The Taste of Death ~ Hunger Games Fanfiction- Finnick/OC

*** District 14 Scarlet Wolfe Scarlet's back pressed against the roughened bark of a tree. Stillness surrounded her, matching the quiet around her for once and the emptiness in her chest. Being past the first border around District 14 was punishable by up to fifty lashes for anyone that wasn't a trapper out with armed Peacekeepers, yet that was where she found herself now. The cold bit at her skin like tiny needles, driving the cold deeper until it settled deep in her bones, erasing any sort of warmth her body held. Her hands were stiff, clumsy, the fingers too cold to bend. She hadn't felt her feet in an hour, buried as they were in the snow, numb from the cold. Her eyes burned and watered, her lips cracked, and her jaw sore from clenching it tight after each burst of wind that threatened to shred her skin to pieces across her face. Scarlet leaned her head back against the tree letting out a breath, watching as her breath fogged the air, before disappearing. The sky was bleak with thick grey clouds rolling in, the telltale sign that yet another snowstorm was on its way in and a staunch reminder that it wouldn't be safe to be out here much longer, yet she couldn't move. She couldn't bring herself to go back to that shell of a home where some lives held such high value while others held no worth. Somewhere out there, after miles and miles and miles of trees, there was supposedly a second barrier that marked the edge of District 14, yet no one had ever actually seen it. She wanted to. If only to prove that it existed. The weight settling in beside her jolted her back to reality. Her heart hammered against her ribs for a moment, her mind racing to any potential threats—a Peacekeeper or animal—but when she turned, it was only Crimson. She exhaled slowly, her heart slowing as the fear faded. The relief faded though, as she studied him. As her twin, she knew Crimson better than she knew anyone else in the entire world. A face so similar to hers, with a brain inside so different. They didn't get along most of the time. The things that bound them together were few and far between, but the primary ones were Cadmium and Honey. The siblings they chose to protect. His long black curls blew in the wind, his pale skin was flushed from the journey here and the harsh cold. Leaning against the tree, Crimson posed casually, with one leg bent and one arm resting carelessly over it. There was something unsettling about him today though. His face was carefully blank as he stared out at the woods in front of them. Something was weighing on his mind. After a day like today though, one could only guess what it was. Was it the same thing that weighed on hers? "What is it?" She asked as loud as she dared. She hated talking, but she hated going too long between words spoken and having to practice once again how to regulate her tone and pitch. Scarlet had lost her hearing sometime during her toddler years and though she could vaguely recall what some sounds sounded like; it wasn't clear anymore. As she grew, her desire to remain mute grew, but so did her desire to communicate with others. As one of only a handful of deaf people in District 14, Scarlet was not given any special consideration or assistance. She had had learned how to read lips with the help of her siblings, and with their help, she'd also learned how to talk relatively normally. Volume was what she struggled with the most. It was hard to gauge the volume of others around her and impossible to match it. Crimson turned toward her, giving her sight of his mouth. His lips moved slowly, and she focused on each curve of his mouth, making sure to not miss anything. "Aureolin's dead." Scarlet huffed out a breath and let her head fall back once more. "I was there." She had watched from the floor of their run-down house as her sister's death was showcased all across Panem. The first death in the 65th Hunger Games bloodbath. A spear through the chest by one of the Career Pack Tributes. She wanted to scream, but didn't dare let out a sound though she was far away from any homes or guard towers, a voice carried in the wind, especially a loud one. It wasn't fair. It wasn't supposed to be fair, but it should be. Aureolin had never stood a chance. From the moment she had volunteered for their sister Sienna, her fate was sealed. Watching it on the television had just made it real. Bitterness flooded her. Because Aureolin's fate...was Scarlet's fate. Was Crimson's and Cadmium's and Honey's. She didn't want it. That fate. She wanted...more. She wasn't supposed to. The Capitol had drilled it into her with the depressive state they kept District 14 in and forced each occupant to watch deteriorate year after year. She wasn't supposed to want more. Her parents reinforced that thought, labeling her a slaughter-child from the moment of her first breath, as if just by taking a single look at her, they had known that she had been born to die. Her only value came from her ability to protect her other siblings. Take any punishments, let them get food first, get the best clothes and first take on any shoes. She stared down at the scrapes of fabric wrapped around her feet as bitterness welled inside her. Scarlet, Crimson, Cadmium and Honey, they were only alive to get their others through the Reaping's. Aureolin had been the first. Forced to volunteer when Sienna's name had been drawn. But in all likelihood, she wouldn't be the last. Before Scarlet and Crimson aged out, either they or one of their other siblings would be reaped. They were expected to die for their siblings. She didn't want to die, let alone for any of them. In her mind she saw him. The boy with golden skin, perfect white teeth and piercing green eyes. He was young, but he was tall and strong and skilled. He threw the spear with a deadly accuracy that hadn't come from the three days of Training each tribute got once going to the Capitol. He killed Aureolin. In her mind she saw her sister, thin and frail, kind and giving to fault, holding onto nothing and letting go of every want and need she might have for herself. She was killed in the bloodbath. They were two sides of one coin. Strength. Weakness. Fight or die. Two opposites. Two choices. Two different paths that she could take. "I want to live." She blurted out so suddenly she had to cover her mouth with her hand, unable to believe for a second that they had actually been verbalized. Words that she had thought for a long time but had never been spoken aloud. The death of Aureolin had awoken something inside of herself that she had kept locked up but could no longer hold back. She shifted in the cold snow and faced Crimson, who was already looking back at her with his dark hazel eyes searching for answers she didn't have but wanted to find. The words burned on her tongue as if saying them out loud could bring the Capitol's wrath down on them. But the words were out now, impossible to take back. Her hand fell down to her side and a small thrill raced through her. "I want to live." She repeated once more, a little louder, the words reinforce the growing feeling inside of her and though she didn't know how to name it—the feeling that was inside of her—whether it was desperation or fear or bitterness, or determination—she knew it would be impossible to kill now that it had been given a voice. For a moment, he didn't say anything. His eyes flicked back toward the woods, as if weighing something unseen. Had he been thinking of running away? But when he turned back, the resolve had hardened in his gaze. "I want to live, too." Their lips curled at each other as they stared into each other's eyes. From this point on they wouldn't sit back and do nothing. She didn't know how, but she knew that they would not be as defenseless and unprepared as their sister had been. The air was cold, and the wind was harsh, but inside of them both were embers burning brightly, ready to grow into something bigger, something unstoppable.