H-E-L-P M-E ( Nat/Minie)

Darkness surrounds me, always surrounding me. I hate it, but it is what I am used to. I sit at the table with my family, but I'm not sure who is here. No one talks and it bothers me. Don't they realize I need to know who I am sitting next to? I am about to speak up when I hear the door open and slam shut, followed by the sounds of crying. It sounded like one of her sister's, one of the other triplets. Tired of the table, of the quiet darkness I make my way to our room, hoping I'm not wrong about the person it is. My house is the easiest to move around because I know it better then anything else in my world. It doesn't change and it doesn't move, ever. I know I've hit the right door when I hear crying behind it. I grab the door knob and and twist. I follow the sound until I make it to the right bed and I sit down and curl my arms around my sister. It's alright. I keep hold of my sister, hoping to comfort her. I hate it when she cries, when anyone cries, but in this family it is hard not to cry. There is so much wrong with us, everyone sheds a tear more then normal people do. It is hard to be blind, deaf, mute, and mentally unstable. The only people who understand what her sister is going through would be them. I hugged her tight Are you okay sissy?

I feel her take my hand and I instantly know which sister needs comfort, Echo. She is the only one who cannot talk and with my blindness it would be useless to sign. The only way we can communicate is by touch. It saddens me that she cannot speak to me as everyone else can. She spells her name out slowly though, twice to make sure I get the message. E-C-H-O. My darling, amazing sister Echo. What has her so upset, who did this to her? I hate it, I hate our lives, the way we were born. What did we do to deserve this. Living in a world with one sense missing when you need all of them to cope. I stroke Echo's hair. Cry all you need to Echo. I'm here for you. I hate her pain, I wish I could take it all away. I wish I could give her my voice. I wish, I wish, I wish. I would do anything for my sisters, but wishing never accomplishes any of it. Wishing doesn't do any of us good. I just hold Echo until her cries subside. I'm not sure how long until she calms down, but I don't care. There isn't much I can do besides work in the only place I know. Life is too hard to bare sometimes. As I hold her I stroke her face, feeling my way down her forehead, over her eyes that are wet with tears. I feel her sunk in cheeks and her small chin. She is too skinny, all of us are too skinny. I bet she is beautiful and I wonder for the hundredth time what my sister looks like, what I look like. What does anything look like? Things have been described to me, but what good are descriptions when I don't know what colors are, what anything is. Everything is black to me, the one color I know, the only color I see. Black. I hate the color black. I keep my arms circled around my sister. When will her pain, our pain end?

Why? Why were we cursed like this? Why was my sister not able to talk when I know that she is screaming inside? Why can't I see anything when I would love to know what the color purple or orange looked like? I wasn't sure why we had to go through this, but I did know that no one had the right to make my sister cry like this. Didn't people realize how much pain she is in every day. We have no friends outside of this house because everyone is the same out there. They can see, hear, speak, and live life being able to use all of the senses we cannot. My sister is still holding my hand when she writes H-E-L-P-M-E. I bury my head in her shoulder. How can I help my sister when I can't see anything? I nodd against her shoulder. Anything for you Echo. Tell me what I can do to take away your pain. I grab her hand and draw a heart in it, wishing there was a way to give her my voice. Maybe one day, but for now my wishes are left to fall away with Echo's tears.

I wondered what was going through her mind. I wish she could just speak to me, but I knew that would never happen. We could get through this like we get through every day. One day we might be able to think about our disabilities without disgust, but today was not that day. It will take years to come to peace, if we ever come to peace. Just then my world of blackness became filled with love. Echo drew a heart on my hand. The love smashed out the hate. I hugged my sister harder and smiled. Don't think about whoever or whatever made you cry. We might not be like every other person out there, but isn't that a good thing. I gave a short chuckle. At least we aren't normal. I sighed. Most of the time I wished I was normal and I wished my sisters were normal.

It was silent in the room. How I wish we could talk to each other like regular sisters. I want to hear her voice, what it would sound like. What would she say if she could talk? I wasn't sure, but I'm sure she would never stop talking. I wondered what I could do to get her out of her mind. Would she want to go pick flowers with me? Maybe this time I would have the confidence to see what's on the other side of the fence, but I didn't want to put my sister in that position if we were to get caught. I could always blame it on the fact that I couldn't see and that there was a hole in the fence. Do you want to get out here? Do something that will make you feel normal? I'm not sure what that would be, if we even could feel normal. I could only hope to make Echo happy again. I hated it when she cried, when people were mean to her. It made me want to hit them, hurt them like they hurt us. Starting a fight wouldn't be smart though. I would lose because of the darkness that surrounds me.

I waited tensely for the answer. I wanted her to stop crying, needed her to feel better. Would she hate me for suggesting curbing the need to feel normal? We would never truly feel normally, but doing something to seem so would ease the pain slightly. I felt the bed shake as she answered my question, but I wasn't sure what the answer was. Cursed blindness, I hate you! I screamed in my head. I didn't want Echo to see the pain she caused by forgetting my blindness. Right now was not about the pain I felt for myself it was the pain my sister felt for herself and the pain others caused her. I heard a loud noise and wondered what happened. Did she leave? My question was answered as soon as it was asked. She took my hand roughly and I began to believe she was angry at me. The rough Y-E-S was almost too intelligible to understand, but I didn't let that show. I nodded to her. Where do you want to go? I would follow her anywhere she chose to go, even if that meant getting in trouble by the Capitol. Not much they could do with a blind person and speech was not something yo could take away from Echo, unfortunately.

Patiently I waited for her answer and I wondered what it would be. This district held nothing for us to feel normal with. Something that I could do usually meant it was something she couldn't do. Something Echo could do usually meant I couldn't do it. I hate how this disability defines me. I don't deserve it so why do I have it. My everyday thoughts were consumed with the whys and what ifs. Echo's were the same, I was sure. Sisters think alike, do we not? My hand was grabbed gently with the words I wanted. The woods. A place I had always dreamed of, but a place I had never been daring enough to go. Fear and excitement engulfed me at once. I nodded to her. Let's go. If we get caught then just say I wandered off and you came to get me. Hopefully they will blame it on my blindness.

I stood up and took her hand. She needed to lead me since I didn't know where the woods were. I wondered if I should grab my stick. doing that would throw off our excuse so I just left it and let her lead me.