Rue - Death On Her Brithday

100 FanFic Challenge - The Hunger Games
Theme 1 - Birthday

Today is her birthday. Rue's. We all gather around the small table in our home, the whole family, and cut into a tiny cake. We had worked hard to get the money for the cake and even had paid extra to have Happy Birthday Rue written on the top in red icing. We celebrate, even though she isn't here with us. Thirteen she is today. A teenager. I wonder if she even knows what day it is today. Where she is right now, in the arena. A tribute in the Hunger Games. Does she know that today is her birthday?

"Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you..." My family sings and I am the only one not joining in. Its all I can do to think back to her, the last time I saw her. At the Reaping.

"Rue Soma." The escort called out and I watched my sister tremble as she walked up the stage. Standing beside the male tribute, Thresh, she looked like a little rag doll. The reality in our minds was ever so present in her's too. She was going to die and we all knew it. Rue, there was no way she could survive the Hunger Games.

But yet, she was still alive. On the Ninth Day of the Hunger Games Rue was still alive. She had survived the Bloodbath, avoided the careers searching for victimes and managed to gain an ally. She was still alive.

"Should we check on Rue?" One of my younger sisters asks. Dani. She is only five but she knows enough about the Hunger Games to know that Rue is probably going to die. Some of us had wanted to not watch today, to avoid it as long as possible. We all sat in another room while our TV was forced on by the Capitol. We didn't want to watch it today. But the temptation was great, knowing she was going to risk her life today to blow of the Careers supplies. It was an important part of the games and there was another chance she wouldn't survive.

"I am going to go watch." I say, moving into the next room. Dani grabs my hand and follows after me, sitting in my lap when I sit on the floor. Rue is the one shown on the screen, lighting a fire which is shown to capture the attention of the careers. They move towards the smoke. It is obvious that this is just a trap, to the viewers anyway. Rue moves off at a run, ready to light a second fire which has already been set up. When that one is done she moves to the third.

He is waiting there. To intercept her. The boy from District 1. Marvel.
The net traps her and she screams for Katniss. The girl on fire.
The spear enters into her stomach. I scream and so does Dani, burying her head in my chest. Katniss shots the boy and he dies.But Rue is dying too. Her life about to end.

"Deep in the meadow, under the willow,
A bed of grass, a soft green pillow
Lay down your head, and close your sleepy eyes
And when again they open, the sun will rise"

Katniss is singing, but the song soon ends. She is crying too and I struggle not to even though I know the tears will brim over my eyes in a momment. The cannon still hasn't sounded and I can see her chest fluttering ever so slightly. Rue. She has seconds left. My sister. my big sister.

My family is crying. My mother is crying on my Fathers shoulder and he is sobbing himself. We never expected this to happen. Not today. Not on the one day that Rue had always love. It was the day she felt worth and felt special. It was her day, the one day nothing could take away from her. Except for death. Death had stolen it from her.

"Happy Birthday to me..." She whispered, so low that the girl on fire didn't even hear it. That was when I cried, the cannon sounding less then a second later.

Rue had known what day it was.
I almost wished she hadn't, because she then know what Death had stolen from her.
Rue. My big sister.
I cried now that she was gone.