4: Whipping

Katniss POV

I head over to the merchant section of the District where the bakery and butcher stores are. I can't hunt anymore, so I need to use my victory money to buy food for myself. I pass by the centre square where I see a large post has been erected. A whipping post. There is dry blood splattered over the floor around it and I gulp at the thought of a man or woman crouching helplessly at the bottom as a peacekeeper rains blows on their backs with a whip.

Hurrying past the post, I get to the bakery quite quickly. This is where I sat crouching in the dirt and Peeta threw me two loaves of bread. Peeta loves me too. The thought feels odd to think about, it feels slightly bad now that I rejected him after he saved my life and that of my family. I decide not to think about it. I am with Gale now.

The store is open and I see Peeta working in the back with his mother yelling at him. I watch in admiration as he hoists a sack of flour over his shoulder with no difficulty. Peeta is strong. Another talent I would have liked in the arena. No, I think. Put the arena out of your mind. Peeta makes eye contact with me and I smile at him. He comes to the store front.

"Hi Katniss," he says. "What can I get you today?"

"Two loaves of bread please," I tell him. Mind drifting back to the day he threw me the loaves, I add on, "thanks by the way. For that day you threw me the bread when I was starving." I pass him the money for the two loaves. It feels good being able to pay for things instead of trading game.

"It's OK," he says, pushing the two loaves over the counter. "I couldn't have let you die. What I did was as much selfish as unselfish. It was worth my mother's temper to save you. Trust me." It irritates me the way that he makes comments like that when he knows that I'm with Gale. Couldn't he have just left it at it's OK?

I push over some more money, the money that would pay for two extra loaves of bread. "The payment is a little late," I say. "But I dislike being in debt to other people. There's the money for those two loaves of bread that you threw me." Peeta looks surprised, but accepts the money. He knows I won't back down on this.

"Thanks," he says. "How's Melanie doing?" he asks. "Unless hunters have found a way through the fence she won't be able to feed her family." I hadn't thought about Melanie. Maybe I should give her some money to buy food for herself and her family if she hasn't already found a way around the fence. Being smart and observant she probably has though.

I leave the store with the bread in hand, walking back across the District to Victors Village. I hear an agonised shriek pierce the air and my heart starts to beat fast. Dropping the bag of bread, I rush to the centre of the District, towards the whipping post. Tied to the bottom of the post is Melanie.

Her back is a bloody mess, stripes criss-crossing over each other and oozing blood. There is a squirrel pinned to the post above her head with a hole through the eye. Many people are gathered around and I recognise a lot of familiar faces from trading in the Hob. I push my way to the front of the crowd desperately.

"Melanie!" I shout. The man I assume to be Romulus Thread smiles cruelly. His teeth are white and straight. He is around forty and has black hair with a few strands of grey. His face is cold and stern. He brings the whip back right behind his head, then thrusts it forward.

Before I know what I am doing, I have moved in front of her. The whip hits my face, a red-hot stripe of agony. I reach my hand out and feel a trickle of blood, which I wipe off. "What do you think you're doing?" I ask, barely controlling my anger at this man- this animal. I stare him in the eye, my hands forming fists at my sides.

"Punishing a crime," he answers impatiently. "Now stand aside, girl." Hatred rises within me. Punishing a crime? Only the crime of hunting in unused land to feed her family. I stand my ground and peek at Melanie behind me. She is whimpering, almost unconscious from the pain and slumped over.

"No," I say. He brandishes the whip, but I'm not going to stand aside. Not even if he hits me again- which I doubt he will. He wouldn't dare, I am a victor. I am probably one of three people in the District who could make a stand like this, the others being Gale and Haymitch. I wish Gale was with me here now for support.

"Katniss!" I hear the familiar shout of Gale and see him push through the crowds to join me. My wish was granted. Haymitch is behind him, stumbling up here. Someone must have brought help for me. I see Peeta wink at me in the crowd, he must have brought them here. I mouth thanks to him and he nods.

Haymitch seems furious. He takes one look at my face and thunders, "she has a camera shoot next week for Victory Tour outfits! Do think that will be camera ready in a week?" I brush off a bit more of the blood that had been dripping down my face. It may scar if left alone, it probably will.

"Well.." Romulus Thread starts out. "She was interrupting the punishment of a criminal.." He is cut off by Gale striding in front of me and slapping him in the face. Gale is beyond regular anger, hate and disgust show on his face for the piece of rubbish that he just hit.

"Don't you dare hurt Katniss!" he snaps at Thread. "Hurt her and I will kill you!" Thread takes a step back from us and looks towards the crowd for reaction. Gale, Haymitch and I are the ones with the power here. We are the only three people in the District who can make a stand like this and succeed. I see that a woman that I know from the Hob, Purnia, has stepped forward.

Purnia opens her mouth. "I believe the correct number of lashes has been given already," she says. "Unless you wish to execute her, in which case protocol dictates a firing squad." I'm not sure if Purnia even knows the protocol for a situation like this, because in the Hob, protocol for someone turning up with a squirrel is to recommend buyers for it.

