Memories hurt.
"Gabriella mother and father said I need to go home now." My seven year old self said to my best friend Gabriella. I said mummy or daddy I would always use very advanced grammar for my age.
"You sure Fay-Fay? You don't want to come to my house to play with my dollies?" Gabriella begged me with the cute nickname she use to give me. She didn't have any siblings so she didn't have anyone to play with at home.
"Sorry Gabriella I have to go how about after school tomorrow we can do homework together." I said jumping down from the tree we had just climbed. I felt a bit mean not telling her the truth but she wouldn't understand she thinks stealing is wrong.
"Okay Fay-Fay I will see you at school, see you morrow!" Gabriella said jumping down and running back to her mum.
"Goodbye Gabriella!" I called.
"Bye-bye Fay-Fay!" She called back not turning around.
I walked out of the playground and into town holding tightly to the strap on my backpack so it wouldn't fall apart. It would be considered odd to let a child of only seven walk around the crowed and dangerous town of district five by herself but for me this was normal as I was no ordinary kid. My parents where to busy with their jobs and my younger siblings and beside I might be seven but really I was very mature for my age.
When I got to town I looked up at the big clock, they were still another twenty minutes before Finch was finished with school. Most children in my class could barley read let alone tell time on the numberless clock but I had been telling time since I was five and reading since I was only three.
I walked over to the low down wall randomly placed in the middle of the crowed town square. I climbed up it even though it was a short wall but I was shorter. I sat on it and listened into people's conversations, it was my favorite thing to do. I liked to learn about their lives there interests their hobbies whatever their discussions may be. I was very nosy back then and I still am now and it dosen't bother me I liked to listen rather than talk myself. I think that's why I and Gabriella get along so well she liked to talk.
I was listening into a conversation a nearly married couple where having about if they should get married before or after their child was born when I realized that it there were five minutes before Finch left school. I jumped down from the wall and onto the ground.
I ran out of the square it was difficult to push trough large crowds of people as I was so small most if the people didn't see me as I tried to push through crowded streets until I was finally out of town and in the suburbs. I ran through a middle class neighborhood and I reached the end I found the school. I had been let out of my school at half two and Gabriella's mum had taken me and her to the old run down playground. I climbed up a tall tree and sat in the branch listening into some older girl's conversation about the hunger games tributes from district five this year. I wasn't paying too much attention as I was thinking back to the conversations others had in the square.
I was listening to them for a good ten minutes when I saw Finch walking down out of the school. Finch was like me she didn't want to have that many friends but she was walking out of school with her best friend Scarlet and Her twin Frank and his friend Evan. They seemed to be talking about something she really wasn't interested in and didn't want to talk about, I could tell by her short nods and her fake smile. So when she saw me in the tree she seemed relieved to get out of the conversation.
"hey, Faye are you ready?" She asks running to the tree I was in, I jumped down from the tall tree landing on the ground perfectly.
"Woah Fay be careful, that was a very high tree, you could have broken your leg." Frank calls out to me as he runs towards Evan and Scarlet continued talking.
I rolled my eyes.
"Don't call me Fay it's like me calling you Fra." I say angrily as he knows how much I hate that nickname only Gabriella can use it and then I decided to use my favorite weapon, blackmail. "And I think you sitting and jumping of the house roof last week was far more dangerous." I add with a grin.
"How did you know about that?" Frank asks shocked.
"I know a lot more then you think." I reply with a sly grin.
"You're so cute." He says ruffling my hair. I haste when people call me cute or act like I am a child. I was moved up a class in school and I was still the smartest in that class so if I was as smart as someone who was older than me then I should be treated that way.
"Sorry Scarlet I have to go." Finch called over to her.
"It's ok Finch, I just can't get over how similar you two look." She exclaimed, she had an obsession with how alike we looked.
Finch grinned at me and grabbed my hand.
"Bye." She called.
"Bye Finch, bye Fay." Evan shouted.
