Venus:
Twelve Years Ago:
I stumbled down the path of stones in the back of my house that lead to the woods. I loved going into the woods, but my parents would tell me not to because of the dangers that could get to a four year old girl like me. I made my way to a small clearing that I liked to play in. I heard a rustle and I quickly hid behind a tree. I peeked out to see a boy my age walk into the clearing. He started to pick flowers, nice and calmly. I came out from behind the tree and stepped into the clearing. I had never seen a boy that wasn't my father or older brother. He looked up and saw me and jumped, which made me jump also.
"Y-you scared me" he said in a low voice
"You scared me!" I said back
He laughed and I smiled. I walked up to him and picked a flower.
"These are my favorate flowers" I said, smelling them
"My mommy likes flowers, so I came to get some for her" he said clutching the small boquet in his hands
"My daddy says that we if we pick to much, there wont be enough flowers" I said with a worried look
"Oh..." the boy said looking into his hands
"But that's okay, he says I can help by re growing them" I said bending down into the grass and brushing my hand over top.
Several purple flowers grew and bloomed right before our eyes. He sat down next to me and touched the flowers.
"How did you do that?" he asked curiously
"I just do it." I replied with a shrug
"Im not allowed to do things like that... Mommy and Daddy says it can take them away and hurt me" he said his shouders drooping
"So does my daddy.. But we live far away so no one can see us." I said pointing in the direction of my house.
The boy nodded and looked around. The breeze blew and I smelled the sweet flowers scent in the air. Then I began to smell a stronge scent of something musky.
"Whats that smell?" I asked covering my nose
"What smell" the boy asked, sniffing the air
I ignored his question and got up, following the smell. As I got closer in the direction, the bushes moved and rustled causing me to jump. The boy creeped behind me slowly as we tiptoed curiously to the brush. I walked into the brush and the plants opened up for me to see inside, causing the boy to gasp. I looked in and saw a small ball of fur curled up under the brush. I bent down and picked it up, causing it to move. I relized it was a small cub. It opened its eyes and closed them again. I heldit close as I stepped out of the brush.
"What is it?" the boy asked as I ripped the end of my dress
"It's a cub" I said wrapping it up in the teared scrap
The boy stepped forward and held his hands out so he could hold it. I placed it in his arms and he cradeled it. We sat down and took turns holding it. We suddenly heard a shout.
"VENUS!" my father yelled
"SHAWN" yelled a womanly voice
"I have to go!" said the boy
He stood up and grabbed the flowers and waved goodbye. He ran out of the clearing and into the woods. Several minutes later my father ran into the clearing, panting and out of breath.
"Venus!" he said running up to mem as I stood up with the cub in my hand
"Look daddy! I found it in the brush!" I said showing him the cub
He furrowed his brows and looked down at the cub. He took it from my hands and held it in one hand as he took my hand in his other.
"Well if we want to take care of it, were going to have to get home" he said with a smile
He was usually angry at me for running off. That day we went home and took the cub a bath, fed it, and made sure it had a comfy place to sleep. I continued to think of the boy whos name was Shawn. He was the first boy I had evr seen, the first person I had ever seen outside my house. I would never forget the boy who went to the woods to get his mother flowers.
***
Present Day:
"VENUS!" I heard someone yell, I felt someone shake my back and I opened my eyes.
I looked around to see my brother Nick hovering over me. I had fallen asleep in the work shop.. Again. I groaned and rubbed the side of my face that had been inprinted with a mark of a tool. He stood there arms crossed.
"What are you looking at?" I said leaning back into my work chair
"You fell asleep tinkering again" he said staring at me
"Yeah so what?" I frowned
That was my favorite thing to do. I loved to take different scraps of metal and wood from around my fathers workshop and put them together. Sometimes when I got to involved I would forget the time and end up falling asleep inside. I had been up late working on an automatic feeding system for the chickens to make our chores easier. Nick rolled his eyes.
