Our Love Could Be Lethal

Act II: We All Fall Down

Song for this chapter is "War," by the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, a.k.a. the intro song for the Caesar Flickerman show!

Octavia's POV

It doesn't take a genius to notice that Cato isn't doing well. He's taken to talking to me, though technically to himself as he trudges through the forest looking for Katniss, Peeta, or the girl from 5. He gives himself miniature pep talks, muttering, "I can still do this," as if trying to convince himself of that fact. Luckily for his image, it seems that they're cutting out a lot of that in the main broadcast, instead choosing to follow Katniss and Peeta—the only time I'll be happy that they're getting more coverage.

I take a break from observing my brother to watch the camera following the girl from 5 as she sneaks up on Peeta. My pulse quickens as I get a small flutter of hope that she, Peeta, and Katniss will engage in a battle that takes all of them out. But, unfortunately, she doesn't seem like the fighting type. Instead, she takes a few of the berries that Peeta has been collecting and pops them in her mouth.

A few moments later, she falls to the ground, dead. The berries she ate were nightlock berries, highly deadly and luckily not ones I had to deal with in my arena. Katniss runs over to Peeta like a shrieking gull, alerting Cato but only enough to send him looking in the right direction. After a short conversation, Katniss starts to pack up the berries in a small cloth, much to the confusion of Peeta. When he asks her why she's packing poisonous berries, she replies with a small smirk, "Maybe Cato likes berries."

I roll my eyes heavily; she's so pretentious. I cup my hands and call out to Haymitch across the room, "Your tribute's a douchebag, Abernathy."

He shakes his head with amusement, "Tell me something I don't know. At least you don't have to work with her."

Deciding I've had enough of everything for the time being, I tag out, allowing Brutus to take my place in the control room. I decide to make my way to the courtyard bar where I find Johanna at her usual seat. "Hey," she says to the bartender, clearly a bit drunk as she slurs her words, "This is my best friend. My best friend is here!" She gives me a hard pat on the back as I sit down next to her.

"I'll have whatever she's having," I tell the bartender. He hands me a gigantic bubbling glass of red liquid as I glance up at the betting board. Out of the twenty-four images up there, only three are still moving. Only three are still alive.

~~~

The next day I ready myself for an interview with Ceasar and Claudius. Fallon frantically brushes the lint off of my sparkling black dress with golden-winged shoulder pads as the backstage manager gives me a countdown to enter the stage. The show's theme song blasts through the studio as the manager finally gives me the signal.

I plaster a smile on my face and give a wave to the cameras as they follow me across the stage to Caesar's desk. I give both Caesar and Claudius a polite handshake. Caesar shakes his hand in a small preplanned gag, pretending I had shaken his hand too tight. Then, with a small laugh, I sit down in the seat they have prepared for me and I make sure to tuck in the skirt of my dress just as I practiced so as not to wrinkle the piece. The music starts to fade as I turn to the two interviewers.

"So, Octavia, your brother has officially made it to the final three. I mean, wow, where do we even start with that?" says Caesar. "Let's be honest, between you and me, I think we all knew that he was going to make it this far. Isn't that right, Claudius?"

"Absolutely. Cato has come into these Games as a force to be reckoned with." I can see in the monitor that behind us, several images of Cato before and during the games begin to float upwards in the holographic display. "He's six-foot-two, one-hundred and eighty-five pounds, and absolutely lethal. Right now, his score is a whopping 11 points, with five kills and one assist, the latter being the girl from 8 who Cato helped Peeta kill. I mean, he's incredible." Claudius leans over to Caesar and jokingly asks, "are we allowed to say that?"