A Whole New World ~ Nathan

It had been exactly one week since Mel left home on the rebel railway. Funnily enough, it had also been a week since Mel found out about the railway in the first place. The thirteen year old (soon to be fourteen year old, she realized with a jolt) had never ever considered running away from home, but after Donta’ death in the Hunger Games she had grown more and more angry with the Capitol and become increasingly frustrated about her inability to stop it. So when Taryn had informed her about the existence of a secret railway and offered to let her join, there was no way Mel was going to say no.

Choosing to leave her family, her friends, her entire life behind had been by far the most difficult decision of Mel’s short life, but the blonde had no regrets besides the short notice she had left for her family. Hopefully that had gotten her note (though it didn’t contain much information; Mel couldn’t exactly write down that she was joining a top secret rebel train) and weren’t too worried. They had already lost Donta, and Mel felt awful for causing them to lose another family member, but she truly believed that her mom and sisters would have supported her decision to fight against the very people who had killed Donta.

Mel had always thought that if, by some miracle, she left District 11, her life would be peaceful and simple. She imagined no peacekeepers, no classes about agriculture, and above all no endless hours of work in the orchards. This was not the case of the rebel train; Mel found herself working just as hard as she always had, if not harder. Not to mention she still didn’t really know any of her fellow rebels (wow, that felt strange, thinking of herself as a rebel) and was still trying to wrap her head around that fact that this whole thing was real. Despite these facts, though, the blonde was happier than she had been in a while; She’d found that for the first time since the reaping she was grateful for her resemblance to Donta; the other members of the railway hadn’t had a hard time believing that the sister of the little boy killed in the Games wanted to see the Capitol destroyed. Not to mention that, also for the first time, she was actually doing something to stop the Capitol, and it was a great feeling.

And speaking of doing something, today was the day Mel was going on her first mission. The train had come to a stop in District 10, and Mel had been ordered to go into town and get some food for the rebels. It was a simple enough task, but the thirteen year old was terrified as she began to walk through the woods toward the district, leaving the train off in the distance. What if someone saw her and knew she didn’t belong? What if she took too long and the train left without her? The ‘what-ifs’ went on and on, and try as she might Melody could not ignore the thoughts as she walked on.

As the woods cleared, Melody was struck by how different District 10 was from District 11. It was only one District away, but it felt like so much more. She saw a path leading to what she hoped was the town center, but Mel decided to walk along the edge of the woods. Woods were familiar, and in Mel’s opinion, woods were safe. Unfortunately, as she walked farther and farther, more and more space was appearing between the trees, forcing Mel to start darting from behind one and running a few feet before she could take cover behind another. It probably would have been a whole lot less obvious that she wasn’t supposed to be there if Mel had simply walked down the path like she knew what she was doing, but in the thirteen year old’s mind her method made perfect sense. Trees were always better than openness.

Mel’s heart was racing as she ran from tree to tree and she considered the odds of someone seeing her, but the chances of someone being this far from town were slim, right? Though this thought was really just an extremely pathetic attempt on Mel’s part to make herself feel better, as the girl had never been to District 10 and she had no idea how far she was from town. Come to think of it, she wasn’t even 100% sure the district even had a town center. Oh, boy. Being a rebel was a lot more difficult that Mel had thought.

The Peacekeepers face formed a sharp snarl as he walked past the people of District 10, he couldn’t trust any of them, and the blood was still on his hand from the last person he had had to sort out, he had certainly taught them to not steal from the market area again, though he had done the job secretly, a public punishment wasn’t necessary, it always hurt if constantly, everyday people ask how you got those scars, it always hurts more if people don’t know about it and if they ask, you’re safe if everyone knows, and Nathan wasn’t going to give that trouble maker that pleasure.

Nathan’s heavy foot hit the ground and his eyes scanned around, looking for the slightest sign of trouble or unrest, and he would pounce on it like an Eagle. Nothing escaped Nathan’s gaze or ‘Peacekeeper Johansson’ to the people of District 10. Nathan knew he was an endearing figure, he knew that people feared him, but he liked that fact, the fact that people were afraid of him gave Nathan a boost in self confidence, it was like taking candy from a baby, generally easy, but there was times when people didn’t fear him and were foolish enough to stand up to him, letting Nathan do his worst to them, and he loved it when that happened. The last person to do so ‘accidently’ ran into Nathan and Nathan had dragged him off the street and certainly done a great deal of damage, just that boys luck that he was stealing as well, it opened up an array of possibilities for Nathan, and he certainly had his fun even if his tank top was slightly stained with blood, and the bag of stolen goods under his arm, he was heading back to the main square to have a word with the person who had either let the boy take the goods or had generally been ignorant enough to not keep an eye out, Nathan knew he was stealing though, the boy, it was obvious the way he ran, looking to and throw, it was rather unmistakable.

He reached the town square and eventually found his way to the Grocery store, and he waited for the man to appear, and placed the bag on the desk, slightly harder than necessary, “Just look after your stock in future , or else.” He said with a slight glare, before causally lifting his hands of the desk, uncrossing his legs, stepping away from his leaning position and walking off, his brow creased low and eyes wide alert again, he moved out of the town centre and out towards the part of the District which was nearer to the woods, his glare became less potent and less frequent as he advanced, but now he was on the outer borders and he leaned against a tree, arms folded to add to his aura of power and one leg propped up against the bark. From here he could see a rather great deal of what was going on in District 10, people going by doing as they should be, watching after the livestock, Nathan could see the cows in the distance the small places that the people called ‘houses’ though Nathan never really bothered to mention that in public, he reckoned that a full uprising from District 10 because of that was the last thing that the Capitol would want, though he didn’t linger on the thought for too long.

