aylin barlow | district four | fin

They said District Two was the best place outside of the Capitol to find and harvest peacekeepers. She imagined them popping up in rows, suits of white, heads held high. They would hold guns in their hands, practice every day until they were ready to be picked.

District Four's Training Academy had been on the verge of being something great, or so she had heard. Every since her acceptance into the school the year before, it had become abundantly clear District Four was not known for its peacekeepers for a reason. Drug busts; students and teachers all the same being pulled into the headquarters. Several of them went to prison.

---

COL. BRANDON EXTRADITED TO DETENTION CENTER; GRIFFIN PYRMONT TO ASSUME LEADERSHIP OF PTA UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

Colonial Eric Brandon, long suspect in the PTA Drug Cartel case, has officially been ruled guilty today. As you may remember, Brandon initially denied having any knowledge of the cartel's existence at all. Sources, who have asked remain anonymous, have reported to have seen (and even bought drugs from,) Brandon several times in his private office at the Academy.

Brandon was ultimately sentenced to ten years in the Detention Center, without chance of early release. Brandon's wife refused an interview, while Mayor Fabian Perch went on record to say "The law will always provide justice, and I am proud to say the streets of District Four are a bit more clean today."

Brandon marks the second staff member at the PTA to be found guilty, the other a teacher named Hadley Markham. It is believed her teaching position will be given to a graduate of the Academy, Ronan Clark, though at this point, it is only speculation.

In addition, Avery Barlow, Brentley Gray, and Mateus Marshal -- all cadets at the center -- still await their verdict. All three cadets have been accused of involvement in the cartel by fellow students, though it does appear all three boys should be released Friday.

---

Avery Barlow, Brentley Gray, and Mateus Marshall. She must have read those names a hundred times that year -- a thousand, even. Mateus Marshall: resident golden boy. Brentley Gray: walking question mark.

Avery Barlow: her stupid, dead older brother.

Somehow, the academy still stood. Its doors remained open, and children whose parents believed in blind faith would walk in them every day -- Aylin was no different.

It had been a year since the trial was over. Ten months since her brother's death. And while people no longer talked about it, the look was always there when Aylin walked into a room, the look that said she had caught them talking about her, even when they hadn't been.

She mostly ignored them; it was the only thing she could do. But every once in a while, she was reminded of everything in a way that made the wounds feel fresh, and it was not enough to ignore them. So she would break. It was what they all wanted to see, wasn't it?

---

LOCAL BOY AVERY BARLOW FOUND DEAD

Tragedy struck the district this morning when a group of local fishermen noticed a body floating in the water near their boat. After alerting the authorities, the body was identified as Avery Barlow, a boy who had only recently been granted his freedom after a brief incarceration due to his supposed dealings with the PTA scandal two months ago.

As you may recall, Barlow, along with Mateus Marshall and Brentley Gray, were all believed to be buying and selling drugs in a cartel owned and operated by Eric Brandon, ex-headmaster at District Four's Peacekeeper Training Academy. While all three boys were ultimately found not guilty, Marshall is the only one currently resuming his education at the academy.

Upon closer inspection of Barlow's body, markings and bruises were quickly ruled to be consistent with that of a violent altercation. We expect his death to be ruled a murder, but for now, the authorities are keeping quiet. Barlow is survived by his mother, Tessa, his father, Rickon, and his sister, Aylin.

---

They never caught her brother's killer, and Aylin vowed that she would.

Here was what she knew: Her brother's death was ruled a homicide. He had markings believed tobe knife wounds in his abdomen and lower back. The killer was never caught, and Brentley Gray could not be located for questioning. Aylin had taken it upon herself to look everywhere Avery had ever mentioned going with the boy. An old warehouse he had been living in, the house of some girl named Aine, which had taken her a few weeks to find, the Leto beach, all she had been met with was nothing.

Her brother had died, but Brentley Gray had become a ghost.

With everyone coming and going at the academy, some too terrified to stay, others joining for the thrill of it, it was difficult for her to know who else was en league with the crop of miscreants that had probably caused her brother's death.

She knew that, a year later, she started hearing whispers of Brentley's name again. Just as quickly as he had disappeared, he had shown back up. Ghost to boy at will, it seemed, and no one would ever catch him.

It was only when she caught wind of the murders that she once again truly suspected the boy. Initially, she hadn't really thought he was involved with the cartel at school. She had met him a few times and, sure, he was rough around the edges, but she had always been given the impression that he was a boy determined to leave this world with more than what he had when he came into it.

But facts did not lie. And the fact was that several people, including the richest man in District Four, were dead now, and Brentley and Mateus were some of the lucky few that had gotten out alive. No one knew who the killer was, and it could have just as easily been Mateus as it could have been Brentley, but most of the time, Aylin felt like she was the only person in the world trying to figure the shit out.

Because whoever had murdered those people had murdered before. Her brother's corpse was proof.

---

NEWEST ADDITION TO PTA STAFF: MAKING THE SCHOOL GREAT AGAIN

In light of PTA's recent less-than-impressive luck, the newest instructor, Officer Ronan Clark, has recently sat down to talk with us about how he plans on getting the school back on track.

"It is all about competition," he said, "People see others succeeding and it motivates them to do it as well." It would seem so. Despite being young in age and new to teaching, the school's cumulative GPA has increased by .3% and attendance records are at an all time high since hiring Clark.

"People want to do a good job," he weighed, "If they aren't able to, it is our fault as teachers. I just want to make sure my students all live up to their fullest potential."

Clark, whose sister is notorious for her escape from the Detention Center only three months after her incarceration for involuntary manslaughter, is a firm believer in the law.

---

When Aylin first read that one, she'd been sick to her stomach. Sure, Clark was good at his job. But he did a piss poor job of hiding his ulterior motives for taking the job. Every conversation she had with the man somehow turned onto the subject of her brother, questions about what she knew and what she believed had actually happened. He also asked her if she was investigating it at all. He probably worried she would solve the case before him, and she probably would. He was a little too docile and a little too textbook. Too afraid to break the rules.

Still, every time he asked, she told him no.

She did, however, pretend to follow his command. She was not Calypso Leto, so she would never receive the number one rank in the class, but she was pleased enough with her seat in the front row, even if she was sandwiched between a quiet, but brilliant, blonde from District Two and Calypso herself. (She was most pleased that the top three were all girls.)

She would conform for the time being, take her notes and ace her tests. And she would continue quietly searching for the truth about her brother's murder. And if-- when she finally found out the truth, she would blow it our of the water and personally see to it that whoever was guilty was brought to justice.

And if anyone tried to stop her, she wouldn't mind taking them down either.