Fallen Angel, Close Your Eyes {Norbert Oneshot}

Bella Rose- she had such a beautiful name. Even though it's no longer a name that's associated with a living person, I still find it to be really pretty. She was not only a gorgeous individual, but her personality was just as stunning. Always kind to me, as well as others, I really looked up to her. Then, when she was reaped, I looked up to her bravery. I cried more than ever on the day that she was taken away from us. I begged Ripred to let her return home alive.

Unfortunately, my prayers weren't answered. Instead of Bella Rose coming out on top, it was a girl from District Twelve by the name of Stella Blakesley. At least I didn't hate Stella. I actually wish I could meet her in person, just once, to thank her for killing the boy who ended Bella's life. Unfortunately, unless I encountered her on the victory tour, it was unlikely to end up happening within my lifetime. Besides, no one in Panem really knew how long a lifetime was meant to be anymore. With the Games killing off the teenagers and illness or disease seeming to kill off the other people, it was really hard to tell how long someone was meant to live in this country, unless you looked at the people of the Capitol.

The people of the Capitol- Capitolites, as they're often called- seemed to have everything. They don't have to face the terrors we have to face. Instead of loathing the Games for being so terrible, they embrace them as a good thing. I could never be in that mindset, especially after the Games took Bella away from us. I just wanted her to come home safe. That was all that I had asked for, and it didn't happen. Instead, she was going to be coming home in a casket as a lifeless, damaged body. I didn't want to see that, but I knew that I'd have to at her funeral, and there was no way that I was going to skip going to her funeral. We may not have been all that close to one another, but I really cared about her, even if she didn't know it.

Bella was like the protective mother I'd always hoped to have. My mother died when I was too young to understand it. I don't remember anything about her. I don't even know if she was a good person, especially since Norma tells me that mom did something really bad and won't tell me what it was. The one thing I've wanted my whole life is a mother who loves me, and the girls at the Pound seem to be the closest people I'll ever have to obtaining such a thing. That is, unless someone is oh so kind enough to adopt Norma and I. A few people have shown interest in taking me into their families, but I've always told them I refuse to go without Norma. I suppose that's why I still live here in the Pound.

It does hurt me to know that Bella killed someone. It hurts me ever more, though, to know that someone killed her. I would much rather her to have come home alive and a killer than to come home dead. She didn't deserve death. There were some people who did deserve it, in my opinion, sure, but she wasn't one of them. Bella Rose deserved to live a long, peaceful life. She shouldn't have had to fight to the death.

I remember when I saw her body fall, I clung to my sister. Norma wrapped her arms around me, trying to comfort me as I sobbed harder than ever. I didn't know what to do other than let out all of my emotions in that moment. I felt absolutely destroyed. What else was I truly meant to do? Keeping it all in wouldn't have done me any good.

Plus, in the moment, who knew? Maybe the crying and sorrow would bring her back to life. Maybe she'd take another breath, stand back up and slice Raven's body open, killing him instead of him killing her.

Maybe then I'd be okay.

Bella's dead, though, and that means I'll never be okay.