His gaze was caught by several different events one was a man struggling to carry some largish object, but Nathan just sat there and watched as the man struggled, though he didn’t torment him, though he was a Peacekeeper he wasn’t that cruel, he was undeniably evil and brutish but only when he wanted or had to be and he saw no need to do any such thing to the man. Though the next thing that caught his attention was a quick movement, and it seemed to come from a tree slightly to the right of were Nathan was standing, Nathan was now on full guard and his leg that was propped against the tree moved to form a straight orientation before rubbing his face with his finger and slowly, but with large strides walking over to the source of the movement, removed to the left slightly to get a full view, then he saw the girl, his first reaction was that she was just a normal girl from District 10, and he couldn’t really suss out much about her, he couldn’t tell if she was meant to be there or not, so he asked a simple question to begin with, his arms folded so his arm muscles tensed up to add to his aura and his head emotionlessly looking at the small little girl, “What, may ask do you think you’re up to?”

This sneaking around thing was pretty fun if you asked Mel. Maybe it was because she was accustomed to spending time in trees anyways, but she was slowly beginning to feel more confident about her mission. That is, until she had to dash through a particularly large gap between trees and heard a voice directed towards her just before she could reach her destination.

“What, may I ask do you think you’re up to?”

Mel whirled around to find herself only feet away from a peacekeeper. A very big, scary, peacekeeper. Her eyes widened as she started up at him, and Mel was certain that he could hear her heart thumping against her chest at a mile a minute. Oh gosh. This was bad. Of all the people who could have spotted Mel, why did it have to be a peacekeeper? And…was that blood on his shirt? In that instant, Melody became convinced that she was going to die. This peacekeeper had called her out because he knew she didn’t belong here in District 10, and any second now he was going to shoot her. Or maybe he would take her back to the Capitol and use her as an example for all the rebels.

Oh…the rebels.

The next feeling that struck Mel was one of shame. Here she was on her first mission for the railway, and she had gotten herself caught by a peacekeeper. What if he figured out how she got here and found out the railway? Would Taryn get in trouble for recruiting Mel? Would all of the other rebels get killed? Hopefully the incredibly intimidating peacekeeper would just think Mel had walked through the woods, and the rest of the railway would be safe. But they would still know that the blonde had failed and gotten caught on her very first mission when she didn’t return with any supplies.

A new thought occurred to Mel that made her feel even more awful, if that was even possible; Donta had managed to survive six days in the freaking Hunger Games, and Mel couldn’t even make it a single day getting supplies from District 10. It was this thought that gave Mel the determination she needed to not give up right then and there. She had joined the railway to stop the Capitol, the very people who had caused her little brother’s death, and she absolutely would not give up without trying to get out of her predicament.

Trying her best to compose herself and hide the fact that she was now shaking like a leaf, Mel pushed back all her feelings of fear, anger, and hopelessness that had passed across her face in a matter of seconds and (rather unsuccessfully) attempted a small smile. She was going to play innocent for now, and hope against hope that it would work. It was really the only option she had at the moment, because the blonde certainly wasn’t going to say “Hi, I’m Mel and I came here on a secret railway to get supplies for the rebels.” That would go over wonderfully. No, she was definitely playing innocent, and fortunately her size and cuteness would probably help a little. Well, maybe. Then again, this peacekeeper didn’t exactly look like a softy. He probably wouldn’t hesitate to kill Mel on the spot. And with that comforting thought, Mel decided she had better get on with her explanation.

“Oh, um, hello.” Mel’s voice came out as a tiny squeak, which probably wasn’t helping with the whole “innocent” thing, but she cleared her throat and continued in a slightly stronger voice, “I was just, uh…” Oh, boy. Excuse, excuse, excuse, Mel needed an excuse. She frantically racked her brain until she came up with, “I was just practicing running between the trees.”

Okay, that was quite possibly the weakest excuse she could have given the peacekeeper, and Mel knew it, so the blonde quickly added, “You see, I want to be a peacekeeper someday, so I was trying to be sneaky!” There. That sounded pretty good, right? “I guess I wasn’t doing such a great job. Could you maybe show me some tricks?” By now Mel was feeling pretty proud of herself. If she was lucky, her question would distract the peacekeeper and he wouldn’t question her anymore. Unfortunately, Mel’s luck hadn’t been too good lately, so there was no telling how he would react.

As Nathan spoke the girl stopped in her tracks and Nathan was looking down at her though he couldn’t tell if she was from District 10 or not, it was rather hard to tell, and Nathan hadn’t been to any other District apart from District 2.

The knowledge that Nathan had scared the girl gave him a good feeling, it meant that she knew she was below him, or at least that he could do some pretty nasty things to her, and Nathan didn’t talk, he only listened, and the words he got only made his suspicion grow, she came across rather timid, which didn’t surprise Nathan really, but she stuttered which Nathan had learned was a sign of improvisation. Though Nathan didn’t interrupt, he just kept his stance, tall and straight arms folded and eyebrows slightly lower than usual.

Her excuse was rather odd, and Nathan couldn’t make out if it was an insult to his intelligence or if she had more to add, so he didn’t answer just reared his head back slightly in confusion, but luckily for the girl she elaborated her explanation, and she said that she wanted to be a Peacekeeper when she was older and that she was practicing being sneaky, and that she wanted Nathan to tech her some tricks. This excuse was just as confusing as her first; did she truly not know that Peacekeepers came from District 2, apparently not, though Nathan still went with it, a slight sneer on his face.

“Yeah... hello to you to girl.” He said emotionlessly, his arms still folded, not holding out his hand like a proper gentlemen would. “Well to be honest you’re not doing a good job at all, plus Peacekeeping doesn’t really involve being sneaky and Peacekeepers usually come from District 2.” Nathan looked down at the girl before deciding his next words. He was slightly annoyed with this girl, her excuse wasn’t really good enough in the first place, “But that doesn’t give you the right to go around looking all suspicious, if you were caught stealing or something along those lines then believe me I won’t hesitate to kill you, and I won’t use a gun.” He now unfolded his arms and cracked his knuckles, looked to the right, “No one will know about it either.” Nathan know gave a slight smile before brushing his shirt and wiping away some of the blood. “Now' about being a Peacekeeper, you need to learn how to be big and scary, even if you’re small and feeble,” He paused for a second, examining the girl, “Yeah, you wanna’ be a Peacekeeper you’re going to have to work on that.”

