For over 200 years, the Viktor women have been blamed for everything that has gone wrong in town. If a damp spring arrived, if cows gave milk that was runny with blood, everyone believed that those women must have somehow twisted fate over in Viktor Village. It did not matter if the situation could be explained by science, logic, or even just bad luck. Before long, they even convinced themselves that it was not safe to walk into Viktor village after dark.

Which means no one would have seen the arrival of the two sisters, who looked as different as night and day as well as being four years apart.

"Aunt Joe," four-year-old Prim asked as she curled her small body into the couch, still in her traveling clothes. "Why did you say the people here hate us so much?" Her large gray eyes blinked slowly.

Aunt Joe sighed and ran her black fingernails through her short black hair, her many silver rings glinting in the light. She looked as though she didn't know how to respond when Aunt Effie came waltzing into the living room, her perfectly coiffed blonde hair tucked neatly under her wide brim velvet hat that paired perfectly well with her purple velvet dress and lace gloves.

Aunt Effie said, "They don't hate us, sweetheart. We just make them a little nervous."

Aunt Joe rolled her eyes and lit her cigarette, ashes falling onto her short black skirt. "Let's face it, Eff. We Viktor women have always created a stir. It all began with your ancestor, Lucy Gray. She was a witch."

"The first in our family. And you are the most recent in a long and distinguished line." Aunt Effie trilled happily, cutting up herbs into a large iron pot.

Prim pulled an old musty moth-eaten coat over her body in place of where a blanket might have been. "Is that why they wanted to hang her? Because she was a witch?"

Aunt Joe cackled loudly smoke floating into Prim's face and kicked up her booted feet, kicking dirt onto the couch where Prim was halfway to sleep. "The fact that she was a bit of a heartbreaker didn't help. Nor did it help that most of her lovers had wives on the hanging committee. But no, I didn't think it was either of those reasons. They feared her because she had a gift—a power that has been passed on to your children. She had the gift of magic. And it was this very gift that saved her life. She was banished to District 12. With her unborn child growing inside her belly. She waited for her lover to rescue her. But he never came. No one came. In a moment of despair, she cast a spell upon herself that she would never again feel the agony of love. But as her bitterness grew, the spell turned into a curse. A curse on any man who dared love a Viktor woman."

"Is that why Daddy died? From the curse?" Katniss asked morosely, having walked in on the conversation. At 8 years old, Katniss Everdeen was small but fierce. She was the opposite of Prim in every way. Where Prim was fair, Katniss was dark. Where Prim was sweet, Katniss was Moody. The one trait they shared were the Viktor family's bright gray eyes.

The aunts looked startled at Katniss speaking. She hadn't spoken a word since she arrived on their doorstep. Aunt Effie ceased her herb cutting and turned to Katniss, "Yes, my darling. Your mother knew. She heard the beetles ticking for your father's death all day long. She knew that when you hear the sound of the deathwatch beetle, the man you love is doomed to die."

Prim yawned loudly, pulling the coat further up her body, which exposed her bare feet. Katniss looked at the dirty bottom of her sister's feet and made a note in her mind to remember to bathe her sister every day. "Is that why we live with you Aunties now?" Prim asked with her eyes half closed.

Aunt Joe sat up from the ancient Victorian-looking couch and finally snubbed out her cigarette after smoking up the entire first floor. "As much as we might have wanted to, we simply couldn't have turned our only nieces away. You are orphans now after all."

Aunt Effie looked scandalized at Aunt Joe's blunt tone. "In this house we have chocolate cake for breakfast. We never bother with silly things like bedtimes or brushing our teeth."

Prim giggled and clapped her hands, although she was barely awake. Katniss only felt frustration knowing this meant she would have to be twice as responsible to make sure Prim was raised well.

Aunt Effie continued on with her speech, "But with the sweets comes the sour. So, when you find yourself the center of attention, it is not that they hate you. It's that, well... We're different."

"Kitty cat here asked about the curse," Aunt Joe said.

"Prim, Katniss. The only curse in this family is standing over there. Your Aunt Josephine." Aunt Effie laughed at her own joke.

Aunt Joe scoffed unimpressed, "Come on. You have to admit that any man who gets involved with a Viktor woman is bound to end up 6 feet under."

Aunt Effie huffed Annoyed now, "Oh, please, Josephine, accidents happen. Some things are simply fate."

