Hi! Thank you so much for continuing to read my story! I'm kind of new to Wattpad, this is my first story, so I will be going back in to make some changes (IE- making minor corrections from the comments from you :} ) I truly hope that you are at least a little curious about this Fanfiction. At the very least, I think it is unique and I hope it's at least sort of well-written. :) 

As always, I look forward to hearing your thoughts, opinions, questions and comments on my story. It is my favorite aspect of Wattpad. While hate won't be accepted, I want you to tell me what you liked and disliked and what makes sense and doesn't make sense. Criticism is appreciated. 

Stay safe and take care! ~ CANGEL

***Small Trigger warning here. There is violence and sexual harassment that is borderline sexual assault.***

***

District 14

Scarlet Wolfe

One Year Later

     Storm pushed her against the brick wall and squeezed her throat with one of his big, beefy hands. Even though she couldn't hear his words, she could smell his unclean breath, thick enough to make her gag. 

     Blood trickled down from her nose and her vision blurred as her right eye swelled from the earlier fight with him and his friends. They had been tangled up with Crimson and Cadmium when Storm had managed to get ahold of her and dragged her into the alleyway alone. Her brothers would come and help her when they could, or she would find a way to get away herself before going back and helping them. 

     She didn't plan on needing their help, but it was nice to know they would have her back. 

     Storm pulled back just a touch.

     "Good for nothing but..." She read his lips as he mocked her, his hand reached between her legs.

     Scarlet reached up and clawed his face, her fingers digging into his eyes and pulling at his mouth. He cursed her as he stepped backwards. She sucked in air and turned to run despite her wanting nothing more than to teach the fifteen-year-old boy not to mess with her or her brothers ever again. 

     She knew when to pick her battles, unlike her twin brother who had started this whole mess.

     Her entire body stopped as her head was jerked to a halt by her hair. Her feet slipped in the snow, sliding out in front of her as she fell to the ground. Pain exploded through her skull as Storm pulled her back up to her feet by a fist full of hair and slammed her face into the brick wall. Blood exploded from her nose. She tasted iron in her mouth as she spit it out. Red splattered across the brick. 

     Stunned, but unwilling to stop fighting, Scarlet slammed her elbow back, clocking the older boy in the face. Bolts of lightning streaked up and down her arm, but it was worth every bit of pain when he finally let go of her hair and his hold on her.

     She turned, ready to make her escape, but her freedom was short-lived as he recovered faster than she thought possible, shoving her back against the wall. Storm captured her wrists and held them tight against her chest. She struggled against him, but his weight held her pinned against the wall behind her. 

     Fear prickled at her in the wake of this larger predator, unable to escape, and unable to fight back. Scarlet tried to push the fear back. Sooner or later, he would give her an opening. She just had to wait for it. 

     "...Wild...animal...stupid...dumb...whore..." 

     She caught bits and pieces of his angry words, as he let go of one of her hands and grabbed her head, slamming his disgusting, filthy mouth down on hers. With her one free hand she clawed at his face to no avail. His hand shoved down her pants, his fingers groping her body, pulling at her underwear. Panic clawed at her insides, the fear creeping back up, threatening to paralyze her. 

     She twisted her head away from his, looking toward the alley entrance, hoping that her brothers were on their way to help her out of this fucking mess. 

     Her brothers weren't there at the alley entrance, but Violet, her oldest sister, was.

     For a moment, they stared at one another, and even though the two of them had never gotten along, she thought that Violet might help her. Just this once. But through blurry eyes, Scarlet watched helplessly as Violet rolled her eyes, a smile on her smug, selfish face, as she turned and walked away. 

     Storm grabbed Scarlet's hair and forced her head back to his. His tongue shoved deep into her mouth.

     Anger and panic clawed at Scarlet's insides. She could not let this happen to her. She would not. Left with no other choice, Scarlet acted on instinct and desperation.

     Scarlet bit down hard. His meaty tongue clenched tight between her teeth. Copper filled her mouth and trickled down her chin. Storm shoved at her first, his hands pushing against her in his own desperate panic before he reared back, his face contorted in an open-mouthed scream as he fell into the snow. His blood covered the entire lower half of his face. 

