Hello!
This is chapter 7!
I Hope that you will enjoy it!
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We have been in the woods for at least half an hour now and still my mother hasn't said a word. After we collected our throwing knives she took of unto a part in the woods where I have never been before. We have been running along a rather steep uphill trail since then, and to be honest, at the speed were going (Which is so fast I nearly need to sprint to keep up with her) , it's exhausting. I don't complain though, if I get reaped for the Hunger Games the least I can do is outrun them. 'You can't get killed if they can't catch you, right?' I think grimly.
After 15 minutes more of this I have enough. "STOP!" I yell at my mother. I myself come to an abrupt stand still. Gasping for air I place my hands on my knees. It takes me while before I can speak normally again. I look up and see my mother isn't doing any better than I am. 'Well, that's something.' I think.
"Where are we going?" I ask as soon as I feel I can talk normally enough again. To me my surroundings are unfamiliar, but I can see that my mom knows the way around here. Probably leading me to some kind of special place, but at the moment I don't care, I want to know the truth. And I want it now, not later. I got a feeling she is hoping I will forget about it. Well no such luck for her.
"You'll see." She answers me. I right myself and stare at her, my brows furrowed and my stance is defiant. "I will tell you…"She says softly "Just not here…. When we are there I tell you." She continues.
My expression softens and my stance relaxes. "Well lead the way." I tell her. I haven't said it and she takes off again. 'Damn.' I think, 'I should have said she could go a bit slower.' As my mom leaps into the same speed again. My mom may be 36 but she every bit as fast as she was in her youth.
Not 10 minutes later my mother comes to an unexpected stop right before me. And I have to do everything I can not to bump into her and cause us to fall face first on the ground. I swing myself to the left on the last second and crash into one of the trees standing there. "Oehgg." I groan as I balance myself against the trunk.
My mother is looking at me with amusement clearly written all over her face. I shake my head at her before she can say anything. She was probably going to say something like: "Hey Mel, I didn't know you were into hugging trees." Luckily for me she takes the hint and offers me her hand. I take it without hesitation as she tugs me through some bushes.
I come to an abrupt halt next to my mother. My eyes are wide in wonderment as I take the view in. We are standing at the edge of a clearing. The grass is greener than I ever seen before, wild flowers are everywhere and at the far edge of the clearing sits a lake with a small waterfall. It is simply breath taking.
I take a few steps forward as I try to take everything in. When I look at my mom again, I see her watching me with a sad expression on here face. "You look so much like your father." She whispers. Then takes off her backpack and walks to the edge of the lake, takes a blanket out of her backpack and sits down on it. She pats on the blanket beside here, all the while she is facing the like.
With a sigh I walk over and take off my own bag and sit down next to her, preparing myself for an unpleasant story.
We sit silently for a moment staring at the lake, when my mother clears her throat. "Your father is the only man I ever loved. " She begins as I look at her. "I do not know why or how you…. I do not know how you could have such a dream…. But without question you are indeed Ian Abernathy's daughter and thus Haymitch is your uncle." I take deep breath. 'So it was true.' I thought. I have so many questions but I don't say a thing, hoping my mother will explain things further.
I feel something soft pressing against my outer tight and see Buddy pressing against me. A faint smile forms on my face as I stroke his fur.
"Your father is unlike you probably thought from the Seam. His mother's mother came from Town and looked every little bit of a Merchant, she married A coal miner just like Mrs. Everdeen."
She sights and continues: "You look so much like him… same hair, eyes… even your build is in some ways the same…. Like a spitting image of him only then in female form."
I swallow thickly and look at my mom from the corner of my eyes, my hand is still patting Buddy. My mom seems lost in memory before she shakes herself out of it.
"I think you did the math yourself already, but let me do it for you now.
You know the reaping is always the 10th of June. A tribute is 6 days in the Capitol and then maximum 14 days in the arena. Which means we are already on the 30th of June. It takes 2 days to get back out of the Capitol with all the interviews, so Haymitch came back the 2th of July….
