Annora Krearns // D4 // [FIN]

arx Retired Staff 2,426 POSTS Pronouns: she/her last seen Apr 23, 2024 12:58:45 GMT -5 literally so gay, doing so many crimes	Annora Krearns // D4 // [FIN] Feb 17, 2014 8:23:55 GMT -5 Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Member Give Gift Back to Top Post by arx on Feb 17, 2014 8:23:55 GMT -5 Name: Annora Krearns Age: 16 Gender: Female District/Area: District 4 Appearance: BELOW Personality: BELOW History: BELOW Codeword: odair Comments/Other:
	Last Edit: Feb 28, 2014 15:43:53 GMT -5 by arx "I run on the road, long before I dance under the lights."

arx
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2,426 POSTS

Pronouns: she/her
last seen Apr 23, 2024 12:58:45 GMT -5

literally so gay, doing so many crimes

Annora Krearns // D4 // [FIN] Feb 17, 2014 12:55:06 GMT -5

Post by arx on Feb 17, 2014 12:55:06 GMT -5

« ♒Annora Krearns♒ »

District 4 - Sixteen - Of The Sea

The sea is my home. The rolling waves, the white foam, the ocean breeze - I belong to them. My mother always tells me that from the moment I was born she knew that I couldn't possibly be hers. My limbs should've been fins, my skin should've been scales, and I should've been born with a set of gills. I would giggle and ask, "Like a fish?" and she would smile and shake her head. "No." And her eyes would glow then and she would pull my unruly hair into a braid. "Like a mermaid." And I would giggle some more before retreating into my room and pulling the Book of Ocean Legends that my mother had had since she was just a child. I can remember studying the pages day and night, searching fervently for more information, for more about the majestic creatures that lived beneath out little ship as we sailed along.

But no matter how hard I looked, I could find no real proof of the mermaids and mermen that supposedly lived inside the ocean. I learned later that they were only myths meant to fool children like me. But sometimes I forget, if only to escape back into childhood for just a moment. Everything was easier when I was young. The fairytales were real. My mother kissed me on the forehead and tucked me into bed every night. I could wish upon a star and believe - truly believe - that my wish would come true. I have to smile at the memory of me. I had untamed hair, dirty clothes, skinned knees, and knick-knack necklaces made of seashells and seaweed and fish hooks. I would chase dragonflies all day and bring them back to my room and create one big family of dragonflies, naming each of them after one of the Greek gods in my special book. ~~Needless to say there were plenty of Poseidons and Amphitrites in the family.~~ But of course all childhoods must die, and mine did with an accident.

I was eight. Ever since I could remember my mother had been the finest sailor in all of District 4. She sailed us through storms, rigged us tons of fish to sell at the market, and was always beating the odds. But this is Panem. The odds are never in our favor. Not really. It was a normal day, just like any other. The wind blew us with the current, the sky was dotted with swaths of clouds, and the sun kissed the local orphan kids who ran along the shoreline. By the time I had woken the sun was high in the sky and my mother was already tossing ropes on the deck and directing the sail as she needed to, looking for a place to set the net loose. I laughed at her hair and how messy it was. She coughed. She read me a book about a little girl and her bike and how she traveled all over the neighborhood with it. She didn't read the end because in the end the little girl gets Reaped - a bright smile on her face and President Snow patting her head. When she was finished, she coughed. We sailed back to shore early with the site of a storm in the distance. Mom insisted she could taste it. She coughed. And coughed. And coughed some more. I said, "You should take some medicine." But of course she only shook her head and said, "It's only a little cold coming on. No need for medicine." She coughed the whole way home. She started holding her chest, rubbing as if that could rid her lungs of the pain. Cancer doesn't just rub away. She coughed all day, all night, all the next day ... "Just a cold. I'm taking a day off though, darling. You can-" She began a coughing fit and I blinked thoughtfully as I set a glass of orange juice at her bedside. "You can play in town today. Be good. Back for supper."