     She stood still in the alleyway for just a moment, shock lit through her as she tried to process what she was seeing.

     "Don't ever come near me again!" She shouted at him, not wasting anytime as she bolted toward the alley entrance, leaving the bleeding, screaming boy behind her.

     As Scarlet left the alleyway that Storm had dragged her into, she slipped on a patch of ice, catching sight of Crimson punching another kid in the face. Cadmium was laying on the ground, with a guy twice as big as him on top of him throwing punches. 

     She ran toward her youngest brother and barreled into the bigger boy, wrapping her arms around his waist and taking them both to the ground next to Cadmium. Too late she realized that Cadmium's arm was caught twisted up between the boys and when she looks back to her younger brother, she saw Cadmium on his butt, holding his left arm, his shoulder misshaped, his face screwed up in pain as he tried to stand. 

     Hopefully it was just dislocated and not broken. Scarlet turned back to the boy and slammed her fist into his nose. She jumped off the boy and grabbed Cadmium's shirt, helping him up to his feet.

     Scarlet looked around at the mess of boys and blood, looking for her twin. She finally spotted Crimson halfway down the street. "Peacekeepers!" He shouted at them both with his hands around his mouth.

     "Come on Cad." She said, pulling him along with her, as they all rush to clear the streets.

     Crimson, of course, hadn't waited for them, more worried about his own neck as he took off down an alley way in the direction of their little abandoned basement. A place that would be safe from the peacekeeper's search for any involved in this incident.

     Fighting was strictly prohibited in District 14 and was punishable by ten lashes or more depending on the severity of the fight.

     The peacekeepers were notoriously strict and petty and there were even some that seemed downright sadistic, often leaving the offender tied to the whipping block for hours after the punishment had been given, no matter the weather.

     Normally, being left out like that only happened to adults. Even the Peacekeepers seemed to realize--that or the Governor had finally stepped in--that if the children continued to die from both abuse and the environment, then District 14 would not remain a sustainable population. That was also the reason peacekeepers allowed slaughter-children to take punishments for their other siblings.

     Unfortunately, Scarlet and Cadmium didn't get far before she was knocked to the ground, unintentionally pulling Cadmium down next to her. His face contorted in pain as his shoulder slammed to the ground.

     Scarlet twisted around to her back and watched as the Peacekeeper's baton swung down. 

     Oh, Hell. This was really going to hurt. 

     Her face exploded in pain and her head slammed back against the ground, unconscious.

***

     Scarlet sat at the workbench in the abandoned basement that Crimson and Scarlet had found years ago. Now, Scarlet, Crimson and Cadmium used the unoccupied space to secretly train for the Hunger Games, but also, to work. 

     Crimson sat quietly on the seat next to her, working on his sketch design that either Cadmium would attempt to turn into reality from a block of ice, or Scarlet would attempt to form out of a piece of crystal.

     Her back ached from being hunched over the table for hours, with the angle of her body pulling her wounded back taut and stretching her sore skin, as she worked on the small crystal carving that would hopefully sell to a shopkeeper when it was finished. 

     She wanted to stop and call it a day, but if she stopped then she'd be stuck thinking about the twenty lashes she had received for protecting herself in a fight that she hadn't even started. And that would only serve to piss her off even more.

     Cadmium sat on the other side of her, carving into a block of ice. She could already see it was going to be a little lopsided and misshaped, but she didn't mention anything to him. 

     He was only nine years old. At his age, she hadn't had much patience for the craft, let alone any actual skill at carving. Cadmium was far more patient that she had been and as he got older, his skill would only grow. It wouldn't be long before his skill surpassed hers, she had no doubt. 

     Like her, he was also nursing the lashes they'd received after the fight two days ago. Though Cadmium had only received ten of them for participating in the fight, he was also recovering from his dislocated shoulder, which had been popped back into place by a peacekeeper just before the lashes had been delivered.

     Even though he said nothing about it, she could tell that his shoulder was still bothering him by the way he gripped the tools in his hands. His normally steady hands were strained and shaking, yet he refused to give up until Scarlet said it was time.

