Prim and Punishment Chapter 1, a hunger games fanfic

"Prim and Punishment"

Chapter One

By Brian Grove

Brian at rescueddoggies dot com

Disclaimer – As I'm British and male, it may come as no surprise that I don't own Hunger Games.

This story takes place during the same time as Catching Fire and ignores both almost all of that book and Mockingjay. It is not part of my series with Tatiana.

An experienced beta would be welcome.

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Prim and Punishment - Prim and Punishment - Prim and Punishment - Prim and Punishment District Twelve, the final stop of the Victory Tour. After this, I could go home, in peace, at least until the wedding.

So I was finally beginning to relax when the last person I wanted to see arrived at the party. I was even more worried when he walked straight over to Prim. Pretending he didn't know who she was, he said, "Girl. I'm going into the office with Katniss as we have a few things to discuss. Bring us some coffee, would you?"

"Yes, Sir, President Snow, Sir," said Prim, totally shocked that the President of all Panem had just spoken to her.

As Prim left, I walked over to him. "President Snow. It's good to see you," I said.

"Now, now, Katniss. I thought we had an agreement. We don't lie to one another. It makes things so much simpler. Come with me to the office."

He obviously knew the way, even though I didn't as he led me there. "Sit down," he ordered. "How's Primrose?" he asked. "And your mother, and your... cousin."

"I'm doing everything you've asked," I replied. "You don't have to threaten them."

"Your Victory Tour was a failure. Your rebellion has cost me a small fortune. Do you have any idea how many people in the districts we had to kill to restore peace? Or how much it cost to put down the rebellions?"

I shook my head.

"Obviously you can't play the love-sick girl well enough, so it's time to destroy that image."

"You mean, I don't have to marry Peeta?" I asked, hardly able to believe it.

"Oh, no, you'll marry him, just as I ordered. You'll have children and when they are old enough, they will be reaped. You will, of course, tell nobody of this, especially your loving fiance. If you want him to live, that is."

I should have been shocked, but to be honest he was just stating what I had expected all along.

"You'll marry him, but I'm afraid he'll have to wait to enjoy his bride. I'm told you are still a virgin?"

I nodded. Where was this going?

"You will spend your wedding night with whoever bids the highest for you. It will be the same for every night after that, until your reputation is as bad as that of Finnick Odair. You will not sleep with or spend a night with your husband until you are pregnant."

Finnick Odair was a victor, notorious for his string of lovers.

"Like Finnick, you will tell nobody of our 'arrangement'. When it becomes known what a slut you are, that should end any following you may have."

"I'll have to tell Peeta," I said.

"Not even Peeta, if you want him to live."

There was a knock on the door. Prim popped her head around the door. "Your coffee, Mr. President?"

"Thank you. Put it on the table," President Snow replied.

Prim put a tray on the table, then seemed to hesitate. As she walked back towards the door, she suddenly took a knife from her sleeve and threw herself at the President, stabbing him exactly in the heart.

"You won't make my sister do that," she cried.

President Snow laughed as the blade of the knife snapped off. He grabbed Prim's wrist and forced it back until I heard a snap. She gasped with the pain.

"Foolish girl. Do you really think I would come to a district without body armor against such attacks? Now, what are we to do with you?"

"Please don't kill her," I begged. "I'll do anything."

"Kill her?" he replied. "Of course not. I can't have people thinking that it is possible to almost assassinate me. Guard!" he bellowed.

A peacekeeper came in.

"This girl tried to kill me. Take her and show her what we think of such ideas."

I stepped towards Prim to defend her.

"Interfere and she dies," President Snow said quietly.

Prim tried to put on a brave face as she was escorted out. As she left, the President called out, "She's yours for three days."

He left after that and I had to explain to our mother that Prim, Prim of all people, had tried to kill the President. Prim, who wouldn't hurt a fly, who wouldn't hunt even if she were starving, had tried to stab the President to death.

"Why?" Mom had asked.

"She heard something, but I'm not allowed to tell you."

"Tell me."

"Mom. If I tell anyone, he'll kill someone I love. Please don't ask."

Prim was returned three days later. She'd been quite badly beaten, but less than we had feared. But a light had gone from her eyes.

"Can you find out what they did to her?" Mom asked me. "She won't talk about it."

"Won't or can't?"

"I don't know."

In the days that followed several boys had tried to get her to go for a "walk" with them. When she'd refused, they'd angrily said that now she was a victor's sister, only peacekeepers were good enough for her. I could see it hurt, but she still said nothing.

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I am Katniss Everdene and I hate dress designers. Okay, normally I really like Cinna, without him I wouldn't even be alive, but right now I want to take all the dress designers in Panem and put them in an arena, and none would come out alive.

