Author's note: I keep forgetting to say this, but someone asked me a while ago who I pictured portraying Tansy. The answer is Jasmine Sanders. If you google her, she's very beautiful. Movie-wise this story would have happened in 2008, four years before the first Hunger Games movie. I picture her playing Tansy at that time from the age of 14 and on.


Chapter 7: Strange Fruit


Tansy prepared the ram for cooking. Pepper collected more water. Root gathered wood for a fire. Tansy was in the middle of gutting the ram when she heard Pepper's cry of distress. She whipped around to see what was wrong. Tansy froze, eyes wide with fear.

Behind Root, who had leaned down to pick up another stick, a mountain lion was poised to attack. Drawn by the smell of blood. Pepper and Tansy were horrified. Even if they called out to Root, he wouldn't hear. Any sudden movements might set the beast off. He stood up.

The beast pounced. Root cried out in alarm. Pepper screamed. Tansy hurled her spear.

She killed the mountain lion but she wasn't fast enough to save Root from its claws. The girls ran over and rolled the beast's heavy body off of him. Pepper applied pressure to the wounds. Tansy retrieved the cord and the plantain leaves they collected yesterday from the backpack. They removed Root's jacket and the layers underneath, and washed the deep slashes on Root's back with clean water. They crushed the plantain leaves in their hands, applied them to the wounds, then removed their jackets and shirts, folded the shirts in half, and tied them over his treated wounds as a bandages with the cord.

The girls put their jackets back on and made it their business to make sure nothing else was about to jump out at them. While Pepper guarded Root with the knife and shovel, Tansy took her spear and searched the surrounding area. She found the mountain lion's tracks and traced them up a ledge jutting out of the rocky walls of the canyon. She found the small opening for the cave that had been its den. As far as she could tell it had been alone. She climbed back down the ledge and checked around the water and a little deeper into the canyon for more tracks. There were some by the water but none farther in. It looked like that mountain lion had been the only one in the area. They were safe, for now.

Pepper was too distraught to leave Root, so she stayed with her brother while Tansy looked for more medicinal herbs. Venturing farther into the canyon, she found a few yucca plants, and Manzanita berries. And that was it. After a certain point there was just dirt and rock. Tansy left quickly. She didn't like that part of the canyon. Even the smallest sound made a large echo and it was very difficult to find the original source with the way it bounced around. It was eerie and uncanny.

She left the berries with Pepper, who had calmed down enough to finish gutting the ram so it could be cooked before it spoiled. Somewhat reassured by this, Tansy continued her hunt for herbs in the woods outside the canyon. When she returned with more plantain and firewood, Pepper asked her to gather materials to make a shelter while she cooked. The mountain lion's den would have been good, but there was no way they could drag root all the way up there.

Tansy made several trips to get everything they needed for the shelter, filling her pockets with anything edible that she found along the way. She stopped to eat when the meat finished cooking. They set some aside for Root. He had passed out but he would be hungry when he woke up. Their shirts were soaked through with blood. It was clear he needed more help than their limited resources would allow.

They were about to remove another layer of clothing for more bandages, when another silver parachute floated down to them with a plastic red box. They opened it. It was a first aid kit. The girls were ecstatic. It must have cost a fortune. They quickly thanked Finnick, Mags, and everyone who had contributed to the purchase of such an extravagant gift. They immediately went to work on Root's back. They removed their makeshift bandages and cleaned his wounds again with water and an antiseptic. Then they applied a powder that was supposed to help stop the bleeding. They stitched him up and applied a healing ointment. It was a good thing Root had passed out, or it would have been hard to hold him still for all of it. They thanked everyone again.

By the time they finished caring for Root, twilight was upon them. So Tansy and Pepper set up the shelter. They used thick branches, the plastic sheet, leaves and other debris to make a lean-to around Root, making sure there would be space for them, too. They ate a dinner of raspberries, wild spinach, elderberries, miner's lettuce, and dandelions.

Root regained consciousness just as night fell and the anthem started to play. They waited. The face of the girl from 9 shined in the sky. Four Careers. The girl from 7. They boy from 8. The boy from 10. Now there were ten of them. Tansy and Pepper gently rolled Root onto his side and helped him eat some meat and berries.

"We should do something about the mountain lion." Tansy said after a while. They had left the corpse alone after they rolled it away from Root. Now it was just sitting there. Root and Pepper agreed. It would be such a waste to let all that meat rot.

