The Fourth Quarter Quell

Chapter One

Rue's POV

Smoke. Thick, black smoke. Choking me and crawling into my lungs. I try to stop the poison from seeping into my body, but then I see him. He's running, screaming, and beckoning for unknown soldiers behind him, still fighting their way through the smoke screen. I try to run to him, but my limbs won't respond. He's running toward a man with gray seam eyes and dark brown hair, the one I've come to know as Gale, but mother doesn't speak of him much. He made it out alive from the war, but my father didn't.

I turn my attention back to the other man. With his blonde hair and blue eyes, I immediately know that it's my father in the final moments of his life. Every inch of him looks the same as I remember. I was only 10 when he died. Cinna wasn't even born yet. All around us, the forest is on fire. Dad begins to run straight at me, with his hand reaching out for mine. Now inches away from me, I try to move toward him but my legs are still paralyzed. He makes it, he touches my arms. My Dad is a survivor. He gazes into my eyes for a moment with a loving gesture, before the flames swallow him whole.

Darkness. No sound. Pure solitude. I'm awoken by my screams, drenched in sweat. I sigh, "It was just a dream..."

Katniss's POV

My eyes flutter open and the first thing I hear is the heavy breathing of my daughter. I know she does not want to arouse me, but I get up anyway. I silently pass Cinna's room and enter Rue's. She looks up, her eyes full of tears and her clothes soaked with sweat. I run to her and wrap my arms around her saying, "Shh... It's okay, you just had a nightmare." We sit there for a few moments, just the two of us, holding on as if the unthinkable would happen if we let go.

"How do you," Rue manages to say between the sobs, "deal with seeing him die in your mind over and over again?" I don't tell her how I don't deal with it, how his arms are never there to comfort me like they should be. How I replay the scene in my mind where he left, how I should have been the one to go.

"Well, I think of happy things," I lie, "How I have you and Cinna and how happy we are together." She forces a smile. I do not want her to be strong for me. Somehow, I managed to not fall into the depressed state that my mother did when my father died. I stayed strong for my children so I don't need them being strong for me. Cinna knows what my nightmares are about. He has heard my screams and Rue's heavy breathing in the middle of the night. Rue knows of Peeta's episodes when he would grasp a chair until the flashbacks were over.

After a moment, Rue says, "Mom? Will you stay here with me?"

"Always," I murmur. We fall asleep in each other's arms with no nightmares to wake us.

Rue's POV

In the morning when I wake up, I find that my mom is gone. I sit in my bed and look out my window at the house being built next to ours. Since the change in government, the economy has greatly improved. District 12 is no longer poor. Residential area has extended to the meadow. Our house was one of the first built in the meadow and mother insisted on it being built here rather than in the town.

As the world outside gets gradually light, I decide to get ready for the day. These days, it usually takes me longer to get ready, because I want to look better than I normally do. The sole purpose being these wretched games. Soon, we'll be in the midst of "Game Season" as I like to call it. In the couple of months leading up to the games, T.V crews are more abundant and common to see. This isn't a problem for most kids, but it is for me. Being the Mockingjay's daughter, I get more media attention than the average person. During game season, the interest in our family sky rockets.

"Rue," my mother calls from down the stairs, "Cinna and I are going to the market. Would you like to come?"

"Yes! I'll be down in a second!" I answer. I quicken my pace and finish in five minutes. As I'm leaving my room, a blaring noise from the T.V stops me in my tracks. A news cast from the capitol begin to play. Along the bottom of the screen, it says Mentors? in big, red letters. Pius Flickerman appears on the screen in a plush, red seat. He closely resembles is father Caesar who my mother has met many times. Pius has taken up the same profession as his father, interviewing people for the games and other entertainment purposes.

"Welcome, everyone," he says, "We're here to talk to our head game maker, Johanna Mason. Welcome Johanna!" Johanna walks on the stage, dressed in a tailored business suit and the crowd cheers.

"So Johanna," starts Pius, "the question on everybody's mind is, who will be the mentors? Seems like it can only be answered by you."

"You're right, Pius," Johanna says, "I was thinking, that in the memory of our final year of the Hunger Games, we should bring in some special people to be mentors." She finishes with a sly smirk on her face, knowing that the audience is hanging on her every word.

"Yes..." Pius pushes.

"Oh, we were thinking that it would be nice to have a mentor with personal experience. Someone like, Katniss Everdeen."