Nathan didn’t really believe what she had said as her excuse was true; in fact it was quite the opposite, though he wanted her to get into a false sense of security, and then he hoped she would spill the beans without him having to force it out of her, this was one of the things that Nathan could do best, besides his brute strength, he had the power to be rather persuasive in situations like this, he then introduced himself, “My name is Nathan Johansson, but it’s Peacekeeper Johansson to you, and I’d be surprised if you haven’t heard of me.” Nathan was stalling slightly and he was still trying to suss out if the girl was from District 10 or not, it was really hard, though Nathan didn’t show it in his face. He shut up now to give the girl a chance to speak, and he would then use the way in which she spoke as an indicator to help him come to a conclusion.

Looking away from the girl and standing straight again, Nathan noticed some men walking down the path, and he glared at them secretly, they were trouble makers to say the least, and he was always having to sort them out, though it had become more of a sport for the young man, he liked sorting trouble makers out, and he had become rather well known for it, he liked to be the one that inflicted the torture or punishments to people, though his favourite way of getting to people was dragging them by their clothes and sorting them out down an alleyway, after all secrets were much scary than a wide congregation.

“So then little girl, what were you really up to?” He broke the ice, and dropped down onto his knees get generally close to the girl’s height, he had now broken the ice.

In any other situation, Mel would not have tolerated being called “girl”, but she wasn’t about to argue with the peacekeepers standing before her. Mel simply did her best to not show that she was trembling and to not burst into tears as the peacekeeper completely tore apart her feeble excuse for sneaking around. It was certainly true that the blonde had never seen a peacekeeper sneaking around, and it was also obviously true that Melody had been doing a horrible job of it. That was why she was in this situation in the first place, after all. As for peacekeepers coming from District 2, well, Mel had never heard of that before. But it did make sense; as far as Mel knew, nobody had ever left District 11 to train to become a peacekeeper, so it made sense that they came from somewhere. She’d just never really bothered to find out, since peacekeepers were something she generally tried to avoid.

Before Mel could even respond to what the peacekeeper had said, however, he continued speaking, and his words caused a small squeak to involuntary leave Mel’s throat. Her eyes widened as she attempted to process why he had just said what he said, and it took all of Mel’s self-control not to take several steps backward, away from the peacekeeper of doom. Did he say he could kill her because he knew she was doing something wrong, or was he simply being hypothetical? The fourteen year old didn’t even want to consider how he was planning on killing her. Hypothetically…hopefully. Mel considered making a break for it – she could maybe climb a tree before the peacekeeper could reach her-but before she could even reject the idea, the peacekeeper had abruptly changed the subject back to her excuse.

Now Melody was more confused than ever; did the peacekeeper believe her or not? Choosing to cling to the hope that the peacekeeper did believe her, Mel nodded at his statement, deciding now was not an appropriate time to get annoyed at being called small and feeble. The blonde had to admit that his description of her felt very accurate at the moment. After the peacekeeper’s introduction she quickly replied, “Oh, yes. Of course I’ve heard of you, Peacekeeper Johansson.” Hopefully that wasn’t a trick question, but Mel had no way of knowing whether or not she said the right thing. All she knew was that if this guy figured out that she wasn’t from District 10, she was dead.

Despite the silence hanging in the air, Mel didn’t want to risk saying anything else, so she simply stood quietly, waiting for her future murderer the peacekeeper to say anything more. The silence was making Mel even more nervous, if that was even possible, but she couldn’t afford to say the wrong thing and completely give herself away. That was assuming, of course, that the peacekeeper didn’t already know she was an outsider and was just stringing her along for fun, but the more Mel thought about that the more nervous she became. It was much easier for the fourteen year old to convince herself that the peacekeeper had believed her story. And she was doing a fairly good job of it too, right up until the big scary peacekeeper broke the silence.

At his words Mel’s blood ran cold, and the fact that he was now kneeling at almost her own height offered her no comfort. All that, and he hadn’t believed her? The blonde’s heart began pounding even faster than it already was as she racked her panicked brain for a new, better excuse, but she was coming up blank. Her voice quavering slightly, Mel finally managed to say, “I told you, sir, I was practicing sneaking around.” Sticking to her original story was the best and only idea Mel had been able to come up with. Maybe this was just a test, and he would still believe her? “I-I’m sorry it gave you the wrong impression.” She added quickly. Surely acting apologetic would get her some favor from the peacekeeper, right? “It won’t happen again, Peacekeeper Johansson, sir.” There, politeness. Politeness was good. Mel looked down at the ground as she spoke, afraid of what she would see if she looked into the peacekeeper’s face, and blinked back the tears that were threatening to fall.

((I am SO sorry about this being so late, I promise I'll be quicker from now on.))

From what Nathan could acquire from the girl, his wording had had the desired effect. He wanted to confuse her, he wanted her to be confused, he wanted her to not know where his thoughts were going, and he wanted the girl to fall into his ever so effective trap. He raised his brow when she said she had heard his name, nodding to make sure she knew that he was satisfied. But he didn’t speak. He just waited for her to react.

Then the blow came, and to be honest her excuse was pathetic, she just backed up her actions by insisting that she was telling the truth, though fair play to her, to most of the other Peacekeepers she would have been quite convincing, but Nathan could see past her small size and cute nature, he snorted in retort to her words before sighing and speaking in his deep voice, “Well if that turns out to be the truth, then it will be taken the wrong way, and you would be shot down without someone thinking twice, after all sneakers, are nothing but trouble makers, and just because you don’t,” he moved his head to one side squinted then returned to his normal glance, “,have the physical complexion of a trouble maker, or someone tough, it doesn’t give you an edge on all the other psycho’s from District 10, or any other District for that matter. Oh and you gave me no impression of anything.” His last words were pure rotten lies, he knew fully well that the girl had intentions, he just wanted to find out what these intentions were, so he turned to sneaky mode, maybe he would be able to teach the girl a lesson or two on the matter.

Her politeness was good, and being called sir made Nathan eel far superior o the girl, it was a natural psychological thing, but at least she knew where she stood in this feudal like system, near the bottom, Nathan was certainly not at the top, but he was the higher up of the two here, and the fact that the girl knew this meant that he didn’t have to use physical force to get the message across, which was good, for both the girl and him. “What’s your name then girl?” He said with a huff as he went back to his full height and folded his arms again, something he had come accustomed to because of being a peacekeeper, though why he did it almost constantly he couldn’t say.

