Zedekiah Luna | District Four {FIN}

He's abusive. He's cruel. The worst part of it all? He's always been this way. He'll always beat you when you've done nothing wrong, just because he's had a bad day at work. You're his punching bag, and you try your best to hide the scars and bruises when you're out of the house. You're not sure if it's a positive thing, but you've become rather good at hiding the damage.

Spending your time training as a career has made people assume that your scars are from that, and not something else. No one really knows that it's your father doing the damage, outside of your family. It's become a rather helpful mask, and it's made you emotionally stronger, using it to discipline yourself. You'll punch targets until your knuckles bleed, not one to give in easily. The one thing you truly hate about yourself, however, is how much you look like the man who beats you.

The only one who knows that your father does these things to you, aside from you and him, is your younger brother, Zephaniah. Zeph isn't free from the harm, either, though. He receives beatings like you do, but they aren't as frequent or as harsh. Perhaps it's because you're the older son, and your father thinks you're more likely to be able to handle the pain without revealing the damage to the outside world. There are times that you're almost grateful that you get beat more than Zeph does, as it protects him. You suppose that's just the protective older brother side of you, even if you do bicker like any siblings do. Regardless of the bickering, you still care about one another, likely even to an extent that's more than many siblings care about each other.

Even if career training has made you emotionally stronger, however, when you aren't training, the abuse you receive has made you emotionally weaker. You've resorted to heavy amounts of alcoholic consumption, and it's the only thing that really seems to distract you from your emotional pain aside from career training. Day in and day out, you're either punching things in the training center or you have a beer in your hand. Still, you're not sure why you keep holding on. Perhaps your only reason for trying to appear as if you're still strong is for Zeph.

There are days where you wish that you didn't look as much like your father as you actually do. Unfortunately, the two of you resemble one another quite a bit. With the same dark hair color and green-gray eyes, it's easy to tell that the two of you are related. You even have the same, pale skin and similar facial structures with sharp cheek bones and rather defined eyebrows. You just wish that you'd resembled your mother more than your father, as she was definitely the parent you preferred to be around. Your mother walked out on your father several years ago, and you truly wish you could have gone with her, rather than being stuck with your father. He wouldn't let her take you or Zeph, though, and therefore, you've been left behind with his cruelty. 

Even though your strong career build and somewhat intimidating looks have kept you safe from the outside world, it doesn't keep you safe at home. Your father insists that you'd never make friends with what a useless piece of trash you are, and, for a while, you believed him. You have, however, made acquaintance with few people that you may consider friends, over time. Some of them are people that you train with, whereas others are your drinking buddies. Only one of them really knows the truth about how your father treats you, however.

Your anger issues have begun to surface, causing you to be quite the trouble maker, especially when you're out in public if you've been drinking. The fact that you drink so much has gotten you into some bad situations, and even caused you to do some things that have gotten you punished by Peacekeepers. Not all the whip marks on your back are from your father's belt hitting your skin, as some are from the Peacekeepers putting you in your place. Things aren't looking up at all, though, so it's quite possible that you'll never change unless your father does first.

Today, you sit back and try to relax on the couch before your father gets home, a beer in your hand and a look on your face that shows that you're in deep thought. Your mind is wandering all over the place, trying to figure out what it was you did to deserve the beatings you receive, and what Zeph could have done, too. It seems that your only salvation these days is fighting or having a drink in hand, which started back shortly after you turned sixteen. You've started to doubt that your problems will ever go away, so, for now, the beer will just have to mask them.