They play in the Meadow. The dancing girls with the dark hair and blue and gray eyes. The boy with blond curls and blue eyes, staring at the perfection of the dandelions all around him.
When I first felt them stirring inside of me, I was consumed with a terror that felt as old as life itself. Only the joy of holding them in my arms could tame it.
The questions are just beginning. The arenas have been completely destroyed, the memorials built, there are no more Hunger Games. But they teach about them at school, and they know we played a role in them. How can I tell them about that world without frightening them to death? My children, who take the words of the song for granted:
Deep in the meadow, under the willow
A bed of grass, a soft green pillow
Lay down your head, and close your sleepy eyes
And when again they open, the sun will rise.
Here it's safe, here it's warm
Here the daisies guard you from every harm
Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true
Here is the place where I love you.
My children, who don't know they play on a graveyard.
Peeta says it will be okay. We have each other. And the book. We can make them understand in a way that will make them braver. But one day I'll have to explain about my nightmares. Why they came. Why they won't ever really go away.
I'll tell them how I survive it. I'll tell them that on bad mornings, it feels impossible to take pleasure in anything because I'm afraid it could be taken away. That's when I make a list in my head of every act of goodness I've seen someone do. It's like a game. Repetitive. Even a little tedious after more than ten years.
But there are much worse games to play.
THE END
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Pregnant In the Quell
FanfictionWhat if Katniss Everdeen fell in love with Peeta Mellark after their first games? What if before the quarter quell, she found herself pregnant with Peeta Mellark's child? In this adaption of Susanne Collin's "Catching Fire," Katniss becomes pregnant...
