BORN TO DIE | CLATO (THG)

TWO

CLOVE KENTWELL

SEVEN YEARS AGO

After my parents' deaths, Leo, who was only four, and Ember, who was only a year fresh out of the womb, and I, only a clueless, helpless eight year old, were left to fend for ourselves. I still remember that awful day where the Peacekeepers came knocking on our front door, coming to announce my parents' deaths. I didn't even cry. I couldn't even wrap my head around this horrible news. Leo cried because he was scared, and Ember cried because Ember was still a baby.

I remember being led out of my house by the Peacekeepers with my siblings in tow and they brought us to the Justice Building. I didn't even know why they were bringing us there, nor did I even care. I was too dazed. My parents, both of them, killed off in an accident during their jobs. Both of them, my beautiful, lovely, kind parents, gone. I was so sickened, so shocked, that I couldn't even bring myself to tears.

I remember them leading us to a cramped, dusty office in the Justice Building where some important looking men started talking to me, rattling off some official sounding terms. It didn't even matter, what they were saying. I couldn't even hear them. I could just hear the blood pounding in my ears, feel the hairs on my arms standing on end, hear my siblings' loud, high pitched cries.

I stared at the sunlight glaring at us through the windows of the office. It was like some kind of sick joke, how beautiful and bright the weather was outside, and my parents had just perished in a horrible accident and then died. I almost laughed at how disturbing it all was.

All of a sudden, they brought this middle-aged woman inside of the office. She had dark hair pulled back into an unruly knot at the back of her head. Her eyes were sunken, her yellowish skin pulled so tautly against the bones of her face, that she looked like a skeleton. I could see the sharp bones protruding through her rumpled, stained shirt. Her eyes had some kind of wild, crazy look in them like she had just seen a ghost. Her gaze darted somewhat frantically from me and then to my siblings and then to the men in the room.

I stared blankly at her in confusion. My thoughts were a fuzzy blur. "Who is she?" I asked, surprising myself with how cracked and ragged my voice sounded. "She's your new guardian, your aunt. She's the only existing relative we could find that's fit enough to take custody of you three," one of the men explained. That was the day we first met Leanore Anselin, our guardian for the remainder of our childhood years.

She took us back to her house, which was located nearest the mountainous areas of the district, the farthest away from the Square and the shops and most of the people. Essentially, it was the end of the line in Two, where the poorest, most impoverished people of the district lived. Two was always seen as one of the most wealthy, one of the most affluent districts in the entire nation of Panem. And sure, I guess we were. We all knew about the situations in other districts like Eleven and Twelve. But in every rich area, there are always those who have no choice but to struggle with poverty while the rest of the population get on just fine. It was just the way the world worked.

When we arrived at the house, my first thought was that the house shouldn't have even been considered a house in the first place. It was broken-down and dilapidated. Tiles from the roof were falling out and the cheap paint that coated the house's exterior was chipping and peeling in multiple places. The front yard was more like a pigsty than a front yard, minus the pigs. It was infested with droppings from stray animals, permeated with overgrown shrubs and bushes and wilted flowers.

Leanore, Leo and I cautiously made our way across the filthy yard to the front door as I carried Ember in my arms, patting her back gently to stop her from crying. I observed the dried up grass and dead greenery that crunched beneath my feet. I moved forward a step and felt something shatter under the toe of my boot. I gave a start and jumped back. I had unwittingly stepped on a broken beer bottle.