It seems Romulus Thread doesn't know the protocol for it either. "Fine," he snaps. "Take her. And next time I catch people hunting in the woods it will be execution." Knowing that he is serious will probably put most hunters off hunting now. I'll need to do something to help the other hunters. My mind immediately goes to putting an arrow through Romulus Thread's eye.

Gale and I rush over to Melanie, who seems to have slipped into unconsciousness. Gale lifts Melanie up on his back, piggyback position, so as not to damage her back more. I don't even need to say anything for Gale to know that she needs to be taken back to my house. My mother will know what to do for this- I hope. We run.

I twist open the doorknob in a hurry, shouting my mother's name. Gale puts Melanie down on the table, stomach first. My mother comes down the stairs. "What on Earth..." she asks, before I cut her off.

"This is Melanie. I need you to treat her back. Romulus Thread." My mother's attention is on Melanie and her eyes widen as she looks at the bloody flesh that is Melanie's back. Her eyes wander over the back for a few seconds, then she seems to get incredibly angry. "Twenty one lashes!" she rages. "He could have killed her- he would have if you hadn't stopped him. Anything up of twenty five lashes would have almost definitely kill her."

I silently thank any god there is that I got to her in time. Just a few minutes later and Melanie would be dead. "Can you treat her?" I ask. "She won't bleed to death will she?"

My mother shakes her head. "No- I can treat her. Prim, get some poppy seeds and some disinfectant bandages. Hurry!" Melanie groans slightly and stirs. "It'll be alright," my mother whispers to her. "You'll be OK, just stay very still." Prim returns with the seeds and bandages.

Mum has Melanie swallow the seeds and then she starts meticulously cleaning out all of the wounds and wrapping bandages all around Melanie's torso. I am torn between whether to stay and watch or to go upstairs to my room so I don't have to see her suffering here.

I decide to stay. I want to be here if anything happens to Melanie. I'm not so afraid of blood and wounds as I used to be before the Games. I lack the compassion to be a nurse, but inflicting so many wounds has desensitised me to them. I became stronger during the Games: fitter, less afraid, more powerful. More myself.

I hear the phone ring in the background. This is the first call that we have had: almost nobody in District 12 has a phone. It came with the Victors Village house. I press the button to answer it and lift the phone to my ear. "Hello?" I ask. "Who is this?"

Hearing the distinctive, dry voice makes my blood run cold. "President Snow," the voice replies. "Miss Everdeen. My sources in your District have told me of an act of rebellion today." He sounds cold and detached, but I know that he is both worried and angry. My actions today have scared him- I know it.

"Romulus Thread?" I ask. Who else could his spy be? Romulus Thread came straight after our conversation and is one of the more loyal lapdogs of the Capitol. I leave the room. I don't want mother and Prim to hear this conversation and start worrying for their safety.

"Yes," he says. "Miss Everdeen, have you forgotten our conversation already?" he asks me. "Rebellion in the Districts is bad for both of us, but for you especially." Yeah right. "Think about how you reflected to that girl being whipped today," he says. "What was her name- Melanie?" he asks me.

"Melanie," I say. "Did you get her nearly killed just to scare me?" I ask, anger rising at this monster who would sacrifice thirteen year old children to get what he wants.

"No," Snow says. In my minds eye, I see him smiling as he says this. A lucky coincidence, I am sure he will find it. "That was her doing- she was breaking the law, remember? Hunting on Capitol land," he says, mocking me. "A crime that I have let people get away with for too long."

He knows that I hunt. I guess it was obvious. Bows and snares in the Games- I'm a District 12 girl, not a career. The only place that I would have learned those skills would be by illegally hunting in the woods. "Such a crime?" I spit at him. "So worthy of being nearly killed for."

"Indeed," Snow says, ignoring the sarcasm. "In any case, of this is how you react to one girl- a girl who you probably barely know- getting harmed, how do you think you will react to many people close to you being killed? This is what rebellion will bring to Panem. Death and the destruction of everyone you love."

Not if we plan the rebellion properly. "I haven't forgotten our conversation," I tell him wearily. I need to defend my loved ones though. I can't let him think that he has won and he can do this again and again to terrify me. "But you saw how I reacted to someone I loved being hurt. Rebellion. If I am not to start a rebellion then I need the safety of my friends and family safe and for Romulus Thread to leave Twelve."

"Done," Snow says. I know that mine and my family's safety and Romulus Thread is not too big a sacrifice for him to make. That he would grant me it to stop being rebellious. Doesn't mean that I will though. It just means that I will need to be more discreet about it. I smile to myself. Second victory against Snow, first being my survival.

"Thank you. Goodbye." I don't wait for him to say a thing before hanging up.

xXx-X-xXx

So what did you think of the chapter? Katniss is being much more manipulative now than in the books and much more involved with what's going on. I hope you enjoyed that chapter, and please follow, favourite or review. Thank you to those who have already done so.

-MoonOfPluto