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There’s only one place in all of Panem in which I feel completely happy and that’s the woods.I started going there with my mom when I was very very small, she taught me how to swim and to hunt. Sundays were my favorite day because of that.
My parents are writers, well they've published some books about the war and stuff.
Dad says that remembering is essential, especially the little good things that people have done. Like sharing food or giving your jacket to someone else when they are cold. That’s the way I’ve learnt that the smallest acts of kindness are important.
My mom writes more than dad, my dad prefers to keep his family's bakery. He reconstructed it with some help and now he spends his time baking there and then selling. It's great because he brings pastries from there. He knows which we prefer each of us. Even though sometimes mom tells him that he shouldn't bring us so many sweets, he keeps on bringing them. And then we all eat them together, including mom, who will never argue if you bring her some cheese buns.
Panem is blooming, all the creativity that was forbidden in the districts exploded this last years, making the districts a huge cultural scenery.
Especially district 12 has been called the phoenix, because all the beautiful things it had, have resurrected from the ashes. The music is a big part here, the young people have made the Hob a place for music, plays and poetry. Old texts have been archived carefully so we don’t lose them again and everyone refuses to forget the history.
There are still taboos and a lot pain. But underneath all the wounds there's a beautiful country ready to make their way into art again.
The country is full of memorials, for all the dead tributes, soldiers and civilians. My mom has one, I mean it's not her statue or anything it's a mockingjay. And she was the mockingjay. Sometimes, they ask if they can take mom's pin to put it in an exhibition temporarily.
At first my parents wanted to gift it to me in my 12th birthday, but they had to take it away from me constantly, so they ended up giving me something that only has meaning for them, not for the whole country. Which is a tiny pearl from the 75th hunger games. My dad gifted it to my mom. That's one of my favorite stories about them falling in love.
I live in the victor’s village. They gifted this house to my mom after they(both of my parents) won the hunger games. They have been the only victors to be two instead of one. Sometimes it’s hard to believe that they’ve survived two hunger games and a war. They always seem so calm and mature. Especially dad, he’s so selfless and kind. I just can’t imagine the fact that they had been pushed into killing others. Just the idea of it makes me feel sick.
Just the fact that people my age used to get through all that is absolutely disgusting.
Mom has got a very light sleep, she wakes up with every small noise, I guess that’s because of trauma.
I walk down the stairs, trying to be as quiet as possible. I really don’t want to wake anyone, especially my parents. Unfortunately the stairs make a cranky noise with every step. I’m tiptoeing and still, the noise is quite loud.
Our house is very old, probably one of the oldest in the whole district, because they bombed the others.
When I finally get to the first floor I walk calmly to the kitchen. I want to get some cookies or something to eat before I go to the woods. My parents never let me go there by myself because once when I was 11 I brought nightlock thinking they were some completely harmless berries. Luckily I didn’t eat any of them.
I walk through the kitchen trying to find the cookie jar. It must be somewhere around…
I hear some steps, for a second I think it might be mom, but the steps are too light and carefree, it must be my younger brother, Rye.
Rye’s the definition of a dumb blonde, mainly because he’s dumb and well, blonde. His barely 12 and he already thinks that he's the boss. Just because he has inherited dad's good genes. He sometimes mentions to me casually that another girl has asked him out, knowing perfectly that I've never had a boyfriend. He's popular in his grade, whilst I'm not. I've got my closed group of friends and that's it. He's an absolute hearttrob, my mom always says that he reminds them of Finnick Odair, another victor. He was very close to both of my parents, but he died. I've met Annie a lot of times and their son. He's much older than me, he's like 30 and I'm barely 15. Finn has always been like a cousin for me, even though when I was younger I had a massive crush on him. I used to follow him around everywhere and that still costs me endless jokes every time we reunite.
Rye opens the door and I see a small silhouette in the dark hallway.
“Huh” he muses, his brows rising. “Gotcha”.
