SNOW ANGEL, the hunger games

(001) no way out

CHAPTER ONE
NO WAY OUT

current day

Arella had lost most of her sanity long ago, her mind scrambled with images of death and destruction from a life of unrest. She knows people talk about her, that those who live in her District don't even know how to approach her in fears that they'll set her off. The thing is, Arella would rather they left her alone anyway. Being a Victor has brought her far too much attention as it is, constant trips to the Capitol so that they can parade her around like some prized possession.

To the Capitol residents, she's a sweet girl who killed for their entertainment, whose hands are so slick with blood that she's almost forgotten what her skin looks like when clean. To District Five, their precious Victor is a shell of a person who has forgotten how to smile without cameras pointed at her face.

Surviving the Games is probably worse than dying in them, her actions in the arena do relay around her mind every time she closes her eyes. It's like some horrible nightmare that she tries to convince herself isn't real, that she hadn't totally lost her mind in that Arena. The beautiful blonde girl who she had left to bleed out in the snow, her halo stained red as the life drained from within her. Arella constantly tries to justify what she'd done, make it seem like it was a normal thing to do, but even she isn't able to warp her mind that greatly.

A monster, she'd accepted her fate years ago as had all those around her. The last remaining member of her family doesn't look at her the same as they once did, Arella doesn't miss the small frightful stares she receives at times. When she spaces out and sees her District partner's youthful face in front of her, reaching out to touch his cheek and comfort him as he cries, she just knows her sister believes that she has truly lost it.

Arella still sees him, his twelve year old smile forever immortalized in death, she hears his agonizing screams as she fails to protect him over and over again. A mere little boy, dead before he even got to live and here she is, a lost soul who wanders the Earth with breath in her lungs but death in her eyes. All she had done since meeting him, since seeing the terror strike his expression, was tell herself that he was the one who deserved to go home to his family — her sister would understand why she did it, why he needed to be the survivor. The pain of her death would pulsate in her heart with every beat but his beating heart would cement her legacy as a girl who was pure to the core.

With his lifeless gaze came the end of her kindness, her mercy for those who only wanted to live. Each and every person who crossed her path became an enemy, no tribute was safe from the wrath of the devil who had expertly disguised herself as an angel. Her touch light and gentle but the blade of her weapon sharp and cruel, the innocence in her eyes a mere facade that many struggled to see through — quite often, that had been their untimely downfall.

A trail of blood had followed after her in the arena, the crimson dripping from her blade into the white snow and washing away its purity — much like the Capitol had done to her.