Inside the small wood house Katniss's mother sat at the wooden table in the small corner of the house where the kitchen sat. Her youngest daughter sat beside her waiting for her husband and eldest daughter to return from the woods. The sound of miners on their way to work echoed through the Seam. A pair of footsteps neared the house, Her mother looked out the window to see the pair coming towards the house.
Katniss's father opened the door to the house and after setting his bag down on the floor pulled his wife in for a kiss. Setting her bag down next to her father's grab her worn leather book bag and took her little sister Prim's hand and headed out the door for school.
The morning drifted by with each stroke of chalk on the black bored. The teachers lesson meaning nothing to Katniss who had heard the story of the Dark Days thousands of times. She turned her head to look out the window at the woods beyond the prison that kept her trapped. She thought of the mockingjay her father had showed her this morning. It looked like any other bird but it had sung a tune unlike any other bird. It was different and it's song was beautiful, just like her fathers voice.
An alarmed sounded. The loud and constant siren filled her with dread. She stood from her seat and filled into the halls of the school like every other child. She walked with urgency. Down one hall and then the next until she reached the classrooms for the younger students.
Prim sat quietly at her desk. Tapping her foot waiting for her sister just as she said she would if the alarm ever sounded.
Katniss, grabbing her hand raced out of the school. Weaving through the crowd of people all head in one direction. They reached the town square where some of the town's people had gathered to look at the black smoke that was belched out of the mines. She looked at it with horror as she and Prim continued towards the mine entrance.
The mine entrance was crowed with people. Groups of family held each other close other stood and stared in disbelief at the pillar of smoke all of them waiting to see how would emerge from the elevator. Katniss's weaved though the mess of bodies trying to make her way to the front of the crowd of awaiting friends and family looking for her mother.
Her mother stood with her hands clutching the rope that separated the crowd from the mine. Her hands were white and her eye's were distant. She wouldn't move from there until her husband came out Katniss was sure.
The door of the elevator opened tossing several miners into the daylight. Cries of joy sounded from the crowd as family members can to great them. She looked at the men's faces. None of them where her father.
Soon it was a blur of motion as another group of miners were coughed out of the elevator. Up and down, up and down and up and down. Each time it rose up only to sink back under the surface with out her father made gravity heavy under her feet, pulling her down to her knees. She reached out her hands and dug her fingers into the ground. Where are you? She shouted in head, trying to will her father out of the earth with no luck. The crowd began to clear. A sudden warmth covered her as someone draped a blanked over her shoulders. She tugged it closer around her neck.
Hours had seemed to pass when the elevator came up for the final time. She stood up. A single man stepped out. He took of his helmet and shook his head. She knew that look and it filled her with sorrow. 'What have we done.' was all it said but it was a look she wouldn't ever forget.
A small hand tugged at her shirtsleeve. Prim looked up at her with sad blue eyes. "Where's Daddy?" she asked.
"Daddy's not coming home." she said.
Willing herself not to cry. She took in a deep slow breath and turned to where her mother was still standing. She tapped her shoulder. "Mom?" Her mother didn't move.
"Mom!" she shouted. She moved only a little looking at her daughter from the corner of her eye. "It's time to go."
The walk home was quiet. No one in their small group spoke. Their footsteps echoed in the now silent District. Walking towards what would now be a house we're nothing would ever seem whole. There was something not right about the silence. Katniss couldn't place it but she was right there was something not right about it.
A black figure danced at the edge of her vision. A mockingjay was perched on the thin limb of a tree branch, it was like the one her father had showed her this morning but something was different about it. That one was loud and joyful but this bird was silent.
As if the joyful music inside it had died.