The lion was already close to the tree, so they rolled it closer and used the cord to hoist the heavy beast up over the thickest branch. Tansy wove a watertight basket from yucca plant fronds, and they put it under the lion. Then they slit its throat and left it hanging there for the blood to drain out. Meanwhile, Tansy wove some more watertight baskets from yucca plant fronds. She and Pepper washed the blood from their shirts and the cord in the baskets using the natural soap found in the roots to clean them. They hung them on the tree's other branches to dry overnight. Then the girls moved the blood basket and let the lion down. They skinned it and prepared the meat for cooking. Since they knew there was no way they could eat it all at once, they set the majority of it up to smoke and dry as jerky. They took the hide and scraped it clean with the shovel. Then they rubbed its brains on the skin side of the hide and soaked it in a basket of water for a bit with a heated rock underneath to keep it warm. They wrung the wet hide out as tight as they could manage and pulled it back and forth around the trunk of the tree, working the hide until it was dry. Then they set it up to be smoked alongside the jerky. When it was done, they would have a fur hide to lay on the floor of their shelter.

They took turns keeping watch through the rest of the night while Root slept. They kept their weapons close. No predators, human or animal, came for them that night.

The sheep returned to their watering hole after dawn. For a while, Tansy and Pepper were content to just sit there and watch. They didn't seem to be very bright. For one thing, a few of the males butted heads with each other every now and then, but they couldn't have cared less that the humans who had invaded their territory were still there. A couple of lambs even started playing near their shelter, despite the fact that Tansy had killed one of their flock yesterday. Their company was oddly comforting. For once, something in the arena wasn't trying to kill them.

The girls decided to leave the sheep alone for the moment. They had plenty of mountain lion jerky. They also had plenty of stores from the previous day. They knew this side of the river had a full bounty of edibles from all the plants they had spotted during their search for water. So they decided to take a day to rest and catch up on their sleep. They checked Root's wounds. So far so good. The medicine from the Capitol was working wonders. It had really saved his life. Without it, Root would have probably bled out last night. They washed the wounds carefully and applied fresh ointment and new bandages.

For the rest of the day, they rested. The three of them took turns guarding the campsite and keeping an eye out for other tributes and predators. It was a blissfully uneventful day for them. Most of their time was spent looking at sheep and watching the clouds. It was entertaining to watch the sheep climb the rock walls using only the smallest nooks and crannies for foot holds. They didn't hear the cannon once.

Tansy, Pepper, and Root finished most of the greens off at dinner, but they kept some elderberries aside for breakfast. Tansy volunteered to go foraging again in the morning.

It was quiet that night without the anthem. Tansy, Pepper, and Root gazed at the stars, pointing out different constellations to each other. They reminisced, going over old stories, sharing some new ones they hadn't gotten around to before the end of their training. Tansy shared an amusing anecdote about one of her favorite fishmongers. She changed the names to protect the innocent and the guilty but it went something like this:

"A customer at the fishmonger's shop marveled at the owner's quick wit and intelligence.

'Tell me, Simon, what makes you so smart?'

'I wouldn't share my secret with just anyone, 'Simon replies, lowering his voice so the other shoppers won't hear.' But since you're a good and faithful customer, I'll let you in on it. Fish heads. You eat enough of them, you'll be positively brilliant.'

'You sell them here?' the customer asks.

'Only $4 apiece', says Simon.

The customer buys three. A week later, he's back in the store complaining that the fish heads were disgusting and he isn't any smarter.

'You didn't eat enough, 'says Simon. The customer goes home with 20 more fish heads. Two weeks later, he's back and this time he's really angry.

'Hey, Simon, 'he complains, 'you're selling me fish heads for $4 a piece when I can buy the whole fish for $2. you're ripping me off!'

'You see?' says Simon, 'you're smarter already,'" Tansy finished with a grin.

Pepper and Root cracked up at that. She was rolling around and he was clutching his sides, trying not ruin his stiches by laughing too hard.

"It feels like I haven't laughed in ages," said Pepper.

Root nodded in agreement. "I feel a lot better now," he signed.

Pepper smiled. "Mrs. Mamie always says laughter's the best medicine."

"Yeah," Tansy said, smiling too. "My dad says the two best cures for anything are a good laugh and long sleep."

"You're dad sounds like a smart man," Root signed.

"Pretty much," Tansy agreed with a modest shrug, though she beamed brightly because she was proud.

