reece jackson. / district 7 (fin)

[sidney]

R E E C E   J A C K S O N
eighteen — district 7 

❝ And I still mourn the person I could’ve been; that gullible child that never grew quite right. ❞

[sidney]

DISTRICT SEVEN / AQUARIUS / EIGHTEEN

---

You're five the first time she saves your life; your sister, your saving grace, always watching out for you when no one else would, when the softness you were blessed with by a tender mother comes to the surface. It makes you an easy target, looking at the world through those rose-colored glasses you wear so well. It paints the truth in pinks and corals, tells you it's filled with things just as good and just as pure as you.

How were you supposed to know it was all a lie?

You're eleven the second time she saves your life, once again your saving grace as three boys from school jump you from behind on the way home, amped up and eager to spill a little blood, and my, oh, my, aren't you the perfect little lamb, ripe for the slaughter. She comes to your aid with a stick to one's face, a knee to the other's groin, and a hiss in the third's direction. Her eyes go crazy, and for a second, you don't recognize her—primal, instinctual, protective—and it's then you decide to no longer be someone who needs saving. 

You ask her to teach you how to fight the next day.

You're sixteen the third time she saves your life, the final time you're afforded a saving grace. Carelessly, you steal food. You don't think, you just focus on the grumbling in your stomach and the fresh loaf of bread within your reach. She doesn't flinch when the Peacekeepers come. She doesn't cry when they drag her to the center of town. She tells you to be strong when they put a bullet between her eyes. 

You promise.

Just as you promise to kill whoever it was that pulled the trigger.

---

I don’t know how to write in metaphors anymore.
I just put my whole mouth over the truth and gag it dry.

⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯


I'M NOT GROWING UP, I'M AGING
MY MIND'S INCARCERATED

[sidney]

this cb is from not being reaped during the 81st! xoxo

[eulalie blake 1a 🍒 tris]

' aren't you the perfect little lamb,
ripe for the slaughter '
i'm in love w/ him, sid ♥
i want him to hunt me down & murder me