This is my story, and not Ella's, I hope y'all like it. Please review it and tell me if I should add more. I know it's short but I wanted to leave in on somewhat of an edge to match Suzanne Collins style of writing.

Update: 8/2012 (It's been six months since I started this story and I think I've really grown as an author and that my story grew with me. Despite its shaky start, this story has an original perspective that is worth reading. Please give this story a shot!)

Disclaimer - If I owned the Hunger Games I would be sending this to my publisher not putting it here. Just saying :p

I slowly open my eyes, and I can feel a slight chill in the air. I left my window open last night. Mom is not going to be happy about that. I look out at the wide fields where I love to dance in the summer time. Autumn is coming and the fields will soon be covered in leaves. I smile as I remember what the coming of autumn means: today is mommy and daddy's wedding anniversary. Lich and I have a special surprise for them. I quietly tiptoe over to his bed and roughly shake him awake. His gray eyes look into mine, confused for a second, but then, understanding he starts up. "Did you…?" he starts to ask. I cut him off:"Shhh! Outside." We sneak outside, and then run into the woods. When we get to the shack, I pause for a minute. My mother says she used to go here often but she never wants to go again. Once I caught her grabbing the hunting bag and instead of going to her usual hunting place she silently made her way to the shack. I remember struggling to be quiet, my mother tried to teach me to hunt but I haven't inherited her soft hunter-like tread. Instead I scare away of all the game like my father. When mom got to the shack she rested on a fallen log and sat for a while. Just when I was about to turn back she began to sing a song I had never heard before.

"Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Where they strung up a man they say murdered three.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree.

Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Where the dead man called out for his love to flee.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree.

Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Where I told you to run so we'd both be free.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree.

Are you, are you
Coming to the tree
Wear a necklace of rope, side by side with me.
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met up at midnight in the -." She shudders and her shoulders begin to shake, and then without thinking I run to her side, hugging her, telling her it's OK, she's not alone.
She looks up at me and manages a shaky smile "Your right. Ready, I need to play the game. My name is Katniss Everdeen Mellark, I have the most wonderful husband in the world, the sweetest little son, and the sneakiest little daughter, who shouldn't have been following me."
Her sad and serious tone changes to a joking one at the last note. She tickles me, then pulls me close and smiles.
"I'm sorry I followed you but I wanted to make sure you wouldn't get lost. You went the wrong way." I say flashing her a winning smile.
My mom looks thoughtfully at me, "I didn't go the wrong way I just didn't go to the normal woods, I felt like going somewhere different today. I've been here a lot as a child I won't get lost, I promise."
"Did daddy go here too, when he was little?" I ask.
"No, he didn't, c'mon we better get back or Daddy will be worried" She pulls her game bag over her shoulder and we race for home. I win of course, Mom always let me win.

That night she woke up screaming. It was pitch black and at first I thought it was a wild animal but then I heard my father's soothing voice gently calming my mother and then violent sobbing replaced her screams. Her screams still ring in my head seven years later. She must have had a terrible nightmare to utter sounds like that. She wouldn't tell me or Lich what it was about, and soon we learned not to ask.
In the cool morning air, I remember that night and I wonder again, what caused that scream. I guess I'll never know.