Hunger Games belong to Suzanne Collins, only the original characters are mine.

This is my first fanfic, and english is not my first language, so please if you notice any mistake or something that sounds confusing please tell me.

Life is a weird thing. But death is weirder. Or at least is how I'm feeling right now.

I've lived a normal life, not full of great deeds, or awful ones. I guess I was just normal, mediocre. Not saying this as bad thing. Most of us are like this. Not everyone can be the hero or heroine of a teenage book, even less got to be the villain.

I was born, grown up, lived, loved and was loved just like everyone else. Had an ok job that pay my bills and did everything I was supposed to do. And then I died. Nothing really spectacular about it too. Not a car accident, not an assassin coming for me, not saving a poor child or anything that happens when the heroine falls in the world of a romance, she read a long time ago.

There was an epidemic outbreak where I lived. No, I guess it was all around the globe, the memories of before are getting more difficult to discern. Maybe this is a blessing or maybe this is a curse, is been years and I still haven't decided about it. Is good or bad to no longer remember how was the sound of your mother's voice, how tall exactly was my father? If you can't remember them maybe you will no longer miss them.

Well, again my death was not memorable. I have not given an inspirational speech as I died, or anything. I was just a normal woman. And I was gone of that world like that.

Now, what happens after you died? I didn't know what to expect, my Christian family will have told me that people go to heaven or hell depending on how they act when they were alive. (I didn't like this, once more I'm mediocre, nothing too good or too bad, where this would take me?) My Greek mythology phase told me that we go to Hades' dominion on the underground, and if you can pass the crossing you will arrive at one of the three possibilities, I, again, cannot recall how they were named. But there was one for heroes, one for villains and one for us, normal people. And if you want to reincarnate you need to pass from the river that will wipe all your memories.

I guess these two options tell you I wasn't looking forward death. I was terrified that any of this wouldn't happen and we just cease to exist. That our existence completely ends when out physical body perishes.

So, when I found myself in darkness after the end, I was somehow relieved. Death wasn't the complete ending. There was more. And for this I am thankful, or was, at that moment.

The problem with darkness and time is that you can't escape. And you get locked into the scariest thing. Your own mind. Playing and replaying all the scenarios you can possibly think over and over again. Darkness also does not let you know the passage of time. But that wasn't a problem, after all what is time for someone that already died? I guess that's why it scared me the most when I touched something. It was wet, no that's not right, I was in the water, but didn't need to breathe, the thing I touched was malleable. Stretch when I touched and came back when I stopped applying pressure. This gave me another realization, I have hands and legs, I whole body, that I knew it was mine even thought it was really smaller than the one I was used to.

With time the malleable thing turns out to be a wall around me and was getting smaller every day. Until I was pushed out. I still couldn't see, but instead of darkness was light that blinded me. And the air forced into my lungs made me scream and cry due to the pain.

One professor at university once told me that everything is obvious when you look at the past. The problem is when you are living it. When you are actually there at moment you don't think anything is clear.

Looking retrospectively, it was obvious that what had happen was my birth. But reincarnation and rebirth are ideas that, while everyone knows, no one believe it. I certainly didn't. And honestly, I was a mediocre person, why would I have been chosen for a powerful being to reincarnate?

It took months for me to come in terms with this.

Babies' eyes are really weak and I couldn't focus on anything more than a couple of centimeters away from my face. And a face of a grown up that close of me was terrifying. And the language they talk remember me english, well, english mixed up with another language until the point that you could communicate, but only if you pay attention. Like Brazilian portuguese and portuguese from Portugal on the world of before. Because of this I was thankful they talked to me like I was a baby (I guess they were correct, but is weird the feeling), it made easier to understand the world.

On this life I was named Ophelia, awful idea if you ask me. The most known Ophelia in the world of before belonged to Hamlet, and she turns out mad and drowns at a river. Why would you name your child after this? Later I discover that another meaning of the name is the one that helps, which became ironic after, but now is not the right time for this story.

I was born from John and Mary Gadeer, and was the youngest of their seven children, with me, four boys and three girls. Their surprise baby, well, it is not really a surprise if you are on a fertile age, having sex and not protecting yourself in my opinion. But as I would eventually find out in this place there was almost no education about this aspect of life for the average citizen and people do not ask the opinion of someone younger than them, especially if it is a toddler.

When I was old enough to see and stay awake for a significant amount of time, I notice we live on a field with cows surrounding us and the next neighbor a couple of miles away. Maybe that's why people here have a lot of children, they need extra hands and seeing how brother James and brother Will, the first two children of the Gadeer clan with eleven and nine years old went with father every day to take care of the cows, the twins Christopher and Charles, with seven, take care of the small number of pigs the family owned and how mother seems to be teaching Harper (6) and Chloe (5) how to feed the chickens, it was expected that I would help in the future. In the instant I realized this I could hear a friend from before laughing, I cannot remember her name anymore, but I remember I was a child from the city and used to laugh at her because she lived at the countryside. Well jokes on me.

So, at the advance age of six months, I made my first list of goals for this life, a list that would change a lot throughout the years. It consists in going to school, pretend to be a genius (couldn't be that difficult right? I mean I was a 22 years old adult in my mind, math and basic subjects wouldn't be that hard.), find a university, get a scholarship, move to a city. Not that complicated. Except for the fact that I am a procrastinator and couldn't move my baby body.