Files// [zak]

Clayburn, Cassius

More paperwork. He hated the stuff, but Clayburn's position forced him to do a lot of it. Sign this, initial here, write up this report, take a look at these files, reassure the younger officers, punish the ones out of line- that last one always made him grin. Today, between the stacks of paper piled up on his oak desk, he was thumbing through the file of a Peacekeeper that had recently been booted from the force. An event that is quickly followed by a trip to the Detention Center and a permanent vacation from one's tongue. The folder was slimmer than others and was far less interesting. The boy had been a problem since training, too aggressive and frequently disobeyed rules. The whole ordeal made Cassius even more confident in himself. After all he had been using his special brand of discipline on District Four for years and people knew what was expected of them. Certainly, no citizen sent to the Detention Center while Cassius served there ever wanted to come back.

However since they were an officer short he had been given the task of picking a new one to fill the boy's place. A job Clayburn had then passed down to a secretary because, let's face it, the man has better things to do than riffle through Peacekeeper files searching for someone who is competent enough to hold a gun and their tongue. However he wasn't really using that free time to accomplish anything work wise. Instead he looked over the file of the rejected Peacekeeper and made a mental note of every crime he had in common with the young man.

A cigarette wrested between the man's pointer and middle finger, tittering forward as if it might dive into the paper on the desk and light the whole thing up, yet it stayed in place. He took a drag, holding it in before slowly letting the smoke escape his nostrils. With the Reaping and finding a new Peacekeeper, Clayburn hadn't had time for his usual night time crusades so he had fallen back into the bad habit.

"The replacement is here," a head popped into the doors at the other end of the room. Cassius didn't even bothering looking up- the voice was familiar, probably the boy with the long hair, or maybe the one with the bald head- it didn't really matter. It wasn't like he cared who it was anyway.

"Send him in," the man said, still over the document, his elbow propped on the desk. He could hear the younger officer hesitate at the door, to which Clayburn finally looked up at him if only to give him a glare that could stop a heart. By glancing up, however, he did find out it was the kid with no hair instead of the one with ponytail. Good, that thing looked like a dead animal pinned on the back of his head. "I said send him in, don't make me repeat my self again."

His voice was sharp and the younger officer scrambled out of the doorway. Cassius smirked at himself before taking another lungful from his cigarette and pushing it out between his teeth. Throwing the file he had been reading aside grabbed the next folder in his stack- the new officer under his rule. The Head Peacekeeper heard the door to his office open once more followed by the metallic click of it closing.

Brown eyes skimmed the file of the new officer. Transfer from District Ten, evidently their passion for justice had been too much for the crappy jurisdiction. Cassius always heard about crimes from the lower districts- maybe if they used their Peacekeeper to enforce instead of excepting bribes and paying young girls for a roll in the hay they'd have less of a problem with criminals.

In his peripheral vision, Clayburn could see the newbie standing in front of his desk. The whites of his uniform far too bleached for their own good. The man tapped his cigarette at the officer, letting the ash fly across the desk. "Take a seat."

Finishing the paragraph he had been on about the officer's dedication to work and some other worthless extra stuff they throw into those reports, Cassius finally looked up at his new recruit only to be startled by what he saw.

First of all, it was a woman. While her eyes were hard the rest of her features were soft and feminine. She was a tiny little thing, thin and short. Cassius felt like she could shatter into pieces at any moment. Brown eyes, short brown hair and there was something about those full lips and oval face that made memories the man had suppressed for decades surface again. He could almost hear the girl's muffled screams for help when he shoved his hand over her mouth. Hissing threats into her ear in an attempt to silence but to no avail. She just wouldn't shut up. If she had just been quiet....

"So. You're from District Ten, Officer..." his throat was thick but his voice didn't waver. The only hint of recognition was in the man's brown eyes. After over forty years in this world, you learn how to cover your tracks. Leaving the sentence at a cliffhanger, the man wanted to hear the name for himself just make sure it wasn't the same as... well he didn't even know that girl's name. They never did identify the body, it had been too mangled by her killer to ever recover what at one point was her face. She was buried as a Jane Doe and took Cassius' secret six feet under with her. It had been years since he thought of her, his first true kill. The man's fingers curled into fists, and his grip on his cigarette tightened. He would need to be careful, but it seemed history was destined on repeating itself.