Panem Dawn: Mockingjay Reimagined

Chapter Twenty-Four: A New Dawn

Waiting.

That is what I have been doing, for the past several hours, which eventually bled into a mostly sleepless night, and another dawn, another day. The noon of that day comes with Cassandra, delivering a few written letters to me. One from Plutarch, one from Haymitch, and one from Annie.

Cassandra looks dissaprovingly at the tray of food I had carried up to me by Henrietta earlier, with not much eaten from it. Cassandra can also tell I have barely slept, and she says to me, "Alyssa, you know that this is extremely unhealthy. You're going to have to eat something and start getting more rest, you need to get back on track. I know you've been through hell and you just lost Noah, but he wouldn't want you to give up and waste yourself away. Please, at least read the letters."

I know of course, that Cassandra is right. I knew I had to keep on living my life and getting up every morning, doing everything that still needed to be done. We wouldn't be able to take a train back to District Nine yet however, not until the trials for Katniss were over. This much I learned from what Plutarch had written to me.

Haymitch later wrote to tell me that since Katniss was going to be sent back to District Twelve thanks to a certain Dr. Aurelius determining she was in greater need of therapy than prison and they could find no further use for Haymitch in the Capitol, that he would be going back to Twelve with Katniss. Mrs. Everdeen, however, would not be going back with them. It much be too much for her to return, with her husband and youngest child gone.

And with that district nothing but ash and rubble and corpses, with only the Victor's Village left untouched, there just wasn't anything left there for her anyway. Some remaining District Twelve survivors have already been talking about rebuilding the district. But it would take time like these things always do.

So instead, as Annie wrote, Mrs. Everdeen would be relocating to District Four to begin again, a new dawn. I suppose there will be other people, like Peeta and Haymitch at least, to be there for Katniss. Commander Paylor of District Eight was sworn in as the new President of Panem, and Plutarch Heavensbee was voted and nominated to be the Vice President. I saw it on a television screen while I was still waiting for the train to come. Everyone was already taking their own steps to move on. Why was it so damn hard for me to do the same thing?

***

The day finally comes when I too, must leave the Capitol, Mace and Cassandra in tow to return home to District Nine. Sterling and Melina Linwood flatly refused to leave on the same train that I was taking. They would already have had to return to District Nine very soon after the war anyway, even if nothing had happened to Noah. But since no one in the Capitol could find anything else for them to do either, they had no choice but to get back to their regular buisness. They still took a plane back ahead of us instead of the train, to bring Noah home to begin making arrangements for a funeral. They were still so cold. But they had also just lost their son, the only child left to them. No matter how old he was or how distanced they had become.

Before I had left on my train ride home with Mace and Cassandra, Henrietta came to say goodbye. "Now, Alyssa, I hope that sometimes you'll call or write to me. It has been an honour not only to work with you these past few years, but for you to consider me as a friend. I know you may not see it yet, but you still have a whole life ahead of you. I promise you it will get better. You just have to hold on, like we all do." And we both hug after that. Then Henrietta lets me go and steps back. As I turn to step onto the train, Henrietta says to Cassandra and Mace, "You all look after one another out there in District Nine, do you hear?"

"Don't worry about a thing Henrietta. We'll make sure Alyssa doesn't do anything stupid." I overhear Cassandra answer. I suddenly feel a little bothered by what Cassandra had just said, but instead of listening to any more of what they could be saying about me, I just go and sit in an empty compartment and wait.