There was a party that night to celebrate Haymitch home coming, and…."
Here she stops herself, not sure how to continue.
"You should know your father and I have always been good friends, even if we had developed other feelings for each other too. I really loved him and Haymitch was like my little brother." She looks down into her lap. I furrow my brow at her… 'Well such a little brother you leave all alone after his family was killed.' I think bitterly.
She glances at me and flinches, she must have read my expression. "I know I was I coward." She admits softly. "but I was so afraid, and I had not only my safety to look after…" She defends herself.
"That night of Haymitch home coming there was a substance called wine we were invited to drink. So Ian and I decided to try it. We did not know there was alcohol inside it, and coming from the Seam we drank it up. Never the ones to waste anything. Even though our heads became foggy from it. A few friends dared us to drink another glass, and we did. We were both so happy and elated that Haymitch came back it did not matter at that time.
Then something happened, I do not know what exactly what anymore but the next thing I remember is Ian kissing me. I kissed him back, I was so happy. He asked me to be his wife and I agreed. We decided to keep it a secret for a while, so we did not steal Haymitch lime light."
My mom swallowed hard. It took a minute but she continued again. "We kissed again and Ian took me to this place." She says as she gestures at the clearing. "I was enchanted with this place and with love for Ian, the alcohol made us do things we never should have done when we were sober, we made love before the marriage…. I must say though I never regretted it.
The next day we decided to wait a week to tell the others…." Now there are tears in my mother's eyes and I lay my free hand over hers. Now gently gipping on to Buddy's fur.
My mother breathing is unsteady as she continues. "The 4th of July is a day I never forget. I was working as housekeeper by Walter Zachery the first Victor of District 12. At 12 am there were peacekeepers knocking at every houses door. Mandatory punishment viewing at the justice building. I remember walking to the justice building with a feeling of dread in my stomach. The whole district was there, much like when the reaping's are held. We waited for 15 minutes and then the justice building doors opened. And out came Haymitch, Vanessa ( Haymitch girlfriend), Ian and their mother. All were escorted by two peacekeepers to the middle of the stage Haymitch more to the side then the others. Ian, Vanessa and his mother were forced on their knees.
I remember the previous Head peacekeeper moving to standing at the front centre of the stage, a letter in his hand. "This is a letter of President Snow." He announced. "Haymitch Abernathy, Victor of the 50th Hunger Games thought he could pull a trick on me… And now I will show you what happens when you try to pull something like that against me."
The fear I felt was nothing I ever felt before, I was petrified. I remember looking Ian in his eyes, him mouthing to me that he loved me and I mouthed it right back. And then the shots gone off."
My mother breaks completely down now, and I embrace her. I hold her tightly for a long time until she pulls back out my embrace herself.
"4 weeks later I found out I was with child." She continues shakily. "His child. At first it was hard but I soon found that he was never really gone as long as you were there. Snow wanted to kill all of Haymitch's family but he missed two… well at least one person." She states as she looks at me.
I look back at her blinking back a few tears. "Your name Meliora, I chose it for its meaning.
It means my little girl, because you will always be my little girl no matter what. And it means crowned with bay leaf. You know the kind of leaf the Romans used to make a crown from for the Victors of a competition or the emperor who had one of those crowns made in gold."
I look at my mother, I am completely dump founded. She crowned me as Victor when I was born because I survived Snows attack on my family?! She was making fun of Snow right under his nose, and he didn't even know!
A slow grin spread over my face as I looked at my mother. "That was pretty smart mom!" I say. "Poking fun at Snow, and he hasn't even a clue."
Then I frown again. "So why did you keep it a secret from Haymitch and myself for so long and are we going to tell Haymitch?" I ask .
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And that's Chapter 7!
Hope you like it!
So is this the dream or is the world where Meliora an orphan is a dream?
What is the dream? What is reality?
Please review and share what you think!
