Oak Tierning, District 12

Oak Tierning has jet-black hair, and eyes as blue as the sky. He is short, at 5’3”. He is very skinny, because he lives in the seam. Oak is not very muscular, but can lift his own weight easily, because he is so small. Around other people, he always has what seems to be a perpetual smile on his face.

Oak wears his only set of clothes, which are quite plain. He has a dark green shirt, and long pants that are usually rolled up to his knees in the summer. The pants were probably blue in a former life, but so much playing around in the grass, and mud has left them green with brown splotches. He has shoes that long ago were white, but like the pants, they are green, and mud-stained, too. He has socks, but only wears them when he wants to look like he actually cares about his appearance.

Oak always has a sunny personality when he is around other people. In fact, he is so happy, it’s as if the mere sight of other people is so amazing that it’s hard to not be happy. Despite all of this, he isn’t actually very good at making friends. He is kind of awkward around other people, and his excessive happiness sometimes makes them a little wary of him, as if he is faking. After all, there’s not much to be happy about in the seam, is there?

Oak is rather smart, and usually has good grades. He is very enthusiastic, and gives answers often in class. He also takes notes, when many other kids just sleep. As enthusiastic as he is, he does not like to participate in group games. Instead, he just practices running if there is any free time in school. This invariably leads to sprinting, and he is always tired, and sweaty when he stops.

Oak loves to smile around people, but once he’s alone, his expression hardens. His radiant smile turns to a scowl, and his eyes dart all over the place, as if searching for some unseen enemy. Away from all the jabber, and noise, he begins to remember. Memories of apparitions, and ghastly glittering specters fill his head. Cold, dead fingers seem to grasp at him from behind. The visions are gone, but the memories still linger. Not even the passage of time has healed these wounds.

Ever since the age of 10, Oak has had a very troubled mind. He noticed the first symptoms of insanity several months after his tenth birthday. He started seeing people who glittered slightly, whenever he was alone. They would be there one second, then gone the next. It wasn’t long before those people started noticing him. One day, Oak was sitting in the middle of a meadow, alone. Suddenly, a hand reached out, grabbing him from behind. He swung about, and came face-to-face with a strangely glittering man with a 4-inch long knife. Reflexively, Oak twisted away, and sprinted all the way back home, the man’s haunting laughter following him all the way.

At first, Oak thought it might have been a mugger, but the next day, another man found him, a bloody butcher knife clutched in one hand. Gradually, more and more specters came, with more and more horrifying weapons. They preyed upon him when he was alone, and each time followed him closer, and closer to his house. One day, he was finally cornered by a glittering specter wielding a humongous sword. Just as the man was about to swing, Oak ducked, hoping to avoid the lethal-looking weapon. As he hit the ground, the sword embedded itself in a tree behind him. Oak noticed a sharpened stick beside his head, and grasped it, remembering a group of boys, several days ago, whittling sticks to use as swords for a game. Apparently, one of the weapons hadn’t made the cut. Oak lifted the stick, attempting to ward off his spectral attacker. The sharp tip met ethereal flesh, and before he knew it, Oak was standing in front of his would-be-attacker, with blood gushing from the specter’s throat. His attacker collapsed, and Oak threw down the stick, and tried to wipe the blood off of his hands in the grass. He ran home, thinking all the way: I killed someone! When he got home, Oak collapsed on the ground, thinking: I killed him, I killed him, over and over again. When he finally recovered enough to inspect his hands, he found that not a trace of blood remained. That’s right, it was only in my head, he realized. And now, I now they bleed. When Oak felt well enough to walk, he went over to the kitchen, and rummaged around in drawers, until he found a kitchen knife. That day, Oak practiced endlessly with the knife, thinking only one thought: I won’t be caught unprepared again.

The next day, Oak left the knife hidden in some bushes near the school, and prepared for a day of boring school. Instead, something strange happened. He started smiling! First a grin, then as more people trickled in, a full-fledged smile appeared! He found himself laughing at jokes, and enthusiastically raising his hand to answer questions when class started. The only thought going through his head was: It’s great to be around real people!

Every time the specters came, Oak slaughtered them, growing more efficient with every kill. One day, when he was 14, he realized that not one of the specter’s attacks had actually wounded him! He surmised that since they were all in his head, they couldn’t actually hurt him. The next day, he left his knife at home, and went to school alone. Halfway to school, he noticed 3 figures following him. They quickly surrounded him, and he noticed they all had long, wicked looking blades clutched in their hands. Oak squeezed his eyes shut, and opened his mouth to scream as the blades descended on him. He waited for the searing pain to come, but nothing happened. He opened his eyes, and saw the specters hacking away at him, but the blows went right through. Gathering his courage, Oak started walking toward one, and passed right through the glittering specter. Almost laughing with relief, he continued on to school. Eventually, the specters stopped coming altogether, but to this day, Oak cannot forget the horrible lurking memories of the blood spilling over his hands whenever he made a kill. His eyes still dart around when he’s alone, half expecting a ghoulish specter to emerge from the shadows.

Oak has a loving mother and father, and one little brother, who is 10. He tries keeping his insanity secret from them, so they won’t worry. His father works in the mines, and just manages to keep food on the table. Recently, Oak’s father has broken his leg, so he cannot work. Oak is to young to work in the mines, and often wonders what will happen when their money runs out.

Oak has residual schizophrenia, which is why he sees the "specters", which is what he calls the hallucinations. Originally, his dad was going to have silicosis, but I found out that was deadly.