Johanna Mason had been very young when she first came to Frader Moros' house. Her parents had both died and it was only he who had offered to take her in. Frader had been praised by his neighbours for his charity and kindness, but nothing is ever as it seems. Behind closed doors Frader was a cruel and lazy drunk who wanted Johanna simply so he would have a maid and later, a source for tesserae. To everybody else, Johanna appeared to be nothing more than a quiet and helpful child, but truthfully, upon becoming an orphan Johanna's childhood had quickly slipped away and her dreary existence begun.
A chilling wind swept through the house freezing Johanna to her core. Forcing herself out from underneath her thread-bare sheet, which offered little protection from the winter mornings, she slipped on her coat and shoes. Treading quietly across the room, so as not to wake Frader, Johanna walked towards the fireplace. The fire had obviously gone out a while ago and there was no hope of reviving it without lighting another. Her ice cold hands longed for the welcoming heat of a naked flame, but it would take more than simply longing for that to happen. She knew that Frader would throw a rage if he woke up and saw she had let the fire go out, so, grabbing the edges of her coat and hugging it to her body, she slipped out the door and headed towards the woodpile.
The sun had only just begun to rise over District 7 as Johanna made her way towards to small stack of wood. She would have to be more careful next time, she thought to herself, to not let the fire go out or else they would run out of wood before winter was over. The passing thought made her let out a small humorous snort as she looked up at the acres upon acres of woods that lay ahead of her. There were hundreds of trees just waiting to be cut down and turned into fire wood, after all they were the lumber district of Panem. However, the trees weren't theirs. They were the Capitols trees and anyone caught stealing from the Capitol, even if it was just some fire wood, was brutally killed by the Peace Keepers that controlled the 12 Districts of Panem with an iron grip. The name Peace Keepers was full of lies and deception. They weren't there to keep the peace; they were there on behalf of the Capitol to keep them in line. To squash any sign of rebellion; to crush the spirits of those in the districts; and to protect everything that the Capitol claimed to own, through whatever means necessary. She knew first hand that their threats of punishment and death were not in anyway empty as she had seen countless people who had chosen to take the risk of being caught for stealing rather than sitting idly helpless and either starving or freezing to death, be publically executed. The head Peace Keeper of District 7, Keres Caerus, had a sickening obsession with experimenting with and discovering all the different methods one could use to kill a man. He would use any excuse to condemn a man to death simply for his own pleasure. In district 7, if you put so much as a toe out of line, you might as well hang yourself and get it over and done with as painlessly as possible rather than wait for what Keres had in store for you. Ignoring the images of mangled bodies hanging from trees that flashed through her head Johanna finished gathering wood and went back inside the house to start the fire.
The rest of Johanna's day proceeded just like any other. A few hours of school where they learned about the different trees and their uses, followed by the usual hour of Capitol propaganda, disguised as History. For as long as she could remember, the school had taught them about how the malicious district rebels had risen up against their kind Capitol, who in the end had triumphed in a classic tale of good versus evil. And, for as long as she could remember, minus 3 minutes and 45 seconds (the exact time it took from the beginning of Johanna's first ever history class for her history teacher to begin praising the glorious and caring Capitol) Johanna had dismissed the history lessons as part truths manipulated and twisted until nothing but lies remained. Everyone on the district knew this about the history lessons, but to talk about it was to question the Capitol, which was considered treason; and treason, as Keres loved to eagerly point out, was punishable by death. So, like everybody else, Johanna kept her opinions on the history classes to herself.
After school, all the children trudged into the forest for 'work experience' or more accurately, free child slave labour. There were only a few main occupations in District 7 ranging from carpentry to lumberjack. Everyone went into their family's occupation, unless you had a special talent for another. Johanna had known a few artistic children from load pulling families who had grown up to become carpenters. Johanna had no talents though and so she went out to the woods to help cut down the trees, just as her parents had done before they died. It was a hard job working in the woods and, as a rather small and weak child, she wasn't very good at it. But nonetheless she loved it. The satisfying crack and swoosh a tree made as it fell to the ground after she had poured all of her sweat and energy into felling it was what Johanna lived for. That afternoon, after finishing her daily quota of trees she turned to look and see if Frader had bothered to turn up for work. He had come from a lumber jack family too and was usually a good worker, but, every now and then, he would waste away a day at the black market, spending all of his money on illegal booze and drinking until he could barely remember his own name. On these days, it was up to Johanna to fulfil his quota. With there being no sign of him, Johanna let out an exhausted sigh and kept on working.
As the sun began to sink behind the distant hills the Peace Keepers who supervised their work came around to collect in the axes. Johanna handed hers to an elderly man with a cold face who she recognized but whose name she did not know, nor cared to know. She knew all of the Peace Keepers by face but only a few by name. But as she made her way home, she spotted one collecting in the axes who she had never seen before. He was quite young and had a soft face that she knew would harden over time, just like it had for all the others. A small swirling tattoo at the corner of his right eye told her that he was from the Capitol, rather than District 2 like all the others, which was a little odd but not too unusual. She quickly dismissed the boy from her mind though as she walked, as he was of no consequence to her, and she needed to get home quickly to prepare the food for Frader for when his money ran out and his cup ran dry, leaving him nothing else to do but drag his sorry drunken self home.
It was well into the night before the door banged open and Frader drunkenly stumbled through it. Johanna quickly poured some stew she had made into a bowl and placed it on the table for him. With a crooked smile he slumped into his chair and lifted the bowl to his lips. Inwardly groaning, Johanna turned away. It disgusted her when Frader was this drunk. She walked over to his bed to prepare it so that she could easily help him into it before he passed out as he usually did. As she pulled down the blankets she felt a hand creep around her waist. Whipping around she turned to face Frader. He brought his red face close to hers, the stench of alcohol on his breath making her almost choke.
"You've been so good to me little Johanna", he whispered in her ear. "You've taken such good care of me".
Johanna nervously tried to wriggle out of his grasp but his hold on her only tightened. "I suppose though I shouldn't call you little Johanna any more because you're not quite as young as you were when you first came to me. Indeed, you're practically a woman now". His gaze wandered from her face to the rest of her body and Johanna began to panic as he pulled himself closer to her. She had never seen him like this before when he was drunk.
"You should probably get to bed" she said, frantically trying to get away from him.
"Yes, to bed, to bed" he muttered in reply, beginning to loosen his grip. For a second, Johanna's tensed body began to relax, but just as she thought she was free, his hands grabbed at her once more. Before she could give a shout of protest his mouth covered hers. His tongue pushed through her surprised lips and she could taste the bitterness of the alcohol from his mouth. She tried to pull away, but he pushed her against the wall trapping her against his body. His wandering hands crept under her shirt, the coldness of them burning her skin. As much as she struggled, she couldn't escape. One hand came up and cupped her breast while the other slipped down and began to undo her trousers. She tried to let out a scream but his tongue pressed against the back of her throat suppressing it. Frader placed both hands around her waist as she felt the string of her trousers come free. Pushing her harder against the wall so that his heavy frame held her up, his hands slipped down her body and although she kicked and thrashed there was nothing she could do to stop him. Johanna clenched her eyes shut and tears welled in them as she knew the horror that would come next.