"Venus its your turn to go into the city" he said nudging my chair as he walked by and exited through out the only door in the whole shop.
I groaned and got up, following him through the door. I shielded my eyes from the suns rays that were purposely out there to kill me and my eyes. My vision adjusted to the light and I looked over the trees of the forest. We lived ontop of the highest hills of Terra. I could see the small city above the trees. The city was full of small buildngs, the only large one was the district building. There is where our main district governers lived and goverened, there we would gather for the reapings.
"Boo!" I heard a voice yell causing me to jump
I felt my body go transparent as fear took over my body. I turned around to see my brother Nick laughing. I walked behind him and jumped on his back.
"Ah! Where are you!" he yelled trying to get me off his back
He couldn't see me but I could see him. HE started running but I tripped him and turned visble again. I laughed as he stood up trying to get the dirt out of his mouth. I walked away, shaking my head. I entered our ginormous house and was immediately greeted by Jack, my wolf. I had found him under the brush when I was little, but I don't exactly remember how. He was an old wolf, hes been living for about twelve years now. I walked into the kitchen where my dad was drinking his coffe and reading a book. No it was not a hard covered book, it was actually just one screen with the ability to produce multi pages that you can flip. I don't know how my dad can read it if the pages are clear.
"Morning Dad" I said walking to the fridge and opening it.
"Morning Venus" he replied folding up his pages... Cool but weird
I took out some things to make a sandwich and placed them on the counter. I put together my sandwich as my dad looked out the window. I walked over to him and stood beside him. I bit into my sandwich and looked up into the sky. Space was visible and several ships flew by like always, making deleverys to the different districts, the sky projecting a light see through blue. We lived on the planet Panem.. Years ago we had to evacuate earth, due to the horrible living conditions. The original plan was to live on a planet called Mars but along the way we relized there were plenty of new planets holding the capabilities to keep human life without space suites. We inhabited those planets and the council was set up to keep the different districts of planets in check, so the the same thing that happened to earth didn't happen to us now. I mean we live a good life.. Ish. It has its many flaws that shouldn't exsist. At all.
"Venus be careful in the city" I heard my dad say, snapping me out of my thoughts
"I know dad" I said rolling my eyes and biting into my sandwich
"Venus im serious, don't look at anyone, don't talk to anyone, and if a peace keeper approaches you, show them your pass" he said sternly
I never knew why but the peace keepers never bugged us. They never came up to the hill and never questioned us if we showed them a pass my dad gave us to carry around. We lived in a huge house compared to the ones in the city. But one thing I wasn't allowed to do was turn invisble in public or any of the sorts. See when the districts were first established, the council was made of Specials who were special people with different abilitys, or powers. Some were hybrids with animals, others just had a special abilty. There positions as council members were passed to the next special in there family line. But as the years passed, fewer and fewer specials were born into familys. That ment that the entertainment in the games were going down and fewer council positions to be filled. By 'The Games' I mean an annual event that the council hosts to One, keep control and Two, for entertainment. Districts were reaped of two teenage kids to compete and fight till the death in an arena. Anyway back to the Specials. One day a new council member filled the position and said that Specials would be the cause of rebellion, although they seemed to be going extinct. He said that Specials were a threat to the council and they belived him. Specials were then procecuted, slaughtered in the public, captured to be experimented on. Horrid things were done until they thought there was no more. I figured my father had lived in the city bbefore I was born, I mean he seemed to know a lot about it. I guess when I was born he separated hiself from society to protect me. Nick and my dad were the only normal ones in the family. I would ask what happened to my mother and he would just push me away.
"Nick! Go with Venus!" I heard my dad yell
I turned around and smirked at Nick who was standing there trying to get dirt out of his hair. He glared at me as I walked by him and up the stairs to my room. Jake was sleeping on my bed and I shook my head, he was a big old, lazy wolf. I changed my dirty pants and shirt for a pair of leggings and black shirt. I grabbed my cloak from its hanger and whistled for Jake to follow. I went down the stairs and slipped on my boots.
