Peacekeepers soon came and reached for Becky.
"No!" I shouted, holding her lifeless body closer.
The Peacekeepers grabbed Becky and pulled her away from me.
"No, no, no!" I screamed, tears still falling. The peacekeeper that had killed Becky, the one who had whipped me, the one who had put a gun to my head two times, leaned down toward me and spoke.
"You can't tell anybody about what happened," he said. "If you tell anyone, they will know what President Snow has done and they will start an uprising."
So I was all alone to mourn for my sister. My mom said that she probably just slept walked and would wake up and come back.
But then days past... then weeks... and soon my mom had to come to the conclusion that Becky was dead.
Except it was worse for me. My mom could still hope that Becky was alive, but I'd seen Becky die and I knew she was dead. My mom didn't know that.
So I grieved alone for days, unable to let out all the tears I wanted to. I couldn't crawl into bed like I did when Elissa died because then my mom would know that something was up. She knew me; I never gave up hope. But for Becky, there was no hope.
I eventually had to let Becky go, as much as I hated to. I had to move on with life and fend for my family. What was left of it, anyway.
I walked toward the woods and slipped under the fence that was never electrocuted. I ran into the woods and grabbed my bow and quiver full of arrows from the log. I slipped my quiver onto my back and knocked an arrow, ready to fire at any animal that came my way.
As I crept through the woods, I heard something move. I stopped walking and listened again. Something was walking. Those aren't animal steps, I thought. They're too heavy. It was human footsteps. Somebody was in the forest!
Just as this realization came to me the person walked in front of me. I raised my bow and pulled back on the bowstring, ready to defend myself, when the person let out a laugh.
"Relax," the person said.
I looked at the person more clear and rolled my eyes. I put down my bow and gave him a glare.
"Thanks for scaring me to death, Gale," I said, eyeing him.
"You're not the only one that comes to the forest," he said, laughing.
"I have to get going," I said, not laughing.
"Hey, what's the matter?" Gale said, sensing something in my voice.
"Nothing," I said and started to walk away.
"Hey!" Gale said, running toward me and grabbing my arm to stop me from walking any further. "Come on, what's the matter?"
"I can't tell you," I said, gritting my teeth. "I can't tell anyone."
I yanked my arm away from him and started to run. I heard him running behind me but I took a lot of turns and hid behind quite a few trees before he finally lost me. I sighed as he ran past me hiding behind a tree. I sat down at the base of the tree and put my head in my hands.
"I can't do this anymore," I whispered to myself. But I have to, I thought. I have to take care of what little family I still have left. I breathed in slowly and contained myself. Then I got up and started to wander through the forest in search for squirrels. When I'd shot three of them, I decided it was time to head home. I walked through the forest, looking for the marking that Katniss had put on a tree so that I'd know when I was close to the fence. But I didn't see the marking anywhere. I whirled around in search for it but didn't see it. In fact, I didn't even recognize the part of the forest I was in at all.
"Oh no," I whispered. I was lost.
I knew that nobody would come for me for a long time. I usually stayed in the forest until nightfall just because it was so peaceful and I could relax. It was only midday, though, so nobody would think of coming for me until nightfall. And nightfall was when all the creatures came out...
I started to wander around a little bit more, hoping to somehow find the marker but I never did.
After hours of just wandering around, I decided to stop. I sat down by a tree and sighed. I'm an idiot, I thought. An absolute idiot. But the truth was, I was just broken.
After hours of sitting at the base of the tree, night started to fall. I heard crickets start chirping and looked around. I knocked an arrow on my bow, just in case something came at me. I got to my feet and looked at the horizon. The light was fading fast and soon it was completely dark. I heard an owl hoot and the crickets never stopped chirping. Right about this time my family would start to get suspicious and wonder where I was.
Would they come and find me, or just assume I had been hurt again and staying at Katniss's as her mother healed me? And if they did come for me, would they find me?
I sighed and rubbed my head, a million questions that had to be answered. My stomach rumbled and I realized something; my family wasn't going to eat. I hadn't traded in the squirrels at the market so how could they have gotten food?
This is all my fault, I thought. I heard something move and quickly pulled back on my bowstring in the direction of the movement. I heard a growl and knew that it wasn't my family coming to get me.
A bear started to run toward me, mouth open and teeth showing. It roared as it dashed toward me, and I quickly took aim and let go of the bowstring. My arrow flew through the air and landed in the chest of the bear. The bear collapsed to the ground and roared painfully. I quickly knocked another arrow in case there were more. I heard something move again and quickly pulled my bowstring back, ready for another round.
"Melany?" a voice whispered.
Katniss appeared from behind a tree and looked relieved when she saw me. I lowered my bow and ran toward her.
"You're alright!" Katniss exclaimed, hugging me. "Your family said that you hadn't come home and they got worried."
"I got lost," I said, feeling stupid.
"That's okay," Katniss said. "I got lost once too. The forest is pretty tricky. Anyway, I'm just glad that nothing got you before- what is that?"
I turned around and saw what she was looking at; the dead bear.
"A bear," I said, walking over to it and pulling out my arrow from it's chest. It had already died.
"You killed it?" Katniss asked.
"Yeah," I said.
"Well at least you had your bow with you," Katniss said. "You'd be lunch right now if you didn't. Now come on, we have to get you back home."
"Wait," I said, grabbing my squirrels. "I have to trade these in. My family must be starving..."
"Oh no, they're alright," Katniss said. "My family shared some of our food with them. Right now you just have to get home. How long have you been out here?"
"Since noon," I said.
"Well, you must be bored out of your brain by now," Katniss said, smiling and leading me through the forest. "I marked the trees as I came to find you so if you ever get lost again you just find a marker and follow it."
"Thanks," I said.
