading Gale where he thought he was. At least, not without a detour.

"You're going the wrong way. Katniss is in that room."

"She'll still be there when we get back, dont worry. These are shadows; events that have long passed into the fog of memories."

They were inside the male tribute room.

Gale was angry that he was being made to watch the person whom he envied so immensely. This envy stemmed from the fact that the man in this room would go on to not only go on to obtain the hand in marriage of the woman Gale felt he was entitled to, but would also go on to have a family and be happy.

Just as Gale was about to shout in green-eyed anger, he saw what the Shade wanted to snow him.

Upon the floor in the abandoned room sat a young man. His face was buried in the upward palms of his hands as he sobbed. The sobs sounded like the sounds of an animal that had been mortally wounded and was near death.

The blond haired boy believed that this would be how it ended. He had no reason to suspect anything other than that he was in the last few pages of a life story characterized with violence and parental abuse which go all the way back to the time he was born.

As Gale watched the blond haired boy wail in lamentation of the darkness that was closing around him, he could feel a portion of the pain that the boy felt.

A worse feeling yet, Gale felt shame. Shame that he suffered much less in comparison and yet never thought about the suffering of even people he knew.

"I ... I never realized what he went through."

"You mean you never realized how self obsessed you have been all these years. But it would do you good to remember that this is not even the start of it."

"Don't need to remind me."

"The fact that I am even here is indisputable evidence that I do need to remind you."

Gale opened his mouth to rebut this, but no words could come out or even form. After failing twice, the Shade just gestured for him to watch.

Though only a few minutes passed, it felt like hours to Gale.

"When is his mother coming?"

"She's already did."

"She left him like this?"

"She told him that he was going to die alone and that nobody would miss him.

This shocks Gale, who had a good mother. He remembers his mother's funeral, and felt shame that he had not seen his own mother in the last years of her life. He also felt shame that he did not pay any attention to his siblings at the funeral. It is with fear and shame that Gale asks the next question.

"Is nobody really going to visit him?"

The Shade does not answer, or at least not with words. Instead, he lets what happens next answer the question for him.

A man walked into the room. Upon seeing his son sobbing on the ground, the man knelt down beside him and with a gentle voice he provided comfort. Comfort which the boy's mother, who was nowhere in sight, denied him on every single occasion where it was needed.

"It's okey. It's okey. Daddy's here for you."

Mr. Mellark held his sobbing son close to him with one hand, and with the other he gently cracked the head of his son. Mr. Mellark made a cooing sound to calm his son.

There are sometimes situations when one feels helpless and alone like a young child. It is in these times that the loving warmth of a parent is needed most.

The Shade addressed Gale. "Does this evoke sympathy in you?"

"Yes."

"Why? It did not make you feel sympathy all those years ago when it happened."

Gale was about to deny what the Shade said, but he realized that he would be lying if he said it was not true.

When Gale watched Peeta on reaping day, he only felt disgust with this person whom he'd never met and knew nothing about. Gale considered Peeta pathetic and weak, without even considering how he would react upon being reaped.

When Gale was silent, the Shade asked another question.

"Was it because you did not know him and so he meant nothing to you, or was it because you did not know that he spent every day of his life being beaten and abused by his mother whenever his father was not around to witness and stop it?"

Gale again was silent. Eventually he could force out an answer. "I ... I guess both."

"You had no idea how lucky you are to have had what you did, but you are too blind and too self-absorbed to see it."

After a while, they walked to the next room.

The shade was right, as Katniss just recently entered the room.