“No snappy shortcut names which can have any meaning, full name.” Nathan was ready for the girl to crumble, a name was a powerful thing and judging from this girl’s general composer, head low and fighting back tears, she wasn’t exactly going to decline, though she could prove him wrong, though Nathan highly doubted that.

Nathan was having a hard time placing where this girl was from, he hadn’t really seen her before, she didn’t have a District 10 look about her, but strangely at the same time she did and it was something that fazed Nathan more than anything, he was ready to ask her the question, ‘Where do you live.’ But no, that would give away that he had the idea that she didn’t belong here, so he decided to leave it at, “So you say you where practising sneaking around trees? Well I would teach you, but first you need to learn that sneaking is bad, and that if I catch you again without my permission then I will be forced to break your neck in front of the people of District 10, is that understood?” Nathan loved the feeling of being semi-evil, it was such a satisfying notion, and he knew it would work, he still didn’t trust the girl, she just had that aura of a child caught doing the wrong thing, and she knew she had done something wrong, it was quite odd seeing her suck up to Nathan, in Nathan’s eyes she was acting innocent, though whether she was innocent or not he had no idea, though something told him she was doing something wrong, or something to aid herself. Though he wasn’t letting her get away, he had broken the ice, now he was making out that he was starting to believe her again, it was like a cat toying with a bird before it killed it, deadly.

At the Peacekeeper’s response to her sticking with her excuse, Mel wasn’t sure whether to feel relief or more panic. On one hand, he didn’t come right out and say that he didn’t believe her excuse. So maybe, just maybe, there was a small chance he believed it. On the other hand, he had most definitely come right out and said that her excuse didn’t matter. She had been sneaking around, so regardless of the reason, the apparently trigger-happy Peacekeeper seemed set on getting Mel into some kind of trouble. In the end the blonde’s panic won out, as she knew it would. However, as her interrogation continued Mel was slowly gaining confidence, so she had a (very) slightly easier time responding to Peacekeeper Johansson, still maintaining her innocent façade. “Oh, it is the truth, Peacekeeper Johansson. I don’t want an edge on anyone, sir.” Oh, please let that work. Mel wasn’t sure she would be able to come up with another excuse, especially because that would mean her first excuse hadn’t worked, so she would have to make a new excuse that included an excuse for her first excuse and-

Oh, this sneaking around thing was much more difficult than Mel originally thought it would be.

Mel shrunk back slightly as the Peacekeeper stood up once again. Goodness he was tall. Was this how Donta had felt during the games, surrounded by all the older kids? Thinking of her little brother once again gave Mel a tiny bit more confidence-she reminded herself yet again that if Donta had to face 23 other tributes in the Hunger Games, surely Mel could make it through a conversation with a single peacekeeper. Right?

And now the Peacekeeper was asking her name? Melody was almost happy he had asked this question, since it was one she had actually prepared an answer to. The blonde had come up with her false name before entering the district, so she easily replied, “Tori Johnson, sir.” She’d chosen Tori since it was one of her sisters’ names, and Johnson because it was hopefully common enough not to draw any extra attention. Mel would see soon enough, she supposed.

Noticing the Peacekeeper’s scrutiny, Mel averted her gaze to the ground once again. It seemed the Peacekeeper still wasn’t entirely convinced she was from District 10, and the last thing she needed was for him to realize she was an outsider. Just the thought of that set Mel off trembling again, though fortunately less than she had originally. The blonde’s confidence was still building ever so slowly, seeing as she was still alive and completely falling for the Peacekeeper’s whole ‘I believe you’ charade.

The thirteen-year-old’s belief that the Peacekeeper believed her was solidified even more as he offered to teach her to sneak around. Surely he wouldn’t offer to do a thing like that if he didn’t believe Mel, right? Then again, if he believed her would have needed to add such a… menacing warning to his statement? This guy sure knew a lot of ways to kill and/or brutally injure people, and he seemed intent on telling Mel all of them before their conversation was over. But the blonde knew that if she dwelled on his warnings, she would crumble and burst into tears, and that wouldn’t do any good. So Mel forced herself to look up at the tall man standing before her and gave a feeble nod in response to his warning. “Understood, Peacekeeper Johansson, sir.” Oh yes, Mel was going to keep up this politeness thing for as long as she possibly could. Hopefully she wasn’t overdoing it.

Now was the time that Mel guessed she could either let the Peacekeeper continue to decide where the conversation was headed, or she could attempt to take control. The blonde had no idea how to do so, but it was worth a try, so she quickly added, “Um, If you don’t mind, sir, my parents are going to wonder where I am if don’t get home soon.” Mel was hoping against hope that the Peacekeeper would let her go, but she had a bad feeling this conversation was not going to end that easily. As much as she wanted to just start walking away and see how the man responded, Mel forced herself to stay where she was and wait for a response. It would probably just make her look even more suspicious if she took off without the Peacekeeper’s permission, and she doubted he would hesitate to demonstrate one of the lovely options he had suggested for killing her. And that was something Mel could go without, thank you very much.

((No worries, I've been slacking off myself so it's totally fine~!))

Nathan’s face formed a frown, the girl wasn’t convincing him really, and saying that she didn’t want an edge on people, “Huh? Fine then.” Nathan didn’t speak anymore until the girl had finished. Nathan’s eyes managed to look at her face, and he wasn’t taking any rubbish from her, so when she said her name, Tori Johnson, Nathan sneered, though didn’t say anything until she had finished, she made a rash excuse that she should really be going, a motion which Nathan was extremely unhappy with so he took a step forward, “Oh you aren’t going anywhere Miss Johnson.” He expressed her last name, he knew she was lying; it was rather obvious to a trained eye, though he didn’t really make any physical attempt to stop the girl apart from stepping towards her.

