Yara Vukcević, D3 [fin]

[rook]

Who survived? Somebody new?
Anyone else but you?
On a lonely night was a blinding light
A hundred leaders would be borne of you

Is anyone there? Oh.

My name is Yara Vukcević. I am eighteen years old and I am alone. I have been alone for a very long time now. I don't mind it. I quite enjoy my own company. I am the only company I get, you see. Father doesn't let me outside, he barely lets me out of my room. I am locked away so very high in the sky. I can only see the world from my oval window, which is fine. I like my window. I like the seeing the sunrise and the sunset, east to west, lighting up all of the District. It looks so strange from up here, so close that I can see all the little people rushing from building to building like worker ants, yet so far from them that they can't hurt me. That's what daddy says - They'll hurt me if they get close. I must stay locked in my room, away from the danger.

I lied, kinda. I do go outside once a year. When the Reaping comes, I have to go outside, but it doesn't come without its precautions. Daddy hires four bodyguards to escort me to the District Square and back. I get some stares, yes, but without the men there anyone could pull a knife on me. Daddy's not paranoid, he says that he just wants his little girl to be safe. I don't feel in danger, but he presses it on my like a brand. Part of me wants to tell him to let me live a little more, but last time I spoke out against him he hit me so hard I had a lump the size of a plum on my head.

I know why he does this to me. It's to keep me safe. My mother was stabbed in the streets when I was just a little girl. I wasn't there, I was with my grandmother at the time. Daddy and Momma had gone out to celebrate the company's yearly review. They were mugged. Momma refused to hand over her purse, and so he killed her. It happens so often, Daddy says, and yet the Peacekeepers do nothing. He says the world is full of people who want to take things from you. He says the world is not for fragile things like me. I guess he's right. He does know best.

I can see Daddy's factory below - Only the massive chimneys reach the heights of my room. The view never changes though, day after day it's just the same. I get so lonely up in my room. I have no one to talk to or to keep me company. I just wish I had a friend. A real friend. I think I've gone mad making robot after robot and treating them like friends. I talk to them sometimes, hoping for a real response. Artificial Intelligence only gets you so far, but I suppose it's better than nothing. I've programmed several personality forges into my robots, but they only depress me when I make them cheerful and talkative.

I make sad machines to cheer me up.

And though I know, since you've awakened her again
She depends on you, she depends on you
She'll go alone, and never speak of this again
We depend on you, we depend on you

[rook]

Finished, I think.

[maverick hale 🌧️ d5 [nyte]]

you're a fucking god.