Kindred

Chapter One

A/N: So this is a sample chapter of a project I'm going to be working on over the summer once my exams are over. I'm posting it now to gauge your reaction and test whether it's worthwhile to continue or not. All feedback is welcome, even criticism if it is posed in a nice way. No flames please!

Disclaimer: I don't own the Hunger Games. Or the cover art for this story. That right goes to leftlone from Wattpad. They have an awesome page and are crazy talented! You should check the page out. I'd link it but usually links don't come up right on here :)

Sorry about any typos, this is a sample chapter, after all!

Kindred

By Blueberrychills94

Chapter One

Katniss lay on her bed, just as she did every day. Cocooned in her duvet, she was safe. Safe from the harshness of the outside world; of the ache she felt every time she moved; of the agony that consumed her every time she thought of how alone she was. She stared at her door, a rectangular outline in the gloomy darkness of her room. Soon, she'd have to get up. She promised Haymitch that if she got out of bed and showed him that she was making an effort to live then he wouldn't break her door down and move into the spare bedroom next door.

She was free six months now. The rebellion ended and her so called 'shackles' were broken. Katniss never felt free, even when she wasn't slung into prison for Coin's murder. She was still chained. Bound by the things she had done. The things she had seen; heard; said . . . caused. Her bindings were unbreakable. She simply had to shuffle through life with her invisible bondage and wait for the day that she could be with Prim again. Because that was all she wanted. To be with Prim again.

Katniss heaved herself off her bed. Her skin, tight and scarred from the fire that blazed in the darkness of her nightmares still, protested in pain. Every time she moved a muscle, it felt like her skin was going to rip open again, blood flowing and sizzling like it had done that abhorrent day. The Capitol was gone. There was no longer such thing as body polish to rid her of her wounds. Not that she wanted rid of them. She needed the scars as a reminder of what she had done. Of what she deserved.

There were two excuses for Katniss to get up. One was to eat. If she didn't eat, Greasy Sae would break into her room (what was the obsession with breaking into her house anyway?) and drag her downstairs by her ear. Between Greasy Sae and Haymitch, it seemed that not everyone thought the same way as Katniss. Where she thought her life was worthless, they believed she still had reason to live. Katniss wished she knew this reason. Maybe if she knew this reason she'd think she could try to live again. But she didn't.

Greasy Sae was in the kitchen, as she was every day, making stew. The old woman claimed that Katniss had to put meat back on her bones, as the days before Greasy Sae had returned from District 13, Katniss had tried to starve herself out. Well, she hadn't tried to starve herself intentionally. She just didn't think to eat. Those were the days she lay in bed without any reason to rise. The days where she didn't see a reason for anything. At least now she had some reasons. Two of them. Two was better than none.

"How are you doing today, girl?" Greasy sae asked as she saw Katniss approach from the living room.

"Alright." Katniss winced as she sat on the stool across from where Greasy Sae was cooking. The elderly woman glanced at her and tsked, knowing that Doctor Aurelius had sent Katniss painkillers imported from what used to be the Capitol. Painkillers she wasn't taking.

After the rebellion ended, the rebels overtook the Capitol. The Citizens weren't punished. Katniss could easily see President Coin ordering the execution of all Capitol Citizens just because they were . . . well, Capitolites. But it wasn't their fault that they were born in the Capitol which Plutarch-who was voted by the people for the people in Panem's first ever democratic vote-saw. In a way, Katniss was glad that she killed Coin. The more she pondered the Hunger Games for the Capitol children, the more she realized how barbaric it was. It would have made her no better than Snow himself . . .