I glared at him, he should know better than to use my nickname. I knew his biggest secret, I knew everyones biggest secret. I walked over to him and motioned for him to come down to my hight and I whispered in his ear.
"Evan and Finch sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G." His cheeks burned red as soon as I said that.
"I don't." He whispered back much too fast.
"Would you like to repeat what you just said?" I asked, I couldn't help a small grin forming on my lips.
"Bye Finch, Bye FAYE." He muttered.
I grinned and walked away with Finch trough the town. All the way there she was telling me about something she learnt in her history class and what she thought about it , she knew I preferred not to talk as much.
We finally arrived at the destination it was in the nicest place in the district it was where the mayor lived. We were obviously not going to the mayors. Me and Finch where going to rob one of the richest men in town he managed a lot of the factories. I know it is wrong to rob but we didn't have a choice, Fiona was slowly dying of an illness and she would be dead in a month if we didn't get her the medicine and for medicine you need money which we didn't have enough of, it was so much money. This wasn't the first time me and Finch had done this we did it thirteen times before but they were more just take a single piece of jewelry or a ornament and then run out, this was bigger we needed more money than just enough for dinner for a few weeks. We planned to take a lot more than just that. The man who owned this house was not a nice person so it wasn't as bad to rob him, was it? I looked up at the house and I felt a rush of adrenaline threw my veins. I smiled.
"So Faye are you ready?" Finch asked with a similar grin on her face.
"Finch is that even a question?" I asked and we both began to laugh.
"Okay, but Faye you have to be very quiet because he is in the house and he could catch us." She told me.
"Nobody can catch us." I tell her.
"No they can't."She said, her grin growing. "You have to go through the dog door and then open the window for me."
"Okay Finch." I say running up to the door.
"Faye wait." She called out and I turned around. "Be as sneaky as a fox but as quiet as an avox."
I grinned and then ran off.
I lay on the ground and pulled myself trough the tiny dog door. I stood up in the hall and stood up I was about to run to open a window when I heard loud footsteps echoing on the wooden floor slowly walking towards me. I flinched at the noise I opened the door to the mantel and hid inside. I had to squish into a very small ball so I would fit in with all of his hats, scarf's and gloves. I closed the door of it and toke in a breath so they would not hear me.
"I swear Robert I heard a noise." A woman screeched with a high pitched voice.
"Shut up Jenny you idiot; just get back in the living room!" Robert shouts from the living room.
"Well then I hope you get robbed." Jenny squeals and angrily storms out the door.
Robert makes me sick he is sixties and that Jenny woman was barley in her twenties, I might be young but I knew a lot for my age.
I hear the man moaned and turn on the T.V. Now is my chance. I jump out of the mantel and run into the door across the hall. L opened the door quietly and slipped in. I was in an empty dining room. I looked out all of the windows and eventually saw Finch outside hiding in a bush from when Jenny walked out I see her giving me a small nod.
I walked over to the window turn the handle and open it fully, the squeak making me cringe. She runs over and pulls her skinny body through the window.
"Faye you are so lucky you didn't get caught, that woman must have walked right by you." Finch whispers in my ear.
"There is no such thing as luck Finch only skill." I whisper back.
She grins and opens her empty backpack and we place five ornaments that look expensive in it. She nudges me and points to a locked box written "Emergency saving."
"Finch it's locked." I whisper looking at the box that might hold the key to my little sisters life.
"It is, that's why I found this rock it's perfect for picking rocks." She says holding up a slim stone, the slim stone that would guide me forever.
She runs over to the box and jiggled the stone around in the lock until the box opened. She looks at all the money and I can tell by her face that it is not enough. A single tear falls down her face. I don't hesitate to walk over to her and give her a hug.
"Finch it's okay." I whisper in her ear. "We can always look in a different room we can try find more money."
She nods whipping away the tear from her cheek.
"This is ridicules Faye you shouldn't be comforting me I should be comforting you." She says pulling herself back together. "I mean you're only seven and I'm twelve."
