WAY DOWN WE GO

CHAPTER ONE: NOBODY

KATNISS wished she could've acted surprised when she saw the image of the former president's granddaughter on the TV.

She wished she could've turned the TV off and pretended she'd never seen the girl. But that wasn't possible.

She was coming to get them. And Katniss had been expecting her.

Peeta had been ignoring the signs, ignoring the news. He'd been trying his hardest to focus on the better aspects of life, such as their children.

He had tried his hardest to keep the news of Prue and Rye's existence to a minimum, but, as the former Mockingjay had given birth not once, but twice, it had made headlines.

Which didn't exactly leave the people of Panem with the impression that Peeta and Katniss had no children to offer if another Hunger Games were to present itself upon the country.

Prue, the oldest of the two children, looked most like her mother. With thick brown hair that fell down her back, a matching set of brown eyes, and a light tan, everyone would know whose child she was.

Her birthday was to come in the following week, she would be turning seventeen, a number Katniss almost cried at the mention of. Her little girl was almost all grown up, and all she could do was hope she made it to her eighteenth birthday.

Rye, on the other hand, was almost identical to his father. With the same brown-streaked blonde hair and the same mindfulness towards others, Katniss almost didn't believe he was her son.

Oftentimes she wondered how Peeta had managed to so effortlessly clone himself.

She held back a snicker.

She couldn't have been happier about the way her two children had turned out so far. She loved them with everything in her, and she knew Peeta did too, despite the fact he often asked her if her love for him was still real.

It broke her heart.

"Prue, honey, would you come downstairs for a moment?" She called up from the sitting room. Rye was currently outside with his father constructing something he'd mentioned earlier. What had it been? If she remembered correctly it was a small windmill of sorts.

"Coming!"

Katniss stared at the wall for a moment before her eyes shifted with the movement of her daughter coming down the stairs.

"Yes?"

Her mother could only smile at her and pat the spot next to her on the couch, "I just wanted to look at you."

Prue's brow furrowed at her mother's comment, "Why would you want to just look at me?"

Her mother smiled, "Because you're mine."

The sound of the door swinging open was what tore Katniss' eyes away from her daughter, Rye's face was a light shade of red and Peeta chased after him into the house with matching smiles pulling on both of the boys' lips.

She smiled.

These were the things she'd miss most.

With a small sigh, she turned to gaze upon Prue again.

"You'll always be my little girl," she smiled. Prue responded with a small upturn of her lips and made her way back up the stairs.

Katniss' heart felt heavy as she watched her disappear upstairs. Spending time with Prue had been so much easier when she was younger, before she'd grown a spirit of her own and learned things no mother would ever wish their child learned of.

After a bit, the house quieted.

The children had gone to their rooms and the two victors were the only ones downstairs.

"Peeta?" Katniss quietly called. Within seconds Peeta's head popped around the wall separating the kitchen from the dining room, "yes?"

She gestured for him to sit beside her at the table with a light wave of her hand.

"What's wrong?"

Katniss shook her head as Peeta sat, "she's been appearing in the news more and more."

His brow furrowed, "you can't possibly be worrying about her, she's remained passive for so long now."

Katniss turned her head to meet his gaze, tears had sprung to the edges of her eyes and threatened to fall down her cheeks at any given moment.

"She's going to take them, as punishment, I know it."

He shook his head, "Katniss-"

"Don't," she began, she'd placed her hands on the table in front of her and stared at him, "you know it just as well as I do, she's going to take them."

She took a breath, "She's going to take Prue, Finn, she's going to take them all to punish us, and then when she's done, she'll let us live with it."

Peeta grabbed Katniss' hands and held them in his own, "but she hasn't, so there's no point in worrying over it. And even if she did, she'd have a whole nation rioting against her, do you think she'd risk that for some sort of sick revenge?"

Katniss nodded her head, "I do, she's a Snow."

Peeta tried his best to muster a smile, "We can talk about this tomorrow."

This time Katniss shook her head and pulled her hands out of his, "you don't get it, do you?"

She stood and took a step back from the dining table, "she is going to kill them," she gestured towards the stairs, "she is going to kill the two children we have tried so hard to protect."

The tears that had been waiting to trickle down her cheeks now did so, they came down in hot streaks and slid down her chin, "I won't let her," she rubbed her hands across her cheeks to dry them, "not again."

Peeta sighed, "Katniss, there's nothing we can do right now, not when she hasn't placed her piece on the board, we have to wait."

Standing on the seventh step from the bottom, Prue leaned herself forward to catch the rest of her Parent's conversation, "We can't stay here."

"Where else can we go?"

"Into the woods."

Peeta scoffed, "into the woods? As if that isn't the first place they'd look for you, you'd practically be asking for them to find you."

"They wouldn't find us, we'd cover our tracks."