In the Games Headquarters Mags nodded off next to Finnick as Pepper and Root asked about Annie again. They liked hearing stories about her and Tansy's father. And Tansy enjoyed sharing them with her friends. She was so open and unafraid with them. Talking with Pepper and Root was easy and fun for her. The complete opposite of her time on stage with Caesar Flickerman. Those bright smiles. The way her eyes sparkled. Finnick had never seen her that way before. Maybe once, from a distance, when he spotted her talking to Annie before they spotted him.

Finnick realized he was a little jealous. He was used to people not liking him because of the persona he had adopted in order to survive in the Capitol. But this was something different. Tansy had come to like him, he thought, she was just naturally a very private and reserved person. That should have been enough. But he wanted more. He wondered if it was because of how long Tansy had known them. She had lived in District 11 for eight years before coming to 4. He hoped it wasn't going to take another eight for her to smile at him like that.

More than anything, he hoped she had another eight. He and Mags had blown a fortune on that first aid kit because they knew it was what Tansy would have wanted. But he had mainly agreed because he knew that if one of those siblings died, there would be nothing left to hold the other back from becoming the victor, because they would no longer have to choose between each other. And the more he watched them interact, the more obvious it became that Tansy was never going to kill those two.

The next morning, after a breakfast of jerky and the last of their greens, The three friends decided it was time to replenish their supplies. While Pepper stayed behind with the knife and hammer and took care of Root, Tansy took the spear and shovel and went out to hunt and gather outside the canyon. She wiped the sweat from her brow, removed her jacket, and tied it around her waist. It felt like summer again. Unbelievably warm after all that snow and ice. She continued on, foraging around the ground before climbing up to the trees in search of pinecones and eggs. She found plenty of pinecones, but no eggs. Instead she found something dangerous. A wasp nest.

Fear shot through her, but she had enough sense to keep still. After all, she was very familiar with the kind that lived in this particular nest. Tracker jackers. These killer wasps had been spawned in a lab and strategically placed, like mines, around the districts during the war. Larger than regular wasps, they had a distinct solid gold body and a sting that raised a lump the size of a plum on contact. Most people couldn't tolerate more than a few stings. Some died at once. If you lived, the hallucinations brought on by the venom had actually driven people to madness. And there was another thing, these wasps would hunt down anyone who disturbed their nest and attempt to kill them. That's where the tracker part of their name came from.

After the war, the Capitol destroyed all the nests surrounding their city, but the ones near the districts were left untouched. Another reminder of their weakness, she supposed, just like the Hunger Games. Another reason to stay inside the fences. But in District 11, tracker jackers had been inside the fence, too. Their nests were often found in the trees of the orchards. When that happened, the workers would use smoke to sedate the tracker jackers inside and they were given a box with an opening that could be locked and sealed around the branch. The branch with the contained nest would then be trimmed from the tree, and the whole thing would be taken away to be destroyed. Tansy and Pepper had even participated in this process a couple of times before. But if the nest was found anywhere outside the fields and orchards, they were pretty much on their own. As a result, the people of District 11 had become adept at handling the dangerous pests and treating their stings themselves.

Very carefully, Tansy retreated from the buzzing nest and silently slithered back down the tree. Then, as gently as possible, she scratched a mark on the tree to remind her to stay away. She added the leaves of the herb they would need to treat their stings to her list of things to collect. Plantain. They had been mostly just eating it here because it was edible but back in 11 it was primarily used as a medicinal herb. Not only could it speed up the healing process for wounds, but it was great for drawing out infections and wasp venom. She hoped she could find some on this side of the river. You could never be too careful with tracker jackers.

She moved on and found all sorts of goodies. Like an elderberry shrub growing next to a birch. She decided to saw off a section from one of the thickest stems and removed the soft pith in the center. Then she went and collected some cattails that were still with the edge of the trees near the river. The Careers didn't appear to be home, but why take the risk of revealing herself? She wove the cattail rushes into another watertight basket. She found a stick from a tree with harder wood, sharpened it, went back to the birch, and used it to drill a hole into its trunk. She tapped the hollow elderberry stem into the hole with the shovel and waited. Success! When the sap started flowing, she used the basket to collect it.

She returned to their base by the water for lunch. While the three of them chewed on some homemade jerky dipped in birch sap, she laid out everything else that she had found for her friends to see. Parts to make a fire drill. Raspberries. Wild spinach. Blue mustard. Bindweed. Miner's lettuce. Pinecones. Cattail stocks. Birch and pine bark. Plantain.

