Mockingjay's Melody

Chapter One

I woke to smoke filling my nose, the room quickly overheating. My eyes fly open, and I see my home, or what most people would refer to as a shack, engulfed in fire, the flames towering high above me, licking the ceiling. I gasped and fumbled to get out of the sheets, falling out of my bed in the process. I coughed, smoke filling my lungs as I raced through my house, desperately trying to find my family. I rounded the corner, skidding into the kitchen where I find my two brothers, Carter and Thomas, crouched under the table, tears snaking down their young faces. I run toward them, but stop, almost falling over, as part of the ceiling caves in, and unfortunately, landing between my brothers and I. The flames are even hotter now as I try my best to move the firey wood without burning myself. But, of course, I did end up burning my hands. I jerk my arms back and slap my hands on my pants to put out the small fire, which was slowly creeping it's way up my sleeves. I quickly pat out the flames and look back towards my brothers, just in time to see Carter attempt to drag Thomas out from under a flaming wall. I run towards him and grab onto Tommy's arms and pull as hard as I can. But it's no use, he's already gone, his arms and shirt blackened by the fire. Carter falls to the floor crying, and just lays there, sobbing as the fire surrounds him, and soon my youngest brother is gone too. I scream and kneel on the floor, tears running down my face. Suddenly there is a hand on my shoulder, and I thrash around trying to shake it off.

"Melody! Melody, we have to go!" I turn to see my father looking down at me, with obvious tears in his eyes. His eyes, that show he has seen too much for him to process, even today. I know immediately that my mother is dead.

"Tom... Carter... D-dead..." I choke on my own words, the grief already settling in. My dad looks like he's about to cry, again, which seems so unnatural, because my father is not a man of emotions.

"Yes, I know, your mother too. But we have to go, now." I nod my head and slowly get up. My father and I stumble towards the door, or at least what used to be a door. Now it's just a huge gaping hole in the wall. We slowly managed to get out the 'door' and I collapsed to the ground, coughing and throwing up. I glance up at my father, but I see him running towards three young boys, one of them holding a pack of matches. They were laughing and giggling as if setting someone's house on fire, and killing three members of their family in the process, but they were laughing as if it was some sort of joke. Terror quickly crosses their faces as I get up and shove my father back. My face is obviously filled with rage because they back up, trying to get away from me, one of them falling backwards onto the ground. He scrambled to get up, but still backing away.

"Do you think this is funny?!?!?! Setiing my house on fire? You killed my mom and brothers!" I felt as if smoke was pouring out my ears. My face was red, and suddenly I broke down crying again. The kid that fell over got up and walked towards me. He awkwardly patted my back.

"We're sorry... We wouldn't have done it if we knew they were going to die." I looked up at him, tilting my head to the side.

"Does it matter? They're gone." I paused and pointed at him "Because of you." I let my head fall to the ground again. I sigh, and hear the kid's footsteps fade away. My faher slowly walks up to me, and helps me up off of the ground.

"Dad..." I try to speak, but my throat is sore from coughing and crying.

"Shhh, Melody, it's going to be okay. We'll be fine..." My father tries to reassure me, but I know the truth. We'll never be fine, not anymore.