So Katniss led me through the forest in the middle of the night and after a few minutes of wandering around we finally reached the fence.
"Think you can get home from here? I gotta get back home to my family," Katniss said.
"Yeah," I replied. "Thanks for finding me. I was afraid nobody ever would..."
"Welcome," Katniss said, grinning. "Hey, why were you out there in the first place? Gale said he tried talking to you and you just took off."
"It's nothing," I said, immediately locking down and not wanting to speak of Becky.
"Nothing means it's something," Katniss said. "Come on, tell me."
I sighed.
"You can't tell anyone," I said. "Not Gale, not my family, not anyone. Understand?"
"Alright," Katniss said.
I'm making a huge mistake, I thought. But I went ahead and told her anyway.
"President Snow killed my sister," I blurted out.
"I know, he killed Elissa," Katniss said softly.
"I mean, my other sister," I said, my voice starting to quiver. "Well, he killed Elissa too, but now he's killed B-B-Becky."
And as soon as I got my sentence out, I burst into tears. I hadn't been able to tell anyone about what actually happened and all I could do was keep it inside of me. But now that I had let it all out, the memories of watching Becky crumble to the ground filled my head.
"You don't know for sure if she's dead," Katniss said. "She just slept walked, didn't she?"
"I woke up one night," I said, trying to contain myself. "And she wasn't there. I went outside to the town square and I saw a peacekeeper shoot her in the head. The peacekeeper told me not to say anything or else President Snow would kill somebody else in my family."
Tears were already streaming down my cheeks.
"You... you saw Becky die?" Katniss whispered.
I nodded and stifled a sob.
"I'm so sorry," Katniss said, pulling me into a hug. "I-I didn't know."
"It's not your fault," I whispered pulling away from Katniss gently. "Thank you for being here for me, though. That's all I could ask for."
"Your welcome," Katniss said. "I won't tell anybody. I promise. But just know that if you ever need to talk about anything, I'm here. Alright?"
"Thanks," I said, sniffling. "I should probably get back home now."
"Yeah," Katniss said, starting to walk toward her house. "Sure you don't need any help getting home?"
"I'll be fine," I said, smiling. "Thank you... for everything."
Katniss smiled and waved goodbye as she headed toward her house. I headed toward my house and dried the tears on the way. I lightly knocked on the door when I reached my house and the door immediately swung open and my mom pulled me into a hug.
"I just got lost," I said calmly, knowing that she would question why I was out so long.
"Well, you're okay now, aren't you?" she asked.
"I'm fine," I replied.
And that's when I realized it: I wasn't fine. Not at all. But sometimes a lie was better than the truth.
I awoke to the sound of the front door closing. My eyes opened and I looked around my room. Lance and Manda were still in bed sleeping, but my mom was nowhere in sight. I crawled out of bed, immediately remembering the night Becky died. She'd disappeared in the middle of the night, and now my mom was disappearing. I quickly slipped on my boots and jacket and ran out into the night. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and ran toward it.
"Mom?" I whispered, reaching out for the person.
The person whirled around and grabbed my arm. It wasn't my mom; it was a peacekeeper.
"What are you doing out so late at night?" the peacekeeper asked.
"I-I-I-" I stuttered. "I'm just..."
"Spit it out!" the peacekeeper shouted at me. I couldn't tell him that I was looking for my mom; he would get suspicious.
"I'm looking for the Capitol," I said groggily, suddenly getting an idea.
"What?" the peacekeeper asked, obviously confused.
"Do you know which way the Capitol went? I saw it walking away and I was so confused," I said groggily again.
The peacekeeper blinked and stared at me, then realized it.
"You're asleep," he muttered. "Where do you live?"
"District 12?" I asked as if I didn't know.
"I mean, which house?" the peacekeeper asked.
"The one in District 12," I said. I didn't want him to take me back home, because then he would see that my mom was missing.
"Just get home yourself, then," the peacekeeper said gruffly, letting go of my arm and shoving me forward. I stumbled forcefully and then pretended to regain my balance and walk back toward my house. Guess a peacekeeper would rather have me wandering around District 12 then take me back to my home himself, I thought, almost smiling but not quite.
When I was out of the peacekeepers view I walked quickly through District 12, looking for my mom. I crept to the town square and, to my relief, she wasn't there. I hadn't heard a gunshot or anything so maybe she was still alive.
I headed back to my house, wondering if perhaps she'd gone back. I opened the door to my house slowly and saw that my mom still wasn't back. Where is she? I thought. I'd wandered around nearly the whole area that we lived in and she was nowhere. There's nothing else I can do, I thought, though I wanted to do so much more. I wanted to find her, to make sure she was okay, but there was no way. I would have to wait it out and hope she returned in the morning. I slowly crawled into bed, though I knew I wouldn't sleep.
It had been a week since my mom had disappeared. Within a few days, everybody had found out that she'd disappeared. Mostly everyone was saying that she'd run off to the woods, but I wouldn't believe that. I couldn't. She would never abandon us, especially since Becky disappeared.
But it didn't matter what I thought. Soon the people from the Community Home came to take me, Lance, and Manda. We were taken from our home and placed in the Community Home. The people who worked at the Community Home rarely let any of us out, and when we did get out it was only for school. They didn't get a lot of food, so frequently we went to bed hungry. I couldn't go out and hunt for food, so I couldn't feed Lance or Manda or any of the other kids.
I'd lost so much and seen things I would never be able to unsee. I'd lost my dad first in a mine crash. I remember waiting for him to come out of the rubble of the mine but he never did.
Then I'd lost Elissa in the games. I remember seeing the District 2 girl take out the knife and work on her. Then I'd lost Becky to the peacekeepers. I remember seeing the bullet go through her head. And now I'd lost my mom. I'd lost nearly everything, though I was determined to keep Manda and Lance safe.