The arena. It is hard to believe that it is almost a year since Peeta and I won the 74th Hunger Games. In an act the President saw as outright rebellion I had tricked the head Gamemaker into allowing both of us to live. That example had led to a number of minor uprisings in some of the Districts, quickly crushed of course. President Snow had made it clear that for that act of rebellion, I would be punished.

This was my punishment. For the faked romance, I was to be forced to marry Peeta, a boy who loved me, but whom I did not love. Then I would humiliate him by taking a string of lovers until I was pregnant. We would raise that child only to see it die in the Arena.

I didn't doubt that Peeta loved me. I'm not sure I'm even capable of that kind of love. I had apologized over and over again to Peeta because he had to share my punishment, but he had laughed.

"Your rebellion saved my life. Now Snow's idea of punishment is that I have to spend that lifetime with you, which I've dreamed about for years. Just what are you apologizing for?"

"You deserve someone who loves you," I had responded. "I can't even fake it well enough to fool those who matter."

He just gave me that annoying smile of his.

I was brought back to the present as a pin jabbed me in the... never mind where. "Are we done yet?" I whined.

"Almost," said Cinna.

"Please tell me I'm not going to be the girl on fire this time. I don't fancy a burning wedding dress."

Truth be told, I didn't fancy ANY wedding dress, but what choice did I have? If I didn't play my part, all those close to me would die.

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Punished - Punished - Punished - Punished - Punished - Punished - Punished - Punished – Punished

My wedding was every girl's dream, and my nightmare. The only bright spot for me was seeing Prim in her bridesmaid dress. As much as I had hated being fitted for my wedding dress, she had loved being fitted for her bridesmaid's dress. The old carefree Prim returned to us, the Prim from before she was taken away, even before she was reaped. It seemed as though she had forgotten what she had heard about my wedding night as she was so excited.

I'd been allowed to choose my own bridesmaids, although it was never in doubt that Prim would be one of them. I had suggested to Cinna that I also choose Rue's sisters, his response had stunned me.

"Of course. I'll be sure to design their dresses with a target on the back."

Then I had wanted to have no bridesmaids, but Cinna would have none of it. "That would be seen as rebellion. You're expected to have Prim as your bridesmaid. Besides, she already has a target on her back just for being your sister."

I knew he was right. Some days I really wished I had eaten those berries.

Not only our wedding, but the party after it, which was held in the biggest and most luxurious hotel Panem had to offer, was being shown on live television. It was weird knowing that people were being forced to watch us have a party.

It was six weeks before the reaping for the 75th games, which would be a quarter quell. There was always some twist in a quarter quell. The first time the Districts had to vote for which children they would send to their deaths, the second time twice as many tributes were sent from each District. That was the time Haymitch won.

Now, to finish off our wedding celebration, President Snow had a young boy bring out the box, from which he picked an envelope, yellowing with age. It was clearly marked on the front with the number 75.

Opening the envelope, he read, "To remind the Districts that no matter what help they receive, they can never defeat the Capitol, each tribute will choose one brother or sister to accompany them in the Arena. If they have no brother or sister within the permitted age range, their best friend from school will accompany them. While the siblings or friends will play in the games in exactly the same way as the tributes, and may be killed in the same way as the tributes, as they are only there to help their tribute, if their tribute is killed, and the sibling or friend is still alive, the sibling or friend will be removed from the arena and returned to their District."

As a way to kill a party atmosphere, I'd say that rated right at the top. But my mind was on other matters.

A short time later, the red-haired Avox girl delivered me a note. "Is it from Snow?" I asked.

She nodded, sadly.

I opened the envelope and it. It was short and to the point. "Midnight. Room 667"

After returning from room 667, I went down to the bar, ordered a bottle of the wine Haymitch seemed to love and drank until I fell asleep.

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I was still asleep when Peeta found me in the morning. "Is the thought of being with me so bad that you had to hide all night?"

I threw up at his feet.

"Come on," he said, lifting me up like a rag doll. "I guess all that practice lifting sacks of flour was useful for something. Let's get you upstairs to bed."

He took me into the shower and partly undressed me. Pointing to a mark on my neck he said bitterly, "I see it wasn't your wedding night you were dreading, it was just being with me."

Nevertheless, he carried me to the bed and put me gently into it. Then he left the room.

The six weeks were a routine. Every night "my" Avox would hand me a note. She'd often squeeze my hand to give me the comfort I'd never given to her. I'd leave, meet my "lover"for that night, then return to the bar to drink myself into oblivion.

Peeta would find me in the morning and put me in bed where I'd sleep for most of the day. Then I'd get up, force myself to eat something and wait the next note.

At first Peeta tried to talk to me, after a while, he gave up. Slowly we drifted further and further apart. For the first time in my life I was glad when the time for reaping came around as we had to leave the Capitol to return to District Twelve.

