A Game Of False Fates ✭ Cato Hadley

Thirty - Path Of Destruction

Clio doesn't remember actually falling asleep, but when she opens her eyes the clock on her bedside table tells her it's a little after two in the afternoon. Her stomach rumbles loudly from missing lunch and her eyes hurt for reasons beyond the sunlight stabbing into them between the slatted blinds. Her throat is dry and her body feels incredibly heavy; and for one moment - one blessed moment - she doesn't remember she's asleep in the middle of the day during the Games. She doesn't remember what had come before or what is sure to follow.

Then she realises that she is curled into Cato's chest and as she feels his fingers still stroking gently through her hair, she remembers everything. Her thoughts drift to the future, thinking about her sister before she remembers the truth again. It has barely been a few hours and she already misses her sister so much that she can barely breathe. How am I supposed to make it through the rest of my life?

"I know," Cato says quietly as Clio lets out a broken sigh. "I know."

"No you don't." She mumbles, her voice hoarse and crackled, and he's quiet for a long few moments. She's fully aware that she's not being fair right now and she lets her heavy eyes fall closed again as she hears him tell her that he's going to get her a glass of water now that she's awake again.

She listens carefully to his footsteps, and once they're quiet enough for her to know he's nearing the kitchen, she quickly jumps from the bed and locks the bedroom door shut before flopping back down onto the mattress and staring up at the ceiling. She tries to fall back asleep, but she finds herself scared of the images that would haunt her if she closed her eyes, or the final word that she would have to hear again. Or maybe it was because her mind was racing with thoughts of her own death and what would happen if she launched herself off the balcony onto the streets below. It certainly wouldn't be the first time.

She isn't sure how much has passed when she hears the rattle of the door handle. "Clio..." Brutus' voice is filled with worry as he tries the door again. She can practically hear Enobaria looking into the lock, as told by the sigh she lets out when she realises that Clio has locked herself into her room.

"Fuck off."

"I've got you some water," Enobaria says quietly, "and Cato has some food for you."

"I'm not hungry."

"That's okay." Brutus reassures her. "Do you want to talk?"

"No."

"Are you sure?" Her mentor asks.

"Yes. Leave me alone. I deserve it."

Enobaria sighs, and if Clio didn't know better then she'd think that the older woman is fighting back tears herself. "No one deserves to be alone. You don't deserve this, especially not now."

"Yes, I do." Clio cries, clutching at her pillow. "It's all my fault because if I hadn't put it in her mind that she was ready then she wouldn't have even been in that arena. Gah I'm so fucking stupid, why would I do that. And her speech, it had bits of me written all over it. I killed her. I got her killed."

There's a bang on the door, and a clamour, and Clio watches the door shake a few times but the lock stays in place. She swears she hears Brutus rebuking that Cato trying to kick the door in won't work, not with the near industrial strength of the locks in the Capitol. "If this is about what Luna said—"

"It's not just fucking Loopy Luna." Clio shouts. "I couldn't give a shit about what she thinks but it's all my fault. The kid got the idea from me and I was the one who told her to make a show of killing Twelve."

"Clio. That's not true!" Enobaria replies.

There's a baited silence as they wait for her to respond. Through the bangs on the door, as Cato - blatantly ignoring Brutus - continues to kick at the door in hopes that it will give way, they hear soft muttering followed by her sobs.