Kindling the Spark

Whipping

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.