      The only soothing thought that Scarlet had was that Storm and his two lackeys were also somewhere in the cold of District 14 nursing their ten lashes as well. Though even that thought was bitter-sweet. 

     Scarlet could understand having uniformed law to govern the population of District 14, however, there were never any exceptions made, or any real investigations done. 

     If the Peacekeepers caught a person involved in a fight, they would get ten lashes, even if they were only defending themself or simply trying to stop the fight. Because of the harsh punishments, fights in District 14 were few and far between, and mostly between the children who were too impulsive to stop themselves. But that was also why hardly anyone dared to break up the rare fights that did occur.

     It wasn't the fact that they had each received lashes for participating in the fight that Scarlet found so frustrating--she had accepted that outcome the moment they'd been caught--it was the fact that Storm had received ten lashes like the rest of them. He had attacked her. She had only defended herself, but because the injury that she caused had resulted in permanent disfigurement, she had received twice as many. 

     Then there was Crimson, who, of course, had gotten away with no lashes and no reprisal, having escaped the wrath of the peacekeepers by leaving the second he had been able to, leaving Scarlet and Cadmium behind to finish the fight and to greet the Peacekeepers.

     Crimson tapped her shoulder. She glared over at her twin brother. She'd been ignoring him ever since the fight had occurred and he had wisely chosen to allow her that space.

     Or rather, he had gained that wisdom after she'd punched him when he'd tried to talk to her right after she and Cadmium had been delivered to their home by Peacekeepers, bloodied and injured.

     "Are you really not going to talk to me today as well?"

     "Why did you even start the stupid fight?" She asked exasperated and thoroughly fed up with his antics. 

     Crimson had a real knack for starting fights he couldn't finish, and somehow he always came out looking like fresh snow. Everyone around them thought he was the perfect child. So well-mannered and well-behaved. It was all such a well-crafted lie. 

     "No one asked you to get involved." Crimson said, his mouth curling up into a smug little smirk. She wanted to clap him along the side of his head just for that look alone. "And just so we're clear, I didn't start the fight. Cadmium did."

     She shot a glance over at their little brother. Cadmium's hard stare at his ice block was all she needed for confirmation. If Crimson had been lying, Cadmium would've called him out on it, or at the very least, expressed his own irritation toward Crimson.

     "Why'd you start it?"

     Cadmium tilted his head toward her, so that she could read his lips, but his eyes were still locked on the ice block in front of him. Scarlet didn't often lie--she found little point in it and found much more satisfaction in seeing the shock others felt when she told the truth as she saw it--but she could spot a lie pretty well. 

     Cadmium never made eye contact when he lied. "He was just saying crap. Stuff I didn't want to listen to." 

     "If you picked a fight with everyone who said awful things, then you'd never stop fighting, and we won't have any more skin left on our backs, Cad."

     His eyes found hers, narrowed and as angry as his words. "I know, Scarlet. They deserved it, though."

     Considering the things that Storm had said and tried to do in the alleyway, Scarlet felt the truth of those words down to her bones. Despite this, she wasn't willing to get anymore lashes for the likes of Storm. Hurting him wasn't worth her or Cadmium getting lashed again.

     "I know they did, Cad. But you have to get control of yourself. Let them do stupid stuff on their own and get into trouble. Don't make trouble for yourself, or me."

     "I said, I know."

     His words were emphasized by an irritated eyeroll before he looked away from her, indicating that he was done talking about it. Apparently this nine-year-old was too old to be lectured anymore.

     Scarlet could force the issue, but honestly, there was nothing else that she had to say to him, so she turned back to her work, choosing to focus on the project at hand.

     Only time would tell if he would take her advice or not. And even if he didn't, she knew she would step in and try to help him if she could.

     Crimson tapped her shoulder again. She sighed and looked over at him, annoyed at the constant interruptions. "How did you get away from Storm anyway?"

     She gave him her flattest stare. "I bit off his tongue."

