Jacob A. Brontz; 13 D8- FIN

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Jacob Alexander Brontz Age: 13 Height: 5'5 Weight: 130 I shared the duty of an older sibling growing up. Mind you, I had a some help learning all of the things I teach my little brother, Jory, but my older sister did most of the work. However, I do take credit on knowing just what I can do in order to make her mad. I know how to press her buttons and I know just how to get under her skin. I still love her though, as much as little brothers can and I know that I'm just doing what I was born to do. As a big brother, I'm not all that tall and it seems that Jory will be passing me up in just a few short years. Being five foot five is great and all, but I can only hope that I'll gain some height soon enough. When there was a time to be by myself, I found solice in something so frowned upon in my house. Sure, our parents loved each and every one of us, but there was something about music that my dad absolutely hated of me. I had found and restored an old violin when I was seven, ever so interested in the noise that it made. Cecilia helped me with it. She was only nine but it was a fun little puzzel to put together. She always was the one to help each of us in her own little way. She was like our second mother and we all looked up to her. We all loved her dearly. She even took the heat for me when our father found the violin in the bedroom where all five of us now sleeps. Of course, he took it easy on her since she has done everything possible to keep this family thriving while they were off to the job to make enough money to keep us afloat. I never knew how much she actually did until she was reaped. My big sister, Cecilia Isalee Brontz, was reaped six days before my thirteenth birthday. She kissed my forehead and bade me goodbye and told me that she would be back to keep watch over all of us. I didn't understand because I truely thought she was going to come back. I needed her and so did Jory and Gabe. Most of all, little Lotus needed her because there was so much that Cecilia needed to teach her for her to grow up to become the wonderful sister that she herself was. The future was all hers. Lotus was going to be the prized possession in this family and now... without Cecilia to coddle her, she was going to slip away just as fast as my loving big sister did. So, I did the only thing I knew how to do. I played that violin when she woke up screaming in the middle of the night because my sister's arms never came to envelope her. Very slowly, her cries began to waver and slowly diminish as her eyes gleamed toward me as that bow was carefully drug across the strings on the violin creating the most haunting of toons. It was Cecilia's March that played that night and soothed her little protege back into the depths of a long awaited dream. At one point, Jory woke up to the sound and his face broke out with tears and slowly but surely, his eyes closed once again. I played the violin for the longest time, just letting the notes escape in order to explain my feelings. I was the man of the house now and my father would have no son of his crying. He was right. No tears fell from my eyes but my heart cried out with each slow pull of the bow over the strings. The flauntando was meant to express my love for her and then it was dropped an octave and then I let it drone out until the music slowly descended into the darkness and silence screamed. That first night without Cecilia to calm Lotus made my heart hurt worse then ever. It had become a living nightmare. I laid the violin down on the bed that was deemed hers from the day she was born. I carefully laid the bow down on the pillow and very slowly pulled the covers up and blanketed the instrument just as I would her, I already knew. Day after day, we waited and watched for any sign of Cecilia. It didn't matter that we were wanted her back. The capitol would never give her back to us. No matter how much we screamed and begged and pleaded with the peacekeepers. There was no return of my sister. Instead, I took over her chores. I took over her sewing challenges even though I knew nothing of the sort. I was having to learn how to become the head of the house and take care of my younger brothers. Lotus's eyes would occasionally look around for the girl who used to sing to her and tell her stories of fairies. However, she never did return. Cecilia... was gone. She was wrapped in fire and that firey enferno engulfed her tiny frame. The devil took her away in the most painful of ways and I had to sit there and watch her beg for death. I shielded Jory's eyes and coddled him under my arm. Thankfully, Gabe was in the middle of his nap. I can still hear her screams raping my ears over and over again and it doesn't have to be quiet for me to relive the sound. I remember the look on her face when the spear slid into her leg alit with the devilish charm of fire. She was my big sister. She was my everything and I never expected to see her die before her time. I truely thought she might have had a slight chance to come back home. After all, she lasted five days in that hell. She might have taken a life in the process but I watched her suffer the pain and saw the name that she carved into her skin. Cecilia was a good person. She had never meant to hurt anyone. She never meant to leave us alone. If she had known, she would have left us something more to remember her by. She was just an innocent kid. Just as we all really are. The capitol makes sure to screw us all over when it comes to families. Just as the Miriostioma's had to face the same as the kid brother to last years victor succumbed to the will of the capitol. I hope that I am never reaped like Cecilia. My family needs me more than ever now. I took over where she left off. After what seemed like forever, partly because we hardly slept and waited around for days, Cecilia's body finally came to rest back into her district. I refused to let my baby brother and baby sister see her. Gabe and Lotus didn't need to see her somber face patched up with that horrible capitol magic. I wanted them to remember her how she looked when she left. That morning, I looked at myself in the mirror. I gazed into my dark hazel eyes and the puffy skin underneath. I cried for once and no one seemed to care. Not even my dad bothered me with his 'men don't cry' scenario. Instead, He pulled me away from the mirror allowing his arms to wrapp up tight around my thin torso, blanketing me with his enormous body; protecting me. "It's okay. It's okay, Jacob." His deep, cracking voice showed me that he, too, wept for our family member and it showed me that he was also just human. He took my chin in his hand and made me look up to him. "My boy, you look just like her. You have her fair skin and her thick eyebrows. You resemble her in more ways than one. You are kind just like her. You are creative and caring. She raised you boys with such dignity in ways that your mother and I couln't because we always worked too much. You have her perfect shade of chestnut in your hair and I'm sorry but you are short like her, too. If I could have, I would have had you first so that you could have protected her. Promise me that you'll take care of Jory and Gabe? And never let anything happen to Lotus, for your mom." "I will, dad. Always. For Cecilia." And those words stuck in my head. His grip released me to stand there as a man. To look upon Gabes little face as I walked out of the house with Jory and mom and held their hands as we took that road less traveled. We passed the many streets and passed the faces of the families that were spared each year. The only ones that greeted us were those that might have had a son or daughter fall to the weapon of another districts unkind hand. As we reached the graveyard, Jory's hand tugged away from mine and he stopped in his tracks. I turned to look at him, but he only shook his head. So I took a knee and looked him straight in the face and smiled. "Cecilia is always with us. Always watching us and don't you think for a second that she never loved you. Be strong, for her. She don't need to see you cry, Jory. For mom, stay strong. She needs you, too." Once again, he took my hand and very slowly inched his way to stand beside our sister's grave. We stayed till the sun was setting and when we left, I place a button on her grave.

[Baby Wessex d9b [earthling]]

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