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For this reaping, Peeta and I had to sit up the front with Haymitch while Effie did her usual over-the-top speech. She looked relieved that Haymitch didn't seem so drunk this year and didn't try to hug her.

"Girls first," she said, sounding for all the world like she was selecting the winner of some wonderful prize instead of selecting a girl to send to her death.

"And the name is," her voice faltered and she glanced at me with a genuine distress on her face which I hadn't thought her capable of. "Primrose Everdene," she finished, her celebratory tone gone.

There was absolute silence from the crowd for a few moments, then a low murmur of discontent, quickly silence by a shot from a Peacekeeper.

Prim was walking towards us, forcing herself to walk calmly and with her head held high. I was never so proud of her.

It had been for nothing. I had volunteered to save her life and now she would die anyway. I was sure this was President Snow's revenge on her. Then I remembered that a brother or sister would accompany her. That meant that I was going back into the arena.

Even though I saw the repeats of the reaping, I still remember nothing that happened after that except Prim sitting beside me and me hugging her for all I was worth.

Mum came to see us and it was awful. It was obvious to both of us that she wouldn't hold herself together. To my surprise, Peeta's father came again. "I'll try to get someone to help her," he promised. As he left, he said quietly, "I don't believe all the things they are saying about you."

Prim was delighted by her room in the train, much more than I had been. I watched her curiously as she tried every button in the shower.

"What's wrong?" she asked me.

"Oh, Prim," I said.

"Katniss, sit down," she said. "I'm sorry if me behaving like an overexcited five year-old upsets you, but we both know the only way I'll be coming back is in a wooden box."

"Don't say that!" I snapped.

"Why not? It's the truth and you know it."

"I'll protect you," I insisted.

"From the other tributes? All of them?"

"Yes, if need be."

"From Snow?" she asked.

I didn't answer.

"This is my real punishment for attacking him," she said. "He's not going to let me come back alive, Katniss, so let me enjoy all the silly pretty things the Capitol has while I can."

I nodded.

"Were you frightened on the train last year?" she asked me.

"Terrified," I admitted.

"So am I," she said.

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It wasn't long before we had to go for our meal. Effie was chatting away to us about nothing until we were joined by the other tribute, a fifteen year-old boy from the seam who was accompanied by his twin sister. The moment they saw the table laden with food, they looked astonished. They both looked at me, unsure if they were really allowed to eat it.

"Help yourself," I said.

They almost dived into the food, grabbing handfuls of just about anything and shoving it into their mouths.

"No!" cried Effie, clearly distressed. "Barbarians! And I thought I was going to have tributes who at least knew how to eat properly again this year."

A rage grew within me. "Effie. Shut your stupid ignorant mouth or I will shut it for you. You remember the pair you complained about before, the year before me? Like these two, they were from the Seam. Like these two, they've never had enough to eat one single day in their lives. See how skinny these two are? You think that's some kind of sick Capitol-style fashion statement? It's because they've spent their whole lives starving. In the class I started with in school, five have died so far from starvation. When they do get food, believe me the last thing on their minds is table manners. Hunger like you've never experienced has left these two so weak that they won't stand a chance in the arena. And they know it."

Efie looked too shocked to speak at my onslaught. But I hadn't finished.

"You call them barbarians! They aren't the ones forcing kids to starve to death in the poorer Districts. They aren't the ones escorting innocent children to be murdered every year. You want to know why nobody cheers for you when you come to the District, expecting us to be oh-so-excited about the games? It's because they aren't games to us. Every year you come to us and take two children who deserve to live and take them away to be murdered while the Capitol takes bets on how long they'll live. You want barbarians? I suggest you look closer to home."

Haymitch and Peeta had walked in during my rant. Surprise, surprise, Hamish was already well on the way to being drunk. While Peeta just looked stunned, Haymitch began to clap, until he needed his hands to stop himself falling over.

I grabbed a bottle of wine from the table and began to drink straight from the bottle.

"Your answer to everything lately," Peeta said, angrily. "What a pity you're going back in the arena and not being a mentor. They could have had a matching set of drunks."

"You!" Haymitch roared at him. "You know, I used to think she didn't deserve you, 'cause she can be a heartless bitch at times. But it's you... don't deserve her." His mind seemed to wander for a moment. "Think you know everything. So stupid."

"What do you mean?" Peeta asked. "What don't I know?"

But Haymitch had fallen from his chair and was already snoring.

"What don't I know?" Peeta asked me. "What did he mean?"

"I can't say, who knows what Haymitch means, 'specially when he's drunk?"

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Author's notes...

Please review.

Brian

THE STORY SO FAR

Chapter 1

President Snow forces Katniss to be a prostitute. Prim tries to kill Snow. Katmiss marries Peeta. In the Quarter Quell a sibling has to join each tribute. Prim is reaped again.