Katniss fidgeted with the end of her braided hair, "Mommy died of a broken heart, didn't she?"

The aunts looked at each other and nodded sadly at Katniss, "Yes, my darling girl, she did."

After a sad moment, Aunt Effie tried to change the topic of conversation: "My little witches, let's go to the kitchen and do some spells."

Prim popped up fully awake now, "Yay."

"No!" Katniss shouted angrily, startling everyone, "We have our first day of school tomorrow. We need to unpack and get ready for bed."

Aunt Effie laughed lightly,shooing Katniss's worry away. "Pish posh, you'll learn everything you need to know in life in this house. Besides, it's hardly a new school. Before your mother moved away with your father and had you girls, she went to this school. As well as myself, Josephine, and many other Viktors. Our family has lived here for generations."

"Didn't know you were such a goody 2 shoes Kitty cat," Aunt Joe remarked, scratching her heavily tattooed and exposed midriff.

Katniss rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, feeling defensive. "I don't care about all this magic stuff. I just want to make sure Prim has a normal and healthy life as much as possible. There is a reason my mother moved away from here. Its what my parents would want."

The aunts looked at each other again in silent communication. Aunt Effie looked stressed, while Aunt Joe looked irritated. Aunt Effie came over to Katniss and patted her head in what was supposed to be a supportive gesture, but it came off as awkward and uncomfortable instead: "You have been blessed with such a gift. You have so much untapped power."

At that prim perked up again, having been pouting, Katniss said no to spell-making, "What about me? Do I have power like Katniss?"

Aunt Effie turned and pinched Prim's cheeks. "We don't worry about you, Primmy; your talents will emerge in time."

Just then there was a loud knocking at the back kitchen door. The aunts looked at each other and clucked like chickens, feeling the desperation of their new guest a mile away.

Aunt Effie said, "You girls, go upstairs and unpack; we'll be up in a minute. Josephine, get the bird."

"Get the book," Aunt Joe said, grabbing the bird.

Katniss shuffled to Prims side and grabbed her hand. They slowly snuck close to the kitchen so they could hear what was going on. Katniss could hear a woman's whimpering sighs and pleas.

"I want him so much. I can't think about anything else. I don't sleep. He has to leave his wife; he has to leave her now!"

Aunt Effie replied slowly, "My dear, aren't you married to the baker and with three young boys as well? Perhaps we might give you something to spice up your marriage instead."

The woman replied in a gravelly voice, "I don't care about that or anyone else. He is all I think about. Why the hell else would I come here?"

Aunt Joe snatched the money and snarked, "Fine, we'll take your money then. Seeing as it worked out so well the first time."

The woman cried some more, sounding desperate: "I want him to want me so much he can't stand it."

Aunt Effie sounded tired. "Be careful what you wish for."

They handed the woman a mourning dove and a pin needle. It shrieked as they held it down and stuck the pin through its heart. They told her to recite this charm for seven hours:

My lover's heart will feel this pin, and his devotion I will win. There will be no way for him to rest or sleep until he comes to me to speak. Only when he loves me will he find peace, and with peace rest.

Katniss stepped away from the door feeling afraid and squeamish. "I hope I never fall in love; I hope I never fall in love," she chanted to herself.

Prim cut in a sleepy dreamy voice, "I cannot wait to fall in love!"

The girls quietly went back upstairs to unpack their clothes and get ready for bed, though the aunts never came up to tuck them in or say goodnight. Katniss awoke at 3:00am in the morning, and the house was silent. She looked over in the attic bed she shared with Prim to see she was sleeping soundly. She unwrapped Prims arms from around her and snuck downstairs to the kitchen. The house was even creepier at night. Inside there were no clocks, no mirrors, and three locks on each door. Mice lived under the floorboards and in the walls, where they ate embroidered tablecloths as well as the lacy edges of the linen placemats.

Seven different sorts of wood had been used for the window seats and the mantels. One of which was a peculiarly fragrant cherry wood that gave off the scent of ripe fruits even in the dead of winter. No matter how dusty it got in here, the woodwork never needed polishing. It was dark in every room, even at noon, and cool all through the heat of July.

Anyone who dared to stand on the porch where the ivy grew wild could try for hours to look through the windows and never see a thing. The green-tinted window glass was so old and so thick that everything on the other side seemed like a dark, haunted Victorian dream.

