Willful Ignorance (hg fanfic)

Power Is For Cowards

Caden Lachlan:

The two metal clips slip easily into the lock as I try to pick it open. For a second, a sense of regret fills my soul but the image of my starving brother and sister is enough to push that feeling away. After all, I only picked this man because I saw how horrible he is. He hit his wife. He can do without a little bit of food.

"Caden? Caden? What are you doing?" The metal clips clang to the floor and my head whips around looking for the person who said my name. The air leaves my lungs when I see who it is; my brother.

Leaning down to pick up my metal clips, I question him, "Foster, what are you doing here? I told you to stay with Nina." I glance at the man's apartment before sighing and grabbing Foster's arm. "Come on; let us go to our sister."

"I'm sorry, Caden," Foster whispers as we walk down the street. The sun has yet to rise this morning but even when it does the apartments and houses will remain closed. Nobody dares walks around on the day of the reaping. "I-I wanted to help you with whatever you are doing. I-I know you wanted me to stay home, but I wanted to be like you."

Stopping my walk, I kneel down before my brother. "It's all right Foster. No harm done. It is just that today is the reaping, and we all know how there is extra security on this day." His brown eyes go wide and his black hair sticks up in all directions. He looks exactly like I did when I was younger; innocent.

As we get back up to head home Foster's hand intertwines with mine and I smile down at him. He just turned ten a month ago. Two years from now he will be entered into the reaping and Nina will follow six years after that. My only hope is to never let them take out any tesserae. The rest is up to fate.

I feel a tug on my shirt and I look down towards Foster. "Caden," he begins, "What were you doing at that man's apartment?" My entire body becomes numb as though someone injected me with Novocain. A fake laugh falls out of my lips.

"Nothing important," I say, "Foster, remember that I will do anything for you and your sister. I am your older brother and I will always look for you. What I was doing at that man's house was going to be for you. But at last it did not happen so we need not worry. Come on. Open the door. Granny and your sister will be excited to see us." Foster nods his head not questioning me further, and opens the door to our shack of a house. I follow him inside, and immediately spot Nina sitting beside the bed brushing our Granny's hair. Nina's hair is bright read, with little freckles adorning her face. For a four year old, she is wise beyond her ages.

When she spots me, she puts down the comb and runs over tackling me in a hug. "Hello my little fox," I tell her using the nickname our parents gave her, "How is Granny?"

"Asleep," she responds in her adorable little voice, "I told Foster not to follow you but he wouldn't listen." Picking her up in a big hug, I walk her over to the bed that she and Foster share.

Placing her down, I rub my hand over her forehead, "It is all fine. Your brother did nothing wrong," I shoot a pointed look to Foster as I say this and he relaxes a bit climbing into bed, "In a few hours it will be the reaping. Granny has a pardon not to go since she can hardly get out of bed but you two are required. I must stand in the seventeen year old section but Nina, you and Foster must stand with rest of the crowd. Foster, you look out for your sister." He nods his head in response as his sleepy eyes begin to close. I kiss both him and Nina on the forehead, and get up to go lie in my bed for awhile. I won't sleep but I do want to rest.

"Caden," Nina's little voice trickles across the small room and I turn back around to stand beside her.

"Yes?"

"Why do you have to stand in a special section every year?" I put a hand on her forehead, smoothing back her red locks.

"Because every year, a boy and a girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen get to put their names into a bowl and get selected to play a game." Nina's amber eyes look up at me through the dark of the morning.