Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games.
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What Cato Left Behind
After the games, after all the solemn ceremonies surrounding the returning of the bodies to the Districts and the funerals, Cato's family was finally left to mourn in peace. Besides a large collection of swords and posters of past Hunger Games victors that covered the walls of his room there were other things he left behind. The smell of him that lingered in his clothing which his mother tried to preserve by putting them in a sealed plastic bag, and his training trophies which his father boxed up immediately, wanting no tangible reminder of the games that killed his son. There were the usual odds and ends of teenagers, letters from girls, a bottle of overly strong cologne, a closet full of smelly shoes, old games and toys from childhood, and high on the back of a shelf, a box. Not a large box but big enough to hold at least two pairs of those stinky shoes. The things inside of the box were the things that turned him into the vicious, angry killer he was in the games. They were photos of two boys. Two boys with identical smiles, identical blue eyes, and the same wavy blonde hair. Pictures of them as babies, pictures of them crawling, pictures of birthday parties and the two of them playing with a dog. So many pictures that stopped when the two boys were eight. That was the year that Helm, Cato's twin, had gotten sick with a disease of the lungs that nobody could cure. A strain of pneumonia so virulent that Helm was dead in three days. Maybe if the hospital had been able to stock better medicines from the Capitol they could have saved him. But the Capitol rations out medicines for the districts and the supply train only comes every six months. After that Cato asked his parents if he could start going to the training center. They thought it would be good for him, give him a distraction from his grief. Cato threw himself into his training and embraced the heartless philosophies of his trainers. He became bitter and cruel and never spoke Helm's name. That was the boy that all of Panem saw in the 74th Hunger Games; they never knew that he used to be a sweet, happy little boy. It was no surprise to Cato himself that he died in the games, after all half of his soul was already dead, and a person can't live with only half a soul.