Daughter's Lament [Hunger Games]

01 | Kingdom Come

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Kingdom Come

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My heart pounded so hard I could hear it in my ears. I sat there in front of the black screen blinking rapidly and trying to calm my breathing.

 Katniss, what the hell did you just do?

I wasn't sure what was worse: watching my sister on the screen competing for the second time in the Hunger Games and fearing for her death or not being able to see a single thing because of an empty screen and still fearing for her death. 

I knew that she was hiding something from us when she came back — well, something other than the horror of the games. Everyone knew the Hunger Games changed a person. Even before my sister, District Twelve's own Haymitch Abernathy had shown us that. But Katniss always seemed to be hiding things from us. I knew it was her way of trying to protect us, but still, we're family and family is supposed to tell each other things.

Things had gotten worse after my sister's meeting with President Snow. She was more paranoid and secretive afterward, something I hadn't thought possible. I wasn't sure exactly what he had over her head, but I was intuitive enough to know that something was amiss. Something wasn't quite right. And even with all the intuitive leaps I could possibly muster, I never could quite figure out what was going on with Katniss.

When it was announced that Katniss was going back into the Hunger Games for a second time, my heart broke. Again. Watching her for the second time around in those blasted games that were being broadcasted for all of Panem to see was pure torture. Yet there was a very thin silver lining: Katniss wasn't going to go down without a fight. But if she did die, the home in Victor's Village would cease to be ours.

While I was only eighteen months younger than my sister, I knew that she was the only one of us Everdeen sisters that could win the games. I seemed painfully dull and ordinary compared to my sisters. Maybe it was just the middle child thing—but Katniss had her bravery and Prim her empathy and medical skills. The only thing I could do was spin a decent story, but what good was that to me in District Twelve? Sometimes I felt like I was a disappointment to the Everdeen name -- to everything my father had built to accomplish in his short time on this earth.

When I would later try to recall what happened, my memory drew blanks from the disruption of the broadcast until the time Gale Hawthorne rushed into our house in a panic. Gale looked so strong and serious as he frantically began to explain how the Peacemakers pulled out from the area. 

My brow furrowed and my gaze puzzled. Gale must have understood my confusion because he explained that District Twelve was going to be burned to the ground—just as the Capital had done to District Thirteen all those years ago. Because of Katniss' show, we were to be the sacrifice to atone for her sins-to be made a spectacle of for the other districts. To show them what would happen if they continued in their rebellious ways.