“You say you are a Johnson, I doubt that. Don’t you think it’s a bit odd that you manage to come up with such a rubbish fake name? And don’t you even think about giving me the whole, Oh Sorry sir but that is my name.” Nathan’s face formed a scowl and his eyes glared into the girls, “At least you know your place. You aren’t going anywhere missy. Your parents can wait for a while after all I won’t...do anything.” Nathan sneered again, and he spoke again, “Now follow me, try anything funny and I will find you, and you will regret trying my patience.” He signalled with his hand for the girl to follow him, hopefully she would run away, it would give Nathan so much fun, and it would certainly keep him occupied.

Almost as soon as he turned around someone was in his face, though luckily it was someone he recognised, he was going t punch the figure until he realised it was Shawn, another Peacekeeper ,though he looked around and he managed a glance over at the trouble makers walking by and he completely forgot about Shawn for a second, he was too busy admiring his work, satisfied with the job he had done, marks clearly visible on their skin, though Nathan knew that not all of those marks were made by him, there were over Peacekeepers around, and they used weapons to get order, something that Nathan saw as a slight sign of weakness, though he didn’t dare to say it, after all he needed to keep a positive atmosphere between his fellow Peacekeepers and him. Shawn was the second best Peacekeeper after Nathan, or that was how most people in District 10 saw things and Nathan decided to address him firmly not looking back at the girl, “Ah Shawn, thank god I finally get to speak to someone that isn’t mental.” He spoke with a tone of disgust, Nathan was taller than Shawn, but the height difference wasn’t very big, and Nathan loved the fact that they got along; they were quite a formidable team.

“Yeah, so I just found this girl, she claims to have been sneaking between trees, yeah I don’t believe her either.” He added the smart remark at the end when Shawn chuckled to himself, Nathan wasn’t really too fussed about the girls motives, however he wanted to demean her, and he wanted to make her feel as though she was done for, she wasn’t yet, though there wasn’t really any positive notion that was coming from the whole experience, and Nathan did want to break the girl apart, he didn’t have enough information yet, “She says her name is Tori Johnson, I have deemed it fake, since that is not a common name in District 10 at all, though I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt for now, unless she can prove her name of course.” Nathan didn’t really look at Shawn when he spoke, he was too interested in watching the trouble makers do what they did best, make trouble, though for now it wasn’t serious.

Once Nathan had finished Shawn walked up to the girl, ready to ask her something, but Nathan interrupted Shawn before he could speak, “Hey go sort em out will you.” He then turned to the girl, “I just saved your skin there, you should be grateful.” He said with a slightly twisted smirk, “Now then we’ll try again what’s your real name?”

All of Mel’s newfound confidence disappeared the moment the peacekeeper expressed his disbelief about her name. Her fake name had been the one thing the blonde had been completely sure about, the one thing she’d been ready for someone to ask her, and she had probably just given herself away even more. How was she supposed to know Johnson wasn’t a district 10 name? It had been so common in District 11, but maybe that should have been her first clue to not use it in District 10.

The fourteen year old shrunk back under the man’s glare, bur forced herself to stay where she was. The last thing Mel needed to do was give the peacekeeper an excuse to do something to her, and his next words made it clear that he was thinking along the same lines. And now she had to follow him? Mel hesitated as Peackeeper Johansson motioned for her to follow him. Should she run? Mel was still sure he could catch her, but she really, really didn’t want to know where he was taking her. The blonde decided she would follow the man for now, but if he led her too far into town, she would have to try to make a break for it. She couldn’t afford to get trapped in the middle of the District.

Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately, now that she thought about it), it seemed there was someone standing right behind the peacekeeper that seemed to distract him from going anywhere. Mel had been so caught up in her own situation that she had been just as surprised by the man’s arrival as Peacekeeper Johansson, so she gave a small jump upon seeing the new man. Once she got over her shock and was able to take a good look at the man, Mel’s fear increased tenfold.

Of all the people who could have approached them, it was a second peacekeeper. Mel tried her best to look innocent, but it was quite a hard thing to do when she was shaking, struggling to control her breathing, and trying to discreetly wipe the sweat from her palms. She was so scared that she hardly noticed Peacekeeper Johansson’s insult to her intelligence, and had she heard it Mel probably would have agreed. She was mental for thinking she could run away from home and join a secret railway and take down the capitol without getting caught.

Mel silently watched the Peacekeepers’ exchange, doing her best to remain invisible the whole time, which was an extremely difficult thing to do when the conversation was about her. With each word that Peacekeeper Johansson uttered to the new peacekeeper, Mel’s sense of hope grew dimmer and dimmer. She was done for; the peacekeeper had caught her, seen through her pathetic lies, and now he was telling a second peacekeeper about her, who would probably go and report her to even more peacekeepers. Even if Mel did somehow miraculously manage to escape (the odds of which were nearly impossible by this point), there would probably be wanted posters of her all over this district, if not in every single other district as well.

Before Mel could allow her depressing train of thought to go any further, she realized that the peacekeepers had stopped talking and the new one was approaching her. Oh no. This was it. He was going to ask her a question, and Mel was positive she wouldn’t be able to answer it without making her predicament much, much worse. However, before the new peacekeeper could speak, Peacekeeper Johansson interrupted him and sent him after some other troublemakers.

At the peacekeeper’s next words, Mel wasn’t sure whether she should feel grateful or even more scared, but since she figured it was impossible for her to be more afraid than she was in that very moment, Mel allowed herself to feel the tiniest bit of gratitude toward the peacekeeper. At least, until he asked her name again. Oh gosh. What should she do? Stick to her fake name? Mel highly doubted that would work. Try another fake name? Mel was at a loss as to what kind of names were believable around here, though.

No, the only thing Mel could bring herself to do was tell the peacekeeper her real name and hope for the best. After bracing herself, Mel opened her mouth to find that no sound came out. She quickly closed it, took a deep breath, and tried again. “M-Melody. Melody F-Fraeder.” Mel held her breath, waiting. This was the moment of truth. There were numerous possibilities as to what could happen now. He could recognize her last name and realize she was Donta’s sister (and therefore from District 11), but Mel was banking on the fact that she didn’t know the names of many of the tributes outside her own district, so hopefully the peacekeeper wouldn’t either. Then there was the possibility that he still wouldn’t believe her name, since it may not be common here, but Mel was counting on the fact that she had been telling the truth, so he would have to believe her. And finally, the result the fourteen year old was hoping for, was that he would believe her name and accept it as being from District 10. But since everything she’d encountered here so far was nothing at all like District 11, Mel wasn’t putting too much stock in the hope that the names would be the same.