“Just let me go, I have to go pick some flowers for mom, okey?” today is mom’s birthday by the way, May 18th.
“Yeah, sure” he says ironically. "In our backyard?"
I know he won’t believe me no matter what I say, so I just confess: “Okay, I am going to the woods, but don’t tell dad or mom."
“What will you do in exchange?” he asks. I give him a confused glance. “What about doing my chores for um… two weeks?”
“Two weeks!?” I exclaim trying to keep my voice down, that’s too much. “What about a week?”
“Da…!!!” he starts screaming. “Shhh, what about 10 days?” I suggest, this must be enough.
“Okay” he accepts. I look one more time in a drawer and see a piece of vanilla cake, I wrap it in toilet paper and put it in a basket.
My plan is to visit Haymitch first to tell him that I’ll go on a walk with geese. Maybe he’ll come with me and we can get some flowers for mom, maybe some that are edible to decorate the cake my dad will make for her. Haymitch is the only one that approves my trips to the woods.
He was my parents' mentor in the games and now he’s practically my grandpa. Both my biological grandpas died long before I was born. My dad’s mother also died a long time ago. My maternal grandma barely visits. She can’t stand being here, and I kind of understand it. Yet we visit every summer, because she lives in 4 and there are so many great beaches there. That's when we spend time with Annie and her son. Sometimes even Johanna is there, another victor.
I like to do most of the things during the morning, I like to do my chores before school begins, I feel a lot more productive. It’s still 5:45 AM, so it’s still dark outside. Dad will wake up around 6 AM and the cake will be ready before mom wakes up, which will be 7:30 AM more or less. And I must be at school around 8:30. It definitely will be a long morning for me, I have to get home around 7:15, so I’ve got an hour and half to do everything.
I reach Haymitch’s house in less than a minute because he lives next to us. I knock on the door and I don’t get any answer. I open the door and find him laying on the couch. He has an empty bottle of white liquor next to him. He often gets himself drunk, especially on specific dates like this one.
He never gets violent yet. He just stumbles and tells more stories about her dead girlfriend, Lenore Dove. These stories are infinite, he remembers every single detail about her. I love to hear them, he talks in such a beautiful way about her.
He’s the only person that calls me and my brother by our covey names, mine is Willow Puce and my brother’s is Rye Blue. I have Covey roots, it turns out that my great grandma was a Baird and Lenore Dove was also a Baird, so we are kind of related.
Haymitch had insisted on putting us covey names to preserve their culture. My parents agreed, however our names are not a hundred percent covey, because I’m not named after a girl in a song, just after a song that goes:
Deep in the meadow
Under the willow
Mom used to sing me this song when I was much much younger.
The second name is just a color, puce. It’s a pinkish color, just more pale. I believe(because of what I’ve heard here and there) that this color was my dead aunt Prim’s favorite color, and that they put me that because they wanted me to also have a part of her in me, but that's just a conspiracy I've made.
We don't talk about her a lot. My mom gets very sensible and she hates to cry in front of us. Dad is the one that explained me how she died on the war. He also saw the bomb drop.
I also got a third name, Rue. Rue was a district 11 tribute in the 74th games, who was an ally to my mom. She really loved her. I’ve got two last names, both Mellark and Everdeen, they didn’t want us just to be Mellark kids, they also wanted us to be Everdeens.
I try to make noise with my footsteps so Haymitch wakes up, however it doesn’t work.
“Haymitch” I say while shaking his arm. He moves a little. “Haymitch” I repeat. He opens one eye. “I’m going on a walk to the woods, will I take the geese with me?”
“No… I’ll go later… I’ll meet you in the lake” he responds, dragging the words. I nod and head out.
The sun is just starting to rise. I walk past the old fence, they didn’t remove all of the pieces of it, however they haven’t got any electricity anymore. The sky is turning a beautiful peach shade. It’s so beautiful. I know this place like the palm of my hand. I whistle the four notes mom taught me years ago. Rue had taught her this. The mockingjays pick it up and sing it.
