Ileana: Katniss's Daughter

Chapter Two: The Secret's Out

     Haymitch and I live a stone's throw from one another. From the main road you take a left and go down this gravel road that leads into a circular cobblestone driveway. There are eight houses around the courtyard. I was told that once there were more, but there was some big storm that destroyed the town district when my parents were young and it wiped out some of the houses. Of the eight only two are occupied: Mine and Haymitch's.

     We pulled up onto the gravel driveway, and into Haymitch's garage. He led me into his kitchen, flipping on lights as we went. He pulled a soda and a beer out of the fridge and handed the soda to me. Then he sat in a chair at the table and motioned for me to do the same. I took the chair across from him.

     For several minutes he just watched me carefully, shifting positions occasionally and sighing. Finally I had had enough. "Okay Haymitch, I want answers! What is going on? What is it no one is telling me?"

     "Have you ever heard of the Hunger Games?"

     "The what?"

     "The Hunger Games? Or Maybe the Quarter Quell? No? Nothing?" He sighed heavily and rubbed his eyes with his fists. "You know the district 13 story right? How the district rebeled under the old government and it ended up being destroyed? Well, The Capital of the time decided that apart from destroying the district, it was necessary to set up a system to reinstate their power every year. They set up the Hunger Games. A boy and girl, 12 to 17, from every district was chosen. They were put into an arena and set to fend for themselves. It was a fight to the death, only one 'tribute' could win. The whole event was televised. In the 74th Hunger Games, your aunt Prim was chosen..."

     "Wait, back up....aunt? My mother was an only child? Wasn't she? And I though Papa was too."

"Oh....ah. Ileana. I'm sorry, I forget how little you know about all of this. Your mother had a sister. A little sister, Primrose, Prim for short. She was short and petite, a lot like you actually in build, only she had blonde hair." I examined my own light brown locks carefully. "Anyway, the tributes were chosen in a lottery, and Prim was  chose in the 74th games reaping, that's what they called the lottery. Your mother and Prim were very close. Katniss had spent her whole life fighting for Prim and her mother, so she took Prim's place, she volunteered. Your father, was the male tribute. Anyway, It is a very LONG story to tell the whole thing, but Peeta was in love with your mother, even then. I was a winner from a past year, and I helped your parents win. They outsmarted the system, I'll let her tell you how someday, but that isn't important right now. She and your father also got drafted for the Quarter Quell, the 75th Hunger Games, when the Capital was very angry with them and decided to draft winning tributes to play the games.

     "District 13 was working underground to overthrow the Capital and Peeta helped to get your mother out of the arena, but he got taken captive and was brainwashed to think Katniss was a horrible person. Your mother's child hood best friend, Gale, and Pirm, Mrs. Everdeen, and Your mother herself fought in a great war to get Peeta back and defy the capital. Prim was killed right before the war was won, due to a parachute bomb that Gale had invented. Your Mother saw the whole thing and she went crazy, spent weeks in the Phsyc ward and when she was released she killed a woman. But we got her back, made her sane and she and your father moved back here, to the tributes quarters. And then they had you, and they tried to leave behind their past."

     "So that's why mom is so quiet, so depressed, thats why there are all of these grand houses out here!" I spat out breathlessly.  "And that storm that destroyed the district..."

     "Wasn't a storm, more like a bombing."

     "Oh" My mind was whirling. "Wait, if all of this has to do with the Hunger Games...Oh my god...Haymitch, you said that Garel and I, that we, ohmigod, we were chosen, you said. Oh god, oh." My mind was spinning and I grew faint.

     Haymitch sighed. He leaned toward me and put his hand over mine. "The capital that was established after the war has been overthrown. Remaining followers of the government that was in power when yor parents were in the Hunger Games are back.They are putting together a New Hunger Games, they are calling it the Peace Romps. They are taking the children of past tributes and putting them in an arena. Ileana, you and garel...you are the only children from this district."

     "Garel, he's only nine! He's just a baby. They can't do this to him, to me! Haymitch, you have to be joking. this has got to be a joke. Garel, Garel. Not Garel. Please. Not me, there has to be a mistake, Haymitch."

     Another Glance at his face though proves that he isn't kidding.

     I spring from my chair and pace the kitchen. i smash my hands on the counter and scream in frustration and fear. I accdentally swipe the clutter of the counter onto the floor with my arm and break a cup. I look at the shattered an begin muttering "I'm sorry"'s to Haymitch. I kneel in the broke peices and try to figure out how to put them back together. As if fixing the cup will fix the fact that my life has just fallen apart. I cut my palm on a peice of porcealin and look down at my hand, almost surprised to see that even after all of this I can still bleed. Haymitch comes to me and picks up up out of the glass and carries me outside, across the yard and into my own home. He hands me to my father, who carries me up the stairs to me bedroom.

     Papa lays me in my bed and strokes my hair. He looks at me and says with tears welling in his eyes "I am so sorry swetheart. I love you so much"  He squeezes my hand and hurries from my room and closes the door. I hear his footstep head down the hall to the bedroom he and my mother share.

    Only when Papa is gone and his words are sinking in does the truth hit me: Garel and I are the next subjects of the Hunger Games. And we are probably going to die. I stare at theclosed door for a full minute before breaking down. I put my head in my hands and I cry.