As Nathan watched the girl he could sense she was scared, but he let her breath, well as much as he could, Nathan was certainly not surprised when she said her real name that she stuttered, though it confirmed that it was her real name, and he believed her now, “Well then Melody, at least you can speak the truth when need be.” He said with a stern nod. He couldn’t make up his mind if the name was common in District 10, but he knew that it was definitely a name he had heard before, probably the sir-name, but he couldn’t think up where he had heard it before, the fact that it reminded him of something was actually rather scary, though not in a fearful manner.

Eventually he came to the conclusion that Melody was telling the truth, and that she was from District 10, “So then Melody, you seemed like you were in a rush to get home? May I ask why, since it is rather early, and both your parents should be at work now?” Nathan hoped that he had gotten at her again, after all she would either get her or her parents into trouble now, though his trust in Melody had gone up now, he couldn’t really see her as someone who would want to get into trouble, though Nathan was still optimistic.

Whilst Nathan waited for a reply from Melody, he looked around at the environment in which he had caught her, it was a woodland area of the District, and it was were the forest stopped and ran into the main town, so it provided remarkably good cover, something that made Nathan feel proud that he had caught her. Even though he definitely didn’t want to admit that she had nearly gotten away with it.

By now Nathan had no intention in taking melody into the town, after all he was only going to interrogate her for her real name, but he had gotten the desired effect now, without having to move more than a meter. Though he still had the plan of taking her into the Town of she didn’t answer any more of his questions, not that Melody could tell from his actions. For now though he decided to let the girl have a breather from questions and he decided to go and walk over to the nearest building.

Once he got there he took a barrel which was leaning on the wall grabbed it over his arm placed it in front of her and spoke, slightly brutish, “Sit.” He then did the same again and he sat on his own Barrel, he didn’t care who they belonged to, but he was tired of standing up, Nathan had to admit himself that he changed his actions far too quickly, though he didn’t really care. It was simply to get the message over to Melody that he was in charge, though something told Nathan that she had already got the message, though sitting down was one of those, I am ordering you around, type of actions, and it implied interrogation, and the way in which Nathan spoke definitely emphasised the fact that he was ordering her about, he spoke sharply, and quite spitefully, even though that was his general tone, he made it far worse, by simply raising his voice.

“Now then, is there anything you wish to tell me?” He said with a raise of his brow, though he definitely didn’t look too concerned, after all Melody had redeemed herself, and Nathan didn’t take ‘No’ for an answer anyway, so he would most probably force her to answer him, or make up another question that had a definite answer. And he knew that Melody would struggle with any more interrogation, so if she had any sense then she would come up with something that didn’t insult Nathan in any way at all, and was an actual problem that concerned Nathan.

This meeting was rather odd for Nathan, he couldn’t place Melody in any category, he couldn’t say is she was bad or good, law-abiding or a rule breaker, his initial thought was the latter and he certainly didn’t like to admit that she was law-abiding, but in general law she had done nothing much for Nathan to punish her for, yes, he had caught her sneaking around, but she had practically redeemed herself by telling him his real name. Granted it was after interrogation, this was the fact that worried Nathan the most, the fact that he couldn’t place her, he couldn’t do anything to hurt her, and he so wanted to hurt her, break her, he had done so mentally already, but Physically breaking someone entailed so much more satisfaction in Nathan, the fact that he could injure someone, it was a wonderful thing in his eyes, and Melody was taking that privilege away from him, and the fact that she was a girl didn’t help matters either.

Turning his head round at the slightest noise he picked up Nathan could see a group of kids messing around, though he didn’t think much of it, and he just glared at them, though they couldn’t see him doing so, they were laughing at a vaguely distinguishable object that was too far away for Nathan to directly pinpoint, even though his eyesight was generally okay, not that this bothered Nathan in the slightest, “You know them?” He said moving his hand from resting on his knee and pointing it in the direction of the kids, though he wasn’t really expecting a yes from Melody, she didn’t seem like the snitch type person, not that Nathan really cared who they were he just wanted to see what type of person Melody was before going much further.

He believed her. He believed her! Mel let out the breath she’d been holding in a barely audible sigh of relief. Unfortunately, that relief was extremely short-lived, because then the peacekeeper was asking her yet another question, and this was one Mel didn’t have an honest answer to. Her eyes widened as the Peacekeeper spoke, and Mel was struck by the sudden urge to bang her head against a wall. Why, oh why had she gone and opened her big mouth? Of course her parents should be at work right now! In fact…should Mel be in school? Being on the railway had caused Mel to lose track of the date, so she was constantly guessing as to what day it was. But…no, it had to be a weekend. If Mel should have been in school, surely the peacekeeper would have mentioned it by now.

So, now she just needed to think of a reason as to why her parents would be expecting her home. The thirteen year old racked her brains for a suitable answer, and came up with, “Oh, uh, they are at work.” Hopefully that hadn’t been a trick question. Everyone worked on weekends in District 11, so Mel was assuming the same applied here. “But m-my older sisters are expecting me home, and if I’m not there soon, they’ll tell my parents about it.” Mel was not a very good liar, but hopefully the fact that she’d drawn from the real experience of her sisters watching her and Donta while their mom worked would help her a bit. Nevermind her shaky voice, but that couldn’t be helped.

Either her answer had worked, or the peacekeeper was just messing with her, because then he walked to a nearby building and returned with a barrel, which he placed in front of her. Mel almost thought he was being nice until her ruined it by ordering her to sit. The blonde didn’t hesitate to obey, so she immediately pulled herself onto the barrel and sat down as straight as she could manage, her hands folded in her lap. Mel hadn’t realized how tired she was of standing, and at least Peacekeeper Johansson wasn’t trying to take her anywhere. Well, not yet.

