Flawless
She sits when they ask her to sit. Her long, dark hair is flowing down her back, straight and long. A trident shaped clip holding her hair back on one side. Lovely. Just the way he liked it.
The people who visit her are acting strangely. And she notices immediately. She is good at noticing things; especially bad ones. The man is fair haired, rugged and a bit unclean looking and the girl is carrying a sheath of arrows and a bow.
He nods to her and she nods back.
"Annie" The girl's voice is not strong.
The settled girl looks at them with eager eyes. She keeps a hand over her stomach and smiles at them.
She wants to prove that they can handle a baby now. Yes. She can.
"Where is he?" The words escape her lips quicker than she wants to say them.
"He is not coming" The blonde man shakes his head and starts to stare at his feet.
"What do you mean?" Annie asks quietly. She doesn't let her impatience show.
What are they doing? Where is he? Why is he taking so long?
She wants to ask them thousands of questions. But not right now. Right now she just wants to run into his arms and stay there forever.
Katniss Everdeen's eyes flash. She draws in a sharp breath and kneels down in front of the other dark haired girl.
She puts her hands on Annie's shoulders and says," He Did not survive the war"
Those words. They have an effect on her. And he was the only person who could calm her. Who could hold her the way he did.
Finnick Odair.
Her heart clenches. Her chest rises and falls with the rapidness of her breathing.
She wants to scream and cover her ears at the same time. She wants to escape this world. She wants to slip away. But she can't.
Over. Everything is over for Annie Cresta.
Love. Life. Family. Happiness. Sanity. Over.
She slams her hands over her ears and closes her eyes. Trying to forget what this girl had said.
Katniss and Haymitch leave Annie alone. Hoping that one day, she would find him again.
But now he's gone. And she is half.
She rips the trident shaped clip from her hair, pulling out a chunk of dark hair as well. She moves her hand to her left shoulder. The part of the dress where a golden trident pin holds the drape to the sleeve. She rips the trident pin out as well. The sharp end digs into her shoulder and cuts her skin. Her sea-green gown starts to turn red at the wound. She flings both of them across the floor and kicks her glass slippers off.
She bends her knees until they hit the ground. And that's where she stays until its morning.
But she doesn't shed one tear. Not one.
She sighs when the baby comes.
It's the happiest day of her life and yet, she just sighs with relief when the doctors tell her the baby is healthy.
She does not seem happy.
She loses consciousness almost immediately.
Her eyes are dreary when she wakes up. The nurse takes her temperature and smiles kindly.
Her warmness brings back some life into the woman. She raises one shaky finger in the direction of the crib.
She cries when the doctors tell her that it is a boy.
Her first reaction is a soft, relieved sigh. But when the news sinks in, she throws her bedspread off and tumbles out of the bed. She reaches the crib and wraps her hand around his small body. She takes him into her arms and takes in his face. A small tuft of bronze hair on his head. She looks into his beautiful, sea green eyes.
So brilliant. So flawless.
And then she gasps.
The corners of her eyes sting
One by one, the tears start to brim over. She bites her lip so hard that it bleeds.
He is her life now.
Until he came, she was living half a life.
Now she might be whole again.
"Finnick!" She gasps and kisses the baby's small forehead.
She keeps him safely back in the crib and sits on the ground, crying.
Her sobs do not wake anyone up. They are silent.
Finnick is no more.
She couldn t see him one last time. She wasn't allowed to. But this baby is all that is left of him.
And She decides to protect him. Because he is flawless.
Like her husband