Prue began moving up the stairs as she sensed the end of her parent's conversation and stopped as the twelfth step creaked, she'd forgotten about that one.

Both Peeta and Katniss craned their necks towards the stairs just as Prue finished her ascent and bolted into her room.

Peeta quickly looked back to Katniss, "Now you're going to have her up thinking about it."

Katniss sighed, "I'll sleep out here tonight."

Peeta frowned, "No, you'll sleep in the bed like you always do, there's no sense in sleeping on the couch when we're not even arguing."

With her door cracked, Prue breathed a sigh of relief as her parents quietly reconciled over their disagreement. But still, her mother's words hung over her head.

Would they really take her?

Were they going to kill her?

She didn't know how to take that.

She'd never hurt anyone, or upset anyone, so why would anyone want to do such a thing to her?

She didn't understand.

But she would.

Much sooner than she would have ever hoped.

When Prue finally did go to bed, the T.V. out in the living room quietly buzzed with life. Despite the side he'd taken earlier against Katniss, Peeta was browsing through the few select channels they had trying to see if President Snow's granddaughter appeared in anything.

If he was being honest, he was just as terrified as Katniss.

He just didn't want to believe it.

After browsing for a bit he'd come up with nothing and determined all was well, he'd go to bed now and hopefully, the topic wouldn't come up again.

He hated imagining a future like that for his children. A world like theirs, a world of torment, death, pain, grief, and heartbreak. He hoped they never had to experience such things.

Disappearing into his bedroom, Peeta didn't hear the T.V. as the news quietly buzzed across the screen.

"With the assassination of Former President Paylor, I am excited to announce that the council has voted in favor of a seventh sixth hunger games, in the best interest of capitol residents, tributes will be chosen from the pool of pre-existing victor's children."

When the family woke the following morning, the crackling of the T.V. was the first thing to greet them.

"We're live outside of the Snow Manor this morning after last night's announcement, citizens are outside the gates hoping they'll be heard."

Katniss frowned as Peeta slid his arm over her shoulder, "many are wondering how tributes will be drawn from the districts with no victors, or victors who do not have children, and we have been given our answer."

"Tributes? Peeta, what is she talking about?"

He shook his head and let his arm fall from her shoulders, "I'm not sure, I checked last night and nothing was happening."

Leaning on her forearms against the top of the couch, Katniss watched the T.V. with a sickening intensity, "the districts with victors that have no children will offer their records and allow a descendant from a previous victor to be reaped."

Katniss and Peeta shared a horrified look, "Haymitch," Katniss breathed out, her lungs felt as if they'd turned to stone, as if they were dragging her down to the bottom of the ocean.

A sudden wave of realization hit her and her head whipped around to meet her daughter's gaze. Prue stood on the stairs, her hair messily drawn into a ponytail, her hands shaking against the staircase railing as she watched the T.V. from her spot.

"Prue," Katniss' voice trembled and she took a step toward her daughter, "they're going to take me like you said."

Katniss shook her head, "No, I- I won't let them."

"Katniss," Peeta began. She turned her head back to the T.V. a gasp leaving her lips as she took in the images.

Dead bodies, both young and old, littered the streets of the capital, blood stained the concrete and they watched as the camera panned to soldiers holding off small crowds.

People were beginning to back down from their short revolt, it was then that Katniss realized they never stood a chance against Snow's granddaughter. She'd been waiting, and they'd been complacent in waiting for her.

They had sentenced their child to death.

A sob escaped from Katniss and she leaned against the couch for support, "no," she cried out, "No, they can't take her," she reached for Peeta and grabbed his forearms, "They can't."

Slow tears trickled from Peetas eyes, he didn't want to cry, he knew he needed to be strong and reassure her everything would be fine, but it wasn't. And it wouldn't be.

"Mommy?"

Katniss froze, she'd forgotten about Rye.

Her expression shifted from one of fear to horror, would they take him? He was only eleven, but if not him, who else would be the male tribute for district twelve?

"Baby," she turned around and extended her arms out to Rye. When he came into her embrace she tucked a hand into his hair and lifted him as she stood.

"What's wrong?" He questioned, Katniss smiled and shook her head, "nothing is wrong," she lied. Rye reached his hand to his mother's face and rubbed at her cheeks in a sweet attempt of drying her tears.

"Why are you sad?" He asked, Katniss shook her head, "It's nothing," she murmured, she smoothed his hair beneath her hand and watched as Prue moved from the stairs into her father's arms.

"God," Katniss breathed out, she gently bounced with Rye in her arms and slowly bounced in a circle until she was facing Peeta.

She could only shake her head as new tears formed against her lashes, Prue shifted away from her father and gazed at the T.V. "Due to the suddenness of the games, descendants of victors under the age of eighteen will be collected within the following hours."

WAY DOWN WE GO

CHAPTER ONE: NOBODY