As the peacekeeper went to retrieve his own barrel, Mel took a few deep breaths and attempted to compose herself. It didn’t look like he would allow her to leave any time soon, and that made Mel nervous. By the time she got away from this guy, she would probably have to return to the train without any food. And that was assuming she didn’t get arrested, killed, or left behind. So much for making a good impression on her first mission.

By the time the peacekeeper returned, Mel had only succeeded in making herself even more nervous, and she was doing all she could to hold back a fresh round of tears. She looked at him with wide eyes as he asked his next question. Did she have anything to tell him? Yeah, right. Like Mel was going to come out and say, ‘Oh, actually, I forgot to mention that I’m a rebel from District 11 traveling on a secret railway to stop the Capitol. Thanks for asking!’ Ha. As much as she doubted it would work, Mel was going to attempt to play innocent yet again. If anything, at least it would buy her a bit more time to come up with something adequate to tell him, because goodness knows her panicked brain couldn't think of anything right now. “Um, n-no sir.” Mel managed to stammer her reply out with a tiny shake of her head. Please let him believe her.

By now, Mel was nearing her breaking point. She was still getting over the loss of Donta, she’d left all her family and friends behind in District 11, and now she was alone in a strange District being interrogated by an extremely scary peacekeepers, and she didn’t have any honest answers to give him. The blonde really wasn’t sure how many more questions she would be able to make up answers to before she did something drastic, and she really hoped she wouldn’t find the answer.

Lucky for Mel, the peacekeeper’s next question was not about her, and it was one she could answer honestly. At least, she hoped she could, and that the kids the peacekeeper had indicated were not so well known around the District that she would be expected to know them. But since Peacekeeper Johansson didn’t seem too fond of the boys, she wouldn’t very well be able to prove she knew the kids, and Mel apparently was a terrible liar, she went with the truth. She turned her gaze from the kids back to the peackeeper and answered, “N-no, Peacekeeper Johansson, sir,” before quickly looking back down at her hands. The less she had to look at her possible future murderer, the better.

Mel’s excuse was not one that convinced Nathan entirely; most families stuck together these days due to the Capitol and the Hunger Games, though Nathan didn’t show that he wasn’t convinced, his eye twitched slightly but the movement was far too small for Mel to pick anything up, or at least that was what Nathan hoped, though he did say something to her that he hoped would somewhat faze her,”Well if that is true then I am sure that you’re sisters would be working too? I take it they aren’t all younger than you?” She should have known that the working age in most of the Districts in Panem was rather low; many children had to work, sometimes because of their parents, other times it was because of rules.

The girls stuttering was still apparent and it gave Nathan a rather negative impression, he could tell if she felt nervous all because of the stutter, though it managed to faze Nathan at the same time, he didn’t like the fact that Mel was confusing him and he bit his lip in frustration, though when she stuttered again Nathan started to lose his patience, though he spoke to her with an essence of peace in his voice, “Now, Mel, I shall call you that from now on. You’re stuttering is giving me a headache now if I was you, I would shut up with the stuttering, and speak like a normal person.” A glare came from Nathan which would have looked far more sinister if Nathan wasn’t grinning, it gave him a handsome look which was rather odd for a Peacekeeper, though Nathan knew he was doing it, and stopped immediately, grumbling in distaste at the fact that he couldn’t penetrate this girl, she was far harder to crack than he had first thought, though he was pleased with the job he had done so far, after all Nathan had made her stutter, even though that could be taken as both bad and good in Nathan’s book.

Nathan was getting bored of this now, and he was losing interest in his prey which had managed to defend itself, albeit in a way that dissatisfied the Peacekeeper. Nathan rubbed his eyes with his knuckles before sighing and looking back at Mel, “Kid, you’re unintentionally annoying me, at least try and be a bit more cooperative. Now what are you really up to? And don’t say running around trees, or I shall be forced to use force to get the answer I want.” He spoke with spite in his voice, cracking his knuckles and spreading out his fingers before clenching them.

If Mel gave Nathan one more pathetic answer he was going to lose his temper and lash out on the child, Nathan didn’t care what Gender or how old she was, any person from any District besides District 2 were scum in his book, though Nathan didn’t like people from other Districts the only reason he agreed to become a Peacekeeper was because he loved the prospect of breaking people, both mentally and physically. It was just a wonderful thing for Nathan, he admitted that now he had been District 10 for a while he felt slightly sympathetic to the people at the end of his punishments but in general he didn’t care and just got on with the fun part, maiming.

No one got on the wrong side of Nathan and got away with it, though something told Nathan that tides were turning and soon someone would...beat him? No way, it wasn’t possible, Nathan was having a conversation with his consciousness but he still watched Mel as he did so, jaw clenching as he did so, probably giving Mel the impression that Nathan was seriously thinking about punishing her, though he had no reason yet, one slip up was all it would take for Nathan to have the privilege of thinking up an evil way to punish her, the temptation was getting to Nathan and he was slipping into a daydream world.

Snapping himself back to reality, Nathan rubbed his eyes again blinking, which was slightly over exaggerated, and he made it obvious to Mel that he was bored off this. He just wanted to get on with it and she was getting in the way. To entertain himself Nathan tapped the side of the Barrel in a rhythmical way constantly cutting his gaze between the Barrel, and Mel.

The Peacekeeper’s next words left Mel wanting to bang her head on a wall for a second time. Of course her older sisters would be working! In fact, if she’d been back home, Mel herself should have been working. Hopefully that wasn’t the case here, but Mel quickly tried to salvage the remains of her already pathetic lie. “Oh, um, they are working. B-but my younger sisters will be waiting for me.” Had she said older sisters earlier? Mel couldn’t remember, and she couldn’t bring herself to look directly into the peacekeeper’s eyes as she spoke. Though to be fair, even if she had been telling the truth the blonde would have been far to afraid to look the peacekeeper in the eye.