     Crimson stared back at her, meeting her hazel eyes with his own. Satisfaction lit his eyes. And it was because of this that she would never believe the sweet and caring façade he used to fool nearly everyone else with. Because she could see who he truly was inside. She knew his bloodlust and cruel nature. She had felt the backlash of his selfishness and self-preservation instincts on more than this one occasion.

     Scarlet couldn't exactly say that she didn't share that bloodlust and cruel streak. After all, they had shared a womb. And two days ago, she had done exactly as she had said. She had bit off a part of Storm's tongue. 

     She didn't feel remorse or regret at her actions. Though she slightly regretted getting caught. The wounds on her back hurt like hell and she knew from experience that as they healed, they would start to itch and pull against her shirt.

     Even though she didn't regret it, she didn't take pleasure in hurting him. Well...Scarlet reconsidered. Normally, she didn't take pleasure in hurting people. Only in the feeling of justice being served.

     Hurt her, get hurt.

     Attack her, and she would attack back.

     But in Storm's case...well, the disgusting words that he had said and the memory of his terrible breath on her face and the feeling of his hands on her body were memories that would never leave her. It was a hard thing to not also recall and revel in the moment that she had given him a memory that he would never forget as well.

     She felt Cadmium's light tap on her hand, drawing her attention toward him, his eyes wide and his other hand near his mouth as he asked, "you really bit it off?"

     "I did."

     "Did it hurt him?"

     She nodded. "It hurt him a lot. He screamed like a baby." She might have been exaggerating a bit, but he had looked very similar to when Ebony was throwing a fit-minus all the blood of course. And the missing tongue.

     "Good." Cadmium said with a firm nod of his head. A moment later, his expression turned thoughtful as his eyes met hers. "I want to hurt a lot."

     And that was the difference between the three of them.

     Crimson, who was outwardly charming and charismatic, hid a darker, more twisted, sadistic side. Scarlet, who could be ruthless when the situation called for it, often relied on logic over emotions, though her anger always seemed to get the better of her. And Cadmium...well, Cadmium was good in a fight, but Cadmium...well, he liked to be hurt. 

     "You mean you want to hurt someone else a lot?" She read Crimson's lips as he tried to clarify their younger brother's words.

     She nearly rolled her eyes. Of course, Crimson would ask that. As smart as Crimson was, he just couldn't wrap his head around their brother. She didn't understand him either, but she at least, accepted who he was.

     "No. Just me."

     "Well, you can't ever talk if you cut out your tongue, so hurt a different way, okay?" Scarlet said before Crimson could say something else or put out an offer to hurt Cadmium himself. She wouldn't put it past him. 

     Cadmium thought about her words for a moment and then looked between his older siblings. "I don't think I'd mind not talking though."

     "You'd regret." Scarlet said simply.

     Cadmium shrugged, accepting his sister's answer without further comment. Normally, when Scarlet gave him advice, he chose to listen to her. On the rare occasions that he didn't listen, he usually ended up doing what she said he would. 

      He regretted.

     "Does it hurt to die?"

      "Sometimes." Scarlet answered. "But I think it hurts more to live."

     "I don't think I'd mind dying."

     "Yeah, well you're a slaughter-child. Your life expectancy isn't long anyways." Crimson responded drily. 

     Scarlet didn't think it needed to be pointed out but didn't contradict Crimson. He was right after all.

     Cadmium was two years younger than her and Crimson, but he was the sibling she felt most protective of. Perhaps it was because of how messed up his brain was, or the fact that ever since he was little, he had always been her little shadow, soaking up whatever she told him and looking up to her like she was the best person in the world.

     Either way, if he died, Scarlet knew that there would be a hole inside of her that would never heal. 

     Like Crimson said, the life expectancy of any slaughter-child wasn't very long. Only a few made it to adulthood without getting reaped, but even then, their lives were nothing grand or fancy. They got married, had children of their own, and most followed the example set before them by their parents. Utilizing the tesserae-slaughter-child principle to try to save some of their own children by sacrificing the rest of them.

     Scarlet would always fight to live. Crimson too. While she was willing to be punished for those she deemed of worth--namely, Cadmium, Honey, and Crimson--ultimately, she wanted to live. 

