Chapter 10: Misery and Agony.
Disclaimer: I don't own the Hunger Games or any of the characters.
For the ones who asked, she is French but her mother was Spanish and she is able to speak in many different languages.
Here's my new chapter. Hope you enjoy it! Please, read and review!
Two days after the mine explosion, we go to a ceremony held in the Justice Building. The Mayor gives Katniss and me a medal, and he gives Mom a few amount of money to compensate the death of our father. He does the same with many other families.
We return home and we have dinner, Mom goes to sleep and Misery begins.
The money that was given to us, runs out and Mom should get a work but instead of that, Mom starts diving in a dark and sad part of her mind and we became invisible to her.
At the age of 11, Katniss and I become into family head and we have to take care of our little sister, Prim, of 7. We do what we can to avoid people from knowing our problems, because if someone knows that Mom isn't able to take care of us, we will be send to the orphan, and I'll never let that happen to Prim and Katniss.
We try to gain some money by selling what we don't need in the Merchants area, it works for a time but then we ran out of things to sell and we start dying slowly.
Something pretty common in District 12 is starvation; you can see the victims of mine accidents begging in the streets, children from a very big family, old people who can no longer take care of themselves. Starvation is never the death cause they always die from pneumonia, heart attacks or other illness, but someday you can hear screams coming from a house and the next morning the Peacekeepers appear to remove the corpse. I have never thought that could happen to us but right now that happening to us; we are starving.
We are afraid, our Dad has died and Mom is always in her sadness world, we are alone in the world, and thing are going even worse. Agony begins.
We reach March alive; one day we are in the Merchant's area when it begins raining, then it becomes into a storm. We strat running towards home, because Prim is alone and maybe she will be afraid of lightning and thunder, but we are so exhausted that we end up walking. We are both cold and wet when we arrive home, and we have no fire. We change our clothes, dry our hair with a towel and try to warm up with some blankets until we get asleep. It is midnight when I hear Katniss coughing, she is asleep so I cover her with my part of the blanket and wait for the sun to rise, tomorrows is Sunday so we are going the Merchant's area again; but when morning arrives Katniss doesn't wake up. I touch her forehead, she is burning in fever. She keeps coughing and her face is colorless. I know what she has: pneumonia. There just a person who can save her: Mom.
-Mom, Katniss is sick. – I walk next to her. – She needs your help. – Mom is not even looking at me.
-What's happening? – Prim wakes up and she knows that Katniss is sick. She is scared, so I answer:
-Don't worry, Prim. Katniss will be fine; she just has a kind of flu.
-You promise she won't die? - She asks with hopeless eyes.
- I promise that I'll do whatever is in my hands to save her.
I know this isn't a good promise but is the best that I can do. I continue talking to Mom:
-Katniss seems to have pneumonia. Please, Mom. You have to help her. – The unthinkable happens; Mom stands up and walks to the drawer that's in the kitchen, she takes out an old book and opens it in what I think is a random page, then she remembers something, starts crying and returns to bed. She hasn't made many things, but she gives me what I need. I begin reading the book and I discover the cure to Katniss' pneumonia, but the only way to get the medicine is buying it at the drugstore and that is out of my monetary limits. I need to get money for the medicines, but how? Well, I can sell my golden locket. I get the locket off my neck and ask to Prim:
-Prim, do you want to come with me?
-Where are you going?
-To the Square.
-And why are you going to the Square?
-To sell my golden locket.
Then Prim explodes:
-Are you crazy? – She is looking at me like if I was really insane. - You can sell the only thing that is left from your Mother.
- I know, but the medicine is pretty expensive and we don't have anything else to sell.
- I have something better. – She takes my hand and guides me to her bed where she takes out a little paper box and gives it me.
-Open it. – She orders to me.
I open it and what I see makes me wordless. Inside the paper box, there's a perfectly folded 20 dollars bill. That is enough for the medicine and we can buy some food.
-Where did you get it? – I say, hopping she hasn't stolen it, because stealing is punished with death.
-Dad gave it to me long time ago.
-Are you sure you want to spend it?
-If that saves Katniss, yes.
-Then let's go to the Square.
We go to the drugstore and buy the medicine, and then we go to the fruit store and buy some apples that are cheapest thing. We return home and give Katniss the medicine; we prepare some salad with one of the apples and what is left of an old lettuce. We eat it and when we finish we give some salad to Mom and we see how Katniss wakes up after being prey of fever. She eats a little and sleeps again.
We do mostly the same that week but the apples finish and we are starving again. The only good news is that Katniss is healthy again and that May is getting nearer.
Hope you like it. Please review and any mistake you can tell me. I'll try to update soon but I promise nothing.
Taylor.