Not surprisingly, it seemed the Peacekeeper had caught on to Mel’s nervousness and was growing wary of it. But asking Mel to stop stuttering only made her feel even more nervous. Not to mention he had just randomly figured out her nickname, which might as well have been her real name because it was all she ever went by. So maybe it wasn’t that weird for him to decide on “Mel” as a nickname for “Melody”, but it still unnerved the fourteen year old that he could figure out even the most trivial piece of information about her without trying. So it was with all that running through her mind that Mel attempted to reply to the Peacekeeper with a, “Oh, uh-I-uh, I-I, um-” Mel closed her mouth and took a deep breath, then finally managed to force out the works, “I’m sorry, sir.”

It seemed Mel’s struggle for words had been in vain, though, because the next thing she knew the peacekeeper was telling her she was annoying him. At least he recognized the fact that it was unintentional, but even a fool could have figured that one out. And this peacekeeper clearly wasn’t a fool, because it seemed he still didn’t believe her original story. The blonde’s eyes grew wide with fear as she watched the man cracking his knuckles. He didn’t sound very upset about the possibility of “being forced” to use force.

“I was...” Mel paused, searching her mind frantically for something, anything, she could say to get her out of this, but her mind was blank. She couldn’t remember a thing she’d said to the Peacekeeper earlier, and she couldn’t even repeat her original story or he would do…something. Mel didn’t want to think about what that something might be. In fact, he would probably do something bad no matter what she said, but Mel couldn’t give up without trying something else.

But what could she say? The blonde had no idea what people in District 10 did for fun. She was just about to open her mouth and say something about a lost sweater, when she was struck with inspiration. The Peacekeeper seemed intent on finding her guilty of something, so maybe if she told him she was doing something slightly bad, he would punish her then leave her alone? It certainly wasn’t the best option, but as her prospects looked quite dim already, the fourteen year old figured she had nothing to lose. Bracing herself for what may come, and far too nervous to notice the Peacekeeper’s obvious boredom (which was probably for the best), Mel finally managed to say, “I was skipping work. I just wanted a day of, so I came out here to hide in the woods.”

The words flew out of Mel’s mouth as a jumble, and even as she spoke the blonde began to regret her action. Oh, this had been a bad idea. First of all, she didn’t even know if people her age worked in this district. And second, Mel knew all too well that, at least in District 11, skipping work was far worse than the tiny rule she’d been planning on saying she broke. But there was nothing Mel could do at this point, so she simply sat and waited, desperately fighting to keep the tears from falling from her eyes.

Nathan squinted at the girl, completely unimpressed, he had got her now. Tough he decided to remain relatively silent for now, only looking up and down her, generally taking in her status, seeing if it was deteriorating or not, it was. Nathan had always been able to tell, it was something he did daily and he generally succeeded in being able to punish the victim. Nathan stretched and rolled his eyes as Melody spoke again, a constant cacophony of stutters that got on the Peacekeepers’ nerves, though it was the fact that it was continuous that annoyed him the most, District 10 was full people Nathan hated, hopefully he would soon be able to leave it, and move on to another District, giving his authority a boost, he wanted to become the number one Peacekeeper, and he already had that title in District 10, most people feared him here, and he wanted it to stay that way.

The next thing that came out of Melody’s mouth was not something Nathan had been expecting, she admitted to skipping work, finally she was telling the truth, it wasn’t really that hard to get the information, usually Nathan had to result to much more violence that made his adrenaline rush; it was such a wonderful feeling. Despite this, Nathan lurched back slightly, his Barrel rocking under his weight. Pausing for a second to re a gust the Barrel, Nathan turned. Though he wasn’t stupid, he quickly snapped back around and spoke a harsh tone in his strong voice.

“So you’re a work skipper eh?” He sneered, though remained seated, “Do you know what the punishment for that is?” He paused again, his hands clenching and stretching, indicating that he was ready to strike, “A couple of lashes ought to show you how to do things properly.” Even though Nathan had given her a direct threat, he still intended to remain seated. It added suspense; something that was needed to make a surprise strike, Nathan was betting that he was quicker than the girl, though she seemed more manoeuvrable, though he wasn’t sure, he had, after all, managed to catch her. ‘Running between the trees’

It wasn’t very long before, Nathan started to rise, his hands clenched the side of the barrel, not enough to crush it, but it was a tight grip none the less, his feet were posed, ready to tackle her, and grab her up swiftly, though he was still seated, there was next to no way of telling if he was going to strike her down yet, and Nathan waited for a while, though he heard something, running, though he managed to whirl himself around, but it wasn’t quick enough, a boy slammed into him, knocking the Barrel to the floor, and Nathan growled, looking upwards, it was him, the boy he had stopped earlier, Nathan grabbed his wrist, though he was on the floor, unable to move very much, the boy was stood, and despite Nathan’s size, the boy had the advantage, not to mention that he had a brick held in his hand, clenched tight.

The Peacekeeper managed to make out the boy mouthing something to Melody, though what he said he had no idea, he was still semi delusional, from being abruptly knocked over though he didn’t want to know, he was angry now, and when Nathan got angry, very bad things happened because of it.

As Nathan’s mind came back to its senses, he final had enough control to move his hand and tackle this kid to the ground, as the boy tried to reach away, with a huge force, Nathan pulled him back, the boy collapsed onto the floor, the brick flying out of his grasp and landing nearer to the two barrels that Nathan and Melody had had their conversation, but Nathan wasn’t going to kill him, no there was no fun in that, he grabbed the boys over hand, who managed to kick Nathan in the face, leaving a wound that hurt, badly, though Nathan, who’s adrenaline had taken over, somehow managed to ignore it. He then pushed down wards, the boy wriggled, and Nathan pushed harder, his weight helped greatly in this struggle, the boy couldn’t move, and Nathan then decided, to grab his shirt and lurch h backwards, the action somewhat succeeded, and the boy flew up wards, landing on his back just behind Nathan, but the boy managed to kick Nathan, yet again, this time slamming the Peacekeeper to the ground, he turned, and the boy was out, though he was alive, he would deal with him later.

Growling, Nathan managed to lift himself up off the ground and then he turned to the barrel that Melody had been sitting on. Then the anger surged even more.

((I am SO sorry for how late this is. And I tried my best to not godmod Mel at the end, it was hard. xD))