A.N. Edited (finally) to omit song lyrics. Thank you to all those who reminded me to quit procrastinating and get that done.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games

The day was cloudy. Overhead floated thin gray clouds that coated over the blue sky but allowed a glow of light to enter the atmosphere. A hole in the film was visible, letting in light. The light was a gift from above to the people below. They had suffered through days of rain and darkness. Now there was light above their little town, drying the dew that never dried and warming the skin that never warmed.

A little girl sat in the meadow. She was nearly hidden by the flowers that rose up around her in puffs of the soft color of wildflowers. In her hands was a worn piece of rope about the length of her forearm. She kept tying and untying it, practicing intricate knots that seemed to always end up a little lopsided or jumbled. Eventually, she settled on making a necklace.

That's when she began to sing. The lyrics were calming and familiar. She didn't really understand them, those words about a tree where a man murdered three. The words repeated about the strange things that happened there, about how it wouldn't be any stranger if they met there at midnight.

There was a boy nearby, younger than the girl. He toddled around on stubby child's legs, parting the tall grasses with his short fingers. He appeared to be looking for something, the way he kept turning his head and craning his neck as he tottered through the flowers. Looking for something, someone…the girl.

He knew she was near when she began to sing, because the mockingjays in the trees surrounding the meadow stopped singing when they heard her, listening to the girl as they had always done for her mother and her grandfather.

He followed her voice as she continued about the dead man who called out for his love to flee. Again she sang about the strange happenings beneath the so-called Hanging Tree. The boy had found her by the time the verse was finished.

"Wren," he whined softly.

The girl—Wren—looked up from her rope necklace, her fingers paused and her eyes focused. "Yes, Ash?"

"What does that mean? The song?"

Wren shrugged. "I heard mommy sing it once."

Mommy. Katniss Everdeen, survivor of two Hunger Games and a battle with the Capitol. To hear her be called 'mommy' seemed too innocent, too gentle a term. It more suited her sister, Prim. Prim…

"Keep singing," Ash requested quietly.

Wren nodded silently. She sang about the man telling someone to run. About the strange things. About wearing a necklace of rope side-by-side with him. About the strange things. The boy swayed slightly to the words, mouthing a few of them as they came to him.

The two children listened for a while as the mockingjays repeated the melody to each other. The clouds were slowly shifting together, and the sunshine was coming to a close. Ash leaned back to watch the clouds, letting the sun warm his face before it disappeared again. Eventually, the gap of blue was gone, shrouded by the puffs of gray. As Wren finished her necklace, Ash broke the birdsong.

"Did he die? The song guy?"

Wren looked down at her necklace of rope. Wear a necklace of rope side by side with me…the hanging tree.

Maybe she was too young to understand and it was all simply a coincidence. But the girl stood up, dusting the grass off her red gingham dress, running her fingers through her dark hair, and tossed the rope over her shoulder.

"Let's go home," she said, grabbing the little boy's hand and leading him through the flowers towards Victor's Village.

The rope landed on a branch hanging over the graveyard of District 12.