Katniss, though afraid, continued. Her and Prim learned a valuable lesson that night that began when they lost their mother—things most children their age had not. They could see how love might control you from your head to your toes, not to mention every single part of you in between.

She reached the kitchen and pulled out her notebook. She began throwing different things she could find into the large pot in the kitchen—herbs and flowers, the dead things of which she could not name.

"He will hear my voice a mile away; he will whistle my favorite song; he can ride a pony backwards."

"What are you doing?" Prim quietly walked up behind her.

Katniss jumped, "What are you doing up?"

Prim shrugged casually, "I felt you stop dreaming, so I followed you. What are you doing?"

Katniss continued throwing things in the pot, "I'm summoning up a true love spell called Amas Veritas. He can flip pancakes in the air; his favorite color will be orange; his favorite shape will be a star; he'll be marvelously kind; and he'll have eyes bluer than the ocean."

Prim looked confused. "I thought you never wanted to fall in love?

Katniss nodded, still busy scribbling, "That is the point. The guy I dreamed of doesn't exist, and if he doesn't exist, I'll never die of a broken heart," she repeated it again in a whisper this time, "if he doesn't exist, I'll never die of a broken heart.

The next morning the girls got ready for school and were greeted with a note from the aunts letting them know they were off for supplies and were expected to get themselves to school. Katniss opened the creaky old fridge door. She found everything you could imagine in there except for food. Pickled things, dried things, things in jars that looked like they might still be alive, but nothing resembling food. They hadn't eaten anything but cake last night and had no money for school lunch. As Katniss stomach grumbled, she knew she would have to figure out something.

Katniss and Prim began to walk to school with their matching pigtails and empty stomachs. They walked past what looked to be the town bakery. A sturdy blonde man caught eyes with her through the window. He began to smile and turned to talk to a small boy who looked to be about the same age as Katniss, but she couldn't see him that well from the window. Outside the schoolyard, a group of children start whispering among themselves, glancing nervously at the girls as they walk by. The air feels tense, as if something unspoken hangs over the group.

A boy named Cato whispers, "There they are." He nudges his friend Marvel. "You think they'd notice if we threw something?"

Marvel eyed the sisters warily. "You know what happened when our parents tried it with their mom. Not a single apple hit her. They said it was like... She dodged without even moving."

Glimmer crossed her fingers behind her back, "Just don't look at them. My mom says if you don't look at them, they can't do anything to you."

Cato grinning said, "My dad says they're cursed. That's why we can't play with them. No one wants to end up like them—freaks?"

Marvel, glancing at Katniss, says, "Her dad was normal, though? He and my dad grew up together. William Everdeen still holds a bunch of school sports records. She could probably smoke all of us, and we still can't pick her for teams."

Glimmer shrugging replies, "Doesn't matter. No one wants a freak on their team."

Katniss turned to Prim, voice low, "They are talking about us."

Prim whimpers softly, "Just ignore them, Kat. Let's go."

Cato, gathering some courage, picks up a small stone and aims it at Katniss. "Watch this. Bet I can hit her."

Marvel while eager and pompous before, looked nervous now. "Cato, don't..."

Cato throws the stone, but it falls just short of Katniss' feet. He curses under his breath, "What the...?!"

Katniss, without looking back, speaks to Prim, "They will never stop, will they?"

Prim quietly, with a small smile, replies, "Maybe one day they'll grow up."

Cato, angry, trying to save face in front of the group, spits at the ground, "Told you. They are cursed."

Glimmer nervously whispers, "Come on, let's go. We don't want them to hear us."

As the group of children backs away, Katniss and Prim keep walking. The whispers behind them fade, but Katniss' expression remains hard. Prim looks up at her sister, concern in her eyes.

They walk on, side by side, while the rest of the children linger a safe distance behind, watching them with a mix of fear and fascination. The rest of the school day continues as such. The day was filled with little mortifications. No child would use a pencil or crayon directly after a Viktor girl had touched it. No one would sit next to them in the cafeteria or during assembly. Some girls actually shrieked when they wandered into the girl's room to pee or gossip and found they had stumbled upon one of the sisters. When Katniss sang during music class, every child stopped to stare, both in awe and fear. They whispered that perhaps she was raised by sirens.

