Blood Red Dawn

by kalisidhe

After the war, without the Mockingjay, a new death sentence is used - criminals fight to the death to win their freedom. When 17 year old thief Aušra Kazlauskien is sent to the Compound for the murder of her only ally, she faces life or death stakes. There's just one problem... a certain gladiator and son of the Mockingjay. *my first ever fanfic, please read*

1. Prologue: If I Die Young

# If I Die Young #
# "If I die young, bury me in satin Lay me down on a bed of roses Sink me in the river at dawn Send me away with the words of a love song." #
"If I die young, bury me in satin Lay me down on a bed of roses Sink me in the river at dawn Send me away with the words of a love song."

We stand at the edge of the world and my revolver pushes into his hair as the moment freezes around us.

No sighs, no tears, no words. The only sounds in the world right now is my ragged breathing and his steady heart beat. I can still see, despite the intensity that blur my vision, but there is nothing to see, only his dark hair and the tattered remnants of his patterned coat. I cannot see it - but I know that his hand still holds his hat, that old battered beribboned top hat that we bought in a market with the money earned from petty theft and minor crimes.
"You do what you have to do, Sabi," he says, and his voice is like an ice sword piercing my heart. "You do it, whatever it is." He sounds so calm, I wonder if he knows what has led me here - why I am about to do this. I barely know myself. But there is that break at the end of the sentence and the way that he stands, trying to gather himself.

I wish my hand would shake. Would give me a way out. I can't say anything.

I wish I could say something to him. Am I sorry for what I'm going to do? I don't think so. A scar for a scar, an eye for an eye, a life for a life.

I silently will my hand to shake.

But it is completely still, and the frozen moment has thawed and time is slipping by like water in a stream. Whatever precious seconds we had left, they are gone now, and that is when I pull the trigger.

The sound echoes around the silent woods as he jerks, stiffens and collapses, his dark curls slowly matting with thick blood. Silence all around. The forest has fallen silent. I stare straight ahead and lower my gun. I can't bear to look at his face.

I throw the corpse in the river and allow the current to carry him away as the rising sun bleeds red light across the crystal water. I still have his coat, and his hat, and I sling one over my shoulder and the other onto my head. Taking my revolver in one hand, and my backpack, freshly packed with his supplies, in the other, I throw a last look at his campfire, and then I walk away.