     If she entered the games, which was more than likely over the six years of eligibility, she would fight to the bitter end to win. Not for glory or for the riches or for fame. She would fight because she wanted to live.

     She knew Crimson was the same.

     But Cad?

     She thought he might fight. But if he did die, she thought he'd welcome death. She just didn't know what drove him down that path. Sure, their lives weren't great. In fact, to most, she knew, they were downright terrible. But they were theirs. For Scarlet, Crimson, and Cadmium, the only thing that they owned was their very lives.

     "You only have two options, Cadmium. Fight to live. Or give up and die. The only person who gets to decide that is you." She said with a finality that hopefully would end the discussion of death.

     But she believed with everything that she was that if a person didn't fight for their own life then other people shouldn't fight for it either.

     Scarlet turned back to the workbench and picked up the crystal scrap she'd been working on for the past week. She grabbed her small carving tool and picked up where she left off, carving the small details into the flat surface. It would be a white wolf when she was finished. She was hoping to figure out a way to turn it into a necklace.

     If she were lucky, she could sell the piece to the shops in town. They had bought a few of her pieces before, just not at any substantial rate. There was no one wealthy enough to spend money on jewelry here in District 14 except the mayor and some of the other important people that helped run District 14. And also, maybe some of the peacekeepers. And they bought them from the shops. 

     The mayor would buy the best pieces in town and send them to the Capitol; even he didn't dare spend that much money on such trivial things. But how much he bought fluctuated with the current fads of the Capitol citizens. Like with the jewelry, the fur coats that District 14 provided to the Capitol weren't essential items that the Capitol needed. 

      That was part of the reason why District 14 was so poor. The source of money and income that everyone in District 14 was so dependent on, were dependent on the ever-changing whims of the Capitol.

     Regardless of the fads though, the stores would never give Scarlet even a fraction of what the mayor bought the pieces for from their store. Cadmium, Crimson and Scarlet worked together to hone their skills and make a little extra income to help them survive in the harsh and bitter winters.

     Cadmium's ice carvings were good, but not great enough to give to the Capitol. Stores only gave him a single coin per sculpture anyways. Really, his sculptures were just a way for him to hone his skills until he was ready to start carving crystal pieces like Scarlet.

     Crimson didn't carve, but he designed the pieces and Scarlet's crystals contributed to most of their income, but only a few were deemed good enough to be sent to the Capitol.

     Mostly, what they earned each month between the three of them was enough to buy candles, wood scraps for a small occasional fire and cloth strips for Scarlet's feet—since she didn't have shoes of her own. They would buy a few pieces of ice for Cadmium to carve. Any crystals Scarlet wanted to carve were found in the scrap piles that other carvers dismissed as waste. 

     The truth was that there were not many people left in District 14 that had the ability to carve the small pieces that Scarlet could carve, which is why they were willing to pay at all for her carvings. Some carvers didn't even have all their fingers left due to the bitter cold weather that they lived in. 

      Carvers didn't make a lot of money here in District 14, only enough to survive on, but most of the other options were even bleaker. Even though Scarlet and her siblings didn't make hardly anything for all their efforts, Scarlet liked carving. She liked giving the so-called scrap pieces of crystal life and shape and form. 

     Scarlet's parents were not carvers. Their father, Bash Wolfe, was a trapper. Half the year he was away from their home, out in the wilderness, beyond the first perimeter, but well within the secondary perimeter of District 14. 

     Her mother, Harmony Wolfe, was the caretaker of their home. As far as Scarlet could tell, her main job was to have as many children as possible. Pregnant women get extra rations in District 14 and households with children under eight years old get more rations as well. 

     Scarlet could barely recall a time in her life when her mother wasn't pregnant with another little sibling. 

     Even with the money that Bash received, and the extra rations that their mother received, it still wasn't enough to keep the entire family well-fed. That was why Scarlet, Crimson, and Cadmium worked and sold carvings in their free time. 

     And, if they were lucky and had a few extra coins at the end of the month, they gave it to their parents. 

     For their family.