The Mockingjay Died: The Fourth Quarter Quell

The Quarter Quell Annoucement

(Universal POV)

The television flickers on. The day that President Snow will announce the next Quarter Quell has finally arrived. across Panem, children and parents stare at their screens in dread. The anthem plays.

President Evelyn Snow crosses the stage on the television. She stands behind a large podium. People say she is more cruel than her grandfather, President Coriolanus Snow, ever was.

A little boy walks toward her, holding a tray with an envelope on it. She takes it, opens it slowly, and pulls out the paper within.

"When the laws of the Hunger Games were laid out, they dictated that every twenty-five years the anniversary would be marked by a Quarter Quell. It would call for a glorified version of the Games to make the fresh the memory of those killed by the districts' rebellion. On the twenty-fifth anniversary, as a reminder to the rebels that their children were dying because of their choice to initiate violence, every district was made to hold an election and vote on the tributes who would represent it." People have said that those were the Games in which the first Careers appeared.

"On the fiftieth anniversary, as a reminder that two rebels died for each Capitol citizen, every district was required to send twice as many tributes.

"On the seventy-fifth anniversary, as a reminder to the rebels that even the strongest among them cannot overcome the power of the Capitol, the male and female tributes were reaped from the existing pool of victors.

"Now we honor our fourth Quarter Quell. On the one hundredth anniversary, as a reminder to the rebels that the Dark Days only served to tear their families apart, each district will be required to send two sets of siblings."

The anthem plays, the screen flickers off, and most of Panem sits in shock as they realize what that means. Families won't lose just one child; they'll lose two.