Vanity Van Voast // d6 // cb // fin

Vanity Van Voast
District Six
18

Vanity got her mind from her mother. A brilliant woman who looked odd in anything but a white lab coat. Her mother could name a bird just by listening to its chirp. She had steady hands that gracefully held up test tubs to florescent lights. Her mother used to take her for walks and point out all the wildlife in their little district people rarely noticed.

Vanity doesn't go on walks anymore.

She looks outside her window, her mind grinding against itself. Her father sits in the parlor reading books before his shift at the Institute. They don't talk about the whole in their family, and they don't talk about themselves.

They don't really... talk.

She presses her forehead to the cool glass and sees all the features her mother passed down- strong cheekbones, full lips, dark skin. She looks like her, she was also told she has her mind.

She feels like a ghost.

The threshold of her house is a mountain. The walls keep her safe, and if she steps beyond them terror grips her heart. She can't breath, she trembles, and she returns to her safe house. She always returns.

There was a time, just after mother's passing, where she could still go on walks. She'd think of mother and all the bugs and mammals she admired and whispered to Vanity to take care of.

"Take care of them, and they'll take care of you."

Vanity doesn't step foot outside the house anymore. She is dragged out for the Reaping once a year and then left to her own thoughts. She doubts the creatures of the earth would help her anymore, she has abandoned them.

The Van Voasts used to be a socially powerful family, an old line that stretched back generations.

And it would die a slow painful death in the hands of Vanity.