Forbidden | THG

Prologue

"Willa, run! It's the Capitol!"

Gabriel's words were cut off by a scream as the Capitol hovercraft fired a spear that caught him in the stomach. He fell to the ground, writhing in pain. Willa desperately wanted to help him, but she knew that she had to get their daughter, Jackie, away.

She ran away from Gabriel, hoping to escape the hovercraft. Willa heard the whirring of the claw dropping down to retrieve him. She sobbed as she ran, but she wasn't looking where she was going, so she tripped over a log and went sprawling. Somehow, she still kept her grip on Jackie, but she flew head over heels, landing a few feet away. Willa had no injuries, so she scrambled up and kept running.

Willa was fast, even with a baby in her arms, but the hovercraft was faster. It caught up with her and dropped down a ladder. As soon as the ladder touched her, the electric current froze her in place, and she was lifted up into the craft.

A Peacekeeper wearing a white mask took Willa off the ladder and laid her down in a bed, taking the baby. A needle stabbed into her elbow, and she felt the cool rush of tranquilizer enter her body. Willa tried to get up and get Jackie back from the Peacekeeper, but as the tranquilizer rushed through her veins, she fell back on the bed.

~ ~ ~

Willa sat bolt upright in the bed, accidentally ripping the tranquilizer IV out of her arm. She didn't even feel the stinging as she scanned the inside of the hovercraft for Jackie.

She located the little girl in a tiny carriage across the room, but right away she sensed that something was wrong. Her daughter wasn't crying or fussing, which was weird, because Jackie was extremely vocal, especially in unfamiliar situations. She should have been fussing at least a little bit.

Then, something happened that made Willa gasp. Jackie opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Something seemed different about the girl's mouth. It seemed . . . too big. Like something was missing that should have been there.

Then it hit her, all at once. She knew what was missing from Jackie's mouth, why the Peacekeeper had taken her.

They had turned Jackie into an Avox.

Willa felt sick. She screamed in horror, turning to the Peacekeeper. She wanted to hurt the Peacekeepers, the Head Peacekeeper, the entire Capitol. She wanted to make the Capitol feel the pain she was feeling. She had already lost her husband, and she had pretty much lost her child.

"How could you do this?" she screamed at the Peacekeeper. "Why would you do this? She's just an innocent child! She didn't do anything to you!"

The Peacekeeper lifted up his mask to look directly into Willa's eyes, and a chill ran through her. It was Peacekeeper Thread. The Head Peacekeeper from District 12 forty-seven years ago. He was much older, but it was definitely him.

Willa shivered. Thread was known for his maliciousness, and for showing no mercy, not even to a child. He probably figured that if the parents were traitors against the Capitol, the baby would be too. He was probably right, but Willa wasn't going to tell him that.

Thread would have no qualms about making an innocent baby an Avox if the child's parents were traitors. Willa knew this. She also knew that he was going to kill her, and that he probably wasn't going to lose a single bit of sleep over it. He was going to make Jackie a servant for one of the Hunger Games tributes once she got old enough. It was sickening.

Willa didn't know what lie the Peacekeepers would tell Jackie once she got older, but she knew that by then, she would be dead. Jackie would have no parents, alone in the Capitol. Unable to talk. Unable to escape. Surrounded by Peacekeepers who wouldn't hesitate to torture or kill her. She was only an Avox, after all. Worth almost nothing to the Peacekeepers.

Willa hated that her baby would grow up in a world like this, never knowing true love or compassion, only that cold, calculating masked figure that was a Peacekeeper. She wished that she could take Jackie and run, but the Capitol would just find her again. There was nothing left to do but accept her fate, and try to save her daughter.

She looked straight into the Peacekeeper's eyes.

"You won't hurt Jackie. If you do, I will find you, and I will haunt you. You will never have a quiet moment again."

Thread looked frightened for a moment, but then resumed his cold expression. "Are you quite sure about that?"

Willa took a step forward. "No, but I'll make sure of it."

In one fluid movement, she snatched Thread's gun from his belt and aimed it at him. He made a weak grab for it, but stopped when she leveled the gun at his face.

"You will not hurt Jackie in any way. You will make sure she is well-fed and has a bed to sleep in. Understood?"

The Peacekeeper nodded.

"And you will relay this message to the other Peacekeepers. If they mistreat my daughter, I will come for them."

Thread nodded, but a look of confusion spread over his face. "I'm going to be the one taking care of Jackie. I'll be her guardian. Why would I relay the message to the others? I'm the only one who needs it."

"Tell them!" Willa hissed.

He recoiled, but pulled his communicator out and sent a message to the other Peacekeepers, telling them Willa's terms, and telling them to pass on the message. He looked at Willa for confirmation, and she told him to also tell the others that they needed to come fetch Jackie.

Thread looked even more confused at this, but still nodded and relayed the message.

"Is that it?" he asked.

Willa slowly nodded.

"Then if you could please take the gun off my head, that would be appreciated."

She shook her head.

"What do you mean, no?" Thread demanded. "Take the gun off my head!"

Willa pulled the gun down, aiming now at his arm. He started moving away, but Willa was faster. As he pulled his foot over to kick her out of the craft, she fired a single shot. It hit Thread in the chest, but not before he had shoved Willa out of the hovercraft. She fell, landing in the shade of a maple tree, and didn't move again.

As the Peacekeeper wheezed, he finally understood Willa's requests. She had been planning to kill him, and die herself, to save her daughter.

The life drained out of Peacekeeper Thread just as another Capitol hovercraft arrived, hovering above his. The other Peacekeepers swarmed in, finding Thread's body and an Avox baby. They took Jackie with them, leaving Thread behind.

The new Head Peacekeeper cradled baby Jackie in her arms, seeing her potential.

"Your new name shall be Kathryn," she whispered. "I shall raise you. And we shall be a family."