POROLOUGE

I can get her, finally! That girl from Twelve is now mine! But how can I kill her, when she is so innocent? I tell myself the same thing I tell myself every time: That I am one step closer to home. I hate my father, so I pretend her face is my father's. I would never kill anyone, unless it's my father. The same one who abandoned me. My knife is just about to cut her pretty little face, when the boy from Eleven jerks me up, and throws me on the ground. "CATO!" I scream. He has to come, he will save me. But no, the odds are apparently not in my favor. I feel something slam into my head, maybe a rock, and then the world goes blurry and I fall to the ground. I tell myself to keep breathing, in and out, in and out. But that can't stop the tears from flowing. I am dying.

I see my life flash before my eyes. Me at four years old watching my father leave me. Me at eight sleeping with my mother's photo in the community home. Me at ten, when I finally got a foster family. My first reaping. Training for the Games. Me getting chosen to play the Games. Me training in the Capitol. My interview. Me coming into the arena. And now, another picture flashes before me. The boy from Eleven slamming my head with the rock. Me lying here, waiting for death.

Cato finds me trying to breathe and collapses beside me. "No, Clove, no…" he starts. I can still the tears on his face, even though the world is now blurry. "Kill him for me, Cato….the boy….from Eleven." I say. How did this happen? Why did I kill all of those innocent kids? Why? Is that making me tell Cato to kill the boy from Eleven for me? I see Cato nod. "Clove…Clove…I love you….just like I would love a sister. Just remember that, okay?" he asks me. "Yes…I will…" it is getting harder to breathe, and I know my life is coming to an end. "Cato…I….I…I love you too..." I say as I watch him. I really do. We stare at each other for some time, then as I am blacking out, he kisses me goodbye on the forehead. I am thinking of why he did that when my eyes close, and the world fades away.