the girl who played with knives || clato ✔️

28

Clove

We get up early the next day and eat a plentiful breakfast, then head out for hunting. We leave Chase behind to monitor the supplies.

It doesn't take long for us to come upon another tribute. One of the boys from a poorer district. He's trying to get water from the lake, at the opposite end from where the Cornucopia is.

Upon spotting us jogging towards him, he jolts up and tries to run, but it's no use. Cato's on top of him in a flash.

"Agh!" The boy yells as Cato puts him in a choke hold. Marvel trots up and Cato signals for him to kill the boy. Marvel complies and stabs him in the gut. Cato lets the boy drop to the ground. The cannon goes off almost immediately.

"One down," Marvel says, and wrenches his bloody spear out of the boy's stomach.

"Yeah," Cato is breathing heavily from his sprint to reach the boy and restraining him. "Why don't we head back to camp? That'll be enough blood for today."

"Right," I say

We walk back to our camp and tell Chase what happened. Then, we sit around under a shady shelter we've crafted for a while, making small talk.

I think back to Marina's death. The memories are all foggy from the tracker jacker venom, and I wonder how much of it is real and how much is a figment of my imagination due to the hallucinogen.

I remember Marina's body, all curled under itself, writhing in pain, distorted by huge lumps cause by the stings. Her voice... it'd been so frail. Her fingers were like ice.

I shake my head to free it of the awful sight of my friend and sit up. It's about noon judging by the position of the sun. I eat some dried fruit and go to sit by Cato when he jolts up and exclaims, "Smoke!"

"Let's go!" Chase shouts.

"You're staying," Marvel says.

"But, you might need-"

"He's coming," Cato says, cutting Chase off. "We need him in the woods, and his job's done here anyway. No one can touch those supplies,"

"What about Lover Boy?" Marvel questions.

"I keep telling you, forget about him. I know where I cut him. It's a miracle he hasn't bled to death yet. At any rate, he's in no shape to raid us," says Cato. "Come on,"

Cato thrusts a spear into Chase's hands and then we head off in the direction of the smoke. I flip a knife around in my hand.

"When we find her, I kill her in my own way, and no one interferes."

I pick my head up and stare at Cato. Does he really mean that? Does he have that much of a thirst for Katniss' blood?

"Okay," Marvel says.

We head into the woods.

-

We've been searching for over an hour and haven't found anything- anybody, when a huge BOOM! is heard from the direction of the Cornucopia, much louder than a cannon.

"What the hell was that?" Cato snaps. He looks at all of us in turn. I shrug.

"The mines," Chase says. I gasp. The mines. "Someone must've set them off."

"Come on!" I shout, eager to see how the trap worked. Cato seems frantic as we run for the Cornucopia, explosions still ringing in our ears, and when we get to the Cornucopia, and see what's left of our supplies, he flips. He tugs at his hair and beats the ground in rage, screaming profanities.

"NO!" He screams. "HOW?!" He turns on Chase, who is tossing stones into the rubble.

"Something set them all off at once somehow. I... I don't know." Chase says. He's scared, I can tell. And by the way Cato's looking at him, he should be. I'm a little scared, too.

"Cato..." I say, taking a step towards him. He turns away and kicks at a shredded bit of some container with a shout.

Marvel and I pick through the ruined supplies, but nothing can be salvaged.

"You," Cato stomps towards Chase, who's backing up slowly. "It's your fault!" Cato waves a finger at Chase.

"I didn't-"

"YOU DID THIS!" Cato screams and rushes towards him. Chase turns but Cato catches him in a headlock. He twists his head violently to the side and lets him drop onto the upturned dirt. A cannon goes off.

"Cato..." my mouth hangs open slightly, hurt playing at my face. Anger. Shock. "How could you?"

I look up at him and see something there in his face that wasn't there before. Something strong and something fierce. Something a hope I never get on the wrong end of.

It's a change. A bad one. It's worse than before.

Cato

We finally split up. We leave so Chase's body can be picked up, and then Clove and I just don't come back.

It's dark now, and Clove and I are leaning against a huge tree.

"Cato," Clove says suddenly. I look over at her, my eyes lazily traveling over the planes of her face. "Cato."

"Clove?"

"You killed Chase," Clove says quietly. The pain in her voice is palpable. "You killed him."

I wait a long time before I answer.

"Yeah," I say. "Yeah I did. And I killed Jonah. But that's not the point, Clove. They were just some kids. The point is... Clove."

"Cato..."

I lean closer to Clove, wanting to pull her into me.

"Cato."

"Clove."

I move just a little further and close the gap between us. I pull her ponytail out and run my fingers through her hair, tilting my head down to kiss her temple lightly. She whispers my name, and I can hear a thousand things in that one word. Pain and longing and hesitation. I whisper her name back, then touch my lips lightly to hers.

The kiss is gentle, slow. Clive is stiff and resistant at first, then she kneads at my chest with her palm and I pull her ever closer. The chirps of crickets and rustle of branches in the breeze fades away. All sound, all feeling, except for the constant presence of Clove, recedes. It's like that night on the roof.

It's just us and the stars.