District Twelve: Dead Miner's Daughter
The cold wind wildly whipped around my threadbare skirt. Being barefoot in District Twelve during the winter is begging cruel Mother Nature for death. Never before did I think I could sink so low.
Twelve years ago, my father was killed in a mining explosion. Later that day, my mother gave birth to my little sister. Neither made it through the night.
I'm alone in this world with nothing but the wind to keep me company.
Every step I take down the worn path sends pain shooting up my leg. My feet have become a sickly shade of blue, cold and unfeeling as my soul. My destination is in sight. It begins to snow.
I've wandered through life ever since that day. At first, I suffered through treatment in the District's group home. I was abused every day, without reprieve. After a few months, I couldn't take the pain, so I ran. I drifted from stoop to stoop in town.
Sometimes, people would give me a piece of bread, an old coat, or even a warm cup of soup.
Sometimes, I would just be chased off the stoop.
A light flurry of icy flakes falls on my exposed skin, biting and stinging worse than tracker jacker stings. The wind picks up, peppering my face and arms with freezing white flakes.
Eventually, I learned how to live alone. I gathered berries and stuff from the woods at first, until I almost died from eating some poisonous mushrooms. The pain was unbearable. After that, I became desperate. I began to sell my body for anything, money, bread, clothes. It didn't matter.
I soon became the favorite of the local Head Peacekeeper, who pays me to visit him every Tuesday.
I knock on the door, dreading the events to come.
He opens the door, smiles at me. Warm light bathes my emaciated face as I squint into the brightness. I take a reluctant step inside, letting my worn clothes slip to the floor.
When the deed is done, I stumble out into the cold again on unsure legs, wobbly as a newborn colt.
I'm unwanted.
I'm a nuisance.
I'm trash. Neglected and left on the curb.
It's become dark, the sky sprinkled with twinkling stars. It's a beautiful night, the first snow of the New Year. It's been twelve years to the day. A star shoots across the sky, flashing brightly.
I know it is my parents and little sister watching over me. I smile and whisper "I love you" as I collapse to the ground and rejoin my family.