ZORA ELLIS // FINISHED - D11

I .

I never mind the stares that I get as I walk down the street, the ugly glares that people sometimes give me when I kick dirt in their faces or spit at them. This is not to say that I am overly confident, they are just simply below me; dirt-covered faces and pockmarked forehead's. I rule with a dictating crown though, tipped just upon my head in a halo of golden radiance, contrasting against my wavy, raven black hair that spills out around my shoulders like a waterfall of ink, messy ink that drips everywhere and bunches up in globs, hair that takes forever to wrangle. They all have slit hair, crooked teeth, and light eyes with no depth, no perception of the world around them. All they can see are their deaths, awaiting them with cold arms and a toothless smile. They all want to reach the finish line first, none of them wants to enjoy the ride. My smile though, white-toothed, rides above them all. You see, I love my life. Just as much as I love Janice.

Janice came into my life when I was only a few months old, my hair barely coming out of my pale head and my teeth barely pushed through my sticky, red gums. I don't remember her then, Of course I don't, but she's been like a mother to me, a little girl mother, an older sister that's always there for me, guiding me along the way. Mother once told me that I need to let go of my imaginary friend, that was around the time that I was seven years old, just old enough to tie ribbons into my hair, the same way that Janice always did. I didn't want to leave her though, I wanted to wrap my skinny arms around her in a tight hug and run away with her. I never did though, I stayed and from then on was called "crazy", by everyone.

And I embraced it.

II .

The doctor looks at me with greedy eyes, greasy hair slicked back and eyes that shine into mine with almost a lust in them that I cannot shake from my mind. He has a knowing smile, one that I've seen so many times in men, and yet, I try to calm myself down and tell myself that he is a doctor, he will not hurt me. And indeed he does not, he is trained, a good little lap-dog that has learned to obey his master. Good dog, I think, letting him sit there while I wait for him to begin talking, to "heal me," as mother said that he would.

So you're the famous Zora Ellis I've been hearing about?"

I'm not sure what to say, to answer him or to just stay quiet. People have heard of me here, sure they have, I'm the crazed girl that lives in the boarded house with the dirt-covered floors. Of course they know me, the princess in her palace of insanity, nearly as mad as a spinster. "Yes," I say, "Everything you have heard is true, don't waste my time or yours thinking about all the rumors or the myths." I looked him in the eyes, "Just appease my mother so I can leave this dreaded place, please. That's all I ask doctor, and for goodness sakes, you can go and tell them all about me now. Because this is me, in the flesh sir. Little Zora Analiese fucking Ellis. Congratulation's, you've met me now." I give him this knowing smile, this badass smile that Janice would scold me for. I can see her in the corner, looking at me with blazing eyes; I ignore her though, staring down my prey.

"Whatever you say." He answers cheerily, with articulated eyes and a tight-lipped smile, he was used to people like me, dammit. "She's just crazy, I just need to reign her in" That's what he was thinking, writing down those dammed noted on his little clipboard, occasionally looking up and taking notes on my certain anger.

I couldn't take it anymore, and suddenly it overwhelmed me, the smell of the place and the burning behind my eyes that hurt more than anything else, the feeling that the walls were going to close in, that I would be trapped in this office forever. So I said the only thing I could say before standing up with shaking legs, shivering eyes, and walking over to the door and slamming it in his face as I walked out of there.

"Doctor, I'm done. You could've listened, you maybe could've pleased my mother, calmed her down and listened, you peasant. You're just like the rest though, Janice told me you would be the same, she told me not to trust you; and she was right. So I'll tell you now, you little scumbag. Go fuck yourself Doctor, and let me never see your face again." And it was all over, in those few seconds that I strolled out and looked my mother in the eyes, the angry look immediately letting her know that it was finished, that it failed, and that once again. I won.

III .

Morelli was a welcoming place, a home that was full of trees and little straw huts that littered the ground in such a fashion. In this little place, I am the queen, and every day, Janice takes me there to rule for a couple of hours, taking me away from my home, the dirty floor and cold looks that my mother gives me when she sees me talking to Janice, what to her seems liked just a blank wall. She's never understood me, her and her icy eyes that judge me so harshly as she stands in the doorway. "Zora, dear." She may call. "We have to go to the market,." I used to fall for this when I was still small, the little girl full of innocence that was such a fool to follow her mom, to get out of a magical trip to my true land, exactly what my mother wanted , my true place of nature. In Morelli, I was born of the water and the clouds across the sky, I am a princess.

But in District 12 I am simply a commoner, at last that's what they tell me, those hideous people that spit back at me and recall me acting so haughty to them. They call me worthless, a filthy girl, a little whore. They call me a pretty mistake, a little disaster. The only true name out there for me is Queen, Ruler, and Your Highest. They can't understand me when I tell them about Morelli, even mother, and she's lived through it all with me. Why can't she see the other half of my heart, the one that lies not within the earth, the piece that lies on a shaded patch of grass in another world.

Janice is the only one that sees it all, sees my land and my kingdom with the sweet little girls that rule there, swirling hair and bare feet, my army of little girls, ones that were never given a chance. They all come to their queen, me; I help them become more, I help them make something for themselves and they always stay to respect me. Sometimes I see one of them in town and a simple wink suffices between us. It's our little secret, the land beyond the mist. And even if no one will believe me, they still know who I am, Zora Analiese fucking Ellis, a queen.