"We need to start saving theses. I found a nest of tracker jackers," Tansy explained, putting the plantain leaves aside to be added to the first aid kit. Root and Pepper paled at the news. They had all seen firsthand what could happen to anyone unlucky enough to be stung. The grotesque swelling. The screams. The seizures. It was nightmare material.

After lunch they checked Root's wound. He still had some difficulty moving but it was healing at an incredible pace. They cleaned it, applied fresh ointment, and new bandages.

They spent the following hours relaxing and napping. Tansy and Pepper even played with the sheep. They would take what peace they could get in this place. For a few minutes, they managed to forget they were in the arena.

Then they heard the cannon. Someone had died again. That sobered them up fast. They were quiet for the rest of the day. Tansy went out to set some snares using the cord before it got dark.

Twilight came, and they ate more jerky and finished off the birch sap. Since food was plentiful on this side of the river, they had a small feast. They were polishing off the last of the berries when night fell and the anthem came on, and they played the death recap. This time it was the boy from 8. Four careers. The girl from 7. The boy from 10. Nine left.

They sat there in silence until Tansy spoke again. "It's only a matter of time," she said. "Before they find us. Once everyone else over there is dead, sooner or later they'll realize they have to look for us over here."

"There isn't really anything we can do about that," Pepper said somberly. Root remained silent.

Tansy bit her lip. "We could set a trap," she suggested. Her friends looked at her, surprised. "I didn't really want to suggest this… But if we try to fight against them directly, we'll probably lose. We need a way to defeat them from a distance," she explained. If they set the trap and no one came, then no harm no foul. But she needed to protect her friends.

Pepper and Root exchanged a look. Root nodded.

"What did you have in mind?" Pepper asked.

Since it was dangerous to do that kind of work in the dark, they waited for the next day and started early in the morning. Root's job was to continue focusing on recovering from his wounds while Tansy and Pepper set up several foot traps deeper in the canyon. If the Careers came, they would run to their designated hiding spots in there and use the echoes to confuse the enemy and draw them into the trap. The foot traps were designed to lead them to the main trap. A landmine of deadly wasps.

Using a foot-long piece of bark off a dead birch tree, wrapped around dried grasses, leaves, and bark, Tansy and Pepper made a long match to carry a piece of hot coal over to the tree with the tracker jacker nest. With great care, the girls added a few green leaves to create smoke and waited as it floated up to envelope the nest above them. They waited for the buzzing to slow and then they started climbing. Tansy climbed the tree with the nest. Pepper climbed the one that was right next to it and had a sturdy branch that extended far enough to be side by side with the branch Pepper and the nest were on. While Tansy continued to blow more smoke at the nest, Pepper cautiously wrapped their sheet of plastic around it. They doubted it would be enough to stop a swarm of angry tracker jackers if they woke up, but it should help muffle their scent and keep the smoke from dissipating too soon. Pepper held the plastic closed around the branch while Tansy sawed it free from the tree as quickly and quietly as possible to avoid disturbing the nest. When she was done, Tansy quickly hopped down and rushed over to meet Pepper, who began to ease her way down her own tree with the sedated nest just far enough to hand it over to Tansy. Then Pepper hopped down, too, and they made their way back to the canyon slowly, handling the nest as if it were a bomb that could explode at the slightest jostle. Their skin was slick with sweat. What they were doing was extremely dangerous. One false move, and they could wake the wasps. They paused periodically to fan more smoke into the plastic when the buzzing sounded like it was getting louder again. They crept into the canyon. Through their camp. Around the foot traps. They stopped when they reached the biggest one, which stretched across the whole path from wall to wall but was just narrow enough to jump over. Pepper jumped first. Tansy carefully handed the nest over to her, then she followed. They held their breath as they removed the plastic and buried the nest gently in the shallow hole they had dug in the spot where they expected at least one of the Careers to land. They covered the hole with a mat that Tansy wove in a pattern that allowed for a few air holes. The mat had been smeared with red clay to blend in with the ground. They wanted to conceal the tracker jackers not smother them. The girls added a light and even sprinkling of dirt over it. They stood up and looked down at their work. At a glance, it looked like solid, undisturbed ground. The rest of the traps had been covered, too. But they were only camouflaged just enough for others to still be able to spot them without making their true intentions too obvious. Tansy and Pepper put out the long match and started moving. They wanted to return to their camp before the smoke wore off. They were just negotiating their way around the last (or first) foot trap when they heard the scream. It was Root.