At the end of the day, Katniss instructed Prim to come wait outside of Katniss' classroom after Prim got let out of preschool. A boy in the rear of the room who had stolen a pack of matches from his father that morning took the opportunity to light a match and throw it at your prim. The scent of burning quickly filled the room as it caught Prims shoelace on fire. Katniss ran to her sister, knelt down, and smothered the flames without thinking with her beautiful dress.

"I hope something awful happens to you!" She called to the boy who'd set Prim afire.

Katniss stood up, her sister in her arms like a baby, her face and dress dirty with soap. "You will see what it's like; then you'll know how it feels."

Just then the children in the classroom directly overhead began to stomp their feet. Out of joy since it had been revealed their spelling tests had been eaten by their teachers bulldog. A tile fell on the horrible boy's head, and he collapsed to the floor in a heap.

"She did it!" Some of the children cried, and the ones who did not speak had their mouths wide open and their eyes even wider. She could hear them chanting 'You witch! Witch, witch! You're a bitch!'

Katniss ran from the room with her sister in her arms. She ran through the front door and up the stairs. All afternoon her sister lay at the bedroom door after Katniss locked herself inside, crying for two hours straight.

"Katniss, I'm hungry," Prim said still at the door.

Katniss stood by her bed, glancing at the door. Prim fell asleep, and the house was eerily quiet. Katniss took a deep breath, knowing the aunts were still not back. She kneeled beside her luggage, carefully opening it.

Katniss whispered to herself, "Ive got to do this... for Prim."

She pulled out her father's old hunting jacket, running her fingers over the worn fabric, then lifted her father's handcrafted bow and arrow.

Katniss feeling resolute thought, I know what to do.

She threw the jacket over her shoulders, feeling its weight settle on her like an old memory. She gripped the bow firmly in her hand.

Prim stirred slightly from her sleep, her voice soft. "Katniss? Where are you going?"

Katniss glanced over her shoulder, her voice calm. "Don't worry, Prim. I'm just going out for a bit."

Prim turned half-awake, her brow furrowing. "Are you... hunting?"

Katniss, with a small smile, "Yeah. I'll be back soon."

Prim sighed exhausted after the crazy week we had. "Be careful..."

Katniss replied softly, "Always."

She watched as Prim drifted back to sleep, then turned, her expression hardening with determination. She slung the bow over her shoulder and stepped out into the night, her father's presence felt in every step she took.

Her father taught her how to hunt to make sure she could always take care of herself. He told her about a field called the Meadow, but it all felt like a distant memory now as she walked there with her heavy bow and arrow.

She saw a tall lanky boy watching her as she walked. He walked up to her hesitantly. He was handsome in a way, though he looked like he could have been related to her.

"Are you catnip Everdeen?" He looked as though he was trying to sound intimidating.

"Katniss Everdeen, and who's asking?" She gave her best gruff voice in return.

"My name is Gale Hawthorne. Our parents were friends. My mom told me to watch out for you. Do you know what you're doing with that thing?" He nodded his head towards my bow and arrow.

"Why did you want to see?" I notched it and aimed it towards him.

He raised his hands in the air quickly."Whoa, I'm just here to look out for you. The woods are full of packs of wild dogs, cougars, and bears, and do you even know how to get where you're going?"

"No," I admitted, feeling frustrated.

"Come on, I'll show you catnip." He said it in a casual yet serious way.

"It's Katniss!" I almost shouted, feeling annoyed by this boy already.

"OK, catnip," he laughed in a way that denoted he didn't do it often.

We walk for a little bit until we reach the fence separating the town from the woods. It's a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. We listen carefully for the hum that means the fence is on, but it's silent. Gale shows me where we flatten out on our bellies and slide under a 2-foot stretch of fence that's been loose. Gale warns me about venomous snakes and rabies animals.

Gale smiles playfully, "You're too late, you know. If you wanted to catch something other than me, you should've shown up earlier.

Katniss rolls her eyes, pretending to be unfazed. "Guess I'll just have to come back tomorrow, bright and early."

Gale, leaning in slightly, raising an eyebrow, replies, "Can you handle getting up that early?"

Katniss grits her teeth, steeling her resolve, "For my sister? Challenge accepted."

Gale nods his head at her with begrudging respect.

"Ok, see you around Everdeen." Gale begins to walk off his long legs, going quicker than Katniss could catch up with.

"See you around Hawthorne," Katniss responds, though she was unsure he could even hear it.

