Chapter Text
My name is Katniss Everdeen and I am an assassin.
This life is not one I chose, but it is one I am living nonetheless. I have killed many and loved few; I have seen blood and death and the cries of broken, beaten men; I have shot an arrow or plunged a knife into many a heart, and I have never regretted any of it.
Some might say I am in want of a soul, but I disagree. It is true that I have no remorse for my actions, but who can blame me after what I have been through? The men I kill are all of the Capitol, men I cannot forgive. Perhaps they were not as guilty as Director Coin said they were, but in some way they all had a hand in the enslavement of my community.
I grew up in District 12, the poorest of the twelve districts of Panem. I was never happy, it's true, but I worked hard and I helped keep my family afloat, which was enough for me. Though it is true I supplemented the food I bought with my wages with animals I killed beyond the fence enclosing my district, I still made sure my mother and sister were fed, and that was enough for me.
That is, until Panem intervened in one little happiness I had. A mob had risen in District 12 demanding higher pay, and it seemed quelling this mob was not enough: oh no, they had to go much, much farther.
They destroyed everything. First they brought in Peacekeepers, their own sick version of a soldier, and then they bombed it all to smithereens. Killed my mother—raped her first, of course—and tried to kill me, too. I fought them off, though, and when my best friend, Gale, came to make sure I was alright, we fled the district.
There once was a thirteenth district of Panem. It met the same fate twelve did, but much earlier. Gale and I, we took my younger sister, Prim, and we ran there—slipped right under the gate that was supposedly “electrified” and took off. There had been rumors that District 13 had been rebuilt, that it was thriving while we starved, and we grasped those rumors with both hands and ran with them.
As it turned out, the rumors were right.
Though at first the ruins of the former district seemed deserted, we were later caught by a patrol and brought to Director Coin. One thing led to another and, fueled by both my hatred for the Capitol and my desire to earn my keep among the District 13 underground, I joined the assassin branch of the colony.
I was already proficient with the bow and strong from my life in the district, so it didn't take long to become one of the top assassins in the branch. I was seventeen when I ran away, and I am eighteen now. Perhaps it was luck or perhaps it was skill, I don't know, but I am now a vital part of the largest operation the District 13 Rebellion has ever attempted. Whether it will work or not, I don't know. What I do know is that I must succeed... for Prim's sake. But what happens if I don't?
Only time will tell.