I often feel like I am so much older than seven, sometimes I feel like I am already a adult.
"You put food on the table for your older brother and parents they are all older then us and we still have to bring home money." I say.
"We do Faye." She whispers more to herself then to me.
She's right we do, we have to make money so we can get food. We started robbing houses a year ago but are brothers were not allowed to help because they are to loud but even when I was just five I often found me and ten year old Finch after school helping out in the factories when they needed to get into small spaces. I can never imagine Faith crawling through a massive machine to try find a switch being careful not to get a electric shock. I distinctively remember when I was six I ran to a nabours farm and put a chicken in my backpack.
Why was it us that had to bring home money? Because who auld expect two little innocent girls to be robbing so much money.
"We always do have to put food on the table but know it's more important now because Fiona is counting on us." Finch says. "You need something to help you pick locks."
"That was a bit random." I say with a slight giggle at the sudden change of subject.
"This rock it will symbolize that we will always be there for each other. Okay keep this on you." She says tying a rope around the stone and the around my neck.
I can't help but smile.
"Do you promise Faye?" Finch asked.
"I do, do you?" I ask.
"Of course I do Faye." She says.
She died so couldn't be there for me.
We ran out of the room and into the hall. We peered into the living room where Robert was watching the T.V. She nudged me and pointed to a watch that was on the coffee table. The watch looked so expensive, it would definitely be enough for the medicine and seven months of any other expenses.
"Faye we need that watch." Finch mouthed.
"Okay I will grab the flask and can you get the watch." I mouthed back pointing to a flask on the floor which looked very expensive.
"Are you sure Faye it is so close to him." She mouths to me.
We go and sneak to her separate missions.
I silently crept to the coffee fable where the flask is. I duck behind the couch not making a sound. I am so close to him I can smell his breath. I want to gag at the smell of eggs and alcohol in his breath. I reach over to the table and feel around for the flask. I am constantly worried I will feel a hand grab my skinny wrist, but I don't. I grab my tiny hand around the flask. I have to be careful lifting it up so he won't hear it being lifted up. I bring it close to my body in my shaking hand; I run my hand over the leather to try calm myself down. I place it in my pocket and then silently run back into the hall and into the dining room without even checking how Finch was doing.
When I get into the dining room I sit in one of the chairs, I try calm down. I could hear my heart in my throat. I sit on the chair waiting for my heart rate too slow down, I knew it wouldn't until Finch came back.
After a minuet Finch runs through the door, her feet not making a sound and sits beside me.
"Do you have it?" I ask.
She nods and holds up the watch and I begin to silently cry knowing that Fiona wasn't going to die and she would be ok.
"Fiona is going to be okay." I weep.
"She is she going to live." Finch says and we hug.
Suddenly I can't feel hug, I can't find Finch.
"FINCH!" I call out before I am plunged into darkness.
I cannot see anything and I am terrified. I reach into my pocket and I can't find the flask. I reach out but all I can feel is the duvet cover.
"Finch!" I desperately call out.
I wake up still shouting her name. It takes me a few minutes to realize that I am not seven anyone I was thirteen and my sister was dead. I look at the clock and see that it is three am. I can't cry with Fiona and Faith about Finch. But they were not here so I can cry. I haven't cried much since Finch died on live T.V. I couldn't cry because they all knew how close we where and if I cried they cried.
I think of the promise she made, why did she have to leave us? Are lives weren't perfect but they were good enough. And now all I can think about is the way I am leavening Fiona why did I have to go? Why did I have to go? Why did Finch have to go.
I feel so alone. I cry my eyes out. I want to go home; I want Finch to come back. Why did this have to happen I want everything to go back to normal the games ruined everything. Why?
I ran my hands down the stone she gave me. The dent in it! I knew when she gave it to me it was smooth. Now they are a dent. She made a promise we would always be there for each other and in some way in death she was still there for me. She would always be there dead or alive, in my memories and in my heart.