I’ve got the luck that these birds stop to listen to me. They don't do that with all the people apparently. Once some years ago, I insisted that dad tried. He sang a bit of a song and the mockingjays refused to emulate the song. My mom and I laughed and laughed until our stomachs hurt. Rye has also tried and failed. He must've inherited our parents beauty, however I'm the one that has inherited the voice.
I climb a huge oak tree to admire the beauty of this scene better. Up here everything is much more magical, I hold into the tree tightly and look at the orange sky. The temperature starts getting warmer making me sweat because of the thick sweater I’m wearing. So I get back down and take it off.
I continue with my journey. I pick some flowers on the way, not for my mom, but for the Covey girls. Their gravestones are in the meadow and I always like to stop by and put some fresh flowers on them in Haymitch's name, because he finds it difficult to walk so much. On the woods I mostly find some primroses and dandelions, however I can’t find any extremely beautiful or unique flowers. Maybe I’ll find some katniss in the lake, but those are for my mom, she’s named after them.
That’s when something catches my attention, in a corner, there are roses. White roses, something I had never seen around here. They aren’t usual here. I try to pick up one, but one of its thorns stings me.
“Auch,” I complain. I lick my finger, trying to make the wound stop bleeding. I immediately taste the blood. Metallic. Ew.
The rose smells artificial and intense, this is definitely not a normal rose. There's something about them that I find extremely creepy. They are too perfect, too fake. I remember something mom had told me once, about the flowers Snow left, roses, white roses exactly.
I start running, scared. I feel his presence on me, is his ghost haunting me? I always feel like there are ghosts in this forest, once I read about them in a poem and now I can’t stop thinking about them. Haymitch also believes in them, especially because that means that he gets to spend more time with the presence of his girl.
My parents don’t, I think that it is because if they did they would have too many ghosts following them. I know that sometimes they still feel responsible for the deaths that happened in the war, because the kids that might've died in their hands whilst mentoring for the games, died in a bombing caused by rebel actions. So, I think that some of them had decided to haunt me instead. There’s one ghost in particular that I think follows me.
It’s Lucy Gray’s ghost. My parents definitely had nothing to do with her tragic death. I have always been very curious about her, but we barely know anything about her. They collected some information about her, years ago, but it’s barely anything.
Haymitch once saw footage of her singing and a boy that he thinks might be Coriolanus Snow was beside her. The rest of the things were told by Tigris Snow, Coriolanus’ cousin, a complete rebel and a fashion icon. Now they celebrate a fashion week twice every year in her honor, but I'll talk about it later.
Apparently Snow and Lucy Gray had something going on between them. One day they escaped the district and Snow came back, but Lucy Gray never did. They found her dead. She had been shot in her ribs and arm. I wonder who could’ve been the killer, I think ironically.
That’s everything we know about her, which is basically nothing.
I keep running from Snow's ghost, when I trip with something and fall to the ground. There’s something weird here. I’ve never been so clumsy and I think I’ve been haunted by ghosts, but never like this. I can still smell the roses and taste the blood. I’m probably overreacting but this is very very weird.
I get up and pick my basket again. I walk carefully, I think I’ve sprained my ankle. My foot fails with every step I take. So I decide to sit above a tree and eat the cake. I take a bite of the cake and taste the sweet flavor instantly.
I hear some steps but I figure out that it will be a wild animal like a bunny or fox. They won’t hurt me. The steps approach me, they don’t sound like animals anymore, they are heavy and rhythmic. Is it the actual ghost? No, that’s totally impossible, ghosts are just souls, not actual bodies.
It must be Haymitch, even though I can’t hear the geese and he doesn’t even take this way, it’s too long for him.
I get up slowly whilst hiding behind the tree.
Suddenly I hear a weird noise, something like an arrow in full speed, coming right at my head, luckily I react fast and the arrow doesn’t hit me.
It goes straight into the trunk of a tree.
Did someone just try to shoot me?