silver stark, district 7 | cb

mom was a book printer and dad left so long ago that i don't even remember his face. it's been a long time since sol and i had parents; after dad was gone, mom was sold out by one of her associate's to the peacekeepers. the capitol didn't like the things she'd say in her books, you see. so they killed her and her radical ideas, shot her on the stage in front of the district. i can forget my father's face, but the image of the bloody bullet hole in mom's head is permanently burned into my mind.

after years of falling asleep in the closet to hide from our new father's rampages, soleil and i made a pact to runaway when we were fifteen. for two rough weeks, we were out on the streets, sleeping in abandoned buildings and stealing for money. a man named ray caught me pickpocketing some rich girl, and said he'd report us if we didn't come with him. and that was that—we took our little rucksacks and followed him to an old mansion. we quickly became a part of something that forever set us on a new path; ray was in charge of a ring of thieves, children like us who would steal for him. it didn't seem bad at first; we had our own rooms, new friends, warm food on the table. but it didn't take long for things to take a dark turn, as they always do.

i think soleil was horrified; i was too, but he deserved it. we didn't tell the other kids what happened; we buried him in the wounds and mopped the blood off the tile floor ourselves. the others were happy that he was gone, and from that day forward, we proclaimed ourselves the new leaders of the thief ring. sol and i, delinquent leaders of a pack of delinquents. it's raw and rough and full of strife, but that's just how life is for a couple of outcast orphans, isn't it?