Katniss walks back toward town, the evening air heavy and damp from the approaching rain. As she creeps behind the bakery looking for food, the faint scent of freshly baked bread lingers, mixing with the rotting food from the trash bins. She sees the pinched-faced woman from the night before, tossing out leftovers. Katniss crouches low, heart pounding, waiting for her moment to steal something. But the woman turns too soon, her eyes wide and wild, her voice sharp and broken, "You! What are you doing here?"

Katniss freezes, her stomach twisting in fear as the woman flies toward her, hands rubbing together anxiously.

The Pinched-Faced Woman gets in her face, her voice cracking, desperate, "Look what they did to me!" She points to her face, her voice trembling as though her very soul is unraveling. "He won't leave me alone! I can't sleep—I can't eat—he wants to fuck me nonstop!" Her eyes, red from endless tears, bore into Katniss. "He watches me! All the time!"

Katniss steps back, feeling a cold sweat forming at her temples. This was not the way adults usually spoke to children, but this woman seemed to have lost any sense of right and wrong.

The Pinched-Faced Woman bore down on Katniss, her voice turning venomous, the words tumbling from her lips like a curse, "Where are they? The witches who did this to me?"

She grabs at Katniss, her nails grazing Katniss' arm. "Tell me!"

Katniss stuttered, her voice small and breaking, "My aunts went on vacation."

The lie slips from her lips, bitter as ash, leaving a bitter taste in her mouth.

The woman's eyes flare, her mouth twisting as though ready to spit venom. The pinched-faced woman in a frenzy raised her hand to strike, "You are lying! You're one of them!"

Katniss ducks, arms flying over her head, bracing for the hit, when suddenly, a voice rings out, clear and soft as bells.

The boy grabbing the woman's arm shouts, "Mom, no!"

Katniss dares to peek through her arms. The boy, about her age, his grip gentle but firm on the woman's wrist, looks at his mother with a calmness that feels out of place in the storm of the woman's madness.

The boy pleads, "Mom, stop. Please."

The pinched-faced woman screaming, yanking her arm from his grasp, spits out, "How dare you touch me! I'll show you!"

She slaps him hard, making the boy lose his equilibrium and let go of her arm.

Katniss watches in horror as the woman drags the boy back toward the bakery, her nails digging into his skin. The door slams shut behind them, leaving Katniss standing alone in the drizzle, her heart racing and her body trembling.

The rain begins to fall in earnest now, cold drops mingling with the tears Katniss hadn't realized she was crying. She turns to leave, feeling defeated, when a loud *plop* echoes behind her. She turns to see a bundle wrapped in a towel at her feet. Two freshly made loaves of bread. Her breath catches as she glances up, just in time to see the back of the boy's head as he disappears into the bakery. The rain hides him from her fully, but the gesture remains. She feels guilty; she couldn't thank him. She didn't even get a good look at his face in all the commotion.

Katniss quickly grabs the bread, holding it close to her chest, her heart heavy with gratitude and confusion. Without a second thought, she turns and runs back home.

Night has fallen, and Katniss and Prim are huddled by the dim light of their old television, splitting the bread she had scavenged earlier. The rain taps against the window, creating an eerie atmosphere. The news comes on, and the story of a murdered woman begins to unfold.

News Anchor* (on TV): "Maude Mallark, found dead in a suspected crime of passion. Police say her involvement with a married man may have led to the tragic incident. Her family is being interviewed now.

Katniss freezes, her hand halfway to her mouth, bread still in her grip. The camera pans to the family. The youngest boy appears, his face strikingly familiar—blonde curls, bright blue eyes. Her breath catches.

Katniss whispers, "It's him. The boy from the bakery."

The boy on screen, his expression solemn, glances toward the camera, his gaze piercing as though he sees Katniss through the screen. Her pulse quickens, the room feels colder, and she pulls her knees closer to her chest.

The rain continues to beat against the window, the sound growing louder, as if echoing the tension in the room. Katniss can't tear her eyes away from the screen. The boy's face lingers in her mind—the way his eyes had looked at her, the way he had thrown the bread to her earlier, almost as if he had known she would need it. Peeta Mellark, it says on the screen.

She isn't sure if the idea thrills or terrifies her. The boy's face fades from the screen, but the feeling of his gaze lingers in the room, haunting her thoughts. His eyes, like the ocean—deep, mysterious, and impossible to forget.