"Nick come on!" I yelled while grabbing the money pouch on the table close to the door.
I opened the front door and Nick ran up to me. Because we were walking with Jake we took the back way, through the woods. I flipped up my hood and we walked through the woods. I walked ahead so I could get the plants to move. I motioned my hands to the sides and the vines moved in two different directions, allowing us to walk through.
"I will never get tired of that" Nick said with a smile.
I smiled back and started goofing off. The hoodie part of my cloak covered most of my face so I stood behind several vines.
"Make way subjects" I said in a deep voice, pushing the vines to the side.
Nick laughed and Jake barked
"Stop doing that, its creepy" Jake barked
Yes I can talk to wolves. Remember how I said some Specials were hybrids of animals? Well I turn out to be part hybrid of wolf. Yeah weird.
"Shut it Jake" I said causing Nick to shake his head
We reached the end of the forest and peeked out to see the market place.
"Okay Jake, stay" I said motioning him to sit down
He sat and Nick and I continued into the city, this time he put on his cloak. We walked through the people, avoiding eye contact with people and peace keepers. We approached a stand and the man raised an eyebrow.
"A pound of chicken" I said taking out our pouch of money and taking out several coins
He grunted and held out his hands to recive the coins. I gave them to him and he gave us a bag. I nodded my head and we turned around and continued to walk the market.
"Nick I want to get out of here as fast as I can.." I whispered to him, brushing by people
"Why don't we split? I have an extra pouch. That way we can get out faster" he whispered back glancing around.
I nodded and kept going straight as he went to the left. After finishing up buying somethings I heard a shout. I turned on my heels to see Peacekeepers heading right towards Nick.
"Hes a theif!" I heard one man shout
"He looks suspicious!" Another yelled
I slung my bag onto my back and new I had to cause a diverson. I pushed down a big pile of crates causing all eyes on me. I began to run in the opposite direction and I looked behind me to see peacekeepers chasing me. My hoodie feel off and I continued to run. I ran by a woman selling flowers and I made a vine of flowers grow onto the path, causing them to trip. I laughed and kept running. I cut into a corner and bumped into someone.
"Woah, hey where are y-," said the biy in front of me.
HE had brown hair and soft brown eyes. He was very much taller than me and had a trim figure. I heard a shout as he looked down on me like he had just found a lost toy, even though he was my age. I ran past him and looked back to see more peace keepers running after me. I cut into another ally and relized I would have to turn completely invisible to escape.. And the only way to do that would be to go around town naked... Crap. I hid behind several bins and saw the keepers run by. I quickly started striping off my clothing and stuffing it in my bag. I turned invisible and picked up the bag. I wouldn't be able to make it invisible but luckly I had just invented a gadget so I could, well it was still in the testing progress.. I attached it to the bag and is disspered, good. I creeped out of the ally and stuck to the edge of the walls, after all I was naked, and even though they couldn't see me, I stil felt exposed. I crept past more keepers and made it to the woods. I hid behind several bushes and put my clothes back on.
"Venus?" I heard someone say... or 'bark'
I turned around to see Jake. I smiled and pet him.
"Hey boy, you seen Nick?" I asked stroking his fur
I ehard a rustle behind me and turned around to see an out of breath Nick standing there with his bag.
"Wheres your bag?" he asked looking around.
I knew I set it down somewhere. I walked forward and tripped. There was a sizzling sound and I turned around to see the bag there. Okay so I had to fix that. Its only a few flaws like the fact that it wont stay invisible and the fact that I wouldn't be able to find it.
"There it is" I said standing up and brushing myself off.
He shook his head and we started walking back. I told him about how I had to turn invisible to escape the keepers. His eyes turned wide. We got home and obviously didn't tell dad till the T.V. came on and the local news spoke about the accident... Yeah were in big trouble.