Pepper and Tansy took off a like a shot. All they had on them were the stone knife and the shovel. Tansy had left her spear at the camp. They braced themselves but the scene they came upon was so much worse than they had imagined. Root was still screaming—or trying to. Only he couldn't, because the boy from 1 had used a rope to haul him up over the strongest branch of the tree. With a noose around his neck. Their brother and friend's face was contorted in fear and pain. The girl from 2 was carving the skin over his ribs with her knife with a twisted delight.

Now Pepper was screaming. Tansy felt something snap inside of her. Without hesitating, without blinking an eye, she lunged at them. She felt a small rush of air from something flying over her shoulder and past her neck. The girl from 2 let out a strangled cry of pain and surprise. She fell and Tansy was right on top of the boy from 1. Tansy hit him with the shovel. She swung at his head with all her might. She watched the side of his head cave in with hollow eyes as part of his ear was sliced off. There was blood on her face again.

The girl from 2 was shouting something at them, scrambling backward as she stumbled back onto her feet to run. Blood stained her shirt where Pepper's knife was stuck in her shoulder. Tansy moved to follow her but stopped when Pepper grabbed the back of her shirt.

"Tansy! Help me!" Pepper cried desperately. "Root isn't breathing!"

The sight of her friend's tears and the stab of fear she felt with those words brought Tansy crashing back to herself. Pepper was struggling with all her might to keep her brother lifted up in an attempt to loosen the slack on the noose. Tansy let the girl from 2 get away so she could help Pepper save Root. Her friends' lives were more important.

Tansy quickly dropped the shovel and grabbed the rope to loosen the knot enough to slide it up and over Root's head. Pepper stumbled under the full weight of her brother's larger body and the two siblings fell to the ground together.

"He's still not breathing!" Pepper screamed, becoming hysterical.

Tansy immediately kneeled down beside them, prepared to give Root rescue breathing. But then she saw his condition. Tansy froze. A cold dread crept over her. His eyes were open wide, still bulging from fear and the pressure of the rope on his throat. Which was crushed. His neck was distended and bent at a slight angle. Tansy realized the snap she heard wasn't in her mind. It had been the sound of Root's neck breaking. They were too late to save him. No words would ever be adequate enough to describe the pain of all the horror and guilt she felt. Tansy's stomach dropped. Bile rose up her throat. She had to clap both hands over her mouth to keep from throwing up.

Pepper, who had been in shock or denial about her brother's condition, finally looked at her silent friend. Two long overdue cannons were fired. One for the boy from 1. One for Root. And then she knew. No one could save him now. Her brother was gone. Her lips trembled. Tears welled up in her eyes. And then the most heart-rending scream that anyone in the Capitol had ever heard echoed throughout the arena. She threw herself on top of Root, clutching his body in a desperate attempt to keep them from taking him from her.

Tansy's own tears flowed as she watched. Her heart was breaking at the sight. At the loss of her childhood friend. She felt like a lost child again. The same helpless eight-year-old who couldn't save her own mother.

But Tansy wasn't eight any more. She wasn't helpless. And she knew this wasn't over. She still had to protect Pepper. Tansy swallowed the bile that had filled her mouth and forced herself to stand.

"Get up," she said, fighting to keep her voice even. Pepper kept crying. Her face was buried against her brother's chest. "Get up, Pepper," she said again. Her voice was firm but gentle. "We can mourn him later. I promise you can cry all you want then. But there's no time for that now. We have to fight back. They killed Root, and they'll be back for us next. We've killed one of them. There's no way the Careers will leave us alone. As long as they're alive, we'll never be safe."

Pepper stopped crying. Without looking up, she asked, "Are we going to kill them, Tansy?"

Tansy was very grim as she answered. "We are."

Pepper finally raised her head. Her cheeks were stained with tears. Her eyes were red and angry, filled with a demand for vengeance. "Good."

The Careers hadn't just killed Root. They had tortured him. And they had enjoyed doing it. They were unforgiveable.

