the girl who played with knives || clato ✔️

36

Cato

She's nearly dead, but she's here, crumpled in the Cornucopia like a sick offering. The scent of vomit tinges my nose.

"Cato," she whispers, and I can see her reeling from the wound Thresh gave her as she tries to sit up to greet me.

"Don't move," I tell her. It takes everything in me not to scream at the top of my lungs because here she is. She's not dead. I'm not a failure. I imagine how her family must be reacting. Family... an old memory so far off it's like it never existed. And home? I can't even remember what that feels like. But here, with Clove alive and us together I get a feeling and it must be home.

"Home... we can go..." Clove smiles ruefully. But she's wounded terribly. Very terribly. And what can I do?

"Clove, we need medicine," I say measuredly.

"I bet Katniss has some. For Peeta," Clove sighs.

"God, for someone who just got their skull smashed in, you're thinking a lot straighter than me," I say jokingly, and we both laugh. Because we're so happy. We're finally together again. But Clove's face is soon overtaken by pain again.

"I love you," I say, touching her cheek with the gentlest flutter of a finger. She takes my hand and doesn't say anything. The rain pours down on us, huddled in the Cornucopia.

"Love you, too," she finally whispers. I move beside her and lean against the metal, holding her hand. I want to kiss her and hug her and hold her forever but I know it'll hurt her and I'm not gonna let that happen again so I must refrain.

"I can't wait to go home," I mutter, but we're not there yet. We have to focus. And the first step is getting Clove fixed up.

"Me either," Clove says.

"We have to get that medicine... but in this rain... and I can't leave you," I say, biting my lip. "Not again."

"Then we'll go together," Clove says.

"Together," I repeat.

"Or not at all."

-

I wake to the sound of cannons. I crawl out into the field, leaving Clove safely in the Cornucopia. Up in the sky three faces flash by; Katniss, Fynch, and Thresh. They're dead, all three. Which means-

"Attention tributes!" Bellows Claudius Templesmith. "We have our Victors! Clove Cray and Cato Dean!"

"Clove, we won!" I shout, and Clove walks out of the Cornucopia to greet me, fully healed.

"We can go home," she says with a smile. I think of my mom, my dad, my unborn baby sister...

Then out of nowhere comes an arrow. It strikes Clove right between the eyes.

"NO!" I scream so loud my voice hurts. Not again. Not again.

Katniss runs up maniacally yelling, "You fell for it! We tricked you!"

She sprints at me bearing an arrow but no bow. And I close my eyes as she gets closer. Because this time- it's really together or not at all.

And I feel the arrow dive through my neck and out the other side.

-

"AGHH!" I scream, jolting awake. The nightmare leaves me trembling and panting. Clove sleeps peacefully beside me, knocked out again by the wound. She really isn't getting better...