Remembering The Fallen [Ems/Dee]

The Earth was hard when I collided with it. My family was there to greet me, but I felt like I had been born again as I propped myself off the ground and stared at their outstretched hands. So this is what it feels like to be a part of the world, I had thought to myself then. Only two years later I was starting to become accustomed to this new world, the real District 11 where the Games and death was constantly hanging over our hands. Crusader’s grave was the first part of the world I became familiar with. It was my anchor, tether, holding me to this world while I became accustomed to it and prevented me from becoming a dreamer again.

And now that the reality of the reaping had hit me like a moving train, each reaping made me realize more how easily one of my family members could be snatched away again. It hadn’t hit me when Mama passed that death was real, but seeing my brother’s name etched on that stone made me want them both back. But it also made me appreciate Harbinger even more, and I spent less time looking up to him and more time trying to be with him. I was always going to be the little brother, but that wasn’t going to stop me from trying.

I saw him leave after the Reaping ended and I followed him close behind. My steps slowed down once it became obvious where he was heading. I could see him turn his head as he tried to find the right grave, and then he kneeled in front of the stone I had stood in front of many times. Before I can move, I spot Elidor walking up to Harbinger. Elidor was my cousin but we grew up as brothers. I hadn’t seen him in a while—he had stopped coming by the house after Crusader was killed—and a part of me was unsure what to do. I swallowed my doubt and walked up to both of them, giving each a pat on the back before kneeling down. “We’re here, man,” I say to the stone face that keeps staring back at me. “All three of us are here for you today.”