Without another word, the two girls worked together to move Root's body somewhere safe, hiding it amongst some of the brush growing by the water. Then they hoisted the corpse of the boy from 1 up high enough to slip the noose over his head. They would leave him there for the other Careers to find. Tansy, Pepper, and Root had all gone into the Games thinking that whatever happened, none of it was personal. As tributes, they were all simply fighting to survive. But now it was personal. They wanted the Careers to know that. That everything that happened would be the result of their own cruelty.

The girls washed the blood from their hands. They stripped down to their underwear and hid their clothing. They smeared their bodies and their hair and their underwear with red clay and mud until they blended in with the walls of the canyon completely. They entered the echoing part of the canyon, concealed themselves among the shadows of the rocks, and waited.

They heard a scream at twilight. It was the girl from 1. The Careers had entered the canyon and found the hanged body of the boy from one. The boy from 2 shouted something in anger. It was time. Together, Tansy and Pepper began to sing an ancient song from 11. It was from a time long before the rise of Panem but more relevant that ever. A song about injustice and oppression. It was haunting and eerie, full of disturbing imagery.

Southern trees bear a strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swingin' in the Southern breeze
Strange fruit hangin' from the poplar trees

Pastoral scene of the gallant South
The bulgin' eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolias sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burnin' flesh

Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck
For the sun to rot, for the tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop

The Careers followed their echoing voices like moths to a flame. It was plain from the look her face that the song frightened the girl from 1. But she and the boy from 2 were too angry to be daunted. The girl from 2 wasn't with them. They must have left her behind at the Cornucopia because of her injury.

As planned, the two Careers easily navigated their way around the foot traps. By the time they reached the last one, they were feeling very superior. There had been no sight of Tansy and Pepper but the Careers didn't find that strange. They were at a point where there was a bend in the canyon and assumed their prey was hiding around the corner. With arrogant smirks, they jumped over the last foot trap. The boy from 2 landed right on top of the tracker jacker nest. Their arrogance turned to horror as the furious swarm enveloped them. The girl from 1 was so startled that she took a step back and got caught in the foot trap. She screamed in pain and cried for help but the boy from 2 was too busy trying to save himself. He ran around the corner and kept running for as long as he could. He was going to kill the people who did this to them, even if it was the last thing he ever did. But he never saw the girls again. And he couldn't outrun the tracker jackers for long. Two cannons were fired within minutes.

It took a long time for the wasps to calm down. The nightly death recap for Root and the three Careers they killed came and went long before Tansy and Pepper were able to move again. They had managed to avoid being stung by the tracker jackers completely. The mud had concealed their scent in addition to camouflaging them.

The two girls walked back to their camp in a heavy silence. There was nothing to say. Even if there was, they wouldn't have known where to begin. Root was dead. The two of them had become killers. Neither of them had ever been so low before.

When they reached the camp, the girls removed Root's body from the brush. They wanted to say goodbye. Tell him how much they loved him. But the words wouldn't come. They were swallowed up by the emptiness they felt where he used to be alive in their hearts and minds. Instead, they did their best to close his eyes and gathered a bouquet of white yucca flowers and gently folded his arms over them so that it looked like they were being held by him. Then they sat and stared at his slightly more peaceful expression, mourning him in silence. They shed no tears this time. They were too hollow for that.

They weren't sure how much time passed. It felt like forever. The next thing Tansy knew, it was dawn. She finally looked up and realized the body of the boy from 1 was still hanging from the tree.

"We should cut him down," she heard herself say.

"We should let him hang," Pepper said bitterly. "He killed Root."

"Yeah… but his family's watching," Tansy said quietly. "Despite what he did, he was someone's son, maybe someone's brother. We should give him back to them. They didn't do anything to us." She paused. Pepper remained silent. "It's all right to be angry. I'm angry, too." Tansy said sadly. "But I don't want to be cruel. I don't want to do to them what the Careers did to us."

Pepper looked up at Tansy for a moment and then down at her brother. After a long while, she gave a small nod of consent. So Tansy stood up, crossed over to the tree, and undid the noose, letting the boy's body fall to the ground. She stared at it and wondered what everyone must be thinking of her now. Annie and her father. Finnick and Mags. Vita. Were they shocked by what she had done? Surprised she could kill so easily? Horrified? Tansy didn't expect them to understand. She didn't understand herself. Shouldn't it be harder to kill another human being? She had told Finnick before that she wouldn't actively go after anyone in the arena, but she had done just that when she the trap for the Careers and lured them into it. And, at the moment, she felt less regret over their deaths than she had over the animals she killed for food. That worried Tansy. What was she becoming?