I had stayed home all day. My young mind was too intrigued and frightened by my sick mother. I wasn't aware that parents got sick. I'd been sick plenty of times before and mom was always bringing me soup in bed and pressing cool rags to my forehead. But who knew mom could get sick? I was always checking on her, the invincible soldier finally pierced by the simplest of things, worried that if I didn't keep looking she wouldn't get better. She didn't get up for supper, so I tried to make soup for her. It was horrible of course. I didn't know that nothing would ever be okay again though. If I had known that, I might have made the time to cry over the failure of a soup. If I had known my life would be just like the muddled vegetables and mutilated, raw meat and the goop that held them all together, I would've made time to cry. Instead I had to sit in a hospital and be told that the reason my mom was coughing blood was because she had mean cells that wouldn't to kill all the good cells in her body and that the bad cells would always be winning. Cancer. Most doctors didn't use the word, they just said she was "sick," but I knew what it was even if no one would say it aloud but me. I cried for an entire day I think. Even my dreams were about me crying - until I cried blood and my skin started turning black and I had to scream - then I woke up to discover tears running down my cheeks in rivers.

I don't cry so much anymore. I've grown stronger. Sometimes when no one is around I lie on my bed and scream into my pillow, but that is only ever when I'm not busy trying to feed myself and my mom who insists that fresh air is the best remedy to any illness. She lost all her hair when therapy started and sometimes when she braids my hair her fingers start to tremble and soft sobs rack her frail frame. I've considered shaving my head, if only to keep her happier. But when I mentioned it she cried harder. She says my hair is too beautiful to give away. So each day I let her comb through the tangled, blonde mane that sits atop my head. Blue eyes, freckles, pink lips that I somehow manage to keep from cracking and bleeding - I could be the damn paradigm of innocence! Except for one little flaw, of course. My personality. I shed the skin with no scars and traded it for one that bleeds often, and I grew a tongue as sharp as my wits. I keep up the charade for my mother's sake, but I'm not that little girl who cried and dreamed she was in a fairy tale land. I am a warrior. Perhaps even one of the goddesses born and bred from ocean and sea foam and sunlight who walks upon the Earth disguised as a commoner.

Of course that would mean everyone with the last name Krearns was also some sort of god, and I know for a fact that anyone who dies in the Games is not a god. If my mother hadn't told me herself I wouldn't have believed it. My mother was a prostitute and my father slept around with every woman in Four. I was lucky not to have been turned over to the local orphanage. No father, no one to look to for real support ... I owe my fortunate life to my mom. She could've left me alone or wrote me off, but instead she quit her "night business" and stayed home to care for me, starting a fishing business as soon as she could. What we have isn't much, but it is more than my father has ever given to me. Or any of my so called siblings. I know all of them by now, but of course I had only grown curious when Mason, the District 4 tribute from a few years ago, shared my name. My mother told me then, sharing what I still believe is only a piece of a very long story. Since then, I have discovered a bunch of siblings that share my last name. But I don't care much about them. I only care about my mom anymore - there isn't much time for anything else.

Last Edit: Feb 28, 2014 15:44:26 GMT -5 by arx

"I run on the road, long before I dance under the lights."

arx Retired Staff 2,426 POSTS Pronouns: she/her last seen Apr 23, 2024 12:58:45 GMT -5 literally so gay, doing so many crimes	Annora Krearns // D4 // [FIN] Feb 28, 2014 15:45:13 GMT -5 Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Member Give Gift Back to Top Post by arx on Feb 28, 2014 15:45:13 GMT -5 fin~
	"I run on the road, long before I dance under the lights."

cass Retired Staff 4,822 POSTS last seen Oct 24, 2021 18:11:43 GMT -5	Annora Krearns // D4 // [FIN] Mar 2, 2014 5:08:24 GMT -5 Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Member Give Gift Back to Top Post by cass on Mar 2, 2014 5:08:24 GMT -5 I love your writing so much <333 Accepted! ^^