I crashed back through the woods, following my own trail for direction. I didn't care about keeping quiet to try and find game, all I cared about was putting as much distance between me and Katniss as quickly as possible. I wish I was strong enough to never see her again. It seems like it would be so easy, just to stop showing up to hunt on a Sunday, but I still find it impossible.
Why is it that I can't walk away? Even when I tell her I love her and she just says "I know". Even when I agree to try and convince my mother to take to the woods with us, my young siblings in tow, thinking we could finally have the chance to be together only to find out she intends to take her 'fiancé' too.
Well forget about that.
If other districts are uprising then so can we in 12. We don't have to be weak and run away. In fact, when I'm down in the mines tomorrow, I'll try planting ideas of a rebellion. Every one of us hates the Capital, so I'm sure they won't take much convincing.
I'm outside my home before I remember the wild turkey I took down on my way to meet with Katniss. As we didn't need the game right now, thanks to Katniss ignoring my requests and still delivering whatever she catches, I may as well take it to Cray; he always pays well for a wild turkey.
As I begin to walk up the hill towards his house, I can't help but imagine what it would be like if there was an uprising in every district, if we managed to finally overthrow the Capital. There would be no more Hunger Games, no more innocent children sent to die; no families dying of hunger in the streets; no more peacekeepers watching every move people make. Even Cray would be gone, and the young girls he preyed on safe in their own beds at night. Smiling to myself, I knocked on his door and unhooked the bird from my belt. But when the door opened, it was not old Cray standing there, but someone new entirely.
"Who are you?" I blurted without thinking.
"Romulus Thread, new Head Peacekeeper for District Twelve. And you," he said, his eyes landing on the wild turkey in my hand, "have been poaching. Which means, as my first official act as Head Peacekeeper, I am placing you under immediate arrest."
I could feel my face go white at his words. What had happened to Cray? Actually a better question would be, what was going to happen to me now?
"How did you get the bird?" Thread demanded.
"I found it wandering in the Seam," I lied quickly, grateful that I was good at thinking on my feet, "just stabbed it with stick."
"You must know that it is a crime to poach off Capital land, even if it is without an actual weapon. And do you know what the punishment is for poaching?" he smirked.
I just shook my head. I didn't remember a Head Peacekeeper before Cray and he turned a blind eye to poaching seeing as he enjoyed fresh game as much as the rest of us.
"A whipping," he smiled, clearly getting some sort of twisted pleasure from the idea of inflicting punishment, "right in the centre of town."
I couldn't say anything in my defence. The bird was dead in my hand and I had already confessed to killing it. Before I knew it, Thread had my hands bound behind my back and was marching me towards the square. He nailed the dead turkey to a post where it could be clearly seen and turned to face the already forming, curious crowd.
"Citizens of District Twelve," he called out, "I, your new Head Peacekeeper, Romulus Thread, have caught this man with wild game, poached off the lands of the Capital."
Caught? That was a laugh. He didn't catch me, I basically stood on his doorstep and confessed with no prompting.
"The punishment for such a crime, is for the offender to be whipped. Carried out immediately!" he then turned to me with a smirk, knowing he had me trapped, "Now, do you plead guilty or not guilty?"
With the bird attached to a post above my head, it wasn't really a question at all.
"Guilty"
The word had barely left my lips before Thread stripped me of my jacket and shirt and tied my bound hands to the same post as the wild turkey.
CRACK!
The first lash struck across my cold bare skin and white hot pain immediately ran through my whole body. I thought I knew pain but wounds from hunting in the woods paled in comparison to this.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
The next three strikes fell in quick succession and I could feel small trickles of warm blood starting to run from the wounds across my back. I could hear the gasps and whispers of sympathy and anger waving through the crowd behind me and tried to suffer silently for their sake. I knew there would be more punishment coming if Thread was in charge and I didn't want to leave people even more scared.
CRACK! CRACK!
I couldn't hold back the small groan of pain that escaped my lips. The blinding heat from each lash was made worse by the sharp contrast it made against my freezing skin. I was vaguely aware of a larger and larger crowd forming behind me and I prayed to whoever was listening that my mother or siblings weren't among them.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
The last stroke fell directly along a previous one, tearing the wound deeper and making me unable to hold back a loud groan of pain. Warm blood was running down my back from what felt like every mark along my skin. 10 lashes, surely that was enough for one dead bird?
CRACK!
Another stroke fell across my back and I slumped forward against the post, my legs shaking too much from the pain coursing through my whole body to hold me up completely anymore.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
I couldn't be strong anymore. The agony radiating out from my back was too great. Groans and even almost whimpers of pain came with each consecutive lash across my skin.
CRACK! CRACK!
Why was no one even trying to resist this? I could not have stood by and watched someone get punished this way.
CRACK! CRACK!
Agony….unbearable, indescribable agony. The air around me stank of blood. My blood. I slumped to my knees, only just held upright by the rope around my wrists.
CRACK!
"It was just one wild turkey that he killed. That must be enough!"
I recognised that voice…but my brain was tinged with a blood red haze of pain. Someone from the Hob…..Darius! A peacekeeper, surely Thread would listen to another peacekeeper.
CRACK!
"He's had enough!" Darius shouted.
The next strike that I heard whistle upwards through the air never landed across my back, but I was in too much pain to even look around to see what was going on. My back felt red hot.
I head a dull thud and a ripple of shock pass through the crowd, but still I couldn't make myself turn.
The lash whistled through the air and struck my ravaged skin again. I was in too much agony to count the strikes that sliced my skin. It felt like strips of flesh was now hanging loose against my back. I couldn't help it as tears of agony welled up in my eyes. The dark red haze across my eyes grew darker and darker and with the lashes across my back approaching 30, I eventually passed out into blackness.