audriana skye gresham ~ d12

Right off the bat, any stranger would notice Audriana's bright, glowing grey eyes. Unlike the stereotyped, dull grey eyes of the Seam, Audri's eyes radiate with life and energy. Eyebrows, perfectly arched and shaped, frame the tops of her eyes, and she is often asked if she does something to alter them. A rather displaced nose indicates the center of her face, having gotten it broken many times in the past while participating in fights. Rosy red cheeks become an even brighter red during the winter months. Mousy brown hair tumbles down to just below her shoulders, loose ringlets that constantly get tangled in harsh winds. Soft lips provide a cover for bright but imperfect teeth. White as they may be, her teeth are not particularly straight, and her canines are sharper than the norm.

Audriana is not busty, nor is she flat-chested. She’s right in the middle, giving her no hindrance or causing her to question the rate of her growth. A flat stomach is the trademark of District Twelve, so skinny in fact it is possible to see and feel her ribs. Her stomach, carved with healed-over scars, shows that Audriana is indeed a cutter. Her arms tell the same story, etched and painted with scars and scabs of every shade of red, pink, and brown. Bruises make up for the skin that has not been cut, taking on every color imaginable. All in all, her skin will never again be the beautiful flawless thing it once was.

Long, lanky legs would be a lovely sight to see if they weren’t also covered with cuts, as well as those unforgiving bruises. Her legs are very much a hard sight to take in, so she prefers to save herself the trouble of all the stares and mouths open agape and cover them up with jeans or long pants. Even during the summer you will never see her with shorts on, enduring the heat instead of the never-ending amount of eyes trained on her as she strolls past.

Audriana has long been called rough and tough, and it has been often said that she knows how to take care of herself. Her soft, girly appearance is nothing more than a façade; many people mistake her as weak and incapable of anything, as girls are so often stereotyped. At first, one might think of her as just that normal girl, nothing spectacular. But every once in a while, she can be seen getting tangled up into a fight, most escalating to punches having to be thrown. Raised in a tough house, most girls are not audacious enough to involve themselves with her. Everybody knows that if you stay out of her way, she’ll stay out of yours.

Devotion is something that drives Audriana every day. When Audriana is interested in something, she will follow it, hunt it down, do whatever she must do in order to acquire it. This makes her a very reliable person to ask for favors or to have as a project partner. The real trick in that, though, is befriending her. She doesn’t much favor the idea of having a friend; she fears that if she confides in anybody, they won’t be able to keep her secrets for long. She prefers to keep her thoughts-and her secrets- to herself.

Albeit she is categorized as tough and capable on the outside, she is anything but those things on the inside. Problems with family and problems with herself have driven her to self-harm. Cuts layer her epidermis, almost creating a second skin atop the first one. An abusive lifestyle adds many grotesque bruises to her collection of scars. A lack of food, a lack of sleep, and constant pain emanating from her contusions and her slices make her a very irritable and negative person to be around.

Surprisingly, Audri finds it even more difficult to communicate with people that come from the same background as she does. She doesn’t connect with them like is expected, but instead pushes them farther away, not looking for any type of sympathy or understanding from them. Audriana does not look for sympathy in life; it makes the receiver weak and incapable.

Life for Audriana began violent. Born to a mother whose husband was abusive and cruel, it wasn’t long before he began to turn onto Audriana as well. For as long as she can remember, Audriana has always been covered in bruises, always been covering for herself as to why she’s battered black and blue. A fall down the stairs. A trip on the sidewalk. A fight with her cousin. The lies went on and on, nobody believed them, but nobody cared enough or knew what to do in order to help her. Then Audriana’s brother was born. Clint was spared from the punches and kicks for a while; he was daddy’s little boy, the son that a man always wants. Audriana and her mother were no longer important to him; but still the punches flew, mostly under the blanket of alcohol.

One night, when Audriana was about ten, she awoke to a loud sound of glass colliding with ground. Quietly creeping to the kitchen door, she saw her father and Clint inside, screaming foul words and Clint dodging her father’s punches. Her father had a broken piece of bottle in his sweaty hand, gripping it tightly by the neck. Advancing quickly on Clint, Audriana reacted swiftly and rushed into the kitchen. Preferring Audriana over Clint, their father quickly changed courses, and charged her. The bottle smashed over Audriana’s head, blood streamed down her hair and face in thick and strong gushes, and she fell to the floor.

Blood in her eyes, she could only hear what was going on. Her mother had heard the commotion and rushed downstairs, and Audriana could hear her sobbing, pleading with her father to please stop, please stop hurting them all. She felt Clint’s soft, warm hands grip hers and drag her to the wall, where she could sit up and hopefully stop the blood from coming down so fast, so fast…

Her mother continued to plead, and her words were so masked by sobs and hiccups that no one could decipher what she was really saying. Her dad grunted when her mother had finally stopped speaking, and Audriana could hear her father’s footsteps clatter and echo through the hallway and into the bedroom. Clint had found gauze-from where Audriana did not know- and began to wrap it around her head. Her mother discovered a clean rag and began to wash her face and hands of blood. All the while, Clint cried and sobbed, telling Audriana how she had been foolish to take the hit like that, that it was his duty to protect his big sister, how it should be him on this floor instead of her, how…

Her mother had placed her on the couch that night, instead of in the bedroom she shared with Clint. She faded in and out of sleep, never reaching more than that state in between consciousness and sleep. She awoke to the early morning dawn streaming into the windows. Audriana rolled over and saw Clint crying softly in the corner. Crawling over to him, she discovered that he was hunched over their mother’s body. Audriana did not realise that she had fallen asleep watching her. Clint’s body wracked with sobs, and tears fell down his face like rivers. She reached her hand out to his back, and he shivered but kept his place. Audriana placed her other hand on her mother’s chest, and felt no beat, no warmth, no life. She stumbled backwards, and Clint realised what had happened, had finally accepted the truth, and fell on top of Audriana. Audriana could not speak, could not cry, could not breathe. She spotted a bottle of pills on the floor next to their mother. It was empty. Their mother was gone, had taken her own life.

Audriana’s first reaction was to not feel sorrow, but to feel anger. How dare her mother be so selfish, and leave Clint and her to deal with it on their own? How dare she leave them? Clint continued to cry pitifully in Audriana’s arms, and she held onto him tightly. Holding him up on hip like one might with a toddler-he was that light- and his head in her neck, she carried him to their bedroom. She silently picked out their bags from the small closet and began to throw clothes into them. All the while her brother silently wept in the corner, and Audriana’s head throbbed worse than ever. She slowly zipped up both bags, threw a jacket and a pair of shoes at Clint, and put on her own. She had to laugh silently to herself as Clint struggled with his oversized suitcase, even though it was the worst time to be laughing.

Her mother was dead. Their mother was dead, gone, cold, passed to the other side. Never to return. Audriana and Clint dragged their bags into the living room, and they couldn’t help but stare at their mother’s body as they walked to the front door. Audriana was ready to go. Audriana could no longer keep her brother in this house, in this type of life. They had to go; Audriana was smart enough to take care of both of them. They went outside, the early dawn light beginning to paint the sky with purples and reds, and closed the door behind them.

Audriana’s mom had once taken her to a small shack-like house about a three hour’s walk from here. It used to be her mother’s house, and nobody had lived there in years. That was where Audriana had decided to take Clint. Somewhere safe, where they could live and stay warm and start a new life. This is where she would paint herself a new image. This is where she’d begin again.