criminals don't snitch { zoë/cyra }
Jun 17, 2015 17:01:32 GMT -5
Post by я𝑜𝓈𝑒 on Jun 17, 2015 17:01:32 GMT -5
z o ë d o r c h e s t e r
THOUGHT I'D FIND HER IN A BOTTLE
GLASS PARTICLES gleam in my hair, like tiny pieces of a broken diamond, left over from my heist at dawn. I barely brushed by the edges of the opening I had made in the window, guarded by spears of glass, but their razor tips left behind red claw-like scrapes in my flesh. My face was left unmarred, but the marks are still light crimson stripes on my arms and shoulders. Strapped across my chest is a leather satchel that holds the loot from my . . . "treasure hunt," as I say to my younger siblings. (Though I believe at least Claudia knows the true meaning.)
I saunter down the worn street of rubble and dust, taking the path home. My gaze is cast resentfully on the small run-down houses, built of old wooden planks slowly crumbling away, and thin sheets of steal, blanketed in rust. My house resembles these, although I am more fortunate than the destitute inhabitants of the homes I am passing by. (And I like to dream that someday, somehow, I will not be so impecunious.)
It is selfish to think such things, and to steal to support a web of lies I spun years ago. This web I weaved just becomes more tangled and twisted with each passing day, the silver threads of silk thickening and stretching longer and longer. (Perhaps they are equivalent to a mile now.) The web of lies is one of selfishness and pride, flaws that plague me but keep me from falling apart. I have built a kingdom of fables, its foundation my selfishness and its rooftops constructed of my deadly pride. And I have been crowned the queen, the jewels of my crown not bought but stolen.
Guilt from the river of lies that spills from my lips engulfs me, but it is too late to turn back now. The web is too complex and the kingdom is too vast. I am doomed to a life of lies and avarice. The least I could do is to leave Juliet and Claudia behind, to not drag them down with me into the abyss I am slowly slipping into. It would be my final selfless act, to let go of their rigid grip on my hand, to release them of me, a lethal venom that will only burn in the bloodstream of their life and end any happiness they achieve.
(But maybe I am too selfish for even that small charity.)
I am already halfway home when a girl, somewhere around my age, catches my eye. I nearly flinch at the sight of her. There is nothing wrong with her at a first glance. She is young, beautiful, with a face that is pleasing to the eye. Her soft brown hair looks like threads of silk sewn to her scalp. But it is her eyes that send a chill through my body, reaching deep to my bones.
They are rings of ice around inkiness and white. They are daggers with sharpened blades. But they are devoid of that familiar lively shine that graces the eyes of the living, even those who are impoverished. But there is nothing. Not a single gleam. Her eyes are cold and dead, like the bare ground when winter rolls over Panem with a rake of its icy claws.
I almost do not notice the carmine stain spattered across her clothes. And I know all too well that it is not from wine or cherry juice. I wish it was.
She sends a slight shudder of fear across my body, and my muscles tense as I near her, my body rigid. I avert my eyes to my feet as they shuffle onward, kicking up dust just high enough to stick to my sneakers. I gradually approach her, wistfully thinking that if it was not too obvious, I could use my hair, blown away from my face by the soft summer breeze, as a curtain to shield myself from her glacial gaze.
I pray to Ripred that she is not a murderer.
W O R D S : 6 6 6
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