Short story

A Story by Bhavya

The topic for the story was that it had to start with the title of my favourite book and end with the name of my favourite character. So this is the story which I wrote.

Angels and demons, light and darkness, good and evil there are two sides to everything in this world. But it’s the good that we embrace and the bad that we distance ourselves from that makes our life easier and more meaningful. But sadly it wasn’t so easy for Katniss Everdeen to forget the bad she had suffered. Parents dead when she turned 5, raised in an orphanage till the age of 8, adopted by a family who abused her till the age of 12 until one day she ran away from there. She slept for a month on roads and begged for food. People passing by used to throw some coins at her or would give her some food to eat. And all this while she would think how everything would have been different if her parents would have been alive. The memory of that day is still etched in her brain even though she was only 5 at that time. Her mother had asked her “What will my darling daughter have as a present for her birthday?” She had joyfully replied “A Barbie doll!!” Her father then had kissed her on the cheek and had exclaimed “So let’s go and buy our princess her birthday gift”

She remembered that she sat in the car with her mom and dad and they drove for a mile until everything turned black. Next time when she opened her eyes she was in the hospital. It was really difficult for the ladies at the orphanage to explain to her what death meant but after she realized that her parents had gone forever she was never the same. The abuse she suffered from the family that had adopted her scarred her for life. With some courage she ran from that place although she had nowhere to go. She had lost all hopes from life. She had made up her mind that what had happened to her was all her fault. She was convinced that she was not worthy of living. So she decided to take her own life. As she was sitting in the park she found a small knife in the garbage can and was about to cut herself when suddenly an old lady walking on the road rushed and snatched away the knife from her. Katniss tried to grab the knife from the lady but in a swift motion the lady threw that knife in a pothole. Katniss then screamed at the lady and then started crying. The lady made her sit on the bench and let her cry. After she was done the lady said “Come with me sweetie.” Though Katniss didn’t want to leave with a stranger the warm aura the lady projected overwhelmed her. The lady took her to her own house. The house was small and looked very cosy. As Katniss entered was mesmerised by the fragrance of jasmine and the homely feeling the house gave. The lady gave her a glass of milk to drink. She gulped it down in one go. Then the lady asked “Today in the park why were you trying to kill yourself?” Katniss was silent for a minute. Her heart couldn’t resist so she poured out all her feelings that she had been suppressing all these years. After she was finished the lady got up and went to her cupboard and got a picture out. She gave the picture to Katniss to see. She said “My name is Raphel .The man you see in this picture is my son. My husband had died in a car accident 5 years ago. Since that time my son has helped me in all the difficult times of my life. I had loved him a lot. You see he was in the army and last month I got to know that he had lost his life while protecting the border from militants. When I heard this I was completely shattered. I missed him so much that I had decided that I would kill myself to be with him. But during his funeral one of his comrades gave me his diary. In that he had written that how much he was proud to be serving his country as well as me. That I will get this diary when he would not be in this world and that I shouldn’t be sad about it. He gave me faith. My son was the bravest man I had ever met and he gave me hope to live. So when I saw you in the park trying to kill yourself I immediately stopped you. I saw my son in you. Giving up on life is not the solution. You have to stay strong and live your life to the fullest. I want you to give a second chance to life” After listening to this Katniss hugged Raphel. And from that moment onwards they were never apart from each other. Now she is standing in the corridor when the speaker blares “Doctor Everdeen come to room no 204 it’s an emergency”. And there she was standing and smiling to herself, ‘The Orphan who had found her home’ Katniss Everdeen.